Inherently Good Design... on the road!

window to the world?

Moving house...

Rain Drops Water Harvesting offers Way to Reuse PET Bottles - Tap It Talk

sustainable design favourites

Step one - how to pack a flat

I have been thinking...

think - think - think

What happens in Vegas...

Finding the balance...

Ash clouds and airplanes...

Jonathan Klein: Photos that changed the world

A little help on how to write a mission statement!

Huge Glacier Breaks Apart In Peru, Triggering Andes Tsunami (VIDEO)

Paradise Recycled: Architects Dream of Turning Great Pacific Garbage Patch Into Habitable Island

Are you interested in learning about your mind?

Age Concern - Design Week - 14th April 2010

Graphic Design Forum Competition!

Amazing dew-covered insects images!

A new balance - all about Design Salaries

First-class solutions for real-world problems

Folding plug concept wins 2010 Brit Insurance Awards

What's the Square Root of Sustainability? This Coke Bottle

Jane Chen: A warm embrace that saves lives

Small can be an advantage!

Sustainability taken one step too far!

Design is Hope!

Welcome to a new decade!

Merry Christmas and all the best for 2010!

Turquoise is 2010 colour of the year

Franziska Conrad Design

Competitve Product Design

Freelance fees in the UK

My feet don't touch the ground!

I'm back!

Life is great!

From Kansas to Canada, eh?

On the Road Part I

eday in Kansas City

What is design?

An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth - Part 1

San Francisco

The 'NOVEL'-flu as it's called in the EU

From lemon folders to mirror eggs...

Biomimicry and Costa Rica

Pura Vida!

Music, food and company

New Orleans

Bruce Mau

Greener by Design Critique

Multicolr - check it out!

INHERENTLY GOOD AND CLEVER!

I'm going to Costa Rica!

Dodge for a Cause

Congratulations!

Biomimicry

BIOMIMICRY

Women in design

Willo-weeks

Will o’ the Willōughby

Climate Change Challenge

A little piece on daylight savings time!

Tornado Alley

Fitting in vs. Standing out - from Seth's Blog this morning...

Core77 Events until July 2009

Design Thinking and Innovation - Part I

Willoughby Design

San Francisco, Boston and what I am taking away from it!

I had an epiphany!

Presentation Blues!

Hallmark Holiday Weekend in Kansas City

2011-11-23T18:19:00.002-06:00

This space was supposed to be our window to the world but due to internet issues all the way around OZ it hasn't really happened.

Our 3 months here are coming to an end and we can can report that it has been incredible, we have seen and experienced so many things we didn't even think were possible. It has been enlightening, humbling, exciting, amazing and even a little bit scary at times but was worth every minute. Instead of posting here on a regular basis we went back to basics and wrote a travel diary, so later on this year I will try and post a few of our better stories here.

Our next step is NZ, we're flying out in a few days and are positively excited!

2011-08-02T05:23:00.002-05:00

So - apparently moving house is the most stressful thing one can put oneself through.

It's done - we're out, hoping that our deposit will be back in our account by the end of the week, we're down to travel bags, laptops and a bag of travel guides, magazines and books to read before we hop on the plane at the end of this month.

Hong Kong is going to have us for 2 days first - can't wait to set foot into Asia - never been that way. A friend who grew up there has been compiling lists of things to eat and places to visit while we're there. Feel free to add to that list if you can think of a MUST DO thing for Hong Kong!

2011-07-19T12:26:00.002-05:00

Rain Drops Water Harvesting offers Way to Reuse PET Bottles - Tap It Talk

2011-07-19T12:13:00.003-05:00

Hi - I'm working my way through 'product design in the sustainable era' at the moment - here a couple of things that stuck out...

Raindrop - by Studio Bas van der Veer

The Pure Raindrop is a rain barrel that makes saving water really easy by providing a watering can that fills up automatically when it rains. This way, the user doesn't have to fill the can with our precious tap water, but uses 'free' rainwater instead.

2011-07-19T03:32:00.005-05:00

I came home last night to find my bed stacked up in bits in the bedroom and we're sleeping on the floor, great! Camping is the word of the day. My desk has moved into the lounge as if by magic, unfortunately all the paperwork on it too. Doh! The hall is full of crates for the next car boot sale and there is absolutely nothing in the kitchen cupboards.

The count down is on - we're moving out at the end of the month and are heading down south, way down... Australia and NZ are calling and I'm anxiously awaiting the big trip. We're scouting, so to speak, trying to figure out if a move down there would suit us, is feasible and where on Earth we would like to be!

Big steps, big boxes, mountains of paperwork, even longer lists than usual, leaving BBQ's, pot-noodles and anxious debates about what to do next, which car to buy, where exactly are the long lost 2nd cousins based, how warm is the water, a jelly fish is called a stinger and is it really true that they have sea shells in Australia that can kill you? Things like 'do we want to live next to a volcano' and 'yes, we know there are earthquakes in NZ' come up more and more often. Tempting fate or being the master of my own destiny...

We shall see!

2010-11-11T11:09:00.002-06:00

... a lot recently. Winter is upon us, less time outside having fun, more time inside, dealing with all the things that had to wait over the summer months - like deep meaningful thoughts!

What I'm trying to figure out at the moment is 'AM I DOING THE RIGHT THING?'

For some reason life seems to become a lot more complicated as soon as it starts getting dark at 4pm. I'm wondering about all sorts of things, grown-up stuff and can't figured out what triggered it all - other than obviously blaming the change of season for it! I wonder if blaming the weather is really going to help or if I should just get on with the thinking in order to get on with the doing.

I gave a lecture today, about myself and how I have become the person I am. I think it went down well but doing this always puts me on the spot. It raises the scariest of scary questions - 'AND NOW WHAT?' - In the feedback form someone suggested that the lecture could be improved by telling them more about my design process. This made me smile, because at the moment I really don't have one! I have started TALKING about designing more and more recently and I'm not actually DOING any design-work.

Dilemma - really, because I would really like to spend my days fiddling with ideas and concepts, I would like to solve problems and create good design. And when should I get started if not now?

So - I think I have to stop hiding behind the day to day stuff and just get on with creating things. Sounds easy, especially if you are a creative person with a busy mind... But OH NO - there is always something else to do that is just a little more important or can't wait! A good friend diagnosed my problem not so long ago - she says I have 'Designersblock'! Seeing this word written down makes me smile, this autumn at the London Design Festival, the most impressive show in my opinion was the 'Designersblock'. So I guess the time has come to drop the excuses and let my 'Designersblock'-experience help me out with my very own 'Designersblock'!

2010-10-15T10:34:00.005-05:00

I found out the other day that I'm 82% artist and 18% designer - I wasn't all that surprised! What's not entirely clear at this point in time is whether or not this is a good or a bad thing! This summer has been a special one - very business heavy (hard work for the artist!) - a lot of thinking, analysing and decision making.

Where am I at now - who knows!

I have a list of 8 things I want to achieve in life and business in the next 10 years, currently I think that's a great start. I really like running my own business and I want to be involved in the creation of good design.

I have started developing a new business structure and a new business ID - to be revealed soon.

Endless conversations with great friends, family and inspiring collegues have lead to some major plans for the next 12 months - again - these are not quite ready to be shared just yet.

My involvement with Bournemouth University has grown over the last couple of months, I have been allocated a bunch of final year Product Design students to supervise, a load of lectures is ready to be shared with 1st and final year students at the School for Design, Engineering and Computing and in February I'll be teaching a 36 hr unit in Competitive Product Development within DEC's Design Masters Framework.

