I am what I am
Take what ya got and smile? the alternative is really ugly, for everyone … and why I laugh at comments like, “can’t be easy being for you”, we must laugh at fear or limits
Category: Uncategorized
Succession, series
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X0WzqanwlG0 I like the theme song of Succession. And tripped on this, in replay of the song. I don’t understand the music stuff but i respect the creative thinking behind the music. Another medium. … I wonder if there are individuals who have a love of visual art and experience connection of emotions to the […]
Conceptual design you can’t teach
Concept is king ? I’ve always been a proponent of conceptual design – and am good at it. And you can guess my surprise when I first spotted the post on a LinkedIn alert, on the face of its title. But sadly it’s art and not design, two completely different things. And I have high […]
Polestar = 0 co
2020-06-20 Recent POLESTAR plan/moonshot to acquire 0 emissions in entire production chain. comment by me REALLY GOOD article, with a C&S bias ?? that raises more questions. BUT the auto and now all industries have really cornered themselves/ourselves, or we allow it to happen, products that have an ever receding and engineered life cycle. And […]
Nortel lab 10 spine eg concept
I always loved globe lights, and this is a technological tip of the hat to globes, I think. … For the Nortel lab 10 project, their last big project before the crash, and my biggest install, that was cut. The labs theme was light as in fibre optic data transfer. I suggested a series of […]
Very cool ? … I love environmental graphics and was a little sad when SEGD changed Environmental to Experiential. which makes some sense as the word is cognitively accurate as graphics solicit a response, literally environmental as shown here. I’m unsure if SEGD should’ve included experience (user-interface +all-other-terms) design, as this is computer based and […]
AutoCAD to 3D Printing – generational change
A note to my daughter J Johnson: 2019/06/06 I just realized that when I was your age, AutoCAD didn’t exist. Weibe Forest Engineering, my first design job in 1979, wasn’t running it, and nor were they when I left for U. in 1986. Although Mr Weibe a PEng, programmed software to perform heat load/loss calculations […]
Risk-taking in museums (pre-symposium-@CMN, 18/4/19)
Risk-taking in museums (pre-symposium) : ) … And for sure the symposium may be interesting … as my little ‘c’ complaint forever has been, the idea that most museums, and others too, seemed to locked into classic/old-school o-so-boring thinking. And I do respect the challenges, and unsure I have the solution, and maybe this is […]
Fave Client – Dan Glenney, acting Director General of the Canadian War Museum in 1995/1996 …
… in yet another question I have had to a client, I asked an opinion on a particular design issue we had mid way in the notable projects 6 month design build history, crazy fast. And the response to me had a lasting influence on my then growing career, as it solidified what I had […]
Dear Client – Ethics of design contracting
Providing a sketch with a bid is asking for the fundamental core and highest value aspect of the design process, to be provided for free, upfront – full stop. You cant go to a lawyer to show you the conviction, or an accountant for how much money you are going to profit, etc …. I […]
Lucky me!
I am so lucky to be, still – reflections, post dissection, 5 strokes, and many TIAs 2018-2013
Masterplans
Masterplans are living documents – time lapse photography. Ryan Johnson – 2017
Creativity, the myth
Creativity is not exclusive to those of us who are ‘artful’, and it has nothing to do with drawing. I had a professor at U. that stated “We designers are always designing.”, like it was some exclusive abitity. I wrote him off from that moment forward…Creativity is a preprogrammed ability and NOT exclusive to the […]
To Logo or not to logo – bigger is not necessarily better
Its a misperception of design, others things too, that engaging or employed by a logo, a large design name/firm/organization, doesn’t ensure successful design or is it fertile ground for a career. On the contrary, I have seen many that had a logo with the worst design/departments, due to the lack of Design Leadership and vision or corporate leadership […]
Why good design leadership is so rare.
1. Design department/firm lead by a non designer – no understanding or passion for design and no vision. 2. Design department/firm lead by a designer – no understanding or passion for design and no vision. What did you expect. I have worked under a half dozen design managers – and watched others – with only one manager that […]
Everyone is a Designer, part too…
Part 2 AND, just because you have accreditation in design, and some experience, too, maybe even in a company with a big logo, this doesn’t imply you have any real talent. Design is no different than any other profession, chasing an ambulance is a metaphor and common, and so is bigger is better.
GPS
In the mid 90’s when GPS technology was released for public use, a dual use system, the public component was crude/throttled, plus or minus a 100 feet, facsimile of the military tier or what we have today – and hampered by fewer satellites, slower technology etc, an experience in patience and validity to the phrase “A […]
Design / Build
Design-build has been used for custom fab, i.e. exhibits, EG’s, and general construction too, for decades in Canada. I expect this is a cycle of the trend, like all things. Tendering each step costs more with added documentation by design and process, for the client. And the idea that your are saving with ‘best/lowest price’ with […]
Industrial Design in …
… my perspective is: Ryan Johnson 2011. Place the design professions Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Interior Design, Graphic Design, and Engineering, to name a few, on a circle, ID floats within this circle. ID is best fit profession for EGs as EG’s are products. Industrial Design typically manifests a ‘product’ or a ‘construction’ but holistically is a […]
Senior designers …
… Have ten or more years of professional practice in the discipline, not 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or … not 10 years of time passing or 10 years in some other discipline or … * I first noticed in the early 90’s that some firms were charging out junior designers […]
Everyone is a designer …
… in a graduating class of design school that prove themselves as so over the course of years of professional practice. But many believe that they are designers without these essential credentials. They would be wrong.
In Design
“Concept is everything, without it you have nothing.” Ryan Johnson 2001
Curves Cost
A retort to a programmer/writer, Claire Matthews in BC, see my LinkedIn, for the NCC’s 125th celebrations comment to me asking “Why my work didn’t have curves?” which were ‘popular’ at the time. No money, and we had scale issues and time to contend with. Not much has changed in 20 years, but curves are […]
jEGd launch
jEGd site launch 2013 11 01