William Ury: The walk from “no” to “yes”

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am currently at an intimate summit in Colorado, surrounded by incredibly humbling minds. One of them is William Ury. He is one of the authors of the well-known book called Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. Having been able to spend some time with William I can say that he is a mediator to the core and an impressively kind and deep man.

Do yourself a favor and watch William’s 20minute TED Talk in which he offers an elegant, simple (but not easy) way to create agreement in even the most difficult situations — from family conflict to, perhaps, the Middle East.

Waving From Colorado

I am currently at a small Summit in Colorado, organized by Simon Sinek, force behind the Start With Why Movement. If you haven’t seen his TEDx talk, you should take a few minutes to do so:

I am sure some interesting blog posts will come out of these two days. The attendees are humbling to say the least. Just take Ping Fu for example, her story is the most inspiring I’ve ever heard. Inc Magazine called her entrepreneur of the year. Read the article here. More to come!

The Office (1969)

In this compilation of BBC clips from 1969, James Burke experiences the automated office of the future and what it might mean for the evolution of work culture:

“The great thing about machines is that they do what they’re told. They leave you to get on with it. Never late, they’re obedient, they’re never sick, they never disturb you or argue or paint their nails or talk or smile at you or say ‘good morning’ or keep you company. They just leave you alone.”

Found in this fantastic post over on Brain Pickings titled Today Yesterday: 5 Vintage Visions for the Future of Technology.

British General P.O. Phones

I remember when my parents taught me how to call their office number on our rotary phone.

Twine Stand With Scissors

Made of oak, this Twine Stand comes with a pair of stainless steal scissors neatly tucked in a hollow on top. Carry it along with you into the garden to support your growing tomatoes or keep it stored on the shelf in the kitchen. Also handy in the office when packaging up parcels. Includes a ball of natural string. A beauty. #wishlisted

(kind of via Mrs.Easton)

Tattly Film Volunteers Needed

Do you live in the NYC area? Are you a fan of temporary tattoos and you don’t mind being in front of a camera? Well, then this might be for you: The super-talented folks of This Is Made By Hand are going to make a short film to showcase Tattly. And we are looking for a range of fun faces to appear in it. Here are the details.

Shooting Date: This coming Sunday October 2nd

Location: Studiomates offices in DUMBO Brooklyn NYC

The Film : The film will be a montage of sorts comprised of whimsical portraits that include Tattly designs. For a visual reference, have a look at some of the photos on the Tattly site. We are not only looking for grown-ups but also for kids, so, you parents out there, send in the info of your kids!

Who We Are Looking For: Don’t be shy to apply: babies, kids, twins, lots of freckles, great mustaches and/or beards etc. All kinds of hair styles and colors welcome.

What We Have For You: Well Tattlys of course. Tickets to DUMBO’s new Jane’s Carousel and much gratitude (plus a hug if you want it). We promise it won’t take too long and we’ll make it fun!

Apply to: cast@thisismadebyhand.com (in subject Tattly Casting) please include some reference photos, contact information, and availability info for Sunday.

Color Dipped Mug



These Color Dipped Mugs are stunning. They’re made in Nagasaki, Japan, and are microwave and dishwasher safe. #wishlisted

H-57



This H-57 Rocket USB stick made me chuckle. Wouldn’t mind having it sit on my desk. Not at all.

UPDATE: I feel horrible about posting this, bad taste in hindsight. My apologies to anyone I might have offended with this post.

(thank you Bekka)

i-Wood

This wooden kids ‘laptop’ i-Wood made me chuckle. I am tempted to get one and use it during a meeting. No better way to poke fun at all the people hiding behind their laptops.

(thank you Larissa)

Basurita

I love multifunctional furniture like this piece called Basurita. It’s a room divider, wardrobe and bed, all in one. Hat tip to fraupawlik c/o Katharina Pawlik.

Rubber Bookshelf

Rubber Bookshelf by Luke Hart. Probably not all that practical but it’s sure interesting looking.

