April 30, 2009
Ideas can come from anywhere and it starts from that idea. Then it’s about building a prototype. Can you build something that really illustrates what technology you’re going to use. How are you going to create innovation out of that? How are you going to capture the innovation and the attention of the users and really meet their needs? Taking that prototype, then building out a team around it and really productionizing it. Then it becomes the fun part of the fit-and-finish of the details: How does it look? Is each pixel just right and just so? Almost like producing a movie, making sure that the product walks out the door the way you want it, and also not doing that too much. Because a big part of our innovation process is iteration. Try something. Get a lot of feedback. Try something new. Really bird-walking along that path to what the user really wants by launching early and launching often.
Marissa Mayer
V.P. of Search Product and User Experience, Google
Source: A conversation with Marissa Mayer by Charlie Rose
Labels: Iteration
April 27, 2009
You have to shape your career on a day to day basis. I mean you could just take on the same type of projects that you are good at and people recognize you for and you will get paid handsomely for it over time because it’s where your expertise lies. But I think again, it is about making a conscious decision that you want to take a risk. That you want to expand your set of tools and the projects you work on. And you have to develop them. And it may take years. … You can’t expect transformation overnight. I think everything happens in gradual steps. The opportunities are there, you just have to identify them. And you have to decide if you want them or not.
Jiae Kim
Co-Founder, Theme Magazine
Source: Interview: Theme Magazine by James Chae, GraphicHug
Labels: Change
April 25, 2009
Creative people have to believe in the value of their work. If you don’t have any belief then you can’t give anything—designing is an act of giving, and a belief in the value of the work fuels the desire to express something. It’s important to know what your values are and to take care of them.
Peter Saville
Designer
Source: Manifesto #1 by Peter Saville at Icon Magazine Online
Labels: Value
April 19, 2009
What makes the speed bump a good design? It’s a simple but highly functional object that’s foolproof. It’s not what you would call decorative—but it doesn’t need to be. There’s a purity of design to it, based on plain common sense. Often, the simplest and the most effective solutions aren’t dictated by style. In fact, the only real piece of dogma that I was ever taught in school was that form is strictly determined by the function it needs to perform. Accordingly, the generic parking-lot speed bump is a supremely elegant solution to the problem of getting people to slow down. … Still, when we’re out driving around, and we come up against a speed bump, it can be a jolting surprise. Which suggests another important point: Design isn’t always a pleasing part of our lives. But as the speed bump teaches us, design is necessary—and it can be extremely practical.
Chip Kidd
Graphic Designer and Author
Labels: Good Design
April 14, 2009
No project is too small for big ideas.
John Arthur Morefield
Architect
Labels: Ideas
April 13, 2009
There was a time when I experienced architecture without thinking about it. Sometimes I can almost feel a particular door handle in my hand, a piece of metal shaped like the back of a spoon. I used to take hold of it when I went into my aunt’s garden. That door handle still seems to me like a special sign of entry into a world of different moods and smells. I remember the sound of the gravel under my feet, the soft gleam of the waxed oak staircase, I can hear the heavy front door closing behind me as I walk along the dark corridor and enter the kitchen, the only really brightly lit room in the house.
Peter Zumthor
Architect, Pritzker Prize Winner 2009
Labels: Experience
April 10, 2009
Craft is not only recognized in Italy, it is celebrated. It isn’t just the craft of a weekend hobbyist; it’s a tradition of craft that has built cars, furniture, and fashion, and served as the foundation of an entire economy. As the work day is winding down, scores of Ferrari workers walk the streets of Maranello wearing their work jackets. The sense of pride in that great tradition of excellence in craft and design is palpable throughout this small Italian town. … Beyond macro economics or social politics, the values of craft are the foundation of design excellence. It is not just the ability to make an exquisite object; it’s the deep cultural recognition that craft is form of wisdom—the wisdom of the hand.
Gadi Amit
Founder and Designer, NewDealDesign
Source: Craft, the Wisdom of the Hand by Gadi Amit
Via: Tweet by @juliefaye
Labels: Craft
April 8, 2009
Thinking wrong is really about challenging our conventions, processes and orthodoxies, especially during the idea-generation phase of design. I believe that the process of thinking wrong is an antidote to how our brains create synaptic connections, or heuristic biases, to efficiently function in the world and produce predictable, but expected results. It’s about generating a huge number of possibilities, before selecting or executing, and is based on the assumption that creativity, invention and innovation are good things. At Project M we use a variety of exercises to short circuit our biases and connect things that wouldn’t normally be connected. It doesn’t mean that the final project looks or feels ‘wrong.’
John Bielenberg
Founder, Project M
Source: M Stands for Mobilize by Steven Heller
Labels: Thinking
