Archive for the 'Ideologies' Category

Picture from the motorcycle fair in Stockholm last weekend.
Live to Ride – Ride to Live!

To be more creative, disruptive and innovative in as many areas as possible, except this one. For 2013, that is my little plan!

In the middle of the 1930’s, the Czech car manufacturer Tatra launched its first drop-shaped aerodynamic model. In the picture, a Tatra T77a from 1937 in front of a T80 from 1935, at the Technical Museum in Prague.
This was a leap in the development of the automobile that was only surpassed by the introduction of [...]

I found this interesting little film on Facebook. It’s a description of what buddhism is about, and even though I will not judge the accuracy, I like it’s straight forwardness.
“Things are real – as they are – before we conceptualise them.” Something to reflect upon!
Also the text-to-movie technology (xtranormal) used for making the film is [...]

This year’s Business Model Summit, held by Cordial Business Advisers yesterday, was inspiring in many ways. To have a good business model has always been important but today the complexity calls for a closer attention and more creativity.
The media industry and music industry are maybe the most obvious examples of industries in urgent need to [...]

There have been many attempts to explain what value is, and the difference between the seller’s and the buyers’ product. Here’s another one!

For the seller the deal is about costs and revenue, for the buyer it’s about the perceived value. Only what is perceived has a value for the buyer, the customer. Again, the total [...]

A few days ago I attended a seminar at Transformator, a Swedish service design agency. They showed a very inspiring presentation with concrete and tangible examples – very refreshing in a design area that is still under development and where still most of its stakeholders seem to have a different view of what service design [...]

The video has now been published on YouTube.
To see my talk at TEDxNorrmalm, 17th of april 2010, click the image or this link.
Welcome!

Yesterday I went to TEDxHumlegården, one of the TEDx events in Stockholm this week. It was very inspiring, and how could it be otherwise including such titans as the always so engaging Klas Hallberg. marketing guru Stefan Engeseth (who dared to question Apple!) and Sigge Birkenfalk, who once taught me everything about strategic communication at [...]

Even though there was not an official theme for TEDx Norrmalm, there was definitely a common sector between the speakers. Danica Kragic, professor of Robotics and Computer Vision, talked about the work with robots and how they differ from human beings. ”Sensing is easy, perception is hard”.
Ulf Boman from Kairos Future talked about the future [...]

My talk was basically about my experiences from several creative areas, and the pattern I have seen when putting these on top of each other. Instead of a PowerPoint I used the blue and red glove so that the audience could follow the idea and make up their own minds on the pattern I am [...]

It seems like in today’s media world, many companies, organisations and individuals are struggling to improve their communication skills. They are trying to clarify their message, formulate information goals, developing ways to show the difference in how they do things differently than others. Which is fine! But not so often do you hear about a [...]

Around the 80’s a new style emerged in product design, furniture and architecture. One of the leaders was the Memphis group, with Ettore Sottsass. Simple things like a piece of furniture having several colours were quite new at the time. The objects and buildings clearly broke with the modernistic tradition and started to mix style [...]

By now I think that the idea of how the western world has moved from an industrial state into a post-industrial state, is rather accepted. There are plenty of interesting readings to be found on and off line. I will only refer to this briefly.
What actually interests me is how this model, this shift from [...]

Literature is not really my area, but as some people I have talked to have mentioned this, I did a little research and came up with the rough sketch below. Of course literature is already from the beginning “experience” and there is not the same shift of practice from physical to mental, but still you [...]

Someone said that the success of any company, organisation or even country depends on the degree of collaboration.

I can only agree.

Once upon a time, the signs around us referred to known things like natural phenomena. And symbols were given specific things. Today it has become much more complicated, but also more interesting. When we dress in the morning we choose attributes, statements and stories for ourselves and others to see.
Symbols and other signs not only [...]

I am trying to find the connection between all these aspects. Which are the drivers in this transition that so many products and services go through? I can see so clearly the “before and after”, in so many areas. But how can I explain it?
I think a part of it is about choice. Let’s take [...]

I once saw a lecture by Nitin Nohria at Harvard on the subject of this headline. It was about research that he with colleagues had done on successful companies and their strategies. It cooked down to a few very simple rules, and if I were to condense them again, into one sentence, that would be [...]

Even in the major world conflicts you can see how focus has shifted from physical to mental. If you simplify this vast and complex subject into four images you may see this pattern:

World War 1: Basically traditional warfare man-to-man in the fields.
World War 2: Modernistic, industrialistic warfare added the use of not only all the [...]

Can something just be “beautiful” in itself? Looking for examples I find my turntable below. But then I realise that the consequences of this product design were more interesting than that. The beauty is not only in its minimalistic brushed metal shapes, but also in its statement towards the ordinary.
Basically, the traditional modernistic approach to [...]

This shift in focus is also compatible with the idea of our brains being split in two parts. Even though the brain physically is much more complicated than that, it’s a handy model for discussing different ways of thinking. Maybe also for discussing the competencies needed in this new context.
Again, I think it is important [...]

Here is a first rough illustration of the shift in various areas. Of course this model is very simplified and I want to point out the aspects which are increasingly in focus, not an absolute truth!

Obviously the later aspects don’t replace the earlier. But for me the change of focus is quite evident. You may [...]

When I was a design student in the 80’s, “styling” was a bad word. Any element of a design that was not motivated by technical or practical functionality, or perhaps support to practically understanding the product, was dismissed as “styling”. The expressions should be based on these aspects, clad in harmonious shapes. But if these [...]

Architecture is one of the areas where “postmodern” is referred to as a special style in the 1980’s, which makes the postmodern discussion a bit tricky.
Sweden was one of the leading countries in early modernistic architecture. Functionalism was introduced at the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930. It went very well together with the upcoming creation of [...]

Motivational theories like those of Maslow and Hertzberg also follow the pattern from practical needs to experience. What they have in common is the idea that if you don’t have enough of the basics you will do what you can to fulfil these needs – shelter, food, enough salary to pay the rent. When the [...]

Functionalism emerged in the 1930 as a reaction to the large number of low quality, often cheap copy products that had been pumped out by the growing industry since the late 19th century. Organisations like Swedish Slöjdföreningen and the Art and Crafts movement had promoted good examples and with the social and economic change, time [...]