The TrueTalk Blog

Off The Grid

We're leaving London for a friend's house in Kent this morning. Probably no 'net access from there, so...blogging will resume when we get home.

Meanwhile, he's a shot of Karen, Johnnie Moore and I at lunch yesterday at the Duke of Cambridge Pub in Islington. Great conversation and terrific food. Thanks, Johnnie.

Tags: London Johnnie Moore

Old Cities

London is visually amazing. Everywhere you look, there's something fascinating, some detail, some reminder of how things change over time. And, when a city's had the chance to develop over long human-time, that means lots of variety.

Here are three very small examples from the past couple of days.

First, this alleyway in Southwark, south of the Thames, just across the London Tower Bridge.

Obviously, there was a compelling purpose that led the designers and builders of these building to connect them with walkways; sometimes with walkways that shot off at odd angles. What could that have been? Given the location and the predominance of buildings named after spices (e.g., The Cardamom Building, Ginger Place) I have to assume it had something to do with aiding commerce. Maybe I can find out.

Next, a bit of advertising.

Imagine you're a butcher named Lidstone. Pretty successful. Building your own building. Want to promote your business. What do you do? How about having a large stone cartouche carved and placing it on the side of the building facing the most prospective customers. This was a billboard inspired by confidence: "we're a business that will last a very long time." Unfortunately for Lidstone, it didn't. Can you imagine anyone today having the confidence to literally have an ad carved in stone put on a new building?

Finally, a bit of British practicality...and decorative whimsy.

This building sits on a convergence corner in South Kensington. You get the size perspective when viewing the electrician in the bucket there in the center foreground. Skinny building, necessitated by skinny lot. "Why not make one of the sides attractive with staggered white cornerstones?" someone asked. "OK, then," someone else answered.

Thanks!

Thanks to them, and all the others who've made London such an incredible place to see.

Tags: London

Give Us Your...

If you're a Monty Python fan, you'll know the name of this flower by the clue provided in the post title. This was one of plenty of shots I took today at the amazing Chelsea Flower Show. Running to dinner, but I'll post more soon.

Happy Foto Friday!

Tags: Chelsea Flower Show Featured Foto Friday

I'm Only Going To Say This Once More...

If you're not watching Ze Frank's hilarious deconstructive/reconstructive/unconstructive vlog, "The Show," you gotta get with it. I mean, Rocketboom's fun and all, but Ze's "wicked smaht" (as they'd say in RSN). Oh, and play the damned miniracer games he's created...over there on the link on the right side of his homepage. They're funny, too.

Ze's now officially in the lead in the contest for "the next Jon Stewart."

Tags: Ze Frank Rocketboom

Towering in London

Here's a quick shot of a slightly bedraggled Karen and Tom after a day of tromping through London and ready to head over the Tower Bridge to the Design Museum.

And here's just a glimpse of the kinds of stimulation you'd find in the Design Museum...

Or, around the corner in a restaurant window:

Stay tuned for more...remember, tomorrow's Featured Foto Friday, and our visit to the Chelsea Flower Show!

Tags: London

Modern Design

Karen and I are in rainy London. Yesterday, we went to a wonderful exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, entitled Modernism. I can't recommend it highly enough. This is the show that the

Photographs weren't permitted, but no matter, because the web site you'll get to if you click that link is astonishing. As is the incredible catalog.  One interesting surprise, a  table lamp version of the Paul Henningsen light we have hanging over our kitchen table:

One of the show's main themes was the Modernist belief in the role design could play in transforming society. Ultimately, this belief was hijacked by Nazis, Fascists and Communists.

As I read quote after quote, I was struck by many of the similarities to the rising significance of design today.  Now, as then, technology is widely viewed as a means for improving human life. Then, as now, many called this vision, "Utopian"; then, without irony. Utopian as it may be, the belief that a widespread appreciation for an integration of the aesthetic and practical aspects of objects would transform both the objects and ourselves continues to energize today's designers. But, covertly.

Why?

Here's the opening line of Simon Jenkins's review of the show in The Guardian:

Go at once. Take a young person to see the Modernism show at the V&A and feel fear. It is the most terrifying exhibition I have seen, because it is politics disguised as art. It opens with a word that says it all - utopia - and ends with an unspoken lie, that this nihilist ideology became merely a style and is no longer a threat. If only.

Traumatized by the ease with which these ideas were politicized by 20th century dictators, is it any wonder we've become thoroughly apolitical on the subject of design's socio/psychological potential? Today, only architects address of such transcendent themes (and, as last Sunday's Times pointed out, continue to create considerable controversy).

And, there's no doubt about it: styles become totalitarian (remember platform shoes and love beads?) But I wonder: has the diverse dynamism of  modern culture has removed the stopper from that genie-bottle? Could designers return us to a time of "mandated" univocal style? 

I don't know.

For every Target there's an Anthropologie; for every  Prada a Galliano; for every PT Cruiser an Audi TT; a Bjork for every Nora Jones. Today, choice reigns.

