Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

After almost five weeks of solid reading a total of four books have been finished this year. The latest book I have managed to read was by far the longest yet but one of the most interesting and dare I say it, influential books that I have read for a very long time. It was of course Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.

The book was released late last year and only a few months after Jobs passed away. I got it for Christmas but promised that I would not read it until my pile of books that I had accumulated had been read. Thus the reason I read through the others very quickly. The main body of it is almost six hundred pages long is split up into decent sized chapters. Each night I was averaging about forty pages and I was taking my time with it. I wanted to soak it all up and take it all in as best that I could. To say that Steve Jobs and Apple have an influence on me is a certainty. I am writing this on my MacBook Pro with an iPhone within arms reach and they just work. Well.

One of the things that Isaacson was told by Jobs when he began writing the biography was not to hold back. Jobs didn’t want to book to seem as though it was an in-house production that showed himself as a saint. He knew he had done things which he was not proud of over his life but he didn’t want them to be hidden away. He wanted his children to know exactly what he was like when he was younger. This approach gives a distinct yet strange approach to the book. Most biographies try to always paint a good picture of the person’s life. This one to an extent takes you to extremes very quickly. In a way it simulates the very distinctive mood swings that Jobs was said to have had. An emotional roller coaster is perhaps too much of a cliché to use here.

It doesn’t always focus on Jobs. There are other people who the magnifying glass aims on and the relationships they had with Jobs. Other moguls of Silicon Valley throughout the eighties right up until the present day when the ‘evils’ of yesterday, Microsoft and IBM, made way in the ever-changing technological landscape for the likes of Google and RIM. You are taken on the same clichéd emotional ride with people such as Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt (Microsoft and Google).

Some of the highlights of the book for me personally were those involving Pixar, NeXT and Job’s return to Apple in the late nineties. The return also led to the parts in the book about Jonathan Ive. Now renowned for his work at Apple, his designs have become almost iconic (I almost wrote iConic there…) in the same way that his influences of Braun are just as distinct from the sixties and seventies. The book gave a very interesting highlight into the process that went on inside the very secretive design studios at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino. As a design student, I would love to have a look at the design studio of a number of places but that one ranks very highly on my personal list.

Overall I am going to say that it was an extremely good read. It was certainly worth the wait to read it and worth the time spend reading it. I wouldn’t have thought there was anything significant missing although I would have like a focus or more insights into the latter stages of Apple. How Jobs worked with Ive to produce some of the products with Ive’s design ability and Job’s sense of taste and style. But that is a minor gripe. There were, at times, points where I got extremely engrossed in the book. It is unashamedly a place that I would like to immerse myself. Learn things, get experience, enjoy myself. However, if that is to ever going to happen, it will be a long way off and who knows what could happen between then and now…

Fourth Year: Role Models

One of the things we were asked to do over the past week was to make a profile of who we considered to be our role model. Someone who may or may not do design that has or will influenced us and our designs, or someone who’s work we like and would like to emulate perhaps.

For me this was quite difficult as I tend not to hold any specific role models in my mind, I instead just let designs or actions do the talking. I will like object A by person X even if I don’t like object B. I don’t like everything done by one person in particular instead I am influenced by a mix and match of people/objects etc if that makes sense.

As we had to make a profile of our role model (the product design folk heard that as a character card, and we have no idea what the IMD people are doing for their profile) I didn’t want to stand up and hand in a blank sheet with the words “I don’t have any role models per se” I had to knuckle down and try and think of who I really consider to be a role model in my mind.

For them to qualify, I had to like pretty much all of their work (this was me deciding that my role model was a designer even though it wasn’t a requirement) and it was also me just being overly picky. This narrowed it down quite a lot. The next piece of criteria was that it had to be someone who I had known about for a while. I didn’t want to have a role model being someone that I had heard about the day before, as in a way, that defeats the purpose of this exercise in my mind. You wouldn’t really consider someone who you met last week and never heard of before to become your role model straight away would you?

Anyways, a few more narrowing down sessions left three people. Ian Callum (head of design at Jaguar), David Lewis (has produced most of the designs for Bang & Olufsen over the past 40 years) and Jonathan Ive (head of design at Apple). To be annoying mainly to myself, I could only pick 2, and me being me and not wanting to go for the popular choice or the most obvious choice. The two I went for were David Lewis and Ian Callum.

The next post will feature the full profile I made on both Ian Callum and David Lewis and why I consider them to be a good role model for myself and a brief history about them including what is probably their most recognisable work.