The Quick Pitch project is still alive and well and there are some new ideas being nurtured as we speak.

2010-07-23T17:24:00.004-05:00

News-flash!!!

I have been invited to Vegas to spend a week with a great bunch of people who have the vision to make things better!

The plan is to create a place where ideas come true, businesses are build, entrepreneurs are born and nurtured, academics and non-academics share their ideas and work spaces - the future is bright!

I am very excited and can't wait to get my teeth into this project - all I have to decide is whether or not I'm ready to grow up a little bit and move on from my beautiful graduate life to something that is just so much more!!!

Viva Las Vegas - watch this space!

2010-04-21T04:08:00.004-05:00

Spring has finally reached the south coast, I have a patio and soil at my disposal for the first time since I left my parents house.

My neighbour from up-stairs - Audry - had a good look around my newly discovered gardening efforts yesterday - I made her day! Made mine too - my back aches but everything seems to be growing like crazy.

I've got some colour on my face, my nails won't clean up, I guess I have to invest in a nail brush...

All I'm trying to say is that I seem to be having the time of my life digging around in my little garden... but there is work waiting to be done indoors - and I'm not talking about the hoover!

I have stuff to do - need to prep lectures, finish off some drawings, do some reading and even a little writing... Having the sun shining into the bedroom at 7 am is a gift from the gods - just got to get myself to leave it for a day or two now and get on with the stuff that pays the bills!

How DO you find the balance???

2010-04-21T03:56:00.004-05:00

“Airplanes are a means of ignoring the spaces in between your point of origin and your destination. By contrast, a surface journey allows you to look out on those spaces — at eye level and on a human scale, not peering down through breaks in the clouds from 35,000 feet above — from the observation car of a rolling train or the deck of a gently bobbing ship. Surface transport can be contemplative, picturesque and even enchanting in a way that air travel never will be.”

— “Escape From the Jet Age”
NY Times Op Ed

2010-04-14T12:35:00.000-05:00

2010-04-14T10:46:00.002-05:00

2010-04-14T10:22:00.001-05:00

2010-04-14T10:02:00.002-05:00

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a jumble of plastic trash that spans hundreds of miles northwest of Hawaii, has gotten lots of attention ever since billionaire adventurer and environmentalist David de Rothschild announced his plans to visit the trash mass on the Plastiki, a boat constructed from recycled waste and webs of plastic. Now the Plastiki has launched, and a group of architects from Rotterdam have already come up with another way to draw attention to the plastic gyre: a Hawaii-sized island made entirely out of recycled plastic.

Read full article at Fastcomany!

2010-04-14T09:15:00.003-05:00

That was one of the questions a lady in a flowery raincoat asked me yesterday after stopping me in town. It was a sunny, hence I was prepared to answer 3 questions 'quickly'.

So - if I could be anything I wanted to be - what would it be? In terms of work - I ask. Yes! Oh - I am what I want to be, I say. I'm a designer. Pause... Quick note on her clip-board. Then she asks me what I would change about myself if I could - I relpy - nothing. She raises her eye-brows at me. And finally - if you could have anything you wanted - what would it be? An island - I reply.

By then she is slightly frustrated but asks me to come and have a proper mini-mind test. I'm curious now and follow her up-stairs into a room full of - guess what - Dianetics books by a certain Mr. Hubbard. No mention of Scientology so far - she hands me a little card with a load of mind-altering bla bla on it and wants to know if I'm interested in learning more about my mind... sure I am - see what she can show me in 10 mins I don't know yet!

Holding 2 metal bits the size of the card-board inside of a toilet-paper role and answering a load of the same questions as before she evalutes the state of my mind. After wasting 10 mins of her time by turning out to be the happiest level-headed 30-something female she picked up that day, I walk back out into the sunshine. My faith in the decisions I have made restored, thankful for the great opportunities I have had so far and glad that life has dealt me such a great hand!

She steps back into the street to her spot in the shade to speak to more sun-struck 30-somethings on their way to the beach. Oh - and the fact that they were recruiting new Scientology members was not mentioned once...

2010-04-14T09:08:00.002-05:00

In this weeks Design Week:

Design for an older generation opens a whole world of new opportunities to designers, design thinkers and inventors.

'Considering the National Statistics Office predicts that by 2033 23 per cent of the UK population will be 65 and over and there will 3.2m people over 85, there will soon be plenty of opportunity for UK designers to create similar practical and possibly film-inspired mobility vehicles. Anyone for a pensioner’s Batmobile?'

2010-04-13T05:15:00.001-05:00

STAR PRIZE:
(1x) Adobe CS5 Premium Edition (worth in excess of £1500 approx)
(Design, Web or Production for Mac or PC – your choice)
Kindly supplied by Adobe UK

RUNNER UP PRIZES:
(1x) Pantone Color Cue® 2.1 (worth in excess of £330 approx)
(Capture colour in seconds with this electronic, portable Pantone Colour Library)
Kindly supplied by Pantone UK

(1x) 5,000 A6 Flyers or Business Cards
(Printed full colour 2 sides onto 300gsm gloss/400gsm silk, artwork to be supplied as press ready PDF's)
Kindly supplied by online printer Stationery Direct - Print Reseller Scheme

(2x) Design Week Magazine Subscriptions (worth £85 each approx)
(One of the UK's leading Design Magazines, featuring all aspects of design, 12 month subscription)
Kindly supplied by Design Week

(3x) Pantone Coated GoeGuides™ (worth in excess of £70 each approx)
(Select, specify and communicate the 2,058 new solid colours with a Pantone GoeGuide™)
Kindly supplied by Pantone UK

(2x) Creative Review Website Subscriptions (worth £64 each approx)
(One of the UK's leading Design Websites, featuring all aspects of design, 12 month subscription)
Kindly supplied by Creative Review

(10x) Pantone Tea/Coffee Mugs
(Sip your hot drink in style with a colourful Pantone Mug, a must for design geeks!)
Kindly supplied by London Graphic Centre

HOW TO ENTER?
Simples, all you have to do is link to this competition or our forum from somewhere online.

Be it a mention of the competition on your blog, twitter, another forum, or a direct link to the main forum from the friends section (or similar) of your blog/website...anywhere online that people will see it really. You must ensure that you link directly to the competition thread or to the forum itself...

2010-04-02T04:59:00.003-05:00

2010-03-31T07:28:00.004-05:00

Rattled by the recession over the past year, many in the industry have had to reduce their expectations and reassess their objectives. Anna Richardson unpacks this emerging sense of realism on the cusp of a tentative upturn. Research by Suzanne Hinchliffe
Great read - gives you an idea of where you are at in terms of negotiating you salary, especially useful if you just graduated!

Design Week, 18 March 2010: http://www.designweek.co.uk/a-new-balance/3011294.article

2010-03-31T07:10:00.004-05:00

How do designers strike the balance between a product benefiting the environment and pleasing the customer enough to be bought?

Great article this one and there is a lot more to read about service design under: http://www.guardian.co.uk/service-design

2010-03-31T05:58:00.006-05:00

Amazing design - caught my eye last year at some point - so easy, so practical, the entire plug system should be changed ASAP!

Congratultations - Min-Kyu Choi’s folding plug design has won the Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2010 award.

2010-03-31T05:52:00.003-05:00

Debatable product as it is but never the less a great approach to more sustainablity for Coca-Cola.

Check out the link to the Fastcompany article.

