Russell Davies

bucharest

I'm in Bucharest for a conference called Brandworks. With Bill Davenport of our Portland office. Enjoying the Romanians a lot. Loads of energy and drive. They really smoke hard. They have some great signs. And who wouldn't shop at Angst?

I like the idea of Bonus Plus. It's like Double-Plus-Good. It's a Bonus (which is good) but it's also a Plus (which is good too). You can't get better than that.

Like all conferences, Brandworks is in a big, old hotel.

I like this sign in Bucharest airport. And it's a fair indication of how steep the landing was.

All over the world Word is the programme of choice for improvised signage. It seems especially true in Bucharest. (Well, I've noticed it a lot.) Surely Microsoft should be recognising this and designing packages/templates that do it a little better. (Perhaps they do, I've not loooked recently.)

Bill was really thrown by the intensity of smoking in restaurants etc so we had lunch sitting outside one of Bucharest's smartest cafes. In our big coats and hats. Food was very nice. Staff thought we were mad.

charette confusion

I was half listening to a Rem Koolhaus lecture a while ago. (He does go on a bit.) Then he described a word that architects use, meaning - the bit at the end of the pitch process, where it gets very last minute and you have all the good ideas. He said that architects actually plan for that to happen in the timing plan of the creative process. It probably goes in MS Project. It seemed like a fantastic word. A really useful concept. How clever architects are, I thought, we should remember that when we're doing creative stuff. Though of course I couldn't remember the word.

Then I came across the word again. it's charette. Though it appears it doesn't quite mean what I thought it does. It means this. Which is a shame. Someone needs to come up with a word to describe that last minute ideas thing. Perhaps it's panic.

creative spaces

We're going to be moving offices soon. So I've been starting to think about what kinds of offices and buildings and environments make for thinking and imagination and creativity.

I came across this great little series on NPR - artists, writers etc talk about the spaces where they work:

There's Steven Bernstein (jazz trumpter), James Prosek (fishy artist), Phylicia Rashad (actress and former Huxtable) and Daniel Silva (spy novelist). None of them are neccesarily people whose work I'd follow but its fascinating to hear them talk about the way and the where they get things done.

I've also been thinking (in a geeky way) about this kind of secret Danny Hillis lair stuff. The concealed purpose and playfulness of Brooklyn Superhero Supply / 826NYC is similarly inspiring. As is this urban camouflage.

I'm also convincd that I've read something somewhere about the kind of buildings that make for productive, inspiring thinking. And that for some reason it talked about cathedrals. But I can't remember where I read it.

descriptions of planning

I've come across two good descriptions of the planning/strategy process in the past few days. Not that they were intended as such, but they're still good.

I saw the first in a New Yorker article about Maureen Baginski, who runs the Office Of Intelligence at the FBI. Before that she was at the NSA, in charge of signals intelligence. She explains that they need to change their way of doing research; they need to 'hunt, not gather'. ie they need to investigate ideas and possibilities rather than hoover-up data. I think this is a great description of the best approach to Market Research. 'Hunt. Not Gather.'

The second is from The Confusion by Neal Stephenson. The heroine, Eliza, is giving her protege advice on how to get on in the world (specifically the worlds of intrigue, politics, love and finance) but the advice could be exactly what you'd give to a young planner. Or frankly, a young anyone:

"Pay attention, thats all...Notice things. Connect what you've noticed. Connect it into a picture. Think of how the picture might be changed; and act to change it. Some of your acts may turn out to be foolish, but others will reward you in surprising ways; and in the meantime, simply by being active instead of passive, you have a kind of immunity that's hard to explain."

I love that.

job titles

John Kerry's PA describes himself as 'Chief Of Stuff'. Very good. Watch Staffers on CameraPlanet.

FCB have a 'Director Of Accountability'. I think that sounds hugely pompous. But I like to think it means he takes the blame for anything that goes wrong. Which is nice of him.

retrovertising

I seem to have noticed a lot of this stuff recently. Particularly, but not exclusively, in American magazines. On the one hand it's great, because I like this kind of 50s design, and there are times when it makes sense in evoking some nostalgic kind of feeling about the brand. But you do worry that sometimes it's just a substitute for an idea.

city of roses

Just spent a couple of days in Portland, my favourite town. And these are two of my favourite bits of Portland signage.

Of course, when you only spend 48 hours in completely the wrong time zone you tend to wake up very early. And all you can do is wander around taking the odd snap. But places like Portland outdoor look better at 5 in the morning anyway.

Even the traffic coming over the Hawthorne bridge looks romantic at dawn.

snakes and ladders

My Mum and Dad have been teaching Arthur snakes and ladders. I think this is precise moment when he 'got it'. What a genius game snakes and ladders is. I'd forgotten how frustrating and exciting it can be. It really does capture flow. Is there a lot of science/art to the placement of the snakes and the ladders, or does it still get exciting if they're in fairly random places? If I was a conceptual artist I think I'd build lots of versions of snakes and ladders, trying to find the ultimate S & L experience (and the opposite, the least satisfying version ever.)

things you see

We've got to move offices soon. So we've been looking at new buildings. Which means you go to interesting places and see interesting things, good sites. A couple of examples above.

that way

They've got these great platform signs at Cardiff station. Somehow the finger/hand makes the direction even more obvious. Less arrows, more pointing fingers. That's my election platform.