Schindler's Lift.
If you've been coming here for a while you might recall that last summer I did a sponsored walk (and very many of you were extremely kind and sponsored me with lots of money, for which I'm very grateful). The sponsorship went towards raising funds for a charity called Shishukunj, which I've been supporting for a number of years (one of my very best friends is the President, you see).
And if you've been coming here even longer you might just possibly recall that in the summer of 2007 I invited you to come on over to Shishukunj's 30th birthday celebrations, the Shishu Mela. One of the highlights of which was a performance by percussion virtuoso Sivamani. Now yesterday I happened to pop over to TED, and guess who I found on the home page? Yes, that's right: Sivamani.
All of which is rather a long preamble to suggesting that you turn the volume up to the max and take sixteen and a half minutes out of your Friday afternoon. Enjoy:
"Maybe naming him Rimbaud wasn’t such a good idea."
Unhappy Hipsters seems to be doing the rounds this morning (so far I've seen it on Binky the doormat and Angus Whines). If you haven't seen it yourself, do pop over: it takes the rise out of Dwell and is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
I hadn’t given Apple's newest creation a lot of thought. I already had decided (my bank balance aided in this decision-making) that I will not be an early adopter like I was with the iPhone in 2007 -- this just didn't initially seem "need-to-have". Then I read a quote from developer Joe Hewitt, who commented “ if you're a developer and you're not thinking about how your app could work better on the iPad and its descendants, you deserve to get left behind.” Something clicked for me. Graphic designers have depended on one software developer for the majority of the tools of our trade. A developer that is, in my opinion, extremely lazy and complacent.
I read something a while back on this very blog that sticks with me. David said, "the tools that designers used 20 years ago are not the tools we use now. Right now the Macintosh with Adobe Creative Suite is the standard of the industry, but it won't always be." For younger designers (I had just graduated college when I read this) this was a revelation. It’s just hard to think of something being "beyond" InDesign. It just seems like no one’s going to be able to top Adobe at their own game. When will someone get the chance to beat the huge, established expertise and recognition that Adobe has?
As it happens, maybe no one has to beat Adobe at their own game, the game just has to change. The iPhone was a "must have" device for me based on for what features it came with, but I imagine the iPad will gain earn that distinction through the advances made by developers who will dream up something I can't live without. And I don't think that developer will be Adobe. Ever since I first played with the iPhone, I knew that some day we would design things using some sort of tactile technology or something that resembled the interfaces in Minority Report; I just didn’t know when. It still seemed to distant — there has to be something in between, to get us from here to there. Maybe the iPad is it. The race to develop the next generation tools for graphic design is wide open.
I wasn't intending to say any more about the Chartered Society of Designers: I thought I'd said everything that I thought appropriate to say at the time of my resignation and the lead-up to it. Essentially I resigned because it was made crystal clear that the Society didn't particularly want members like me (members who ask questions, that is). However, Monday's post on the Creative Review Blog (as I mentioned yesterday) demonstrates, on the strength of the comments, that there are some strongly-held opinions about what the Society is seeking to do in applying to the UK Government to approve a system of professional certification for designers.
But before we get too hot under the collar, here's the reality:
The whole thing puts me in mind of an amusing little exchange that I witnessed when I sat as a juror at a Coroner's Court last year. I didn't tell you at the time, but I had been elected as foreman of the jury and it was my responsibility to complete an official form that determines the cause and circumstances of death, which then goes on the public record. And the form that is presented in each case (by the Coroner to the jury) is already partially completed. Now in the first case we heard, we (that is me, with the agreement of the other members of the jury) duly entered the time, place and circumstances of death, based upon the evidence given. But the pre-completed part of the form gave a different place of death (a hospital, to which the body had been transferred). Anyway, there was a smart young lawyer present (representing one of the parties involved) who made great play with the notion that their was a 'mischief' in the paperwork, because there were two places of death cited.
I say that the exchange (between the lawyer and the Coroner) was amusing, simply because the word 'mischief' isn't one that you would expect to hear in such circumstances. But then this was a lawyer, and he knew precisely what the word 'mischief' meant in that context.
And I'm wondering whether the Creative Review Survey on this matter isn't a means of creating a little mischief of its own.
Well here I am, back from Wales. Only just though: because if those Welsh hill farmers had their way I wouldn't be here at all. First of all one tried to knock me down in Dolgellau - and all because I was stood on the pavement looking in a shop window. Admittedly it was an estate agents: perhaps he thought I was about to buy up the whole town (as if! - although most of it does appear to be up for grabs). And then I went walking. With my friend Ray. Up a hill. On a footpath. Except we had trouble finding exactly where the footpath joined the farm track (and, yes, we were using an Ordnance Survey map). So this is where we stopped and asked for some assistance - our position's marked on the satellite image here:
And have you ever spoken to a Welsh hill farmer? Because the first thing is that they flatly refuse to make eye contact with you. And then if you ask them where the footpath is, this is what you get: "no footpath here - sign at the bottom says that." Bloody miserable sod.
And of course there is a footpath there: through the gate and round the dog-leg above the red circle there. Come at it from another direction and here are the footpath signs (on the gateposts there):
So, byddaf yn anghytuno, fy ffrind. You're not going to stop me coming to Wales. And walking on your footpaths.
I missed the launch of the iPad while I was away, of course. Now maybe those Welsh farmers have put me in a grumpy frame of mind. But that's a pig in a poke by Apple standards, isn't it?