Meredith Davis: Graphic Design Theory (Graphic Design in Context)
Don Koberg: The Universal Traveler
Early thoughts and primers on the creative process and design thinking.
William Lidwell: Universal Principles of Design: 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design
A good reminder of 100 things to check when designing. (****)
Christopher Alexander: The Timeless Way of Building
Revisiting the themes put forward in this first of three books in a series by Christopher Alexander.
Thomas L. Friedman: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
NEIL POSTMAN: Technopoly : The Surrender of Culture to Technology
A classic gut check for those enamored with the technology pervading our lives. (****)
Barry Schwartz: The Paradox of Choice : Why More Is Less
Trying to choose wisely.
Whether a fan of George Luca's Star Wars saga or not, one can only take in the image of this extra large Star Wars collection with awe. It is it laid out in a creative fashion, strangely evoking the impression of some sort of modern Bayeux Tapestry. And someone also laid out an impressive figure for the collection as it recently sold for over $11,000. That's an impressive amount for an equally impressive collection. Looking it over, it appears to be made up of the latest round of action figures, not the originals that launched in 1977. The tooling and detail on this latest generation of figures is superior the original series to be sure, but I am so thankful to have had some of the originals to lift the horizons of my imagination through countless hours of creative play. I can't help but think that those hours spent re-enacting Luca's masterpiece also taught me a thing or two about filming and storytelling. Thanks again for that and so much more George!
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of contributing some thoughts that informed Alexis Madrigal's Atlantic article "iPhone 5? Yawn. What Will the 'Phone' of 2022 Look Like?"
While so many are understandably appreciating the latest offering from Apple in the "phone-on-glass'" category, the article does a nice job of encouraging us to think beyond today's prevailing interaction paradigms and from factors toward a future with a greater variety of form factors as well as richer, more seamless interactions. Who knows, while displays are getting bigger this week, in 2022 the next big thing might be pretty small.
"Comfort Zone" image from work done as part of a future technology forecasting project I contributed to in 2000 at IDEO.
With rolling weekly releases, BMW has invited a rich mix of personalities to discuss the future of mobility. As cited in the first film, with every car having an average of five parking spaces dedicated to it, and considering that everything that is rigid seems to fail while things that can adapt and grow tend to succeed, it is refreshing to see themes like this taken on and folks talking responcibly and optimistically about redesigning the way we live on earth. It is nice also to see the views of those that would like to drive around in bubbles or original Hemi-powered Daytona's all figuring in the mix. Take a look at the first film "The New City" which is viewable now on BMW's Activate the Future site. Thanks to Scott P for the heads up on this one.
