Half of their work is self initiated, they use programming in conjunction with design in totally new ways, the structure of the company is very clever, and after all that he’s still such a modest man. I think they’re one of the most interesting companies along with Berg, Moving Brands and Ideo.

Related posts:

1. Obsessives
2. A thick coat of paint
3. Red hot pressure cooker

To see more Obsessives videos go here, or if you feel like avoiding the annoying commercials at the beginning visit Chow’s Vimeo site. Must sees are the Pizza guy and the tea guy.

Related posts:

1. Matt Pyke
2. A thick coat of paint
3. Fancy Goods

The above image is from the Big Picture’s series on the Iranian elections.
Also, PSFK had an interesting view on the election and how this is a turning point for realtime news, for Design Mind’s views on the same subject go here.
Finally, I recommend seeing Clay Shirky’s very relevant TED presentation; How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history.

Related posts:

1. Fancy Goods
2. Matt Pyke
3. Obsessives

Why, look at the sweet whale butter boat.

Reading the great Bruno Munari’s thoughts on fancy goods in his book Design as Art from 1966, it reminded me how much I hate objects that take the shape of artifacts – and sometimes even animals – with absolutely no relevance to the function of the object. It’s for the same reason I stopped reading Swissmiss. I quite simply couldn’t handle all the adorable whale shaped butter dishy things, sorry Swissmiss, appreciate the effort.

Here’s an excerpt from Bruno Munari’s original writings on the subject.

These are certainly not objects produced by designers, for designers do not have such raging imaginations. They confine themselves to making candlesticks that look like candlesticks. But look, what have we here? An antique gun hung on the wall as a hatstand, with a row of hooks soldered along the barrel. Or an enormous key with smaller hooks, for hanging real keys on. A cigarette lighter in the shape of a revolver, a revolver in the shape of a cigarette lighter. An umbrella like a pagoda, a table-lamp made of a clarinet (likewise, a trumpet), with a lampshade of sheet-music: take your choice, The Barber of Seville or The Magic Flute….I say, let’s buy a pipe that is really a pipe, let’s fill it with real tobacco, light a match that looks like a match and works like a match, and apply it to the pipe-pipe. Let us have a cup of coffee in a cuplike cup on a table-table near our chairlike chair, and read a good book-book.

If you feel like reading Munari’s brilliant book-book containing the above cited text and much more like it, you’re looking for Design as Art and you can find it here.

Related posts:

1. On the effects of middle fingers, temples and well shaped artifacts
2. Scientologists and cheap cigarettes
3. Matt Pyke

It’s no secret that I’m an an avid TED fan, and this talk on nothing less than the perfect spaghetti sauce is one of my favorites. For more on Malcolm Gladwell see here, I personally enjoyed his books Blink and The Tipping Point. He has an ability to convey very complex thoughts through story-telling. See more of TED’s amazing back-catalogue of Ideas Worth Spreading here.

Related posts:

1. Fancy Goods
2. Mickey Mouse shaped tomatoes
3. Why super animals shouldn’t exist