Urbanli Magazine

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DETROIT’S REBIRTH THE POWER OF BLACK THE ART OF MANHOLES IN JAPAN


© Oscar Keys

PLAY THE GAME



EDITOR IN CHIEF | Mihaela Nenciu CORRESPONDENTS Elise von Grumbkow | Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS Sean Fujiyoshi | Product Design Center, Tokyo, JAPAN COMPANY Art direction and Owner | Mihaela Nenciu Marketing | Elise von Grumbkow SPONSORING AND ADVERTISING | Christopher Cona SUBMIT YOUR WORK | info@urbanli.com URBANLI magazine is published by GBB Projects & Design Agency Boston | MA | United States CONTACT EMAIL ADDRESS | info@urbanli.com EDITOR AND CHIEF | michelle@urbanli.com MARKETING | Elise@urbanli.com

Copyright | See our copyright notice Personal data protection laws | See our privacy policy © 2016 URBANLI magazine All views and opinions expressed are those of the authors of URBANLI magazine


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Detroit Creativity Fuels the City’s Rebirth How the city of Detroit is slowly recovering from the economic turmoil

THIS ISSUE 7 8

editorial

Welcome from our editor

starter

Why Is Creativity Important? Short interviews with international artists

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artist spotlight

Meet the Designer How the beauty company Glossier talks directly to you

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interview

The Power of Black Interview with graphic artist Allister Lee

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essay

Empathetic Design Human-centered design can provide comfort as well as service

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infographic

The Secret to Finding New Ideas A few simple habits are just what it takes to keep creative


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H

ello.

BACK WHEN THIS MAGAZINE WAS JUST A FEW ideas and a group of over-excited people, we planted a garden among some broken paving stones by a busy roundabout. It wasn’t much to look at then, just a few plants in the middle of a patch of stony soil. There were some seeds and bulbs, but they hadn’t sprouted yet. We watered it and wondered whether anything was going to grow. We found a note, one day, written in pen alongside the garden: “These are lovely, more please.” And it made us feel that all the planting and watering was worth it. Now here we are with the first issue URBANLI. It is a magazine for curious people, who love exploring the world around them in search for inspiration. People who can’t look at an object without wondering about the people who made it, why they made it, where do they inspire from and what their life is like. People who love the vibrancy of the urban space and who, like us, feel the creative potential the global cities nowadays possesses. We made this collection of ideas because we thought we couldn’t be the only one who were curious about artists, designers, risk-takers, talented individuals, idea-spreaders and extraordinary ideas. It’s nice to see you here. ■ -MIHAELA NENCIU

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WHY IS CREATIVITY IMPORTANT

WE ASKED INTERNATIONAL CREATIVE ARTISTS WHY IS CREATIVITY IMPORTANT TO THEM AND WHAT IT BRINGS TO THEIR LIVES.


starter

I sometimes feel that there are so many ideas, emotions, and dreams locked in my head that I must let them escape on paper or canvas. It is a great release for me. I feel that art speaks to people in a more passionate and personal way that words cannot.

Creativity to me is what makes life possible. It’s what enable us to solve problems, adapt, learn, improvise, express ourselves. It

is what

connects us with the full spectrum of life.

Creativity isn’t a hobby — it’s a way of life. LOL, that was from Pinterest. But my real answer is — without creativity in our lives, I feel we are not complete individuals.

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DETROIT CREA FUELS THE CIT


feature feature

TIVITY Y’S REBIRTH ON JULY 18, 2013 DETROIT BECAME THE LARGEST CITY IN U.S.HISTORY TO FILE FOR BANKRUPTCY. THE FORMER INDUSTRIAL POWERHOUSE HAS BEEN SEEN AS A CADAVER, DECOMPOSING LITTLE BY LITTLE. BUT IN THE PAST YEARS THERE HAS BEEN AN UNSEEN REVITALIZATION AND THE CITY IS NOW ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY. STAND BACK. DEFIBRILLATOR AT THE READY. CULTURE IS SHOCKING DETROIT BACK TO LIFE.

