Hasta La Ideas

Continuing from that last post about labor practices, some big news coming out of the UK late this week. Ruth Reed, the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), has announced that the organization has changed their Chartered Practice criteria to instruct that every member firm must now pay at least minimum wage to all employed students, effective July 1st of this year. This move will do away with the unfortunately standard practice across the industry of unpaid internships, something many of even the top starchitect shops have taken advantage of over the years. While this new added expense comes at a difficult time for the still-struggling architecture industry and might result in fewer student hires, the RIBA sees it as a lasting positive. And now that they’ve done it, there’s sure to be a big push for the RIBA’s U.S. counterpart, the American Institute of Architects, to put into practice a similar new law (read this discussion over at Archinect for more). Here’s Reed’s statement on the change:

Whilst all appreciate that trading conditions are extremely difficult for practices at the moment, the financial position of students is particularly severe and about to get considerably worse when fees treble next year. The requirement for adherence to the National Minimum Wage will assist students in completing their education and go some way to alleviate the effects of the education cuts on the flow of talent into the profession. The future of architecture depends on a succession of talented designers and we must do all we can to prevent them being deterred by the spiraling cost of education. Further investigation into pay levels will be undertaken which will help to provide a level playing field for job costs and fee bids for chartered practices.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Now existing comfortably in their new Stamford, Connecticut headquarters, Design Within Reach is continuing their push toward renewal after a rocky couple of years. And where does one go to feel alive again? France, of course. The company has announced that it has signed an agreement with the French furniture company, Tolix, for the exclusive rights to not only sell their products, but “distribution rights on the sale of Tolix to hospitality, corporate, educational, health care, and institutional design customers.” A nice get, considering how many designers and firms had been upset with DWR during those last few years before the company underwent a massive turnaround and began apologizing to people like Alan Heller and others. Here’s a bit about the new agreement from DWR’s CEO, John Edelman:

“We are extremely proud to partner with French brand Tolix. Its widely recognizable chairs and stools have been furnishing French homes and businesses for more than 70 years, and its iconic A Chair is widely considered to be the cafe chair in France. As the exclusive provider of Tolix furniture for contract sales in North America, we look forward to expanding its presence.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

For months now we’ve been reporting on the struggles at one of the world’s largest architecture firms, RMJM. Failed bids and staff exits, lawsuits and possible jail time for its executives, and most recently, angry, damning letters being fired off by employees to everyone else in the company were becoming alarmingly par for the course when it came to talking about the once-celebrated firm. Meanwhile, RMJM would reply to these reports saying that, while yes, they were going through a difficult time, things weren’t as bad as they were sounding. That isn’t the case anymore, as the company released news that they’ve just taken an £8 million bail-out to help them recover. The awkward part of all of this is that money is coming from its CEO, Peter Morrison and his father, Sir Fraser Morrison, two people who had been trying to play down the troubles the company was suffering (though we suppose it’s a positive move, at the very least in a PR sense, that they’re sticking their own money in). Here’s a bit from the BBC about the new money:

The Morrison family is to inject £5m in share capital, with a further £3m as a loan.

This is with the agreement of RMJM’s bankers, and is scheduled to be complete by the end of this month, subject to shareholder support. The funding is not to be used to pay off bank debt, according to a spokesman.

The chief executive said he had been working through the detail of the funding for several months, and that it should leave them in robust shape.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Over the weekend and into this week, the art world has been abuzz over the news that Lisa King, the long-time chief operating officer of the mega-auction house Christie’s, has announced her very abrupt departure. The Art Newspaper broke the story, explaining that after 15 years at the company, and in a period of record profits in the face of a still-difficult, worldwide recession, King tendered her resignation and will leave almost immediately, at the end of this month. Here’s the statement they gave to the paper:

“We can confirm that Group COO Lisa King has decided to leave Christie’s later this month,” said a spokesperson for Christie’s, adding “She has made a truly significant contribution to Christie’s over her 15 years with the Company and we wish her the very best in her future endeavors. We know she will remain a friend to Christie’s for many years to come.”

And that’s all anyone knows at the moment. Christie’s won’t elaborate and King isn’t talking. Does the sudden departure and radio silence mean something? Possibly. But it also could mean nothing. Unless you’re a higher-up at the company, or Lisa King herself, your speculation is as good as ours (though our speculation usually involves aliens and werewolves, so maybe yours is better after all).

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

It’s no surprise to most experienced ID’ers how long a good design can sit on the shelf before finally making it to market and having its intended impact, if it ever makes it at all. Here’s a look at how Serge Roux, an industrial designer for Cambridge Consultants, is struggling to make the Syreen happen.

You may remember the Syreen from our report on it last year. It’s a non-glass syringe system that serves as its own packaging, to reduce waste, and is designed to be nested together in units for shipping; these two things alone reduce its packaging weight and volume by 30 and 50 percent, respectively, as compared to traditional syringes.

The Syreen hasn’t attracted any buyers to date, and Roux highlights why it’s tough getting the medical industry to care about being green:

(more…)