2010-03-07T06:35:00.001-06:00

2010-02-19T10:05:00.001-06:00

From Design Week's Business Insight, January 28th, 2010

Read the article under: http://www.designweek.co.uk/small-can-be-an-advantage/3009203.article

TOP TIPS FOR STAYING ALIVE

Do everything you can to improve your skills and experience levels. See if a creative director of a bigger consultancy will take you under their wing in a mentoring capacity
Talk to people. It’s amazing how word-of-mouth recommendation can generate work
Respect your superiors. Don’t speak badly of other consultancies. Look up to everyone
Be professional from the outset, even if working for friends
Smile when you answer the phone
Work hard

2010-02-03T04:40:00.004-06:00

This is a piece about completely missing the point in terms of sustainable design!

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/design-crime-flat-pack-treehouse

2010-02-01T12:59:00.003-06:00

I'm just dealing with a mountain of information that piled up on my desk - Design Weeks dating back to October, Icon, Newspapers... It's quite nice to cross-read and discover - I'm checking stuff on the net and ind this way of gathering information liberating.

Anyway - long story cut short - with myself being a designer who has drifted into all sorts of areas over the last few years, all seems to be re-connecting with design eventually. And it's true - Innovation, Creativity, the need to explore and question is deeply rooted within each and everyone of us.

Here is a link to a great article from one of last Decembers Design Week issues:

http://www.designweek.co.uk/design-is-hope/3007188.article

Enjoy!

2010-01-04T18:02:00.002-06:00

I just can't get my head around time at the moment. We have moved to a new decade, just like that... The pile of paper on my desk that wants reading doesn't really care about these little changes, but my mind is spinning!

I have 2 days left before heading off to South Africa to spend some time with my family. i have marked all assignments my course in November resulted in and have prepped my students as much as I could for their exam. I'm trying to catch up with my reading, piles of Design Week from November and December, I'm half way through 'Change by Design' by Tim Brown and have a whole load of other very interesting books waiting in line.

I'm trying to get focused more on sustainability and the fact that this is what I really want to do... It's so easy to get distracted, especially when you are surrounded by people who all seem to think that they know what you should be doing...

2010 - I can feel some pretty major decisions coming up... I just had an interesting letter in the post the other day. It came from Montana - had my handwriting on the front and was indeed written by me to myself. Last April, when I was about to return to KC from an incredible week of Biomimicry in Costa Rica.

The essence of the letter - I'm heading in the right direction but I'm still too distracted - focus is needed and I have every intention of getting focused this year.

Bring on 2010, bring on new adventures, new people and new places!

2009-12-23T07:53:00.004-06:00

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten and a happy and successful 2010!

2009-12-08T07:42:00.002-06:00

Check it out!

2009-10-07T05:53:00.003-05:00

You might have realised, the title of this little blog has changed. It's now the Franziska Conrad Design Blog.

I have been really pushing myself into getting more of a hang on running my own business, my website has just been up-dated over the last 2 days and more up-dates are to come.

Work is good - Gelert designs are still going strong and new designs are in the making,

I have taken on some teaching responsibilities at Bournemouth University and the prep for that has brought me back into design thinking and innovation and I guess I will gevive the research I started in this area at the beginning of this year whilst working in Kansas City.

So keep an eye on the blog and on the site - I'm sure I will come across really interesting subjects over the next few weeks that are well worth sharing!

2009-10-07T05:45:00.002-05:00

I'm preparing a 36 hr lecture week at the moment for 10 Master students at Bournemouth University. The unit is supposed to be teaching them the 'ins and outs' of Competitive Product Development.

Its really interesting and I'm learning a lot myself here - Innovation, Design, Marketing, Economics...

Foudn a really interestin talk by Tom Kelley of IDEO on Innovation - have a listen!

Young at Heart: How to Be an Innovator for Life

2009-09-21T05:47:00.002-05:00

Morning, just a little bit of information here in terms of freelance fees for designers in the UK during these interesting financial times. Know yourselves out... http://www.designweek.co.uk/up-skill-battle/3004482.article

2009-09-15T03:19:00.003-05:00

Just a quick note for anybody who is following this - there will be more going on here as soon as I get my head around reading and experiencing stuff again.

The days are currently dedicated to catching up with 8 months of not being here... It's great - loads to do, new home, new job, quite a bit of design work, thinking seriously about setting up shop, looking at funding, VAT registration, taxes - loving it ;-)

Later!

2009-08-26T06:58:00.005-05:00

Here it goes, we are back - the time in North America is up and reality has finally caught up with me again.

I had an amazing time since January, learned so much and I am thankful for the opportunity.

I had the privilege to work and travel across America - what an amazing country, and despite all previous thoughts - I will definitely go back!

Has it changed me? No - but I think I have grown up a little more.

Justin and I have tied the knot on the way, so since 2nd July 2009 I'm no Miss anymore! It's been a great decision and is all part of the growing up process I guess!

Back here in the UK I have jumped right back into the deep end - the tent is still going strong and is in need of more designs, I have taken on a teaching position at Bournemouth University and will be teaching there in November and I am working on making the construct design concultancy reality...

2009-07-17T20:02:00.004-05:00

I would class myself as a lucky person, for the last 4 weeks I have been crossing mountains and deserts, have been hot, cold, wet, scared and delighted.

I have broadened my horizon, connected with people and found more evidence that the world actually is a village!

I have slept in forests, at rest-stops, on beaches and campsites. My hip hurts and may hair definitely needs a magician, my feet are never clean and I have given up trying to keep pine needles out of the tent.

For the first time in years I actually have a tan - yeah!

I have been reading and writing, thinking about the future and planning ahead - the idea of a life back in the UK is slowly taking shape.

I have been blessed with a great traveling companion who makes me laugh, has been doing most of the driving, taught me how to play Cribbage and to top it all off, can cook!

I'm thankful for this experience, for the places we have visited together, the moments we have shared and will probably talk about for the rest of our lives... I guess I am a lucky person for getting the chance to experience all this!

2009-07-17T19:54:00.006-05:00

I’m rolling along Highway 19 on Vancouver Island, it’s Monday afternoon and our next destination is Qualicum Beach. The weather hasn’t been very summery for the last week or so but I guess that’s what you get for heading so far up north.

So, since I finished in Kansas City 4 weeks ago a lot has happened. Jay and I have been exploring the USA and Canada by car – 7000 km so far and it has been spectacular.

We started our road trip on the 25^th June from at the Blue Bruno Ranch in Garden City Missouri. From there we rolled all the way across Kansas, through the Flint Hills and into endless farmlands with broken aircon at 40 degrees Celsius. Madness – the only excitement was yet another enormous lightning storm.

We reached Denver, Colorado at midnight and eventually stopped for the night near the motorway half-way up the Rocky Mountains.

The drive through Colorado was short and sweet – it rained and so we decided to move on to Utah as quickly as possible.

The right decision – the weather started to improve and the landscape was magical – high desert, red rocks, canyons and the occasional glimpse at the Colorado River winding its way down to Mexico. We stopped in Moab, Utah for 3 days. Moab is a really chilled out little town in the Moab Valley tucked away between the Arches National Park and The Canyonlands National Park.

In Moab we went Skydiving – mind-altering, to say the least – 30 seconds of free-falling at 120mi/hr – I don’t think I have ever been so scared in my life!

From Moab we headed further South Bryce Canyon and to Zion National Park – by far our most favourite spot in the world so far. You are walking at the bottom of steep canyons formed of red sand stone and silt. Awe inspiring... It is hot and dry down there – a great climate. We camped right in the park next to the virgin river which turned out to be really refreshing after a long days hiking.

