Dear God. Thank you for my creativity.

Vans X MadeMe from Off The Wall TV on Vimeo.

1991: Oglivy at 80

"I am supposed to be the No. 1 creative genius in the whole world, and I don't even know what the hell the word 'creativity' means. But I'm not afraid to tell creative phonies that their commercials are utter nonsense. When I write an ad, I don't want you to tell me that you find it 'creative.' I want you to find it so persuasive that you buy the product -- or buy it more often. If you spend your advertising budget entertaining the consumer, you're a bloody fool, housewives don't buy a new detergent because the manufacturer told a joke on television last night. They buy the new detergent because it promises a benefit."

– Then, eighty year old David Ogilvy in his closing remarks at the 82nd annual meeting of the Association of National Advertisers, October 1991.

( Thanks BrandingStrategyInsider )

REPOST: How To Be Interesting

REPOST: I posted this in November 2006. I came across it and thought I would share it again. Some people have appreciated these reposts. Others perhaps not. But as I said when I began BarryBlog, this is a place to help me remember things I find of interest. And since I forgot this, I imagine you may have too. The reality is you've probably never seen it, as in November 2006 I had my dad, and two other people stopping by.

So here goes, again:

- - - - - - -

As I ponder my career to date, the people who’ve impressed me the most are also those who I found to be the most interesting. So is there any formula for being interesting? Probably not. However in this article by Russell Davies, there are a few things which might help.

Be interested • Interesting people are good at sharing • Take at least one picture everyday. Post it to flickr • Start a blog. Write at least one sentence every week • Keep a scrapbook • Every week, read a magazine you’ve never read before • Once a month interview someone for 20 minutes, work out how to make them interesting. Podcast it. • Collect something • Once a week sit in a coffee-shop or cafe for an hour and listen to other people’s conversations. Take notes. Blog about it. (Carefully) • Every month write 50 words about one piece of visual art, one piece of writing, one piece of music and one piece of film or TV. Do other art forms if you can. Blog about it • Make something • Read.

Prototyping The Carbohydrate Car

Richard Farson: Dynamics of Design

Amazing thinking about the Dynamics of Design, taken from context of a comprehensive commentary called Managament by Design by Richard Farson. I challenge you to read this whole excerpt if you're a designer, and especially if you're in design management, because this will hit the sweet spot and is important critical writing on the subject. If you find value here, read Farson's entire commentary here.

Some designs are endlessly effective. Meetings held at round tables, for example, will never lose their power to distribute participation more evenly. But other design interventions may depend for their power only upon the fact that they stand in sharp contrast to the conventional procedures.

We often forget that almost everything derives its power from its context. A teacher may seem excellent, because so many are mediocre. Honesty is so powerful because it exists against a backdrop of almost constant deception. Similarly, a design may work well only as long as it is different from the conventionality of what existed before. But if it becomes the standard way of functioning, it may lose its power. That is why most new management techniques, seemingly no matter what they are, as long as they are well-intended, work for awhile, and then don’t work. And why constant innovation is the continuing requirement of leadership.

Like leadership, design is dynamic, not static. One cannot design a situation and expect it to work indefinitely. Any design requires constant attention and revision, even a seemingly permanent design, such as a house. Seventy percent of new houses are remodeled within three years. Designs involving human relationships are even more in need of continuing modification and improvement. Organization theorist Charles Hampden-Turner reminds us of the relevance for management of the scene in Alice in Wonderland in which the frustrated characters try to play croquet using live flamingos as mallets, and hedgehogs as balls. The flamingos and hedgehogs keep moving. Such is the case with social design. The designs involve living beings, and they keep moving.

Better designers always involve the eventual participants in the design process. There are strong practical and ethical reasons for that. On the practical side, not only do these participants know much that would improve the design, but their involvement makes them more likely to help make the plan work. They become invested in its success.

The ethical reasons are subtler. For example, when managers know how some act or technique or design they are using is likely to affect an employee, but the employee doesn’t, the managers’ respect for those employees will predictably erode. Knowing that the people are being fooled, the manager is blinded to their genuinely intelligent behavior or creativity. Such deception, therefore, fails in two ways. It harms the deceived, but even more pernicious, it harms the deceiver, through the gradual erosion of respect for others, even for people in general.

One solid rule for managers, therefore, is to operate always so that one’s liking and respect for employees can grow.

That may be the best case for openness in management.

One further caveat. Designs can have unintended consequences, even when they work well. Consider the design decision to establish Casual Fridays at work, where dress codes were relaxed. Although the change was quickly embraced, the executives who made such changes were surprised to find that instead of gratitude from the employees, they were deluged with new complaints and demands. Why not casual every day? If we can make this change, why not some others long overdue? The change produced rising expectations, as almost every positive management action does. Managers, like athletes or soldiers, cannot relax after success, but must be always ready for a quick turn of events, for the unintended consequences and inevitable paradoxes of leadership.

If embracing a design mentality seems a tall order, a major departure from what managers are now doing, perhaps it helps to remember that, in any field, those who are still doing what they were trained to do are obsolete.