#195 Objectified: Yes, Third Review In a Row

As the title of this post suggests, this is yet another review, but instead of a book this time, it is of the DVD Objectified. My book readings are on hold at the current moment in time due to waiting for a couple more to be delivered, and one of the books I have yet to read but have on hand at the moment looks very unappealing.

Objectified has been part of my relatively small DVD collection for about two years now. I preordered it in 2009 as it seemed like a very good watch and it was related to my course at university, which if you don’t already know, is product design. It’s director, Gary Hustwit, had previously made the documentary-film about the font Helvetica entitled Helvetica. Objectified is considered the second film in the series with Helvetica being the first and the yet to be released Urbanised being the third, and as far as I am aware, the last.

The number of times I have watched this film has been quite high regardless of it being a documentary rather than a fictional thing, but I like it. It is also one of the reasons that I liked Love the Beast so much, a documentary-film storytelling the relationship Australian actor, Eric Bana, has with his beloved 1970′s Ford Falcon Coupé.

The amount of information portrayed in little over an hour and a quarter is quite astonishing. This is enforced with interviewing many key product designers such as Dieter Rams of Braun, Jonathan Ive of Apple, Chris Bangle, Marc Newson, Tony Dunne and Fiona Raby. There is no one person narrating, instead, it is told by the designers. The story being told is that of the relationship that people have with products, and the people behind them. Wonderful cinematography accompanies the interviews, often giving glimpses into how products are made, whether it be an injection moulding process of a chair, establishing shots that reinforce what the designer is talking about at that one time or a product being used.

In terms of usefulness towards my dissertation, upon watching this again today, it wasn’t as helpful as I thought it was going to be. It did feature a fair few designers that were included in the Designing Interactions book such as Jane Fulton Suri along with the books author, Bill Moggridge, but very little of the information was new to me in terms of what I could use or I had heard it all before from the book. I haven’t delved into the DVD that was included in Designing Interactions yet as I know it is portions of the interviews carried out with designers that were put into the book.

Back to Objectified, one of the parts I knew could have been wholeheartedly useful was the part with the then head of design at BMW, Chris Bangle. Instead of him talking about what I thought it would have been better to talk about he rambled on about something different and evidently my opinion of him continues to decline. I admired the big risk at what he took at the helm of design at BMW. He produced some of the most controversial automotive designs to date shaking the whole automotive design world. But I can’t help but feel that there would have been another car designer that would have been a better choice to have interviewed. Just my opinion.

In conclusion, I still consider this film to be very good and a strong alternative to any other film if I am sitting down to watch one, but in terms of using it for a source of information or analysis for my dissertation it was quite disappointing. In all the other sources I have used, I have managed to take away a different perspective of my topic, giving me greater depth for which I can think or write about, but this in a way seemed to barely scratch the surface. It is as though it was made for people who know little about the subject. Maybe I am being a little too harsh there, but it doesn’t mean it is a bad film.

#30 The Fabled Tablet in Apple Flavour

If the internet is to be believed, then in the next few days, Apple is set to announce a tablet computer. Essentially a large iPod Touch or iPhone, the tablet is rumoured to share many of features with the two mentioned devices. It will have a touch screen with much more advanced multi-touch and a 10.1″ screen.

For a long time it was speculated that they would enter the netbook market. A market which has grown hugely in the past few years. The tablet is also not too dissimilar in size to these netbooks.

Whilst I am still not 100% sure what I think of this rumoured product, I personally think someone has thrown a curve ball and we are in store for something much more interesting. On top of that, I would like to see a new iPhone, with new features and better specs, a greater step from the 3GS than the 3GS was from the 3G. This is because, unashamed, I would like to replace my iPhone 3G which I have had since launch date, and this is on top of me stating I would keep using it until it dies.

Going back to the ‘iSlate’, as it has been dubbed (rubbish name in my opinion), one of the tablet related issues I am most interested in, is its exterior design, the way it looks. The basis of this, I believe, will depend mostly on what operating system it uses. A modified iPhone OS, or a modified OS X system. If it is the iPhone OS route, it will primarily be portrait oriented interface and exterior design, and horizontally if it is the OS X route.

Since I did a reasonable job guessing with the Magic Mouse , I’ve had a shot at what I think the tablet would look like. Guessing it will be a mostly landscape device, I have made it look not too dissimilar to the iMac. It even has a Jay Leno/iMac G5/Intel chin on it. There may also be a possibility that it has a stand on the back so it can be angled on a desk, in a similar sort of fashion that the iBook G3 had a handle. The back of the device, I think will be the same sort of shape to the iPhone 3G(S), but if it isn’t, then it probably will share many design cues with the next generation iPhone, rumoured for the summer. There isn’t too much to play with on touch screen devices due to the current technology, in terms of shape since it needs to have a completely flat surface for the screen, hence why all, or most of these touch devices look very similar.

