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Dreaming IKEA?

I discovered the new IKEA Dream Kitchen concept thanks to Adverblog. It's a genuinely innovative creation by leading Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors. This snapshot I captured whilst wandering through various kitchens. It looks more like a scene from an ad for Smirnoff than IKEA.

This gets the 'you must go to the website' stamp from me. The thing I love most is that the potential of online as a marketing medium is being explored. It's refreshing to see. I see too many examples of websites that look like online versions of brochures.
The IKEA dream kitchen site pulls me into and allows me to walk through it and twist and turn as I choose. It's similar to walking around in a virtual world like Second Life.

Because of this, IKEA means something more to me. I have connected with IKEA at a different emotional level. They have my attention. But I still don't like the way IKEA trap me in those humongous stores. They take hours to get through as I follow the arrows on the floor. It's like being in a maze. I feel differently about IKEA in their online world. There I'm free to explore. Perhaps the virtual world will influence the way we experience the real world?

Barking dog or barking mad?

I was doing my usual eye skim over Daily Candy and had to read this particular email twice. Was I really reading about a frozen yoghurt for dogs? As described,

'A blend of totally organic ingredients (yogurt with live cultures, bananas, peanuts, and spring water) is packaged in biodegradable cups in their New Hampshire headquarters, so you won’t feel guilty about feeding it to her'

Well of course, this isn't really targeted at the dog. Yoghund is targeted at the 'barking mad' owner who'll pay S5.99 for a tub for their adorable pooch. It's to make the owner feel like a good owner. Organic and biodegradable - what more could one want?

Plastic still intact...

I'm moving to Singapore and my partner was doing some research online looking for some short term accommodation for us to stay in when we arrive. He came across this website with serviced apartments. The picture on the rates page intrigued me. A sofa with a plastic cover. It suggests to me either the photographer was in a hurry and didn't have time to rip the plastic off or someone is genuinely trying to convey the message that it's a new sofa.

Perhaps this is best explained as cultural difference?

Defining simplicity

I've been doing some mundane web page editing recently which leaves lots of time to semi-watch and fully listen to TED talks. This morning I watched John Maeda of MIT Media Lab talk about simplicity patterns.

This slide stood out to me:

Ask any child if they want the big or small cookie and they want the big one, even if the small one has Godiva flecks of chocolate.

Ask a child whether they want the large pile of laundry to fold or the small. You guessed it, they want the small.

In other words, more is related to what we consume, less is related to work. The point that John is making is that
simplicity is about living life with more enjoyment and less pain. These are words coming from a guy who's life is surrounded by complexity living at the intersection of technology and art...and being a father to five daughters!

Intrigued? It's a great TED talk to which. John is very amusing to listen to. Listen here.

Place the camera in the hands of...

Deborah Scranton is an amazing woman. She is responsible for creating the award winning documentary 'The War Tapes'. I found out about her work via TED.

Deborah gives US soldiers in Iraq a voice - in an unusual way. She didn't go to Iraq herself and conducting interviews and recording footage. No. Instead she puts cameras in the hands of a unit of the National Guard for a year. The footage is powerful by virtue of the fact it's raw. It's honest. It's said as it is. No questions asked.

It's remarkable to observe the stark difference between the footage I see on news programmes recorded by journalists (the outsider perspective) versus the scenes I watched as part of Deborah's presentation at TED. Whether you agree with the war or not, The War Tapes gives a rare insight into the psyche of a soldier at the frontline - from the perspective of the soldier.

A powerful research technique that uses technology to allow people to tell their own stories. I would if other industries and companies could learn a lot from this e.g. place the camera in the hands of a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy for a year. What could that tell us?

Truly inspiring work. Worth watching if you can spare 17:48 mins to listen to Deborah - a woman clearly moved by what she discovered.

Lost in translation

No - not the movie. It's my reality. We've recently completely redesigned one of our websites, My Emoticons. Next step is getting the site translated into a few languages. I've tried the robotic computer translation services. My experience is a lot gets lost in translation.

The way I write for My Emoticons is quite cheeky and quirky. It's standard English with a twist. I needed someone to help with translation who 'get's it'. That is, gets the vibe and personality of My Emoticons. But my budget for translation was tiny. Really tiny.

This is where networks became really important to me. Fortunately I have quite an extensive international one. I emailed everyone I could think of to politely ask (or beg) for some help. Could they help or did they know someone?

