POV Placemaking

In Melbourne, Australia Axel Peemoller developed a way-finding-system for Eureka Tower Carpark while working for Emery Studio a placemaking, branding, communications, publishing and graphics firm. Peemoller's distorted letters on the wall can be read perfectly when standing at the right position or while driving out of the ramp to direct your exit. This graphic design project won several international design awards.

Jam Design

Design is about learning from the materials and tools given to you in nature and crafting them into something amazing.

Julie Taylor makes jam but, of course, to say that is an litote. She makes fruit butters, marms, fruit oils, syrups, conserves, candied peels, fruit glazes for poultry and fish, and there is almost no end to what her creation might become in the kitchen or elsewhere.

In this video a statement by Taylor stands out, "Artisans do the work."

Taylor handcrafting and dedicated approach to the science of fruit, flavor, and natures combinations of elements brings art and design to her creations. Ultimately, as she suggested in her response to a customer who didn't want to eat her jam because it is so beautiful, she knows the temporary and passing nature of creation, "It's just food so just eat it and have good memories."

Generational Shift

Alternative energy is the answer to John McCain's idiotic call for offshore drilling along California Coast and Florida. Can a person be any more blunt than that?

The problem is that at his stubborn age he cannot imagine a future without all the entrenched dependencies and harmful addiction's the Arizona Senator fought to maintain all his life. Oil rigs. Grid electricity powered by nuclear. Automobile built on the combustion engine. McCain is not going to give these things up without a fight.

So this is going to be McCain's line of attack on his opponent Barack Obama? Line the coasts with oil rigs and use taxpayer money to subsidize big oil exploration! That's not a solution to the problem that is a continuation of the problem.

Philippe Starck has designed a miniature rooftop windmill, or wind turbine if you will, that will provide 80% of your home's energy. And it costs about a thousand bucks. A home owner can mount it on his rooftop in roughly 15 minutes and he's producing rather than merely consuming electricity. It's kindalike pirating cable TV.

The Rain Water harvesting is another concept that will, more than likely, piss McCain off. In the northeast regions of Brazil, one of the largest rain water harvesting projects in existence with government using it to increase moisture levels for urban greenry and bring up the ground water table and while it might require treatment before drinking it can certainly be diverted for gray water purposes.

On a neighborhood or association level these systems could radically change our dependency on water and turn back the privatization of water into the hands of a few as documented in FLOW: FOR THE LOVE OF WATER which probably has McCain grumbling about Hollywood celebrities who think they can change the world.

Alright, so it really is going to take a whole new generation to bring about change. Might as well start now.