And on that note, I leave you with a video of Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer being asked to sign a MacBook Pro, quite funny, if maybe only for the geekier side of you.

#24 Review of 2009 & 2010 Predictions

2009. A year to remember or a year to forget? I’ve put together this review of my year at University, saying what I thought about the second semester of first year and the first semester of second year. Following that, a small review of what designs caught my eye through the year.

The year has been a mixture for myself. Some highs and some lows, though in all fairness the lows did outnumber the highs. The projects in the second semester of first year didn’t really grab my attention as much as I wished they would. This is apart from the second project undertaken in Design Studies regarding supermarkets, where I feel the group I was in (bar one member) put in some of the best work we had done at University up to that point, and it was the first time since possibly the December of 6th year at high school where I felt I had put in the sufficient hours and had gotten far. It was a good group to work in, but not as good as the group for the first project of Design Studies in that semester where we had to create characters out of ‘junk’, and then using these characters, create a story involving them.

The product design part of that semester was interesting to say the least. A combination of modelling a dyson, a kitchen object and creating a product which met an unmet need in the kitchen was required. At the time it didn’t really seem that relevant, and if I’m honest, part of me still does not see the point in what we did, but it, at times, was good fun none the less.

The mechanics module was, well, rubbish. A lot of time was spent helping others, which, I should point out, do not really mind doing as long as people at least say thank you. Then there are those (and only one or two) who I like to help without expecting thanks from because I like them too much to mind. However, once the exam was over in the middle of May, that was the hardest part of the Mechanics done and dusted for the full university course.

First year left me with mixed feelings about the course. On one hand it was not quite what I had thought it was going to be, and thoughts were coming into my head about whether or not I had made the right choice about what I wanted to to, or if I had chosen the wrong place to go since I could have gone to either Edinburgh or Glasgow instead of Dundee. However on the other hand, I did have quite a lot of fun in my first year, ranging from meeting huge amounts of new people, some who have left a huge impression on me, to doing a range of things which I would not have done anywhere else, from sticking my face in paint, in the name of leaving my mark, to making a Dyson out of blue foam.

Before I knew what was what, September sprung up again and it was time to head back up to Dundee for the start of the second year, and as it turned out two of the modules were once again verging on awful, but one was pretty decent. The two which were not that enjoyable though were not two which were expected.

The two modules which were the ‘unenjoyable’ ones were the Design Studies and the Industrial Design modules. Design Studies because we started the project very late, the workload in the group was very uneven (read that as 2 or 3 people in the group doing the work and pulling the weight of the other 3 or 4), and in all honesty it was not the most interesting project, despite the people involved, those with Aphasia, who were some of the nicest people anyone could meet.

The Industrial Design module did not start very well, and neither did it finish very well, however the middle was quite enjoyable. This was probably in part due to the fact the lecturer ripped down everything that was put forward and did not really give any useful criticism. They changed their mind from week to week, and strongly seemed to favour some people more than they did others. And I know that this sentiment is shared with at least one other person in the class.

I have posted a full review of those two modules previously where I covered everything, or almost everything, as fully as I could, or felt I could since this is publicly available. You can view them here for Industrial Design and here for Design Studies.

The surprise module was the mechanics one, or giving it its proper name, Software Applications. This one was surprisingly enjoyable. I think this was because it was the only time when I felt as thought I was learning new skills which would be useful in later life. It started off with AutoCAD and then onto Solidworks. Whilst neither were taught that well, self experimentation gave me most of the answers I needed (along with Google I should add). This was then passed onto the majority of the class, who seemed to ask me more than they did the bearded lecturer. Again the same opinion as per first year mechanics, I did not mind helping people, and definitely helping more people more than others. It was a good thing most of my work was completed by putting in longer hours than others at the start of each part of the project as the later parts were consumed spending time crouched down, on my knees, next to the computers.

The other part of this module which proved to be quite enjoyable was the Microcontrollers part, though I am probably on my own with this one. It did finish quite quickly, I felt as though I learned quite a lot, though maybe it is not quite as useful as the AutoCAD and Solidworks. The labs were good as well, working with people who I enjoy working with, and putting into practice what we had learned. We had to do a project as well, creating something which used a microcontroller and all the previous knowledge we had gathered. Our group, after initially wanting to go for a car traction control system, changed it to an outdoor keyboard. The basic prototype is shown in the picture below.

