Stop the presses!

Bob Lutz (aka The Man) is blogging up a storm over at FastLane Blog. 

So far as I can tell, the content (if not the typing) really does come from Lutz, not from some junior MBA over at GM.  And as one would expect from the premier product guy of the Known Universe, his blog, though young, already contains many tasty bits, such as this thought about Saturn:

What would you do if you had a brand whose customer service  reputation was that high for that long despite having a narrow, aging
product lineup? I, for one, would first get down on my knees and thank
the Maker for the finest retail network in the industry. Then, I would
set to work replenishing the product portfolio.

And this one on design thinking:

The creative process is not, nor will it ever be, “scientific.” You
cannot start with quantitative research to find the “big idea.” Whether
it’s cars or movies or clothes, a company needs inspired, free-ranging
discussion among its top creative people.

Beyond the massive wisdom about design, innovation, marketing, and leadership to be found in Mr. Lutz’s blog, we also need to celebrate FastLane as a milestone in the history of corporate blogging.  A while ago I praised the actions of Honda CEO Takeo Fukui, and asked the question "What if the CEO knew his products?"  With Lutz raising the ante, maybe the right question to ask now is "What if the CEO could write a believable blog about his products?"

Bob Lutz blogging?  This bodes well for the future of mankind.

Green Eye for the Conventional Guy

Let’s face it: as a society we’re never going to have our environmental act together 100%.  So instead of waiting for that magic day when everthing goes cradle-to-cradle, why not start making better purchase decisions today?

For example, I’m going to make a personal eco-babystep by finding a way to reduce the quantity of paper cups and plastic lids I use from Peet’s.  And while I’m there I’ll ask for a fillup with Fair Trade brew.

The New York Times has designed an excellent overview of the physics, timeline, and impact on humanity of the tsunami.  More than any report I’ve read in the paper or seen on television, this multidisciplinary piece of design work makes me feel and understand what has happened there. 

In some sense it’s shallow to crow about the power of integrative, design-led thinking in the context of such a disaster.  On the other hand, perhaps our future ability to reduce the damage from this type of disaster will be realized using just this sort of integrative thinking and doing.

link awareness courtesy of Design Observer

Wes Anderson designs every element of his movies.  While most motion pictures are staged sets overlaid with a thin veneer of reality, Anderson’s movies are true portraits of alternate realities where every detail is premeditated.  In The Royal Tenenbaums, for example, he needed to film the Tenenbaums in a home-like setting, so he went out and converted a grand old New York house into a functioning movie set.  The Real Deal.  Part of the pleasure watching an Anderson movie is picking out all the interesting stuff on screen — he has an eye for interesting designs. 

That’s why I’m so stoked to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.  It looks to be full of cool stuff from the golden age of Cousteau.

10jan04 Zissou Update:  for those of you trying to find Team Zissou Adidas shoes, they don’t exist.  But they might soon if you bug Adidas enough.  Go to Josh Rubin’s blog to send them an email, or sign Reuel Alvarez’s online petition.  Customer evangelism, indeed!

A while back I argued that the temporal aspects of design often get ignored by designers.  Most designers, I’d wager, don’t think about how their design will look in a year, let along five or ten.  Similarly, many don’t think about what their design will look like during use — what will it be like in motion?

There are exceptions.  Good software designers obsess over this question.  After all, the quality of a user interface is dictated in no small part by the way in which it helps a user move through a single task, and then from one task to another.  Spend any amount of time designing a software interface, such as a website, and you’ll become very sensitized to how your solution works when it is in motion.

In my opinion, not many designers of physical products think about their product in motion, but they should.  Most products get designed on a piece of paper or on a screen, so it becomes easy and normal to think of them as Platonic forms existing on a still life of white or black.  But when designers do take into account motion, cool things can happen.  For example, some cars that seem ugly sitting in the driveway become objects of beauty when seen carving their way up a curvy, mountain road.  A knife can have a more or less appealing form, but its true beauty comes with use.

So what would happen if we thought of all designs in terms of movement?  Grant Petersen of Rivendell Bicycle Works (the most vibrant, real brand on the planet, in my opinion) took that idea and came up with a patented innovation, the SpeedBlend bike tire:

The colors on the SpeedBlend tire sidewall are interesting when seen standing still, but come alive when spun — which takes Petersen’s design from just another eccentric bike tire to something more about magic and fun:

The 2005 Aston Martin DBR9

"Any person or nation can grow fatter and fatter, richer and richer, sleepwalking toward disaster. Or we can choose to remain lean and quick, wealthy in beauty and time  and, that word that inspired our forefathers, wealthy in happiness."
— Yvon Chouinard & Nora Gallagher

Get Chouinard’s complete ChangeThis manifesto here: Download 10.02.DontBuyThisShirt.pdf .