Now can we older kids play with Lego again. And it absolutely perfect in combination with a MacPro. Want to own one? Just surf in to etsy.com and buy one for 15 dollar.
Over and out.
A straw is a straw is a straw...
It's the day after the day before...
The head hurts and the troat soar...
And I don´t wonder why, when I see left-overs like this.
Okey, it's not my head, and I don't know who's, but someone at the ongoing carneval in Lund: Lundakarnevalen must have a headache!
What about drinking sparkling wine with straws?
Over and out.
IKEA FALLING APART?
The well known and Swedish furniture company IKEA has come into some trouble lately.
A while ago one former chief executive (top 10) released a book where he said that the image of IKEA and it’s founder Ingvar Kamprad is just a well planned fake in order to melt into the IKEA consumers life. Johan Stenebo, the writer, says that ”Ingvar wants to describe himself as a ”nice guy” with dyslexia, a bit stupid, former alcoholic etc. But all this is wrong, so the question is why his lying?”
Mr Stenebos answer is that Ingvar Kamprad is a business genius, and above image makes it easier for him to run the company!
In the 1970-ies Ingvar Kamprad, among other hedonistic attribute had a Porsche, which is as long you can get from the IKEA ”way”! But to be more ”ordinary”, the image had to change and IK started to use snuff, travel economy class and not wearing desinger’s clothes.
Another very strange strategy comparing to the wanted image is the head-office placement in Holland = lower taxes, and the company construction: a trust found, which is an organisation type that have minimal insight. In today’s total transparent world, IKEA as trust found signals: what do they hide? And that’s total opposite what they want to communicate.
In a recently dissertation at university of Lund, Sweden the topic is just the image of IKEA. But the writer, Cecilia Cassinger, arguing that the image sets from the ”consumers own stories and behavior”, and not from another market research campaign.
Is both natural and good for an organisation to be dynamic, but it must have an strong identity that never falls apart. Even if the image can be measured from several, old or new, angles, the identity is what rules. The identity is the core, the heart, the soul.
Above example show what may happen if you not act with the identity as the strategy guide, and instead trying to manipulate in order to succed. But in IKEA’s case, it’s a very, very wealthy manipulation, don’t you think?
Over and out.
David Report Bulletin issue 12/March 2010
Time to Rethink Design
We are facing a pandemic of ‘designed stuff’ and we have reached a contamination point, a crisis for Design. Why are we not more pertubed and disturbed, why are we so tolerant? Should we not be calling for a guerrilla war against ‘designerism’ or do we need a revolution to cut the ties with the hero’s of 20th Century Design?
Read or/and download the new bulletin here
Over and out.
What hides in snow...
I found this walking in the forest a time ago. This lovely natural shapes can only be made by nature itself, or?
Whatever, it's "make the day" to see such things, and for a designer it certainly must give superb inspiration, don't you think?
Over and out.
Who Own the Category Fast Loan?
The libraries (right) or all kind of Credit institutions that supply us with fast economical loans with an absurd high interest.
I just wonder?
Over and Out
Dear Alex,
Thanks for all your lovely creations.
I love the work you done.
Rest in peace.
And take the love of all the fans with you.
Au revoir.
SAAB - a Luxury Commodity?
Never mind what the automobile-maker SAAB's future will be with or with-out Chinese power, or the Koenigseggs's groups now widh-drawed offer, this is the origin SAAB. Now available in an updated and even more luxury version from Playsam - here high-lighted at Luxury Culture. And just ignore this is for the children - lay back and enjoy the design language and aesthetic that thrill your eyes and mind.
Is this just a coincident or is it a fact: when a design favourable brand going down (more or less) , the luxury industry keep the status quo?
Over and out.
What a lovely spout!
Here is an example of that artifacts can be lovely designed and also work perfectly. Even if this spout have some years behind, the statement is up to date and even futuristic. A design strategy not only concern the aesthetics, it's also about sustainability and having the future in mind. We are many that know the strong impact a design strategy have in product development, and I really hope more producers will get it.
Over and out.
Take Away - in a new way, so to say...
All you that have been around for a while have seen the change. OK, in certain countries, such as Italy, you still go into a coffee bar and drink the coffee there, but the "take-away-syndrome" had grown stronger and stronger all over the world - thanks to US.
