part of the conspiracy for three days

Ok, so i was sort of waiting for the podcast to come out in order to write this post, but in the end, i couldn't help it. As i was saying some time ago, Filter Design Competition was a perfect pretext to have some great designers come here and talk to our young designers. Happily, Ben Terrett was kind enough to accept our invitation, and, more than that, his colleague, Kingsley Gratrick (an adorable guy, whose name we kept on misspelling), also expressed his interest in coming here and helping us out.

Ben and Kingsley proved to me once again, in case this was necessary, that if you actually want to do something, one first step would be to simply try and ask. Just as they reminded me that failure is to be embraced, and that you have to be persistant if you really want to achieve something. Radu was talking the other days about the students who keep on complaining that agencies don't want them and about the people who always seem to think that luck is somewhat against them; well, Ben admitted that he applied for a job loads of times until actually getting one. Just like he admitted that they sometimes lose pitches because they didn't explain properly the reasoning behind their work.

The days spent with them were amazingly refreshing and inspiring - pretty much like Oricum, The Design Conspiracy started as the dream of some college friends to do cool stuff. To "create intrigue and provoke reaction", which is an aim anybody working in our industry should have, in my opinion. Brilliant, modest, funny, Kingsley and Ben didn't mind spending a lot of time with a bunch of kids, listening to us and trying to provide solutions or at least pieces of advice, coming from their experience. They were extremely open and helpful, and, apart from feedback for Filter finalists, as well as their conference which was filled with case studies and insights, they also agreed to record a very constructive podcast with us. As soon as we finish uploading it, you can hear them talking about The Design Conspiracy, their policies and projects, how it feels like to be a designer, how design is the new management consultancy. And we've also talked about hiring and firing people, how to manage the tension between being friends and colleagues, measuring efectiveness in design, sustainable design. And many other things, including Kingsley's musical career, planners, fonts, websites, the relationship between strategy and design.

All in all, we can hardly wait for them to come back here, and, as Cosmin said in some comment: "we miss them already". Thank you very much, guys !

the world is thinking

i have been awfully busy lately, so my time for watching movies was highly diminished. So i got addicted to other stuff instead. And besides Captain Planet, my latest addiction has become Fora TV. I like its concept very much, and i have learnt a lot from watching the interesting stuff posted so far (they even feature Neil Gaiman, yeey). It kind of reminds me of the Ted conferences, and it makes me want to help it grow somehow, especially since it gives quite many opportunities for people to get involved.

There are brilliant ideas, expressed everyday in public
discussions and events, all over the world.
Don't miss them.
FORA
delivers discourse, discussions and debates on the world's most interesting
political, social and cultural issues, and enables viewers to join the
conversation. It provides deep, unfiltered content, tools for self-expression
and a place for the interactive community to gather online.
FORA is
presenting or producing content from the world's leading public forums. The
esteemed organizations that are working with us to build the FORA vision include
C-SPAN, the World Affairs Councils of Northern California, Dallas, Oregon,
Philadelphia and Connecticut, the Commonwealth Club, Books, Inc., the Hoover
Institution, Cody's Books, the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Asia Society,
the New School, the Truman National Security Project, the New America
Foundation, Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C., Tattered Cover
in Denver, the Heritage Foundation, the Magnes Museum, the Cato Institute, Link
TV, Chatham House in London, Cambridge University, the Transatlantic Institute
in Brussels, Egmont: the Royal Institute for International Relations, Book
Passage, the Long Now Foundation, Americans for Informed Democracy and the
Global Philanthropy Forum, among many others.
FORA.tv will provide engaging
on demand viewing experiences for the media active world citizen.

the blogosphere just got richer

I've spent a lot of time talking to various people about the wonderful events organized by the Czech Centre Bucharest. And each time i was sorry i couldn't indicate a site or a blog which was less formal than the official site and provided much more information (and pictures, and movies and all that) both about the Czech Centre projects, and about the discussions that followed most of these projects. Which is why we kept on nagging Monika about starting a blog, and she eventually decided to do so :). Czech-it is a must-read for anybody who wants to stay in touch with some great people doing great things.

Keep up the good work !

life in colours

wonderful to hang out with wonderful people

Iain is right: "It’s nice when people you know start good blogs." Razvan has a brand new blog about which i found out yesterday. He's part of Oricum, a really amazing guy, and a sheer delight to hang out with. And while we were having coffee yesterday, i remembered a little nice quote from addicted to the hustle:

"I don't bother "networking" anymore, instead, I try to build relationships with people I find interesting, and who I think are doing interesting things. And I make it my mission to help them in any way I can to achieve their mission. I find this much more satisfying, much more honorable, and much more fun. And this is the cool thing about people....When you help them out in this way, they help you out. Not because it's a tit for tat deal, but because both parties are engaged in a mutually beneficial relationship that extends beyond the next favor."

brand new podcast

As we have been threatening everybody for some time now, Alex and I have finally started our podcast thing. It's called DoerCast and will hopefully contain various bits and pieces from people we admire, learn from, and, most important, can actually talk to and record. The first episode features Sofa Surfers, and we hope we can update it as often as possible. Enjoy !