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When you see an object, you make so many
assumptions about that object in seconds.
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What it does, how well it going to do it,
how heavy it is, how much you think it should cost?
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The object testifies to the
people that conceived it,
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thought about it, developed it,
manufactured it?
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ranging from issues of form
to material to its architecture
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to how it connects to you
?how you touch it, how you hold it.
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Every object,
intentional or not
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speaks to who put it there.
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We work as consultants, which means we work with
a lot of different companies in a lot of different fields
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But really our common interest is in understanding
people, and
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what their needs are. So if you
start to think, really what these
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do as consultants is focus on
people, then it's easy to think
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about what's needed design-wise in the kitchen, or
the hospital, or in the car.
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We have clients come to us and say, here's our
average customer, for instance she's female,
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she's 34 years old, she has 2.3 kids. And we listen
politely and say, well that's great but
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we don't care about that person. What we really
need to do to design,
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is look at the extremes, the weakest, or the person
with arthritis, or the athlete,
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or the strongest or the fastest person. Because if
we understand what the extremes are,
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the middle will take care of itself.
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These are actually things I haven't seen in
1,000 years.
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We tried to use less material, like here's one that's
hollow inside.
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A good friend of mine, Sam Farber, he was
vacationing with his wife, Betsy.
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I got a phone call one night, he was so excited he
said he couldn't sleep.
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And what he was excited about was he'd been
cooking dinner with Betsy and she was making
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an apple tart. And she was complaining about the
peeler, that it was hurting her hands.
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She had arthritis, and she just couldn't hang on to it.
And it hit Sam at that moment
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that here's a product that nobody's really
thought about.
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And our thought was, well if we can make it work for
people with arthritis, it could be good for everybody.
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We knew that it had to be a bigger handle. Kids
have big crayons because they're easier
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to hold onto. It's the same thing for somebody that
might not have full mobility of the their hand,
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they need something a little bit larger, that's a little
easier to grip with a little less force.
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So we did a lot of studies around the shape of the
handle, the size of it, to come up with a size
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that would be perfect for everybody.
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But eventually we found a rubberized bicycle grip,
and we basically did this.
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So, it really goes through many, many, more
iterations than you would think
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to do a handle that's relatively simple in the end.
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I think one thing with a hand pruner is that you have
this constant friction happening
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when you're closing it.
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But I feel like here's the spot that really hurts, this is
the biggest pressure point for me.
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So it's like here in this area, on all four fingers,
you have friction.
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So when we start out doing a project, looking at
these different tools to understand
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how we can design a better
experience for someone,
ergonomically
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So what we did here was to map it out, when we did
the exercise with the glove, understanding where
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the pressure points are, then we go into this
process of developing models of some of the ideas.
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One thing we realized with this model, if you
compare with other hedge shears, a lot of them
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just have a straight handle, you don't have any
control over the weight. So if you're cutting
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far down, you have to squeeze harder to hold the
tool in place, otherwise it's going to slide
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out of your hands. So by sculpting this handle area,
it locks your hand around this form,
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so you have to squeeze less, so you have a really
secure grip.
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We're really at the final stages of our design here,
where we put them into a place where we can
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control them much more closely to get them ready
for manufacture, and that is known as CAD
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or Computer Aided Design.
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It's very important that we
constantly are verifying our CAD
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with physical models.
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Once you get into that, we use a set of technologies
that are called rapid prototyping,
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so we can really finely control the ergonomics of
these parts.
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So there are the two halves that come out of the
machine, and you can glue them together to make
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an entire handle, and attach them to prototypes
such as this so we can go out and feel the
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comfort and work with it, and make sure our CAD
model really represents our design intention.
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The way we think of design is, let's put great design
into everyday things,
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and understand how to make these gadgets
perform better.
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And that's what we're always looking for whenever
we design are ways we can improve
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the way people do things, or improve their daily life,
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without them even knowing it or thinking about it.
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Japanese gardeners, the bonsai must be cut in
a way,
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that a small bird can fly through it. It's nice, isn't it?
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But all the other trees, you also have to cut them.
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It's much more so, in Japan. They have to cut them,
they have to...
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we would say... to design them. But why are we
doing all this?
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We are doing a lot, to design our world now, we
even design the nature.
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I remember the first time I saw an Apple product.
I remember it so clearly because
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it was the first time I realized, when I saw this
product,
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I got a very clear sense of the people who designed
it and made it.
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A big definition of who you are as a designer
is the way that you look at the world.
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And I guess it's one of the curses of what you do,
you're constantly looking at something and thinking,
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why is it like that? Why is it like that and not
like this?
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And so in that sense, you're constantly designing.
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When we're designing a product, we have to look to
different attributes of the product,
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and some of those attributes will be the materials
it's made from, and the form
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that's connected to those materials. So for example
with the first iMac that we made,
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the primary component of that was the cathode ray
tube, which was spherical. We would have an
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entirely different approach to designing something
like that, than the current iMac, which is a very thin
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flat-panel display.
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Other issues would be, just physically how do you
connect to the product, so for example
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with something like the iPhone, everything defers to
the display.
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A lot of what we seem to be doing in a product like
that is getting design out of the way.
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And I think when forms develop with that sort of
reason, and they're not just arbitrary shapes,
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it feels almost inevitable, it feels almost
un-designed. It feels almost like,
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well of course it's that way, why wouldn't it be any
other way.
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This is the bezel for the iMac. When we remove the
aluminum for the display in the center,
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we actually take that material and then we can
make two keyboard frames from it.
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These are literally just a couple of the stages of how
you make the MacBook Air.
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Rough cutting... this is for the keyboard well. And
there is just a remarkable efficiency and beauty
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to how much a single part can do, and one of things
we push and push ourselves on is trying to
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figure out, can we do the job of those six parts with
just one.