Overall 2009, in terms of the University course, was not as good as what I was hoping it would be. There just seemed to be too much of ego’s getting in the way in some areas, not knowing what was going on, having to carry people through projects and not seeing the relevance of what was being done. It was sort of counterbalanced by the fact I got to work with some really good people, begin to make more of a mark for myself up in Dundee, feeling more comfortable with what I was doing, and since the amount of alcohol consumed in writing this post has increased over the time it has been written (though not that much to say what I really am thinking and start to not make sense), gotten closer to people who I really enjoy being with.

I am hoping that 2010 will be a much better year overall in terms of university work. Hoping that it will be more useful, more enjoyable. One of the projects I am looking forward to though, is one where we are going to be making an MP3 player, which should be interesting. There are many areas in which I feel as though I could improve and I hope to do so quickly and effectively..

I am aware that I have gone on for quite a bit in this post, so I shall try to keep this next bit to a minimum, despite it being a part in which I could write so much more than my 2009 University musings. I shall also try and keep it away from my usual haunts of Apple and Bang & Olufsen (or as it has been said to me instead of B&O, Häagen Dazs), but in some instances I cannot help it.

One of the first pieces of design which was revealed in 2009 was the Apple Magic Mouse. I wrote a piece about its predecessor, the Mighty Mouse a while ago, citing reasons why people thought the scroll ball was a bad piece of design and possible areas of improvement. It seems that Jonathan Ive or Steve Jobs read what I wrote and implemented it in the Magic Mouse. It is probably one of the best pieces of Apple design, up there with the iMac G4. It’s beautifully simple and elegant, almost Scandinavian in its design, and I love it. I was very close to ordering one when it was launched, and sometime over the break, I am planning on heading to the Apple store in either Glasgow or Aberdeen to try one out and then possibly buy one. (Post about Mighty Mouse here).

The next piece of design which caught my eye in 2009 was the Bang & Olufsen Beotime. A gorgeous alarm clock inspired by a flute. I have no other words to describe it other than I want one. But then again, I am a bit of a sucker for B&O (and Apple I should add). It just seems that at the moment, both companies are producing products which are leading in each of their respective fields. We all have, in our minds, what we think an alarm clock should look like, the Danes then took this archetype, turned it upside down and rewrote it, or drew it to create the Beotime.

Despite only being a concept. the Art.Lebedev Transparentius caught my eye for being something epically unique. It takes an aspect of road safety and turns it into something which has not been seen before. It is absolutely astounding. When following a lorry and looking for opportunities to pass, the driver is often unaware of oncoming obstacles until they pull out, and it is often too late then. A camera mounted on the front of the lorry, projects the front view onto the rear of the trailer so the drivers behind are able to see ‘through’ the lorry. Whilst this could be quite distracting, it is a start to reducing the number of deaths on the roads. Additionally, being from Art.Lebedev studios, a Russian design company who are responsible for some of the most random, yet brilliant pieces of modern product design available, you know the final product will be just as radical and fun as the concept.

The final product which has captured my imagination is another one which I have written about. The Eigenharp. Not really being musically minded (despite playing the violin for a few years when I was younger), the Eigenharp is an electronic instrument with a difference. It looks beautiful and sounds pretty spectacular, especially the Moby Extreme Ways version. Read more on what I said about it in the original post here.

I know those four may not have been the most radical designs of the past 12 months. But those are the three which have made an impression on me, or the ones in which I can remember. I may end up adding a couple of more in the coming days, as this year draws to an end. What sort of things am I expecting to appear next year? I don’t know, that is the beauty of product design, and only a question which can be answered when you work in the industry and not just studying it.

So there we go. Nearing the end of not one of my favourite years. A post verging on 2000 words, and the general tone of my posts turning to grumbles instead of musings. I am planning on making a few changes on here for next year, some more subtle than others, a post sometime in January will hopefully and probably outline them. Thank you for reading my posts this year, and I hope everyone got something from at least one of them.

New Goods

Is it not just brilliant when you order something and when it comes, you get to unwrap it and it is like your birthday, but only this time you know what it is and it is also something you actually want. The only thing which has the ability to top that feeling is if you have bought more than one thing from different places and they all arrive at the same time. A wonderful feeling.

The past couple of weeks have been spent waiting for some things to arrive, and it was only today (or yesterday, depending on whether or not I post this on the Sunday or the Monday) that I had the opportunity to pick them up from home and then open them. It just so happens that they all relate to design in one form or another so I thought I would share what I got.

