June 2011

Designers with no power

> It’s ok not to have power, provided you don’t act like you have it. What decisions, as a designer, are truly yours? There is probably a small set of decisions you can make without implicit approval of someone else. And if you want more of your ideas to make it out the door, you…more

Creative in the fuzziness

At [the excellent Franz Gertsch exhibition at the Kunsthaus](http://www.kunsthaus.ch/gertsch/en/gallery.php?id=set1) last weekend, I was impressed by how his paintings were so photo-realistic from a distance, but almost abstract up close. Gertsch works from large projections of photographs, and where the photos get fuzzy, he gets creative. Especially in contrast to the high-concept, low-craft art in other…more

Seeing through time

[Peter Langenhahn](http://www.peterlangenhahn.com/content.html) makes [cool photo composites that combine lots of separate moments from a single event](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HBn7TMWf7k). [Peter Funch has done similar works](http://www.peterfunch.com/index.php?/ongoing/babel-tales/), based around themes of people passing through a place. Before digital cameras were common, I did something like this by cutting up prints and gluing them to boards. Kinda feels like you’re seeing…more

15 seconds of fame

An Italian TV station came to Zurich to see the office and a coworker pulled me in to be interviewed. Check me out at 1:12:

Design, too

[Prints here](http://2046shop.bigcartel.com/product/quote-1-don-draper).

Doing new things

> See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. I guess all sorts of design [feel the same way](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+43&version=TNIV).

Notes from The Pixar Story

Notes from [The Pixar Story](http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/The-Pixar-Story/70083532#height1142). > The bigger fear was just, can you find that lightning in a bottle again…you realize you have to actually work now at making yourself as naive as you were in the first round, without any effort. – Andrew Stanton, 48:38 > We learned the important thing is not the…more