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This part actually starts off as this extrusion, this is
an aluminum extrusion that goes through
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multiple operations, most of them CNC machined
operations, to end up...
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to end up with this part. And you can see, just a
dramatic transformation
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between this raw blank and the final part.
But what we end up with,
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is a part that's got all of the mounting features, all of
the bosses... this is just one part,
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but this one part is providing so much functionality.
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And this one part really does enable this product.
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So much of the effort behind a product like the
MacBook Air was experimenting
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with different processes. There's a... it's completely
non-obvious,
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but the way that you hold... to get from this part, to
this part...
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there's an incredibly complex series of fixtures to
hold this part in the different machine stages.
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And we end up spending a lot of time designing
fixtures.
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The design of this, in many ways wasn't the design
of a physical thing,
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it was figuring out process.
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It's really important in a product to have a sense of
a hierarchy of what's important
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and what's not important, by removing those things
that are all vying for your attention.
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An indicator has a value when it's indicating
something.
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But if it's not indicating something, it shouldn't be
there.
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It's one of those funny things, you spend so much
time to make it less conspicuous and less obvious.
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And if you think about it so many of the products
that we're surrounded by, they want you to be very
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aware of just how clever the solution was.
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When the indicator comes on, I wouldn't expect
anybody to point to that as a feature,
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but at some level I think you're aware of a calm and
considered solution,
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that therefore speaks about how you're going to use
it, not the terrible struggles
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that we as designers and engineers had in trying to
solve some of the problems.
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That's quite obsessive, isn't it?
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We now have a new generation of products where
the form bears absolutely no relation
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to the function. I mean, look at something like an
iPhone and think of all the things it does.
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In "ye olden days" of what are called analog
products, in other words they're not digital,
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they're not electronic, something like a chair or a
spoon. "Form follows function" tended to work.
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So if say you imagine being a Martian and you just
land on planet Earth, and you've never seen
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a spoon or a chair before. You can guess roughly
what you're supposed to do with them...
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sit on them or feed yourself with them... by the
shape of the object, by the way it looks.
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Now all that has been annihilated by the microchip.
So design is moving from this culture of
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the tangible and the material, to an increasingly
intangible and immaterial culture,
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and that poses an enormous number of tensions
and conflicts within design.
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I think there are really three phases of modern
design.
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One of those phases, or approaches if you like, is
looking at the design in a formal relationship,
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the formal logic of the object. The act of form-giving,
form begets form.
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The second way to look at it is in terms of the
symbolism, and the content of what you're
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dealing with. The little rituals that make up...
making coffee, or using a fork and knife,
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or the cultural symbolism of a particular object.
Those come back to inhabit and help give form,
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help give guidance to the designer about how that
form should be, or how it should look.
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The third phase is looking at design in a contextual
sense, in a much bigger-picture scenario.
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It's looking at the technological context for that
object, it's looking at the human-object relationship.
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For the first phase you might have something fairly
new, like Karim Rashid's Kone vacuum
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for Dirt Devil, that the company sells as so beautiful
that you can put it on display,
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in other words you can leave it on your counter and
it doesn't look like it's a piece of crap.
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Conversely you can look at James Dyson and his
vacuum cleaners. He approaches the design
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of the vacuum in a very functionalist manner, but if
you look at the form of it,
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it's really expressing that, it's expressing the
symbolism of function.
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There's color introduced into it, and he's not a
frivolous person, so it's really there to articulate
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the various components of the vacuum. Or you
could look at, in a more recent manifestation
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of this kind of contextual approach, would be
something like the Roomba.
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There the relationship to the vacuum is very
different. First of all there's no more human
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interaction relationship, the relationship is to the
room it's cleaning.
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I think it's even more interesting that the company
actually has kits available in the marketplace
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through iCreate, and it's essentially the Roomba
vaccum cleaner kit that's made for hacking.
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People are really wacky, they've created things like
Bionic Hamster, which is attaching
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the play wheel or dome that the hamster uses as
the driving device for the Roomba,
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so it's the ultimate revenge of the animal on the
vacuum cleaner.
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How I think about it as a designer myself is that
design is the search for form,
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what form should this object take.
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And designers have asked that question, and used
different processes.
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Hey, what about the forks for the bike?
Can you make a few inquiries?
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Because l'd love to do the forks, I think
the forks would be really cool.
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Well this is my little table of... one of my tables...
you know l've got a whole workshop downstairs
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which is just full of shit. But these are just things
that I just find interesting,
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and things I want to have around and look at.
Sometimes these are the materials
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that l'm looking for an excuse to use, as opposed to
the other way around.
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But things like Micarta, this is one of my favorite
materials, and it's actually made of linen,
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so it's a bit like wood, actually, it feels like a living
material. And it's enormously heavy.
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And these kind of weird meshes, how cool is that. I
have no idea what they use this for...
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it's like this stainless steel... braided... stuff.
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My career didn't start after art school, it started
when I made my first object
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in my grandfather's garage. I remember my uncle
had said as soon as I could tell the time,
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he'd give me a wristwatch. So I figured out how to
tell the time, and he gave me this wristwatch,
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and I promptly pulled it to bits. I went out to my
grandfather's garage and found an old bit of
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Plexiglas and started hacking away at this bit of
Plexiglas and drilling holes,
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and I transplanted this movement from this
once-working watch into it.
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That was my first....
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...design, I guess.
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I grew up in a generation... you know I can
remember when they landed on the moon.
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I can't deny that that was a massive event in my
life. All of my dreams were about the future.
