Category Archives: designing

Update: My Hipster Doofus Dutch Bike Project, or another episode of Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness

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I bought a Breezer bike last year, and was really happy with it, but as I just can't leave well enough alone, I took to tweaking it.  My objective?  To turn it into a true object of hipster doofus lust, to make it a stealthy mountain-urban bike in Dutch city bike's clothing.

I'm kicking myself for not taking a "before" photo, but trust me when I say that the bike looks much better now: I've swapped out the stock seat, handlebars, and grips for some much tastier items from Brooks, Nitto, and a Portuguese cork farmer.  And the grips are shellacked, natch.  I'm still not totally satisfied with the seating position, however.

I took this quick photo today over at Stanford and felt like sharing it, ergo this Unabashed Gearhead Gnarlyness post.

Join the conversation at Living Climate Change

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I'm really happy to be able to point you to Living Climate Change, a conversation that we're hosting at IDEO. 

Our goal with this new site is to expand and enhance the debate about climate change, and also to show what might be done about it using design thinking.  While I didn't have a direct role in producing any of the video scenarios on the site, I did a modicum of work to support them coming to fruition (Principle 12), and I'm really happy with where we are with this rollout.

There's a lot more to come.  Believe me, there's a lot of interesting stories and visions coming to the sight over the next few months!  Most important, though, will be your contributions.  If you're interested, please take a minute to subscribe to updates from the site, and contribute your thoughts and feelings here.

5Q4….

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BusinessWeek has a nice series called Five Questions For… (or 5Q4) where you, the reader/audience/world citizen get to submit a question, and then someone like Helen Walters asks your very question of a luminary.  For all of us who think of calling in to a NPR talk show while driving but never do it, or who do call in to something like Car Talk, but never make it on, 5Q4 is a dream come true.

Are you getting the picture?  My question got asked.  I feel like a bouncy kid right now because Helen Walters asked Danny Meyer to answer my question.  I love the web.

Here you go, Five Answers from Danny Meyer:

And do check out 5Q4.  Lots of great interviews on there with people who make dents in the universe.

Director’s Commentary: Adrian van Hooydonk

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I really enjoyed listening to this interview of Adrian van Hooydonk by Tyler Brule of Monocle.  It's a wonderful Director's Commentary, because in it van Hooydonk explores many themes that are relevant far beyond the world of BMW.  Anyone engaged in the art and science of bringing cool stuff to life will get a lot out of this video.

Some of the high points for me were:

  • his thoughtful exploration of how the 2009 financial crisis will shape user behaviors in the future
  • his thinking on what it takes to design remarkable experiences, and his emphasis on the importance of having a strong point of view.  When he says that the BMW Gran Turismo is about "traveling in style", I really get what the car is all about.  By the way, the Gran Turismo has officially replaced the Honda Ridgeline as the focus of all my automotive fetishistic energy (but Honda, if you're listening, I'd still be very happy if you delivered a Ridgeline to my house one Saturday morning.  With a bow on top).
  • his clear focus on user experience as the wellspring of compelling designs.  This worldview, of course, is what Principle 3 is all about.

My favorite part of the interview comes near the end, as Brule and Hooydonk discuss what it is like to bring designs before the board of BMW for approval.  Here's an excerpt:

Design is an emotional thing.  So, as a designer, I will lean to one or the other design in the final stages, and I can't completely explain why.  But my responsibility is to advise the board on which design we should go with, and they don't even expect from me that I can explain it to the last millimeter.  In a way, there has to be trust between a board of management and the chief designer.

I could not agree more.  In my experience, trust in the informed intuition of talented designers is what separates the great brands from the also-rans.  Informed intuition is what allows designers to make good decisions regarding intangibles.  In the absence of trust in informed intuition, organizations are tempted to decode intangibles via metrics, surveys and other algorithmic devices, and all the poetry gets trampled.

Could trust be the killer app?

Designing at the Boulder Digital Works

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I'm happy to announce that I just joined the board of the Boulder Digital Works (BDW).  At this time back in 2004, I was busy helping the Stanford d.school achieve lift off, so it's really cool now to be part of another design education startup.  And now the idea of a design curriculum combining business, technology, and human issues is much more accepted in the mainstream, which to me makes the focused mission of the BDW even more exciting.

As John Maeda recently noted, the missing partner to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) is IDEA (Intuition, Design, Emotion, Art).  As a person who was trained on both sides and now works and plays across STEM and IDEA, I feel strongly that our education programs need to combine both in order to create the T-shaped people that can go out and make a difference in the world (Principle 6).

Finally, as a native of Boulder, BDW gives me another excuse to get back to the place where I came to love and admire the fine art of driving in the snow.  Can't wait.  Hope the board meetings are in February!

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

How will it look through time?

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I love this video because of the way it illustrates the necessity of considering the passage of time as we think about bringing new things in to the world. How will it look through the day? How will it look after 10 years? 20? 50? 200? How might future generations feel about the work we've done today?

As this video aptly shows us, Philip Johnson considered these questions in the design of his Glass House. For me, this is further validation of the importance of Innovation Principle No.3.

Once again, why having a point of view matters

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For an wonderful example of why it is so important to have a distinct point of view when one is trying to bring something new to life, look no further than this: 

Never barefoot

It's a daily dose of chutzpah, wit, and inspiration.  The depth and breadth of expression to be found in the design of something as familiar as a pair of shoes provides this challenge to all of us:  couldn't that thing you're doing be made even just a little better or more meaningful?  Why keep doing the same thing without first asking why?  Why look like everything else on the market?