Hasta La Ideas

Dans le même esprit que le projet Nike 6.0 DeLorean Dunk, la société DeLorean Motor Company vient de dévoiler la version électrique de la célèbre DeLorean issue de la trilogie “Retour Vers Le Futur”. Une commercialisation prévue à partir de 2013. Plus d’images dans la suite.

Previously on Fubiz

• Nike 6.0 DeLorean Dunk
• Nissan Townpod EV
• Kia Pop Concept

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Dezeen Wire: Dezeen reader Salomé Francpourmoi has emailed us her analysis of the gender and race of designers whose portraits we’ve published on our homepage in the last seven months which, she says, shows a predominance of white males.

Her research covers the 50 most recent full head shots published on Dezeen (pictured above), of which 75% are white males, 8% Asian males, 2%middle-eastern males and 15% white females. Note: the collage of portraits from Dezeen shown above was created by Francpourmoi.

Here at Dezeen, we’re keen to hear your opinions and feedback on this issue – please use the comments section below to let us know what you think.

Francpourmoi’s email to us is copied below:

Dear Dezeen editorial team,

I would like to share with you the following thoughts, provoked by the daily browsing through your magazine – which I appreciate a lot, for it is most of the time an enjoyable read.

I am currently making several small studies about it, for despite its quality it puzzles me in some respects.

Attached is study #1, which follows a simple rule: gather the last 50 designer portraits in full head shot featured on Dezeen. [the images are shown in counter-chronological order from October 20th, 2011, to March 23rd, 2011.]

I observe, with some discomfort, that over the past half-year (taken as the random timeframe of my study), the breakdown in designer portraits is the following:

84% men
12% women
4% couples

90% white
8% asian
2% middle-eastern

75% white men
8% asian men
2% middle-eastern men
15% white women (including one who is not a designer, but a dancer who happened to be performing at an event)

Naturally, using the concepts of race and gender in such dry-cut terms is a slippery slope – and I don’t enjoy putting a subjective label on these people’s heads. I dislike being labelled myself, especially in terms of race and gender. However, another part of me is simply thinking: ‘Man. Everytime I open this page I am greeted by a white dude.’

I have nothing against white dudes, of course. But I have a problem with the skewed perspective created by a magazine which proclaims itself ‘the world’s most influential online architecture and design magazine’ – and indeed is read by millions. Granted, there might not be as many women in architecture and design as there are men. However, from the few statistics I was able to find, there has to be more than 15%, especially in anglo-saxon countries (which your publication also seems to have a bias towards, but that is another study).

As for architects and designers ‘of color’, I am pretty sure they exist in the real world. Such distortions start suggesting in a subliminal way that the best design from around the world is produced mostly under the authority of white males.

This furthers a problematic world view, which promotes as model a very specific group of people by giving it overwhelming visibility for no obvious reasons, while suffocating the possibilities for new types of voices to be heard. In any field, it is hard enough to rise when you belong to ‘the margins’ (as defined by people who put themselves in the center), without having to endure the shushing of role models who could make a difference by showing their existence.

As a widely-read publication, you have a responsibility towards the representation of society you send back to the world.

One way to be fair would be toning down your definition of yourself, and acknowledge that you bring ‘a carefully edited selection of the best architecture, design and interiors projects from western, preferably white male designers’.

The other way – and I hope you will consider this option feasible -, would be to get more actively interested in representing the world’s diversity, even if it means going out of your way to do it.

Back to Dezeenwire »
Back to Dezeen »

THANK YOU – THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED BUT PLEASE DO FOLLOW ALONG ON TWITTER!
Good morning! As promised, we are hosting a giveaway from JetPens.

The JetPens prize includes:
Ohto Chocolate Bar Cross Paper Clip – Mix – Pack of 6
Saki P-661 Roll Pen Case with Traditional Japanese Fabric – Maccha Green
Midori Animal Shape D-Clips Paper Clip – Original Series – Elephant – Box of 30
Marvy 4300 LePen Porous Point Marker Pen – Black

To participate:
Follow @uppercasemag on Twitter
Follow @jetpens on Twitter
Then retweet the giveaway mentioning both @jetpens and @uppercasemag in your tweet

BONUS PRIZE: @uppercasemag is at over 7900 followers… the lucky 8000th follower will win a free subscription!

The JetPen prizewinner will be picked randomly on Friday.

Dutch Design Week 2011: Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Akko Goldenbeld has made a model of the city that plays the piano. Watch the movie »

We just received a copy of Walter Isaacson’s official Steve Jobs biography, published today. So naturally we turned straight to the bits concerned with design and advertising…

Jobs’ fanatical attention to detail is well known but is brought sharply into focus in a chapter dealing with Chiat/Day’s Think Different campaign for Apple. Isaacson reveals that, when presented with an early version of the script for the Crazy Ones commercial (above) by a nervous young copywriter, Jobs exploded “This is shit! It’s advertising agency shit and I hate it.”

Jobs ended up writing some of the lines himself. There was also considerable debate over the Think Different line itself and its grammatic sense. Jobs, of course, won that argument.

And then there was the voiceover. According to Isaacson, Jobs and Chiat/Day’s Lee Clow wanted Robin Williams but he wouldn’t do it. Tom Hanks was the next target with Jobs going to the extreme of asking Bill Clinton to phone the actor on his behalf after meeting the ex-President at a fund-raiser. Eventually they settled for Richard Dreyfuss but Clow then suggested Jobs to the voiceover himself. Jobs recorded a version and only plumped for the Dreyfuss one at the very last minute, hours before transmission.

Jobs was even more heavily involved in the print campaign. When told he couldn’t use a certain picture of Gandhi he wanted, Jobs phoned the editor in chief of Time personally to get him to release it. He also phoned the families of Robert Kennedy and Jim Henson to get permissions from them. And to get a specific image of John Lennon he went to New York, to a Japanese restaurant he knew ‘let Yoko Ono know I would be there’ and got her personal agreement.

There’s also quite a bit in the book about Jobs’ relationship with Jonathan Ive, of course, and his commitment to design. At one point Jobs goes so far as to say “If I had a spiritual partner at Apple, it’s Jony”. Before Jobs returned to Apple, Isaacson reveals, engineers would hand over the guts of a machine and expect the designers just to put it all in a box. Under Jobs, design was integral to the entrie process of product development.

It’s remarkable just how much time Jobs and Ive apparently spent together: Isaacson says they would have lunch most days that Jobs was in the office and Jobs would routinely spend afternoons in Ive’s studio looking at models and concepts.

But it was not all sweetness and light: according to Isaacson, Ive “got upset with Jobs for taking too much credit” for some ideas. “It hurts when he takes credit for one of my designs,” Isaacson quotes Ive as saying.

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson is published by Little, Brown, £25

CR in Print

Thanks for reading the CR Blog but if you’re not also reading the magazine in print, you’re really missing out. Our October issue includes the story of Blackpool’s Comedy Carpet, a profile of Jake Barton whose studio is currently working on the 9/11 Memorial Museum, plus pieces on branding and the art world, guerilla advertising coming of age, Google’s Android logo, Ars Electronica, adland and the riots, and loads more.

And, if you subscribe to CR, you also receive our award-winning Monograph booklet every month for free.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.