Learning from your mistakes....

There has to come a point for all designers when you make the switch the being sustainable. You have to, otherwise as a species we aren't gonna make it.

Me and a friend pooled what change we had over the weekend to get a couple of happy meals, complete with plastic toy. Looking back, it was a really irresponsible thing to do. Firstly theres the unneccasy packaging, whos working life last all of the 20 metres to the rubbish bin.

The toy? i should have thrown it back at them and told them to stop making these worthless pieces of shit, how many millions of these things have been made over the years and are now lying at the bottom of a land fill site?

Theres also the corporation itself, i dont know if the carbon footprint of macdonalds has been calculated, but it has to be immense and sadly my £1.95 has just contributed a few more grams of CO2 to it.

McStupid

Open source design........the future?

About 2 weeks ago i was invited to take part in an open sourced design experiement with around 80 designers around the world. Although slow to start it was amazing to see people who have never met working together and achieving a good result at the end. I was able to work from home, for as long as i wanted with just the use of a laptop and internet connection and get paid for my contribution.

At a point in time when there's so much talk about pollution and climate change, taking my car off the road for a few days and eliminating the need for an office for me to work in seems to make a lot of sense. How this would translate into other vocations outside of design though i'm not sure, but its surely worth a shot.

A new project is due to begin soon, watch this space!

P.S. Thank you Napkin Labs for the opportunity!!

At what cost?

I took this picture whilst in a record shop over the weekend. See the small caption underneath the screen.......'This is Living'. I found it really sad that this could be true for some people. There's a lot more to life than video games, get outside, go for a walk, have a decent conversation with somebody. Don't become a slave to a little black box.

Life as a freelancer

Picture this..... its the night before your rent is due and your client has been late in putting the invoice through.... you don't sleep. Life as a freelancer is intense. You are your own boss, the big cheese and you have the world at your feet, but your living in fear.

Last month was different though, you managed to get enough paid work to cover all your expenses and allow you to live a little, but those contracts are finished now and for the past two weeks you've frantically been trying to get new clients. Sending emails, calling people, handing out business cards........ begging for the smallest scrap of work.

So far I have 3 clients that I work for, but the work is infrequent and its all little jobs, nothing to keep me busy for the next few months. Tomorrow is another day though and this could all change, who knows?! Your full of confidence and belief because you have to be, if not then your going to fail.

After working as an in house designer and getting a distinction in my masters degree I had to give it a go. I'm doing it for the experience and I'd recommend it to anybody. The learning curve is incredibly steep and you quickly learn how to (not) approach people and businesses. Time management is a key component of working for yourself and a crucial skill to have.

I promised myself i'd give it a go until the end of the year and i'm determined to see it through, until then wish me luck!

All tangled up

What about sustainability? Ive seen videos of phone recycling plants but surely this is only less bad right? Although a lot of the precious metals can be recovered that plastics and toxic materials used will doubtfully be used in their original state again and their processing is going to make harmful substances bio-available. Why cant i have a phone with a life-time guarantee? One that I don't want to throw away.....

Harmony

My mobile is one of a few possessions that I take everywhere with me and I use it to talk to people hundreds of miles away and this ability blows my mind. Its opened up new opportunities and friendships and improved my relationship with people I already know. Sadly though my relationship with it is not so good. For instance i want to know is how much energy it has and if it needs some juice to wake it up, but I have to have a small conversation with it to find out, (Opening it up, waiting for it to wake up, and looking for the battery symbol) surely there must be a more fluid and natural way of finding this information out?

Actions speak louder than words

As part of the research i listened to how people interpreted the actions of others around them and how this could possibly link in with their mobile phone. Here are just a few of the statements i heard

'It has the power to make or break my day in a matter of seconds'

'Sometimes I want to tell my girlfriend i mis her without sending a text or calling her'

'My phone is like my best friend...it knows all my secrets'