Teresa Amabile: 6 Creativity Myths.

Competition Beats Collaboration: True or False?

FALSE. There's a widespread belief, particularly in the finance and high-tech industries, that internal competition fosters innovation. In her surveys, Teresa Amabile, head of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School and one of the country's foremost explorers of business innovation found that creativity takes a hit when people in a work group compete instead of collaborate.

The most creative teams are those that have the confidence to share and debate ideas. But when people compete for recognition, they stop sharing information. And that's destructive because nobody in an organization has all of the information required to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

Eight years ago Amabile began working with a team of PhDs, graduate students, and managers from various companies, and she collected nearly 12,000 daily journal entries from 238 people working on creative projects in seven companies in the consumer products, high-tech, and chemical industries. She didn't tell the study participants that she was focusing on creativity. She simply asked them, in a daily email, about their work and their work environment as they experienced it that day. She then coded the emails for creativity by looking for moments when people struggled with a problem or came up with a new idea.

You'll be surprised by her findings in this Fast Company article.

( via the uber-linked Swissmiss )

Born Modern: Master Designer Alvin Lustig

Considering his amazing but short career, Alvin Lustig has indeed earned his master status in the world of design, and his design legacy lives on. He was a book designer. Graphic designer. Interior designer. Furniture designer. Retail store designer. Exhibition designer. Signage designer. Textile designer. Teacher. Spend some time at alvinlustig.org and learn from a true master. You can find a brilliant article by Steven Heller about Lustig called "Born Modern" here, or at the AIGA Medalist site. The AIGA medalist is given to "the most distinguished in the field, awarded to individuals in recognition of their exceptional achievements, services or other contributions to the field of graphic design and visual communication." When you visit either Lustig's site or the Medalist site, you'll see why he is considered a master. His work for Knoll furniture is what caught my attention many years ago, but equally as amazing is this signage system for Northland Shopping Mall in Detroit..

By the time he died at the age of forty in 1955, he had already introduced principles of Modern art to graphic design that have had a long-term influence on contemporary practice. He was in the vanguard of a relatively small group who fervently, indeed religiously, believed in the curative power of good design when applied to all aspects of American life.
– “Born Modern” by Steven Heller

( via That's Right)

Hotel FOX: Lifestyle Art in Copenhagen

Volkswagon, in conjunction with the launch of their new VW Fox automobile, invited 21 international artists from the fields of graphic design, urban art and illustration to turn central Copenhagen's Hotel Fox into individual works of art—and as a result the world’s most exciting and creative lifestyle hotel. 61 rooms, to be exact. Each room is an individual piece of art. From whacky comical styles to strict graphic design. From fantastic street art and Japanese Manga to simply spaced out fantasies. Flowers, fairytales, friendly monsters, dreaming creatures, secrets vaults and more. Extra Large, Large, Medium and Small rooms. Fun.

( via CJ )

Illustrator Will Staehle: LONEWOLFBLACKSHEEP

Great illustrator and designer. Find Will Staehle at LONE WOLF BLACK SHEEP

(via NiceToMeetYou )

hellovon: Great Illustrator

Twenty-six year old London based Von is an incredible illustrator who needs no half baked introduction from myself. Instead of me rehashing a bunch of stuff that's already on his site, just check it out for yourself.

SVA Podcasts: MFA Designer as Author

Podcasting design issues of all types by way of the School of Visual Arts NYC. The likes of which include noteables David Rees, Rick Poynor, Keith Godard, Neil Powell, Christoph Niemann, Milton Glaser, George Lois, Matthew Carter, Stuart Bailey, Joyce Rutter Kaye, Paola Antonelli, John Holmstrom, Steven Heller, plus SVA grad students. Great resource. You can grab the direct RSS feed or subscribe via iTunes.

( via GraphicDesignBar )

History of Branding Website

Historyofbranding is a nice resource for all things brand. The site's been around since 2005, and seems to be gaining steam. In addition to showing hundreds of logos with histories, the site also has Unique Branding Ads, Popular Commercials, Popular Print Ads, Branding Books, Branding Quotes, Branding Slogans. A favorite quote I found on the site is:

"Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand." - David Ogilvy

( via Thats Right )

KT Tunstall: One Woman Band

Stumbled across this somehow, and it's really cool. KT Tunstall can rock it. See if you agree.

TUTORIAL BLOG: List Kings

TutorialBlog is a bit hard to categorize, because it's a bit all over the map, something which probably caught my attention in the first place. The blog is a place for Photoshop tutorials, but mostly I'm drawn to their lists. Like myself, they are hunters, gatherers and collectors, and they categorize lists of websites based on color (green, blue, brown, red), which I find interesting. All that said, they do throw in an oddball "30 Great Website Post" now and again to mix things up, and from left field "Top 10 Church & Religious Websites." I find the folks at TutorialBlog to be good spotters, filters, collectors, and sharers. As for the number "30" in many of their posts - I wish I new.

