This caught my eye today, sitting outside the office for a break. I was amazed to see that the happy-no-worry-kid was riding a beautifully designed bike :) I’d sure love to see more smart design like this in Bucharest every day.
Food for thought‘[...] do not think that good design can make a poor product good, whether the product be a machine, a building, a promotional brochure or a business man. But [...] good design can materially help make a good product reach its full potential. In short, [...] good design is good business.’
Thomas J. Watson Jr., IBM CEO
Thomas J. Watson Jr., IBM CEO
Rollin’
August 30, 2007, 5:41 PMWhy chinese will rule the world…
July 29, 2007, 6:27 PMSimply because they invented Tangram. I first found out about Tangram when I was an art student, and I’ve been fascinated by it’s complexity, achieved with such simple pieces. Apparently it originated from yanjitu, a furniture set from the Song Dinasty. It pleased me greatly when I first saw this:
It’s made by Daniele Lago and I’d love to have one. Actually I like it so much that I think I’ll make one for my living room :) (can’t afford to order one, these designer-furniture things cost a lot but can’t blame them). Be sure to check the site for other great designs.
“Part-time friend”
, 5:50 PMRemember “Tyler, you are by far the most interesting single-serving friend I’ve ever met…” ? Here’s a hint (like you needed one – but since I’m a “visual” person, here’s the pic to set the mood :P):
Nowadays we have the “part-time friend”.
It works great, you don’t have to do much, you need a basic internet connection and a messenger, forum, mirc, hub account or the like. What to talk about ? Doesn’t matter. By the way, have you seen the latest Harry Potter movie ? Yeah, thought of going too, just didn’t have who to go with. So, what’s up ?
It never ceases to puzzle me how easily (compared to “face-to-face encounters”) it is to talk with people you’ve never seen or seen once at most. Everybody obviously has the same need of relating, of communicating, but it seems everybody preffers to do it sitting comfy in their armchair in front of the pc/apple/phone (or maybe iPhones, ya maniacs :P – there’s no telling what people use nowadays to stay online – might as well be the fridge).
It’s interesting how detailed and spontaneous some discussions get, you begin to talk with the other person like you’ve known each other for quite some time, and when you get to really find some things you’re both interested in or have similar ideas, wow. Magic. What is really interesting however is what happens after (it’s sometimes something like “the morning after” feeling, after a one night stand). Everything returns to normal, casual hellos, how-are-yous, let’s-see-who’s-onlines. Till the next time something out of the blue happens again, I don’t know, stars aligning maybe, and you are old friends once more :). This is why it’s a “part-time” friend, since it’s not “once-on-a-plane” thing.
Sad thing is that in time you begin to get online just so you won’t feel lonely, even if you don’t talk to anyone. Knowing that you’re “connected” makes you feel good, just knowing that there is a possibility of talking with someone. It’s so easy to see why MMORPGs are so successful, everyone wants to be sorrounded by people. Even if they have pointy ears (I wonder if racial discrimination will develop in WoW :))). These days small children have blogs, as Andressa writes. It’s just a matter of time until we’ll all be plugged in 24/7.
Or maybe we’ll become something like Asimov’s Solaria, a planet inhabited by human colonists that resent phisical contact so mauch that their society only functions through holographic viewing of the others and, after many millennia of isolation, they have evolved into hermaphrodites, able to procreate by themselves.
But maybe beer will save us from damnation :)) If you ever need one reason to go “close and personal”, beer is the way. You can never fail with a good pint. After all, beer has been helping us make friends since the 7th century BC (wiki),
or as it is said, “in vino veritas, in cervesio felicitas”.
Cheers!
P.S. Did I mention that beer also improves the creative process ? :D
Ratatouille – a delicious movie
July 8, 2007, 4:04 AMSometimes I think that kids these days don’t have “the magic” we used to have some good years ago. It’s true they have tons of games, internet, information, etcetera etcetera but most of these are just “quantity” instead of “quality”. Some gems appear from time to time, but few manage to give the “timeless masterpiece” or “true soul enchanter” feeling. And even among these, most of them are retellings of old wonderful stories we used to read at our grandparents’.
Ratatouillle (also highly rated here) is by all means a “feast” for the soul. Pixar has what it takes when it comes to technique, but even they don’t always hit the right recipe (can’t help the puns, sorry :P). Cars, for example, was far from great, good, but never great. Incredibles was loads of fun, but all based on reinterpreting comics and action-movies cliches. Bug’s life.. Woody Allen is a genius, can’t beat that.
And here comes Ratatouille. It looks jaw-dropping, sounds excellent, but the story.. the characters.. That’s where it truly is wonderful. The expressions, the looks, the tiny gestures, the nods, sighs, grimaces, they all make you believe, absorb, watch in awe as Remy’s wonderful universe engulfs you. Every single character is a joy to watch, you can’t help laughing heartily, the voices are perfect (funny thing to see who the people actually are, you get the feeling that they are just some people voiced by Remy and the other characters). Peter O’Toole as Ego has one of the best “villain-esque” characters ever, reminding a lot of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas :) and having one of the best scenes in the movie, the Marcel Proust’s madeleine effect.
