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Rodchenko Quotes

I've just found some quotes from the Rodchenko exhibition that I jotted down when I was there. Here they are.

Rodchenko's maxim was "Our duty is to experiment". Isn't that cool? Imagine if in your job description it said, "Your duty is to experiment". Rodchenko pushed boundaries precisely because he kept on experimenting.

Here's another one, "Enough depicting, time to build". God, I love this. "Enough depicting, time to build". I feel like getting a tshirt done with this on for meetings. After 20 minutes I could stand up and grandly declare, "Enough depicting, time to build".

How many good ideas die of over "depicting". Too much talking no enough doing. You know that bit in the middle of a conversation when people say, "That's it. Do that." But then they keep on talking for days. Let's just stop at the "That's it. Do that" bit.

As my old boss used to say, "The work doesn't get any better the longer it sits around, old son".

"In my spare time, I devise schemes to create more spare time."

Step forward Chris Glass. Brilliant.

"You have fewer ideas, but you use them better"

I've always believed this. As you get older you don't get better ideas you just get better at getting them from your head on to that bit of paper in front of you.

That's why experience often leads to better execution and the youngsters often have more ideas.

"Centred type is bad enough, but centred images is taking the piss."

As said by Tom, the official hater of centred anything.

"CO2 neutrality is the biggest fucking scam ever"

Marcus Brown.

"You can't move in London without someone giving you the news"

I was talking to someone the other day and they said, "The last thing the world needs is another news website. You can't move in London without someone giving you the news". I love that quote. It's really stuck with me because it's so true, isn't it?

So since he said that I've been taking pictures every time I see someone (or something) giving me the news. That picture above is your standard noughties office reception. The news on three big flat TV's.

Here's another one. But this huge big glass fronted building allows the news to spill out on the street.

As does this one. They've used four screens, so they can show four different news channels.

I know it's a bad photograph but this is just outside Waterloo station. More news.

This is inside Waterloo station, also taken on bad photograph day.

Continuing the station theme, this is Kings Cross. So, inside office receptions, visible through the window, outside stations, inside stations.

At the airport.

On the way back from the airport. I appreciate this is a promotional thing for Bloomberg, but it's still news being thrust at you.

Likewise this is some promotion for Reuters who are situated just across the street. But still. News. Everywhere. These are all razzy screen based things, but there's also the more traditional method of London news delivery.

And now we have this new menace. They literally thrust the news at you.

Look there's one dressed in purple and one in yellow. Remember, "You can't move in London without someone giving you the news."

Look at this one. Watching. Waiting. Ready to pounce and give you the news.

And if you manage to make it home without being given the news, it's waiting for you at the Tube station. It's there all around you. Unavoidable.

The news even creeps into the most two hallowed places of British life. Tesco's.

And the pub. Why do you need the news in the pub? Why do you need the news in Tesco's?

Why do you need the news in a cheeky little Belgravia bistro? "You can't move in London without someone giving you the news"

"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do sir?"

John Maynard Keynes

"Be compact, be brave, be confident. And keep your fingers crossed."

Fabio Capello talking about his new start up agency.

Actually, he was talking about this bunch of clowns, but I think that would be a fine statement of intent for any agency.

Home truths.

"If you were cooking steak at home and you dropped it on the floor, you'd pick it up, scrape off the dust and put it back on the grill.

If you saw that happen in a restaurant you'd scream and shout, insult the waiter, ask to speak to the manager and threaten to sue."

Gordon Ramsay.

"Tell people something they know already and they will thank you for it. Tell them something new and they will hate you for it."

Steady on. George Monbiot via David.

The three best words in the world

"Most people think it's I Love You, actually it's Told You So."

Said in a meeting today.

"We really do make the best adverts in the world, in this country"

"Dr" Neil Fox talking about the new M&S (Antonio Banderas) ad.

"That's a brilliant idea and they wasted it on a fucking advert!"

As said by someone I know.

Tangible digital

This is just an expression that I want to store here so that I don't forget it. That is all.

