I don't know how many people wander over to this part of the inter-webs, but if you read this, I strongly encourage you to go to my brother-in-law's site to see if you can help. He has been diagnosed with high grade Neuroendocrine Carcinoma. Your help would be much appreciated by his family as well as myself. Thanks.copyright 2008 Daniel Howell Read Full Story

Sometimes, when there is a product review, the reviewers focus more on features than on design when calculating a products rating.Design and discussion of design is not mainstream. I do not think it will ever become main stream, unless it is enveloped into something else (like business, marketing, or historical context jargon among others...).Design discussions are absent from non designers because the design vernacular is absent from main stream. I might say that most do not know how to rati... Read Full Story

Wikizines are interactive magazines that anyone can create or edit - and this one is called "Industrial Design Philosophy and Strategy". Here you can find fresh voices and respond in real time. Some members write articles about recent news and trends related to the wikizine's topic, others recount relevant personal stories or share their favorite pictures and video clips. Got an interesting idea or story to share with other members of this wikizine? Well, then put on your jour... Read Full Story

I am starting to think that the success of a product may not have as much to do with innovation and good industrial design as it has to do with having a "perfect storm" of collaboration among various individuals who have influence in particular areas.Jim Collins in Good to Great describes it as "getting the right people on the bus." He argues that it doesn't matter if you don't know where the bus is headed, because the "right people" can figure that out.I... Read Full Story

I am starting to think that the success of a product may not have as much to do with innovation and good industrial design as it has to do with having a "perfect storm" of collaboration among various individuals who have influence in particular areas.Jim Collins in Good to Great describes it as "getting the right people on the bus." He argues that it doesn't matter if you don't know where the bus is headed, because the "right people" can figure that out.I... Read Full Story

I gravitate towards industrial design because I like to resolve ambiguous problems that don't have right or wrong answers. I am not quite sure how many other professionals share this directionless method of problem solving, but I sure get joy from deriving conclusions on my sheer gut reaction. "Should this surface be convex or concave?" Who knows-but I usually have a feeling that it should go one way or another.The only drawback is that I can make myself quite comfortable in ... Read Full Story

There is an ongoing debate between "nature" versus "nurture" when it comes to talent. What is more important to design?We may have heard an anecdotal story about someone who wasn't very "talented" but stayed up day and night practicing and eventually surpassed a more complacent and talented counterpart. This story may be true in some respects. Recent studies have shown that "experts are made, not born." Nevertheless, I believe becoming truly gre... Read Full Story

I have come to realize that when I have been doing freelance, with my own business, it is pretty much "Industrial Design". I want to refine my skills, but I do not want to attend a school that will stifle me and categorize me into a certain bracket.If you want to take on the design world (with or without a degree), you need to know who industrial designers are.The field of industrial design is a nebulous cloud of marketers, engineers, sculptors, managers, ethnographers, techies, ent... Read Full Story

I am never really satisfied at the completion of a design project. During the course of a project, I learn so much about both how and why a design is the way it is. So, when the deadline passes, I often look back at the bigginning of the project and wish that I had done certain things differently so that the design could have been a lot better. But, alas, a designer is never the same after he designs something. Therefore, they will never be satisfied with earlier efforts.With that in mind,... Read Full Story

So, as a professional designer, I feel I can speak about a few problems that I think the "design world" is suffering from. And being the person I am, I am going to blog about it. This could be a bumpy read, so here is my disclaimer: I'm not talking about either myself or my boss in this article! These points are based on conversations with other designers and represent my point of view.Designers are not any more capable of creating beauty than non-designers. Often times, I... Read Full Story