CollegeHumor Helped Shape Online Comedy. What Went Wrong?
Source: Wired | Kate Knibbs
On a cloudy morning the week after New Year’s Day, at CollegeHumor’s headquarters in West Hollywood, everyone braced for bad news. “We all knew what was about to happen,” writer and actor Katie Marovitch said. “My face was covered in hives, which happens to me when I'm very anxious, which is a lot.” Sam Reich, the company’s creative captain, cried as he delivered the tough update: IAC/InterActiveCorp, CollegeHumor’s parent company, wanted out. “If I can reengage you down the line, I obviously will,” Reich assured the room, shortly before HR representatives in Manhattan and Los Angeles handed exit paperwork to the newly unemployed staffers. People cracked jokes—people always joke in an office full of comics—but the punch lines couldn’t erase the gut punch. More than 100 people had lost their jobs.
How Under Armour Lost Its Edge
Source: New York Times | Julie Creswell & Kevin Draper
Once heralded as the next Nike, the sportswear giant has been hurt by slumping sales and unflattering revelations about its corporate culture.
In the summer of 2018, two top Under Armour executives traveled to the West Coast on a critical mission. Kevin Plank, the sports apparel company’s founder and chief executive, and Patrik Frisk, its president and chief operating officer, needed to persuade Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors star and the company’s highest-profile endorser, not to leave the brand.
What UX from 1989 can teach us
Source: UX Collective | Dina Zuko
How important is the user context when designing amazing products?
Let me take you back to a time before iPhones, Game of Thrones and Netflix. The year is 1989. The hairstyles are big and curly. The earrings are huge. George H. W. Bush is sworn in as the 41st president of the United States. A Chinese man stands alone to block a line of tanks heading east in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Berlin Wall comes down. Madonna is singing “Like a Prayer” and movies like “Good morning, Vietnam” and “Die hard” have been released.
IKEA reveals plans for car-free store wrapped in greenery
Source: dezeen | Lizzie Crook
More than 100 trees will adorn the gridded facade of IKEA's city-centre Vienna Westbahnhof store, which will have no car parking spaces.
Currently under construction in the Austrian capital, the car-free IKEA store is designed by local studio Querkraft Architekten to address "radically changed customer and mobility behaviours".
IKEA Vienna Westbahnhof, which will have a grid-like form enveloped by greenery, will provide on-the-day delivery services and be easily accessible by foot or public transport.
Kelly Wearstler’s Vision for the Santa Monica Proper Hotel
Source: Cool Hunting | Ari Bendersky
The spacious lobby of the Santa Monica Proper Hotel—with its earth tones, textured wood and natural stone set among a variety of deep, plush seating—feels like a private home overlooking the water. This was part of designer Kelly Wearstler’s vision for the renovation of a 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival office building into a 271-room hotel, situated blocks from the Pacific Ocean in downtown Santa Monica. From soundproofing guest rooms to deflect nighttime carousing at circular rooftop bar, Calabra; adding handles close to the entry of the deep step-in marble showers; including Apple TV and bedside-adjacent digital lighting panels; or hand-selecting all the books and art in the lobby’s “grotto” library, Wearstler’s aesthetic can be felt throughout the property.
Under the Covers: The Mysterious Origin Story of Kraftwerk’s Iconic Autobahn Motorway Graphics
Source: AIGA Eye on Design | Jeremy Allen
The cover art of Autobahn has become one of Kraftwerk’s most recognizable motifs, but the famous white-on-blue convergence lines where merely an afterthought as the first edition rolled into production. Those iconic parallel stripes didn’t even appear on the original 1974 artwork by Emil Schult, although they were added to the sleeve in sticker form (which is why, if you search for the vinyl on Discogs, you will find some versions with, and some without).
Schult entered Kraftwerk’s orbit when the seminal German technolords were still a duo finding their way, designing the sleeve for the still largely experimental and flute-heavy Ralf & Florian. His role within the organization was as a kind of conceptual auxiliary man, playing violin, writing lyrics (“Wir fahren, fahren, fahren auf der Autobahn…”) and, as a visual artist, helping to create an aesthetic for the band that would take time to foment. He was a star pupil of the legendary German Fluxus artist Joseph Beuys, and his art theorizing helped consolidate the direction Kraftwerk founders Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider were moving in anyway. Hütter described him as a “medium”; Wolfgang Flür later said he was the band’s “guru.”
Dezeen’s top 10 architecture and design quotes of 2019
Source: Dezeen | Agusuta Pownall
Dezeen has spoken to a huge number of architects, designers and activists this year. For our review of 2019, deputy editor Augusta Pownall picks 10 quotes that sum up what's been going on in the architecture and design community.
Lena Pripp-Kovac: "We're looking at a change of our total business"
Lena Pripp-Kovac, head of sustainability at IKEA, told Dezeen in an exclusive interview that the company will have to completely change its practices if it is reach its goal to become a circular business by 2030.
Dezeen’s top 10 installations of 2019
Source: Dezeen | Kristin Klein
Next up in our review of 2019, Kristine Klein picks out the 10 most arresting installations on Dezeen, including Banksy's pop-up, pink seesaws slotted between the border wall and a sauna at Burning Man.
The Top 20 Places to Travel in 2020
Source: Arch Digest | Laura Itzkowitz
Every year, we here at AD bring you a list of the top travel destinations that should be on your radar for the year ahead. It’s not enough for a destination to be a nice place to visit—it’s got to be appealing to architecture and design lovers, perhaps because of an exciting new museum, a major design-themed event, an important anniversary, or just because it’s at the forefront of a burgeoning design trend. As always, we consulted trusted travel advisers, award-winning tour operators, and other industry experts to weigh in on the places that are most worth your hard-earned money and vacation time in 2020. From under-the-radar European cities and remote islands to classic destinations with new reasons to visit, these 20 places top our must-visit list for 2020.
We All Have a Creative Type
Source: Adobe Create | Carolyn Gregoire
What creativity is and where it comes from is one of life’s great unsolved mysteries.
The scientific study of the creative process (and the creative personality) has arguably given rise to more questions than answers. But here's what we do know about creativity: It involves a multitude of different personality traits, behaviors, and thinking styles coming together in a single person.
Psychologists say that creative people have a tendency to avoid habit and routine—which means we're constantly changing. We often feel misunderstood because we see the world differently from others—and indeed, neuroscience shows that our brains are literally wired differently.