(via colossal / behance)

♥ / Brandbook

A big thank you to Brandbook for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed!

Everyone loves notebooks – especially designers. After all, notebooks are the best medium to keep hold of ideas. At Brandbook.de, designers can get their very own notebook edition produced and can choose between a wide range of different cover materials or even Japanese design paper. Brandbook is working for many international design- and advertising agencies, all well-known European brands.

(Interested in sponsoring a week of my RSS feed, learn more here.)

Bobble Head Robots



More fuel for my Robot obsession: A kit that allows you to build your very own Bobble Head Robots. Scissors and glue required. Eight styles in total.

Split Decision Pie Pan

If dessert time at your house sounds like this, “I want apple pie”. “No’ let’s have pecan pie!” … then you’ll need the Split Decision Pie Pan. Why bake one, when you can do two at the same time. The ingenious Split Decision Pie Pan includes two inserts for creating either a traditional full size pie, or two halves.

TeuxDeux Part Deux

If you read my blog regularly, you probably know about the to do list application that I built with Fictive Kin called TeuxDeux.

It’s been one of the most rewarding projects that I’ve ever worked on and I happily use it every day. It feels great to use your own product and it feels even better to know that nearly 200k people have signed up and loved it as well.

That said, as a product, it doesn’t really make much money (largely due to the fact that web version is free and we only charge $2.99 for the iphone app) and so we’ve had a very difficult time getting it the attention it deserves. After talking with my team, we realize that we need help. We’d like to hire a developer to help us implement the great road map of features that have been staring us in the face for a while.

More details to come, but if you are a great developer and you like our app, we’d love to hear from you. Email us.

Design at Scale

I recommend you watch the below video if you’re interested in the issue of scale in the world of design. Taped at a recent Smart Design Salon.

CreativeMornings Video: Chris Bangle

The speaker at the second CreativeMornings/London was Chris Bangle, formerly design director at BMW Group and now running Chris Bangle Associates. Talk about the London chapter starting off with a bang. Hat tip to the host, Drew Smith and his team!

The event was generously hosted by Buro Happold and Sense Worldwide. A big thank you to Nick Culley for filming and editing the talk.

Elephant Wall Easel

Easels always seem like a good idea but in a small NYC apartment they just end up being in the way. At least in my book. That’s why I like the idea of wall mounting the P’kolino Elephant Wall Easel. Granted, you probably have to paint the wall fairly often as kids never stay on the paper.

Average Font


Average Font by Mortiz Resl shows what a font would look like if it consisted of all typefaces installed on his system. Every character from a to z is drawn using every single font with a low opacity. In total there are over 900 typefaces in his library. And, he didn’t exclude the ‘ugly’ ones.

The Average Font is typographic poetry.

Social Gift

Social Gift is a fantastic idea and takes the headache out of social-group-gift-giving!

SocialGift.com allows friends and family to chip in on bigger, better and more meaningful gifts. It’s perfect for Birthday gifts, weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduations, and any special event you can think of where you want to bring together a group of people.

(thank you David)

Sensu, an iPad Brush

Here’s a Kickstarter project that made me look: The team behind Sensu is trying to bring a true painting experience to your iPad.

They developed Sensu out of their desire to have an authentic brush to use with our favorite drawing and painting apps on iPhone and iPad. And smart: When closed the Sensu brush reveals a useful rubber stylus tip.

Cool idea, no?

German Military Utensil Set



This German Military Surplus Utensil Set is impressive. It even entails a bottle opener.

Objects With Feet

This bowl with feet, by Dylan Kendall made me chuckle. Also known as the Bowly Guy. Yes, the bowl has a blog. In fact, there’s an entire collection of feet items. A vase with feet anyone? Or what about a sugar pack caddy?

Fun.

BankSimple

I am impatiently waiting for the launch of BankSimple, a supposedly worry-free alternative to traditional personal banking. Today they allowed us a first glance at BankSimple with the below video teaser.

I can not wait to give this a go!