The city is design crazy at the moment. There are some huge industry types floating around, and they have all converged on Federation Square for the Design Capital speaker series.
We were lucky enough to get a seat in the BMW Edge auditorium, to hear some serious design related jibber-jabber. The two names that really stand out for me today are Nate Archer from Design Boom and Tim Yu from Cool Hunting.
Nate Archer, is one of those young, seriously successful types. He is the Editor of on-line design magazine,
Design Boom, which covers key contemporary issues relating to all aspects of design. During his lecture he discussed some really interesting points about the way design and technology are converging to allow people more freedom. It was an interesting approach to the festival theme, ‘sampling the future’. Archer touched on the idea of moving toward a ‘post digital’ era where products are designed to integrate and communicate through each other in order to remain relevant. That’s all well and good, Mr Archer, but if my television and my toaster join forces to overthrow the household, I’m holding you responsible.
'Arbiter of cool' is a phrase that has seen heavy deployment in recent times. In Tim Yu's case, it's actually true. As the editor (or 'cultural creator') of
Cool Hunting, he is at the bleeding edge of design. And with over 400,000 regular readers, it seems that everyone else is paying attention. Yu, like Archer, strikes an image of someone who is at the top of his trade. This is a man whose endorsement could either make or break a product overnight. It’s a big axe to swing, but Yu seems to take it all in his effortless stride.
I can’t help but get the impression that these guys are doers rather than talkers. As with any craft I suppose there needs to be rhetoric, but I somehow get the feeling that when looking to the future, especially the future as it relates to design, both Archer and Yu have a reserved excitement that loses something in the process of standing around talking about it. That is not to say that seeing them today wasn't thoroughly entertaining. It's just that part of being "cool" especially in Yu's case, is NOT talking about it.