From Zion we drove down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and it really is a case of you have t see it to be able to fathom the size of that great big hole in the ground. It was so high I even got a little vertigo thrown in for free. There was no camping there other than in the wilderness, which we are neither equipped nor educated for. So we decided to drive across the desert to Las Vegas.

It was like driving through an oven – miles and miles of canyons and plains and the temperature kept going up. Unbelievable! We arrived in Vegas at mid-night and booked into the first hotel we came across – the Main Street Station Hotel in Downtown Vegas. $40 a night – bargain! All in all Vegas is a very bizarre place – fake, air-conditioned, noisy and smelly is it stretching through the desert at 45 degrees Celsius. There are so many people – after our days in the parks it was a bit of a culture shock t say the least.

From Vegas we covered a few hundred miles in a day – we headed across to California through a lightning storm and torrential rain in the desert. The rest of the trip was hot and sticky, leading us through the Mojave desert into California’s dust bowl, an agricultural area producing fruit and vegetables as well as meat. An incredible sight – a plume of dust and stink created by millions of cattle standing in dust – no grass, nothing just feeding pens. Makes you want to ditch meat forever.

We reached San Francisco just before midnight, crossed the Bay Bridge from Oakland and then the Golden Gate, which was not hidden in fog for the first time!

We took Highway 1 and wound our way along the coast for another hour or so – then stopped for the night at a campsite and slept in the car. The temperature at this point had dropped considerably and used to the desert heat by now we ended up shivering through the night!

California and Oregon kind of blended in with each other – we were hoping for a clear day by the coast but it was covered by a thick blanket of fog that did not seem to be moving. 4 miles in land – up in the mountains and the forests summer was still present. So we ended up exploring most of the Redwood national parks and camped up there through the 4^th of July celebrations – no fireworks in the trees.

The next big adventure was drive up to Mount St Helens, by then we had reached Washington State. It was a rainy day and not exactly warm but still, the scenery is unreal and majestic and one can only imagine the force it took to blow that mountain open. Nearly 30 years later the area still looks barren and rough.

Our next stop turned out to be a tiny community at the Olympic coast, Kalaloch. Here, we rented a cabin for the night, sleep in a bed, dry out a little, have a shower. The Olympic peninsula is majestic, covered with thick rainforest and surrounded almost entirely by water and rough coast-line it is an amazing place to spend time. We explored Hoh rainforest and camped for 2 days in Sol Duc State Park near natural hot springs in the rainforest.

Past Lake Crescent and into Port Angeles was our last leg of the journey in the USA. Here we spend the night at a small RV site, washed our clothes, dried out the tent and the bedding, cleaned up and prepared the car for the border crossing into Canada.

On Friday last week – 10^th July 2009 – we took the ferry from Part Angeles to Victoria on Vancouver Island. We got stopped in customs – obviously – in our little Hippie van but eventually made it across the border and to a small campsite just outside of Victoria.

Today is Tuesday, 14^th July 2009, we have explored the West coast trail, spend a day in Victoria – what a beautiful city, camped in Goldstream Provincial Park and reached Qualicum Beach yesterday. The weather is still over-cast and fresh and for Tofino the forecast is grim – so we are not sure if we’ll actually make it all the way over there. It’s quite the drive along a windy road, we shall see, it’s still early.

We will be on the ferry to Vancouver by tomorrow I should think and then plan on heading across BC to Kimberley for Steve’s and Ally’s wedding on the 25^th July. Still plenty of time and loads of places to see – can’t wait!

2009-06-20T09:07:00.005-05:00

Hello there - here is a short up-date on my where-abouts for the next few weeks.

I have finished my scholarship time in Kansas City and have embarked on a tour round the USA with Justin.

Our first stop was a small town called Cedar Point in Kansas. We went there to be part of the amazing the Symphony in the Flint Hills. We spent the weekend camped out in the Tall Grass Prairie, listening to the Kansas City Symphony play beautiful music and we learned about the land and the people. We camped under the Milky Way in wonder of the vastness of the land and the sparkling display of the fireflies across the hills.

Next stop was the Blue Bruno Ranch in Missouri which belongs to Photographer James Lightfoot and his wife Kimberley. 2 days of bliss surrounded by horses, dogs and all sorts of wild-life. Jim took some amazing pictures of us. We were introduced to friends and taken care off by the Lightfoots, who fed us and gave us a space in their house.

Currently we are on Sanibel Island in Florida. Driving through the scariest thunderstorm I have ever experienced we did get to the airport in Kansas City early on Tuesday morning. It's Saturday now and we have been having a wonderful time with Sam, Andrea and Jazz and a bunch of new friends on Sanibel, in the beautiful blue wooden house close to the blinding white beach. The water is warm and we nearly swam with dolphins yesterday.

Next stop is Kansas City from where we will be heading out on our 8000 km trip through Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington State and British Columbia. Lets hope that our wagon will be able to make it all the way.

2009-05-15T10:03:00.003-05:00

I had the privilege to take part in 'eday' organised by the entrepreneurial exchange here in Kansas City. The group brings together 'Legends of Local Business'.

It started off with an evening event on Wednesday, where I had the pleasure to listen to Bob Bernstein of Bernstein-Rein, Barnett Helzberg of Helzberg Jewelers and Neal Patterson of Cerner Corporation tell their story. All of them gave useful advice and great insights in the running of their empires, their convictions and attitudes and goals in life.

Thursday started off with a panel discussion on branding - up on stage were Joe Bisogno, Gail Worth and Bryan Caton, all Kansas City entrepreneurs. It was good to see that all 3 had come from non academic backgrounds and managed to build really successful businesses. Even though very informative the attitudes displayed were quite disturbing from a European point of view.

Joe Bisogno started the day by saying: "If you are in business to help people - shoot yourself!!" - very up-lifting start to the day.

The rest of the day was informative and presented itself with a broad selection of local entrepreneurs, who all had achieved great things and made a name for themselves - locally and internationally.

The Keynote by Guy Kawasaki was inspiring and all i had hoped for - just for that is was worth being there!

What did I take away from the event?

01) Make Meaning...
02) All generalizations are wrong - even this one!
03) Let 100 flowers blossom!
04) Follow the 10-20-30 rule (10 slides - 20mins - 30 point font size)
05) Don't let the BOZOS grind you down!
06) It has never been cheaper to start a company!
07) Use TWITTER as direct marketing tool!
08) Don't be scared of credit cards!
09) Treat people like human beings!
10) Don't take your landlord to court!

2009-05-12T14:42:00.002-05:00

2009-05-12T14:12:00.008-05:00

Written in 1998, the Incomplete Manifesto is an articulation of statements exemplifying Bruce Mau’s beliefs, strategies and motivations. Collectively, they are how we approach every project.

Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
Forget about good. Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good you'll never have real growth.
Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.
Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.
Go deep. The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.
Capture accidents. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.
Study. A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.
Drift. Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.
Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.
Everyone is a leader. Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.
Harvest ideas. Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.
Keep moving. The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.
Slow down. Desynchronize from standard time frames and surprising opportunities may present themselves.
Don’t be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.
Ask stupid questions. Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

2009-05-11T09:55:00.007-05:00

San Francsico in May - one should think great time of the year to head down there! I had a great time, even though the weather was changeable and Golden Gate Bride hid in the fog again.

I went to San Fran with Ann Willoughby to meet with a number of interesting people and get to know the city a little better.

I had the privilege of staying with Ann's daughter Amanda and her house mate Anna - thanks again for that!

San Fran has a great vibe and amazing charm - even on a cloudy day in May - I have fallen in love with the steep hills, the unique houses, the people and of cause the presence of water!

