Four espressos into this morning, it's not possible to shake this dense fog that is both inside and outside. Shame really, yesterday was like summer and there's a lot going on here in the studio.
Several of last year's projects carried into this year. And are moving at a tremendous speed. But it seems like everyone is busy, so when we get the chance to look up from our projects, there's always a lot to catch up with.
Unfortunately we're still not in a position to share much of the project work in the studio. Until we wrap it up and launch it all that is. We've got projects launching at the end of every month for the next three or four months starting in February. For now, here's whats been going on and what we can share.
Last year we got to chat with BERG a little about a possible future collaboration on one of our projects. We discussed physics, games and a bit of urban design.
Our code-named Brooklyn Project kicked off at the end of last year with a local collaborator. It has an aggressive timeline to it, seeing a final concept prepared by the end of March, when most spend up to a year doing similar projects.
A large ongoing project has us researching everything about creative collaborations, workshops as well as architecture, urban design and cities. You can follow some of the things we find on twitter here: centralstory
Next month we're looking forward to sharing the outcome of collaborating with Weightshift. Annually, we're going to get together and build something together. It's a chance to do something outside of projects brought to us by others, and make our own restrictions and boundaries. It's always a pleasure to work with the outstanding craftsmen Naz, and Scott.
Of course, a New Year can't go by without a kind of transformation or reorganization. We're better suited now to be completely project focused. A second studio space hosts our ongoing projects, which this journal's image shows some of. It appears we have almost as much table surface space as we have floor space, yet every inch of the tables are covered. A good sign of activity.
If the writing here seems to waning al title, I think its because the last espress o has worn of f.
To wrap up, here are some other very busy people with some great news, announcements or projects at hand.
Gino Zahnd, former colleague, collaborator and good friend launched Seabright Studios with John Bragg. Weightshift relaunched a new delicious version of their site. They have some excellent things in the works right now. Aaron Kenedi (good friend, and collaborator and the content producer on our Future of Fish project) has launched a fresh looking new Print magazine. Project Projects art directed January's issue. Read about it here. It looks fantastic. I subscribed instantly. I'm looking forward to collecting them. Kwame dropped by the studio last week for coffee. His recommendation was to put the squiggle into a poster. So we're looking into that- I think we can produce an excellent poster. Thanks Kwame. We don't know Alex Bogusky, but he introduced a community designed brand that is open sourced and community owned and directed. Take a look at it over here.
And in a final note, we're on the lookout for outstanding talent to help us with some project work. We need researchers, graphic design help- both production and visual design, specifically in print. This is for in-the-studio help. If you or someone you know are a creative, super-collaborative individual who's up for working in a small, everyone-mucks-in-here studio, then email us. Send us a note, and some examples of your work to: jobs /at/ centralstory.com
— Category: A Central Production, Weeknotes
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I dipped into Bruce Mau's Life Style recently. Dipping is really the best way to experience the book if you've not got the time to read the six hundred and twenty six pages from beginning to end. I don't think he wants you to do this anyway.
As I dipped in, kind of looking for inspiration about how to sum up the work we've done over the last few years, and within a few pages I arrived at this:
To understand the studio, you must understand the way we have defined collaboration. A collaborator comes to the studio with an undefined relationship to the proposed work. They approach with an understanding that anything is possible. They arrive prepared to ignore the limits, engage content, and develop something new. They may have expectations, even quite specific ones, but within those expectations or desires, there is space for invention. We, on the other hand, enter an open space of learning. It is an enviable position. At the best of times we have been students with the world's greatest teachers.
And the text goes on to list learning things like architecture with Frank Gehry, urbanism with Rem Koolhaas and so on. Page 223.
I like this passage. It connects with something we try to do here: truly collaborate with the client. In a fashion where we're not so much leading as we're facilitating, and learning on the project together. Almost every project we work on tends to spawn news ones, new directions and take different trajectories. And this comes with knowing that we don't, at the start, know yet what we're going to find out as we embark on a collaboration together. But we do know we're going to learn a lot.
