14 November 2002

Milton Glaser, designer: This Is What I Have Learned I am going to tell you everything that I know about the practice of design. It is a sort of collage of bits and pieces that I have assembled over 50 years. It includes a lot of things I've said before but I've repackaged them rather attractively. This is what I've learned. YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE (Just enough is more) STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN (Drawing makes you attentive) DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY SOLVING THE PROBLEM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEING RIGHT TELL THE TRUTH (incl 12 steps in the Road to Hell) 8:31:19 AM     comments

Observer review of Balmond: The Informal There is a common thread linking Anish Kapoor's gigantic, vertigo-inducing sculpture at Tate Modern with James Stirling's monumental Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, Toyo Ito's lighter-than-air garden pavilion at the Serpentine, Daniel Libeskind's proposed Spiral for the V&A, and just about everything that Rem Koolhaas has ever built. None of them would have been possible without Cecil Balmond. [...] Koolhaas describes what Balmond has to offer like this: 'Instead of solidity and certainty, his structures express doubt, arbitrariness, mystery and even mysticism.' Balmond's structures tend to look as if they have no business standing up. Instead of depending on massive walls and simple symmetry for their strength, they rely on what he presents as being a deeper understanding of nature. Cecil Balmond is the uber-engineer at Arup, the world's biggest and cutting-edgest engineering firm. See also: New writing about objects 8:30:03 AM     comments