Somehow, I identify with the vanilla orange juice.
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Reviews of New Food

I like stories about the perceived edge of design that actually establish the next minimum level of achivement. Check out this article in the Wall Street Journal–is the “far out” really?

Land + Living has this presentation of the demolition of Detroit. These things are so painful to see, so difficult to acknowledge. ( Image via Forgotten Detroit )

I am putting this in mostly as a place-holder, to return to this subject later. I am preparing for a presentation later this week that has me considering the process by which ideas get developed, filtered and presented to organizational boards. I am interested in the conditions where a project with fixed resources has its core goals and designed benefits diluted by the client’s attempt to achieve more with less, and ultimately obtains much less. I am also interested in the role that the client’s project manager has in these conditions, especially the in the interpretation and reinterpretation of the board’s interests, the dilution of edge, and the presentation of compromise.

We seem dedicated to delivery of projects with resonating benefit to our clients, but they, and we, seem not to have the processes, measures, and conversations necessary to consistently and effectively deliver on this commitment. As I said, more later.

We are collecting information across the firm that provides measured evidence showing that our design work had the affect of improving the performance of our client’s business. One of the projects was generated in our Detroit office and has had the benefit of several degrees of observation and measurement, and testimonials from the client and others citing the research into the organization’s performance at the facility.

This is a theme that resonates in our language about many of our projects. It also seems that many others make similar claims about their work.

I was reviewing the project drawings and photographs today and it occurred to me that in this project, as in others that we have done with similar evidence, significant formal change and, in some cases, facilities policy change, seemed to be a key component of the success.

Coincidentally, I had been doing some research last week into what consultants said about the places where creative work is done. Warren Bennis in Organizing Genius says that the innovation of teams is inverse to the quality of the space in which they do their work. Tom Kelley in The Art of Innovation says the opposite, that the quality of the workplace is a critical component of recruiting creative people and a significant contributor to the innovative products they develop.

More on this in a later post.

Coincidentally to yesterday’s post, Automotive News Europe came out today with an article on “brand palaces” like this one for Audi.

Then a colleague pointed me to this article on a dealership in Ashland, KY, with a restaurant, shark, museum and an old town to stroll through.

It seems the subject is a hot one all around

I’ve been working on a presentation over the weekend for an American vehicle manufacturer. This company is struggling a bit with the challenge of allowing certain of its dealers, with the iniative and the resources, to build “stores” outside of the highly structured guidelines of their programs for dealerships. Part of the issue for the manufacturer is the concern that the dealer’s “brand” statement will compromise the manufacturer’s brand, creating confusion in the minds of the consumers.

I was facinated by these examples of brand experience centers by Coop Himmelb(l)au for JVC and BMW. It seems that, in these cases, the manufacturer makes such a strong statement in its own corporate facilities, reinforcing the association with the brand character, that the local application can only be inspired to reach into similar accomplishments.

Here is JVC.

And here is BMW.

Oh, yes…those wonderful sketches:

Norman Foster plans Europe’s tallest building–What an exotic form!
Archidose reports on BMW Welt.

And this is an attempt to see how to post pictures. Here’s one from a recent trip to the Patagonian region of Agentina. We’d trekked up to the Lagos Tres and found this view of Fitzroy, beyond, shrouded as always in its own clouds.

So, this is the first post, an attempt to see how this thing works.