How the Arduino will save the World
Mobile, Rebranding, Social, Uncategorized, Urban Planning
Back in the day when I was learning physical computing, I never thought about using it beyond anything but art and practical jokes, but the power to manufacture from your own hand-made prototypes and send them out as real viable products in the world, is simply amazing. This is the best type of DIY.
Hello open-source hardware with open source software on it, that anyone can do anything with. Hello creative commons licensing that gives respect to the creators with out limiting creativity from others.
“I hear the sound of a thousand business models crumbling,” says the Clive Thompson.
Why I love this article: 1) My favorite professor ever Tom Igoe is quoted in here about brands. And I love what he says, he sounds a bit like Eric Schmidt.
2) The arduino and things like this could really start a revolution in Africa, and not just mesh networks, but for seriously life enhancing communication tools.
See here:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/magazine/16-11/ff_openmanufacturing
Election Day is finally, finally here
I spent some time down at the phone banks at the Bowery Hotel calling Floridians and making sure they knew where their polling stations were and hoping they were voting for change. It was a scary experience, at times, realizing exactly how difficult it is for a democrat to get elected in this country. One man I spoke to told me he wouldn’t vote because he couldn’t read and he didn’t want to talk about it. America, you are amazing.
I’m reposting this for some election day fun:
http://www.obamashould.com/
http://hillaryshould.com/
http://www.mccainshould.com/
http://www.palinshould.com/
Downtown LA Renewal with Coles
Clients, Interactive, Social, Urban Planning, Work
I’m proud to present a project done in conjunction with Studio Number One the design studio founded by Shepard Fairey and Amanda Fairey and Use All Five http://www.useallfive.com/ for 213 Downtown http://www.213downtown.la/
Coles is Los Angeles’ very first saloon, and Cedd Moses and 213downtown have brought it back. They needed something light-hearted and viral to get Angelenos excited about it.
I pitched this Monty Pythonesque game concept to Cedd Moses, when Joan McCraw brought me along to a meeting - and it was a rare example of a project that stayed very true to its original write-up. This is a huge testament to the design skills at studio number one and the programming of use all five, as well as the clients keeping true to what they wanted.
Check it out: http://colesfrenchdip.com/
Project: Coles Launch
Team: Raina Kumra, Levi from Use all Five, the crew at Studio Number One
Role: Creative Director, Digital Consultant
The Little We Can Do
Africa, India, Lectures, Personal, Social, Thinking
Last week I attended a panel at Columbia University with Jeffrey Sachs, George Soros, and Nouriel Roubini entitled “Can We Save the World Economy?”. While that question wasn’t directly answered, Sachs did give us his usual brilliant and inspiring, Occam’s razor view of how we could save the world. I’ve heard it before, but never from him directly, that our generation can be the generation that ends poverty - permanently. This set fire to a question I’ve had lately in how, in my daily work, can I work in the dual purpose of finishing the task at hand, while looking at the bigger picture of how we can add a positive aspect to every commercial project. As a start, I joined the Designer’s Accord movement, and their social network in order to find other collaborators. I highly encourage you to join, even if you’re not a designer, because manifesto’s like this need at the very least a good base of awareness before massive change takes place. Below are some links for more info on the panel, Designer’s Accord, and another manifesto that is my favorite: Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto.
Panel information and video download
http://www.earth.columbia.edu/worldeconomy/
An Interview with Sachs
http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2005/05/jeffrey_sachs.html
An Interview with Designer’s Accord founder Valerie Casey
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/129/100000-and-counting.html
Join the Accord
http://www.designersaccord.org/
Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto.
http://www.brucemaudesign.com/incomplete_manifesto.html
Nike+ Canada
Artwork, Clients, Interactive, Mobile, Music, Rebranding, Research, Social, Video, Work
The last pitch I helped win at Wieden+Kennedy New York was the Nike Running business for Canada. The first project for this was Nike Plus. The challenge presented to us was how to make nike plus technology cool and desirable for female runners, who were typically more casual runners. The overall strategy and campaign resulted in the line ‘Plus I Run.’ I worked on the digital extensions in particular, coming up with ideas and insights for speaking to our target through Facebook, MTV.com and downloadable content through the iTunes music store. I wasn’t able to see this project through, but was quite happy to see the research and initial brainstorming had made a leap and this video was released featuring MTV Canada personality Dan Levy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnVHpqlF4_k
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