Travel Essentials: The Future Laboratory

Chris Sanderson:

Christopher Sanderson is creative director of Viewpoint. A co-founder of The Future Laboratory, his other recent projects include directing “Futurescape”, a series of short films about the future for Channel Four television in the UK. A regular writer on style and design for British and international publications, Sanderson was until recently a contributing style editor at British Esquire magazine. He has also worked as a freelance creative director on strategic planning for fashion brands. His current projects, in conjunction with the British Council, include setting up magazines in India and Estonia.

Martin Raymond:

Martin Raymond edits Viewpoint magazine and is also author of The Tomorrow People: Future consumers and how to read them today (Financial Times Prentice Hall). He is a regular contributor on trends and business to the BBC, and co-founder of The Future Laboratory. Born in 1961 in Ireland, he moved to the UK in 1984 to work as a journalist in the design, fashion, film and video sectors. He founded VideoGraphic, and later became an associate editor at Screen International.

Martin went on to edit and re-launch Fashion Weekly, the UK’s fashion business bible. A return to his native Dublin to present RTE television’s fashion magazine programme Head To Toe was followed by a four-year tenure at the London College of Fashion, as senior lecturer in fashion journalism. A Fellow at Nottingham Trent University, he maintains a busy schedule of lecturing at over 12 colleges and universities throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Martin is currently working on his second book, The Hidden Life of the Consumer, which takes an ethnographic look at how and why people shop and how brands and retailers can plug into process in a way that benefits consumers as well as the organisations targeting them.

www.thefuturelaboratory.com

Reading Material:
Always an unread travel memoir. At the moment we’re reading ‘A Time of Gifts’ by Patrick Leigh Fermor about the first part of his journey to Constantinople in the 30s; utterly absorbing. I was also given a review copy of Philip Norman’s John Lennon: The Life to Read - beautifully crafted and with every page we can hear the soundtrack to my teenage years in full stereophonic sound. Awesome.

Music:
My Life at La Colombe playlist, to remind me of how many sunny days I missed this summer; it includes Grace Jones’ La Vie en rose, Amy Winehouse’ To know him is to love him, Justin’s Love Stoned, The Chiffons’ He’s so fine, Charles Trenet’s La Mer and Goldfrapp’s Cologne Cerrone Houdini.

Gadget:
The Apple Air. It’s great to have a laptop that doesn’t kill your back in your bag…

Snack:
Snacking is evil. It deadens the senses and flattens the palate. And it makes you fat fat fat.

Personal Accessory:
We find it very hard to travel without a little Muji pencil case that contains: 1x Victorinox “hunter” penknife 1x trekker’s whistle 1x compass 2x propelling pencil 1x Carmex 2x ear plugs 1x sting relief 1x champagne stopper

Memory:
See below - remembering it keeps us sane while we’re away …

Pre-Trip Ritual:
When possible we’ll take our Labrador, Jasper out for an early morning walk along the Thames before being taken to the airport. It clears the mind and reminds us why we love coming back to London.

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Interesting Eco Hotel Products

As we become increasingly aware of the fragile ecosystem and the effect that we have on it, hotels are introducing new ways to conserve and protect the Earth. The following are a few highlights of some of the more interesting products that are new for the industry.

Sustainable Cards: Wooden key cards have been used in Europe for a few years, but are just starting to gain wide popularity. The Democratic National Convention in Denver this coming month will feature exclusively these sustainable cards for hotels. While it does not seem like such a small item would make a big difference, switching from plastic cards to biodegradable wood can reduce plastic waste equal to the volume of seven 777 airplanes in one year.

Pre-Fabricated/Modular Design: Prefab buildings and modular units are being integrated into hotel projects more and more every day. Prefab housing is not new - in fact, simply having components that are manufactured in off-site industrial facilities constitutes the basic definition of prefab, and has been a part of home construction for decades. However, in recent years, a new movement has sprung up which ties prefab almost inextricably to modernist aesthetics, and also increasingly purports to have an inherent upper hand where sustainability is concerned. Advantages of these projects can include eco-friendly LED lighting, sustainable and recycled wood, solar power, and eco-conscious water filtration systems, among other features. The following image is the Q-bic Hotel system which features technology from Philips, Hästens, and Philippe Starck.

Sustainable Mini-Bars: Fair Trade products and Organic food products have also managed to find their way into hotels´mini bars. Products like 360 Vodka hope to establish new sustainable product development and packaging standards in the distilling industry and hotels are eager to promote these aspects of their vendors.

If there are any additional products you have come across that are particularly interesting with an eco-friendly perspective, please comment!