I have made connections with some amazing people and I hope that we'll be able to stay in touch and in case of some start great things together.

To give a little over-view:

I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Mendelsohn, CEO of New Leaf Paper - an environmentally friendly paper company. We have been cooking up some new ideas related to my tent and I hope we'll be able to go through with that ASAP.

Nathan Shedroff had time to meet with us. Author of the 2009 book 'Design is the Problem' and chair of the MBA Design Strategy Program at California College of the Arts (CCA) he was an invaluble source of information on sustainability and business and I am looking forward to meeting him again in June.

Valerie Casey, founder of the Designers Accord (a 150000 member global coalition of designers, educators, researchers, engineers, and corporate leaders, working together to create positive environmental and social impact) managed to find some time for us in her busy schedule. Meeting Valerie was a real eye-opener and I very much hope that I will be able to maintain regular contact with her too. She is also head of digital exprience at IDEO in San Francsico, a design professor at CCA and mother of nearly 4 year old twins. Talk about a busy day!

All in all the 5 days in the Bay Area have had a great impact on me. I can see that the path I have chosen is leading somewhere and that there are many great people out there ready to exchange information, bounce ideas and make the world a better place... So, let's get on with it!

2009-04-30T15:49:00.004-05:00

Ok - I don't know what to think about all this...

... and I'm glad that I don't watch TV. The world has gone mad - or at least the media has.

I'm going to San Francisco on Saturday - by plane obviously - so I'm really confused about masks and gloves and should or shouldn't I go...

Vice president Biden told everybody in the US this morning to stay at home, face masks are selling out, I don't know if people have started panic buying yet.

'Television - drug of the nation, breeding ignorance and feeding radiation.'

But it's working - I'm insecure, wondering whether or not I should cancel my trip or even go and mix with people for the foreseeable future. All it takes is someone telling me that it really gets hold of people in their 20s and 30s. That we had too many antibiotics with our milk and our meat. And I don't even watch TV!

And then there is Nostradamus, Hollywood and the likes of 'Outbreak', 'The Stand' and 'I am Legend'.

We shall see... I just hope that it all boils down to mass-hysteria!

2009-04-30T14:05:00.003-05:00

Nobody understands me!

This is not only because I learned posh English in the UK, it has something to do with my underlaying German-ness and the fact that my co-workers thoroughly enjoy picking on me :-)

So here I am in the American Mid-west, drinking tea, not coffee... surrounded by mainly Mid-westerners who, 9 out of 10 times, haven't got the slightest idea of what I'm on about.

I didn't want to go out for lunch the other day, so I said:'I'll give it a miss!' Little did I know that this is an expression only used in the UK. For the rest of the day we did some cultural merging by trying to integrate that little sentence into our day to day Kansas City conversations. It was very funny and no - the guys and girls in the office didn't manage to get it right once. We had:'Fran is having a miss.' and other adjusted versions of the same kind.

Since a few weeks Nate greets me by saying 'CHEERS' when he walks into the room and I have tried to explain to him several times that, no matter how English his accent is, it still means 'THANKS' not 'HELLO'...

When I say my name - Franziska - it is automatically turned into Francesca and when I try to avoid that by saying 'I'm Fran', people stare at me blankly and then ask:'FRIEND?' No win situation!! I should change my name to Susan!

I say WATER not WADER and ask for a lift home. I talk about the length of the queue in the supermarket and put my bag in the boot of the car, not the trunk! Oh yes - and the engine is under the hood over here not the bonnet - what do I know???

The bottom line is, we are really having a whale of a time here and getting your knickers in a twist about this language thing would be a complete waste of time... happy learning!

2009-04-29T20:17:00.004-05:00

I have been trying to get the 10 days I spent in Costa Rica condensed into a few explaining lines and into a digestible slideshow for non-biomimicry related people.

This is turning out to be an impossible task.

I flew to San Jose, Costa Rica and the from there in a tiny plane run by Nature Air to Palmar Sur on the South Pacific coast. From there a bus took us - a group of 20 designers, biologists, scientists and engineers - to La Cusinga. The eco-lodge is perched at the edge of the Pacific enclosed by Rainforest and endless wildlife.

We spent 7 days observing the abundance of nature unfolding around us. I always thought that I was quite connected to nature but this trip has shown how much closer you can get using all your senses, observing but also smelling, touching and more than anything else, listening!

The workshop was organised by the Biomimicry Guild (www.biomimicry.net), a for profit organisation founded by Janine Benyus, author of BIOMIMICRY and Dr. Dayna Baumeister. We had the pleasure to have 4 amazing educators ‘infecting’ us with Biomimicry around the clock, thanks for a life changing experience Dayna, Karen, Megan and Chris (our local Costa Rican).

The bottom line is that I loved the area we were in, I really like the climate. The biodiversity is indescribable, the smells, the sounds, the light, the darkness – it’s fascinating and holds solutions to all our design challenges. We just have to look closely!

The hike in the Paramo at over 3500 meters was probably most inspiring to me in terms of textures, colours, systems and design solutions for housing, flooring and insulation.

I can’t wait to apply what I have learned!

Speaking to other Biomimicry ‘graduates’ resonates in the same way – everybody is buzzing, we can’t be out there anymore without applying live’s principles, looking for the deep principles of the organism or eco-system and comparing society’s every move to nature...

Infected – for life with life! I’ll see where that is going to take me, I can see it being an incredibly interesting and rewarding journey. Inherently good design is what I was aiming for – now I have the tools to incorporate 3.8 billion years of research and development into that process. That’s such great news!

Good luck to all of us who have taken on the challenge of making the world a better place for future generations and hopefully ourselves as well.

Pura Vida!!

2009-04-27T11:15:00.003-05:00

I'm back - it was a sublime experience - Costa Rica is one amazing place to go to and study design inspired by nature!

Watch this spot for some more information over the next few days!

2009-04-13T18:28:00.003-05:00

Just a note to all of you who have not been to New Orleans or NOLA as Greg lovingly calls her - I had an amzing time this weekend. My friend Joe showed me the city from his perspective, up-close and personal! All I can say is 'Thanks' Joe - it has been epic!
From Crawfish Boils (3 of them!!!) to dancing in the streets - we did it all!

Definite go on New Orleans - if you like food, drink, dancing and 84 F in April, go visit!

2009-04-09T12:03:00.003-05:00

Just a quick up-date:

I'm off to New Orleans tomorrow for the weekend... Really looking forward to that.

I'll immerse myself in culture, food and people - I hope!

I'll be staying with Joe Marin, he is a product designer and has lived in New Orleans almost all his life. I'm privileged to get to see the city through his eyes!

Can't wait - will tell you all about here next week!

Happy Easter!

2009-04-09T11:29:00.006-05:00

I went to Bruce Mau's talk last night. It was organised by The Commons at the University of Kansas.

It turned out to be another moment of clarity, I'm definitely heading into the right direction with everything i have in mind for the future, for my business venture and for life in general.

I hope to get to meet Bruce soon, I'm working on a paper that tries to pull design thinking, sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation together and show that they are all intertwined and supporting each other on the way to change or MASSIVE CHANGE as Bruce promotes it.

Find out more about Bruce Mau, there is Buce Mau Design, then there is his book titled 'Massive Change: The Future of Design and Life on Earth', the Massive Change centers all over the US, the Institute without Boundaries - http://www.institutewithoutboundaries.com/ and the amazing 2010 Denver Biennial project.

