LANG, ROBERT

American physicist, origami artist and theorist 1961He had the idea to overlap traditional origami techniques with mathematics and computer science. It is a great demonstration of what happens when you generate short-circuits from apparently remote disciplines. Here you can see Mr. Land at Ted explaining: The math and magic of origami. Isnt it fantastic?

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LAO, TZU

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(a.k.a. Laozi in Chinese)

Philosopher of ancient China 6th century BC A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step One of the most important philosophers in the history of human kind. If you read his books or his quotes, each of them is a full course on contemporary design (or, if you prefer, contemporary life). Very impressive. He knew and he understood so much... One book you should try to read is his Tao Te Ching (also known as the Book of Tao). A lot of wisdom there. Quite short, but extremely deep and mind-boggling.

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LE CORBUSIER
The Architect of the XXth c. 1887-1965 You know, it is life that is right and the architect who is wrong. Born in Switzerland, he spent most of his life in Paris. He was a visionnaire with the passion of making his vision coming true. Very cool, very fascinating, very respectable. A superstar in urban planning, architecture, design, urban planning, art and writing. If modern architecture was a soccer team, he would be surely the center-forward, the one who gets the final pass and scores loads of goals. Too many buildings, too many ideas, too many spaces. Where to start? Check out these links. Each of them is a stairway to heaven. Modulor / Cabanon / Ville Savoye / Chandigarh

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MAEDA, JOHN
Japanese/American designer, computer scientist, teacher, writer, very influential character 1966Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful. Imagine a special place where traditional visual design transforms itself to become software. Are you there? Good. Mr. Maeda is there, since decades. Some 10-15 years ahead of the rest us. Very cool, very special. Mixing Japanese and American culture. To get to know more, check out his website, or read his book: The Laws of Simplicity. There is also a website where you can start to get acquainted with these concepts. Another very interesting way to get to know his approach is to take a deep breath and to dive into the Design by Numbers galaxy...

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MAPPLETHORPE, ROBERT
American photographer 1946-1989 He crossed our paths as a young gentleman in New York when he met the young Patti Smith. Here the link to his foundation website.

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MARI, ENZO
Famous Italian designer, still active in Milan 1932His design is smart, intelligent and nasty. We referred to his calendars various times here and there. Here isPerpetual Calendar for you to see. There is a lot of stuff on him on YouTube. Here the tutorial on how to assemble a chair. He looks as a very nice and gentle old grandpa. He is not. He is one of the meanest characters around (if you are intelligent and you understand things, quite often you get to be mean). If you want to see an impressive show, get to see a lecture of him (or, even better, a panel discussion). Satisfaction is guaranteed. Another project you should check out is Autoprogettazione. Mesmerizingly intelligent. It was 1974, but it could have been 2074.

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MASK
What is a mask? You must know. Why do we like masks so much to include them in our encyclopedia? Masks are some of the earliest objects of design ever made by humans. They were made for protection, for ceremonial and performance purposes. A mask allows design to become part of the ritual and storytelling act. This was true 10.000 years ago and still is today. Here, for instance, you have the link to the oldest mask ever found. And here you have Saul Steinbergs masks (a nice way to start your personal trip into masks).

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MIYAKE, ISSEY
Japanese fashion designer, entrepreneur 1938One of my assistants found this old German machine. It was originally used to make underwear. Like Chanel, who started with underwear fabric - jerseys - we used the machine that made underwear to make something else. His clothes, shops and exhibitions are always one step beyond. We could write at lenght about Mr. Miyake, but it would be extremely difficult to explain. Best thing to do is for you to start to explore his Pleats world. Then, the A-Poc project. And his IN-EI lamps made with Ernesto Gismondi by Artemide. If this is not enough, here is a link to a very precious document: the speech he gave when he received the Kyoto Prize for art and philosophy in 2006, One Life, One Thread, and One Piece of Cloth: The Work of Issey Miyake.

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MODULOR
A proportional scale (based on human elements), devised by Le Corbusier 1948 (book n. 1), 1955 (book n. 2) The pleasures of love are always in proportion to our fears. Stendhal To measure is one of those activities that have been happening since the dawn of time. Each culture, each civilization developed its own system. In our time, one of the most fascinating examples is surely the Modulor. Le Corbusiers design principles took a lot of inspiration from mathematical and geometrical concepts such as the Fibonacci series and the golden ratio. Get into this world. It is quite a fascinating one! By the way, you cant have proper design without proper proportions. This is a fact. Hence, you better get acquainted with these special things.

