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.