1. Bang & Olufsen A8 earphones – A few weeks ago when my old pair of earphones died, I thought I would treat myself with something that I have wanted for a very long time, and it just so happens to be my first foray into products from the Danish company. Already having used them extensively, I can say they are extremely comfortable to wear and have great sound, also they have exquisite detail. I may post something more in depth about the earphones and/or B&O at a later date.

2. Objectified – a DVD about the complex relationship people have with manufactured products. Having known about this film almost since its website appeared on the internet, I leapt at the chance to pre-order it. I have watched it already and it really does provide a unique insight into design and the designers working on products we use everyday, especially the interview or segment with Jonathan Ive from Apple.

3. T-shirts – Having taken part in a competition in the Final Gear forums to design a t-shirt (a competition they hold every 6 months or so), I was lucky enough to have 2 of my designs made in to t-shirts where only 150 or so people worldwide will wear them. A very limited run and I am glad to say that I am very pleased with both of my shirts which I did get for free. One design is based on outlines of different iconic cars, so the Ferrari F2007, Porsche 911 GT3, a Mini and a Ford GT40, the second shirt was a play on a fun feature of an early Top Gear episode where the differences between Oversteer and Understeer were being explained using toy cars.

4. Light Organ – I think I mentioned this in my last post, but this piece of equipment is to help with the radio project on my University course. The purpose of the light organ is to flicker the light or a set of lights to sound or music. This is the basis of my radio design, or it is now, and it should make a very effective looking radio. One thing which I personally am not looking forward to is having to solder all of the components onto the circuit board myself, so I’m glad I bought two, just in case.

Websites which relate to the content of my post:

Bang & Olufsen A8′s

Objectified

Light Organ

Influences and References

Most of the time, I prefer to keep quiet about my sources of knowledge, so they are not exploited amongst the people I know, and the exclusivity I had with it amongst my friends and colleagues is lost, lost in a similar way in which I now feel about my iPhone, great when I got it, because virtually no one else had one, but now every second person has one. This however is one of the times where I am going to share a list of websites which I frequent visit (most of them stuffed in the bookmarks of my Safari web browser) and some of my influences for wanting to go into the design field. Not all of them are design related, but they do offer a wide range of topics (I say wide range, but it is probably quite limited) which will help with design work.

1. Design Sojourn I found this site a few years ago and it provides some of the most comprehensive information available to those who are studying and aspiring to become a designer. Simple and easy to navigate, it has articles on which, I will read again and again, giving confidence and a different insight into what we are told at University about the highs and lows of becoming a designer, and the ideal ways to approach your task.
2. Laws of Simplicity Name of the website says it all I think.
3. Vitra Producer of some of the most iconic pieces of designs from different designers around the world, past and present. I first became aware of this company whilst in my final year at school, where, for the Product Design course we had to do personal research about a certain designer. My designer being Verner Panton. Worth a look just for the designs.
4. Engadget A technology website providing news and reviews about pretty much all things tech. Known about this site for a good number of years, and I used to listen to their podcast. Sometimes, product concepts are shown and new and intriguing materials, technologies and products are posted and can be incredibly useful, such as the mouldable mouse.
5. Red Dot Design Awards Similar to the Vitra site, but not manufacturers, instead an award site which shows some of the best designs of the past year.
6. Art Lebedev Russian company which I accidentally stumbled across a few years ago. Designers and producers of some of the most distinctive and quirky products I have ever seen. Note the Optimus Maximus keyboard which has a small LCD screen on each key, and the Defendius, a door chain in the shape of a maze, which I wasn’t too happy to see, because only a matter of days before it appeared on the website, I was sure I had created a product very similar to it.
7. Bang & Olufsen Danish company, who I absolutely adore, I just go to their website in order to just ogle at their products. Beautiful, just beautiful. You will have seen some of their products before, but just not known who produced it.

Moving onto the actual designers who caused me to purse a career in design is probably just as varied. In part, because most of the ones on the list are car designers but the few which are traditional, (if I can say that) product designers.

1. Ian Callum Probably my favourite designer of all time, he has created some of the most iconic pieces of automotive artworks ever produced, or as a designer at Volvo told me once, rolling sculptures.
2. Alec Issigonis Most famous for designing the original mini, managing to combine great aesthetics with great and innovative layout and manufacture. He is one of the people that many designers aspire to.
3. Jonathan Ive Apple designer, who in part, along with the return of Steve Jobs to the company, helped to turn around their fortunes. World renowned and incredibly popular. I’m also an Apple user so that does sort of sway the favourable bar.

There are 2 other reasons why I wanted to go into design, the first being that I like to draw, quite alot, and the second reason being that I do want to help people, but not in a directly obvious way such as a doctor. I like to keep behind the scenes and let my work do the talking.