Losing Touch

Making coffee to a group of designers/architects always proved to be challenging. Never mind the personal taste they each had of how to drink their coffee, but you couldn't even pour it into the mugs lined up, everyone switched them up. 

It was almost ritual like -- one would come to the mugs lined up on the countertop, pick the mug up turn it 15 degrees left, then right, then look at the bottom of the mug, only then would one hold it with both hands, and if it felt like the right fit for that day -- you were able to pour the coffee into the mug. I can not make this stuff up. 

In the last few years more and more tactile biofeedback giving elements of our lives are disappearing. From the click-click-click of the typing machine to a touch screen, from turning a key to operate a car to pushing a button. It's almost like we are losing the ability to feel what we are supposed to do, that we are unlearning our brain to be able to decipher nuance of touch, a very primal part of our being. Some will claim this is part of evolution that it's not as bad as I think it is. But to me any ability we use to read our environment that is lost, is a shame. Any person who suffers from arthritis will attest that loss of sensation is almost like a phantom pain. 

Our society is suffering from this ability to feel contact. Though there are many trends of ergonomic seating, stand up desks, and special handles, they are already being built with the mindset of losing touch, not retaining it. 

In her book Sensation - the new science of physical intelligence, author Thelma Lobel describes how these moments of physical contact with everyday things, like drinking warm coffee before entering an important job interview, or switching on a light switch can trigger different sensations and spark new ideas and feelings. 

I'm not against moving forward while we make easy tabs available for toy manufacturers, but just being mindful that we also need to be conscious of the "touch free" environments we sometimes crave and create and what it must be doing to our soul. 

Time for Some Retail Therapy

"If you could be any store in the world, what store would you be?"

It's the first questions I ask first time clients when I meet them. Sounds like a silly almost juvenile type of question, right? But the response to this question loads me with so much information about a person's personal design sensibilities. Just the word IKEA evokes immediate visual and sensory reaction from any person -- the light birch color, clean lines, smell of cinnamon baked goods, bright light. 

But in the past few years or so things have shifted, it takes a person longer to respond to that question without being cynical and saying "Amazon". But that too is very telling. Our time has become a valuable commodity and between the hussle of very full and active family lives, and increasingly harder to balance work schedule -- going out shopping is not much fun anymore, where is in the past it was considered therapy. To me it feels like going into a teenagers room wanting to pick up after them.

Yes the economy was hit hard and we are in the odd in-between years of trying to marry good UX online with somewhat of a decent similar experience in brick and mortar storefronts - hey even Amazon is opening one! There is value for people to go out and shop, bump into friends, walk around and engage in different environments, while they consume more useless products. We humans need to have a purpose and meaning even if it's a simple one of getting a bar of soap. Most of us don't have a nice park or open space around us, the streets and shopping plazas become these communal arenas. 

Yet we are greeted with visual cacophony, most of it following "design rules" that pre-date the immediate click-of-the-button-swipe-of the-fingerprint era -- Loud music, harsh smells, disorienting product placements, bright lights, low or no-inventory that can easily be found online, a tired salesperson, long lines to pay or return items. Most of these stores are run down, people who work there are annoyed and tired because of entitled "let's just scan this items" consumers. The whole shopping experience has been reduced to that moment of email confirmation of "your item is on it's way". 

It's no secret these retailers are struggling, closing down stores leaving gaping holes in shopping malls, street plazas, and city centers. Which in turn leave us with almost ghost like places. Retailers have yet to make the adjustment to this new world of shopping experience, it's almost like they are at a loss and have given up completely. Like all of us in these odd and fickle economic times they too need to rethink cost-per-sqft or ROI -- yet we humans are not only the sum of that. And our reaction to the lack of seeing us as human in need of contact, efficient, pleasant places to be and interact in is that of that going online. 

Smaller more humanly accessible stores, where one can see the end of it, where there is some inkling experience that makes us pause, smile and give us a meaningful break in our day will go a long way in improving retailer's bottom line and user experience. I want to go back in time to the feeling of excitement I had at the end of the 90's start of 2000's when I pounded the streets of downtown trying to find the next big WOW moment that was supplied by exciting store designs that even the biggest names in architecture at the time were not ashamed to be part of. 
We all lose when a layer of our needs is taken away, and another human factor is lost into the efficient sterile cyber zone. 

