Well. Whatâs cookin? Hope you're well. Been up to much? Went for a hill run. This and that. Now the landing gear has been engaged. Nearly there. Right, letâs go.
"Newness and innovation are overvalued, really. Or I should say they are valued to the point where they become a target for people to aim at, and thatâs self-defeatingâŠNew ideas are nearly always slight shifts of things that are already very familiar to you."
Brian Eno
culture // be with - be of
Culture flows like a river. Itâs restless. To stay connected, you have to be with it. Good piece on the need to âopen up your fucking world because if your life is small your work will be too.â Go on to Only Fans. Go to the Opera. Go to a festival. Be with culture. And you will be of culture. Chimes with this piece that nostalgia isnât enough to revive a brand. Better to return to the original idea and find ways to re-express it in todayâs culture. Make it feel simultaneously new and familiar. Otherwise "a brand is in danger of getting stuck in its glory days while the world, culture, and consumers all moved onâ. Old things are most desirable, in new contexts. Which is sadly why Nigel Farage is on Iâm a Celeb. Grotesquely exploiting culture (Stuart Lee wasnât having it). Part of the wider âcelebrification of politicsâ. Which all stems from the same approach. Being with culture, to be of it.
brands // dr bronner
Ever used Dr Bronnerâs soap? The US brand originally designed for hippies, is now a symbol for wellness culture and popular with all subcultures. Itâs founder Emanuel Bronner, used the soapâs label to support his âAll-One!â thoughts and ideas, captured on the barmy 3,000-word wall of text label and in The Moral ABC (far out). It has A-lister fans like Sandra Bullock and Lady Gaga, who evangelise, unpaid and unsolicited. Product is good too. Itâs intensely fragrant, eco-friendly, biodegradable, fair-trade, gentle on the skin and super-concentrated, so cost-effective. Itâs ignored the brand rule book. Immensely cluttered label. No advertising. Involved in politics. And is a bit mad. But people frickin love it. In a meaningless world, they stand for something. Authentically. Which stands out.
creativity // love and magic
Creativity is magic isnât it? Almost supernatural, when its great. The squeeze that gives us juice, right? Nick Cave wrote about ChatGPT and the commodification of creativity. How creative effort and struggle imbues creativity with meaning. Because, as Stephen Fry readâs, creativity is love. And like love, we give of ourselves, so it matters. Storytelling is magic too. Like a brilliant magician, full of skill, simulation, misdirection and discipline. I wrote about that too. As Brian Eno said "Art is everything you donât have to doâ. Beyond the necessaries, creativity makes it special, unique, desirable. Makes it magic. But as Roald Dahl said, âthose who donât believe in magic will never find it.â We need to continue to believe.
technology // glitter and gold
People talk a lot of horseshit about tech. In truth, itâs all very uncertain. And navigating it can all feel a bit overwhelming. In ways, weâre on the edge of chaos. Lots of uncertainty and disagreement. AirBnb founder Brain Chesky believes AI is unstoppable and if designers don't embrace AI the world "will be designed without themâ. Others believe with a rising demand on workplace skills, (APG identified 24 skills needed by planners), perhaps AI will liberate creativity. This future of marketing and AI report from eConsulting identifies opportunity areas. Which are, everywhere really. Microsoftâs AI co-pilot test results were pretty conclusive, with 70% saying they were more productive. But all that said, look around. Autonomous vehicles are having major issues, the metaverse is in the toilet, alongside crypto. So keep your head. Not everything that glitters is gold.
five random (ish) things:
The theatre of selling đ.
Appleâs Christmas Cracker. đ
One Thing Well, 2023 list. đ
Beyond perception. đ·
Grocery shopping in 2023. đ
watching // cello song:
You may already be a Nick Drake fan. English bloke. Folk singer. Melancholy. Died young. Nice stuff. This is from a new (ish) coverâs album called The Endless Coloured Ways. This one is Fontaines D.C. Enjoy!