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What I want to do is to be able to have things that
don't exist..... things you can't go out and buy,
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or things that irritate you. Anger, or dissatisfaction
at the very least,
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plays such an important role in motivating you,
to do what we do.
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But ultimately my job as a designer is to look into
the future,
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it's not to use any frame of reference that exists
now. My job is about what's going to happen,
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not what has happened.
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As a designer, my philosophy is fundamentally
non-disposable,
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and somehow trying to offer products that you want
to keep,
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and products that you feel most importantly will
stand the test of time.
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That hopefully won't date as badly as other things.
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Because it's all about wanting to have new things,
isn't it? Ultimately, we could all still be
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using the mobile phone we had three years ago.
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But you know we've all had about five
in the meantime.
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Of course I fundamentally believe that something
that's well-designed should not necessarily
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cost more. Arguably it should cost less. But the
problem is that design has become a way
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for a lot of companies to "add value" because
something is designed, and therefore
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charge more money for it.
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And it will become more and more pervasive, and
things will be
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marketed in terms of design, in the future.
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The idea of elitism and the idea of design are
merged. And it's out of this kind of culture
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that the idea of democratization of design comes
from. I always tell people that I grew up
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with good design in my home,
with all the Joe Columbo
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and Achille Castiglioni pieces,
not because we were rich, or
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my parents were educated in design. Not at all, we
were totally middle class and my parents
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are doctors. It's just because that's what you would
find at the corner.
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There's design that costs more, and design that
costs less. Some of it is good, some of it is bad.
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"Democratization of design" is an empty slogan,
it should really not even exist.
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Target, in particular, fell right into line with, and
influenced a lot of pop culture thinking
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about the importance of design and the virtue of
design. The basic idea was good design is
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something you want, good design
is something that distinguishes you,
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it's sort of a mark of progress,
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if you are a person who recognizes good design it
distinguishes you from all the naive and
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00:33:32,511 --> 00:33:38,780
corny bourgeois of the past, the past being
everything up to that minute.
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So you can now buy into that, you can buy into
progress, good design, good taste.
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And they had it available to you in a very attainable
way.
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Often the way that a product comes into being isn't
because a bunch of expert designers
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sat down and said, "What are the ten most
important problems we can solve?"
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There's a company that's writing a check. And what
the company wants is new SKU's,
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they want more stuff, and they want more people to
buy it. And that's the name of the game.
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We tend to want new things.
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They can do something that has a different look, a
fresher look, a newer look,
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a new-now, next-now kind of look.
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And the problem with spending a lot of time
focusing on what's very now and very next
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is that it isn't very forever. And that means it doesn't
last, because there's someone else coming along
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trying to design what's now and next after that.
And part of their agenda,
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whether it's over-articulated or not, is to make
whatever used to be now,
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Iook like then, so that people will buy the new now.
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Cars are the biggest and most abundant set of
sculptures that we have
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in contact every day in our lives.
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Although they're reproduced by machines, and
computer milled stamps that make them,
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actually every one of them was originally carved by
hand, by men and women using techniques
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not a whole lot different than Michelangelo.
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Car designers are making
extremely dynamic, sexy
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objects, in theory. But in reality,
they're bending metal, plastic,
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glass. This isn't like a woman coming down a
catwalk, where she's swishing the dress and
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showing a little bit here and there, and getting your
eyes to goggle. Unh-uh. This thing is frozen in time.
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Which means we have to create it in a way so that
you as the observer look at it,
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and you put the motion into it, by the way you scan
it. Because that car has to be a reflection
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of that emotional energy that you want to see in it.
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I believe very strongly in the emotional authenticity
of the product, it should reflect what it is.
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So if the car is a performance object it should have
that feel.
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It is quite bothersome to me when I see humanistic
elements of a car being strangely handled.
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For instance, cars have a face.
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Well, you can have lots of faces. But when you put
that one face on a car, it's there forever,
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it's just one expression. And because cars have
evolved to having two elements,
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big taillights and a license plate, the backs of cars
have also evolved a face,
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also very interesting, and some of those are
awfully... challenging.
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How do we solve problems of lightness, how do we
solve problems of efficiency? I think these
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are things that are going to be difficult, but we can
solve those. But the real challenges of car design
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are going to be addressing the future generations'
perceptions of what they want cars to be in their
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Iives? Do they want them to fade into the
background, and just be there when they need
one?
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Or do they want them to stand up and be a
representative of them, basically like we grew up
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with it, they're kind of like avatars. I show myself to
the outside world through this car.
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When you own the car and you drive the car, even
your decisions about are you going to put
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a bumper sticker on it... there's an idea of an
audience.
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I feel pretty strongly, and this is true not just for cars
but for almost everything we buy, that our real
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00:38:06,618 --> 00:38:13,353
audience is really ourselves. And that the person
that you're really speaking to
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when you're speaking about why me in this car,
why is this the right car for me...
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you're making a statement to yourself about
yourself.
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In sort of an abstract way, you're thinking about
what they might be thinking of you,
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and whether or not they like your Obama sticker, or
your Save the Whales, or...
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or your Christian fish, or whatever it might be.
But the crucial thing is the self,
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it's your own audience, your own story of l'm not
that guy, or I am that guy, or that woman.
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Because the truth is no one cares, on the highway.
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Design is about mass production.
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Design is using industry to produce serialized
goods.
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And I try everything I can in the mass market to
change the goods, that people who know
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nothing about design, or the people who say they
don't care about design, or the people who
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don't believe their world should have contemporary
goods in it.
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Those are the people I think design can have such
an amazing affect on their lives.
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When I was a teenager, I had this white -- from
Claritone, I think it was a Canadian company,
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it was a white bubble stereo, with two bubbled white
speakers.