I'm hooked - found another direction to head into - there are so many at the moment, so many things to explore, books to read and steps to take - it's exciting, mind-boggling, exhilarating and a little bit scary. But again - I know I'm on the right track!

2009-04-08T13:25:00.004-05:00

I just need to get this out in the open - will only be a moment!

So - there are conferences all over the world discussing SUSTAINABILITY, eco-design, Green design etc. Many of them happening here in the US, where I'm currently residing...

I keep finding these amazing sounding weekends - with great subjects and inspiring keynote speakers. Then I get to the price and have to abandon yet another conference and chance to learn about my field due to lack of funds!

Greener by Design 2009 is happening again in San Francisco in the middle of May. The charge for 2 days is $2000!!!

No discounts for students or start-ups - and these guys are going to talk about Sustainability...

Honestly - I don't think that this approach is very sustainable! Those who need to learn won't or can't be there due to the price-tag and those who are going to be there are those who are always there! Not moving forward much in terms of sustainability if this is the way it's approached - you have to be privileged to learn about it - isn't that why we are in such a mess already?!?

Give the next generation of designers a chance and open your doors to them, catch their interest, make a competition out of it! Let us explain why we think we should be there and you decide if we are engaged and interested enough to be there but don't just block us out by making these events so unrealistically expensive...

2009-04-07T08:55:00.006-05:00

Multicolr is a Flikr search engine. You can chose up to 0 colours to search for a particular image. Amazing!

2009-04-05T21:53:00.010-05:00

INHERENTLY GOOD AND CLEVER!

This is my mantra – I read the ‘Finale’ case study, listened to Guy Kawasaki and worked my way through the executive summary of the business plan.

I’m glad to hear that ‘Finale’ is still in business and hope that John will take some time to try their deserts.

I think I have made clear over the last few weeks what I think about business plans. I have spoken to many people about them and asked questions such as:

1) Do I need a business plan?

2) Why?

3) What has to be in this plan?

4) Do I have to call it a business plan?

5) Aren’t 5 year forecasts a complete waste of time?

6) Does anybody ever read the whole thing or do people only bother reading the exec summary?

7) Do you stick to your business plan?

8) How often has your plan changed since you started?

9) Did you business plan get you the financing you needed or was it you and your team?

I asked about all these things and many more… the essence is – I think I do need to write a business plan – but I won’t call it a business plan.

I also agree with Guy Kawasaki – mission statements are abstract constructs that even when well composed, very few people understand when reading it. I did appreciate the time Ted Zoller spent with us at the beginning of the year to show us how to write a mission statement for our businesses. I didn’t like what he did with mine – it didn’t say what it was supposed to say anymore. It was very cleverly composed – like the Wendy’s statement in Kawasaki’s talk (The mission of Wendy’s is to deliver superior products and services for our customers and communities through leadership, innovation, and partnerships.), but had nothing to do with me anymore.

As my business is about people and therefore about you and me, I think I need more than a 32 page business plan and a mission statement. It has to be tangible, easily accessible and captivating. I would like people to want to take in what I’m indenting to do, what my conviction is, how we, as a business, are going to make an impression.

I think to achieve this sort of attention, I need more than a business plan and let’s be honest – how many people have you met who enjoy reading business plans?

I know that the time is right to start a business like mine, I know that I can’t wait too long to get it off the ground but having spent the last 3 months intensively dealing with all the ins and outs of this business I have some to a list of conclusions:

1) I do want to start a business.

2) I want to create inherently good design based on people’s needs.

3) I want to make a mark – as a designer, as a person, as a company.

4) I am not quite ready to do so yet.

5) I have so much more to learn about everything.

6) I need to find a job that will teach me more about the area I am passionate about, at least for a little while!

7) I have to share time with people who are as passionate about design and about sustainability as I am.

8) I have to go out there and experience sustainability, live it, work it.

9) I have to build my network.

10) I would like to connect with all sorts of people to be able to assemble a completely interdisciplinary team.

11) I have to live in at least one more country before settling down anywhere.

12) I will happily dedicate as much time as necessary to starting and running my business.

13) I will at the same time make sure to safe time for life.

14) I want to be able to balance work and partnership.

15) I want to be happy…

If you look around you there is a noticeable change in people attitudes to good design – I will try to move away from the keyword sustainability a bit.

I think I am doing the right thing at the right time and creating my venture blueprint (as I would like to call it for now) will help to solidify the many ideas that are revolving around in my head.

2009-04-02T09:40:00.006-05:00

I'm going to Costa Rica - still can't believe it!

Einstein's daily quote today is:

I don't pretend to understand the universe - it's much bigger than I am.

That hits the nail on the head!

I'm leaving on the 16th April to spend 8 days in the south of the country. There will be a group of six students and nine or ten professionals (plus four instructors) from the fields of architecture, chemistry and materials science, product development and innovation, industrial design, biological engineering, business development, non-profit conservation and social justice, interior design, biology, and ecology. There's also a small possibility that some Costa Rican nationals will join us for the training.

It is for anyone serious about creating a sustainable, bio-inspired future! Here we go...

What we will learn:

Practical application of biomimicry as a design tool
Examples of biomimetic success stories
History, philosophy and ethics of biomimicry
The interface of design and biology
Biological and ecological principles relevant to design
Animal architecture
Sustainability challenges in industry and potential bio-inspired solutions

What we will do:

Solve a design challenge by asking "what would nature do here?"
Brainstorm with biologists
Learn from local plants, animals, and ecosystems
Become acquainted with life's inherently sustainable design principles
Learn how to incorporate bio-inspired design techniques in your own organization

What we will take home:

A sense of possibility, because sustainable models already exist...right outside
A method for bringing nature's ideas to the design table
Tools and expert contacts for further explorations
A whole new way of viewing and valuing the genius that surrounds us

2009-04-01T13:38:00.004-05:00

And dodge they did - the global scholars went out of their way last weekend to compete in a Dodge ball tournament outside of Kansas City.

They did well and survived without any serious injuries.

For more shots of the day click on the title.

2009-04-01T09:04:00.003-05:00

Hey - just a little note...

There are still lucky people out there - very talented lucky people, granted!

Meet Chris and Becca - I work with Chris @ Willoughby Design and Becca is his lovely wife (we have not met yet!).

So these two made the video below and guess what - they won! 6 months test-driving the new Fiesta, they have to go on road trips (ahhhh) and don't have to pay for their gas (pertol!)...

So congratulations!

2009-03-31T08:50:00.002-05:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Biomimicry

View more presentations from whatidiscover.

2009-03-30T16:24:00.003-05:00

Today has been an exciting day - I have re-discovered Biomimicry. Here design is inspired by nature and in sync with nature. Have a look at the video below - it makes you wonder why we aren't doing more of it!

I'm hoping I'll be able to go to a weeks workshop on Design and Biomimicry in April - fingers crossed!

Enjoy!

2009-03-26T13:36:00.004-05:00

I went to a talk last night - here in Kansas City's very own Arts Incubator. It's a great space - full of creativity and inspiration. It smells of paint, wax and oil - it's rough and smooth and the perfect venue to talk about women and design.

Long story cut short...

The turn-out was super - loads of people turned up - not only women I'd like to add!

But one thing is hanging over my head today and I really need to get this out.

There is a fine balance between supporting women in design and raising awareness or turning it into a group meeting of Female Creatives Anonymous. It was emotional - to say the least!

When you are working in a male dominated field such as design or architecture it is good to know that there are other women out there who are successful and are enjoying work and life.

