it's ok to have a messy desk

Al Gore in his home office (in the May 28th issue of Time magazine)

insight in a pizza box

Like so many other things (e.g. democracy, beauty, coolness), an 'insight' is hard to define but easy to recognize. From a recent Time magazine:

'It suddenly dawned on me that most people running from the law don't eat out, they order pizza.'
CYNTHIA BROWN, of the Butler County Child Enforcement Agency in Ohio, on her inspiration for placing wanted posters of child-support scofflaws on local pizza boxes in an effort to turn up the heat on deadbeat dads and mums.

where ideas come from

I took the excerpt below from this excellent article in The Independent, "Why don't we make good ads anymore?".
They interviewed the likes of Sir Martin Sorrell, Trevor Beattie, John Hegarty, and others, who offered their insight about the industry.
But the excerpt I took is from Sir Frank Lowe, a little bit out of context, but it offers a glimpse on how some of the world's greatest ads were created (by somebody who must know).
"...How many hours did it take Terry Lovelock to write "Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach"? He wrote it in the middle of the night in the La Mamounia hotel in Marrakech. He woke up and wrote it by the bedside. "Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet" was written by Tim Warriner when he lit up a cigar on the top deck of a London bus. How many hours was that? I found Stella Artois's "Reassuringly expensive" in the body copy of a print ad written by Geoff Seymour. It wasn't written as a line. "Every little helps" for Tesco was written by Paul Weinberger between going in and out of the loo when we were having a drink at the Paxton's Head pub in Knightsbridge." (via 407 In Vitro)

where ideas come from

I saw this Shell ad on "The Economist" magazine. It reminded me of something I had seen before but I couldn't quite remember where.
Determined to find the name of the artist who inspired this ad, I asked the help of my friend PL. He's a brilliant art director, and with his photographic memory, he quickly pointed me to this, the cover of the New York Times Magazine, Year in Ideas 2004 (subscribers only, sorry)......and to this, the cover of the Communication Arts, Photography Annual, from August 2005.Basically the same pictures.
But I still wanted to know the name of the artist who inspired this all, so I searched for "visual complexity", and from this site, I finally found the original source: British artist Jeremy Deller, who won the Turner Prize in 2004 with his "History of the World" mural. See below. I was amused to see that the jacket and the sweaters are almost the same color.And here the print version in black & white.

stand umbrella

This has got to be one of the cleverest product designs I've seen lately (via Jean Snow).
Available in black and in white, it costs ¥ 4,200, about US$ 36 (from 100%).
It brings a smile to my face.

it's ok to have a messy desk

"If an untidy desk signals a messy mind, then can we say that a clean desk signals an empty mind?".

I've always subscribed to the above theory but, unfortunately, without hard data, I've been on the losing end of this argument a couple of times.
Well somebody finally came to my rescue. Eric Abrahamson, a business academic, and David Freedman, a journalist, published a book, "A Perfect Mess", showing that to have "moderately" messy desks can lead to more efficient and more creative work. Compiling several cases throughout history to backup their case, they finally show that it's ok to have "moderately" messy desks (that's the caveat and I have yet to see if I qualify in that category) . The most interesting anecdote is the discovery of penicillin, an accident only possible because of the mold created in Sir Alec Fleming's messy desk. Genius!
Read the review in the "The Daily Yomiuri" here.

where ideas come from

Who would've thought? YouTube creators were inspired by HOTorNOT.com. According to an article in Time magazine (Dec. 16, 2006, the "Person of the Year" issue), "Chad and Steve agree that Karim deserves credit for the early idea that became, in Steve's words, "the original goal that we were working toward in the very beginning": a video version of HOTorNOT.com."

v&a museum of childhood

We went to newly renovated V&A Museum of Childhood in East London. It's a nice place to spend a few hours with your little ones. Apart from traveling back in time as you get to see many of the old toys you played with, the museum carries an interesting message about creativity and it's truly inspirational as they show how kids all over the world make their toys using very simple materials.


Play with words and use your imagination
A bus toy made by a boy in Uganda, using wires and wooden wheels.
The donation machine

where do ideas come from?

From an interview with Italian architect Renzo Piano (of Paris' Centre Georges Pompidou fame, which he designed with Richard Rogers), in Metropolis magazine:

When you visit buildings by other architects, what do you look for?
Haha! First, I enjoy them very much. Second, I steal everything. Stealing is maybe too hard a word. There’s an Italian word, you say “rubarro,” which means a nice robber, without a mask.

What did T.S. Elliot say, “Good poets borrow, great poets steal”?
It’s really about that. But art is about that. Music is about taking and giving back. In a way I spend my entire life stealing from everything—from the past, from cities I love, from where I grew up—grabbing things, taking not only from architecture but from Italy, art, writing, poetry, music. And you know what, I put all my robberies in a little piece of paper that I have with me and fill almost a whole sketch pad. Even when I don’t like a building, I still find something to take. This is probably because I was never a good school boy, so I grew up with the idea that I was not the first in class and I was a problem all the time. When you grow up with that idea, you spend your life taking from others.

where do ideas come from?

As the end of the year draws near, it's now time to join your co-workers for company parties. Some will risk going to a karaoke (we've all been there, haven't we?).
And it occurred to me that the karaoke is nothing more than a modern version of the old Max Fleischer cartoons with the "famous bouncing ball", which invited us to sing along. I used to watch these cartoons as a kid, and remember sitting in front of the TV absolutely enthralled by that bouncing ball. Here's Popeye singing his theme song (here).
From Popeye and the bouncing ball, we went to this. Enjoy it (and I bet you'll sing along).

where do ideas come from?

An excerpt from Chris Rock's interview to The New York Times Magazine:
----------------------------

How would you describe your creative process?
I try to come up with a crazy hypothesis and prove it right comedically. You say something that makes no sense — women are physically stronger than men — and prove it right. That’s kind of what you do.

Are you constantly jotting down ideas for potential jokes?
I’ve got a list on my BlackBerry.

So what have you got there, for instance?
Women who let their husband look better than them. If nothing else in the marriage, don’t let your husband look better than you. It’s a disaster for everybody. One thing about families, if it’s bad for one of you, it’s bad for the family.

----------------------------
Reference:

Solomon, Deborah. The Funny Formula. The New York Times Magazine. November 12, 2006 (here, with restrictions)