I was thinking about our list.
We've learnt a tremendous amount both from the people we've collaborated with but also in exploring the field with our clients.
So as a first pass, we have studied:
The future with Ashoka Changemakers.
Complex system design with Changemakers' Discovery group.
The supply chain black hole with the Future of Fish project.
Strategic investment with the Packard Foundation.
Urban redesign with Urban Re:vision
Making it personal, with Proteus Biomedical
States of mind with Silverado winery
Storytelling with Architecture for Humanity, and Kosmix.
In my own words, when I look at the projects like this, I end up being grateful for how much you get to learn with each collaboration. Because it is inevitable that if left open, you're going to be changed by a real collaboration.
In Bruce Mau's words: Our collaborators have helped create a situation in which we have more at the end of our work than we had at the beginning.
I think there's something to this in both how you see what it is you do, but also in how you see the projects and "clients" that come through the door. I know I'll be writing more about this in the future.
In other news. People came to resurface the parking lots outside our studios. I had to wrestle with the desire to push a bright yellow Post-it note into the black tarmac that had sharpied on it: DO NOT WALK ON THIS. But then I noticed someone had... forever leaving their mark on the ground. And their shoes.
I also have to draw attention to this Kickstarter project: the Glif. Thomas and Dan presented a story of how they'd like to manufacture a mount for the iPhone 4, so it could work as a camera. They created a great short movie, were very likable, and asked for a mere 10,000 dollars from the community at large.
When I found out about it, they had a measly 6,000 dollars pledged, with a lot of time to go before the funding period ran out. Today they closed the funding goal time (they set at the outset and can't change) with a total of 137,417 dollars pledged.
This isn't the most extreme case of funding on the Kickstarter Platform, but it is one of the top 100. And it was fun to watch the number climb and have that nice fuzzy feeling of having contributed.
That's it for now. More to think about on studying with collaborators.
— Category: A Central Production, Week, Weeknotes
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It is busy right now. The nice kind of busy where things are getting done. Things are coming together and ideas are being hatched, shared and augmented into bigger and better ones. I'm driving a lot again. Down to Stanford. Which gives me a great period of time to reflect on the busy state of things and where's the next place to end up.
I realized that the very nature of the work we do here at Central will largely prohibit us from sharing much of the behind the scenes, and sometimes, even the sharing of the final products we develop for our clients. I found I was becoming frustrated about the lack of detail I could share here, when I stumbled upon the idea that if I couldn't share the scope of work, the client, or the client details, I could share some of the questions we're faced with on the various projects. The questions that come out of our working sessions, workshops and problems our clients are facing.
One of the questions we've been mulling over is the purpose of a book. And how could a book be part of a story along with other mixed media. IDEO released a timely short on the "Future of the book", sharing with us three faces of tomorrow book: Nelson, Coupland, and Alice. As beautiful as the concepts were, and so very well narrated, they were kind of beyond the book and not really about a book at all. We found ourselves considering that the concepts either generated more noise, or were not even a book anymore but simply an app. They seem to all be based on a hidden assumption or belief that we're all wanting short-form narratives instead of being able to engage in a long-form novel or something. I think it might have been better put, "What's the future of the narrative or story?" and how might we use an iPad to consume this? Now if IDEO and Berg had teamed up, I believe something magic would have come out of this around the future of the book.
We've also been looking at possible learning tools for what Naz likes to call "the supernormal". Sal came up with some great ideas for sentence creation. And now we're going to have to look at creating the magic engine behind that to really deliver a decent experience. Back to the book question. The next question we'll have around the purpose of the book, is how do you get a book to be part of a movement and engagement platform. Something that can explain a completely new way of seeing things, and then enable you to engage in change. Without creating a new social network. A new flickr, or twitter.
