A creative dumping ground for issues that interest me personally and professionally, with the thought they may interest you too. Issues such as the business of design, the design of business, the design of objects, design strategy, creative direction, innovation, creativity, thought leadership, observations, as well as recommendations, mid-century modern decorative arts and architecture, and the state of my thinking (and currently the state of my heart).
Monday, October 06, 2008
Slim Pick'ins: Anyone Got A Plan?
BarryBlog is intentionally not a political blog. But like everyone else, I cannot deny the ailing economy has somewhat stolen the show.
Though I'm no expert on the political/economical system, it appears it doesn't take an MBA from Harvard (I know this because they seem as blindsided by our recent economic knockout as everyone else) to question the effectiveness and fitness of our political/economic system, as we all feel the collective tingle of our black eye continuing to swell.
I say "political/economical" with intention. I cannot see a separation. Every talking head speaks to PACs and money and greed as root to many of our problems. Every day a new leader in business and government is taken down by greed, which makes it hard for me to trust any lawmaker or politician. It's frustrating to see government under performing while lawmakers get very little accomplished towards the good of the republic without assuming bribery, payoffs and greed is running the show. Or perhaps something more old fashioned like incompetence.
So this mega billionaire OIL guy named T. Boone Pickens buys up a bunch of air time. It's been done before, Ross Perot ran his entire campaign out of his wallet, so precedence for self funding is not a gigantic surprise or distraction, or smokescreen for character. But I ask, is the Picken's Plan hogwash? Is it another behind the scene scheme to make a few people rich(er)?
See for yourself. Watch the video. I would be interested in your comments if you have anything to add because I'm skeptical.
Okay, back to graphic design, mid-century modern thrift store finds, and what not.
BarryBlog posts on ideas, issues and objects that are really all over the map. This is a reflection of who I am as a thinker, a designer, a christian, and is how I originally envisioned the blog from day one. I post on things which have caught my attention and which I find interesting and at times important. Things I observe by intention, by happenstance, by referral, or by The Spirit, as a way and a place to file interesting things away for future consideration. And for you too, if you find them interesting. The feedback I get in these regards has always been a high point of the process.
The last few months I've been posting less, but with more frequency regarding my flea market finds and the collection I am curating 50 cents at a time via St. Vincent DePaul, Goodwill and other local flea market haunts. Judging by my stats, this is less interesting to some, though ironically my core reader still remains rather solid. It is always fun to see which posts spike readership, but I never set out to gain a following or to boost readership. In fact my blog can best be summed up by a quote from Samuel Butler from The Way of All Flesh which I discovered in reading my book by Herman Miller called "Notes on Attention" by Ralph Caplan."
Butler says...
"The literacy instinct may be known by man's keeping a small notebook in his waistcoat pocket, onto which he jots down anything that strikes him, or any good thing that he hears said, or a reference he thinks will come in useful to him." (I would add: "Or to you").
One thing I never tire of and always find interesting is contract and residential furniture. Furniture industry insider I am not, but having grown up in Mid-Michigan in a small design boutique that was furnished predominately in Herman Miller, then calling Grand Rapids home for a few years as a communication designer, I have developed a passion for contract furniture. All furniture really. I always seem to find incredible furniture and decorative art finds at garage sale prices, which has only fueled by desire to learn more. Perhaps it's learning I enjoy mostly about furniture, not the finds themselves. Maybe that could be another blog post.
Anyway, what I really appreciate the most about the furniture design industry is the leadership role it has earned in the overall design landscape. Furniture design is approached holistically, and design is considered and relied upon at every level of thinking— from the board room to the retail floor. Those who have followed BarryBlog know the business of design is an issue that's been discussed here frequently.
All that to say, the newAllsteel Acuity chairhas caught my attention. In a big way. Mainly because ofall it isn't. It sits quietly and expectantly for it's user to draw near. In my estimation, the chair's personality takes on the personality of the user, not visa versa.
In some ways I see the Allsteel Acuity chair more representative of Audi than BMW, if you will. The Acuity does what it says, the Aeron says what it does.
You get the picture. Do understand I ama major Herman Miller fan, but like the Aeron, I see the Allsteel Acuity chair in a really small group of excellent products. Perhaps the reason this chair is so excellent, and has so little, is because of Bruce Fifield at Continuum. According to Allsteel's president Eugene Sung, Bruce is a relative newcomer to chair design. I have always been a relative newcomer to each industry I have designed for, and often find this to be a distinct advantage. Mainly because of so little preconception. But as always, you must have a client who trusts your intuition, instinct and voice. After seeingContinnum'sprevious work, I can see how this would not have been a stretch for Sung.
In reference to paying attention, and to all that this chair is not, here is a great quote by Ralph Caplan from the same publication On Attention I referenced earlier in this post...
"Pay attention so that people are free to attend to what they care about. Ironically, though, the freest societies invariably create environments that militate against attention. Visual pollution is harmful not just because it is ugly but because it is distractive. And therefore destructive. Like other pollution, it destroys the balance of nature–in this case, human nature. A climate loaded with designs clamoring for your attention is a climate in which you end up paying attention to nothing."
Bravo Eugene and Bruce and team. Thanks for paying attention. It made a connection. With me, anyway. And that's why it's on BarryBlog.
