Happy Halloween!

We began today with a little costume parade at Tricycle HQ. Pictured here is Heidi "The Trucker" Beckham, account executive and winner of our highly competitive contest. Each contestant had to make a 15 second presentation in character. I'm not really sure what she said… something about CBs, drivin' and trucks I think? Visit our photo gallery for more costume shots. Trick or Treat?!

Company Car?

Finally, an ecological aware vehicle that's not looking backward. Venture One is developing a 3-wheel hybrid vehicle based upon the Dutch Carver. We don't actually have company cars yet, but when we do I'm voting for three wheels. Visit c|net for a full story and photo gallery.

Multiple Choice-Marketing Design panel at Cooper-Hewitt

I don't normally post events on our blog but I'm just too excited about this one… On November 15th the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, is opening a new exhibit called, "Multiple Choice, From Sample to Products". We've been asked to participate in the opening panel discussion along with Maharam and Design Within Reach. Julie Lasky from I.D. magazine will moderate. From the Cooper-Hewitt web site, the exhibit will…

examine sample books and other sampling formats as tools for marketing or recording designs and techniques in a wide variety of media. In use since the eighteenth century, sampling formats provide detailed views into the design tastes of their respective eras. Drawn from the Museum's collection, exhibition objects will include sample books of wallcoverings; woven and printed textiles; ribbons, lace and embroidery; sample plates; and drawings and prints showing design alternatives.

Our panel will pick up the discussion about how technology affects product marketing techniques, and I'll be sharing specifically about the Tryk™ program.

Bead for Life: Guest Blogger, Katie Mitchell

Over the past few weeks I'd noticed some of my friends wearing colorful beaded necklaces from Bead for Life. I was quick to snatch up one for myself before they were gone. As I read the small card attached to the necklace, I became interested in what I was supporting with my fifteen dollars.

The card begins by explaining that

"Bead for Life provides impoverished Ugandan women an opportunity to earn a living by making this beautiful jewelry out of colorful recycled paper. Each bead is unique and handmade. The beaders are women living with HIV/AIDS as well as refugees displaced by a devastating civil war in northern Uganda.”

It ends by thanking the buyer for ‘”joining the Beadcircle; people connecting around the world to ‘eradicate poverty one bead at a time.” I was humbled to think that this one necklace was going to help many and also curious about Bead for Life. As I began looking over the website, one of the links I have discovered teaches about population increase and how we can help impoverished countries by giving the people living there opportunities for work. It blows my mind that a simple purchase like this necklace is something that I generally would buy without giving a second thought — and yet my fifteen dollars will help pay for medicine or food for a large group of people.

These are pictures from a friends’ trip to India this summer. The first is a young girl digging through the trash, looking for food. The second is a street jam packed with people, wires and houses. For me these two pictures represent a world that I am completely unfamiliar with but as I have learned from my experience with Bead for Life, I have opportunities to help.

Katie Mitchell is Traffic Manager for Tricycle, Inc. Thanks, Katie!

Green Peeps Props

Thanks to Gordon at Graphic Design USA for profiling me as one of their Green People. Subscribe to the new GD USA Green Design e-newsletter here.

What's Next?

I’ve recently returned with my design team from Next, the biennial AIGA national conference, held this year in Denver. It was an inspirational event and rather than a dry report from the main stage, I’ll give you my general survey of a worthwhile weekend which may include moments of lucidity amongst the rambling. (BTW, UnBeige has an excellent summary of keynote presentations and the Next site will soon showcase video so you can view all the goodness for yourself.)

First…what’s NEXT? Here’s what I took away from three days of sessions:

• we cannot effectively practice design in a silo,
• we must consider a network of impact and consequence,
• we cannot isolate ourselves from cultural and political forces,
• problems cannot be diagnosed without considering the context,
• we cannot ignore human history or that of adapted species.

It’s hard to believe that we used to do so — and that we still do.

Alex Steffan from WorldChanging drove these points home. Recycling cans will not stop global warming. Neither will driving a Prius. His organization estimates U.S. Citizens need five Earths to keep up with the resource consumption necessary for our lifestyle. The radical changes we need are systemic. We must begin asking how to dematerialize the way do things instead of simply focusing on changing our stuff. How do we build a neighborhood? How do we get to work? How do we get our food? How does it get to our homes? The local food movement is bolstered by health concerns, but it’s also political. Can we sustain our neighborhood without negative environmental impact? Can we give our money to those in our community to strengthen local economies?

Janine Benyus’s theory of biomimicry is a radical, but natural, means of approaching Alex’s challenge. In her words, it’s time to join the rest of the species on earth and stop living like we’re aliens. We must ask ourselves what has worked for millennia and how can we apply it to new forms of manufacturing and new products? A well-documented example is research at the University of Akron that discovered how geckos attach to surfaces and the implications for new forms of adhesives. Visit the Biomimicry Institute web site to read about more exciting applications.

Since understanding design in the context of systems rather than singular solutions yields effective results it’s no big leap of faith to see how this same approach adds value. In an incidental hallway conversation with Mohawk Paper’s Laura Shore we discussed a simple question… how do we convey the value of design to those we serve? I am convinced it is wrapped up in understanding the system. Brochures or ads do not exist in a vacuum. They are hurled into a sea of market forces, each with the capacity to render the message impotent before it reaches a destination. Understanding the business, economics, and competitive landscape begins to reveal a path to success. Neil Powell’s’ presentation on the Rheingold Beer campaign illustrated this beautifully. He also drove home the point that traditional definitions of advertising do not necessarily provide the best communication and business results. A cross-discipline approach to design (not dissimilar from the team at Kid Robot who presented as well) represents a system of thought applied to multiple mediums. This is our approach at Tricycle as well and probably explains our unfettered optimism in the face of every challenge.

Throughout the myriad discussions and presentations another singular topic emerged: life/work balance (another system? Yes). I believe it’s no coincidence that women are leading the way in this thinking — career opportunities have radically shifted in the last 50 years. Ellen Lupton, Marian Bantjes, Maira Kalman and Ann Willoughby all shared provocative thoughts about this journey from the main stage and the dining table. What makes our careers worthwhile and fulfilling? How does work and home dovetail? How do we work toward improving life, personally and globally? Is this not sustainability? Ellen has summed this up eloquently on the AIGA VOICE site.

That’s what’s in the stew. A jumble of thoughts I can’t separate from my own experience. So I bring it home. I know Tryks won’t save the world. In fact, on their own they have a minor impact on a global problem. Their significance lies in what they represent. They are the physical artifacts of a dematerialized system. The way we use to develop, manufacture and merchandise products is, today, a radical departure from physicality that dominated our lives 30 years ago — we were NEXT then. This weekend excited me about the next 30 years. And in the spirit of Tricycle, I confess I’m optimistic.

Green Leap Forward

Check out the full page article about Tryk™ in the October issue of Metropolis.

Busy Times

Our delinquent posts are for good cause:  HD Boutique, Green+Design, FloorTek, DUX, GreenBuild. This week AIGA Next to refuel. We'll return with something yummy for you. In the meantime, check this recently launched site out and tell us what you think.