Giant Steps

I’m working in New York this week, and was lucky enough to catch Jeff Han and Bill Buxton in conversation at the Cooper Hewitt. I know–right? What a pairing!

 
Some pieces of the conversation I wanted to share…

“I believe that, in design, you really have to understand what’s been done before…to understand not just the point you’re at, but the vector you’re on.”
– Jeff Han

“Our job is not just to make a digital analogue of a physical device. It’s to see what can really be done.”
– Jeff Han

“You can easily impedance mismatch to the customer. You have to scaffold not only up to the customer, but up to the industry.”
– Jeff Han

“I wouldn’t hire anybody that I wouldn’t work for myself.”
– Jeff Han

“The only way you can manage is if people feel that you’re not a manager but a collaborator.”
– Jeff Han

“We’re not technologists. The thing that binds (Jeff and I) is that the technology we know the most about is people.”
– Bill Buxton

“When people talk about mobility–it’s not the mobility of the device–it’s the mobility of the human.”
– Bill Buxton

“Don’t develop technologies; develop solutions.”
– Bill Buxton

“Your expertise has to be on the human side of things.”
– Bill Buxton

“Now that we can do anything, what should we do?”
– Bill Buxton

3D Printing a Building!

We seem to be moving toward being able to 3D print a full-size structure (via DVice).

As always when handworked artifacts become mechanically produced, there are impacts on jobs, crafts, culture, and the human spirit–some negative, some positive–and it’s worth thinking about the general trajectory of our species, but this is a pretty bangin’ application of 3D printing.

TEDx presenter Behrokh Khoshnevis’ presentation gets really exciting at 6:50 when he shows a actual machine building a wall and then at 9:10, when he talks about building structures on the moon!!

A momentous passing

Streetside memorial in front of Apple Store, Palo Alto, California.

In memoriam as in design life; simple and elegant. Apple Homepage announcing Steve Jobs’ passing.

Sparks

Today is going to be visual inspiration day. Enjoy…

An amazing piece of art/technology/horology — This clock by design group humans since 1982 is witty and elegant [ via likecool ]

Sketching! — Mike Rohde has put together a lovely compendium of sketching-related thoughts and resources [ via a list apart ]

I stumbled across a blog this morning with so much good stuff on it that, even though it might be slightly lame to repost several pieces from the same source, I wanted to share a few of my favorites. Definitely check out the whole blog. [ all of the following via shortbus.tumblr.com i.e. @femmmefatal ]

All you sketchers out there will like this body painting piece —

Here’s a virtual tour of the world’s art museums — The amazing Google Art Project

And finally, more proof that, with a good eye and great soundtrack, everything is interesting — A hi-def video sketch by Tom Guilmette

Sparks

A quasi-random sampling of interesting tidbits…

Seth Godin’s inspiring piece on blowing up constraints – Getting Unstuck: Solving the Perfect Problem [via Seth’s Blog]

The way to solve the perfect problem is to make it imperfect. Don’t just bend one of the constraints, eliminate it. Shut down the factory. Walk away from the job. Change your product completely. Ignore the board.

San Francisco architects blow up a constraint by mathematically rethinking the bay window – Random Acts of Architecture [via Metropolis]

The San Francisco planning code encourages Victorian bay windows, but when you look at it closely, there’s nothing that actually states that you have to create a bay window…It just describes this little chamfered envelope. In the zeitgeist that architects live in, where we’re always constrained by planning codes, we found ourselves emboldened by the realization that it could be crazy! So we deliberately misread it as a mathematical description, which allowed for infinite possibilities.

The ever-increasing hegemony of the smartphone – Bank of America & Visa test smartphone as credit card system [via Fast Company]

Amazing cylindrical dioramas from artist Anastassia Elias – See the world inside a toilet paper roll [via Likecool]

Continuum shares their creative process – Open for Branding: Design Museum Boston project [via Core77]

Shyness kills? – Research study links shyness to heart problems [via BBC News]

And finally, my favorite of the week – All Ducks are Wearing Dog Masks! – Be forewarned: you’ll never look at a duck the same way after you look at this. Ducks’ Bills: You Never Even Noticed [via i am bored]