January 10, 2020
Recognition
Occasionally, Keith Brymer Jones, a judge on ‘The Great Pottery Throwdown’ will shed a tear over someone’s work. Making Keith cry is to aspiring potters
Category: Humanity
October 15, 2019
Missing You
For over 30 years I did almost all my shopping at my local big-name supermarket.
Recently, I stopped. The trigger was the self-checkouts – they finally brought it home to me that in spite of all the personal ‘offers’, I am not a person for them, I am merely a consumer. A number on a loyalty card.
Do they miss me? I doubt it.
Now I buy from street markets, WI markets, farm shops and sail cargo. I shop around. Not for the lowest price, but for the best price/experience combination.
I want to do business with people that will miss me when I’m gone.
Don’t we all?
October 14, 2019
Security vs Sovereignty
A supermarket gives me courgette security. I can buy courgettes all year round, any day of the week. They’ll always be the same size, ripeness and quality. This comes at a cost of course. Supermarket courgettes are always priced at the out-of-season level, even when there is a glut in my allotment.
My allotment gives me courgette sovereignty. I can grow as few or as many as I like. I can grow whatever varieties I choose, provided I can give them the conditions they need. This comes at a cost of course. I have to spend time preparing the soil, weeding and watering to give them the conditions they need.
Which option you choose depends on how much you value their side-effects.
The supermarket option is convenient, freeing up time to do other things. On the other hand, those all-year-round courgettes are grown under plastic which ends up in the soil; in an arid part of Spain, which depletes the local water supply; and are picked by migrants, who live in virtual slavery.
The allotment option involves exercise, fresh air, and the satisfaction of doing it yourself. On the other hand, I have to pay rent, keep it looking neat, and after all my hard work, I may not get any courgettes.
But when I do, I’ll really enjoy them.
October 11, 2019
Day of the Girl
Today is the International Day of the Girl Child.
That might be an understatement.
Go girls!
October 10, 2019
Laughter
“Laughter is man’s most distinctive emotional expression.” ―
The laughter of children is one of the most joyful sounds we know. It often comes with discovery – seeing a pigeon for the first time, chasing bubbles, being rained on. It arises from sheer enjoyment of being alive, exercising our faculties, making a new discovery.
Occasionally you’ll hear this kind of laugh from an adult, hardly ever at work.
Which means to my mind, that there’s something wrong with work.
Have a great weekend.
September 30, 2019
Freedom?
What is freedom?
- Agency – being able to make a ‘me-shaped’ dent in the universe.
- Mastery – having the chance and the means to learn new skills.
- Autonomy – being free to choose how we make our dent.
That isn’t all we want as humans though. We also crave Purpose – to be doing this for something bigger than ourselves; and Community – to be doing it with like-minded people. And within that community, we also seek Status – to find our place and have others know it.
Gangs, drug rings and terrorist organisations provide these things in spades.
So could work, if we designed it to.
September 24, 2019
Hoarding
Money. A means of exchange, and a store of value.
As one, it oils the wheels of commerce, industry and everyday life. Enabling us not just to transfer value between each other, but to generate new value for each other.
As the other, it locks up not just its current value, but also all the potential value it is able to create.
Too much oil in the system can be wasteful, but not enough is catastrophic.
Hoarding is counter-productive. Money needs to move to be really useful, and the more parts it can reach, the more useful it will be.
September 20, 2019
Tinkering
We humans are good at compartmentalising.
We happily shop with a backpack or canvas bag ‘to save plastic’, then collect Disney hero cards or M&S shop miniatures with our groceries.
We install dual flush toilets ‘to save water’, then take 3 showers a day.
We cycle to work ‘to avoid polluting’, then fly abroad for a holiday 4 or 5 times a year.
Compartmentalising allows us to tinker, to make ourselves feel good, when what’s really needed is a paradigm shift.
Good luck to everyone on the Global Climate Strike today.
August 29, 2019
We
“What can I do? I’m only one person.”
Find the others.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
―
―
August 20, 2019
Less, but better
“You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people; design is made for people.” Dieter Rams ‘Design by Vitsoe’, 1976
Good Design:
- is innovative – The possibilities for progression are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for original designs. But imaginative design always develops in tandem with improving technology, and can never be an end in itself.
- makes a product useful – A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic criteria. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could detract from it.
- is aesthetic – The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
- makes a product understandable – It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.
- is unobtrusive – Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
- is honest – It does not make a product appear more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
- is long-lasting – It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.
- is thorough down to the last detail – Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
- is environmentally friendly – Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
- is as little design as possible – Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.
Imagine if we designed organisations and processes this way too?