It's still your fault

"Imagine this design assignment: Design something that makes oxygen,  sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, accrues solar energy as fuel and makes complex sugars as food, creates  microclimates, changes sugars with the seasons, and self  replicates... Why don't we knock that down and write on it?"

Makes you think doesn't it?

Quote from William McDonough at TED, read more at Howies.

"I haven't spent the last lot yet"

When asked why he wasn't going to pay himself a (Bhs) dividend this year, Sir Philip Green said, "I don't need any money. I haven't spent the last lot yet."

Brilliant.

"a Mac almost killed me, and I came out of the whole experience feeling more strongly about Apple as a company"

Things about branding you can't explain in a PPT here.

Design is so simple, that is why it is so complicated.

Conran & Partners.

"The problem advertising agencies have got at the moment is that they keep getting asked to do things advertising agencies can't do."

Put that as a slide in your next presentation. That'll be a crowd pleaser.

Said by a good friend of mine this morning.

"opportunities for fresh disasters"

"There are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.

Boris Johnson MP

"there are six chairs round this table"

"I always say, look, there are six chairs round this table. Say there are six people sitting in them. Normally three of those can't make a decision, two will say nothing and one will say I'll do it. Now multiply that up to hundreds of thousands of people."

Sir Philip Green

"Some of the best logos are obvious, that's what makes them resilient."

Michael Bierut

15%

"Already, one major UK advertiser is making the sustainability score worth 15% of the 'marks' available for a pitch. That's enough to determine the outcome."

Advertising Practitioner

"always better to have two planes, because however well one plans ahead one always finds one is on the wrong continent."

Barbara Amiel-Black

"I took a stand, paid half a grand and got an iiiiiiiiiiPhone"

The brilliant David Pogue sings a musical ode to the iPhone. 'I Want An iPhone' to the tune of 'I Did It My Way'. Fantastic. Make sure you watch it here.

Where do you find the time?

Sometimes I have that rather embarrassing experience of meeting people who only know me through this blog. I say embarrassing because there isn't really official Crown approved etiquette for  "Ahhh yes, you write that blog don't you?". Especially as, for the most part, people don't know what I look like.

When meeting readers of this esteemed tome very quickly they ask me, "Where do you find the time to write all those posts?". (As a general rule the older they are the quicker they ask that question, which is probably a generational digital continuous partial attention thing, but I'm not a planner so I have no idea about that kind of stuff.) I normally answer, "I have no idea" or "it doesn't take that much time" or "you sort of get into a rhythm" but to be honest none of those answers is 100% correct.

Today I think I've found a proper answer.

Here's Alistair Campbell talking about the famous diaries he wrote whilst working at Number 10. "I kept a diary every day I worked for TB, and the total word count runs to well over two million words. In common with every other person who has seen them, I occasionally wonder how on earth I found the time. Perhaps it is true that the busier you are, the more time you find to get things done. I had a very busy, very demanding job, and a young family. Yet somehow I found time, sometimes just a few minutes, other days a lot longer, to record something of the day just gone."

That's exactly how blogging feels to me.

I especially love this bit, "the busier you are, the more time you find to get things done". I completely agree with this and it fits in with loads of other theories I've got stored up in my beautifully shaped head. Like successful people always get up earlier than unsuccessful people and when you're not winning the first thing you need to do is get winning again.

But the thing I love most about that quote is that it dovetails beautifully with another one of my favourite quotes which was written by someone who is the complete opposite of Alistair Campbell and thus we have that lovely circle thing that journalists and writers and bloggers crave for so much.

The quote is, "Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it." and it was said by Margaret Thatcher.

"Just trying to get some work done between meetings"

Rory Sutherland

"But the tricky thing about advertising is that you can’t just set it up and let it run on rails – it needs constant and senior attention if it is to deliver for you."

Richard Huntingdon Esq.

Magically produced books

"people ask me from time to time if I’ve thought about writing a book. Well, as a matter of fact, I have… but thinking about it hasn’t magically produced a manuscript, as it turns out."

The brilliant Khoi Vinh (whose name I can never spell without checking at least twice).

Thank you

"Thank you’s from clients can take all forms. Sometimes no news is a kind of thank you (it means nothing’s gone wrong)."

