In shaping the post-Covid world, experience may be less relevant than resilience, creativity, empathy, perspective, and the ability to connect dots.
Category: design
Autonomous cars and luxury marques
Aston Martin, James Bond's car of choice (except when he went through a BMW phase), showcased a powerboat at Monaco Yacht Show this year. Writing in the Financial Times, Philip Delves Broughton laments that Bond's legacy is being junked by this luxury marque and outlines the dangers of brands diversifying into unrelated categories, especially those … Continue reading Autonomous cars and luxury marques
Authenticity and Vedic wisdom for luxury brands
Alicia Keys, the talented musician and singer, was in the news recently for having chosen decidedly to eschew makeup. In a monograph in a newsletter, she said she feels no need to cover up any more. She talked about her journey to self discovery and finding her authentic self which did not need to be … Continue reading Authenticity and Vedic wisdom for luxury brands
Motivation as a design assumption
Holacracy. MOOCs. Food labels. Holacracy isn't working. MOOCs have low completion rates, and an estimated 90% drop-out rate. Food labels to help consumers make informed choices show mixed effectiveness and decidedly no downward impact on public health concerns re obesity. Other than not working as well as optimistically assumed in their wake, they have one … Continue reading Motivation as a design assumption
Selling diamonds online
(A version of this article appeared in LiveMint on March the 4th, 2016.) “You must have done some good deeds to have earned living here,” quipped a friend visiting me in Switzerland many years ago. Switzerland was wonderful but in my city, only two stores sold books in English and the choice was limited. Amazon … Continue reading Selling diamonds online
Women Artists in London: Annie Leibovitz
Long post alert! Women artists are predicted to garner more attention this year. Right on cue there is Women: New Portraits, by Annie Leibovitz, the American photographer. The London show launches the 10-city international tour of the exhibition. These images are a continuation of the project Women that Leibovitz began with Susan Sontag many years … Continue reading Women Artists in London: Annie Leibovitz
Investment and Luxury: The Birkin Bag
From fashion magazines to feminist commentariat and regular journalism outfits, many seem to be telling women this January that buying Birkin bags is a better idea that investing in the stock market. A luxury bag selling website's research comparing S&P 500 performance with that of Birkin bags says the latter stacks up more favourably over … Continue reading Investment and Luxury: The Birkin Bag
Four For Friday — 2016 in predictions
Welcome to 2016! The curated links today are all about predictions for design, luxury, jewellery, and fashion tech in 2016. "Simplicity will win.. but don't oversimplify and sacrifice thrill of discovery" is my favourite from these 10 predictions for design in 2016. Thanks to the digitization of everything, we now have the most hyperreactive markets … Continue reading Four For Friday — 2016 in predictions
My 2015 in books
Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman had my reading interests down pat. This year was bountiful, so much so I have backlog which I carry into 2016. This was also the year I returned -- partly -- to print books, mainly in order … Continue reading My 2015 in books
Four For Friday (34)
As the year draws to a close, reviews of the year appear as do predictions for the future. The latter are inevitably rooted in the former. Without the past and the present, there is no future. This week's varied links are all about history. As the year that made Bitcoin mainstream and saw the launch … Continue reading Four For Friday (34)
