The more videos I watched, the more curious I was about what all the other people would say. Then I realized I had five pages of notes. So I scanned them. Here they are, with some additional thoughts on the side. If you click on them, you can view larger versions.
Luis Fitch made guacamole while dressed as a luchadore and talked about the importance of the molcajete. Even though we have things like blenders, people still return to the most basic tools sometimes because they work the best.
I was excited to have juke box quarters explained to me by Allan Chochinov. I found one of these when I was a kid and I always wondered why that quarter was red. He is inspired by the provenance of them, not their aesthetic value. Cool.
I clicked on Marc Lathulliére because his name is French. Turns out he had some interesting things to say. He had a plain clear glass bottle of vodka. He liked it because it reminded him of a quote he said was from Heradotus: “Speech does not expose or hide; it indicates.” He was saying that the design of the bottle suggests its contents, but it doesn’t tell you everything about the vodka inside. (Then later on he admitted it was just water.) He also said he wants design to make the world a place we can still marvel at.
I liked Katie Kirk and Nathan Strandberg‘s assertion that a good design should make you say “wow” and “of course” in the same sentence. That’s a good philosophy to work by.
Stefan Bucher is inspired by the needless ambition of hummingbirds. They are really just nectar junkies who spend all day eating, but they make it look so amazing. He thinks design should be that way–that it should create delight through complexity. Essentially, I think he means design should take something simple or boring, and make it complex and interesting. He also says, “Make the fucker shimmer,” which is just great.
Ze Frank is inspired by social design and interpersonal relationships, which is exciting and different from most of the videos. He talks about a game called Werewolf designed by Jane McGonigal (what up, Jane?) that he likes because it is made of “simple rules layered on top of interactions you think you understand but make you totally re-evaluate what you believe, how you’re manipulated and the way you think you’re designing the communications that you’re having.” He also thinks it would be cool if a whole bunch of people got together to solve one person’s one problem. He thinks it would help him pay more attention to the world he lives in.
Chip Kidd‘s was one of the funniest. From his office, he can see cool buildings, excitement outside and people to spy on. I remember eating lunch with my best friend once a week in college, and we’d always either sit by the windows in the Student Union or outside the Student Union next to the Pit, which is a busy area on UNC’s campus where people congregate during the day. We sat there on purpose so we could watch people. It really can be fascinating and inspiring just to watch people.
Debbie Millman thinks the Large Hadron Collider is going to help design in the future because it will eventually answer the question of the origins of everything, therefore giving us the ultimate origin of design.
I liked Ed Fella‘s collection of tickets and things he encounters in his everyday life. He calls it a vernacular of stuff still out there in the print world. I like saving tickets and things, too, but I never thought about it from a design perspective. He also had some interesting things to say about how Google could be redesigned.
Eddie Nunns commented on inclusive design–he wants design to be available to everyone, unlike in the past when it was only available to those who could afford it. It makes me think of how Target gets big name designers to make clothing lines or how celebrity chefs have lines available at different stores. Design is becoming more present in our everyday lives.
I agree with Eric Ryan about cameras. They do force you to look at the world differently and focus.
Erik Spiekermann was really funny, mostly because he’s so angry all the time. He says the alphabet is the design that inspires him most.
Pete Doctor thinks that story is both his biggest inspiration and the problem that design needs to solve. His video is also kind of funny because he uses a dangerous-looking shot and adds dramatic music.
Several of the designers said they couldn’t pick just one thing that inspired them the most, but I liked Massimo Vignelli‘s reason for this more than any other. He said that we now live in a society that is a plurality of cultures, so there are infinite choices. He thinks design has to be responsible to itself, the user, and society.