The Minder

We made the rounds at London Design Week this year, hoping to see forward into what’s next in design and branding. We weren’t disappointed, but sometimes maybe a bit confused. The festival itself is spread out across London, which gives it a very nice feeling of being a treasure hunt, but it is actually pretty hard to navigate, despite have a lot of talent roaming around who understand wayfinding, visualization and signage. Work on that, okay guys?

The Business of Design series had some great sessions on things like creative cities, the future of brands and  sustainable architecture. We particularly liked Tyler Brule’s session on brands with Martin Raymond, Co-director - Future Laboratory and Marek Reichman - Head of Design at Aston Martin. There was some good, honest discussion about authenticity in brands and the importance of protecting credibility (gee, do I have to?). We loved the tough talk about market research. The consensus seemed to be that while it is good to know all about your customers, it is not good to ask them if they like your new ideas. Market research kills new ideas. I could not agree more and have been advising my clients to pass on the testing. Do the right work up front, and you don’t need the stink testing later.

We were very happy to hear about the new trend of the return of light industry to city centres. While no one is ready to let go of their creative class, planners are starting to see the re-emergence of craft, and short-run, micro production in downtowns. What could be more modern? This is an exciting idea we liked.

What we saw at the various shows and studios around London suggested that there are a lot of young new designers busying themselves with creating the most exotic martini glass set they can come up with, using new-age materials and sustainable design principles. It was all a bit odd. The new stuff at Tent London seemed to be acres and acres of chic ways to waste time lounging around on hyper-cool sofas made of graffiti covered half-melted recycled plastic bottles. Everything very precious, decorative, tough and indulgent. Not what we wanted to think the best design talent in Europe was up to.

All-in-all a good week. Worth the trip. We’ll be back next year, September 19-27, 2009.

I responded to Richard Florida’s request for a city story and the request came back to spread the word, so please contribute and….spread the word.

http://creativeclass.typepad.com/thecreativityexchange/2008/06/whos-your-city.html

I need your help for the new Canadian edition of Who’s Your City? I’m working on for publication in early 2009. My team and I at the Prosperity Institute are working through the data and rankings, building all sorts of tables and maps for Canada and North America.

But what we really need are your stories.

Back in September of 2006, I asked for personal stories about your city, and recieved more than 200 responses many of which made it into the book. Most of which were about US cities.

Now, I’d like to ask for your stories about Canadian cities Tell me about the place you live. Why did you pick your city or region? How did you go about picking it - what was your strategy? What other kinds of places did you look at? How has that choice affected the rest of your life? Your job or career? Friends, family, or romantic interests? Fulfillment and fun? Real estate jackpots or money pits? Would you do it differently next time? What cities and regions are on your radar for the future and why? That’s it. 100 or 200 words, on any or all of those subjects. 300-500 words could be even better.

Send your stories to Patrick Adler at patrick.adler@rotman.utoronto.ca , or post them on the comment section of this entry, or do both. Together, we’ll build a reservoir of community knowledge that I hope can make the book as relevant as possible for Canadian readers.