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Something that’s become very apparent to me is how often businesses have their head down in the work of daily production so much that they forget to develop their business. Each worker falls into this trap of thinking that if only they could do more in their role then they’d be a better worker. That’s actually wrong. The more they figure out how to do less work the better a worker they are. Businesses spend a lot of time doing work that isn’t productive. For the energy that’s expended on doing menial tasks repetitively helps no-one, yet isn’t that what we spend much of our time doing? As employees we must be empowered to find ways of either delegating or automating as much as possible to free ourselves up. We must have a mindset to augment our tools to suit us. Every single worker must be trying to meet what is asked of to be delivered but with less effort. That brings me to design.

Very few places I’ve worked as a designer spend their time actually understanding and refining their process of design. So much time is spent trying to make the best design that often major points are missed because our design process is flawed for what we’re attempting to design. It’s when you actually spend time figuring out how you do what you do that you can begin seeing how to add value to the process. When you’re deep in ensuring the work of production is running smoothly you’re never asking whether making this part is necessary or not. Design agencies suffer from this in two ways. First they rarely brief and debrief a project and take an outside stance on it to understand where the fat bits are to trim or colon blockages are to laxate. Second there is such information stored in people over iterations but when they move on, which is quite often in the design industry, the aquired knowledge is lost and those who are left begin attempting to reform what was only set in place the previous generation for good reason.

I’m really beginning to think that there are two tiers of design agencies at least. The ones that spend their time designing stuff and the ones that spend their time figuring out how to design stuff. The former seem to think they’re ok until their products look mundane and are just overwhelmed with what everyone else is capable of (Architects who are afraid of using computers anyone?). The latter are looking to make themselves better and are fully aware of the new design patterns emerging and are capable of running there too. It’s the difference between a stodgy old master of yore and the nimble youngin who is prepared to adapt. Not to say that there is something to be learnt from the masters but if they’re unable to parlay their specialty on to the next generation they’ll soon discover their creaking limbs are better off as firewood for the receivers to toast themselves by.

future self portrait?

I am quite puzzled by how photography will develop in future. Are we going to need more space to take up all the pictures of things from the past than we have space to experience the present. Are we going to have endless images we’ve created ourselves that we are just going to spend our lives pouring over, reminiscing the memories of the first half of our lives, almost in a narcissistic manner, and completely lose touch with the beauty of the present as we long for days of supple skin, perky breasts, juvenile pursuits and childish innocence.

It seems that every time we hang out with friends we want to capture that moment in a picture because we know that moment is only temporal. I guess it’s our feeble attempt of trying to control the constantly moving river of time.

Another thing I find interesting about photography is that it’s not just capturing a moment as it is: It’s about capturing it the way we want to remember it. Every photographer, no matter how amateur, does things to render the image their way - angle, lens length, focal point, cropping, colours, vignette - to put some of their own creativity and personality into it. It appears that photography is becoming another manner in which we as individuals can create a buffer between our real self and the way in which we want to perceive and be perceived. We can create such rich, vivid and smooth images to try to show our fellow people how great we are when our deepest longing is to be accepted for all our blemishes and faults. I think of the adage “beauty is subjective” and conclude that we have deceived ourselves into thinking that it’s only of a fickle nature and contained in the days of our youth. All the while there is lasting beauty in truth that transcends time and love that outlasts flesh.

Found in a Pennsylvanian thrift shop this Electronic Mall Madness game hails from a distant era. Not only are board games becoming the preserve of adults (or should I say atavistic kidults) and no longer educational/life emulation/escapist fantasy for kids but the concept of consumerism presented in the above game will seem archaic in a future where online shopping is dominant and mega-malls, like passenger ocean liners, are obsolete for their economic unsustainability.

When I first saw this I read it as the same thing you see on a Methylated Spirits bottle - “Not To Be Taken”. Which did rather amuse me that someone would try that with a Bible. Alas the bold label “Not To Be Taken Away” does leave you wondering of the intent of it’s labeller. Unless the church is quite different from most, bibles being taken is not a particularly crippling financial issue. Or maybe it’s just showing their theological view that humanity is totally depraved but also denying that the Holy Spirit is at work transforming their desires. Still it would do the church much better to just stomach any ‘taken’ bibles and encourage those without one to do so, that they may be resourced well and given the best opportunity to hear God’s word. Also think this applies to business, through it’s efforts to prevent small hassles for itself, prevents people from interacting with your core offering to them? DRM? Only offering zipped firmware upgrades? Remove the barriers to your message.

Cineleisure Signage

Whilst at first glance the above sign would appear to be informative but it’s missing many critical pieces of information.

- It doesn’t tell you what floor you are on. Actually the only way to find this out at this particular mall is steel numbers on the floor at the entrance and exit to each escalator.
- You expect every floor in a mall to have Retail and what exactly are ’services’?
- F&B for the uninitiated gives no information (Food & Beverage) - Also a food court is quite different from a restaurant.
- The lack of icons really makes it difficult to see items quickly.
- The Cinema ‘Halls’ do not proceed in numerical order with the floors.
- There appears to be no understandable hierarchy to the items on each floor as their order varies.
- It’s a nightmare to meet someone at the Karaoke since it’s on two floors or the Box Office since there’s three.
- Probably the best thing they can do is put store logos as tiles branching out from each floor number.

What secrets does my company have?

Does this evoke a sense of trust and enthusiasm for their business?

Some alerts become irrelevant with time thus people begin to ignore them. The problem is that with time people default to ignoring them. Think of speed limits and airline safety drills. To some the solution is becoming more shocking - eg. Terrorism warnings at train stations showing images of bombed trains and screaming people when you’re just about to get on and cigarette warnings with extreme effects of related disease. Would it be better to ensure alerts are timely and not redundant?

Ok inspired by Jan Chipcase I’ve decided to come up with a new section - Piqued. It’s for things that in my wandering about have piqued my interest and usually involve taking a photo with my phone, a type of amateur anthropology.

Yio Chu Kang MRT

People willingly cram into steel cages for recreation whilst the open field opposite lays empty. Seems to compound how Singaporeans only feel safe when surrounded with hard boundaries.