Congratulations to our partner Nick and his wife Jacqueline on the birth of their son, Oscar! We love you guys.

May your first child be a masculine child.

Five Questions about Design Ethics: Milton Glaser. (8/7/10)

Probably my proudest moment of BlogLESS so far: this summer we discussed design ethics with none-other than Milton Glaser.

It’s very difficult to put yourself in a position where you’re telling someone else to be more virtuous, to be better or more ethical or as ethical as you are. I hate that crap. I hate the kind of ethical baloney that people talk about in their presentation, and then it turns out that they don’t live their life that way. And it’s not something you want to check on in others. All I can say is that you have to determine in your life when you’re willing to lie and what you’re willing to lie for. It is not a question of absolute decisions. Every decision is relative to everything else that is in your life at the time.

"Beyond Petroleum?". (11/17/08)

Long before this summer's BP oil spill, Paul wrote a week-long series of posts on the subject of BP's branding ethics. I still consider it some of our best work. Compare his analysis of their brand back then to their more recent public apology.

Then BP PR advisor Peter Sandman described the rebranding project as an example of a company adopting the "reformed sinner" persona. Sandman notes that this "works quite well if you can sell it…[huge oil companies] can’t just start out announcing we are good guys, so what we have to announce is we have finally realized we were bad guys and we are going to be better.’ It makes it much easier for critics and the public to buy into the image of the industry as good guys…"

BP Exec by Nick Turner (Via)

Evony. (10/30/08)

One my favorites isn't 100% ours (credit goes to Jeff Atwood), but Paul's re-arrangement of Evony ads has made it one of our most popular posts. It's a textbook example of why the Internet's long memory makes ethical (and tasteful!) practices a must.

Another Trip to the Wello. (9/13/10)

Wello helps bring fresh water to families in the developing world with its innovative rolling-barrel design.

In September of this year, Wello asked DLB to design a postcard for its appearance at the Clinton Global Initiative.

The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.(8/12/10)

Matt Might summarizes the process and purpose of a PhD perfectly. (If only obtaining one were this clear and simple!)

Images by Matt Might

Imagine a circle that contains all of human knowledge...Once you’re at the boundary, you focus... And that dent you’ve made is called a Ph.D.

By my count, BlogLESS now has a whopping 672 posts. Some of those posts, we do a pretty good job of highlighting, but the vast majority are here today, gone tomorrow. I thought it might be fun to pick out five of my favorite BlogLESS posts that you may have missed. So here goes:

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. (10/30/08)

I can think of at least one way that design ethics can help a company succeed. It’s a simple idea, but one that I think builds upon many of the points we’ve brought up over the last few weeks here on BlogLESS.

The idea comes from an old Mark Twain quote:

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

Read the post.

Read More...

A while back, Andrea wrote about Wello (then known as Hippo), a company with a simple design that helps bring fresh water to families in the developing world.

Last week, we were asked to design a postcard for Wello's upcoming appearance at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Postcard front; photo courtesy Josh Dick Photography

Postcard back; photo courtesy Josh Dick Photography

1. The Revelation

We've been thinking recently about our business practices here at Design Less Better, so this recent speech by John Thackara really hit home for me.

It meanders a bit, but excluding the environmental stuff early on, I can appreciate at least three points he made about the business of being a thinker:

1. There is a need for deep thinking Folks will pay for strategy, futurism, ethical frameworks, etc. because most of them don't have time to come up with it themselves. It's a simple assertion, but creative types might take it for granted. We tend to think other people are like us.
2. A lot of well-known designers and thinkers don't have it as great as it might look. Like you, most of them have boring work they have to do to keep the lights on, but it's not the kind of thing that makes for a good lecture.
3. The monetary rewards of those "good" jobs you see in the lecture are also less than one might expect. Thackara claims that he only gets paid for about 25% of the hours he works. The other 75% of his time is writing, thinking, and hustling so he can land those paid hours.

This is not at all the point of Thackara's speech, but it's something I appreciate nonetheless as an insight into the process of how such a person works and an indicator of how important passion is in being successful at it.

2. Meet Mr. W

Love this wonderful German (yet English-speaking?) ad. Clever!

3. Dropbox – The Power of a “Value Based” Startup

We're huge fans of Dropbox, so this writeup on the company's strategy was of interest.

Essentially, it boils down to design less better.

Rather than follow the mantra of "release early, release often", the Dropbox team focused on a set of limited, but useful features that worked beautifully out of the gate. This high level of polish for a free product helped retain and gratify users who then went on to market the software to their friends.

Speaking as a user, that's exactly what happened to me. Dropbox is limited compared to the many other file-sharing sites out there, but this also makes it simple to use. And Dropbox does it so well that I can't help but recommend it.

4. This is not content

A recent post from 37 signals had this nugget, which is not an original observation, but bears repeating nonetheless:

[People don't want "content"] What people want is opinions, analysis, techniques, experiences, and insights. The best of all these come as a by-product from actually doing stuff.

One might rephrase this as: make things, not content.

Time to follow that advice...

Andrea (pictured left) with Mongodeco partner Timothy Furstnau.

Andrea brings a wealth of experience bridging business and design with an emphasis on local and socially responsible projects.

She is currently a Strategist for Google and recently received her MBA from the Ross Business School at the University of Michigan. In addition to these pursuits, she is also a practicing artist, musician, and owner of MONGODECO, a design practice specializing in interior renovation using reclaimed materials.

Please join us in welcoming Andrea to Design Less Better!

Photo from Roger Butterfield's Flickr collection.

Browse our posts and check out some of our favorites on the Archive page.

Thanks for reading!