WISH YOU BOUGHT GOLD IN ’06? YOU’LL WISH YOU BOUGHT DETROIT IN ’12. So runs the headline of an article published by Forbes in August 2012 by Josh Linkner, CEO of Detroit Venture Partners. According to his Forbes piece, the tech-entrepreneur’s business partner Dan Gilbert has bought up some 3 million sq ft of commercial property in downtown Detroit over the last few years. But why? Detroit is a shit hole, right? A byword for urban decay, the city was forced to file for the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history in 2013 when the motor

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city’s well-publicized fall from grace hit rock bottom. Another native, journalist Charlie LeDuff, returned to the city after 20 years: “It was sort of like, in many respects, living in Chernobyl in some neighborhoods.” The Pulitzer Prize-winner’s 2013 book “Detroit: An American Autopsy” confirms what you all thought you knew about the former industrial powerhouse. Crooked politicians; emergency services incapable of responding to emergencies; lawlessness; neighborhoods in flames; desperation. LeDuff refers to his city as a cadaver. Many people believe it to be still decomposing. I spent five days in Detroit, five bitterly cold days in Jan-

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uary 2013, touring its ruins. Where Rome or Greece have their Forums or Parthenons, Detroit has its Michigan Central Station or Packard Automotive Plant (the largest building in the world when it opened at the beginning of the 20th century) — vast symbols of the city’s rise, barely a hundred years old and in tatters. When I walked through a gaping hole in one of the walls of the Fisher Body Plant 21, I too sensed Chernobyl.

berg Project is probably the best example of the sense of positivity that I’m talking about; a community creativity that stands toe-to-toe with the devastating ruination of the city. Troubled by the state of his neighborhood — the east side’s McDougall-Hunt — Guyton has transformed blocks of abandoned properties over the years into one of the world’s most unique art projects. And its inspiration resonated in other areas of the city.

We’d driven for a few miles to get to the plant, not passing one soul. Oncewealthy neighborhoods were now entirely forgotten. Apocalyptic seemed too cheap an analogy. Everything I had previously associated with Detroit made sense. And most of what I had associated with Detroit was its musical heritage. Motown to MC5 to The Stooges to The Belleville Three (Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins) to Eminem to The White Stripes. Musical movements are so often associated with hard times, and motor city has had plenty of both.

Fast forward a few years, and a series of arson attacks on the project confirm that the Michigan city still has its difficulties. The Packard plant has been purchased by Spanish investor Fernando Palazuelo, who plans to revitalize the site with industry, business, retail and culture, but fatal crime remains headline news. Corruption scandals continue to surface, but Detroit is now officially autonomous again and, in theoretical economic terms at least, on the road to recovery. Let us stay with that sense of positivity, of community creativity, for it is creativity that is underpinning the resuscitation of a sleeping giant.

IT WAS SORT OF LIKE, IN MANY RESPECTS, LIVING IN CHERNOBYL IN SOME NEIGHBORHOODS.

Of all I saw in that week, though, it is a sense of formidable positivity that stayed with me. Started in 1986 by Tyree Guyton and grandfather Sam Mackey, The Heidel-

Responsible for curating and producing over 100 murals across the city, online art retailer 1xRUN and bricks-andmortar operation Inner State Gallery have just wrapped up their Murals in the Market project, propelling the city that cars built into the upper echelons of world street art by way of 45 new large-scale works throughout historic Eastern Market, from some of the world’s leading talent. Of course the marriage of art and degradation is nothing


feature new. Look at London’s once-notorious East End, Brooklyn’s Williamsburg, then Bushwick. Cheap property + poor creatives = prolific output. Prolific output = international recognition, ad infinitum — or until property prices increase, at which point the poor artists scurry along to the next downbeat neighborhood. That means leaving the wealthy artists to cut deals with the big brands, hoteliers, developers who move into their now-gentrified, hipster-ready neighborhood.

DETROIT HAS FALLEN SO FAR THAT CREATIVES CAN BUY A PROPERTY FOR A MONTH’S RENT IN SHOREDITCH.

Except Detroit is one degenerated neighborhood after another. And most investors are still too afraid to stick their necks on the line. Yet Detroit continues to flourish creatively. What we have here is something more akin to Berlin after the fall of the wall than another Dalston. Detroit has fallen so far that creatives can buy a property for a month’s rent in Shoreditch. The city’s property market has taken such a beating that many online speculators bandied around the idea of Silicon Valley behemoth Google simply purchasing Motown lock, stock, and barrel. Driverless cars tootling around its barren highways like some kind of dystopian nightmare.