What I found difficult last night was the total focus on female inspiration, help, advice and support! I mean - as we are working in a male dominated world a lot of the advice and inspiration, at least around me, comes from men.

We are what we are because we worked hard to get here, whether the help and the inspiration we got on the way was male or female makes no difference at all in my opinion.

In fact - I have always enjoyed being one of very few women. Having a good mix of men and women is refreshing - working in an all female environment would drive me crazy. I have tried it in the past and didn't like it... I over-heard an electrician doing work in the building one day, he said that he was avoiding being up-stairs because of the excessive amount of estrogen in the air...

This might be taken as a sexist comment but he was right - on that particular day emotions were running high, people were stressed and it just wasn't a nice place to be!

So - to finish this - women in design are great and of cause we need more but I don't think we should get isolated in gender debates - just do what you like, create great things, be inventive, innovative and independent!

2009-03-26T11:22:00.007-05:00

My second week at Willoughby Design has nearly drawn to an end. I’m settling in, the work-head is slowly coming back!

Life is very interesting at the moment – my work here spans from business to graphic design to product design to sustainability to research. What a mix!

Love the office space – it’s chilled and light and healthy – I have a big window and loads of daylight!

My co-workers are all very creative, talented and a pleasure to be around.

I’m being invited to evening activities – went to see a Jazz band with Stephanie last Friday and it was painful :-)!

The welcome here has been exceptional and a lot of doors have opened already in this short time here.

Ann has introduced me to close friends and taken me out to dinner a few times already.

I met Nick Vedros and his family. Nick is an amazing local KC photographer. Check out his work under: www.vedros.com. His house and studio are overlooking KC, the Kemper Arena, the old kettle exchange – it’s all very industrial and modern but cosy and comfortable at the same time.
I have been exploring the city, met with KC female designers in KC’s very own arts incubator - http://artsincubatorkc.org/ and applied for a library card!

The highlight of the week has got to be the global scholars pulling together a dodgeball team and competing in a tournament this coming weekend!

I’m planning loads of little weekend adventures – the first one will take me to New Orleans over Easter – I can’t wait!

Also on the list is another few days in San Francisco, New York and maybe even New Jersey.

I made the conscious decision to spend ALL my money on exploring while I have the chance!

More great things are to come – watch this space!

2009-03-23T13:36:00.002-05:00

Willōughby Design has put their signature stamp on their new identity and stationery system. The identity celebrates both the firm’s 30th anniversary and their award-winning design barn. The stationery system puts a lot of Willōughby’s personality on paper.

Read more by clicking on the link above! {both the firm and its founder} has long been big on sustainability. You can buy a bit of the wit for yourself at www.willobag.com. Gotta love grocery totes with produce puns. And Willōughby’s new identity will be expanding onto the web in May.

Photo credits: Top left: Mike Sinclair Bottom: Matthew Collins

2009-03-23T08:51:00.004-05:00

The Financial Times and Forum for the Future are hosting a competition to find the most innovative solution to the effects of climate change. The winner could be a new technology, system or service, novel organisation or business model. Sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, the $75,000 prize aims to turn the best idea into reality.
The judges have announced the short-list and you can now vote to decide the winner.

Please check out the site, have a read and use your public vote!

2009-03-20T13:36:00.001-05:00

2009-03-20T13:14:00.006-05:00

Spring has reached the Mid-west and guess where we are - yes - Tornado Alley! I'm being told not to worry - the TWISTERS (!) don't usually hit downtown Kansas City! Oh joy...
Just in case that they do though, we will be safe in the toilet and the storage room downstairs in the basement - who's a lucky girl???

Considering last Tuesday was more like August and that I wore flip flops in February, I'm prepared for anything! I guess I will re-watch TWISTER, just to make sure I have done my homework :-)

Greetings from KC!

2009-03-20T08:57:00.005-05:00

You won't have any trouble at all finding someone who can tell you how to fit in.

They can tell you what to wear to that restaurant or this conference or that funeral. It's not that difficult to figure out how to fit in. If fitting in is your goal, you should be sure to get great advice on how to do that.

Standing out, of course, is trickier. Stand out too much and you're a jerk or a fool.

Clothing is not the point. You have this choice to make in everything you do, from your career to the words you use in a sales letter.

The point: choose.

Posted by Seth Godin on March 20, 2009

2009-03-19T14:12:00.001-05:00

Check it out... loads is going on!

2009-03-19T10:23:00.004-05:00

I am researching Design Thinking and Innovation and how the combination can start, re-invent and save businesses.

The information available on this subject is immense!

Enjoy!

2009-03-17T00:15:00.003-05:00

Hi there and welcome back to my life in K.C.

Today was my first day at work; I'm with Willoughby design, just round the corner from 45 Madison, where we are staying.

It's been a good day, loads of impressions, names to remember, projects to memorise, processes to understand. It was like any other first day in a new job. You want to do really well but your options are limited - I mean, there is only so much you can do on your first day in a new place.

I have been asked to work on another design education project which I am looking forward to. I will also be involved with product innovation, will learn about branding and I'll be working with a group of 5 interns form K.C. University develop their ideas for their final projects.

Ann Willoughby took me out for dinner tonight and I had the pleasure to meet her good friend Bernie and Kirsten, who is working on an amazing new Wiloughby project I will also be involved in - but don't think I can talk about!!!

So the essence of today is:

1) I have a really good internship with loads of ways to explore.

2) I’m involved in really exciting projects.

3) I’m working for somebody who really cares.

More tomorrow, even though it’d St. Pats day!

2009-03-15T22:57:00.003-05:00

I am sitting on a plane to Montreal at the moment, its small and loud but the view over the snowy country-side below is great on this sunny morning!

I have just completed 2 reports for the foundation on how I did enjoy the last 3 weeks on the road. It helped with reflecting on a lot of the events I went to, places I visited, people I met and knowledge I picked up on the way
As you might have figured out – I have problems blogging. Nothing has been said here for weeks now. Apparently it’s a very difficult habit to get into – a bit like writing a diary, something else I have never been able to do! But back in Kansas City I will try and keep this going – a few lines everyday and local wisdom, new experiences, boredom, meat and the Midwest!

So – 3 weeks ago I left Kansas City and flew to Palo Alto, in Silicon Valley.
The Bay Area greeted us with balmy temperatures, palm trees and a very nice hotel. Wonderful!

Day 1 – Sunday – San Francisco exploration tour in the pouring rain... What an amazing city – even when it is chucking it down in buckets, you can still feel that it’s a great place to be. We couldn’t see the Golden Gate bridge or Alcatraz but went for a ride across the city’s hills in one of the old street cars. Well worth $5!
Stanford – the week was dominated by Stanford Entrepreneurship week. For me, who is still struggling to pronounce the word ‘entrepreneurship’ correctly a slightly abstract event.

I will spare you the details and just sum up what I will be taking away from Silicon Valley...

It’s a great place to be – Stanford is busy and quite laid back at the same time, it rains a lot and is nice and warm. Loads of stuff is happening here in terms of design and education, financing and bio-tech.

Google is based here too – we had the privilege to visit the ‘Google-campus’ and enjoyed the great organically grown FREE food for lunch. The construct of Google is very impressive, would I want to work there? I don’t know – apparently they are really interested in sustainably running their organisation, there might be a consultancy job there ...

I have changed planes and am now headed from Vancouver to Cranbrook. I will be visiting Justin this weekend, share my experiences from the last 7 weeks with him, slide around on the snow and spend some time reflecting.

But back to the re-cap...