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And it was probably very inexpensive, it was a real
democratic product. It was a turntable,
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and the whole thing built in. And it was a beautiful
thing... Looking back,
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and thinking why it was a beautiful thing, was
because it was very self-contained,
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and the message was very strong and very simple,
and at the same time it was very human.
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There was a quality about it, it was like a womb, it
was like an extension of us, somehow.
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It was soft, it was engaging. And I used to have this
alarm clock radio, a Braun,
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that Dieter Rams designed in the late '60s.
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And they were these objects in my life that I really
was in love with, they brought so much to me.
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And I can remember going through the teenage
angst thing, of feeling depressed or something,
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and lying on my bed, and I would just look at the
alarm clock, and felt better immediately.
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So I always had this really strong relationship with
physical products.
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There's something that moves through a lot of my
forms, and that is to speak about a kind of
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digital, technological, or techno-organic world.
Somehow if I do things that are very,
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very organic, but l'm using new technologies, I feel
like l'm doing something in a way
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00:44:46,384 --> 00:44:52,323
that's a physical interpretation of the digital age.
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00:44:55,159 --> 00:45:01,496
We have advanced technologically so far, and yet
somehow it's some sort or paranoia where we're
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00:45:01,599 --> 00:45:08,334
afraid to really say We live in the third technological
revolution. I have an iPod in my pocket,
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00:45:08,472 --> 00:45:13,239
I have a mobile phone, I have a laptop, but then
somehow I end up going home and sitting on
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00:45:13,344 --> 00:45:19,112
wood-spindled Wittengale chairs. So in a way you
could argue that we're building all these
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00:45:19,250 --> 00:45:26,679
really kitsch stage sets, that have absolutely
nothing to do with the age in which we live.
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It's strangel. I find it extremely perverse, in a way. I
mean imagine right now, l'm sitting here on my
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Iaptop, and l've got to go out. What am I going to
do, get in my horse and carriage? Of course not!
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00:45:39,437 --> 00:45:45,171
Why do we feel like we need to keep revisiting the
archetype over and over again?
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00:45:45,643 --> 00:45:50,648
Digital cameras, for example, their format and
proportion, the fact that they're a horizontal
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00:45:50,648 --> 00:45:58,556
rectangle, are modeled after the original silver film
camera. So in turn it's the film that defined
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00:45:58,556 --> 00:46:02,754
the shape of the camera. All of the sudden our
digital cameras have no film.
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So why on earth do we have the same shape we
have. Now without sounding like a hypocrite,
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I revisit archetypes, l've designed many chairs. With
that given, you say, okay now l'm going to design
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00:46:12,570 --> 00:46:17,575
a chair. What can I do here? How can I put my
fingerprint on it and differentiate it from everyone
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00:46:17,575 --> 00:46:22,672
else and every other designer? And am I playing a
game to show I can differentiate?
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00:46:22,747 --> 00:46:28,151
or am I actually really doing something that is
contributive? Because the big issue with design is,
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00:46:28,219 --> 00:46:32,121
are the things we are doing really making an affect
and making change?
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00:46:34,925 --> 00:46:40,886
78% of the world is completely impractical. 78%% of
the world is uncomfortable. You feel it.
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00:46:40,965 --> 00:46:45,736
You feel that hotel rooms are poorly designed, you
sit in chairs that are very uncomfortable.
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00:46:45,736 --> 00:46:49,507
And it's craziness. Imagine that if you design a
million chairs to date, or however many chairs have
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00:46:49,507 --> 00:46:53,010
been done in the world, why on earth should we
have an uncomfortable chair?
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00:46:53,010 --> 00:46:56,343
There's no excuse whatsoever.
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00:46:56,847 --> 00:47:02,286
People need to demand that design performs for
them and is special in their lives.
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00:47:02,286 --> 00:47:04,413
these objects that they buy.
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00:47:04,522 --> 00:47:08,185
If you can't make your GPS
thing work in your car,
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00:47:08,259 --> 00:47:11,786
there should be a riot because
they're so poorly designed.
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00:47:11,896 --> 00:47:17,425
Instead, the person sits there and thinks, "Oh, l'm
not very smart, I can't make this GPS thing work."
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00:47:17,501 --> 00:47:21,403
I can't make the things work! This is my field and l
can't make them work!
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00:47:21,939 --> 00:47:26,774
If you design something that's precious and that
you really love, you're never going to leave that.
316
00:47:26,844 --> 00:47:31,304
My father's briefcase, made out of a beautiful piece
of leather, gets better with use. And l've inherited it
317
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and l'll pass it on, right? It's a really interesting
thing, sometimes I get that task which is:.
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00:47:37,221 --> 00:47:43,561
design something that gets better with use. There's
very few things, they mostly degrade, but...
319
00:47:43,561 --> 00:47:47,930
some things like this briefcase get better with use.
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Now that's a pretty sweet tick-over, don't you think?
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I like the concept of wearing in
rather than wearing out.
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You'd like to create something where the emotional
relationship is more satisfying over time.
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00:48:21,165 --> 00:48:28,333
And you may not worry about it, or think about it...
people don't have to have a strong
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00:48:28,439 --> 00:48:35,208
Iove relationship with their things, but they should
grow a little more fond of them over time.
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00:48:36,046 --> 00:48:41,245
For example on the laptop that I designed, it's
actually a magnesium enclosure
326
00:48:41,318 --> 00:48:46,950
but it has paint on the outside. And when it gets
dinged, if it's dropped and
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a bit of paint chips off and you see some of the
magnesium showing through,
328
00:48:50,394 --> 00:48:54,353
somehow it feels better because of that.