Looking across the water to Canada, here is something entirely more organic than ‘hood-by-’hood gentrification. The cool kids aren’t running away to the next happening district just because the fun dried up in the last one. To understand the cultural rebirth of Detroit, we need to go back to Tyree Guyton and his Heidelberg Project. Creativity breeds in Detroit because. Just ... because. Because many have nothing else. For decades, since its painful race riots, since the economy’s pulse flat-lined, folk have been writing off the city and its people. Thing is you see, people don’t give up. It’s easy for America to give up on Detroit, less so for its people to give up on their city and their lives. Having photographed the city for some decades, artist Camilo José Vergara captured the spirit of Detroit in a photograph of a chapel wall: “Detroit Is No Dry Bones. Detroit You Shall Live’. That was 2012, and the unknown graffitist’s epitaph rings true today. Hell, Detroit’s creative class is now in such fine fettle that earlier this year it got its own magazine. Grand Circus was the result of a successful crowdfunding campaign that relifted the spirit of the city. Prepping the release of its second edition, Grand Circus magazine celebrates Detroit’s makers, artists, designers, retailers, hospitality industry and so forth, joining a growing roster of annual festivals in observing the city’s flourishing cultural underbelly. This first success inspired energy and hope in the revival of the cultural life in the city.

Kashink & Thor for Murals in the Market— a street graffiti showing a Detroit resurrected to life

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© Camilo José Vergara

© Camilo José Vergara

“Detroit Is No Dry Bones,” Ruth Chapel AME Church, 2012 East Kirby Street at Baldwin Street Photo

Art installation in one of the deserted streets of Detroit

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Grand Circus magazine celebrates Detroit’s makers, artists and designers

Cover of the magazine’s first issue

This year’s Detroit Design Festival has just wrapped up, highlights including a tour of homes being renovated by artists, a panel discussion chaired by Grand Circus’s founder Alex Trajkovski and, most notably, the opening of new arts space Wasserman Projects. Situated in a 5,000 sq ft renovated firehouse, Wasserman Projects joins Inner State Gallery and a whole host of new murals at Eastern Market — an area that was quiet, very quiet a few years back; save for lovely community letterpress studio Signal-Return. And there we have that word again: community. Detroit ain’t no dry bones.

hive of activity opposite Michigan Central Station, the city’s eerily iconic, decaying high-rise ruin. Mercury Burger Bar, Slows BarBq, design-led B&B Honor and Folly run by design blogger and magazine editor Meghan McEwen upstairs, cocktail bar The Sugar House nextdoor, and cool coffee shop Astro alongside. In 2015, that block has been completed by the considered conversion of Sam’s pawnbrokers —Gold Cash Gold a sympathetic transformation, and a style-conscious restaurant worthy of a Brooklyn postcode — whilst that strip of Michigan Ave that runs into the city center is

The city’s contemporary art collection is doing just fine too. London based arts organization Artangel commissioned their first international venture here, a full-scale replica of the single-story ranch-style house art-provocateur Mike Kelley grew up in unveiled at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit in 2013; the Michigan-born artist’s first and only public artwork. He passed away shortly after signing off the project. Just a few years ago, Detroit’s hipster credentials lay withing an exceedingly tight corner of Corktown, a tiny

© James Davidson

You’ll still pass plenty of abandoned property to reach it from downtown, but Detroit Institute of Arts — saved from flogging its prized assets (estimates have the valued the collection at as much as $4.6 billion) during the municipal bankruptcy case by some $27 million raised by the city’s biggest businesses — has a new ‘living room’ space in Kresge Court; a fine-looking coffeeshop courtyard that genuinely encourages WiFi-hoggers, and offers residents an opportunity to spend valuable time among one of the United States’ most treasured collections of art.

A Detroit merchandise store sign is seen in a window downtown

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increasingly abuzz. But more importantly, downtown itself is on the rise again. New openings like Townhouse, The Whisky Parlor and The Keep bringing young people, real life young people, back into town, back to life. And what of billionaire Dan Gilbert, who now owns or controls 78 downtown properties? “I still think we’re just starting”, he told Detroit Free Press in August. Sure, there’s still more to be done — but with its peerlessly low rents, community spirit, a creative nucleus impossible to uproot there’s a sense that misery has bred an unquenchable energy and force, and ultimately that energy is the foundation upon which Detroit will rebuild itself at last. ■ -DYLAN LEE

STAND BACK. DEFIBRILLATOR AT THE READY. CULTURE IS SHOCKING DETROIT BACK TO LIFE.


MEET THE DESIGNER

© Fade Qu

spotlight

HOW THE BEAUTY COMPANY GLOSSIER TALKS AND MARKETS DIRECTLY TO YOU.