Tags: Modernism Design

London Bound

Karen and I are headed to London for a week of vacation scheduled around the Chelsea Flower Show. Karen loves flowers and has wanted to visit this show for years. I'm really happy we're going this year.

We're also going to visit some friends in Kent, which should be great fun. My new Nikon D200 was just delivered yesterday, so I'll be putting it through its paces. Watch this space for results. We'll be staying at the Pelham Hotel. We've never been there before, but a very discerning friend recommended it. Not sure what their internet connectivity is like, so unsure about blogging. If I can, I will...if not, check back with y'all when I can.

I Want You, I Need You, I...

My bloggin' buddy Niti Bhan put up a provocative little post the other day on customer-driven design focusing on "unmet needs." She quotes Meena Mansharamani, Pepsi's North America senior vice-president of innovation and insights, who said:

We're constantly examining our product pipeline to develop innovations that will satisfy the unmet needs of our consumers. With the introduction of Dole Sparklers, we're providing a light, invigorating sparkling juice that's low in sugar and calories, but indulgent on taste.

S-s-s-something from the comments (sorry, if you haven't yet seen Ze Frank's hilarious, The Show, you probably won't get that one), I wrote:

My unmet needs are legion. From a computer that actually repairs itself, to a simple recycling system, to a toaster that actually toasts properly, to a government undistracted by calls to make English America's official language...pretty diverse set of unmet needs. Beverages that are low in sugar and calories, yet indulge my taste, are in another category altogether. Might be nice, might actually be enjoyable, but don't get on my unmet needs radar. Trying to put them there makes a SVP of innovation and insights sound like an idiot.

And later on, I said:

The illusory nature of "need" is one of the great conversations of our age. Grant McCracken writes brilliantly about the attacks against "manufactured need" waged by post-War academics. We came to view Packard's "vast wasteland" of American culture as a kind of original sin; materialism became our guiltiest of guilty pleasures...

[snip]...like it or not, capitalism hinges on enticement; on pointing out that there are things available that you might want, that you might come to feel you need. But capitalism also hinges on discipline; on recognizing that, like Mick said, "you can't always get what you want." Advertisers, marketers and designers (in the main) are definitely on the "enticement" side of that equation.

And then, yesterday, Karen and I went to MoMA and saw this:

Need and Desire flash on and off on this piece of art...the creator of which I neglected to note. Just like in our lives...Need...Desire...Hope...Dream...flashing on and off continually...all aided by the works of our fellows.

We need to get used to the fact that this process isn't creating "artificial needs," it's part of the great evolutionary process which makes one bird more attractive than another; one flower bring on more bees. We are attracted to beauty and wired to acquire things that attract us. What could be more "natural" than that?

Tags: Niti Bhan Design

Totally Gnarly

While I write about cars, well, a car company, on a very cerebral level, Diego Rodriguez at Metacool does something very different. His Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness series taps into the raw emotional appeal of automotive machines. Check out his latest, a great video of a Lotus Elise doing its thing.

Tags: Diego Rodriguez Metacool

Mini Maximizing

Where to start this one...?

OK. Have you ever read Mini-Microsoft's blog? We all know that Robert Scoble (so sorry about your mother, Robert; we missed you at Syndicate) has been writing a wonderfully human blog about being an "Evangelist" at Microsoft for several years. He's practically invented the voice of the credible corporate blogger. He and Shel Israel chronicled much of his work (and other things) in their book, Naked Conversations.

While Scoble's been doing his work, Mini's been busy with his. Mini is an anonymous Microsoftie who scathingly criticizes much of what he sees in the Redmond giant's culture.

Some of his deepest purple wrath has been reserved for Microsoft's normal-curve-driven performance management process.

HR professionals, pay attention here, 'cause this is where you get to learn something.

Somebody at Microsoft listened. I'm not saying the company's decision to abandon the hideous forced-ranking evaluation system is due to Mini-Microsoft. Scoble is.

Oh, and thanks Mini! These changes are due in no small part to you. Even if you don't get official props in the press releases.

Can one person change a huge company? Mini did. And we don't even know his name.

But, don't miss the work that Steve Ballmer, the leadership team, and Lisa Brummel did here either. Wonderful. Cheers. Now, let's get back to work figuring out how to make our customers lives better.

Lisa announced MyMicrosoft, a series of initiatives that'll make Microsoft a much better place to work.

There's a lot more to what she announced than I'm talking about here, but as I read over the list I'm just astounded.

These are not small little tweaks. They are wholesale changes to how Microsoft treats its employees.

So, an anonymous blogger, expressing ideas that must have resonated deeply with a significant portion of Microsoft's workforce, plays a major role in helping his company adopt practices that will make it a better company. More competitive. More focused. More employee-respectful. HR pros: What on earth is keeping you from opening up this kind of dialogue within your company?

Update: After writing that post on Saturday but not posting it until Monday, I saw this post from Mini-Microsoft, putting even more energy into the dialogue.

Tags: Robert Scoble Mini-Microsoft HR