A book that reveals how thinking like a designer can help solve
the greatest challenges we face in business, society, and our daily
lives.
What can we learn from the ways great designers think-and how can it
improve our world? In this book by journalist Warren
Berger, in collaboration with designer Bruce Mau, ten
groundbreaking principles of design are shown in action-addressing
business, social, and personal challenges and improving the way we
think, work, and live.
Glimmer takes readers on a journey through today's fascinating world of design, where the formerly distinct disciplines of graphic, product, and social design are undergoing "smart recombinations." In the cutting-edge studios of Mau and other visionaries, everything is ripe for reinvention-including the ways businesses function, children learn, and communities thrive. Designers are solving problems at an unprecedented pace today by using improved technology and the highly practical design principles described in this book, such as "Ask stupid questions," "Make hope visible," "Work the metaphor," "Embrace constraints," and "Begin anywhere." Glimmer inspires readers to apply these same principles to their own life challenges.
While celebrated designers work on re-creating the world, Berger reveals the growing grassroots "glimmer movement" in which everyday people are emerging as designers and problem solvers. Readers will be fascinated by how "transformation design" is reinventing companies and addressing thorny social problems. Berger shares stories of how burned fingers, wrenched backs, and mixed-up pills all led to ingenious new product designs.
In a time of anxiety and retrenchment, this book illuminates "the glimmer of possibility and potential-that first spark of an innovative idea or a life-changing plan." According to Berger, "This faint light is all around us and also within us, if we can learn to recognize and nurture it." The best designers already know how to transform that glimmer of possibility into the steady glow of creation and innovation-and with the inspiration of Glimmer, we're now all able to do the same.
Designboost has explored the personal viewpoint of sustainable cities of some of
the worlds most acknowledged designers. To find out Designboost went to
Milan Design Week and made a MiniBoost.
The MiniBoost resulted in thirteen unique interviews. The seven first interviews are released and include personalities like Ilse Crawford, Tom Dixon, Konstantin Grcic, Arik Levy, Ross Lovegrove, Katrin Olina and Satyendra Pakhale.
The questions asked look at sustainable cities from a holistic point of view and touch among other subjects sustainability according to cultural life, emotional amplification and the personal stories of the inhabitants. The questions are written by different Boosters at the DesignBoost 2008 key event "Long Live the City" in Malmö, Sweden. One may say that the MiniBoost is like a relay race with questions as batons passed on to new Boosters.
Listen to what Ilse, Tom, Konstantin, Arik, Ross, Katrin and Satyendra have to say about it.
Next week Designboost will release six more interviews from the Milan Design Week MiniBoost including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Kristina Dryza, Richard Hutten, James Irvine, Tim Power and Patricia Urquiola.
DETAILS.com just posted their newest “60 Seconds” Q&A. This time
they sit down with Gary Hustwit, director of “Objectified.” The film
explores our relationships with manufactured items, everything from
cars to a potato peeler, and the designers behind them. Plus, Hustwit
tells us his favorite design items.
Q: Helvetica traced the history of a typeface, and in Objectified you examine industrial design—a category that includes things as disparate as potato peelers and sports cars. Is it tough to make movies with such seemingly uncinematic topics?
A: My films are about asking audiences questions, not about finding answers or teaching. You can do proper documentary films and get people off death row—or you can ask questions. I focused on design, but everything is designed. Part of the reason for making a film about stuff is to make people think about that stuff. It tells a story—where we came from, where we're going, the issues that are facing us as a culture.
Q: How is our relationship to objects changing?
A: It's funny: I just moved, and I spread out all of my stuff beforehand. Most of the things I have are media —books, records, DVDs. I asked myself, "Why am I carrying this stuff around? This could easily fit on a JumpDrive." There's no need to have a physical object for them anymore.
Read More and make sure you check out the trailer for the movie - it’s really beautiful.
Interview Magazine has just posted online a few interviews they did with Marc Newson, Konstantin Grcic, Ron Arad, Shigeru Ban and Alasdhair Willis for their May Issue.
From David Coggins' interview of Konstantin Grcic: "Design is a serious thing—it’s not just fun. It demands concentration, and it’s about responsibility. At the same time, for me, the hard reality is sometimes so comical because it’s about life, isn’t it? Everyday life, and how all of us struggle with life, and in this material world we struggle to come to terms with objects—something we have to sit down on, or open a latch on, or all of these essential kinds of things. I’ve always been fascinated by observing the relationship between human beings and objects. And, really, how do we come to terms with them? How intelligent are we? Is there a category of objects that are helpful and accommodating and accessible? Because there are objects that are totally the opposite and they are here to make you look like a fool, or they make you uncomfortable. I guess there is a certain form of humor in my work. It’s not that I just want to be funny. It’s not something I do deliberately. But when you accept the world with all its perfections and imperfections, and tragic and comic sides, then somehow this humorous aspect is part of it."
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