Several days of quiet, as BarryBlog will be medicated and missing. Chills one minute, sweating and 102 fever the next. Chalk one up for Bronchitis, and if the test comes in Tuesday...Influenza. This after being out a few days a few weeks ago with stomach flu.
So dig into the archives for January 2008, February 2008, or March 2008. Or listen to some Zero 7 in a pop up window. Or take a check at my friend Dean's new blog. If you're the praying type, drop one my way. I have coughed so much in the last three days it actually hurts to drink water. Nice.
BarryBlog is now AnswerTip enabled. I installed code, so double-click any word and you'll be given the word's definition, instant explanations, facts including biographies, tech terms, geography, pop culture, and more. All inline, without the need to exit BarryBlog. Using the database from Answers.com, you can view some 4 million topics.
Also, if adding to the discussion using the comment feature at the bottom of any of my posts, you now have an optional check a box, which when checked will send you any follow up/additional comments made after your own.
Blam!
( Thanks uglydoggy for the tip. I share your love for animals. )
Design Feast was conceived and is sustained since 1999 by Nate Burgos, Inc.It's evolving and Nate hopes it becomes a usable resource into the future. Hats off for his willingness to share.
Lifehacker offers a weekly summary which I find helpful. So what the hey? Why not me? Here's BarryBlog's Week In Review, which may or may not be a permanent fixture here.
So here's something I've been really digging of late and something I bet you may not be aware of. It has to do with that awesome Finder Sidebar, you know, that thing that you can drag apps, files, folders, even entire volumes into? It's available in every Open and Save dialog throughout Mac OS X, which is very cool. Well cooler yet, I discovered a way, with just 2 clicks, to add anything I want to it on the fly. Kind of like filling the Finder Sidebar up with little stickie notes.
All you have to do is locate that file, app icon, or volume, click it, then hit Command-T. That's it. It automatically shows up in the Finder Sidebar list. Anything that's important to you, for whatever reason, can be immediately placed with this simple move. I use it for that web clipping of a post I'll want to blog about later, or for articles, photos or folders I am constantly calling on that day for my project at hand. It's fairly limitless to the reasons you might ustilize Command-T in this fashion. And like has always been the case, anything in the Finder Sidebar can be removed by dragging it out of the window, and poosh! It's gone.
Though not all tallies are in from all 50 precincts, the unofficial number of the comments the vast BarryBlog Network of fans, admirers and haters have generated is zero. Yes, a BarryBlog record, if all the facts check! Zero comments to anything I've posted in a full 7 days.
An impressive feat, and surely an adequate reflection of the time, hard work and resources the infamous Barry has put into the now famous BarryBlog. Blogger newbies, heed my call. Blog I say. Blog until the morning comes and your bills are due, because at the end of the day, the month, the year, or even a decade...
If just one person reads this blog, it would have been worth all the effort.
Everyone has atleast one if not a few people who you can count on to send you an email that atleast 450 other people have also received via a Forward. The subject matter of these types of emails general include a "cute" story, often accompanied by images of kittens, puppies and/or promises to increase your wealth, luck or general good looks if you forward it to 10 of your friends.
Having said that, there is a person who I worked with who I would NEVER have expected receiving such an email from. In fact, she was one of the most savvy people I have ever met. So one day I get an email message from her, looking surprisingly similar to a cute email. However after reading it it became apparent why she sent it. It is a letter claimed to be written by a rather self-confident 8-year-old boy named Danny Dutton from Chula Vista , CA. The claim is that he wrote it for his third grade homework assignment, to "explain God."
I have since "Snoped" the article and it appears that although suspect, it is indeed difficult to determine who in fact was the original pen of this story. Snopes says it might be written by someone who meant to have been read as if "from the mouth of babes" solely for added poignancy, but in any case I still find it worth posting about. And that's why this is called BarryBlog. I decide. Again, the article's been around since 1993, but you might not have seen it — and as I've stated, is worth a post, so in my estimation worth a look.
EXPLANATION OF GOD:
"One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die, so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grownups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way he doesn't have to take up his valuable time teaching them to talk and walk. He can just leave that to mothers and fathers.
"God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lot of this goes on, since some people, like preachers and things, pray at times beside bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to the radio or TV because of this. Because he hears everything, there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears, unless he has thought of a way to turn it off.
"God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have.
"Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to our church. Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work, like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to teach the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of him preaching to them and they crucified him. But he was good and kind, like his father, and he told his father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said O.K.
"His dad (God) appreciated everything that he had done and all his hard work on earth so he told him he didn't have to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So he did. And now he helps his dad out by listening to prayers and seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary, only more important.
"You can pray anytime you want and they are sure to help you because they got it worked out so one of them is on duty all the time." "You should always go to church on Sunday because it makes God happy, and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God!
"Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach. This is wrong. And besides the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway. "If you don't believe in God, besides being an atheist, you will be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know He's around you when you're scared, in the dark or when you can't swim and you get thrown into real deep water by big kids.
"But...you shouldn't just always think of what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and he can take me back anytime he pleases.
A creative dumping ground for issues that interest me personally and professionally, with the thought they may interest you too. Issues such as the business of design, the design of business, the design of objects, design strategy, creative direction, innovation, creativity, thought leadership, observations, as well as recommendations, mid-century modern decorative arts and architecture, and the state of my thinking (and currently the state of my heart).
Senior Art Director publishing; Follower of Christ; Boxing fan (and one time promoter); Collector of mid-century modern furniture, decorative arts and housewares.
