Jun 12 08
A Quote to Think About
“The exciting thing about market economies is that stupidity equals opportunity.”
- Paul Graham
For further reading please see this link: “Why There Aren’t more Google’s”
The Creative Economy Report is the first comprehensive study on the concept of a “Creative Economy” which seeks to provide and assist developing countries to harness their creative economies and improve trade and development gains.
“The so called “Creative economy” is an evolving concept based on the potential of “creative assets” to generate socio-economic growth and development, in a globalized world increasingly dominated by images, sounds, texts and symbols.”
“At the heart of the creative economy lie the creative industries. Loosely defined, the creative industries are at the crossroads of arts, culture, business and technology and use intellectual capital as their primary input. Today´s creative industries range from folk art, festivals, music, books, newspapers, paintings, sculptures and performing arts to more technology-intensive subsectors such as the film industry, TV and radio broadcasting, digital animation and video games, and more service-oriented fields such as architectural and advertising services.”
Even before Jerry Kathman converted LPK (Libby Perszyk Kathman) into an ESOP in 1994, Jerry Kathman had adopted an open-book management style. Bill Kagler, former president of Kroger, was on the international design agency’s board at the time and encouraged Kathman to be much more inclusive and to share virtually everything. “The salaries and personal development plans are private matters between an employee and his or her manager,” says Kathman, president and CEO of LPK. “But a lot of the other stuff that companies tend to keep closely held, we think it’s wise not to hold that stuff tightly.” By sharing targets and goals, Kathman has guided his company of 400 employees to 2005 revenue of $50 million.
Download: Show 015 // Jerry Kathman, LPK
Rainer Zimmermann is an amazing designer, but a really people driven one. In constrast to figures like Starck or Rashid who put their name at the very focus of and design or even marketing efforts, rainer put people in focus of his efforts to promote design and its implication for the future for all of us. With this truthful approach he is able to convinces clients of the value and power of design.
Rainer has studied Design at the Academy of Arts in Stuttgart a couple of decades ago. Even during those busy times, he was able to get in touch with the industry. With those connection in place he started off on his own right out of school. Later on he persued a masters degree at the Royal College in lovely London and started to work at Busse Design in Ulm. There he did not last too long, he was aiming to work on his own again, starting a second design studio.
Its has been really interesting to talk to Mr Kahn about his current business as well as about how this got started. It was actually quite some time ago, a time where actually the term information architecture did not even exist. Back in the early internet age where everybody was allowed to enter a new top level domain name into the MIT database. actually 300 were registered at the time when Paul Kahn started to work on internet related projects.
Paul Kahn (Managing Director) is a leading international consultant, speaker and author on web site architecture and visualization. His activities in the United States included director of the Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS) at Brown University, co-founder and president of Dynamic Diagrams and adjunct professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. He currently teaches in the Mastère Multimédia programs in France, Switzerland and Finland.
A combination of global trendspotting, strategic insight and informed intuition leading to concise yet clear articulation of opportunity spaces for new revenue generation and growth via new products, services or businesses. Particular interest area: new and emerging markets of BRIC and BoP. Niti Bhan is an emerging markets strategy consultant with over 15 years of experience in conceiving, developing and implementing strategies for entering new markets for companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Bank of America, Phillips, Scientific Atlanta, Creative Labs, HCL and the Cybermedia group of publications.
Her articles on design, strategy and innovative business practices have been published extensively online including BusinessWeek, Core77and in print - New Design magazine, UK and The Designer - journal of the Chartered Society of Designers, UK.
Download: Show 012 // Niti Bhan, Design Strategist and Author
Oct 14 07
Show 011 / Dr Larry Thompson, Dean of the Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, USA
Since 1999, Dr Larry Thompson has helmed the Ringling College of Art & Design. a year after its 75th anniversary, the four-year institution with a liberal arts slant is still on a growth spurt. New buildings and properties with two new technology-based departments pave the way to even more success. Graduates from the Ringling College snatch jobs at Pixar, Dreamworks and the likes. Prior to coming to Ringling, Dr Thompson was the first president and chief executive officer of the Flint Cultural Center located in Flint, Michigan. He served in that role from 1993-1999. The Flint Cultural Center is a 30-acre campus encompassing the nine leading cultural institutions of the greater Flint area. So how does this Ohio-bred lawyer and former CEO of Cleveland’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame did all this?
Download: Show 011 // Dr Larry Thompson, Dean of the Ringling College of Art and Design
Matt Hexemer has created one of Canada’s top notch design firms. Being highly visible in the entire design industry, Apparatus Inc. is mainly working for clients in the action sports sector. Like many designers, he has done loads of freelance work before starting his own design studio. Based on a ground belief to work on project which have a bigger impact on the way people live, Apparatus is working for clients like Red Bull, Bonfire or Scottusa.
Chuck Pelly, a 40-year veteran of the design industry, is the founder of DesignworksUSA, a BMW sub-sidiary, and is also the cofounder of The Design Academy Inc., a multidisciplinary consulting group. DesignworksUSA is one of the top 10 design consultancies in the world and has won numerous awards for innovative design solutions, being instrumental in the design of the BMW X5, the Z4 and the award-winning BMW 3 series.
He has received over 50 awards of distinction, including the “Eyes on Design Lifetime Achievement Award “for car design, and has been nominated twice for the “Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence, Innovation and Enhancement” of the quality of life by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
He is a successful designer und design strategist who has worked in the USA, Germany, Italy, Japan and currently Austria for start-ups and multinationals alike. He is also lecturer on Design Strategy and Design & Ecology of the Industrial Design Programme at the University of Applied Sciences, FH Joanneum in Graz, Austria. The ID programme focuses on the unique symbiosis of ID and Transportation Design.
Thats the sort official bio of Lutz Kucher. He has worked in Italy before snatching a job at Ziba Design in Portland, Oregan, USA. As you can see he has worked for many many international well-known companies. However, it actually took him some time to get the job Ziba fixed in the first place. He will talk about it in more detail on the podcast. Its a really interesting and encouraging story about design and getting a well-paid job.
