"Aspiral"
Image by volantra
John Rylands started his business with a single penny...
The neo-gothic building of the John Rylands library situated in Manchester city center recently received the addition of a new extension. The atrium part of the extension was chosen for the incorporation of an artwork on the west wall. (This artwork was never put forward and is not the one chosen for the space)
I chose to use small squares to give the visual effect of fragmentation. Each small square threaded onto "Aspiral" is either made from cotton rag paper or organic linen / cotton. Since William Morris is one of the great achievers within the library's collections, his superb use of colour was incorporated into the artwork. I chose to add the colour sparingly so as not to distract from the form, textures and subtlety of the fabric and paper.
... the Aspiral demonstrates a life long commitment to the cotton industry and literature, the combination of aspiration and hard work.
Nil Sine Labore - "nothing without work", Rylands family motto.
Artwork design for John Rylands Library as part of my Design degree. Image is photoshoped and is not actually displayed in the library. This design was never entered into the competition and was designed for degree purpose only. Winning design is by Derek Hunt www.limelightstudios.co.uk/
36 of 365: The end of a fabulous day visiting the Edinburgh School of Art's Product Design students
Image by dumbledad
Andy Law [what's your homepage Andy?] invited Nic up to see the changes they are making as the Edinburgh School of Art's Product Design degree transitions from furniture design. Richard and I joined Nic and had a fantastic day. I'll write-up the visit more fully, but one of the high-spots were the amazing 'I Rule The World' chars that some of the fourth years had made themselves. I'm in one here, looking a bit Jimmy Saville. After ECA I popped in on Uncle John and then caught the train back. Incredibly the train has reliable free wi-fi (they should run the hotel!) so this photo is uploaded from a National Express train hurtling down the East Coast line :-)
A Whole New Mind
Image by Earthworm
Lots of strokes for Right Brain people in this business self-help book. Author then proceeds to sell your soul as usual. Starts with the premise that the future of American jobs will take a big hit hit because of three factors Abundance, Asia and Automation. Particularly those information era jobs which we thought were our just desserts in the age of globalization. But no more. Now the MFA (masters of fine arts) will be the new MBA so touts the author repeatedly.
Those Left Brain linear people who were formerly so successful because of number crunching brain power, code breaking logic and legalese word smithing, will now find themselves replaced by cheaper info-tech workers in Asia and Quicken-like software and boilerplate legal contracts online. In other words lawyers, accountants and computer geeks will find their customers going elsewhere and doing stuff themselves with user friendly software just as travel agents and car salesman lost their jobs to the power of the Internet. Thus the Information Age, (and the tech age) will succumb to the Conceptual Age, so the author declares.
Abundance in consumer goods means that the only thing that distinguishes one widget from another is good design or "high concept, high touch" features and the only thing that will keep clients coming to a lawyer or an accountant over using a software program is human contact and care taking. The author then proceeds to teach the proper Right Brain attributes to these former achievement oriented nerds including good design, empathy, playfulness and ability to dispense meaning. This is the soul selling part because it has nothing to do with art or human inspiration or meaning. It has only to do with product and marketing.
Thus the MFA is a red herring. Just because doctors make better diagnosis if they have spent time looking at paintings does not mean that they are going to get a Masters of Fine Arts instead of doing pre-med. Future business people are not going to get an MFA either although they might start taking art classes in an attempt to glean cultural substance or rip off some mythology to write their motivational Chicken Soup for the MBA Soul book.
And design the way he describes it was not taught in the Fine Arts department. My design degree was a Bachelor of Science degree. It's true lots of creative writing majors ended up writing blurbs for catalogs or doing technical writing, but they weren't necessarily happy about it. But seriously, designers have always been a part of business; that's why Mad Men is such a conceptually popular TV series.
Having gnawed on his ankles a bit, I think the author has made a very provocative case and I find myself thinking about this book quite often because I have taken my Right Brain attributes and built for myself a high touch, high concept business full of meaning making and storytelling in which I use language and metaphor to motivate and inspire people to clean up their lives. Not only that, when it comes to marketing, it turns out that being a larger than life character full of eccentric and idiosyncratic habits is now, in this era of social marketing, the key to standing out in a crowd of standard issue, business suit wearing consultants with string of letters after names. Author does not put it this way. His narrative is in the tradition of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People which makes reading this book feel like yet another hackneyed, simplistic, problem solving, rah rah, standard issue, self-help book with absolutely no meaning except to figure out how to make a living.
Speaking of good product design I really like these new books on tape they have at the library. You use your own headsets and provide the battery and you can amp up the sound much higher than music players. Doesn't have enough bookstops though.
The Schulze hot-air phone-melting machine
Image by fidothe
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