"Calling Elvis, is anybody home?"*

When was the last time you actually had a conversation with someone? Face to face, or on the phone? I don't seem to remember when this has happened to me last, but it seems that in the rush of life, we've stopped talking, and started communicating through text messaging of any kind, emoticons, and links to the latest TED Talk, but I miss listening to peoples voices. The warmth of the tone of voice is lost, which we try to make up for using silly emojis. 

Some may argue that with these communications tools the revival of the lost art of writing has come back, but has it? A few months ago I had the pleasure of listening to Israeli typographer Oded Ezer, at MassArt, in Boston. Ezer had provocatively stated that text is dead, and we are headed to a place where people will end up communicating with images, photos, and videos. I have to admit this kind of freaks me out. I love text, I use it to help me think, I use it in my design work. Text, is a powerful tool of communication, but so is the lost art of talking to each other, interrupting each other, yelling, and whispering a lovely good night. We lose the ability to be compassionate when we don't hear the tone of voice. 

In the past I have wrote about how the challenges of an open space concept in an office environment created this muted existence within the space. But the actual silence is misleading as there is a lot of online and virtual chatter. I'm not against online or virtual communication, I like using social media, and acknowledge its value (as I tell my 6 year old son, not everything needs to be said out loud). I just wonder what this does to the culture of a company, the casual "water cooler" conversation where people would physically move from their desks, and seek out other people to exchange some ideas, have real eye contact, measure and learn peoples expressions, and interact with the whole complex package of what we call human beings. Office spaces are losing these interaction spaces not only because of the price per SQFT, but also because they are not used as much. We need these interaction spaces, people forget to look up from the screen and just say hello.  

What does it do to our society as a whole, how much disconnect is created through these seemingly amazing tools of communications, how have we become these machine like responders to beeps and vibrations?
How our articulate kids are losing the ability to carry a non scripted conversation. 
I think we need to call Elvis... 

*Lyrics by Dire Straits

Happy Medium

There is no bigger evil in the world of the over achieving, insta-go-getting, facebook high rollers, than the word m-e-d-i-u-m. It's this stuck in the middle, static, neither here nor there option in life. It's not the cream of the crop, or the lowest of the low. A mentality of 'I'd rather miserably fail than be defined as mediocre'. No wonder there is the known phenomena of the "mid-life crisis". There is no sex appeal in middle. 

The pink logo creates a surprise in a 

well balanced space 

Or is there? 

It seems that humans have developed this odd, almost counter intuitive knack, to push boundaries, which is completely against any natural instinct. Nature always wishes to balance, to reach equilibrium. We as humans want for some unknown reason to defy that force of nature. We sleep less than we need to, we eat more than we should, we work longer hours, and in general don't really take very good care of ourselves and our environments. 

As a designer I like to keep things off balance, surprise the user of the space. I'll use bold colors where you won't necessary expect them. I'll align certain things that will keep you on your toes. But it's a delicate process that can't be done on a whim. These mis-alignments can only be done right when you have a balanced and clear idea, and when there is a solid anchor you can play off of. Otherwise it creates clutter, uneasiness and in general a feeling things were not thought out properly. So there is, you see, a certain method to the design madness. 

That is why a Happy Medium is one of the most critical things in our daily lives, and is one
of the hardest things to come by. (Ask any GC trying to level floors inside old homes). We need the temperature of the HVAC to be almost exactly the same in our work environments. Lighting and its brightness need to be precise. The height of our kitchen countertops is meticulously measured. 

The seemingly cluttered and uneven photo alignment is 

made possible due the well balanced and centered table

& mirror. 

The length and height of stair risers. All of which are meticulous averages, which years of usage in the world have managed to come by. These "lowly" mediums are the anchors of our day to day life, the blocks from which we are allowed to soar to different places. In my view "Average" should be proclaimed as a new goal, a place we all should aspire to reach, a balance that redefines our center lines, and alignments. A Happy Medium. 

