Design Posts
Justin Trudeau’s ban on single-use plastics
Sky News discussion with Dr Sharon George around Canadian premier Justin Trudeau’s ban on single-use plastics, 11 June 2019
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Some ABCs of forecasting: UX Brighton, November 2018
In this talk, James outlines some Dos and Don’ts to remember when imagining how people are likely to evolve in the years to 2030
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Consumption: six myths to discard
An article for the Fair Design conference, Warsaw, Poland, May 2018
What makes Fiat the big draw
With the death of Sergio Marchionne, can Fiat-Chrysler’s new CEO, Jeep chief Mike Manley, continue the car giant’s renaissance?
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We are all collaborative now
When suppliers and consumers use IT to ‘co-design’ new products and services, does that really represent democracy and empowerment?
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Industrial strategy, UK: where to back labs, prototypes and designs
This document is part of an Institute of Ideas Economy Forum response to the British Government’s Green Paper on industrial strategy, a consultation launched by business minister Greg Clark.
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The art of revolution
The RA’s Russian Revolution show captures the idealism of 1917 – and the gloom of what followed
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Back in the USSR
As a centenary show at the Royal Academy of Art revives British interest in the design output of Russia after 1917, this review of SO Khan-Magomedov, Rodchenko: the complete work (Thames and Hudson, 1986) looks at one of the founding fathers of Soviet design
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Where is Indian design going?
On 17 February 2016 in Mumbai, after a two-year gap, the India Design Forum (IDF) holds its third conference.
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The spiral into neo-protectionism
Especially since the 1980s, design and architecture have been international in character.
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Design and the future of disaster relief
I believe in man-made climate change. Yet with or without it, the world needs more growth, not less, if it’s to prevent extreme weather or man-made chaos bringing disaster. The same holds for design after a disaster has struck. We need an approach that’s practical, not preachy.
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Design and the future of IT
I will tell you one thing about IT. In international design, the Powers That Be are infatuated with it.
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Humanitarian design = cultural imperialism
Developed economies have all done raw material-munching, pollution-belching industrial revolutions.
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The coming niches for UK design
Where could the UK economy go next? Manufacturing accounts for 70 per cent of UK R&D, and large foreign firms take 54 per cent of it.
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Design and Quality
Years ago, I used to interview some of the world’s top product and graphic designers.
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Interaction design and the failure of post-modernism
Review of Gerhard M Buurman, Ed, Total interaction: theory and practice of a new paradigm for the design disciplines. Birkhäuser, 2005, 367pp, 135 colour illustrations, 105 line drawings
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Futures and trends: foresight, forecasting or futurology
In brief, the market launch of a new product or service takes place months, and usually years, after its original conception and design.
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Looking forward to the 1960s
Caught between celebrations and lamentations of the of the 20th anniversary of the student unrest of May 1968, we have lost sight of the real significance of the 1960s and their lessons for the unrevolutionary present
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Glasgow Development Agency (GDA) wants quickly and visibly to help Glaswegian firms improve the calibre of their design.
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The graphics of China
Chinese graphic design in the twentieth century, by Scott Minick and Jiao Ping, Thames & Hudson, 1990
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Sgt Pepper and all that
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, released in May 1967, was part of an explosion in international visual awareness. What are the lessons of the design boom of the 1960s?
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A new kind of nationalism in design
The geopolitics of design: it is emerging as a highly tangible form of economic aggression
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Things to come: just how far can microelectronics take us?
This article, published 40 years ago, has a certain relevance to the March 2018 outcry over Cambridge Analytica’s use of IT in the UK referendum and the US presidential election of 2016.
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#IOPC IN THE NEWS AGAIN. Pix: DG Rachel Watson; Acting Deputy DG Kathie Cashell;
Amanda Rowe and Steve Noonann, both Acting Directors, Operations.
That's a lot of acting! No wonder the IOPC's report never saw the light of day.
Are we a bit flaccid, perhaps?
A dubious editorial decision by the Daily Mail that risks glorifying one of the most evil men in history. Who cares about his air fryer recipes?