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Copyright © 2010 Jaimes Nel
Purpose webmag
“purpose is a free and independent webzine, dedicated to the presentation of photographic work”
“The subjects explored are broad and relevant: “chronicles of the ordinary”, “Africa seen by its photographers”, “environment”, “social body”, “memory”, “margins and frontiers”, “childhood”…
purpose is a meeting-place for known and unknown artists who wish to compare and contrast their visions of the world.
Accompanied by an original soundtrack created by composers with varied perspectives, each issue is also a multimedia experience.
The concept and editing of purpose are realized by Paul Demare (art director), Gilles Raynaldy (photographer), founders of the webmag, and Francesca Alberti (art historian).”
Helvetica Hegemony
Paul Shaw writes in the AIGA about the history of typography on the New York subway system and particularly why Helvetica has rightly or wrongly come to be regarded as it’s exclusive font.
What emerges is a fascinating account of the process of standardisation in complex public systems.
These attempts began with unsolicited attempts by graphic designers in the 50’s to propose the standardisation of information. It was only later that Helvetica came to represent the face of that standardisation.
George Salomon, Appleton, Parsons & Co, “Out of the Labyrinth: A plea and a plan for improved passenger information in the New York subways.”
Insightful IDEO interview
Ekaterina Khramkova of Russian design innovation agency Lumiknows has posted an interview with a team from IDEO.
The (2006?) IDEO team is Alan South, Head of Service Innovation; Mat Hunter, Head of Consumer Experience Design; Ingelise Nielsen, Head of Marketing Communications and Brand consultant Alice Huang. The 2006 interview highlights a number of useful insights about their approach to working with clients and the role of the agency within client organisations.
One thing that stuck out for me is the idea of “open-source innovation” which seemed to apply to the philosophy in IDEO of teaching clients to work the way they do and trusting that the agency will be needed for truly sticky problems and greater strategic value.
Another was their strong case for ‘generative research’. They argue forcefully for qualitative research as inspirational. They highlight the need for analysis and design interpretation to bring insights to life as ideas. And they argue for partnership, not combat, with quantitative data. Mat Hunter summarises these positions as possibility and risk. He says, “The point is that our intuitive thinking, our qualitative approach is very good for imagining new possibilities, but managing risks you must bring in analysis, statistics and data.”
Ekaterina and her company have a number of other interesting publications available at their website, their organisation operates in Russia and Asia.
A Short (Economist) History of Modern Finance
The Economist published in October what to my mind is the definitive non-specialist (if to some typically liberal) summary of the current financial crisis and more importantly, the economic decisions and financial products which underpin it.