Also this week we're sorting out the new space for running workshops. A big part of what we do are workshops. Its all part of the design process. And we're finding we need the space to spread out, break out, and make a huge mess. And then be able to leave it exactly as it is, as we spend a few weeks afterwards carefully putting everything into something that makes sense. A kind of story. The workshops can vary, ranging from being focused around creating ideas within a particular problem space (like the Future of Fish workshop), or can be very "business therapy" like, in helping an organization realize its purpose, and how to deliver that. Through behavior, design, and experience. So we're thrilled to now have the space to spread out in.
Shane dropped by a week ago to answer our call for help. He's returned since to make it a frequent thing. Cathy now legitimately can spend time watching TV and browsing online. All in the name of research.
An old friend dropped by the studio this week. With his business partner, they shared something they've been working on for a couple of years. I loved it. It made me think about the way I find authoritative information online and who are the trusted advisors I seek recommendations from. When I thought about it, I think I ask people less in person, "have you listened to anything great lately?" and do my hunting online. I feel lucky that we get to see new concepts and ideas as people come by to share them.
The class at Stanford is going well. I realized that I've been teaching for more then fifteen years. Lessons on learning quark or photoshop, and open classes on the internet and web back in the early nineties. This kind of co-teaching is very different, but wonderfully refreshing to be teaching what I do every day. So much so that when I return to my team, back in the office, I find myself having the same kind of expectations of them as I do for the graduate students. "Sketch it out and pin it up…". I think I might start grading everyone.
We sent the file out for the pads to be printed. Soon we'll have little children pads to accompany the larger green pads. Can't wait. And the beta group filled up nicely and promptly. All taken sorry. I'll send out more information to the group shortly.
Okay- now I have some writing to do for imprint. I should leave soon, it's all quiet here in the studio late Friday evening.
Have a good weekend. When yours comes.
— Category: A Central Production, Weeknotes
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Lot's of project planning, administration and organizing these days. A great project kick off last week with a bunch of talented designer we're really lucky to be collaborating with. I'm really looking forward to the challenges we set ourselves, and how we'll work together to push past our own limits to create something incredible. In the beginning of any project, you set the intensity and drive you hope to keep throughout the weeks or months of the project. I'm smiling to myself thinking at how there's little need for me to worry about that here, day 1 of getting together, this team tore into the content and each one pushed for something smarter, better or even funnier. I'm looking forward to writing more about this as we progress.
Also this week, a stack of titles stands proudly beside me here, that belong to a new subscription service we're going to be starting up. A hand-full of "beta-testers' are helping out with this in how it is designed and experienced. We're hoping to launch this in the New Year, with some specifics before Christmas. It's something based on what you might have experienced if you came into the studio to visit. Thanks to Daniel, and several others, I've decided to test this out as something to share in a broader way. It takes care of a long-time itch I've had.
And in the photo- you might notice a kind of prototype of a new half-sized addition to our paperworks. We're definitely going to be opening the shop very soon. With a bunch of things on offer for sale. We're sorry it's been dormant for a while. It will have been worth the wait.
Ongoing, I've been doing a little writing for Print Magazine's new blog, Imprint. Check it out, on a daily basis there's much to read. I'm impressed by the range of posts and diversity that Imprint covers. I'm hoping to write more, more regularly.
Next week is my first day of school. And yes, if I am completely honest, I'm a little nervous about it. Only when people call it "your first day of school". I've promised myself I won't be late. It wouldn't really be cool to turn up late as the lecturer. I'll have more about that after class gets started and I find my head, or feet.
Sorry this post is such a tease. More about that la– just kidding.
— Category: Weeknotes
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Ten weeks went by in a blink of an eye. It is funny how being busy can also look like nothing is going on to the outside world. Unfortunately time still doesn't allow for me to do more than two things at once, so I can't explain more but to say that it has been an eventful and abundant ten weeks. Along with some very interesting trips. Including some down to Stanford University. I'll be away for the next two weeks. I'll definitely spend some time at the end of May to update the site and share some news. Thanks to those that had been paying attention and finally reached out to push for some updates. Sorry to not quite deliver on that yet. Soon though. And yes, my desk really is that tidy. Just don't look at the second one I have behind me.
— Category: Weeknotes
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