One for the team!

Last week I happened to listen to a piece on the radio about the decline of team sports in America. As a mother of 3 kids, 2 of which are part of team sports, it got my attention. Aside from all the back and forth about costs, lack of interest of the kids, helicopter parenting, etc. It got me thinking that in fact there might be a greater issue at hand, something that I worry about. I fear that there is a 'flattening' of our society to what the Blue Man Group calls the 2 and 1/2 dimension.

 

As a society at this point I find we lack rigor and will to make that extra effort. Most of us will admit we do not wish to spend the effort or time driving kids to god forsaken places to get ice-time or pool time, it requires effort, planning ahead, and yes dealing with an uncomfortable option your kid may lose. We want things to be happy, crisp, clean and so very easy, which is kind of like flat coke. 

This lack of rigor, commitment and effort hold true in many fields nowadays, the one in particular I'm concerned about is the area of design. Things look very easy on HGTV and it's off shoots, places like communal painter spots which allow us all to be Picasso for a night, easy measuring apps, 9 minute pasta dishes, easy 1 click furniture shopping, you name it. We are all short for time and by way of that we forget to stop and dig deeper into things, investigate them a little, expand our knowledge, and do some of the 'dirty' redundant work that is required. 

About 6 years ago, the Tate Modern in London held a special exhibition to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of its building. I have an affinity to this building, and greatly admire the Swiss architects, Herzog De Meuron who designed it. So my disappointment when I saw the turbine hall exhibitors, was huge. Here there was a once in a life time opportunity to articulate a thoughtful artistic display, and what it ended up being was a sad display of our declining culture. The exhibitors themselves were busy on their phones/computers "connecting" via social media. They forgot to connect their display to the building or the viewers who came to experience it, it felt haphazard, and not very well put together. 

But why do these things rub me the wrong way so much? Is there a connection between the lack of rigor and discipline to poor design choices? Maybe yes, maybe no. What I do know though is that good design requires attention to details not only to plans, flashy 3D models, but also to people and their behavior, culture and language. Good design can be full of humor and thoughtful when there is an investment in liberal arts and history education, not just when it comes from a DIY kit. 

Design is a language and as one who is bilingual, and studied a third - I can earnestly say that is requires rigor, and hard work, skills that in essence can be learned while doing team sports. 

No Name *

Branding // 
(as noun branding) The promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design. 
Seems like everywhere you turn around these days one is expected to brand themselves, their work place, their product, you name it. That elusive quality that will distinguish them ahead of the pack, any pack. Starts from your web site landing page, Facebook page, twitter account, tumbler feed - you name it, you'll need to brand it. Better yet tie it all into THE brand. 

But you see good branding is hard to achieve these days, it requires something most of us don't possess - patience. In this fast track world of FB, snap-chat, insta tumbling sound bites it seems that no one is free from creating their own brand. A "brand" represents quality, identity, a vision of sorts if you will. Maintaining ones brand has become such an important asset, because we live in such a fast paced #imoutofthegame world. This branding process so precisely captured in Ecclesiastes (7:1)  'A good name is better than precious ointment' . 

A good brand will be created over time. This is where it gets tricky, especially, in the world of start-up companies who are by definition are required to move in an almost counterintuitive way of branding - most are required to break/invent a mold while maintaining a facade of 'respectability' as they are accounted for the funding they have recently secured.

Now imagine what it is to design these spaces? Where the unknown needs to be translated into literally brick and mortar. Where there is no clear brand or identity, yet the one thing that is expected, aside from keeping it all within a tight budget, is creating a space that will represent the company and the brand it hopes to stand for. It's a huge privilege and responsibility to be part of that process.

*No Name brand 

Blank Space

This weekend I was at a Taylor Swift concert in a massive football stadium. And at the risk pitting the world of 'Swifters' against me, I'm going to be forward and say it was just OK, if not border line boring and uninspiring. So much so that even my 9y, who has waited since February (her birthday gift), asked to leave the place about an 45min after Ms. Swift made her way on stage.

