Innovation in practice

Kilo fashion - Pop up store in Milan, Italy

Here is a link to a summary of all kinds of real world innovations, big and small. Don't be surprised if you find it inspiring and maybe even give you new ideas?

Read: "Innovation Extravaganza - Explore dozens of innovations and the consumer trends that spawned them"

Be Yourself

Here's a link to an article with focus on the importance of staying true to your values in a branding perspective. If you are in the position of re-building / creating brands for others make sure to listen, grasp and understand the core idea so the branding becomes a reflection of your clients values.

Read:  Hardee’s Great Rebirth: Why Being Yourself is the Greatest Ad Ever

From a beige perspective....

Blonde is the new Black

According to Carlsberg it is. A new beer with a modern and Scandinavian minimalistic design profile. This time dressed up to meet the visual demands of the female beer buyers. This reminds me of  a comment  I made in a blog post in February related to changing consumer habits and shopping patterns:

"It's going to be interesting to see the changes towards more masculine household product commercials versus more feminine high tech commercials for products like for example 3D TV and cable ads and what about more feminine beer commercials ? (I love a good beer but I never drink "Dos Equis")"  Ref: "My cart belongs to daddy?"

Carlsberg has focused on a design style similar to wine bottles to attract a design conscious audience. The design gives me additional associations to some high end water bottle brands, Bauhaus style and  1960's pharmacy labels and early days newspaper ads.

But where is the femininity ? Why have they chosen a male voice-over on the TV commercial ? - which insist natural beauty needs no makeup (absolutely fantastic! - but the well known fact is men saying this more often than women). What came first, the beer or the bottle ? (is it only skin deep) The design may be to attract women, if so with a distinct masculine embrace. 

Isolated I like the simplistic beauty of the design and another important aspect is if course to evaluate the different geographical world markets it will be introduced to. Consumer preferences in regards to design varies around the globe even under the same influence of main global fashion trends. It's going to be interesting to see if this beer brand will take a bigger sip out of the female beer market and who knows maybe the design will just as well be a hit amongst men ?  I hope Carlsberg will have success with its newcomer;a manufacturer famous for its tradition and taste in beer making. The beer will be introduced in it's homeland Denmark, then launched in northern & western Europe, following Eastern Europe and Asia during 2011 and 2012. 

Whether you're a beer drinker or not, male or female what do you think about the design ? Leave a comment!

To read more: Carlsberg crafts beer with ladies on their mind

Ratatat

I'm not the only one fascinated by patterns! The combination, or should we say utterly contrast of background and performer makes it a worthwhile treat & tweet!

Can you feel the lights ?

I can literally feel the steps in the snow and dark as this independent little girl has in the beginning of the video... without any other further interpretations.

Kanye West... so many things has been said about him and I'm not going to raise my voice in either direction. The only thing I know is that he is an innovative and creative source that has a lot to offer, first and foremost to music but also with influence on other areas.

Innovative roots

I grew up in much smaller town than Miami - but it is a city that has put innovation on it's agenda and achieved international  recognition for it's yearly conferences. If you watch and listen to the video you will learn mind-boggling  facts about the Beatles (or a music teacher, depending on your perspective).

To learn more about Innotown and the city: Innotown - Business NOT as usual

26" of persistence

 Here's a link to a story that will encourage you. 

Read: A story of Persistence

The poster below is a several layer visual, literal & symbolic definition of the theme. The main symbol origins from ancient west African Akan culture. "Wawa aba" (seed of the wawa tree) , a  seed that is extremely resistant and difficult to crack. 

The seed symbolizes strength and is meant to inspire the individual to persevere through hardship.

Maybe

Feelgood music! 

I'm Outta Time

OASIS | Myspace Music Videos

A sober and melancholy song, but the video is a beautiful black & white piece of work

Form & Functionality

Dieter Rams Sketch - 1960

This is a link to a recent interview with Dieter Rams; a pioneer designer of the 20th century. He spent 40 years with Braun developing consumer electronics. Design work that has contributed to progress and functionality with ripple effects into the computer era. He has strong opinions about the importance and role of design in regards to innovation.

Famous for his 606 shelving system created for Vitsoe in 1960 which 50 years later is still a high selling furniture system; the designer looks back and admit that he first and foremost is an architect, but not for the reasons you might think of:

Find the answer:

Our Interview With Dieter Rams, The Greatest Designer Alive

Brand building

 An interesting article about why focus and persistence are important while creating a brand and how an elevator ride may help you to get there: 

To read article: "Singularity and Consistency"

Captivating cave art

"Panel of Horses" - Chauvet Cave, France

Just the other day I received a link to a blog / website which gives insight to  archeological treasures in Europe, Russia and Australia.

It has lots of great photos and info about the findings.  You can enjoy the art and learn new and surprising facts about pre-historic times.

My link send you straight to the Chauvet cave in France where you can take a look at  incredible wallpaintings created more than 30 000 years ago. The fascinating element with these paintings is that you can feel the artists effort in trying to understand the animals physics. It is truly a study in ani-motions! From my little journey I found these other amazing photos: 

Disc of Nebra - Bronze age

To the right you see a 3 600 year old sky disc from the Bronze age; believed to have been used as an advanced astronomical clock. The design could just as well been from a present fancy product design.

Lapti - Russian bast sandals

And what about some Stone age shoe trends? These bast sandals belongs to findings in Russia and are believed to have been available
5 500 years ago.

To take the journey and be an explorer yourself, visit:

Chauvet cave w/navigation to other archeological sites

Divine disconnection

In this post you will find a link to an article about management of quality time versus staying connected.

Let's face it: Computers, cellulars and all kinds of digital gadgets are not disappearing anywhere and will keep keeping us connected until the end of time. The questions is how each one of us deals with it. Just as it is an endless resource for creativity, work and intelligence I am convinced it also leads to poor quality and execution regardless of what type of work you are doing, but some might be more vulnerable than others.

This article reminded me about something I read/heard several years ago in regards to creative work. What I read was a reference to "the flow"; a state of mind that usually kicks in let's say 10-20 minutes after you start working creatively using the left side of your brain. It is a state of mind that actually can be compared to floating. Ever been on a mattress on the ocean feeling the tranquility of the wave movements, staring into an endless sky and it's almost like time stops?  Compare it to surfing or downhill skiing, or any other activity that seem to break up your perception of time versus activity.

When you enter this floating phase it is like other elements around you disappear. You are so deep into and concentrated about what you are doing that you actually loose track of time and you do not notice well, for example if somebody is addressing you with a question. I consider myself as a pretty organized person and if I can I prefer a systematic approach to a work task rather than improvising. The kind of person that likes to systematize things, arrange a spice rack alphabetically and take a look at my watch to know how much time is left of my favorite show. But so clearly I can experience loosing track of time when hitting "the flow" and me that normally can predict well both the hour and how much time has gone by is obviously somehow a little "spaced out". In regards to the time element it was a very simple scientific explanation: Your left side brain is so involved with creative work that other parts of the brain dealing with time perception, language center etc is sort of disengaged. But why do I mention this in regards to time management ? Because "the flow" was pointed out by experts within creative industries to be an extremely important phase of any creative work. And if this is true it is a state of mind that clearly do not mingle well with staying connected.