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Travel Essentials: Friends with You

FriendsWithYou (FWY) is a collective of Miami based artists founded in 2002 by Sam Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III. Since its conception, FWY has developed into a fully established multi-disciplinary creative studio with the ability to create everything from initial strategies and concepts, to products and packaging, pos, print elements, full motion media (i.e. live-action, animation, stop-motion, etc.), and events. As a one stop shop for clients and creatives alike, FWY continues to produce innovative, award-winning works time and time again.

www.friendswithyou.com

Sam Borkson:

Reading Material:
I am a huge fan of graphic novels and I especially enjoy all titles by Tezuka. I am currently reading all the Dungeons by Sfar. I also recently enjoyed Heartbreak Soup and Swamp Thing. I bring them everywhere and they help me to sleep!

Music:
Always changing; there is just so much music out there!

Gadget:
My laptop comes with me everywhere since the fun work never ends! For the plane my Nintendo DS is soooo good for passing the time!

Snack:
I try to keep it healthy as much as I can but I love any and all snacks, from caviar to sandwiches to beef jerky. Every kind of delicious food makes me happy. Seaweed is a special life enhancing treat from the sea.

Memory:
I always feel special travelling and am happy to be going somewhere either away or home. I used to have the worst luck travelling and then I realize that everyone has some kinds of problems like delays and stress, so I just soak it in and enjoy!

Pre-Trip Ritual:
Cleans house! Clean clothes, and prepare my favourite most comfortable outfit. Freshly washed jeans with my very worn-in FriendsWithYou t-shirt and I’m ready to rock.

Arturo Sandoval:

Reading Material:
Wallpaper, & Dwell are my magazines of choice. I also like non-fiction books are my favourite kind of reading. I like supernatural studies and spiritual anthropological topic books. They are hard to read and I can’t finish most of them but I pick them up and push my brain through them as much as I can. Besides that, some graphic novels to pass the time, Tezuka is a must.

Music:
Last.fm it keeps me listening to new music.

Gadget:
iPhone, Road bikes & MacPro Laptop.

Personal Accessory:
Sketch book and colour pencils. + laptop that’s all I need besides the phone. But if I am stranded and I have my sketchbook to draw, and my laptop to browse the web then it is all good.

Pre-Trip Ritual:
I usually don’t sleep the night before. I stay up carefully preparing my backpack and my reading material. Then organize my computer and make sure everything is exactly how I like it to be.

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Travel Essentials: Scott Harrison

In 2004, Scott served a year as a photojournalist on a Mercy Ship in Liberia, West Africa. There he became familiar with the life-threatening effects of contaminated water and upon moving back to his home in New York City in 2006, he founded charity: water. www.charitywater.org

Reading Material:
Good book on International Development, Currently reading Paul Polak´s Out of Poverty. Another favourite is William Easterly´s White Man´s Burden. My Bible, too

Music:
Viva la Vida (Coldplay), Hillsong, Shuggie Otis, Radu Lupu playing Brahams, Matt Redman

Gadget:
My video iPod although I miss the iPod touch given to me that I left in an airplane seatback pocket on a hurried flight. Blackberry, 17″ Macbook Pro, Flip Video

Snack:
Blister packs of any kind of spearmint gum. I have been known to eat an entire pack during one flight.

Memory:
Fond African memories of flying helicopters over Liberia, a ship on fire off the coast of Benin, two aborted take-offs in Northern Ethiopia.

Pre-Trip Ritual:
TRY to remember my Passport!

We would like to invite and encourage all readers to view the trailor for Scott´s Movie, “September”. Also, visit his site, www.charitywater.org

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The Future is Now: Dubai, China, or Star Wars?

For years, Western civilizations have created images and visual forecasts of what the future holds for architecture and urban environments. While they have been dreaming of the future however, friends in the Middle East and Asia have been realizing it. The following is a selection of images that are all from either Dubai, China, or Star Wars… Can you tell the difference? (answers at bottom)

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(1: Ariel shot of Dubai) (2: Great Hall of the People and Tiananmen Square- The futuristic building houses three theaters, for opera, music, and stage plays. China) (3: Star Wars) (4: Dubai) (5:China) (6:The anti-skyscraper at a mere 49 stories, the new CCTV Headquarters, designed by Rem Koolhaas, will contain almost as much floor space as the Empire State Building and Ground Zero’s forthcoming Freedom Tower combined. Once completed, it will be the world’s second-largest office building, after the Pentagon. (7: Atlantis Resort, Dubai) (8: Trick question, the correct answer is Azerbaijan) (9: Star Wars, Tatooine) (10: Star Wars)

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Travel Essentials: Jason Miller

To prepare for Future Forum, we want to introduce you to our speakers in a new feature called “Travel Essentials.” Each speaker was given a questionnaire to complete with select items that are essential for their travels.

Our first featured speaker is Jason Miller. Jason has been called a jack-of-all-trades and a multi-tasker. He designs everything from furniture to toys to interiors and works in a multitude of mediums. Jason’s designs often draw on everyday aspects of American culture to create contemporary design objects that could just as easily be conceptual art.

www.millerstudio.us

Reading Material:
I always travel with at least one, but usually multiple copies of the New Yorker.

