dutch broadcaster ‘vpro’ is renowned for being a staunch supoorter of the arts and have always featured great design on the cover of their weekly TV guide, you have until the 1st of july to vote for your favourite from a selection of the best ones (dutch only)
i’ve been (very kindly) invited to attend the much talked about two-day design seminar ‘what design can do’ this coming thursday & friday in amsterdam’s stadsschouwburg, the event promises a broad range of speakers on a variety of topics and has ambitions to be about achieving results: not just discussing and showing what the effect of design can be in society but to actually provide useable examples from brainstorm sessions and workshops during the event, we shall see whether this actually transpires but the intention is certainly laudable, as is the fact that busy working designers like richard & pepijn from the ‘designpolitie’ have even initiated the whole event, whilst running their own practice… if only more of us put this much energy back into the dialogue about the future of our own profession…
my personal favourites for the two day event are both british and from very differing backgrounds and generations, although i hope equally as interesting to hear: the experienced wisdom of michael wolff and the eclectic curiosity of daniel eatock, however if previous events are anything to go by, the unknown names could well be the real source of surprise and inspiration… the event also mysteriously promises to release a book (made on the fly) which will be released in a fashion that ‘will stir the world’… promises, promises… see you all on thursday morning maybe?
…good comedians experiment constantly. Every time they test a new joke, they risk bombing. That’s why they’ll try out new material in smaller venues, polishing pieces in front of live audiences: they need to hear what’s working and what’s not working. Seinfeld admits that when he was starting out, “I was hitting 500. I would have a good show and a bad show, a good show and a bad show.” His very first show was bad. “But success wasn’t my objective.” He was desperate to simply be on stage, and was willing to risk failure every other night to get there. Designers take risks for the same reasons. Trying something new means not being sure of the outcome. But it’s the only way that anyone working in a creative field can hope to make progress. Ambition is a strong enough antidote to fear…
seven things that designers can learn from stand-up comedians, according to ‘michael bierut’ on design observer
a new app from al gore, that gets a rave review from coolhunting, i downloaded it this week and it is indeed worth a look… erm read…