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MORRISON, JASPER
English product and furniture designer 1959Another of those contemporary design superstars. In his case, fame and success have been well-earned: he is one of the most interesting characters around. The list of the relevant works would be quite long. Best thing to do is to check the website of his company (Jasper Morrison LTD), or read the entry about him in the Design Museum archive. Also nice, the interview he gave to designboom webzine some years ago. Amid his many projects, one thing we liked very much was this exhibition (and later a book) called: Super Normal. Sensation of the ordinary. If you have time, check it out: it is another book worth a read. Lots of food for thought in those pages.

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MOVABLE TYPE
When you print typography (letters or ideograms) using movable elements Invented by the Chinese some thousand years ago, developed later in Korea, and made popular by Johannes Gutenberg circa 1040 The thing became a mass-medium when Johannes Gutenberg found a way to put together a printing press, cheap metal and appropriate paper. Thanks to the movable type we started to have books at a reasonable price with a lot of attached consequences. Some generations get the iPad, some others get the printed book, either to be read or to be translated to film. Each generation has its new media. We shouldnt forget that every new medium will become old, and that every old medium used to be new.

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MUNARI, BRUNO
Italian designer, influential visual artist, inventor, architect 1907-1988 To make things easy is very difficult. To make things difficult is very easy. (we couldnt agree more!). A designer is a planner with a sense for aesthetics. Always busy borrowing from the fields of poetry, graphic design, industrial design, he creates using a child-like language. He also learns by doing, a.k.a. kinesthetic learning, with incredible tactility. Luckily for us, there is a very nice website where all of his work is properly archived. Another useful link is the one leading to Corraini publishing house (Munari made hundreds of fantastic books throughout his life and they have them all).
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MUSEUM
A museum 2013Its a new museum in New York City, located in Chinatown. It is a small as a matchbox, and it is one of the nicest projects we have seen in 2013. It has been defined as the Museum of Banality. If you cant go to New York City to check it out, here the link to its website, and here a link to a nice article in the New York Times.

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MY WAY
The most covered song in history, composed by Claude Franois and Jacques Revaux lyrics by Paul Anka Frank Sinatras version was released on June 4, 1969 Regrets, Ive had a few But then again, too few to mention I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway And more, much more than this, I did it my way... Of course we like Ol Blue Eyes version of the song. We also like very much Sid Vicious cover (probably better than the original). Also, Elvis Presley did a pretty cool version. My Way is so popular because every person who hears it thinks that Sinatra is actually talking about him/ her. This is design at its best, especially when massproduced. Think of Ikea or of an iPhone. Important! If you are in Philippines and go to a karaoke bar, make sure you can sing it well...

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NAPOLI
City in Southern Italy, just beside the Vesuvius vulcano, one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world Early settlements started in the Bronze Age My mother thinks I am the best. And I was raised to always believe what my mother tells me. Diego Maradona Im alive and I want to keep living. Diego Maradona Naples is a city as well as a state of mind. Some people are Northerners at soul, some other are Southerners. If we talk about cities and places it is the same. Actually, the whole world works like this. There is a North, and there is a South. The Design 1o1 crew lives in the South. The world is an extensive kingdom: South and Central America, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Middle East, the Gulf, and moving East towards Pakistan and India. South East Asia, China. Because the world is global, the North/South differences get enhanced and more relevant by the day. And you, where do you live? And your mind, is it Northerner or Southerner?

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NEUE NATIONALGALERIE
A museum 1968 In architecture field, the 20th c. has some superheroes (think to Marvel Superheroes, it is pretty much the same). One of them was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (think of the Thing out of the Fantastic Four). He was Mr. Boooummmbooooouummm, Mr. #lessismore (or, if you prefer, Mr. #godisindetail). In any case, towards the end of his life, he made this museum in Berlin where you find the 20th c. squeezed into one stark room. If contemporary architecture were a religion, this building may well have been its temple.

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NOGUCHI, ISAMU
Japanese American artist, designer, landscape architect 1904-1988 Appreciate the moment. He is the one who started to add electricity to the traditional Japanese paper lamps. Akari (bright) was the name he gave to them. The rest is design history. The website of the Noguchi Foundation is very nice. Check it out and you will find inspiration! If you are in New York City, go see his workshop / studio (now a museum) in Queens. The sculpture garden is very lovely and special. He is very dear to us!

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NO-STOP CITY
A utopian vision for the city of the future by Archizoom 1970-1971 The idea of an inexpressive, catatonic architecture, outcome of the expansive forms of logic of the system and its class antagonists, was the only form of modern architecture of interest to us. A society freed from its own alienation, emancipated from the rhetorical forms of humanitarian socialism and rhetorical progressivism: an architecture which took a fearless look at the logic of grey, atheistic and de-dramatized industrialism, where mass production produced infinite urban decors. Andrea Branzi (Archizoom) Out of the several projects developed by Archizoom, the most noticeable is the No-Stop City, a vision for a conceptual metropolis where there are no boundaries, flexible interiors, artificial light, multifunctional furniture and clothing. A new artificial city for a new artificial life.

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OBRIST, HANS-ULRICH
Art curator, critic, and always on the run 1968Whatever you do, do something else. Although we know him in person, we suspect there are at least five of him around (otherwise it wouldnt be possible to keep all these ideas, projects, and energy flowing all the time). In our Encyclopedia, we have an entry on his fabolous do-it project. We are also very fond of his The interview Project (an on-going endless project of interviews spanning now some decades). Since we like social media a lot, best thing to do is to follow him on Instagram.

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ORIGAMI
Japanese, traditional art of paper folding 17th c. Typical example of things we like: very easy to learn, very difficult to master. Although a traditional art, in the last decades it has been combined with other amazing fields, putting together traditional wisdom and computer science. In a different way, if you think that origami is something traditional, and you dont understand why we cross origami in our journey through contemporary design, here is something for you: Robert Lang at Ted, explaining The math and magic of origami. Isnt it fantastic? Origami Instructions is the website we appreciate the most on the subject (of course, feel free to find better ones...).

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PASTA
Design 1o1 being based in Milan, Italy, we cant have an encyclopedia on design, without mentioning pasta. Its first references go back to 1154 in Sicily. Last time we had it was today, for lunch. Life is a combination of magic and pasta. Federico Fellini We wont give you any recipe, we wont give you any historical explanation. For us, its enough to make you realize that pasta (like any other food) is the result of a very complex and sophisticated design system. The food we eat, the way we eat, and the tools we use to eat it: all of this is design. Generally speaking, its design at its finest (you cant make any mistake when overlapping design and food). What kind of food do you like? Where does it come from? How is it processed and produced? Why do you eat it like you do? Who invented the tools you use to eat it?

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PINK FLOYD
An English rock ban, particularly facinating in its early period (so-called psychedelic rock) 1965-1995 Then one day you find, ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun. excerpt from Time Any fool knows a dog needs a home, a shelter from pigs on the wing from Pigs on the Wing Lots of things to say about Pink Floyd and the design world. They met when they were young, when they were architecture students. And since they were very good, it was obvious that there were more interesting things to do (than architecture). Its a very long and fascinating story: where we have flying pigs, adrift in Londons sky, concerts in Pompeii, where progressive music would overlap Roman ruins, and Syd Barretts long journey to the end of the night. Walls, psychedelic performances, synthesizers and much more.

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QUIPU

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(a.k.a. talking knots)

From the Andes in South America some 5000 years ago Imagine a necklace with thousand of knotted strings. Imagine using this tool to count, to keep track of time, and to do an impressive number of things. This is a quipu. One of the most fascinating devices invented by humankind, the quipu was used by the Incas, local people from the Andes. Sometimes to find inspiration and interesting things, you have to take a time machine. Contemporary does not mean made less than 10 years ago. It means interesting today. Quipu necklaces are extremely contemporary, dont you agree?

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RAMS, DIETER
German industrial designer, generally associated with Braun products 1932He is the XXth c. industrial designer. To make it short, here his Ten Principles of Good Design: Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Design Design Design Design Design Design Design Design Design Design is innovative. makes a product useful. is aesthetic. makes a product understandable. is unobtrusive. is honest. is long-lasting. is thorough down to the last detail. is environmentally friendly. is as little design as possible.

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If you want to be knowledgeable about contemporary design, you should study those ten principles deeply and well (if only to question and break them).

RAMSEY, GORDON JAMES

Scottish celebrity, incidentally a cook (nowadays defined as chef) 1966Chefs are nutters. Theyre all self-obsessed, delicate, dainty, insecure little souls and absolute psychopaths. Every last one of them. Design is very akin to cooking. Hence, we host in our little encyclopedia one of the superstars of this field. Mr. Ramsay holds 15 Michelin stars. (Michelin stars are to restaurants what fancy medals are to admirals and generals.) Its very easy to meet him, and his multiple activities, along our path.

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RAY, MAN
American avant-garde artist, painter, photographer, inventor of the 20th c. 1890-1976 Inspiration then information; each validates the other. Not to be confused with Rain Man (quite a nice movie, indeed). Here we are talking about Man Ray. So many things to link, refer to, and explain. To start, here is the link to the Man Ray Trust website. To start, check these two works: Cadeau (1921) and LEnigme dIsidore Ducasse (1920). Next search Google Image withMan Ray Photography. Pretty cool stuff, isnt it? He also got to be on our special stamp series!

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ROAD TO NOWHERE
Song by American rock band Talking Heads 1985 Well, we know where were goin But we dont know where weve been And we know what were knowin But we cant say what weve seen And were not little children And we know what we want And the future is certain Give us time to work it out David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth form the Talking Heads. If Design 1o1 were to have an anthem, this would be it.

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RUSKIN, JOHN
English social thinker with very clear ideas on the relationship between art, architecture, education and society 1819-1900 There is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort. In short, he thought that there was a special set of connections between nature, art and society. He wrote too many books for us to read. But if we were to choose one, we would go for The seven lamps of Architecture. There you find the seven cornerstones of design activity: Sacrifice, Truth, Power, Beauty, Life, Memory and Obedience. We list them not because we believe them to be perfect or good, but simply because we love people who make lists.

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ST. JEROME IN HIS STUDY

A Renaissance painting by Antonello da Messina, now at National Gallery in London circa 1460-1475 I loved books; I read my childhood away. I was more interested in my interior world. Patti Smith If we talk about interior design, space, how to convert a space in a state of mind, this is our reference.

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SANAA PEOPLE
Sanaa is the capital of Yemen. But at the same time, it is also an architectural firm (set by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) based in Tokyo. Here we are talking about the architectural firm. When we say people we dont mean the people working for them, but rather the people who live in their architecture sketches. 1995We cannot avoid drawing some influences from Japanese tradition. Kazuyo Sejima Of course we love Sejima and Nishizawas architecture. They are finest of the contemporary world. But here we want to talk about something slightly different. We want to drive your attention to the tiny people populating the conceptual space of their buildings (before they get built). Sanaas buildings are beautiful. Their projects are always interesting. And the people living in them are the best.

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SASAKI, SADAKO
A Japanese girl who developed leukemia because of the Hiroshima bombing 1943-1955 Upon the Japanese tradition, if you are to make one thousand origami cranes, you make a wish and the gods will help you. Unfortunately she died before finishing, but then, her friends completed the task. Ever since, if you go to her memorial, you will see thousands and thousands of cranes made by people from all over the world to honour her, and to remember the tragedy of the war, the A-bomb.

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SAVOY TRUFFLE
Song written by George Harrison and performed by The Beatles on their White Album 1968 Creme tangerine and Montlimar A ginger sling with a pineapple heart A coffee dessert--yes you know its good news But youll have to have them all pulled out After the Savoy truffle. This entry is to suggest you to take a break. Get yourself to the nearest pastry house, order the cake you like the most, drink a cup of tea (or coffee) along with it, get your earplugs and the music you like the most... and be happy. From our side, the link to Ella Fitzegeralds cover.

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SERVICE DESIGN
Service design is the activity of planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and material components of a service in order to improve its quality and the interaction between service provider and customers. Wikipedias definition A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large. Henry Ford We used to live in a world where the design boundaries were easy and clean-cut. There were product designers (making things), exhibition and interior designers (making spaces), architects (making buildings), graphic designers (making flat stuff), typeface designers (making letters), and fashion designers (making clothes). A simple grid, easy to find your place. Nowadays the boundaries are blurred. Everyone does everything. New worlds are discovered by the day. We have: strategic design, design thinking, interaction design, relational design, process design and, of course, service design. For a good understanding of the field, here is a link.

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SKETCHING
A special kind of free-hand drawing: rough, quick, always left unfinished. I dont work from drawings. I dont make sketches and drawings and color sketches into a final painting. Jackson Pollock For our purposes, to sketch is foremost a way of thinking. To sketch is a special way to activate magic parts of our mind. Learn how to sketch. It is easy. It gives you a lot of satisfaction. It opens worlds for you to explore. Of course, if you are Jackson Pollock you are allowed not to sketch. But once we have one Jackson Pollock per century, the chances that you are the next centurys Pollock are actually fairly slim (...get to sketching).

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SMITH, PATTI
American artist, singer, songwriter, poet, guru, visual artist and many more 1946In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth. Apart from composing and singing beautiful stuff, she knows a lot about design. For instance, here is a precious link where she explains a couple of things to the youth. Here the link to hear Horses, her first album (1975). Punk-rock at its best! She is so cool that she is featured on one of the postcards stamps.

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SPUTNIK
First artificial satellite flying around Mother Earth October 4, 1957 Imagine a metal sphere as big as a watermelon with four antennas orbiting Earth. Sputnik started the Space Age. It triggered the Space Race. It redefined human kinds landscape of possibilities for the following twenty years. What about now? Why dont we have anymore sputniks? Is the next release of Apples iPhone our Sputnik?

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STEINBERG, SAUL
Jewish-Romanian born American cartoonist, illustrator and graphic designer 1914-1999 Born from a Jewish family in Romania, he lived most of his life in New York. Even if you dont know his name, you might have seen his well-know View of the World from 9th Avenue. Here, a very nice link to start exploring his masks. Steinberg pops up here and there in our journey.

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SUPER NORMAL: SENSATIONS OF THE ORDINARY

Book written by Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa 2007 If you dont like to read paper books, design is for you. Although every year thousand and thousand books are published on this subject, most of them are trash. Once a good book is printed, we must read it. Rather than explaining ourselves, here we go with the description from its authors: The designers have compiled 204 everyday objects in search of super normal design: alongside examples of anonymous design like the Swiss Rex vegetable peeler or a simple plastic bag, there are design classics like Marcel Breuers tubular steel side table, Dieter Rams 606 shelving system, or Joe Colombos Optic alarm clock of 1970... (keep reading at this link)

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SWIFT, JONATHAN
Half English, half Irish, writer, pamphleteer, poet, satirist, cleric etc.etc.etc. 1667-1745 May you live all the days of your life. From a designers point of view, our attention is caught by two masterpieces of his: Gullivers Travels and A Modest Proposal. The first one is because of his skill to invent a fabulous world, a benchmark for any visionary. Gulliver is surely standing quite high in our superhero hall of fame. Even more fascinating is A Modest Proposal. Go see the original title (its too long to quote here). In terms of design, it is a great example of lateral thinking. Bluntly, Swifts proposes to sell poor peoples children to rich families (for them to eat). Luckily for him, he was living in a world where the concept of political correctness was totally unknown. Hence, he was able to become one of the most influential Brits of all time.

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SWISS ARMY KNIFE

Object early versions from 1880s If we were to represent what is design in one single object, this knife would be one of our first choice. A tool, a multipurpose tool. Something you keep in your pocket to change the world (and its most minimal detail). It has become a cult object. If you carry one in your pocket, you become part of a secret society (with all the positive and negative connotations). Relevant fact: In the design world, Switzerland rules. Its given. If something is Swiss, we pay respect and nod our heads.

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TALKING HEADS
American rock band led by David Byrne, in New York City 1975-1991 And you may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful wife. excerpt from Once in a lifetime Keywords: avant-garde, new wave, punk, performance and a huge amount of showmanship and intelligence. On YouTube you can find a lot. Having to start, you could watch the movie Stop Making Sense. It is a nice way to open a window to a new (smart) world. We love their songs, we love their videos, we love pretty much everything. If you liked Stop Making Sense, now you can proceed to True Stories (another special one). Also, keep an eye on Mr Byrne. He is one of the most talented and creative people around. He always comes up with special and unexpected projects. Check Playing the building to get our point...