Great (and very true) quote from Michael Johnson.

Design does not mean veneer

"In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design."

Steve Jobs.

One Secret Is To Save Everything

More here.

20% to 33% equals an increase of 65%

  "Sir Martin, the chief executive of the world's second-largest advertising   company, expects further strength in the internet advertising market, adding   that the medium now accounts for 20 per cent of its sales. He believes the   proportion of sales from the internet will rise to about a third of its   business as penetration picks up in continental Europe."

Masterpiece

I read this little tale in the Evening Standard today. Because the Evening Standard suite of websites are so fucking shit I can't find the full story. So I'm going to try and write it down from memory; ie it may not be 100% accurate.

There is a tale about a man that finds an old masterpiece in his attic. It has lain undiscovered for centuries. The man contacts an expert who cannot believe it's lain undiscovered for so long and therefore must be a fake.

A few months later another, identical masterpiece is found. Now the expert is puzzled. Two identical paintings that have lain undiscovered for months. Which one is the fake?

Actually, both of them were fakes, but no one could see it. Sometimes we want something to be true so bad, greed clouds our vision.

"Old ladies dropped their parcels in shock"

Rev. W. Awdry

"off to the guardian - alan rusbridger read my blog and asked for me to meet with him"

Amelia Torode

"You can't beat quite good and free"

Russell Davies

1 million people x $600, I just did the math

"One million people have asked us to call when [the iPhone] is available"

AT&T (Cingular) CEO Randall Stephenson, 27th March 2007

"Good advertising is whatever works for this audience today, good design is eternal."

Richard Huntingdon (big cheese planner for WPP) has written a fabulous post about the differences between advertising and design

It's very well written and unusually for blogs and for the marketing industry it's not just a ding dong. It just talks about the differences - not we're better than you etc etc. It's all rather intelligent.

You should take a look and then contribute.

"First we design the buildings, then the buildings design us."

Duck comes back from dead, again

Is this sustainable design? Discuss.

"All structural elements, switchgear and trim are made from fully recyclable materials. Better still, it is highly unlikely that your car will ever need recycling at all. After all, more than 60% of all Porsche vehicles ever produced are still on the road today. This exceptional longevity is fundamental to the Porsche philosophy and, in particular, our approach to the environment."

More here.

"People don't want quarter-inch drills. They want quarter-inch holes."

Professor Theodore Levitt. Nothing new, I'm just storing it here. From this via Pink Air.

The BBC's Fifteen Web Principles

Bloody brilliant. I'm saving this link here so I can read and re-read and re-read. Via Darth Strategist's Delicious.

"The blog by a London designer offers intelligence without pedantry"

As said by the very clever people at Applied Arts Mag about this blog. ""Intelligence without pedantry" you can't argue with that as a strategy can you?

I might even get it tattooed.

If you only read one thing this weekend

Make sure you read these comments by Bruno Maag. If you like type, you'll find it fascinating.

"Let's get a little bit of history right. Arial was designed in the Monotype drawing offices, for Microsoft, in the late 80s"

"I am also no friend of Helvetica. In fact, I would love to see this typeface banned from use for a while. Just so designers can see that there is typographic pond life beyond."

"I'd happily give up my day job and wash plates if the rest of the world adopted Univers as the font to be used."

Read, learn and enjoy. You don't get this quality of typographic discussion everywhere.

"The first mobile device that I know of to use the typeface Helvetica throughout"

"It’s the first mobile device that I know of, and certainly the most elegant, to use the typeface Helvetica throughout its interface.

Everyone knows I’m a huge Helvetica fan, and you could sell me almost any device that uses the typeface, in part because there are no devices that do. But there’s a reason that this particular usage seems to signal something more to me."

What the ever excellent Khoi Vinh thinks about the use of Helvetica in a UI.

This is the new That

Brilliant and lovely. Taken from thediagram.com with many thanks. Via Design Observer. If you follow thediagram.com link you can see a much bigger version.