The "take-away-syndrome" can be seen as one of our strongest contemporary cultural signs: lack of time, stress, always on the run etc. But at the same time it's a new kind of business growing behind. Coffee, hamburgers and more is common as "take-away", but what of this? In Nyhavn, Copenhagen, Denmark I recently saw this signs. And yes, it's about price as well...
Over and out.
Aptus - a "safe" partner
Over and out.
DesignBoost 09
Welcome to Designboost in Malmö, Sweden 14-16 October 2009.
I will be one of the boosters, that will discuss the theme of this third Designboost venue: Design for Life. Looking forward :-)
Looking at the speakers list I really looking forward to listen, discuss and argue about this yeas theme "Design for Life". So what does it really means then? Design? For life? Both has wide spread connotations and answers, but life is life, and design is design!
Over and out.
David Report Bulletin issue 11/2009
A checklist for sustainability
This issue of David Report is a checklist for sustainability. We will not provide all of the answers, but we will on the other hand ask a lot of questions - one of the most important ways to acquire knowledge. You will also find thoughtful quotes and best practise examples. One thing is for sure - sustainability is not about doing nothing.
Welcome to our world.
Michael - my man...
25 06 2009.
Michael Jackson.
You are gone.
Just saw the memorial concert at TV from Los Angeles with lots of "stars" and "family". But none talked about the real background - Michael never had a real childhood and that's the simple and clear solution of his unhappiness - if you know psychology.
What we saw were: Black suits, White shirts, Yellow ties, Red roses, Green leaves, Black Sun glasses, Dark skins, Moustaches, Hugs, Notable speeches...
Michael wanted to be "Peter Pan" and had a monkey as his best friend. Some of us are jealous, others see the connections to the missing childhood, and some just loved his music. No-one missed his troubled life the latest years. But where were his friends then? As always all the good comes when he/she is dead. Then all "bad" is gone. Why?
Michael is not the first or the last to suffer from this. Sadly enough. But nevertheless. Let him be, for the last time, please, let him be.
Over and out.
The Beauty and the Beast
Thanks to TopDollar and 1000wordsmag for this lovely and reflexive picture.
Have a look at this beautiful picture. The lovely "Cathy" have lots of our american (Hollywood) western civilisations trademarks: blonde, facelift, cigarette, sharp eyeliner, fat lips... and for me that don't know the story behind, I read in a lot of connotations.
She's a female, over 50 trying to hold on to the youth and compete with the beauty of the teens - both sad, interesting and puzzled. The story of our western competitive society. We compete everywhere...
But, I think she is absolutely lovely. In all her sadness and loneliness, she radiate a strength, a wisdom of life and a fragile but strong beauty. She know life, she know the inside of a bar, and she know life outside the bar. She is both strong and fragile at the same time. The new post-modern world in a nutshell!
Over and out.
New Swedish Planning Agency on the run
I'm happy to announce the start of a new planning agency. PLANNER Fed. is a agency that will challenge the business- and organisation structures in the advertising business (at least in Scandinavia, where a planner still is a rare occupation). PLANNER Fed. is founded by myself and Robert Dysell, and our mission is to catalyse and cross-fertilise insights, ideas and knowledge and thereby formulate the best marketing communication strategies in the future.
The services we offer are:
- Planning assignments (primarily in Scandinavia)
- Trend watching
- Counselling: What can planning do for you, who is the best suited planner for you company?
- Lectures, education and workshops
- Recruitment /Headhunting of planners
So, if you need a Scandinavian insight, just let us know. Read more at PLANNER Fed.
Over and out.
Scalae AB - Company of the Year 2008
My partners in product development Scalae AB is the company of the year 2008 in the municipality of Lund, Sweden. Scalae had reached this position with strong engagement, excellent knowledge and new methods in a conservative business.
Congratulations!
Over and out.
The "8" story
At a small medieval street in downtown Lund, Sweden at lunchtime today I meet this “eight”. As a Swede I know all about Luther and Jante, and an orange Lamborghini (that by the way today is one of many brands in the Volkswagen Group) is not what these two “ideologies” promote, so o say. :D
I really enjoy the crossover effect with a lovely designed and aesthetic ”muscle-car” facing a 1000-year historian city - Lund. But what says the licence plate (8888888)?
