Excuse the poor-quality dad-pun, and it’s not a typo. Learning something ‘by rote’ is to tackle it by mechanical or habitual repetition. Sometimes it’s a really good way to drum things in. The reason I can still type that 8 times 8 is 64 without a second thought is that times-tables were taught me in […]
First thing you do when you get into work is check your email, right? I know I do. Studio’s are no different from any other workspace or sector (as far as I can gather) with their digital-signal to noise ratio, but I’ve started to begin my day with anything in the junk folder – as […]
There’s been a bit of a run on yellow in packaging (at least to my eye), with Asda’s own brand ranges leading a hue (apologies) and cry for the bold use of sunshine colour. It left me wondering if this is trend we should be watching for (rather than just a flash in the pan)? […]
“Quick… and away from the point” Eudora Welty, 1933 Welty, writing to the New Yorker to ask to join the writing staff, captured in half a line how great writing should always transport you from what you think you know to whole other places. Holding attention with just those few words was what (eventually) secured […]
You hear Louis Sullivan’s maxim (which has remarkable staying power, given it was coined in 1896) ‘form (ever) follows function’ trotted out whenever people are looking for a snappy means of attributing an elevated sense of design purpose (usually in products) to what they’re making. And it’s a neat rubric for a team when faced […]
“Why are we not better than we are?” ‘Frost in the Fields’ Eric Trethewey It’s often hard to see how to you can add something useful or valuable to a big project when all the Big Decisions have been made. Or that everyone else seems to have grabbed the limelight with Big Ideas. If you’ve […]
I spend a lot of time wadding through information. Expect you do too, but in the world of guideline design, – especially the sort of guidelines that helps people build actual buildings rather than just (just?) brands – there’s often huge dumps of detailed specifications, all of which needs unpicking as part of the story. […]
Nice to see a bit of applied algebra (which even I can understand. Absolutely rubbish at the maths thing) courtesy of one Dr James Hind, from Nottingham Trent University: T = 70 + 0.5E + 15F – 10S “is the code parents can use to crack the probability of backseat breakdowns.” To crack the answer […]
Some days I get to work from home. It’s not often or to a regular pattern, but one thing I have noticed is that the ‘distraction-pull’ is no greater or less than being in the office – which appears (from reading other’s observations about WFH) somewhat odd. After all, home is where all the important […]
Just finished reading Robert Macfarlane’s amazing ‘Underlines’, which aside from containing mesmerising stories about his explorations, contains some amazing observations, one of which really struck out; an observation on the detachment digital living scores – “Where everything is within reach and nothing within touch.” Admittedly my outdoor adventures have been pretty limited of late (although […]
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