"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

Design on the Run

The other night as I meticulously laid out my pre-race paraphernalia on the dinning room table, a familiar sensation hit me. It felt like the night before a final review or a big client presentation. 

A festive almost religious like rhythm and movement comes to mind. Picking out the right running clothes, the socks, the race number, the power gels, the good luck charms, uploading the right playlist. 

Until running my fourth big run, I never realized how much the design process and long distance running have in common. 

Pre-race layout

I always worked while listening to music, a beat to which I would carefully glue the model pieces in their right place, or hand draw the envisioned elevations. When I look at past work, I will always know which tune I was listening to at that time. Every race I go to I have a playlist ready for the rhythm needed for that part of the run, the warm up music will be different than the one for running up that very long hill. Design projects will have the same process of warming up (brainstorming, sketching, etc.), the long and tedious main course of the run (building, permits, fixing mistakes), and finally the dash to the finish line. 

Long distance running requires training and careful planning. Good design does too. I miss having that process followed to a T. The haphazard approach people have to the design process creates for a lot of contention and costly mistakes. It's almost akin to a 5K runner suddenly asked to run the Boston Marathon over night. The damage that can happen to the runner is clear. The same is true for the design process, there is a careful methodology to it, and when short cuts are made in that process, spaces seem incomplete or just don't look or feel right. 

The most successful, and rewarding projects I have been a part of, are the ones when I'm allowed in on the 'warm up' phase. From the point of helping decide which space will work better for a new office, and its growing team; to running up the hills of painful budget decision making, and exciting new spatial moments, which in my heart I know will make for the best working environment for that team. 

Office kitchen lounge in the making 

And like with running, going all the way up to the finish line, when every fiber of my being is dead-on focused on getting it done right and on time, (the counter top edges should be mitered, the layout of the flooring, and the thermostat should not be in the middle of the feature wall...) one foot after the other. 

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