Posted by Adam Richardson - November 17, 2008
Despite the vaguely technical title, the latest James Bond installment, Quantum of Solace, is almost completely devoid of gadgets.
Gee-whiz gadgets have been a mainstay of the Bond oeuvre, from car ejection seats to lighters that convert into pistols, from watches with lasers to personal jetpacks. But with the "reboot" of the series starting with the last movie, Casino Royale, the film-makers have dramatically downplayed the use of devices as deus-ex-machina methods of getting Bond out of a jam.
read more comments (3)
Posted by Nick de la Mare - November 16, 2008
Chris Foss was (perhaps is) a British sci-fi artist. He’s most famous for his association with an ill-fated attempt to make the first Dune film in 1976. It's a shame the film was never made because it would most likely have been classic 70’s cinematic madness and excess (witness Zardoz starring Sean Connery in diapers for comparison). Set to star Mick Jagger and Salvador Dali, with a Pink Floyd soundtrack and H.R. Giger and Chris Foss on deck to provide the vision and set design, you have to imagine it would have been epic.
read more comments (0)
Posted by Tim Leberecht - November 16, 2008
Now that Barack Obama has appointed YouTube as his “Secretary of Video,” as CNET comments, it raises the question what does Generation O’s new transparency mean for businesses?
read more comments (3)
Posted by Tim Leberecht - November 15, 2008
Demos, the UK-based “every democracy” think tank, is putting on an interesting event in London this week (November 18): How to make news and influence people: Media and journalism in the network age will discuss "the new politics of images" and "what kinds of news and photo-journalism are emerging to connect people with politics."
read more comments (0)
Posted by frogs on the road - November 13, 2008
Associate Creative Director Dave Hoffer has coined a new term: Disruptive Realism. After discussing some examples in this video, he was inspired to elaborate.
read more comments (4)
Posted by Adam Richardson - November 13, 2008
I’ve been mulling for a few days about writing a post about the current sorry state of the US car industry, thinking about the $25 Billion proposed “bail-out”, the crashing sales, and even the crazy proposed merger of GM and Chrysler. But Thomas Friedman at the New York Times has pretty much written it for me, so go ahead and read it.
read more comments (1)
Posted by Robert Fabricant - November 13, 2008
Perhaps the most remarkable talent that Jan Chipchase showcased in his talk last week (I promise this is my last post on the subject) was his ability to create powerful community-based organizations on the fly in some of the least likely environments - urban slums in Ghana for example. While this started out as a SWAT activity to support rapid immersion and research, with Open Studios he is making his pop-up organizations much more visible in the community (which raising some interesting branding questions which I will cover in a later post).
If you havent checked out Open Studios, the basic idea is that Chipchase and team turn their SWAT ethnography into a design lab - reaching out to the community in a very visible way to gather ideas as part of a competition. The samples he showed last week centered around a competition to design your dream mobile handset. I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the topic. Seemed like they got alot of cheesy hardware design. Jan was clear the real value was not the designs themselves, but the needs and desires implicit in those designs. But I think he may be missing an even bigger opportunity to create value.
read more comments (1)
Posted by Doreen Lorenzo - November 12, 2008
I was in China when the election was held. I live in a state that allowed early voting, so I voted a week earlier and took off to visit our Shanghai studio and Chinese clients.
read more comments (1)
Posted by Robert Fabricant - November 10, 2008
There is a long list of specific insights that Jan shared about how he 'designs' his research expeditions. These have been covered elsewhere in bits and pieces. I thought I would highlight some of my favorites:
1. Integrate Local Teams:
Most of his research involves a combination of a few nokia colleagues and a local team - that need to cross HUGE cultural and economic barriers. He placed special emphasis on the need to rapidly integrate these teams. A lot of this is motivational. He sets huge store in establishing a sense of equality from the start - everyone eats, sleeps travels in the same manner. He likes to rent houses or small hotels that the team can take over within the community. This has posed some risks on occasion, such as a recent trip to favelas in brazil. But in most cases this model seems very strong and worth applying even if you are not traveling so far. See if you can find an alternative to the embassy suites next time you are doing a set of in-homes in Omaha. Some place with some common space.
read more comments (1)
Posted by Tim Leberecht - November 9, 2008
“Motivating the committed outperforms persuading the uncommitted” (Seth Godin)
read more comments (2)