ON A WALL IN GLOSSIER’S CONFERENCE ROOM hangs a framed white napkin with the beauty brand’s guiding principles scrawled in red lipstick: Inclusive, Innovative, Clever, Fun, Thoughtful. Not the most radical words, per se, but they begin to explain how this completely digital company has built an online following so rabid that, for a period of time last year, its eyebrow product had a 10,000 person wait list. Glossier (a play on the word dossier) doesn’t rely on celebrity ads or high-profile department store placements. Employees talk to customers directly — via email, social media, the company’s site — in a casual voice that young people understand. If there’s such a thing as designing a millennial approach for selling a product, this gets pretty close: real and unmediated, the antibrand brand. Its founder, 31-year-old Emily Weiss, was a styling assistant at Vogue in 2010 when she launched the beauty blog Into the Gloss. As women flocked to the site to talk about their routines, Weiss began to realize that beauty companies had no idea what their customers were up to. “If I want to know how to do a black cat eye, I’m not going to drive to a department store,” Weiss says. “I’m going to go on YouTube, cross-check reviews of a product, and then maybe talk about it on Instagram. There wasn’t a brand that encouraged me to take ownership of my routine —

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and understood that everyone is their own expert.”This breezy approach works for Glossier. The brand’s voice is that of your coolest friend who knows that trying too hard is antithetical to being cool. And it’s about pictures and vibes as much as words: photos of a young Giselle, Georgia O’Keeffe paintings, glitter and joy. Followers know that if they leave a comment, Glossier will respond directly, usually with some emoji thrown in. As one fan put it: “ Will gladly let u slide into my DM @glossier.” In the first quarter of 2016, Glossier sold as much as it thought in a year, which made for five-figure wait list and impatient fans. The company addressed the delay in a post “Into the Gloss” about the new realities of scaling the business. The next logical step would be retail, Weiss concedes, though she’s intentionally vague. “I think a lot about the Apple Store,“ she says, “about creating hubs where you can touch and experience a product, yes, but you can connect with like-minded people”. She says that, but you can tell it’s a point of pride. This is a woman who enjoys letting you do what you want. It’s paying off. ■ -MARISA MELTZER

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THE POWER OF

BLACK FREELANCE GRAPHIC ARTIST ALLISTER LEE HAS DESIGNED FOR BEHEMOTHS LIKE ADIDAS,STUDY AND NIKE BUT SPENDS HIS OFF TIME ILLUSTRATING AND EXPLORING THE CITY FOR RELAXATION. HE TAKES HIS INSPIRATION FROM THE PEOPLE HE SEES IN THE STREET AND THE PLACES HE ENCOUNTERS. HE IS A NATURAL ARCHIVER. IN THIS DECADE-LONG DRAWING SERIES, BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL, HE HAS METICULOUSLY DOCUMENTED NEARLY 1000 DIFFERENT BLACK MARKERS.

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I started collecting black markers in 2002 while I was living in London. As a graphic artist, I wanted to collect something relating to my practice that was easily attainable and cheap to acquire. I separated the black markers from the rest of my drawing supplies and put them in a shoe box, then just proactively acquired more. At marker 25, I started documenting them at 1:1 scale. I’ve kept up the gathering and documentation ever since.

HOW HAS YOUR DESIGN WORK SHIFTED OVER TIME SINCE YOU STARTED?

K

HOW DID THE IDEA DEVELOP FOR YOUR RECENT SHOW, BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL?

© Malik Earnest

At a base level, I just use simple black markers to communicate simple ideas, words an graphic concepts. Chronologically, my work has moved from illustration, to T-shirt design, to branding, print projects, to pattern development, to product design and to retail installation, which I find very challenging.

YOU SPENT A LOT OF TIME IN BEIJING RECENTLY. WHAT WERE YOU DOING THERE?

AS FAR AS ART AND GRAPHIC OUTPUT, I TRY TO MAKE THINGS THAT ARE VERY EASY TO DIGEST. IT’S LIKE WELL, I SAW IT, AND THEN I DREW IT.

I first went to Beijing in 2009. I love the city, I love the energy. The vibrance. Such rapid change and growth, without fully knowing the ramifications, gives the city a confusing tension at times, albeit an electric edge. Most recently, I went out there to work for Nike as part of the Brand Design team. I worked weekdays with a team, and on the weekends, I would just pick a direction and bike as far as I could go to find interesting neighborhoods and do street drawings.


