One of the first things you’ll learn in Business School is that brilliant ideas never come out of nowhere. Instead they build on stuff that’s already out there, add new insights, ideas and viewpoints. As for many in design community, Dieter Rams, the legendary industrial designer for Braun, always had a special place in my heart.
Oddly enough, I never realized how much his design influenced Apple. When I discovered this graphic at the wonderful Startups, This Is How Design Works I spent a good 30 minutes staring at it in disbelieve! In hindsight, it only makes sense that the company with the greatest industrial design of our age borrows from the greatest industrial designer of all time. Either way, this graphic is quite brilliant and gets even better when we add his own words: “We designers, we don’t work in a vacuum. We need business people. We are not the fine artists we are often confused with. Today you find few companies that take design seriously, as I see it.” Well Dieter, we are certainly hard at work to change that!
This post occupies a weird space between gross and absolutely amazing. The Taiwanese carrier EVA decided to convert parts of its fleet into Hello Kitty Air. They seriously converted everything from the truck that taxis planes down the runway to the sugar packs. Even the inflight meals, as in the food itself, are Hello Kittified. The attention to detail is just staggering! I always said that it’s my dream to rebrand an airline. This is certainly not what I had in mind. But I cannot help but secretly in love it! And honestly, who knew that Hello Kitty “is five apples tall and weighs three apples?”
I’m seriously obsessed with Everplaces, a new website that allows you to collect places you like. I travel a lot and love to eat at hole in the wall places. Problem with hole in walls: They tend to be in random places and sport nondescript names. Chances that you ever find that place again are pretty slim. Everplaces solves that problem in the most elegant way. Simply add a place via their website. Next time you are in a city, use the iPhone app to look up your places. It’s all location sensitive so you can get directions to the closest place. Not only is everything beautifully designed, but Everplaces really takes advantage of the different platforms. The app is not just a copy of the website but serves a different purpose and both compliment each other. I find this ecosystem approach super exciting and hope that we start seeing more similarly well thought out systems.
As I mention in my little bio blurb on the left side, I really like tropicália. I also really like making playlists. Needless to say that I was pretty excited when I got to make a Brazilian playlist for dapp! Building a holistic brand from scratch is like being a child in the candy shop. It’s a chance to embrace and approach a given subject from every possible angle, form and medium. This is an awesome opportunity in most cases. It’s especially awesome if the brand is based on ‘vintage travel.’ But enough talk, head over to dapp and enjoy some warm Brazilian vibes!
Los Angeles I’m Yours just posted an interview with Eric Nakamura of the amazing Giant Robot. Of the many inspirations I had in my life (and for dapp), GR always had a special place in my heart. The article title perfectly sums up why: The Ability To Do Everything. But this is not a mere matter of self-indulgence. It’s the idea that everything in life is connected to a larger system. When we isolate things, we miss the wonderful whole. GR is a magazine, brand, restaurant, gallery, design studio and many things more. But none of those things just float around in empty space - they all integrate with each other. OK, maybe I’m even a little bit jelly. But not in a negative way. Giant Robot is just that cool.
Street signage is a crucial part of city branding. Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
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