329
00:48:55,933 --> 00:49:02,964
The computer we call the Grid Compass, the
Compass computer, arguably the first laptop
330
00:49:03,040 --> 00:49:08,842
that was actually ever produced is this one. You
could carry it with you, we designed it to be
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00:49:08,913 --> 00:49:13,441
thin enough to fit in half your briefcase, so you
could put papers in as well.
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00:49:13,517 --> 00:49:20,491
Then there was a leg at the back that flipped down,
to put it at the right angle, for using
333
00:49:20,491 --> 00:49:25,451
the ergonomic preferred angle of 11 degrees. We
wanted to devise a hinge that would allow it
334
00:49:25,529 --> 00:49:32,059
to rotate so the display could come up, but also not
let anything into the electronics behind.
335
00:49:32,169 --> 00:49:38,631
So in order to avoid something like a pencil falling
into it, let me just show you what could happen,
336
00:49:38,742 --> 00:49:43,702
if you put a pencil on the back it would roll down
and drop inside. I designed a scoop,
337
00:49:43,781 --> 00:49:48,445
that would then self-eject the pencil when you
closed it.
338
00:49:49,119 --> 00:49:53,055
That was a little trick.... of that.
339
00:49:55,826 --> 00:50:01,958
When I got the first working prototype, I took the
machine home, really thrilled about
340
00:50:02,132 --> 00:50:09,139
wanting to use it myself. And it was with great pride
that I opened up the display and thought
341
00:50:09,139 --> 00:50:13,769
how clever I was to have designed this latch and
this hinge and all this stuff.
342
00:50:13,844 --> 00:50:19,680
And then, I started to actually try and use it. And
within a few moments, I found myself
343
00:50:19,750 --> 00:50:26,280
forgetting all about my physical design, and
realizing that everything I was really interested in
344
00:50:26,357 --> 00:50:31,124
was happening in my relationship between what
was happening behind the screen.
345
00:50:31,228 --> 00:50:36,188
I felt like I was kind of being sucked down inside the
machine, and the interaction between me
346
00:50:36,300 --> 00:50:41,567
and the device was all to do with the digital software
and very little to do with the physical design.
347
00:50:43,574 --> 00:50:48,978
That made me realize that if I was going to truly
design the whole experience, I would really have
348
00:50:49,046 --> 00:50:56,248
to learn how to design this software stuff.
That made me search for a name for it,
349
00:50:57,321 --> 00:51:01,758
which we ended up calling interaction design.
350
00:56:21,311 --> 00:56:27,216
Arguably the biggest single challenge facing every
area of design right now is sustainability.
351
00:56:28,252 --> 00:56:33,212
It's no longer possible for designers to ignore the
implications of continuing to produce
352
00:56:33,290 --> 00:56:38,250
more and more new stuff that sometimes we need,
and sometimes we don't need.
353
00:56:38,929 --> 00:56:43,798
Designers spend most of their time designing
product and services for the 1 0%%% of the world's
354
00:56:43,867 --> 00:56:51,171
population that already own too much, when 90%%%
don't have even basic products and services
355
00:56:51,241 --> 00:56:54,677
to lead a subsistent life.
356
00:56:57,547 --> 00:57:03,008
Although a lot of designers believe emotionally and
intellectually in sustainability,
357
00:57:03,420 --> 00:57:08,824
they and the manufacturers they work for are
finding it very difficult to come to terms with.
358
00:57:09,092 --> 00:57:15,599
Because sustainability isn't some sort of pretty,
glamorous process of using recycled materials
359
00:57:15,599 --> 00:57:19,729
to design something that may or may not be in the
color green.
360
00:57:19,803 --> 00:57:27,505
It's about redesigning every single aspect, from
sourcing materials, to designing, to production,
361
00:57:27,577 --> 00:57:32,582
to shipping, and then eventually designing a way
that those products can be disposed of responsibly.
362
00:57:32,582 --> 00:57:37,120
That's a mammoth task, so it's no wonder
designers and manufacturers
363
00:57:37,120 --> 00:57:39,247
are finding it so difficult.
364
00:57:44,962 --> 00:57:50,628
If one's really honest with oneself, most of what you
design ends up in a landfill somewhere.
365
00:57:51,301 --> 00:57:56,534
And l'm pretty sure most of the products that l've
designed in my career,
366
00:57:56,606 --> 00:58:02,476
most instances of the millions of things that have
been produced are probably in landfills today.
367
00:58:02,813 --> 00:58:07,684
That isn't something I was conscious of when l
started working as a designer, it didn't even really
368
00:58:07,684 --> 00:58:12,018
occur to me because it didn't really occur
to us as a society, I think.
369
00:58:12,122 --> 00:58:17,719
Now, to be a designer, you have to take that into
consideration, because we have to think about
370
00:58:17,794 --> 00:58:22,629
these complex systems in which our products exist.
371
00:58:22,933 --> 00:58:29,338
If the shelf life of a high-tech object is less than 11
months, it should all be 1 00%%% disposable.
372
00:58:29,973 --> 00:58:35,240
You know, my laptop should be made of cardboard,
or my mobile phone could be a piece of cardboard,
373
00:58:35,412 --> 00:58:40,372
or it could be made out of something like sugar
cane or some bio-plastic, etc.
374
00:58:42,019 --> 00:58:46,353
Why on earth does anything have to be built to be
permanent?
375
00:58:47,124 --> 00:58:55,122
If I think about my admiration for Eames, it was an
admiration for his ability to identify
376
00:58:55,232 --> 00:59:00,771
the qualities of new materials which could be used
to create new objects. But nobody worried about
377
00:59:00,771 --> 00:59:05,868
whether fiberglass was going to cause disease, or
be difficult to dispose of.
