Author Archives: Diego Rodriguez

Joi Ito on innovating with agility

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Awesome post from Joi Ito today, talking about innovation process and government policy.  An excerpt:

Generally speaking, it's probably cheaper and faster and more effective
to make a prototype than to make presentation deck. It's also probably
easier to test something on real users than to do lots of marketing and
guessing. My recommendation to just about anyone with an idea is to
just build the thing, iterate until you have some user traction, then
pitch angel investors based on that traction. This is very much in line
with the old IETF motto of "rough consensus, running code."

Joi's thinking is well worth a read (us usual, I'm not telling you anything new there).

When it comes to innovation principles, I'm a bit of a wooden stake looking for vampires these days, but in Joi's thinking I see the following at play:

Speaking of which, I need to heed my advice and ship the last set of principles.  Now.  I'll get on it.

Who designed the Porsche 917L Martini “hippie” car?

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This Porsche raced at Le Mans in 1970 and captured my imagination as a boy like no other race car.  Beyond being a member of the ultra-gnarly 917 family of Porsches, this car sports a paintscheme like no other.  Campaigned under the brand umbrella of Martini, those iris swirls were as arresting then as they are now, and are what lended this particular car the sobriquet of "hippie". 

It's a beautiful design that's stood the test of time, and I'd wager it is a flexible one, too; if this pattern were printed on the side of resuable shopping bag from Whole Foods, none of us would bat an eye.

Here's where I need your help: I know that the design team behind the hippie graphics was headed by Anatole Lapine.  Somewhere in the cobwebs of my memory I have a vague recollection of reading that a member of his design team was a graduate of the Stanford design program.  If you have any information about this, could you please send me an email or leave a comment below? Design mysteries are few and far between, and this is a fun one.

By the way, it's Porsche Week over at Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness.

photo credit: Kelzone

Maira Kalman on the American Message

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As far as this art and science of bringing cool stuff to life thing goes, Maira Kalman really nailed it in today's NYT.  You have to see it all.  It's the triple distillation of pure awesomeness.  Here's a quote:

Everything is invented.
Language.  Childhood.  Careers.
Relationships.  Religion.
Philosophy.  The future.
They are not there for the plucking.
They don't exist in some
natural state.
They must be invented by people.
And that, of course, is a great thing.
Don't mope in your room.
Go invent something.
That is the American Message.
Electricity.  Flight.  The telephone.
Television.  Computers.  Walking on
the moon.  It never stops.

I simply love what she's created here and am totally inspired.  Many thanks to my friend (and great innovator) John Lilly for pointing me to this.

Have a great week, everyone.  Go make a dent in the universe.

And no moping!  Always ask yourself, "What would Travis do?"  Just do it, that's what.  JFCI!

metacool Thought of the Day

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"The next time you see somebody driving a Ferrari, don't think this is somebody who is greedy, think this is somebody who is incredibly vulnerable and in need of love.  In other words, feel sympathy, rather than contempt."
– Alain de Botton

Hyundai is the New BMW

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Yesterday's announcement by BMW that it is leaving Formula 1 as part of a brand repositioning focused on sustainability and viability leaves a market niche open for driver's cars. I actually agree with BMW's move based on long-term societal trends, but for the next 5-10 years I think the "Ultimate Driving Machine" niche will still exist and be a profitable one.

So in to the market vacuum left by BMW, I hereby nominate Hyundai as its successor. If you are laughing at that suggestion, take three minutes to watch this inspiring video of Rhys Millen setting a new Pikes Peak hill climb record in his Hyundai Genesis (albeit a modified one):

Great performance brands are forged in the heat of competition. Hyundai, your forge master is Millen.

My favorite new web destination

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The Book Seer

Metacool The Book Seer

I really like this site.  From a functional perspective, it doesn't do anything that Amazon doesn't try and do for me.  Based on a knowledge of what I've read, it dishes up future reading suggestions:

Metacool Book Seer result

The list of book recommendations it cranked out here is very good, almost as good as what Amazon would dish up, because it does in fact use Amazon to generate the list of books to be read (though unlike Amazon, The Book Seer doesn't know that I already have three of these in my possession, especially the last one by Jeff Zwart, which is particularly gnarly and a treasured part of my stash.  But I digress).

The difference for me lies in the beard.  That beard.  Oh my, what a beard!  The kid in me just can't get enough of typing words in this gent's mouth and having him soothsay a future arc of literary interactions.  It's so Monty Python, so retro yet right here, so not Web 2.0-ish.  At the end of the day, The Book Seer makes me feel good by injecting a little dose levity and eccentricity in to my week, and one could do a lot worse than that.  By comparison, Amazon is cold and clinical, and is always trying to sell me something.  Helping me find a good book in a fun way feels a lot better than being on the receiving end of multple cross-sell offers crammed down my throat.

It's a great example of Principle 3 in practice.

What’s up with those principles, and a request for help

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Diego Rodriguez metacool Principle

Over the past few months I've been writing up a series of 21 Principles.  We're now 16 principles deep, with more to come soon.  The feedback I've received so far has been very helpful, and has helped to push and improve my thinking in multiple dimensions (that would be Principles 4, 5 and 8 at work).  For those of you new to metacool, I have a running roster of these principles on the right side of this blog window.

These principles are intended to underpin a general theory of innovation.  They are not meant to be principles of design thinking, though some of them are obviously closely related to the theory and practice of design thinking.  Inspired by the simplicity work of my friend John Maeda, I'm trying to figure out what I think and know at this point in my life when it comes to all things innovation.  Hence my working through these principles in public in a messy kind of way (that would be Principles 9 and 10, with a little dash of 14).

So here's where I need your help, in triplicate:

  1. What is missing?  When it comes to innovating, what situations or dynamics or practices have I not touched on yet?
  2. What is wrong?  How am I being dumb, silly, foolish, pigheaded, idiotic, unintelligible… and just plain wrong?
  3. What resonates?  What matched up with something you've experienced in your life?  And if it did, would you be willing to share your story with me?

Please leave me a comment or shoot me an email. 

As always, thanks for all your help and for the conversations!

Jacek Utko and Principle 3

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Here's a great view in to the design process of Jacek Utko.  He's managed to take things that are "dead" and turn them around so that they're remarkable, moving, and cool.

I'm always amazed by people who are able to take a moribund category and turn it in to something wonderful.  There are so many examples of this in action in our world:

  • selling commodity products:  Zappos
  • helping people eat when they don't have time to cook:  Dream Dinners
  • financial planning and tracking:  Mint

And so on. 

What ties of all of these together?  As you can hear from Jacek Utko's talk, it's all about a commitment to really living Principle 3.