That to me was very telling and made me think why was it just an OK concert. Why wasn't I moved by this talented, and in my view, extremely intelligent woman. Everything was OK the lighting, the weather, the audience... Everything was pleasant and comfortable so numbingly comfortable. It was right out plain and boring like a slice of white bread. And that worries me, the kind of worry I lose sleep over.

Years ago I worked at a lighting design firm in Tel-Aviv. It was an extremely unique opportunity to hone and deepen my design skills. I worked with many light fixture manufacturers from around the world. On very rare occasions I would specify American fixtures, it had nothing to do with voltage differences, it had to do with the fixtures themselves. They were OK, they were functional, and of high quality, but they were not interesting, they did not move me emotionally or tell a story through their design. Like Taylor Swift, they too were making me feel numb.

This is why I worry, I worry because people like TS have a huge impact (Swift vs. Apple corporation, anyone?), the trickle down effect of her incredible abilities were reduced so much in the concert I attended, it felt I went to see a totally different singer than I expected. But TS's concert to me is only one symptom of how our culture is been driven into this Hunger Games numbing spiral of sorts. From quick fix reality TV shows, easy on the eye FB profile photos, to very pleasant concerts, who leave no actual mark inside our souls.

And it's an issue, because the great cultural legacy we will leave behind, might turn out to be very
dull and uninspiring. Which in turn will make our society very beige and lackluster.

For the sake of my 9y and her two other siblings I want to deepen the cultural legacy, so that their wings can spread wider. I want them to learn how to push the envelope, set out from the comfort of the box and get a little uncomfortable, so they too will better understand how to create, how to solve problems on their own not according to templet, so they won't grow to be culturally and emotionally numb. So they won't end up in a blank space. 

Why Design Matters

MFA exhibit  a visual story of culture through design

I once got into a heated argument about an author, and his choice to write, what can be described as easy summer reading. His books are good, fast paced and huge crowd pleasers, but something lacks in his writing. The way I see it is, a well educated man decided to take all his knowledge, along side his linguistic skills, and serve the most diluted form of these to his readers. Till this day any form of diluted creation rubs me a little the wrong way.

Recently a big phone manufacture came out with an "all-you-can-think-off" watch. Aside from the technological aspects, again I had that uneasy feeling of something lacking. It felt that even though probably a lot of hours had been spent on making this watch, the intricate history of watch manufacturing and design was sidelined and somewhat ignored. The watch who has come out of a ground breaking company that holds steady at the front of the design world, feels like the diluted from of all of these. In fact most of the wearable technology lack in the departments of creativity and design, or are just plain ugly, geared mainly to a specific target audience, but we now know they won't be the only ones wearing these.

Why am I getting so worked up about this? As a designer I feel we all carry some visual and culture responsibly for our surroundings, especially ground breaking manufactures. If a manufacture that size comes out with a device that is so plain looking so far removed from the look and feel of a well crafted watch, the rest will follow that same diluted down version of a watch. Which in turn leaves us with design reductionism all around us. Same as the famous google landing page that has dictated a certain "look and feel" for web interface, these new wearable devices create a visually dull environment.

So what? you say. But in an era where never before again people around the world across any social-economic background have access to mobile phones, wearable devices, and easy read books, our culture and history gets diluted. As people with access to higher education it is our responsibility to demand higher design be available for all, further democratizing access to good design, which tells the story of cultures and the history of people in a visually cohesive and responsible manner. I refuse to live in a world of shrunk down versions of rectangles on my wrist or of bleak looking landing pages, I don't want it to define the rich culture I come from, I don't want my kids to grow up in a diluted version of the world.

Identity Theft

There is something unsettling about it, a sense of violation. Then there is the understanding that not much can be done about it. And no, it's not the sincerest form of flattery. Yes I'm talking about people copying and using your design without permission, and with no proper compensation. It's a hard enough profession than to go out and try and get that compensation. Like in many artistic / creative areas the ease at which people shamelessly take what you have worked so hard to create, is hard to enforce. There is yet the iTunes for the design world.