So there was Boston or better Cambridge too. This is where I took off from this morning. I grew quite fond of the place over the last 11 days. We had loads of snow, rain, cold, warm – Steve and I were saying yesterday, they just don’t talk enough about the weather in America. It’s real unfortunate because they really DO have weather!

Most of the 11 days were spend either at Harvard or in connection with Harvard. There were great workshops in creativity, negotiation, brainstorming and lectures of all sorts. The day at MIT was great but I have to admit that you have to be exceptionally clever to get in with that crowd. They are very cool though – loads of fun and very down to Earth. Nobody introduces themselves with their name closely followed by the house they are staying in. That was certainly the deal with the Harvard crowd!

Tom Hadfield, our Harvard liaison did an amazing job in organising the program and on top of that managed to add some additional valuable visits at IDEO and the Harvard Design school.

All in all the last 3 weeks on the road have been special, insightful, character-building, exciting, fun, exhausting, confusing and gave me the chance to really to some broadening of the horizon as they say!

If I was asked to put down 3 things that have changed since January, then I would have to say:

1) I understand business speak a lot better than before.
2) I do need to find a job and start working in sustainability before I start off on my own.
3) I have come to realise that turning 30 isn’t such a big thing... it’s the 10 years before that and the how ever many years that are to follow that determine who I am, what I can pass on and what I want in my life!

Am I still starting a business? The answer to that is YES! I just don’t think it’s going to happen straight away, I’m not quite ready yet!

2009-02-17T15:03:00.005-06:00

Note:

Behold! I know what I want to do and to make this thought concrete I wrote this letter to Anais, who I would love to do great things with!

Ok - here I am in good old Kansas City after 4 weeks of lectures and seminars on how to be successful as an entrepreneur, on how to run a business, build a brand, secure capital, lose your business, fail and learn from it but only if it wasn't because you made some really stupid decisions. Oh and by the way - you will never be aware of making stupid decisions until they come back at you with gusto and bite you in the behind...

So - you can gather from that little rant that my creative mind has been distracted and suppressed by all this grown-up business talk and my brain is refusing to be bubbly, innovative and crazy - no bouncing happening here - not until today anyway.

Why did the bouncing start today?

Here I am, with a great guy called Peter Johnson, who is helping me to visualise what I want my business to be in the future. Who I want to employ and do I even want to employ? How many contracts am I going to be working on and for how long? Who is my target customer and how am I going to present to them and how do I find them in the first place? What’s my market and how big is it and how big is it going to be in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years???

Questions over questions...

And I'm stuck in the middle - and all I really want to do is work on realising great ideas - with or without a customer brief - that I have bounced around within my team... and here comes the next hurdle!

Who is in this team?

At that stage my brain went blank for a bit and I came up with 2 people I can see partnering up with and making this the greatest sustainable design company off all...

There is me - the product designer and wannabe world-changer, thentThere is Geoff Bell - engineer and my long-term university mentor and partner in crime on my tent project, who is full of great ideas and advice and has been running his own business too.

And there is you... How funny was it to see your - I'M READY on Facebook.

I will have to present a venture pitch tomorrow, which I thought I had done but will completely revamp now.

I will suggest a scenario that includes us 3 as founding partners - the hands-on product designer (me), the practical engineer and devil’s advocate and you as the inspiration, fire and 'doer' with a creative design background also.

Together we can really build something great - the network of people we already bring together without even trying is immense. We have contacts all over the world, Geoff and I have already an established connection to a company that is more than interested in giving sustainability in their project range a chance...

I would like to go and spend some time really getting into environmental legislation and making that a real differentiator. We are the experts; our solutions are compliant and even consider proposed legislations to provide you (the customer) with a head start!

That expertise combined with innovation (I hate the term thinking out of the box - but hey), design and engineering is THE basis for sustainable product innovation.

The clue is to take that and combine it with biology, chemistry, biomimicry, marketing, IP, accountancy and social studies, using an interest in good design and sustainability as common ground to create real sustainable innovation that serves companies, people and therefore global needs and makes the world a better place by doing it that way.

Wow - big mail - a lot to take in and no definitive time-frame other than that something will happen in the next 12 months that I can't even put my finger on yet!

Trying to condense the last 4 weeks into 3 things I will be taking away, those 3 things would have to be:

1) Be true to yourself!

2) Know who invests in you and who you are investing into (time and money)!

3) Have fun doing it!

I hope you get a chance to think about all this and maybe you are up for starting this with me - from Bournemouth to Barcelona to Wellington to Vancouver...

Let’s do something great, work hard, have tons of fun and start making a difference!!!

Fran

2009-02-16T17:56:00.005-06:00

The Hallmark Holiday has passed without leaving any of us scarred forever. We had a night out on Saturday and it was surprising how many single Valentines were running around feeling sorry for themselves!

Today is Monday – Presidents Day, which is officially known as Washington's Birthday. It's a federal holiday in the United States and is celebrated on the third Monday of February. It doesn’t seem to be much of a day off though, as all the shops have been open and emails were replied to by both Nancy and Wendy from the Kauffman Foundation. Thanks for that, you really didn't have to!

Most of us seem to have their heads buried in their laptops and notes from the last few weeks, to put together a presentation for next week – the big question is:

Did we learn anything and can we apply it?

And this is where the Presentation Blues comes in - we just don't know yet...

To be continued...

The Black Phantom is a machine that turns wood and organic material into charcoal. This can be used as a fertiliser or burnt in power stations and cooking stoves. Alternatively, this highly stable form of carbon can be stored underground in ‘carbon sinks’ (Carbonscape, New Zealand/UK)

Deflecktors are wheel covers that make lorries more fuel efficient by reducing drag. The inexpensive, lightweight fabric devices cover holes in the wheels, cutting fuel consumption by two per cent. The devices also offer money-making opportunities as advertising space (ADEF Ltd., USA)

Kyoto Box is a cheap, solar-powered cardboard cooker. The simple design can be made in existing cardboard factories, flat-packed and easily distributed. It could halve firewood use, saving trees and preventing carbon emissions (Kyoto Energy Ltd., Kenya)

Mootral is a feed supplement for livestock that reduces the methane they emit by 15 per cent. The garlic-based extract is a natural antibiotic that works by fighting bacteria in the stomachs of cows and sheep. Neem estimates the world’s herds and flocks are responsible for 20 per cent of global warming (Neem Biotech, UK)

Hollow ceiling tiles are used in an air cooling system that can work with or replace traditional air conditioning. Instead of pumping cool air into a room, the tiles are built into a false ceiling to draw warm air out. The process works by evaporating water stored in the tiles (Loughborough University, UK)

2009-02-14T12:38:00.007-06:00

Today is the 14th February - Hallmark Holiday time and being of German descent I can't get what all the fuss is about but hey...

This is our last weekend in Kansas City with the whole group. Next week we’ll be on a plane to San Francisco. The weeks are racing!

Yesterday was our last lectured day at the Foundation; next week is dominated by presentations and I would hazard a guess at some serious socializing!

The weekend though is over-shadowed by venture pitch presentation preparation and reflection upon the past 4 weeks.

The sun is out and it’s a beautiful fresh winter day out there but I will show some will power and determination and finish something today – not sure what yet but I will finish it!

I have been out for a walk in the morning and have acquired a book that is in no way affiliated with business, in fact, it couldn’t be further away from the mountain of books that has accumulated in my room since January. I am very much looking forward to starting it, the non-business book that is!

So – by the end of today I will make an attempt on summing up what I think I have gained from the last 4 weeks, I’m sure there are the odd surprises tucked away in all those notes and papers I have collected.