Design, Design, Design, Design for Life. BBC

So are product designers so transparent? I had a strange experience the other week, I visited a persons house whom I did not know. Looking around, I could tell the person was in the design field from the contemporary super thought out schemes that only a designer would labor at. Then I started picking up a theme. Brushed aluminum, clean lines, concrete floor, sleek kitchen, contemporary light fixtures, simple forms. Further visual analysis.... a Juicy Salif (designed by Phillipe Stark) on a visible shelf in the kitchen..... mark rothko in the lounge.... bingo a product designer!!

So this prompted me to look up Stark again. When I was studying ungrad design Stark was one of my role models , just like anyone else I suppose, at the time it was the Juicy Salif (lemon squeezer),  toothbrush and the Hot Bertta (kettle).
Then a friend of mine reminded me of the BBC series Design for Life, where Phillipe Stark hosts the show, entertaining design students on a mission to find the best design talent in Britain by way of a  in a reality elimination game of design tasks.
I watched episode one, watching three right now. Pretty entertaining.

Philippe's thoughts on ecology with the role of design are refreshing and it's not the same thoughts from 10yrs ago, it's a matured Stark that doesn't want to fill the world with crap. Even though a few years back he managed to fill Target with injection molded useless landfill but thankfully it seems his ideas have changed.
Check out his series on Vimeo

Design for Life Episode 1 from Robert Meredith on Vimeo.

Design for life | Episode 2 from designforlife|episode2 on Vimeo.

One of the things that impressed me was I liked the fact that when asked about Design philosophy, Stark's response was no philosophy. "I don't have a design philosophy, I think it's a little too small, I try to have a philosophy for life" A designer can change the world through design.
His philosophy really comes out as Democratic design, affordable sustainable products that can benefit everyone. 

Right on Philippe

Localization?

One of the things I am feeling in general is this feeling of Localization....maybe this is due to living in Portland....I have heard so much about this as the Eat Local mentality, groups of people go to local farmers markets to buy groceries and produce because they believe that eating local actually reduces the CO2 footprint, where transportation cost/impacts are often hidden from consumers when you purchase from a big brand supermarket. With food I can buy into this mentality.

Take a look at this article on infographics to assist the localization.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/infographic-day-what-foods-season-now?partner=rss

Also this graphic is really quite interesting.... adding the miles for produce.

Now this theory is great until you get beyond this notion of each product is very similar and some would say "generic" and add something into the mix that differentiates the product from a technology standpoint.  Then it seems it's impossible.

Christmas Eve

So I decided to take all next week off work. I have enough vacation since I didn't do too much in 2009. This means no work till Jan 4th! pretty good, feels like a real holiday.