I USE BLACK MARKER FOR OUTLINES AND NEON ACRYLIC FOR FILLS. EFFICIENCY AND EASE. MISALIGNED COLOR LAYERS, YOU KNOW THAT? ENOUGH TO CAPTURE THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF

HOW DOES LIVING AND WORKING IN TORONTO INFLUENCE YOUR OUTPUT? Toronto is a world class city, a great baseline to compare to other cities I visit. I have a comfortable living and working environment; everything in it’s right place. I have a nice little circle of friends and family, familiar haunts and know where to source certain things. As far as output goes, having these above things in order makes it easier to keep a creative rhythm and keep things moving.

SO WHAT DOES YOUR AVERAGE WORK DAY LOOK LIKE? Lately, I have things broken down into 2 shifts, as I find it more logical, at least for me. Morning: Wake up at 8 and do whatever needs to get done for North America / Europe based people until about 7pm. Night: Start getting into work mode again for 9 pm and do whatever needs to get done for Asia based peoples till about 2 am or later, depending on deadlines.


WHAT DO YOU MOSTLY USE IN YOUR DRAWINGS AND ILLUSTRATIONS? I use black marker for outlines and neon acrylic for fills. Efficiency and ease. Misaligned color layers, you know that? I try to capture that look, drawing on site. A quickand-dirty approach allows me to capture just the right amount of wonk. I just sit and draw what’s in front of me. Very simple. As far as art and graphic output, I try to make things that are very easy to digest. It’s like, “Well, I saw it, and then I drew it”. But the stories attached to the work are most often a new platform to develop interesting narratives.

IF MONEY WASN’T AN OBSTACLE, WHAT WOULD YOU PRODUCE? I have this running marker character project that I would love to make as an articulated, key-turn, motorized tin toy. I love the idea of working with local companies that have a history to produce something considered and unique in the same time.


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© Carl Nenzen Loven


essay

EMPATHETIC DESIGN WHEN OUR FUNDAMENTAL NEEDS, DESIRES AND ABILITIES ARE CONSIDERED BEFORE THE CREATIVE PROCESS BEGINS, THE END RESULT OFFERS A BALANCE BETWEEN SIMPLE BEAUTY AND JUST-SO FUNCTION. SIMILAR TO THE EMOTIONAL SUPPORT WE GIVE TO OUR LOVED ONES, HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN CAN PROVIDE COMFORT AS WELL AS SERVICE.

KNOWING THYSELF CAN BE TOUGH BUT KNOWING others—really, truly feeling them—is a true skill. Empathy is one of the fundamental ways we understand and relate to each other, giving us the capacity to sense and share the emotions of those around us: the way your head hurts when a friend goes through a breakup; the exhilaration when an underdog bests the reigning champ; the apprehension of watching someone prepare to make an important speech. These sentimental moments are the lifeblood of emotional intelligence. Empathy starts in the heart but eventually hooks up with the mind. It’s innate but it can be learned. Which means it can be taught. And which means it can surely be designed. Design is ubiquitous. Products and architecture, hardware and software, programs and services —all of these things have been, on some level or another, designed. Perhaps that’s why the concept of empathetic, human-centric design can be a bit of a mind-bender: if empathy is the very intimate ability to understand your

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fellow compatriots on a sensitive and experiential level, how can something inanimate be imbued with that same kind of emotional depth? Empathetic design is as much about the creative process as it is the final product. Designers who practice this methodology first look deeply at who they are designing for: What are their needs? What are their capacities? What do they really desire? At this stage of the process, research is more social than strictly academic; it’s about tapping into those essential factors on a personal level through careful observation and sensitive questioning. This line of soft interrogation helps designers stress out the underlying problems and then they come up with a solution that’s best suited for the user. In this way, the act of creation can be exceptionally democratic: of people, by people, for people. Its niche can reach from niche market to mass consumption and it has potential to impact us on every level from life-brightening (a soft-white Cree LED bulb engineers to glow warmly

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instead of with a standard blue tinge) to life-altering (a dedicated bike lane installed on your daily route through and from the office). Small changes in design can make a massive difference, especially when coupled with a lesson that SpiderMan learned at an early age: with great power comes great responsibility.

the people here and the people there. We observe and the jazz takes over. The riffing is where we are very good.” By abandoning preconceptions about what “should” be made or achieved and focusing on what will actually benefit the user, empathetic designers see he solutions that are often hiding in plain sight.

