January 31, 2010
Source: “Live What You Love” Print by Hijirik Studio
Labels: Life
January 31, 2010
Let it be local: Design is informed by what is intrinsically bound to a culture. We respond to that, respect it, and draw upon it.
Let it be sustainable: We design for the health of humanity. Sustainability is about creating a balance between what we build and what is naturally meant to be and ensuring a project’s longevity and financial integrity.
Let it be appropriate: The components of a design are made compelling by their ability to respond to a community’s needs both technically and emotionally.
Let it be collaborative: Successful projects come from the informational input from all parties involved through the dedication of passionate people.
Minnesota Chapter
Architecture for Humanity
Source: Minnesota Chapter of Architecture for Humanity’s Mission
Via: blog like you give a damn: The Official Blog of AFH-MN
Labels: Design Activism
January 30, 2010
Multimedia Artist Francesco Jodice on Moving Media
“I usually view the world as a big laboratory. I try to identify with this. I try to move around the world as a voyager, as a sort of a sensor, a sensor device, that can understand where things are really changing.
Some people think of art as an aesthetical issue. I always think about art and about my work as a political issue. Whatever happens in my work is that at the very beginning, there is a political question. I think we’re always moved by something that happened in our childhood, and then we just find a way of…
Source: The Maurice Lacroix Interviews with Monocle Magazine
January 29, 2010
Drew Smith on How Blogging Informs Working
“There’s two components to the interaction between my blogging and my work as a design strategist.
Firstly, to be able to blog, as you well know, one needs to be well-informed, particularly when I’m talking about developing trends and how they might apply to the car industry, so I end up doing enormous amounts of reading across many different topics and media types. In that lies the very essence of how blogging informs my design strategy work: to help clients make strategic decisions about future products, I must be able to inform them of emerging social and technological trends and…
Source: Drew Smith – Designer Q&A by Raph Goldsworthy
Via: undrln
January 27, 2010
I actually hate the word ‘feature.’ I’m always trying to develop benefits for people, not features. …
I believe people are willing to pay for value and I’ve seen that time and time again. It takes conviction. You better be sure you are offering something of value and sometimes it takes time and testing to understand where the value is in what you offer.
And you know it’s our responsibility to prove our value to our customer base, through service, through developing the product, through a whole bunch of different things—and every month we’re on the hook for that. But, as you know, as long as we deliver against that—and we have a long track record of doing that right now—people are willing to pay for the value.
Mike McDerment
Co-Founder and CEO of FreshBooks
Source: What Helped FreshBooks Become A Successful Paid Web App
Labels: Value
January 25, 2010
All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism—it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.
Conan O’Brien
Television Host and Comedian
Source: Conan O'Brien quips about next career move: nudity
Via: @ellmcgirt
Labels: Work
January 24, 2010
Fashion Designer Tim Hamilton on Being “Foolish” and Inspiration from Photography
“We’re not having anyone sponsor us—because we’re foolish. We don’t have a PR person. I think there’s something a bit more humble about it. We do everything. We do the sales and stuff. I like that in the beginning, to meet and greet people; really tell people the way I see it. …
I really don’t go too deep into a concept because I think that can feel a bit contrived. But I take inspiration from photos, although it’s not really a specific era or moment. I like the idea of ‘I use this fabric because I love it: what…
Source: An American Tailor by Alex Gartenfeld
Via: hellofrancis: tim hamilton
Labels: Foolishness | Photography
January 22, 2010
Designer and Educator Liz Danzico on Confidence being “good’s natural extension”
“I recently did this thing. I co-founded and am now chairing a graduate program. And I did it by taking a considerable leap from a career as a designer that I’d been growing for more than a decade. Sure, my first job out of college was an educator, and I’ve been an educator on the side ever since. But suddenly I’d made it the focus of my everyday.
I’d stepped away from something familiar into territory with new colleagues, new landscape, new tempo. Because I believed, with everything, in founding a new program.
What’s astonishing to me is that…
Source: Confidence for good
Via: Authentic Boredom
Labels: Confidence
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Photograph by Michelle Litvin
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