Music:
A mix is good. Raconteurs, Dire Straits, Willy Nelson, Nancy Sinatra, Ludacris, The Smiths.

Gadget:
My iPhone. I would hate to travel without my iPhone. The minute I get on the plane, my earphones are in. When we get ready for take-off I hide them from the stewardess so I don’t have to turn it off.

Snack:
Traveling makes me lose my appetite. Or maybe airline food makes me lose my appetite.

Personal Accessory:
My Iphone. Don’t leave home without it.

Memory:
9 straight hours of turbulence from Stockholm to New York. You don’t usually see people use an air sickness bag for air sickness. That was fun.

Pre-Trip Ritual:
A beer at the airport.

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Live the brand: Fashion Hotels

The Hotel has been a meeting point of sorts for a wide variety of products over the years. From being prominently featured in classic movies to serving as a testing ground for innovative sleep products, hotels are the perfect opportunity for companies to give customers the opportunity to “experience” their brand with all senses.

One of the most popular collaborations exists between hotels, and fashion; the advantages of the collaboration can be mutually beneficial for both parties given the right circumstances. The fashion brand benefits from a constant flow of exposure to clients and potential new clients by presenting their products in an integrated “experience.” It also give them the opportunity to introduce new product lines like bath amenities, linens, furniture, and fragrances to clients. In many cases, guests have the chance to purchase goods directly from the hotels belonging to the brands.

Take the case of the Casa Camper Hotel in Barcelona Casa Camper; it is a small hotel featuring only 25 total rooms, but with the strong occupancy rates of the Barcelona hotel market (around 70%) this essentially guarantees a captive market of at least 30-45 guests every day (even days like Sundays when the actual Camper stores are not open) who are sleeping, breathing, and living the Camper lifestyle. Because Camper is a quirky and funky brand, it has translated their version of hospitality into the same vision with unique services like wooden bicycles to rent. Additionally, the company’s ecological, healthful attitude is reflected not only in Casa Camper’s non-smoking policy, but also in a comprehensive recycling program, solar panels and a unique system that reuses hotel water. Camper authenticity is also obvious next door at the FoodBall restaurant, where guests can lounge on a set of stairs while they enjoy an array of fresh organic juices and delicate organic balls of free-range chicken and other fillings covered in a layer of brown rice.

A different more subtle version of the fashion/hospitality collaboration are the Lungarno brand of hotels in Florence, Italy. Owned by the iconic Ferragamo family, the Gallery Hotel Art Gallery Hotel Art , and the Continentale Continentale are more an exercise in the discreet brand values of the Ferragamo name. These hotels are less about pushing their brand than they are about communicating the experience that their brand suggests: comfort, luxury, style, and a timeless quality.

What the hotel gains through these afilliations is a real image- that is, a tangible link with a lifestyle. This image is extended through their facilities and amenities, but also with all communicative efforts of the fashion house. Those who are fans of a particular brand, will more than likely be a fan of the hotel. Those who revere the great names in fashion like Missoni, Versace, Bulgari (all of which have hotels around the world) are all able to experience what it would like to live in the world of that brand. The challenge is to accurately portray the brand once the models, flashy lights, and decadence are gone. This is where the functionality comes into play and the success of the partnership can really been taken advantage of. These partnerships should not just about furnishing a hotel with pretty decoration; they should align the brands in a way that enhances both simultaneously, and the experience of the guest

Casa Camper Guest Room (notice the Camper brand slippers for guests), Barcelona

Casa Camper, Barcelona

Gallery Hotel Art, Florence

Continentale, Florence

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Marcel Wanders and his Inspirations

I recently came across a very interesting feature in a magazine that highlights some of the most important contemporary designers. Each individual was given the platform to discuss a few items that they find particularly inspirational. Among the figures listed include, Brazil´s Fernando and Humberto Campana, Claudio Luti (Kartell), Robin Page who designs the interiors for Bentley automobiles. Also included is Design Hotels friend and Lute Suites designer, Marcel Wanders.

Wanders reflects on hospitality and the Lute Suites: “A hotel should offer experience, it should be exciting and surprising with a strong visual rationale that elicits a strong emotional response.” In this case, he puts his figurative message literally on the walls and conveys a sense of optimism. In one living room, multiple shelves stretching the length of the wall hold his one-minute sculptures – coral-like clay forms painted gold. It is proof of what can be accomplished when not only seizing the day, but 60 seconds. In the “boardroom” conference cottage, newspaper headlines and articles bearing good news paper the wall. Lute Suites is true to the unapologetically earnest philosophy of Wanders’ design studio: “Here to create an environment of love, live with passion, and make our most exciting dreams come true.”