The first time I encountered this blunt "copy-paste" approach was in an open shopping center. I was driving by when something caught my eye. It was the logo of the store front I immediately recognized, only to see the interior was bluntly and crudely pasted from the first, and only store I designed for that brand. In an effort to maintain their brand identity, the store owner stole mine. You see, and this is hard to explain to people outside creative professions, the design process folds in it a lot of who the designer is. It's a process of trial and error, a delicate dance of listening to the wants and needs of the person in front of you, and actualizing them. So when you see that delicate process slapped on, as if no thought has been given to it, it kind of stings.

Some may argue that all designers are thieves among themselves too. There is some truism to it, we all get inspired by the world around us, which happens to have some incredible designers too. The huge difference would be that, designers will "quote" certain aspects to re-enforce their own design. Same as a researcher will quote an article that cements it's hypnosis. With many design apps, design shows, and design magazines it's easy to see why people feel that the designer can be cut out of their process. Which in some cases, and I'll be first to admit, is the right thing to do.

This weekend I was at a 2 hour styling talk. The stylist explained in detail her styling philosophy
teaching people the types of prints, textures, shapes that would work with different body types. It was fascinating for me as a designer to see how people reacted to such a process. But at the end of the day most only wanted to know where each specific shirt was bought at what store. These are natural questions, I deal with similar questions (about sofas, rugs, light fixtures and etc.). I realized that no matter how hard we will try and get the same items, it'll be hard to pull-off that effortless look that was just shown to us.

Design literacy take both time and experience to create that un-known factor of look and feel that make spaces unique, and make people safe and happy in. It's a process that builds an identity to things and office culture to small companies, it's too important to just be "copy-pasted".

The First Impression is the Deepest

First impressions are lasting impressions, this usually is said, in reference to meeting new people. The same holds true to spaces people walk into. The psychology and research behind this tenth of a second moment are extensive and interesting to read about. Our conceptions (misconceptions), primal thoughts, fears, judgment are all in hyper-mode when we first encounter a person or space.

When I first walk to meet a client, usually at their home or office, I pause just a few seconds before I enter. And after adjusting the sunglasses over my head, I'll take a deep breath and walk into the space - trying to make the most of the that tiny instinctual first impression moment. That moment to me packs a powerful tool I draw upon time and time again throughout the whole design process. It's an authentic rare and fragile moment, and trying to re-create or change that moment, especially for small businesses, is a challenging process. That first impression usually sets the expectation and mode of the encounter. Same as people put effort into the suit they will be wearing the morning of a job interview, that same care and effort should be taken into creating that fist impression moment of entry to a space. But most of us neglect that unique and one of a kind transitional entry space (be honest now - how does your home or office entryway look like?). It's usually  last on my client's list to invest in, especially at an age where having a reception area is becoming more more obsolete. Herein there lies the biggest mistake I feel many do.

Stop for a moment and think about any event you walk into. Break it down to every millisecond you were there - were you hot or cold, did anyone greet you, how did the space smell, was the light bright or dim, were you able to orient yourself easily, was the ceiling high or low, was there anything that caught your eye, how was the sound around you, was it crowded, were you able to find a place you'd feel comfortable standing in. The reason I ask you to break down that first impression feeling at an event, is because when entering one, we come geared up to absorb these details. Now ask these questions about how you feel when you first walk into a job interview at your future company. Try and notice what are the first things you see/feel/smell/touch. I urge many clients to put some effort into that space (a good example of grand scale entry spaces are hotel lobbies).

The best first impression masters I can think of is actually the Catholic church. Any big cathedral will have the same sort of look and feel to it (brand and corporate identity reenforced by design); A grand entryway, then as you walk through the door the ceiling above you is lowered to create intimacy or make you feel small and meek as your eyes are automatically drawn ahead of you, where the ceiling is an unimaginable hight, and a clear line of vision is set to the one of the most recognizable icons in the world. A perfectly orchestrated  first impression delivery. 

Think about your brand-identity, or as it's now being called, company culture, not only in terms of web presence, letter heads, cool lounge areas, and logos. Think about the message you'd like to convey in that fleeting precious first impression moment.