Okay, with knowledge in mysticism and oriental numerology the “8” is a Chinese lucky number, and in mathematics there is the Fibonacci number.
But what do seven “8:s” stand for? Just “seven million eight hundred eighty-eight thousand eight hundred eighty-eight” or maybe some kind of lottery-prize? Any Ideas?
Over and out.
Fluent in Dutch?
No, I'm not either. :D But for those how are can read an article I wrote for the Amsterdam based trend magazine Second Sight's latest issue 2-2009: KLEINSCHALIGHEID.
And you that want the original english version can read below:
Local Hero
Remember the stubborn fisherman living by the sea in Scotland in the lovely film from 1983? He was the only one that not totally lost his head when an American Oil-company wanted to “invest” in the local village.
Today we see another kind of a local hero. Diversity, localism / regionalism and uniqueness are not new phenomena, but they are more important than ever. Localism and small-scaleness is more than a trend, it’s a lifestyle and thereby a much stringer force. We face a more individualistic and heterogeneous world, for good or bad, and one of the best is the growing force of localism and small-scaleness.
The well educated consumer of today demand quality, transparency and ethics. We want to know exactly where our fruit, vegetables and meat come from, as well as where the cotton in our clothes come from, if it’s biological and if the picker is legislative paid. We demand to know the contents, the producer must be total transparent about his behaviour, otherwise he’s out of business instantly. We will not longer accept all those strange chemicals or unnatural ingredients that today exist in the food. We want the natural and fresh, the local and the small produced by our own producer, if we don’t grow it ourselves.
Simultaneously we see more and more careerist “dropping out” – mostly because they don’t want a so-called “modern” life: i.e stress, stress, stress… It’s simply not worth it. Instead they leave cities and move to small villages and start an own webshop, a café or whatever (often a combination) despite losing 50-75% of their income. They simply want quality in life, quality to feel and live the life. Artefacts are not important, experiences and time are. The possibility to decide your own time is the luxury of today.
A perfect example from my hometown Lund is a new bakery that makes stone oven baked bread and homemade chocolate cream for instance. It’s run by some passionated bakers using local produced ingredients. They have a ridiculous small shop, max 9 people can be inside at the same time, the queue runs outside, they don’t accept credit cards and they not seldom carry an infant in one arm and a bread in the other.
The localism “trend” or lifestyle can be tracked back to the shocking 9/11. Before everyone looked forward, travelled all over and where everywhere. After many retreated back “home”, to the familiar space, to local society, to the neighbourhood. Safety and security was the new mantra and all and everyone (at least in Sweden) started to build and/or restore their home. A couple of years later, when finished inside, they continued outside with their garden. Now the “safe area” is expanded; the local and small-scaled produced products and services are in focus. But there is ONE large difference: we will not go back to the anonymous and mass-produced – the Local Heroes had won this race.
Over and out.
Dead-end Street?
Just love this sign. Dead-end street or what? It's so un-clear and what I will say show how our today complex society works. Why do it clear and simple when you mustn't? Is this a sign that shows our tax system or a new artwork or an illustration of the new kind of car that the whole industry looking for or what? One step forward and two backwards (at least), so to say. Thanks to Olle.
Over and out.
Coolest girl in town?
How cool can you be at age 2,5 and still wearing diapers? When you (at least if you are a girl) love Hello Kitty, worship everything in pink and want to be a Princess all day long, and yet is far from a guitar solo look. Or is it a biker look?
Nevermind, the pose is good!
Over and out.
The Unpleasant Media Intervention
When the US bank- and financial crises knocked us in Sweden in the second half of 2008, it made the national media united. As always when a crises or other unpleasant occasion appears, the human race, for once, act as a united unit; and this is not always a good sign!
When the media day after day reports on recession, unemployment, bankruptcies…you sooner or later start believe that’s true, even if your company flourish as never before. When I talk to my colleagues and customers about this topic, most of them say that they are all-time-high - no sign of economic recession here! But at the same time everybody adds that the medias negative views and writing affect them internally, i.e. their mood get affected bit-by-bit and thereby in the longer run their business.
“When you all the time and everywhere hear and read it’s a recession, dismissals or other issues, it sooner or later gets into your skin”. Slowly, bit-by-bit you started to believe that the media reports are the true facts; and not what you can see with your own eyes in your own business. The medias authority of being the “truth-teller” overlooks the true fact! Is this Economical Psychology at the highest level?
