sleepinginmyhead

the outsiders

Last night i was invited to the Royal College of Art in London to the 'leaving party' of Ron Arad. I studied there from '99 to '01, and Ron was the professor on the Design Products MA. He's decided to move on after a fairly long tenure, and the post is to be taken by Tord Boontje in September (yes i know, but that's not for here).

I was a little nervous about going last night if i'm honest, but decided to pop along anyway. I kinda wished i hadn't as i immediately felt uncomfortable. You see, i think there's a huge gulf between the two types of people who study on that course. There's the popular 'in crowd' of experimental designers and then there's me. I never studied art until taking my MA. I'm not comfortable in fancy dress (last night's party was a 'hat' party). I don't design chairs. I'm not experimental with materials. I'm not a craftsman.I don't want to upset people. I'm a designer working for a huge corporation.

Now i want to make it totally clear that lots of people who studied the course are lovely. I had a nice, but brief chat with Tim from studio glithero, and even bumped into my good friend Ben Wilson outside, but the RCA design crowd isn't, well it just isn't my crowd. When i bump into ex RCA types i dread the 'so what are you up to now?' question which inevitably rears it's head. When i tell them that i work at sony (or currently - nokia), I often get the 'you sold out' look, swiftly followed by a glance over my shoulder to see if there's anyone cooler or more useful they can speak to. I spoke to Hillary French the Head of School about my last two positions and her response was 'well they're both big names i suppose'..... EXCUSE ME?? I happen to be very proud of what i've achieved, and I'm very creative on a daily basis, but because I don't conform to the designer/maker mould I'm somehow not good enough for the gang?

I'm over-reacting i know, and it's obvious that the problem lies with me, but it has to be noted that there's the in-crowd, and there's the out-crowd. The RCA course is split into different platforms, which study different approaches to design. My platform, run by the incredible Peter Russell-Clarke (now at Apple) was the most industrially focussed platform, and at last night's party, i was the only member of that group to attend. There has to be a good reason for that...

This 'expressive' end of the design world, often inhabited by the furniture and lighting types, could do with embracing industrial design. It's not all about becoming a celebrity name. Creativity comes in many shapes and sizes, but unfortunately if you ain't cool, you ain't in. In Milan many years ago i was at a cocktail party when Ron Arad saw me from across the room. He threw his olive at me, then came over. Here's how the conversation went:

Ron arrives:

RA: "hi, how are you doing?"

Me: "yeah not bad, good show isn't it?"

RA: "hmm, it's OK. Where are you working now?"

Me: "seymour powell"

RA: "you made me waste my olive"

Ron departs...

Now i know that's funny, and i actually laughed at the time, but it really shows the gap between his understanding of design and mine. I just think it would be so much better if we could all just get along. It was with great sadness that i heard of the appointment of Tord as Ron's successor, not because i don't like his style, but because it's just more of the same. Design is a broad church, and is best enjoyed in all it's forms. I love that these expressive types exist, and i love the work of a great many of them, but Industrial design can be great too, it really can, no need to be so sniffy.

shorts

so today marks the start of the 'sweaty summer at work' season. 

Working in the creative sector, that i can wear shorts to work...which is very lucky, i appreciate that, but this morning on a stinking piccadilly line train i wished i had worn jeans. A fat sweaty dude sat down next to me, also wearing shorts. He opened his paper and realising how hot he was, began to move his legs apart. The net result of this was that his flabby pasty legs, hidden away all winter under a veil of corduroy rubbed lovingly up against mine. I tried to pull my leg away, but in the end i had to stand up to escape. I shot him 'you filthy fucker' glances for the rest of the journey.

Too much contact for me, way too much.

what's with all the 'week 30' crap.

I just started a new job, it's a good job, and i like it. It's in a much larger team than i'm used to, and many disciplines share the same space, from ID to packaging and business units. I've been overhearing and experiencing something new though - business speak. Don't get me wrong, there's no 'moving forward' or 'let's run this up the flagpole and see who salutes it', but describing timescales by week can start to get annoying.

When people say 'we should get delivery by the middle of week 30' that means nothing to me, absolutely nothing. We have spent our entire lives using a standard calendar, and just because microsoft project divides the year into weeks, that doesn't mean we all know what you're talking about. A typical conversation goes something like this:

"they can't get that to us until the end of week 32"

"ahh shit..... when is that?"

"around the 8th or 9th of August"

"OK"

This has happened A LOT. Just use the normal calendar, everyone knows what to do with that!

oh consonant, you're missing

There's loads of 'engrish' examples all over the web. It's kinda cruel to laugh at other cultures, trying to buy into a 'cool western' lifestyle by using english, but sometimes the results are too funny to miss, like this: