Hasta La Ideas

By Jeroen Hofman

Back when the world was in the grip of swine flu panic (remember that?), James Sadler at 180 Amsterdam set up a project inviting creative folks to supply their artistic interpretation of a sneeze. The project, titled Gesundheit (that’s the German equivalent to ‘bless you’, folks) now has several entries online, but 180 is on the hunt for more…

So far, many of the entries on the site have depicted sneezing in action, such as these…

By Mark Brumell

By Rahi Rezvani

By Maarten Wouters

However there have also been some graphic submissions…

By Nathalie Otter

By Sam Bevington

And also some more abstract interpretations of the brief, such as these two images by Denis Koval:

If these images have inspired you to create your own sneeze-esque work, you can add it to the Gesundheit website at project-gesundheit.com. 180 intends to use the work to raise money for an as-yet-unnamed charity, and also plans to exhibit it, in time for this year’s winter flu season. There are also plans to create a book using the work. Get involved!

In one of my newspaper design courses in college, our professor would write “KISS” on our papers if our layouts were cluttered — not enough space around an image, more than two typefaces — or overly complicated. KISS is an acronym that he used meaning, “Keep it simple, stupid.” Since that course, I’ve learned of a few other definitions for the final S in KISS, but they all express a similar sentiment.

The KISS principle has helped me a great deal with my productivity over the years. Whenever I lose sight of the fundamental elements of a project, I remind myself to keep it simple. I don’t allow myself to add anything beyond the most basic elements of the project until I’m 100 percent finished with that simple, first deliverable. Then, if I have time remaining, I can go back and add features that aren’t essential (if I even decide to do them at all).

Surprisingly, I’ve found the KISS principle to be more difficult to embrace as a manager of others’ work. I’ll see part of a deliverable and then want the person to go back and have the first part enhanced before seeing the rest of the completed work. If I don’t fight this urge, I end up wasting other people’s time, and can drain my budget before the project is finished. To get around this, I tell the people I’m working with that they are supposed to remind me of the KISS principle. I greatly respect the vendors and employees who have said to me, “Erin, I’m supposed to remind you to keep things simple and let me finish the basic project first.”

Beyond working on projects, I’ve found the KISS principle to be extremely beneficial in other areas of life. If I’m doing programming work, I tend to have fewer bugs in my code if I keep things as simple as possible. If I’m trying to clean something in my home, I always start with the least caustic cleaner first. When choosing between two items of clothing in a store, I always choose the one that is the easiest fabric to maintain.

What can you do in your work or home life to implement the KISS principle? Are you losing sight of the fundamentals and adding flourishes before finishing the basics? How do you keep things simple?

Une installation à base de vidéo mapping conçue par l’agence Superbien et le département New Media de l’agence Auditoire. Le cube Envision permet une expérience immersive, grâce à cette commande d’Alcatel Lucent pour ses clients, lors du dernier Mobile World Congress.

Previously on Fubiz

• Box Animation
• Chris Gilmour
• Paper Cut Project

Du mobilier urbain original développé par les concepteurs néerlandais Carmela Bogman et Rogier Martens. Destinées aux espaces publics, cette installation est mise en place dans la ville de Utrect au Pays-Bas. Il s’agit de 3 bornes escamotables dont un banc en aluminium.

Previously on Fubiz

• Land Peel Furniture
• Animal Table
• 3D Illusion Storage

Whether it’s possible to improve upon Herman Miller’s Tandem Sling Seat (above), the streamlined leather and chrome paragon of airport seating designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1962 for Chicago’s O’Hare International, is not the primary concern of the highly competitive world of airport furniture designers. “The trouble with today’s design is it’s hugely fashionable,” Rodney Kinsman of OMK Associates told the Wall Street Journal in the paper’s A-Hed exploration into the world of airport seating. Writer Daniel Michaels watched the sparks fly at the Passenger Terminal Expo 2010, “a global who’s-who of airport seating” held recently in Brussels.

Germany’s Kusch & Co., which debuted its new line designed by Porsche, grabbed attention by hanging seats upside down above its display. Executives from Canada’s Arconas Corp. sported bright red hockey jerseys of the country’s gold-medal Olympic team over suits and ties.

“It’s about fashion,” said Arconas Executive Vice President Pablo Reich, referring to the company’s colorful product line. As in any fashion-conscious industry, egos collided.

Read the full piece for a preview of the seating you may soon be jostling for at increasingly overcrowded boarding gates worldwide. Among them are modular options that have proved “prison-worthy” and hurricane-resistant, seats sheathed in self-sealing polyurethane, clear plastic models made partly from soybeans, and more sophisticated offerings designed for Vitra by Sir Norman Foster and Alberto Meda. But don’t get too comfortable. “For selfish reasons, airports don’t want couches,” said Pascal Berberat, head of Vitra’s airport division. “They want people up and shopping.”

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