His motivations according to the areticle include:

Bonsai

This millena old art of Bonsai — literally “potted plant” Japanese — involves shaping miniature trees, and may constitute the longest act continual act of design. Some of the trees at the Happo-en garden in Japan have been tended for over 500 years.

Jaguar F-Type

Unveiled in 2000, the F-Type was Jaguar’s attempt to modernize the luxury sports cars they epitomized with their classic E-type, combing power with aerodynamic style.Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with the Pearl Earring”

This 17th century work by Johannes Vermeer is often referred to as the “Mona Lisa of the North,” a classic work which has inspired both a novel and a film.

Never Built Black Copy of the Taj Mahal

Legend holds that Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor of India, planned a matching black Taj Mahal mausoleum across the river from the original. In 2006, archeologists reconstructing part of the pool in the Moonlight Garden discovered a negative image of the white mausoleum reflected in the water, a testament to Shah Jahan’s obsession with symmetry and design.

Teddy Bear Band

In 2005, Philippe Starck created Teddy Bear Band for the French toy designer Moulin Roty. Believing that an excessive number of toys promotes infidelity, Starck created a bear that could do the job of many while preparing children for a life of committed human relationships.

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Future Forum Speaker featured in Esquire Magazine!

Stephen Burks is featured in a multi-page spread in the upcoming September Esquire magazine.

Esquire magazine is celebrating its 75th anniversary with their ‘less is more - more is more’ issue
coming out in september 2008. The issue features industrial designer stephen burks from the
new york studio of readymade projects. curated by richard meier and takeshi murakami,
stephen burks’ ‘maximalist’ portrait by nigel parry.

Stephen burks has been involved in the design of retail interiors, events packaging,
consumer products, lighting furniture and home accessories. his client list includes artecnica,
B&B italia, boffi, CK (calvin klein), johnson & johnson, missoni, tods group and vitra USA.

Check his site www.readymadeprojects.com to see some of his work!

(Thanks to Designbloom for the tip!)

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The Role of Design in Business Success…

When one considers the term “design” most will conjure an image of a futuristic neon colored chair, an article of clothing, or at the least a shiny new iPhone. Design is something that remains in the realm of “creative” people and is largely ignored by those considering themselves as a corporate type, or businessmen. A new Report from Design Management Review sheds new light onto how design and its related processes are beginning to affect a larger audience who can see past the modern chair though.

A 2007 survey by Kelton Research for Autodesk, a design software company, found that when seven in 10 Americans recalled the last time they saw a product they just had to have, it was because of design. “This increasing demand for design is shaped by a profound shift in how the First World makes its living. Creativity in its various forms has become the No. 1 engine of economic growth. The creative class, in the words of University of Toronto professor Richard Florida, now comprises 38 million members, or more than 30% of the American workforce. McKinsey &; Co. authors Lowell Bryan and Claudia Joyce put the figure only slightly below, at 25%. They cite creative professionals in financial services, health care, high tech, pharmaceuticals, and media and entertainment who act as agents of change, producers of intangible assets, and creators of new value for their companies” (Neumeier, Business Week).

However, it is becoming increasingly evident that the fascination with design is not longer confined to products, packaging, and clothing. The influence of design and its evolution and integration into ones life is beginning to present itself in more and more diverse areas including processes, management styles, and organizational structures. As the editor of Windows magazine once illustrated the difference between companies containing ordinary brands and charismatic brands in two succinct sentences: “Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is famous for a crazy video in which he yells, “I—love—this—company!” In the case of Apple, it’s the customers who shout that.” His point was that in the past Microsoft customers remained loyal to their brand because they were ignorant of any other option. Today, companies like Apple have proved that there are other options, and as a result have used design to build real loyalty amongst their users. apple-design-evolution.jpg

As stated above this design, however, is not something that is only seen with the eye. As Apple, Volkswagen, and others haev pointed out change and innovation does not have to be derived from crisis. They have realized that to be an agile and dynamic company that can evolve with society, the core of their business must be agile as well and they imbed this inventiveness in the core of their brands.

“Yet if design is such a powerful tool, why aren’t more practitioners working in corporations? If economic value increasingly derives from such intangibles as knowledge, inspiration, and creativity, why don’t we hear the language of design echoing down the corridors. Unfortunately, most business managers are deaf, dumb, and blind when it comes to the creative process. They learned their chops by rote, through a bounded tradition of spreadsheet-based theory. As one MBA joked, in his world, the language of design is a sound only dogs can hear” (Neumeier)

In the future, for businesses to become and remain successful and create the types of customer experiences that engage brains and hearts simultaneously, they will not only need to hire designers, but essentially become designers. They will have to adopt the perspective of change, evolution, and innovation throughout all practices. The solutions for problems of the past, whether they be production, customer service, or human capital-related should be addressed with an ever changing eye that redesigns processes and systems of solutions.

——–> =

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