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Rainy Reading

Some good things to read on a rainy Saturday morning.

1. An interview with David Hillman in the Press Gazette

David Hillman designed The Guardian before the recent redesign and art directed the original Nova magazine. He has some great opinions about modern news design.

About The Times redesign, "a total and utter fucking disaster" about the Observer "It looks like the fucking Beano with pictures. Now it's just colour and design and type 15 feet high for no apparent reason." And my personal favourite, "at WHSmith's now, it's just a haze of tit and bum and bright colours". How very true.

2. An article in Fast Company about the awkward romance between business and design.

"Design, in short, is becoming an ever more important engine of corporate profit: It's no longer enough simply to outperform the competition; to thrive in a world of ceaseless and rapid change, business people have to outimagine the competition as well. They must begin to think (to become) more like designers."

Why isn't there a British Fast Company?

3. A special report in Business Week on Design Schools.

This ticks lots of boxes. Design is the New Management Consultancy and China, being two of them.

"Desperate to innovate, companies are turning to design schools for nimble, creative thinkers."

4. Graham's brilliant post

Last but by no means least, having said there are not enough women in director/equity roles I recommend you read Graham's brilliant post about & Daughter companies.

Or you could Switch Off Your Internet And Go Out And Do Something Less Boring Instead.

China Update

A nice lady from the Government came in yesterday. Very, very interesting.

When I tell people we're thinking of opening an office in China, they look at me like I'm mad. But five minutes later they start nodding and saying that maybe it's a good idea.

The people from the Government don't think we're mad. Looks like I might be going out in November.

China update

Remember I said the man from the Foreign Office came in the other day? Here’s long overdue post about what he said.

We’re thinking of opening an office in China. Seriously. (You think I’m mad now, don’t you?) It’s only half idea at the moment, but the more we talk about it and the more people we meet the more we move away from dream and closer to reality.

Through various connections I was put in touch with UK Design | UK Trade & Investment who came to chat to us the other day.

They were hugely shocked that we wanted to open in China (and equally as shocked that we actually have a business plan). Reading between the lines it seems that the Government is really keen to help UK design companies to open in China, but they can’t find anyone who wants to do it seriously.

Of course it’s not that easy. Hong Kong is relatively simple, but main land China is hard. Laws are very different, culture is very different, for example there is no copyright law in China. They see nothing wrong with copying designs.

All interesting stuff. And us? We’re still very interested and we hope to fly out later this year to explore. We’re also going to talk to more people about it. I’ll keep you informed here.

"already, today, 30 or 40 of the most visited 100 blogs in the world are Chinese"

Russell Davies