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TERADA MOKEI
Japanese company established by Naoki Terada in 2011 Terada Mokei was established to explore the potential for modeling, which is created by scaling things down and giving them detail, through models. This reflects our belief that when real items are replaced with models, the latter have an essence of reality, stuffed with dreams, and the potential to become more vibrant -- better word in my opinion than their originals. We also consider it important to enjoy the process of assembling models. taken from the Terada Mokei website Design can be a muscular activity (when NASA set up things in order to go the Moon). But then, design can zoom-in, and it can become very tiny, very delicate, and very special. Of course, we really believe that small is beautiful. And meaningful. And worth it!

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THE BEATLES
English rock band, formed in Liverpool 1960-70 Oh yeah, all right Are you gonna be in my dreams tonight? And in the end, the love you take Is equal to the love you make from The End, John Lennon and Paul McCartney The line-up consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. From there on, its XXth Century history at its best. Out of them, we love Ringo the most. Maybe he wasnt the best musician. Maybe John was smarter and George was deeper. But Ringo was way far the coolest. And, from designers point of view, this element (to be able to be cool and to design coolness) is a priceless ingredient. If you never met the Beatles, here are two movies to watch: Yellow Submarine and Hard Days Night.

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THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY

Originally a radio comedy created by Douglas Adams, it transformed itself into a multimedia journey crossing comics, stage shows, books, tv series, computer games, towels + much more. 1978This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much all of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasnt the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy. Many were increasingly of the opinion that theyd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans. Introduction of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

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THE LITTLE PRINCE

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(a.k.a. Le Petit Prince)

A fictional character in Antoine de Saint-Exuprys eponymous novel 1943 But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart. If we were to choose one literary fictional character to represent who is a designer and what kind of mind he/she should have, we would probably choose our little noble friend.

THE WALL
Double album by the English rock group Pink Floyd 1979 We dont need no education We dont need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teacher, leave them kids alone Hey, teachers! leave them kids alone! Pink Floyd, The Wall Bassist Roger Waters had a major role in its making. If you dont know much about it, you can listen to the record (or to a concert), or you can watch the movie. Ideally, start from the movie. Its pretty cool stuff.

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TOKYO
Capital of Japan and of contemporary design I sometimes wonder why the Japanese went to all the trouble of franchising a Disneyland in the suburbs when the capital itself is in many ways so superior a version. Donald Ritchie If you deal with design you must have been to Tokyo at least once in your lifetime. Muslims have to go to Mecca, designers have to go to Tokyo. In our case, you cant even pay someone else to go for you. You have to go yourself. Ideally, you should go there once per year. Without that, your understanding of the field will be always incomplete. Ikimasho!

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TRAVEL (TO)
To travel originates from the word French travail which means to work Its not the destination that matters. Its the change of scene. Brian Eno From designers point of view this is very true. To travel is to work: to open up your mind, to see new things, to understand who you are. We travel not to see and understand different people. We travel to see and understand who we are and where we come from. You cant be an accomplished designer if you dont travel at width, and at length. We learn because of differences, not because of similitudes. In Western culture, to travel has a long history. Upon different periods and values, sometimes the traveler is considered to be a carrier of positive sign (think of Christopher Columbus or Marco Polo). Other times, the traveler is a mischievous character (think of Ulysses in Homers Odyssey). For us, the traveler is always a positive person. Especially if he or she is a designer.

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T-SHAPED SKILLS
Diagram The vertical part of the T are things you know well and deep, while the horizontal part of the T is the skill to go broad, dealing with other people carrying other kinds of knowledge. The best person to ask about this is Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO, one of the most important design companies in the world. Read this interview on the subject. Lots of interesting stuff.

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WILDE, OSCAR
Irish writer and poet, all-around cool chap 1854/-900 Here are three epigrams of his (he was the best at writing smart things in a very concise way): We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. True friends stab you in the front. Mr. Wilde, he wrote only one novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and if you havent read it, you better should. Its about this odd relation between a young lad and a mirror. It deals with time, decay, corruption and vice. All through this mirror. We love mirrors. They are so special and so dear to us.

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YOUNG, NEIL
Canadian singer-songwriter 1945One of few who managed to maintain a successful career, a nice life and a sharp mind. Here is the link to his website. You can start to listen to his recent Dead Man theme song. Next you can go to Harvest, an early album of his.

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