According to a professor in Economic Psychology in Stockholm, Sweden, Henry Montgomery, it’s not about that the humans are biological creatures that makes irrational choices, it’s all about the training and the experience all involved in the system have: bankers, analysts, journalist etc. Even if all kind of rational behaviour is non-existent when unexpected situations occur, when irrelevant stress interfere and when unconscious impulses rule the decision-making process. But it’s not this irrelevant behaviour that set the rules; it’s the training and experience. And this is very scary, when we know, that (nearly) all professional financial workers, or journalists, have exactly the “same” education, experience and lifestyle. According to Professor Montgomery’s theories above, this lead us to a worst-case scenario!
So what’s the solution then?
As always it’s not a single answer that solve the problem, but one thing is crystal clear: all and everyone in the media circus must act, and take their full responsibility reporting and writing about the whole situation, not only about subjective fragments in short messages easy to read. It’s easy to say that bank X had problem and that company Y will dismiss 100 workers due to this or that.
But please, Dear Journalist, do better and more adequate research as well as look into the whole situation before writing! Remember that the audience are the 6th player in hockey, the 12th in football/soccer etc. In this context I will say that media ARE the x-tra player, and thereby must take it’s responsibility full out, and not hide behind the symptoms.
Another “truth” is of course to recruit and form organisations by different competences, ages, gender etc. The old fashion way, that unfortunately still rules in many organisations, that all and everyone looks the same, have same education, social class, live at the same place etc. is absolutely outdated, unfashionable and directly hostile to a natural and needed progress. And I’m not only writing this on my behalf (yes - I’m the black sheep in the white crowd :-)), all younger executives I meet have the same mindset, but more or less all in the old school don’t! But when we got different backgrounds, education, experiences, knowledge and so on in a working group, a more dynamic and better arena is formed and thereby a better solution will occur - no doubt about that! How long must we wait?
Over and out.
David Report Bulletin issue 10/2008
5 key design trends
In the new report we introduce 5 key design trends that in one way or the other will change our future; Cooltural, Rationaissance, Responsibiz, Sensuctive and Breaking Boundaries. We will leave the surface to instead go in depth and relate our design trends to social, economical and ecological patterns and phenomena's over the entire global - local scale.
You will also find an interview with legendary trend forecaster Faith Popcorn.
Welcome to our world.
Warsaw Calling, or What a Design Management Planner really does!
Just watching a fashion show on TV at a hotel in Warsaw, and trying to rest after a long day. As a true design management planner I’m just in the middle of a mission: supervising that the design idea is performed correctly. In this case it’s a booth-concept at a fair for the Swedish forth-coming stock-market company Tigran. As always one or two days before an event everything is up-side down – it’s some kind of natural law…
However, walking around in downtown Warsaw I noticed that Warsaw and Copenhagen, Denmark has (at least) one thing in common: every pedestrian wait until the traffic signal is green before they cross a road. This behaviour is not so familiar in Sweden, where nearly everyone walks facing the “red man” crossing a road – and we certainly can wonder why?
This question is one that I hope will be raised at Designboost in Malmö, Sweden 15th -17th October 2008, that my friends David and Peer arrange for the second time. The theme this “boost” is just the city, and as I wrote earlier, a city’s identity is much about how it’s constructed, and I compeered Stockholm, Sweden and Copenhagen.
So back to fashion: it’s just to admit it, Scandinavia (Denmark and Sweden with for example Copenhagen fashion week and Stockholm fashion week) is beyond Warsaw and Poland in the fashion race. At the same time this is good to see that despite the globalisation force the local identity rules. The common global identity is more a worst-case scenario than some realistic scenario, I will say. But the question is not that easy, all around the world there are people that feel more connected to someone in another country or part of the world, than to its neighbour.
These forces are the opposites, but that is one of the explanations. Today we can’t be A or B. All the different subgroups (that also will be more and more for every minute), give you a look what will be seen. What we will see in the future is both a local strengthen force, as well as a stronger globalisation force.
What "group" do you follow?
Over and out.
Dare to Wear your Hair
The new baldism. It’s not a new trend or a new social movement, it’s more a scary future way to go, I will say.