The term “universal design” was first coined by Ronald L. Mace in the 1960s who campaigned for a world that accommodated everybody regardless of their age, physical aptitude and cognitive aptitude. That goal may seem obvious now, but at the time, it was a groundbreaking thought. Consider the street’s curb as an everyday example of pre-and post-emphathetic design. In 1967 a British accessibility pioneer named Welwyn Goldsmith interviews hundred of wheelchair users. The feedback was inspiring and enlightening: instead of a sharp angle where the curb meets the road at crosswalks, could there be a gentle downgrade instead?

People are complicated. We don’t always know or can’t always clearly articulate what we want. A good designer can articulate and anticipate the user needs more effectively than the user can themselves. They make connections in surprising ways that clarify, simplify then realize a way forward.

Taking the step to consider the practical needs of the user, rarely weakens the aesthetic of the product — cutting the curb didn’t diminish its design in the slightest, for example. On the contrary, design can actually enhance the way we interact with our environment and each other. Design is a deeply rooted human practice—one that actually shapes the context of our lives. IDEO has been honing this human-centered practice since they were founded in 1991. “The best thing you have as a designer are your eyes and ears”, says Paul Bennett, IDEO’s Chief Creative Officer. “You drop your ego and go out into the world with an open mind.”

So what does the future look like? It’s about tactile maps and audio guides at transit stations, such as Bordeaux’ pioneering Light Rail system? It’s further acknowledging the plight of the delayed traveler turning airports like San Francisco into havens for local cuisine and comfortable lounging? It’s the vegetable peelers and coffee makers and all those day-to-day products that greatly affect our lives, from finding the perfect shower temperature in the morning to setting your alarms at night. As once the late great IDEO co-founder Bill Moggridge said: “There is nothing made by human beings that does not involve a design decision somewhere”.

EMPATHY STARTS IN THE HEART BUT EVENTUALLY HOOKS UP WITH THE MIND. IT’S INNATE BUT IT CAN BE LEARNED. WHICH MEANS IT CAN BE TAUGHT. WHICH MEANS IT COULD BE DESIGNED.

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Though the modern movement may still tout the “form follows function” mantra, form can only follow function once an object’s true function has been determined. This process requires an alchemical balance between sense and sensibility, between logic and the direct defiance of it. “I’d describe it as jazz”, Bennett says. “We have the basic melody, but we improvise. Everything is about the chemistry between

In his 2004 book “Emotional design” cognitive scientist Don Norman proposes three levels to design. Before we weigh in on how well something works — our “behavioral evaluation”- we have an initial first impression. This is our “visceral” take: an instinctual decision that happens in an instant as an immediate response to sensory factors such as sight and touch. It’s superficial, but it’s significant. Once your brains have weighted on these two verdicts, we balance out the visceral and behavioral aspects by getting to the third and last level of design:“reflective”. This is when we work something’s overall significance to our lives: its message and its meaning, its image in the eyes of the others and its usefulness and appeal to ourselves.

A GOOD DESIGNER CAN ARTICULATE AND ANTICIPATE THE USER NEEDS MORE EFFECTIVELY THAN THE USER CAN THEMSELVES. THEY MAKE CONNECTIONS IN SURPRISING WAYS THAT CLARIFY, SIMPLIFY THEN REALIZE A WAY FORWARD.

As the human experience continues to evolve shifting as we grow and change as individuals and as a society, so too will the designers helping to guide the way down a

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path we all can travel together, a path that will inevitabily bring us to these questions. How can design strengthen bonds with our families, friends and neighbors? And how can good design improve our quality of life? These are questions every designer should ask in their career. Design is a type of communication. It’s about the way an object or idea speaks to its audience. But good design not only gets its message across — it also engages us in a conversation. Our experience has taught us that there’s no set of rules that govern what constitutes “good design.” Form doesn’t have to follow function, function doesn’t have to follow form — in fact, there shouldn’t be any following at all, only leading.

BY ABANDONING PRECONCEPTIONS ABOUT WHAT “SHOULD” BE MADE OR ACHIEVED AND FOCUSING ON WHAT WILL ACTUALLY BENEFIT THE USER, EMPATHETIC DESIGNERS SEE HE SOLUTIONS THAT ARE OFTEN HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT. THERE IS NOTHING MADE BY HUMAN BEINGS THAT DOES NOT INVOLVE A DESIGN DECISION SOMEWHERE.

© Tachina Lee

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# © James Davidson

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OCT'16

DETROIT’S REBIRTH THE POWER OF BLACK THE ART OF MANHOLES IN JAPAN


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