"There's a lot that could go wrong"

"many of the more revolutionary design aspects of the iPhone are—in hindsight—quite simple, provoking the much sought after 'Why didn't I think of that?' envy"

"For me, the iPhone is a Phone 2.0"

"That has to be very troubling to the competition because it's going to take them years to develop similar technical sophistication"

Find out what designers make of the iPhone in Business Week.

The best organisation of the information to aid the communication

This post and this post from Russell have made me think of another reason why the iPhone is so brilliant.

(Picture from the Darth Strategist, with thanks, usual stuff counts)

Yawn, yawn, another Mac fan saying how brilliant the iPhone is. Yes - but listen to these comments from one of those posts about the design of remote controls.

"you realise that remotes would be much better if they could evolve to highlight the buttons you regularly use"

"they should do a "big button" version so that grandparents who can't see so well and have arthritic fingers can use it. That goes for mobile phones too"

"Maybe they should supply his and hers remote controls"

"Why oh why are there no user intuitive remote controls?"

This is exactly what the iPhone will be able to do. The folksonomy of button design, if you like. It could learn which features you use most and only display those buttons.

(Picture taken from Apple, obviously. Usual stuff applies but I'm sure they won't mind. Especially as I'm about to give them $600.)

The best design organises information in the most useful way, but makes that organisation look seemless and elegant. Think Underground map. Not cartographically correct, but the best organisation of the information to aid the communication. That's what the iPhone should be able to do. That's great usability.

I once bought my Mum a calculator from the Early Learning Centre. Why? She kept complaining the screen and the buttons were too small on her calculator.

With an iPhone you could tell it you were 90 and struggling with the buttons and then you could download a bigger set of buttons through iTunes. How simple is that?

Etcetera.

And that is revolutionary. Now you might be thinking, 'yeah yeah, it's not that clever, anyone could have done it'.  Anyone hasn't got the iTunes infrastructure that Apple has. Anyone hasn't got the consumer confidence. And anyone hasn't done it. And as we keep saying it's all in the doing. Which is why everyone has phones designed like this.

(Picture of Steve Jobs talking about 'not so smart phones' at the iPhone launch, from Engadget, thanks chaps usual stuff applies)

I wonder if Matt has anything to add?

(My Mum isn't 90 by the way.)

"He has a gift of not putting too much in, which is a danger for many designers."

Good profile of Jonathan Ive in The Guardian last week.

"9:18 am if i die i want you to have my peripherals"

I hope you're watching...

"Doors with ambiguous hinges and handles that necessitate "push" or "pull" instructions."

Brilliant post (via Design Observer) about the worst designed everyday objects. Including:

1. "I always wondered why umbrellas have sharp metal points right at eye-level."

2. "The standard headphones that come with IPods."

3. "Pretty much everything ever marketed as storage for spices."

4. "The design of URLs, a pet peeve of mine. Almost all of them contain redundancies or dependencies that cause them to be way too long, or likely to become broken within a matter of months."

5. "I think many would say that the rulers of the US right now are poorly designed." (Do they mean Rulers or rulers?)

Fantastic stuff.
 

 

“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

Margaret Mead said that. I found it in something Tom Peters had written, which I found reading Graham's Owner Managed Business Wiki.

"Projects don't fail from a lack of charts, graphs, or reports, they fail from a lack of communication and collaboration."

Advice / inspiration for young designers.

Thomas Heatherwick is an innovative genius. Two words that get over used in this industry but two words that couldn't be more appropriate here.

Thomas Heatherwick is a designer who does amazing things like this:

This bridge, which takes obvious cues from nature, is the best thing I've seen in years. It's completely brilliant. Fantastic looking, brilliantly engineered, innovative, sensible, natural, a bloody good idea, in tune with it's surroundings. It's perfect.

There was an interview with him in last weeks ES magazine.

Two bits in particular struck me as fantastic advice for young designers or for people about to embark on a design career. I'm constantly interested in how creative people work and think and make decisions. This gives a small insight into that.

I find this fascinating. Give the choice between lengthy discussion about how the structure of a birds nest could be applied to a cathedral, he chooses making lots of things, fast and often. If you're a design student and you've ever wondered why your tutors go on and on about sketches and roughs - th