Edward de Bono is regarded by many as the leading authority in the field of creative thinking, innovation and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. This time I just enjoyed listening to the originator of the concept of lateral thinking and his presentation flow of amazing examples.
RitaSue Siegel gave me the chance to do an interview with her in her office in New York. RitaSue is President of RitaSue Siegel Resources (RSSR), an Aquent company, which is the premier retained search and advisory firm operating at the intersection of design, brand and business for over 30 years. She has conducted searches to find senior design and innovation leaders for companies like Nissan, HP, P&G, Microsoft, Cisco etc. RitaSue was one of three American lecturers selected to give the first course in design management in Japan. She has served as juror for design competitions such as IDEA, Communication Arts, ID Magazine and is a regular contributor to Communication Arts and Business Week magazines and has spoken at national and regional design conferences for AIGA, IDSA, and DMI in North America and Europe. She is also the author of several books, most notably American Graphic Design, Thirty Years of Imagery, published by McGraw Hill and the popular How to Get a Job in Industrial Design.
I had the chance to interview Marc Gobé at the place where he grew up in the Bretagne, France. Marc was CEO and executive creative director of Desgrippes Gobé and Associates, on of the world´s top ten branding companies. He developed Brand Strategies for Companies such as Coca-Cola, Victorias Secret, Air France and Club Med and myriad other. He is also author of the bestseller„emotional branding“, which is about the unique engagement of people with brands, a theme on which he now focuses 100%. We talked about Sao Paulo's revolutionary outdoor advertising ban „Cidade Limpa". A „conceptual provocateur“, combining high concept with high emotional touch.
Probably one of the most insightful Industrial Designers to have a conversation with. A great combination of a lot of substance, style and a great sense of humour. He studied at the Royal School of Arts in London and worked at Jasper Morissons Studio. Many of his products have received international design awards and form part of the permanent collections of the world´s most prestigious museums.
That was a very cold day in October at Lake Starnberg in southern Bavaria, a popular recreation area for the nearby city of Munich. But an amazing view, at least mine. I just arrived at Oliver Bierhoffs new home, with an extra building for his office. The first impression is; modern style, minimalistic, very elegant and reduced to very few things. At the entrance the official World cup ball on a black designer chair, arranged or coincidence? Confirmed, he is for sure a slightly different football professional. His character, charisma, eloquence, his relaxed and confident behaviour makes him very special. I had a great conversation with him about his unique career and the importance of values.
We were at Jordi Labandas Place in the Center of Barcelona, a beautiful 1900 building, renovated in a moderniz way while keeping the traditional structure of stone and wood with amazingly high ceilings. His studio is more like a Laboratory; full of books and his table is full of work. As he doesn’t like artificial light, he just opened the door to the backyard and turned off the light. The sun was shining through the orange trees in the backyard on the wooden floor and made his studio look like one of his surrealistic drawings, very aesthetic and in warm colours. We sat down on the floor and we started to talk. Famous for his aesthetic, elegant and ironic illustrations he did for magazines like Wallpaper, New York Times, Visionaire, Vogue, he is one of the few international illustrators who doesn’t use computers, but gouache on paper.