This movie will surely earn itself an Oscar, and if it doesn’t then it will either be beaten by another “chef d’oeuvre” or it will be one of the worst cases of Academy forgeries and set-ups :P
In the end, this is what kids nowadays have, gems that are not only on the pages of a book, but right in front of their very eyes, moving, breathing, living by themselves. And just like all truly wonderful stories, Ratatouille manages to enchant anyone, from kid to grown-up.
Wasn’t gonna talk about it…
July 7, 2007, 12:30 PM…but surfing through Flickr I came to see this, fotos from the Apple store on the day the iPhone was launched. I know Apple has some of the most fanatic adepts, it can probably compete islamism when it comes to it’s followers’ dedication :P
Here is the first guy who bought the gadget. How can an object inspire so much joy, excitement? Even kids are less enthusiastic sometimes. Beeing sort of a tech geek myself, I know that getting some new aparatus will have its highs, but this seems just way out of normality. Or something like that. It reminds me of the Mr. Bean gag when he comes in the morning and pops the balloons he used to give the impression he was sleeping first in line at a new store :)
It’s sad when things get to own us, instead of the other way around. It would be nice if we had a Tyler Durden to burn our material chains from time to time and wake us up to reality :) Just let go?…
The good, the bad and the Apple design…
May 11, 2007, 2:23 AM
Last year I came to Bucharest (largest in Romania) because I wanted more than any other large Romanian cities could offer for my career. The first thing I remember seeing on my first day was the new iMac on my desk. After admiring it’s design, it’s compactness, it’s coolness, it’s look-at-me-I’ve-got-no-towercase, I started mumbling and cursing, since I had never used a Mac before. It took me a week or so to get used to it, but more than one year after that, even though I’ve learnt to love many of its features, I’m still not convinced Apple is “the way”, contrary to what most of my fellow creatives think.
Funny thing is, while reading this article from Design Observer, I’ve started thinking that Apple is becoming more and more like the Big Brother they pretended to defeat in their 1984-ad. Or like some sort of a Microsoft 2.0 (everything nowadays has to be web 2.0, right ?), one greedy corporation trying to take over the world market, this time in the name of great design and user friendliness.
I’m all for great design, but sometimes only one type of “great design” might be bad design. “Or to put it another way, if you round too many corners, you lose your edge.” (Design Observer)
or maybe “one Apple to rule them all” ?
Later edit: another funny article about macs vs pc on the best page in the universe :P (via studioprimer)
On the (steel) road
May 5, 2007, 12:07 PMI love those hills that spread through all Transilvanian landscape. If I miss something from my time living in Cluj it’s definitely the ability to look almost anywhere at the city’s skyline and see the surrounding hills, knowing that at anytime I can get my bike and go riding through the forests and bumpy roads. Nowadays Bucharest’s urban jungle will have to do…
In the meanwhile, Cluj is changing (finally, after 12 years of beeing held back by its previous mayor Funar). The center of the city is mostly ditches, but by the autumn it will have a completly new Eroilor Street. The left side in this following picture will be a huge sidewalk, with statues, fountains and (I hope) lots of trees.
Banksy tends to be overrun by his own self-developing brand
May 4, 2007, 12:46 PMBanksy’s name has clearly grown beyond the real person. I wonder how many copycats he has, or when some big corporation will eventually sell Banksy-related stuff (I bet Banksy himself has been offered this kind of deal already).
This stencil however manages to say it all (I still remember the cover on Adbusters, one of my early contacts with “guerrilla” art):
Original image from here.
Keep it real folks!
April 8, 2007, 6:39 PMLast Sunday (after mindlessly playing jade Empire for almost 24 hours) I decided to take my broken geekish shell of a human outside for a little sun bathe, to recharge my batteries and rest my eyes. Since I live near City Mall I thought at first to go on a short walk till the Progresul Market to see if I can still get a few apples (sunday, 4 ‘o clock, you’d wish :P). Of course there was nobody there, but since it was all nice and sunny and I’ve been way too stuck in my chair at home, I decided to go on and meet my neighbourhood.
Two words: veeeeeery educative.
Looking at my lifestyle and especially my colleagues’ habits I realised that people working in advertising, the ones responsible for making all of us loosen our purse eventually, tend to loose it by far. I was amazed at many not-so important details at first. For once, I never knew people can build their own balconies on blocks that were never meant to have such things. It was fascinating to see what normal people do, people that have a normal, most of the time boring badly-paid job etc. The smells, the music, the voices, their faces, it was all like a new city for me. It’s fascinating how easily it is to just walk 2 or 3 km away from the central areas in Bucharest and feel as if you’ve arrived in a whole different town, with different customs, people and so on.
It’s so easy to become as if from another planet. Too bad we work most of the time thinking that we know what most people think, when in reality we are just as far from the truth just as anybody else, caught up in our techie slangs, jokes and stories. Who are we working for in the end ? Not for them, that would be a lie. For the customers ? But they are even farther from reality than us, creatives. In the end, what is our purpose? But the ethics of our job is a very delicate subject, one that is better left alone.
Final advice: take a walk, go a little farther from in front of your home shop, look carefully and you’ll see something different. THAT is just a small piece of the real world. Enjoy it’s complexity.
Hope I’ll be able to take a few photos of those fascinating balconies :)
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