Unwound: Fishman’s “Fluence” guitar pickup – my article in Premier Guitar

The team at Fishman Acoustic Amplification goes electric – developing Fluence, a pickup system that does away with traditional copper coil windings, instead “printing” windings for super-consistant results. Between that, their method for controlling the pull of the magnets, and equalizing the output signal, they have managed to consistently replicate the sounds coming from best...Continue reading

Working Backwards | PMP News

The way we work obviously has a tremendous effect on what we ultimately produce. Yet many of us – designers, engineers and other members of product and package development teams – can fall into a work routine that in itself may be ready for a redesign. On that note, here’s a link to a blog post I wrote...Continue reading

Cannes Lions

Just returned from the Cannes Lions festival in France. While this 61 year old program has historically been focused on advertising, this year marks the first time they have included a “product design” category in the program. My thoughts on why this makes sense – because big companies no longer own the media. We don’t...Continue reading

Why can’t we be more like Google?

Here’s a link to a blog post on innovation that I wrote for PMP News (Pharmaceutical and Medical Packaging): Why Can’t We Be More Like Google? It’s easy to find out how Google innovates – just Google it. Google’s Chief Social Evangelist Gopi Kallayil reveals nine principles for innovation: 1. Innovation comes from anywhere. 2. Focus on the user. 3. Aim to be...Continue reading

IFA+ Summit, Berlin

Umm.. fly to Berlin to give a 9-minute talk? Sure, I’d like to visit Berlin. Actually we had a great session last Tuesday on design at the IFA+ Summit, and I had a chance to hear and meet  some really good people. They included Carlo Ratti, director at MIT Senseable City Lab, Caroline Seifert, Senior Vice...Continue reading

Innovation: 9 Things to stop doing…

Thanks Nadja Sayej for the article that appeared in Forbes, Dan Formosa On 9 Things to Stop Doing in Innovation. Following up on Google’s “nine principles for innovation,” here’s my list: 1. Stop designing things for old people 2. Stop saying “ethnography” 3. Stop making things simple 4. Stop coming up with answers 5. Stop listening...

Flying Lessons

As brilliant as Paul MacCready’s Gossamer Condor was in design, the way it was designed may have been equally as brilliant. Made of Mylar, the team was able to quickly repair damages and make modifications following a crash. So yes, they crashed, but they also instantly corrected. That was 1977. How many of us are...Continue reading

Innovation4All, Oslo

  Had fun giving a talk, and running two workshops with Mike Jones at the Innovation4All conference in Oslo last week. Thanks to the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture, and the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at RCA in London for hosting the conference. The photo above shows Onny Eikhaug kicking off the conference. I posted...Continue reading

2014 New York Design Awards

Happy to be on the jury for the 2014 New York Design Awards. Congratulations to all the winners at the award ceremony held at Steelcase last night. To get to the site and see the 2014 winners of the award, click here. This is the first year this program has been held in New York, and the response,...Continue reading

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