378
00:59:05,942 --> 00:59:11,505
Life was a little bit simpler for him, in that regard. He
could just think about using the materials
379
00:59:11,581 --> 00:59:14,607
for their best design attributes.
380
00:59:17,754 --> 00:59:23,160
But now, we have to face this idea that what we do
is not just the way we create some
381
00:59:23,160 --> 00:59:25,560
individual design.
382
00:59:27,164 --> 00:59:32,568
It's what happens afterwards, when we've finished
our design and people have used it.
383
00:59:33,804 --> 00:59:38,764
So this sort of "cradle to cradle" concept.
384
00:59:51,188 --> 00:59:55,955
One of my very first projects was to design a
toothbrush, a kids' toothbrush.
385
00:59:56,026 --> 01:00:01,555
Brushes at that time typically were just a stick with
bristles at the end, which was pretty boring.
386
01:00:01,865 --> 01:00:06,461
So we introduced other materials to it and we made
the handle thick.
387
01:00:06,536 --> 01:00:11,735
And in the end it became a really successful
product. But my boss,
388
01:00:11,808 --> 01:00:17,041
maybe half a year after we
launched the brush, went on vacation...
389
01:00:17,147 --> 01:00:22,686
the idea was to go to the most remote beach. And
the way Paul tells the story is
390
01:00:22,686 --> 01:00:26,747
the next morning he steps out of the tent and he
wants to go the pristine beach,
391
01:00:26,823 --> 01:00:32,193
whales frolicking and all perfect, and what does he
stumble over:. it's our toothbrush.
392
01:00:32,329 --> 01:00:38,234
And it's there, and it's this brush, it's covered in
barnacles, the plastic is faded,
393
01:00:38,368 --> 01:00:45,433
the bristles are worn. This brush, within months of
the product being launched, had been used up,
394
01:00:45,542 --> 01:00:51,310
had been discarded, and found its way in the
Pacific. So even though it's a little, small object,
395
01:00:51,448 --> 01:00:56,579
it creates a big piece of landfill that apparently goes
just about everywhere.
396
01:01:01,291 --> 01:01:05,625
Let's go ahead and start defining some of the
challenges and some of the questions we might be
397
01:01:05,695 --> 01:01:11,190
asking ourselves. Is there any toothbrush that we'd
actually feel comfortable washing up on the beach?
398
01:01:11,735 --> 01:01:16,434
So much of the toothbrush does not need to be
disposed of, right? You put the bristles
399
01:01:16,506 --> 01:01:21,466
in your mouth, the rest of it is all cleanable material.
Why are we tossing this stuff out every time?
400
01:01:21,578 --> 01:01:26,583
There could be the greatest handle in the world,
because if you only use one handle in your lifetime
401
01:01:26,583 --> 01:01:32,385
you could make it out of sterling silver, it could be
this heirloom and then you just replace the heads.
402
01:01:32,856 --> 01:01:37,816
I think also the solution of the toothbrush assumes
the only approach to oral care,
403
01:01:37,894 --> 01:01:41,762
or one of the main approaches to oral care is
through the toothbrush.
404
01:01:41,831 --> 01:01:46,791
What is we didn't need toothbrushes?
What could it be?
405
01:01:49,873 --> 01:01:54,744
When I first started the company, the role of the
industrial designer was primarily about the
406
01:01:54,744 --> 01:02:03,311
aesthetics, or the cleverness around function, but it
was always as a minor piece...
407
01:02:03,453 --> 01:02:12,259
the company was in charge of the major piece, and
we were hired guns to complete some aspect.
408
01:02:12,495 --> 01:02:17,762
The question is actually not "What's the new
toothbrush?" but "What's the future of oral care?"
409
01:02:17,867 --> 01:02:21,394
A fortune cookie with floss inside?
410
01:02:21,605 --> 01:02:26,042
As we grew it became clear that companies were
happy for us to do more and more
411
01:02:26,109 --> 01:02:29,545
of the actual design of the overall product.
412
01:02:29,679 --> 01:02:33,513
I don't know, l'm really just enamored with the idea
of doing teeth cleaning at NASCAR.
413
01:02:33,650 --> 01:02:38,849
I kind of think of it as they do analytical thinking and
we do this kind of innovative or design thinking
414
01:02:38,922 --> 01:02:46,886
where we're more focused on user-centered ideas,
stuff that will resonate with the people who
415
01:02:46,963 --> 01:02:51,832
are going to actually use the product. We come in
from the point of view of,
416
01:02:51,901 --> 01:02:57,771
"What do people value, what are their needs?"
And it just results in different products.
417
01:02:58,708 --> 01:03:03,145
You get these things, and you break them apart and
it's like a wishbone.
418
01:03:03,713 --> 01:03:08,151
The big design challenge here is there's a lot of
things we care about and
419
01:03:08,151 --> 01:03:12,110
cleaning our teeth is probably not high on that list.
420
01:03:12,322 --> 01:03:16,622
I think the wishbone is nice, but it should take the
real shape of a wishbone.
421
01:03:16,826 --> 01:03:24,460
Design thinking is a way to systematically be
innovative. You know how some people make lists,
422
01:03:24,534 --> 01:03:29,164
designers make what I call mind maps, where they
keep going further and further.
423
01:03:29,239 --> 01:03:31,775
Something leads to something else, which leads...
424
01:03:31,775 --> 01:03:35,336
And as you're branching out you're getting to new
ground, where your mind
425
01:03:35,412 --> 01:03:42,375
has never taken you before. And that's where
interesting design stuff happens, in my mind.
