Rough notes from “design-relevant-talk-at-breakfast” (?!) at DogA on Friday, Feb 1st:
Clothing; packaging yourself properly according to the current situation, design effectiveness is also about standing out
One of Jonathans Sands favourite quote: “The future has already arrived, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” William Gibson
Interesting observation in Japan; the Japanese go shopping three times a day – breakfast, lunch and tea. This is because they’ve nowhere to store food in their compact homes.
Toilet roll manufacturer in despair because their cheapest-on-the-market economy packages didn’t sell, until they realised that, for the already mentioned reason, the Japanese only buy one toilet roll at the time.
Explaining the popularity of retro as an antidote to the global anxiety over terrorism, global warming, etc; the Converse, the mini Cooper, along with the comforting ‘Boring Store’ in Chicago and peace loving resto ‘Boom – Make Food Not War’ in New York.
‘Authentic Attitude’ is at the heart of Elmwood’s work. Good examples presented at the talk were Serious** and Make Mine A Builders (that even have it’s own web site!);
Also explained authentic attitude as being well exercised at the Geek Squad, an American (recently also available in the UK) IT company that comes around your house/ office to sort out all sorts of electronic headaches. More info on their web page..
And their motto: “You never saw us – we were never here”
(Sympathetically maintaining the self-confidence/ pride of the DIY head-of-the-house)
The Boring Store (left) and the Geek Squad (right).