The result. I connected with Anna in Italy who connected me with Patricia in Ecuador who connected me with Jonathan who is I don't know where. Meanwhile I connected with Rodrigo in Mexico. That's three languages out of five sorted. Phew! My Dutch friend couldn't help but emailed me a list of Danish sites that might help. That's nearly four.

Lost...and now found. If you've not read Keith Ferrazzi's book 'Never Eat Alone' it's well worth a read. It's in my top ten and has some really practical advice for building relationships. It's written by Keith, who shares his experience in an open and honest manner. He just says it as it is. It's real. That's why I like it.

Coffee stains and skylines

Thank you to Steve C for highlighting this to me. Apparently Virgin Atlantic wanted to design a series of logos to launch a 'beverage service' that would also act as logos for their beverage packs. As you might notice in the image below, there's a subtle skyline in the coffee mark.

A simple yet arguably highly effective design. My favourite thing about it is the imperfection of the design. It looks just like the coffee really has seeped into the napkin.

There's a series of logos to look at, the skyline of the city changes in each logo. The London skyline is my favourite with the big wheel. Take a look at this cached page with them on. It looks like Virgin asked for the images to be removed. Maybe they wanted it to be pre-launch secret. It's too cool to be kept secret in my opinion.

Blogging drought

I live in Noosa. Late August we experienced floods. Simultaneously I was experiencing blogger's drought. Why? I've spent a lot of time thinking about why. I had ideas but I couldn't bring myself to write.

I think I was approaching blogging with the wrong attitude. I needed some time out to do some 'attitude alteration'. To get some perspective.

Here's what was going wrong:

1. I thought a post had to wow and impress. Wrong. It just had to communicate something. Anything.
2. I thought I needed affirmation from others to blog. I wanted comments. Lots of them. Even though everything I read told me not to do this, I tripped up over my shoelace and fell over.
3. I got overwhelmed with all the conversations. I like things in neat packages and let's face it, who can really understand the overwhelming amount of conversations going on out there - somewhere? I wanted to get it all straight in my head. Simply impossible. Like a river, I just have to go with the flow and see where I end up.

So now I'll blog because I want to. Without putting pressure on myself to be perfect. Instead I'll just be. The drought is over. Lesson learnt.

A manifesto of fonts

This is an interesting take on an 'About Us' page in terms of both the language and the use of fonts. It's caught my attention and made me read on. I liked the way Chictoday share their purpose through an inspirational manifesto. The first paragraph written in an array of fonts is free from 'corporate speak' or 'business speak'. It's human and I like it (click to see the larger version unless you want an eye test).

If they'd carried this on into the second paragraph it would have been great. Then comes the...'unrivalled environment', 'compelling contents' 'stunning and elegant designs'. It's at this point I disengage. The word 'bloated' springs to mind to describe such words. They're kind of big and perhaps someone thought impressive but like a balloon, they're full of air. They don't carry weight or conviction. Same old, same old. You know what I mean? It seems to be significantly harder to stop writing crap and just say it how it is.

The Fuzzy Tail of Competence

I noticed Mr Armano presented this week on the 'Fuzzy Tail'...will this be the new 'Long Tail'? He tells me that I need to become 'fuzzy'. Mmm. Now what does that mean?

Being 'fuzzy' according to David is:

...about unlearning everything we think we know—so we can actually learn and adapt.

By chance, I was reading Seth Godin's book 'small is the new big' over a cappuccino this morning. There's a chapter titled 'Competence' which basically is saying the same thing. Seth explains that competent people resist change. He advocates that 'serial incompetents' are the best people to hire - people who are quick enough to master the task and restless enough to try something new. It's these people who don't possess the bad habits that need unlearning.

Perhaps fuzzy is best after all. Fear of change can be paralyzing - I used to avoid change or panic about it if I couldn't avoid it. But then I learnt that the world's a big place and that I'd only change the world if I embraced change and learnt to live the 'fuzzy' life. So I quit my cosy job at Microsoft and my life in Notting Hill and moved to a beach town in Australia working from home for a small internet based company. Life was very fuzzy for a time but I had much more fun. I've learnt heaps too. Much more than if I'd stayed in my cosy job and grown more competent.

Here's how I want to live. I want to let other people play in my sandbox and whilst we sit there, think outside the box.