The Mechanical Room
Designing for, and in, The Soul of Place For some, it might be the light of a room; for another, it might be the scent, for another -- it's the touch. And still another, it's the vibe, as if there is a Spirit in the room. People contribute to the vibrational...
The Art of Squash
Branding and The Court of Boom: Design + Squash Racquet Play More than 20 years back, I began to train for the game of squash. I was looking for a complicated, high-fitness game, that was as much about physical stamina and agility as it was about craft -- the mind,...
The Scent of a Woman, Imagined
The Imagination of Designing Fragrance Perfume is a storytelling -- it's a layering of tellings that translate to the alchemy of ingredients. Woods, resins, tinctures of flowers, aromatic leaves, natural ingredients, all combine to build a story that allows...
Alex Calderwood Dies at 47
Death comes even to the best of us. Very sorry to see this loss. Three days back, London. I recall the first time that I'd booked some clients at the [Hotel #1] ACE, Seattle. And I fretted about what they'd think [they were older clients, linked to an American power...
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...