Flow
Optimizing Experience. In the management of any project, when there is the feeling of all-open creativity, everything's working, all systems are go, communications are excellent. How does that happen? • First off -- the link to the client side. Clear inquiry, clean...
The doorway
The Opening of the Next Portal I went through the door from the darkened interior to the light. There is some historical significance to the door -- I think of every door step as a metaphorical movement. The door is a symbol, like a window. It's a movement from one...
Are You Here Yet?
Hereness, Thereness, Whereness? Or are you a way? In the meditations on way-finding, finding a way, and designing experiences to help people to find their way, there is a point to which you ponder "am I lost? Or have I found my way?" There is an alignment to "way" and...
The Stage of a Journey: Rest
Meditations on Respite I was thinking about a remark from Tom Ford, that, to him, the greatest luxury is "sleep." According to Dawn Mello -- in a dinner conversation with her and her pal, Dawn A. Clark -- when she was working with Tom Ford, at Gucci, Milan, she...
Design that didn’t win | One Sheet Campaign Development
Design studies for "The Thing." This isn't my work [it was pointed out by friend Stuart Balcomb and the poster above was designed by Jock] -- but worthy of mention and exploration. It's interesting, as a perpetual student of design [and theatrical advertising] to...
Leo Burnett | Singapore
Small signs that tell a big story Environmental messages in place-making What if, when you came around the corner to a place in your office and there was a delicate message, reminding you of something, like: "Care"? "Do more, because you can." "Be better." What we've...
I’m Okay, You’re OK.
What is Okay, anyway? I was thinking about the notion of OK, what's that mean, really? The state of Okayness seems mediocre -- it's a condition where things are simply "all right," alright. All is right? What's rightness, a place of stability? Who cares about that?...
The Perfume of the Forest
The Pitch for the Pitch; Resins, Sap and Crushed Conifer In the storm, the fragranced molecules of the woods come alive. A shower of pollens, wood dust, and if the storm is fevered enough, conifers snap needles, deciduous trees shear branches and leaves, bark curls...
Game On | A legacy of Gaming Design
Identity, Story & Experience Design When you think about a game, it invariably is about play. Play and game. And, are you having fun? A quick play: see Girvin's gaming movie and specially commissioned sound track. What is play? What is game? Play is an old word....
The Sound and the Fury
The Acoustical Messages of Place In my study of experience narrative design and the experiencer in place -- for me and for others -- I ponder the notion of sound. As a designer of places to be, to tell stories, to share ideas and products, to evoke comfort,...