426
01:03:45,922 --> 01:03:47,724
When I came into design,
427
01:03:47,724 --> 01:03:51,683
designers would be at their drawing
boards, one, and they'd work at the
428
01:03:51,761 --> 01:03:55,532
drawing boards. They would maybe
have some magazines and things to
429
01:03:55,532 --> 01:04:03,962
Iook at to inspire them. One of the things that I did
when I came was drag people out of the studio
430
01:04:04,074 --> 01:04:10,980
into the environment, and put designers in the
position of looking at people,
431
01:04:11,081 --> 01:04:16,485
and going through the steps that other people were
going through as a source of inspiration.
432
01:04:26,029 --> 01:04:30,989
It's really about trying to make an empathic
connection with people in their context.
433
01:04:32,435 --> 01:04:34,266
Is that Helvetica?
434
01:04:34,337 --> 01:04:36,430
It's not Helvetica, no.
435
01:04:36,606 --> 01:04:42,772
So that as designers we're picking up on the
vibration of what they're about,
436
01:04:44,414 --> 01:04:49,252
and being able somehow to identify with that, and
have that spur our
437
01:04:49,252 --> 01:04:51,777
creative thinking and creative response.
438
01:05:00,663 --> 01:05:07,535
Technology, and things you keep, things you love,
things that get better with time.
439
01:05:09,739 --> 01:05:11,604
Cool.
440
01:05:12,876 --> 01:05:19,145
I think today, I see my role as a designer to help
define what we should be creating for people,
441
01:05:20,183 --> 01:05:25,644
and the output is not necessarily obviously a
design, it's not obviously a product.
442
01:05:27,757 --> 01:05:33,195
Recently we designed a new banking service for
one of the big banks here in America.
443
01:05:33,863 --> 01:05:38,823
And there are two and a half million people using
that savings account today.
444
01:05:39,469 --> 01:05:44,065
So we're not just giving form to the thing that has
been created.
445
01:05:46,543 --> 01:05:52,038
I think that what designers will do in the future is to
become the reference point for policymakers,
446
01:05:52,115 --> 01:05:57,075
for anybody who wants to create a link between
something that highfaluting and hard to translate,
447
01:05:57,220 --> 01:06:02,852
and reality and people. And I almost envision them
becoming the intellectuals of the future.
448
01:06:02,959 --> 01:06:07,919
I always find it really funny, the French, whenever
they have to talk about the price of gas or
449
01:06:07,997 --> 01:06:13,094
the cheese war with ltaly, they go to a philosopher,
right? You know, it's kind of hilarious but
450
01:06:13,203 --> 01:06:20,166
philosophers are the culture generators in France.
I want designers to be the culture generators
451
01:06:20,276 --> 01:06:25,578
all over the world, and some of them really can. And
no matter what, they should become really
452
01:06:25,648 --> 01:06:31,780
fundamental bricks in any kind of policymaking
effort, and more and more that's happening.
453
01:06:31,855 --> 01:06:37,487
But I see designers as designing not any more
objects, per se, in some cases yes,
454
01:06:37,594 --> 01:06:44,466
but also scenarios that are based on objects that
will help people understand the consequences
455
01:06:44,567 --> 01:06:50,995
of their choices. And people like Dunne and Raby
do that, exactly, they call it design for debate.
456
01:06:56,546 --> 01:07:01,677
We use design as a medium to try and explore
ideas, find out things, question.
457
01:07:02,151 --> 01:07:06,815
We've got cinema, fine arts, literature, craft...
458
01:07:06,890 --> 01:07:10,951
every other medium seems to have a part that's
459
01:07:11,060 --> 01:07:16,020
dedicated to reflecting on important issues, yet
design, the thing that's responsible for so much
460
01:07:16,165 --> 01:07:21,125
of the built environment around us doesn't do that.
I think that's one of the things that attracts us.
461
01:07:21,237 --> 01:07:26,197
So even though our design ideas are never really
put into mass production, we always try to
462
01:07:26,276 --> 01:07:31,236
suggest that they could be mass-produced or they
could be on the scale of hundreds of thousands,
463
01:07:31,314 --> 01:07:35,273
because that's part of what we're interested in.
464
01:07:35,418 --> 01:07:40,253
We love the idea that with a product, or shopping...
we love showrooms.
465
01:07:40,423 --> 01:07:45,827
Because what is a showroom, you go in there,
around lKEA and you imagine this is in your home,
466
01:07:45,962 --> 01:07:51,025
you project yourself into this other space. But you
could actually buy that and have it at home.
467
01:07:51,167 --> 01:07:56,002
It's true, when you walk into a gallery, you don't
imagine the sculpture at home and how it's going
468
01:07:56,105 --> 01:08:00,643
to impact on your life. But if you walk into a shop,
whether it's electronics, or furniture, or a car
469
01:08:00,643 --> 01:08:05,046
showroom, you do imagine yourself experiencing
this thing and enjoying it.
470
01:08:06,282 --> 01:08:10,820
So when we do conceptual products, we're hoping
that people will imagine how that will impact
471
01:08:10,820 --> 01:08:13,084
on the way they live their lives.
472
01:08:15,858 --> 01:08:20,454
We were part of an exhibition and Fiona and l
decided to focus on robots.
473
01:08:21,197 --> 01:08:23,927
There are four of them altogether.
474
01:08:24,167 --> 01:08:29,002
One of them, for example, might become the
interface for important data you keep online
475
01:08:29,072 --> 01:08:34,408
or on remote servers. So it's a strange, wooden
shaped object that you pick up
476
01:08:34,477 --> 01:08:38,848
and it has two holes at the top, and you stare at
its eyes for about five minutes.
477
01:08:38,848 --> 01:08:43,581
And when it's checked it's you, it releases the
information. So it's not just a quick glance
478
01:08:43,686 --> 01:08:50,182
at a retinal scanner, but a meaningful stare into this
machine's eyes. And also you feel better, you feel...
