Last: March 2004
Next: May 2004
April 14, 2004
knock down furniture
The Observer this week had a great interview with Terence Conran and Tom Dixon. For all the sins of Conran's restaurants, Habitat was one of the most influential stores in the 60s and 70s. Tom Dixon is the current design director, well respected, and guiding the product ranges under the influence of Habitat's current owners, Ikea.
Conran: 'Most of us had this Bauhaus idea in our heads that if something was intelligently designed and priced at a price that most people could afford, they might like it and buy it. It was always a price thing, because designed things at that stage were very expensive, mainly because they were sold in very small quantities, so what I was trying to do was say: look at this, if you like it, well you can afford it, too.'
Dixon: 'You always talk about design but what I find distinctive is almost everything else - whether it's fine cigars or food or art or Provence or whatever. Your distinction is the love of everything that is non-design, and the fact that you apply that to manufacturing and wood and all of the stuff that surrounds it, which makes your take on design more interesting as a result, because it's about how you use those things in what you do.'
'I always think you would be much better off being young in Silicon Valley now because that's where the creativity is happening, rather than being in a sector that hasn't seen a great deal of innovation since that time, since the arrival of plastics.'
The talk about Ikea is great - contrasting retail styles of low-cost against value-for-money. Dixon sticks up for Ikea's method ('joy through pain'), but I think it's telling when the local store starts advertising like this:
Does Ikea have the same reputation all over the world? I don't know, but us Brits don't get online ordering, mainly I think because it would be too popular.
The promise is more tills and no queues. Hold them to it.
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April 06, 2004
brain redux
I've just spent an hour or two converting my link list to delicious. It wasn't hard (most of the time was wrangling css), and offers a lot of benefits compared to rolling your own system.
OK, I took the plunge because my old blog-style link list was annoying Joshua, delicious' creator, but at least that meant any fixes were quickly handled ;)
Have a play, tell me what you think.
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April 05, 2004
mental threat level green
Being an interaction designer (or experience designer or...), one key diagram you wheel out to explain how people work is Maslow's hierarchy of human needs. It defines 4 levels of potential deficiency - one you are satiated in one, you start worrying about the next - and a 5th state whereby you can find self-fulfillment.
For reasons best forgotten, I thought it corresponded well to the Homeland Security infostyle.
I'm reading Status Anxiety at the moment, which operates mainly in the Esteem area (mental threat level blue), but also posits that the worry of the potential to lose the lower levels makes us have extra worry about our esteem.
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April 04, 2004
cheese season
His eyes darted from the stack of round spruce boxes, to the price label, and back again. His face portrayed a mix of puzzlement, fear, and furtive luck.
My appearance and thoughts mirrored his exactly.
Why? Why was this cheese suspiciously cheap?
The cheese in question was Vacherin Mont d'Or, and it turned out that this was the last week of the season.
SPECIAL 3.50 said the sign.
"Is the cheese still good?", we asked; a sample was proffered. I ran my finger down the knife, scooping the runny cheese into my mouth. Yes, this was good. This is one of the greatest pleasures in life.
Whilst you could theoretically buy a piece off a large wheel, the key to this cheese is to buy a whole one, in its spruce box. This can then be baked, creating a decent hearty supper.
I added plain and toasted chunks of a light sourdough bread (OK, it's not Polaine, but this meal is about the cheese, not the bread), roasted garlic cloves, and some vinegared shallots, braised in red wine and cooked until some turned slightly cripsy.
(Of course, the cheese diaries have covered Vacherin before)