When I lived in Copenhagen in the late 90:ies I noticed that more and more males shaved their heads. This behaviour has old connotations and automatically transforms thoughts and minds to skinheads and/or the Auschwitz look-alike-nazi-camps. In the 90:ies several soccer player and other athletes turned into the bald group. And so did lots of their fans, and others: all from contactors to those that wanted to hide their coming baldness.
Today a decade later this “movement” escalate and I still wonder about it. Okay, it got at least one rational answer: if you turn bald, it better to shave it all off. Another is the power-language that this hard look generates (at least is this what most of this bald “team” hope!).
So as a man with hair; can I say anything else than - Get haired!
Today almost all and everyone have chosen to be bald. Why? As I see it it’s the old “jante law” that’s set this rule. In the business life it’s old news that the “seller hair due” is the most common, and the most powerful and by unwritten rules dictated hair-cut. And fill this up with a dark suit, white shirt and red tie: then you got 110% of all that want to rule in the boardroom as well as at the business meeting.
So when will I, and many of my friends with more hair (including females) compete with this seller-hair-due-force at an equal matter? Never in a life-time says someone. When it's an old male "structure" it takes time to change, and of course it vary in different sectors, but....
I hope for more. Let’s here your thoughts!
Over and out.
DESIGNBOOST 08
Welcome to Designboost in Malmö, Sweden 15-17 October 2008.
I will be one of the boosters, that will discuss the theme of this second Designboost venue: The Sustainable City. Looking forward :-)
So what is a "Sustainable City" then? One thing, to start with, is that a sustainable city must be human oriented instead of object oriented: i.e build the city for humans 24 hours a day, not for vehicles, consumers or just for "office hours". A short evidence for this is comparing the capitals Copenhagen, Denmark and Stockholm, Sweden. Downtown Copenhagen includes shops, offices and residents, meanwhile downtown Stockholm mainly consists of shops and offices. So what happens after closing hours in Stockholm? Of, course the downtown dies, while downtown Copenhagen's life get into another phase.
Over and out.
Latest from APG Sweden
Latest from David Report blog
Latest from PLANNER Fed.
CHECK OUT
- APG Sweden - swedish non-profit planning association
- blog of ronnerstam - cool swedish communication guy
- BrandClinic - brand strategy agency
- BrandDay - future brand formulaters
- BrandOrientation - mats urde, branding guru
- Clienta - outstanding human resource agency
- Colin Drummond - cool "cogs" boss at CP+B
- Common sense and bravery - international planning guy fredrik särnblad
- Cultureby - anthropology guru grant mcCracken
- Dan Landin - energetic overdoing thinker & planner
- David Carlson – design & brand strategist
- David Report - design, culture and business trends
- Deepedition - niclas strandh, digital junkie
- Design Council - just british...
- DesignBoost - sharing design knowledge
- Designsuccess - design & innovation agency
- Dexigner - design portal
- e-Types - design agency
- Gustav Kristensson - designer
- I feel therefore I am - emigrated irish planner david bonney
- Inculture - nouveau strategic anthropology
- INFLUX - insights by ed cotton
- Jody Turner - culture of future
- Johan Schlasberg - enthusiastic management consultant
- lifeiscarbon® - scandinavian æsthetics
- Lundavision - strategy agency
- Manifesto - strategic design agency
- Matago - strategic copywriter
- Not Another Planning Blog - copy planning nina åkestam
- OeO - design agent/consultancy
- Plannersphere Ning - a place for planners
- Plannersphere Wiki - planner writing wall
- Planning STHLM - swedish planning star jonas söderström
- PSFK - ideas, trends and inspiration
- Mare Research Sparks - dutch insight networker
- Pattern-Recognition - Super Speaker Magnus Lindkvist
- Recett - "pension fund"
- Scalae - product development consultants
- Stenograf - accounting consultants
- Studio Total - real advertising nouveau
- Talent imitates, genius steals - planning star faris yakob
- The Brand-Man: super branding man micco grönholm
- The planning lab - careerist planner leon phang
- Top Dollar - cool advertising agency
- Trend Agitator - brand strategy and trend insight by debra stevenson
- Tribaling - tribe founder elia mörling
- Zimmerdahl 20 century design - design dealer
..
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