479
01:08:51,694 --> 01:08:54,097
"Yes, it gets me," and then you access it...
480
01:08:54,097 --> 01:08:56,031
"There's no chance it mistook me."
481
01:08:57,166 --> 01:09:02,126
Another thing we became interested in is as
devices become more clever or more smarter,
482
01:09:02,338 --> 01:09:07,298
one of our roles as designers might be to handicap
the technology and make it dependent on us
483
01:09:07,410 --> 01:09:12,482
in some way, or needy. So we thought it might be
interesting to design one that has
484
01:09:12,482 --> 01:09:16,418
to call the owner over to it whenever it wants to
move.
485
01:09:17,086 --> 01:09:22,046
We really wanted to look at the materiality of what a
robot might be, so one of the key things
486
01:09:22,125 --> 01:09:27,085
we wanted was when someone saw the robots, we
wanted them to go, "Well that's not a robot."
487
01:09:27,196 --> 01:09:33,403
That's not even within the robot language. But the
minute they ask that question, then they're
488
01:09:33,403 --> 01:09:39,933
immediately thinking, well what is a robot, what a
robot should be, what kind of identity it might have.
489
01:09:40,677 --> 01:09:45,910
People, especially students, often say at the end of
lectures, "But you just design things that
490
01:09:45,982 --> 01:09:50,853
get shown in museums and galleries, shouldn't you
be trying to mass produce?" And because we're
491
01:09:50,853 --> 01:09:55,381
more interested in designing to deal with ideas,
actually putting things into a museum like MoMA
492
01:09:55,491 --> 01:10:00,451
reaches hundreds of thousands of people, more
than if we made a few arty and expensive
493
01:10:00,563 --> 01:10:06,058
prototypes. So I think it depends, I think we're
interested maybe in mass communication
494
01:10:06,135 --> 01:10:08,365
more than mass production.
495
01:10:13,776 --> 01:10:19,043
Industrial design has been so closely tied to
industry, and working within the constraints
496
01:10:19,148 --> 01:10:25,678
set by industry. Very quickly you come to edges of
the spectrum of choice, the official choice,
497
01:10:25,788 --> 01:10:31,249
of what kinds of things that the companies who
produce these products believe people want.
498
01:10:32,161 --> 01:10:37,497
And we know, people want a lot more interesting
things, but so far we haven't managed to...
499
01:10:37,700 --> 01:10:39,895
to cross that gap.
500
01:10:44,874 --> 01:10:52,303
People are creative, by nature, and always not quite
satisfied with the design of something
501
01:10:52,381 --> 01:10:57,341
that they have, that they've bought. They adapt it.
502
01:11:00,623 --> 01:11:06,084
Is there some way we can better engage with
people's creativity to make more of it
503
01:11:06,195 --> 01:11:11,292
or to enhance what they can do for themselves, or
create the tools or the platforms
504
01:11:11,400 --> 01:11:14,528
from which people can operate.
505
01:11:17,273 --> 01:11:22,233
The tools with which we do design today are our
tools.
506
01:11:22,845 --> 01:11:26,337
We make the shapes, people buy and use the
shapes.
507
01:11:26,616 --> 01:11:31,576
Tomorrow, this will be different. The tools to make
things, and to define your world,
508
01:11:31,654 --> 01:11:34,384
will be available to everybody.
509
01:11:37,860 --> 01:11:43,093
Because of the connected world, the idea of
designing something for a different community
510
01:11:43,199 --> 01:11:47,804
in a different part of the world is now becoming very
much more prevalent.
511
01:11:47,804 --> 01:11:52,002
Before there was a sense that Africa was so far
away you couldn't do anything about it,
512
01:11:52,108 --> 01:11:58,308
but now there seems to be a sense that because of
the connected world, we can make a big difference.
513
01:11:58,881 --> 01:12:05,946
As designers I think we're so far removed from the
actual object. You can design virtually,
514
01:12:06,022 --> 01:12:11,460
prototypes can be made remotely, the actual
product's often manufactured on another continent
515
01:12:11,594 --> 01:12:16,361
That's why a lot of the products we're surrounded
by, a lot of our manufactured environment,
516
01:12:16,465 --> 01:12:19,730
seems too easy, too superficial.
517
01:13:00,610 --> 01:13:07,812
If I had a billion dollars to fund a marketing
campaign, I would launch a campaign on behalf of
518
01:13:08,117 --> 01:13:12,713
"Things you already own, why not
enjoy them today?"
519
01:13:13,289 --> 01:13:18,249
Because we all have so many things, they're just
around, they're in the closet, in the attic,
520
01:13:18,427 --> 01:13:22,932
that we don't even think about anymore, because
there's not enough room left in our brains
521
01:13:22,932 --> 01:13:26,060
because we're so busy processing all the exciting
new developments.
522
01:13:27,904 --> 01:13:32,864
At the end of the day, when you're looking around at
the objects in your house, and you're deciding,
523
01:13:32,975 --> 01:13:38,208
"What here really has value to me?" They're going
to be things that have some meaning in your life.
524
01:13:39,048 --> 01:13:44,008
The hurricane is coming, you have 20 minutes, get
your stuff and go. You're not going to be saying,
525
01:13:44,153 --> 01:13:49,819
"Well that got an amazing write-up in this design
blog." You're going to pick the most meaningful
526
01:13:49,926 --> 01:13:55,523
objects to you, because those are the true objects,
that truly reflect,
527
01:13:55,598 --> 01:14:01,332
the true story of who you are, and what your
personal narrative is, and the story that you're
528
01:14:01,437 --> 01:14:06,670
telling to yourself and no one else because that's
the only audience that matters.
62321
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