1/3 Engineer, 1/3 Designer, 1/3 Observer, and 100% Kid at Heart
I’m sitting in a conference right now where the speaker has been talking non-stop for about 15 minutes. It is such an awful way to present your research and ideas. He’s what I’d like to call a “rambler”. No doubt that he’s great at his research, but giving a talk isn’t like doing research. Everyone in the audience isn’t an expert, so learn to use breaks and silences.
I stopped paying attention around the 2min mark, fell asleep, and just finished writing this blog.
I was browsing Amazon during my lunch break and saw the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pre-order counter nearing 600,000. What an amazing number, and I think it’s great that the Harry Potter series has been able to influence so many children (ahem… and adults) into reading. The series not only encourages reading, but it also encourages imagination and creativity through the creation and description of Harry’s magical world.
But pondering further, I can’t help but feel a bit of negativity towards the whole thing. In today’s constant messages about “going-green”, saving the earth, and cutting pollution. Printing 600,000 copies of Harry Potter just seems a bit wasteful to me. Parents will buy the book, often more than one copy per household because there are more than one kid, and then the book will sit either on the shelf or in some corner in the room collecting dust after being read once. What a waste of paper and resources.
I guess I feel the same way about books in general. I’m willing to bet that 95% of all printed books out there are sitting on someone’s shelf collecting dust. For some reason people like to collect books, maybe to show off how “smart” they are to outside visitors? What is the point of having books you’ll never read again, taking out space, and collecting dust? I understand that reference books are great to have around, so those are ok. But novels? Come on, do you really think you’ll reread your copy of Harry Potter or The Shining?
Go visit the local library… (and yes, I get 95% of my boos from the local library network)
Hello folks, just got back from a fantastic trip to NYC with a few Boston friends of mine. If I was to summarize this trip with only a few words, the words would be: fun, crazy, rain, and relaxing. I got a much needed break from the daily grind of my normal job and other freelance work.
Anyway, the reason for this blog entry was to present a design observation I encountered while in NY. My friends and I went to a place called Max Brenner, a chocolate laboratory/restaurant of impressiveness. Max takes the experience of enjoying chocolate to a level I’ve never seen or experienced elsewhere. So much thought was given to the mugs, menu layout, and everything else in between. Here are a few pictures to describe our visit and entice you into trying it out.
Here’s a custom glass with a straw hole for milk shake.
This is called a hug mug. You literally hug the mug while sipping the delicious hot coco.
Ever seen banana split like this?
And this was my personal ice cream experiment.
The little flask all the way on the left allows me to make my own chocolate coating for my ice cream. Fantastic design!!
Thought and consideration was with every part of the “dining experience”, even the delivery of the bill.
Don’t tell me you’re fine, cause it’s boring.
Many of us go through life without really knowing others. Whenever I ask someone how they’re doing, I always hate getting answered “fine”. That 4 letter word respond doesn’t really mean anything. It’s boring to tell me that you’re fine. So I would always probe for more details about their week or how that person is feeling.
From the National Geographic website, this has to be one of the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. It looks like the superman cave from old Superman movies.
Just when you think you’re pretty impressive and big…