Product Innovation: Switchring

Introducing Switchring, a patented interchangeable ring with nearly endless design options and colors. A double-sphered base and wedge-shaped insert comes in three sizes with 100's of combinations to choose from. New designs released each month. Really cool idea. I LOVE the idea in product design to design a base product that has a consumable business attached. This ring is a great idea. It's also at a nice price-point. Also available as wholesale.

( via miosite )

Olimpia Zagnoli: Effortless Illustration

There's something effortless about Olimpia Zagnoli's work. Care free looking sketches over cut and found objects, and color like it's second nature, this young illustrator has quite a career ahead of her. If you think her website is nice, check out her Flickr pages. I love her work. It's just right.

She says..."I was born in Montecchio Emilia, near Reggio Emilia, on the 29 February 1984. I had my first crush on Picasso when I was four. At this moment I live in Milan, I'm 23 and I like Pirates, Peanuts and Stationery. When I get old, I'd like to be an Illustrator, a biologist and a rockstar."

( via Children's Illustration )

Legendary Neville Brody

During some down time, I stumbled across a presentation Neville Brody gave on March 15th at the Escola Superior de Artes e Design, which translates from Portuguese as the Superior School of Arts and Design— Matosinhos, Portugal. The interview is very long, but if you take your design career seriously you'll watch the whole thing because Neville is one of the all time best designers in my book. If you're going through the motions, this one will be too long for you. He appeared rather nervous to me, something I hadn't expected. Just because your work is legendary, doesn't mean you are automatically a brilliant speaker. He actually does a great job overall, and his 100 plus slides speak for themselves. Neville now calls Research Studios home.

( via Quipsologies )

Taxi Interviews: Heller, Sagmeister, Kidd

Another great Design Leader interview from Taxi, a design portal I've brought to your attention before, only under the name DesignTaxi. I can't tell if my former name for the site was in error, or whether they changed their name. Either way, this new interview features three heavyweights (skill not waist size) in the design profession: Steven Heller, Stefan Sagmeister and Chip Kidd. All in all a good three part interview. There are many other great interviews on the taxi Design Leader site, but I can't figure out how to make a link to them individually. Consequently if you are interested in any of those listed below, just go to the main site, and look at the bottom right under the category "EXCLUSIVE: Design Leaders" and click on the individual names there.

• Neil French
• Joanne Ooi
• Duangrit Bunnag
• Eikoh Hosoe (Japan)
• Neil Leifer (USA)
• Duane Michals (USA)
• Michael Hockney, D&AD (Chief Executive)
• Garry Blackburn & Simon Elliott, Rose (UK)
• Christopher Liechty, AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design (President)
• Jacques Lange, ICOGRADA (President)
• Christopher Liechty, AIGA Center for Cross-Cultural Design (President)
• Darrel Rhea, Cheskin (USA)
• Sara Little Turnbull, Stanford Graduate School of Business (USA)
• Adelia Borges, Museu da Casa Brasileira (Brasil)
• Linda Fu, Linda Fu Design + Global iCome Consulting (Australia)
• Esen Karol, Esen Karol Design Ltd (Turkey)
• Mervyn Kurlansky, Mervyn Kurlansky Design (Denmark)
• Saki Mafundikwa, Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (Zimbabwe)
• Ravi Naidoo, Design Indaba + Interactive Africa (South Africa)
• Sanja Rocco, ROCCO&PARTNER (Croatia)
• Henry Steiner, Steiner&Co (Hong Kong)
• Omar Vulpinari, Fabrica (Italy)
• Tarek Atrissi, Tarek Atrissi Design (Netherlands)
• Sean Bolan, University of Washington (USA)
• Cristina Chiappini, Graphic and Interactive Design (Italy)
• Halim Choueiry, Virginia Commonwealth University (Qatar)
• Lorraine Gauthier, Work Worth Doing (Canada)
• Andrea Marks, Oregon State University (USA)
• Alejandro Quinto, Work Worth Doing (Canada)
• Chang Sik Kim, San Jose State University (South Korea)
• Maurice Woods , Achana (USA)
• Henk van Assen, Yale University School of Art (USA)

( via Quipsologies )

Book Design: Frances Baca Design LIVE!

Frances Baca caught my eye months ago and she and I bounced emails back and forth. Basically I admired her work when I first discovered it on her Flickr set. She was busy working at that time, with the goal of having her personal website go live. Well, she emailed me today and she's officially up and running. I hope to see more of her work in the future (please, pretty please), but for now here's a look at her work. From my perspective Frances' work could be best described with words such as just right, just enough, not too much, conceptual and communicative, and inspiring. She is definitely gifted, and I believe you'll enjoy seeing her work for yourself. Let her know what you think by leaving a comment and/or emailing her here.

Adobe Inspiration: Stories

Adobe presents stories about how their technology's helping revolutionize how people engage with ideas and information. This is another great micro site on the content rich Adobe family of sites. Their DesignCenter micro site is yet another. One of my interests in producing BarryBlog is to share what I find interesting in the event you do too. These Adobe sites are one's you know about perhaps, but are too busy to pay attention to. Hum...too busy to pay attention. That's something worth discussing in the future.