Design Insights: ‘Violence of the new’ and ‘Optimistic futurism’

As part of its effort to stimulate dialogue between the business and design worlds, the Eastman Innovation Lab teamed with Seymourpowell to create a series of thought-provoking special edition “Design Insights” videos titled “Into the future.”

The first video in the series, “Violence of the new,” features Richard Seymour, Co-founder and Design Director at Seymourpowell, at his storytelling best on the importance of stories in creating a runway for new ideas. “I found out as a professional designer that it didn’t really matter how good a design was, if you didn’t prepare the receiver — the person receiving the idea — it would bounce off,” he says.

“Optimistic futurism,” the second video in this “Design Insights” series, features Richard emphasising the importance of optimism to designers creating the products of tomorrow.

“I’ve always liked the word futurist,” Seymour says. “If the definition of a futurist is someone who has a physical effect on the shape of the future, then I’m a futurist.”

For more information, see:

www.innovationlab.eastman.com/Insights/RichardSeymour/

www.uber-london.com

Bookmark and Share
Posted in Archive, Design Insights video series | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Seymourpowell TV: The Influence of Gaming

May 2012
In this edition of the Seymourpowell TV series, Seymourpowell’s Senior Design Research, Rob Kirby, discusses the question: “How will the evolution of video games influence the products we surround ourselves with in the future?”
Tell us your thoughts by commenting below, messaging us on Twitter @Seymourpowell or visiting www.seymourpowell.com.

Bookmark and Share
Posted in Archive, Digital, Product Design, Seymourpowell TV, Trends | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How will the evolution of video games influence the products we surround ourselves with in the future?

At Seymourpowell we look to a number of industries for inspiration. We find these are often the best places to start in order to understand different cultures and how these may affect other industries. In the below, Seymourpowell senior design researcher Rob Kirby looks at how the evolution of video games might influence the products we surround ourselves with in the future.

If you have any questions about Seymourpowell’s report on Milan 2012 please contact our PR team here.

Bookmark and Share
Posted in Archive, Digital, Trends, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Milan in Perspective 2012

For designers and trend researchers alike, all roads lead to Milan. A lighthouse which illuminates the future of design, Milan is both geographically and aesthetically the centre of the emerging design universe – the cultural zeitgeist forms here first.

In the report below, Mariel Brown and Karen Rosenkranz from Seymourpowell’s Research, Trend and Strategy Team, take a wide-angle look at the highlights of Milan 2012 and explore the broader relationships between cutting-edge design and the cultural trends which surround them.

Milan in Perspective 2012
View more documents from Seymourpowell

If you have any questions about Seymourpowell’s report on Milan 2012 please contact our PR team here.

Bookmark and Share
Posted in Archive, Digital, Product Design, Trends | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Opportunities for Innovation in the Airline Industry


image courtesy of Aircraft Interiors Expo

Seymourpowell’s Head of Transport, Jeremy White, recently delivered a keynote presentation at The Cabin Innovation & Strategies for the Future conference, part of the Aircraft Interiors Expo. Jeremy’s speech addressed the future expectations and trends shaping the consumers of tomorrow.

“You can’t research the future, but you can research emergent behaviour. If you watch carefully you can begin to prepare for the consumers of tomorrow and predict their expectations.” – Jeremy White

Jeremy White and Seymourpowell design researcher Chloe Amos-Edkins have had a presence at several aviation conferences this year including the Business Jet Interiors conference in Cannes and the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg.

In the blog post below, Chloe Amos-Edkins reflects on the opportunities for innovation in the Airline industry…

Opportunities for Innovation in the Airline Industry
by Chloe Amos-Edkins

There is a sense of frustration brewing in the aircraft industry. The combined effect of strict certification processes, increasing passenger numbers, greater industry competition and a hard push towards standardisation is paralysing innovation within the industry. Read more

Bookmark and Share
Posted in Archive, Transport Design, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Seymourpowell TV: Transport and Digital Connectivity

In the April edition of the Seymourpowell TV series, Seymourpowell’s Head of Transport, Jeremy White, discusses the question: “What is the role of digital connectivity in transport, and how should the industry respond to this consumer expectation?”

Tell us your thoughts by commenting on our youtube page, messaging us on Twitter @Seymourpowell or visiting our website.

Bookmark and Share
Posted in Archive, Seymourpowell TV | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Why You Won’t Get Breakthrough Innovation by Being Nice…

In an exclusive for The Harvard Business Review, Seymourpowell Associate Director Simon Rucker explores breakthrough innovation.

If you want to create a really transformational innovation, you’d better be in an organization that’s designed to support, not merely tolerate, someone as challenging as Steve Jobs. Otherwise forget it.

“No Simon,” I know many of you are thinking, “that’s not how it works these days: Innovation is all about flat structures, empathy, co-creation…” — you know the stuff.

But are you sure? Collegiality may make the process more pleasant and more fun, but that’s a recipe for becoming an innovation also-ran.

And before I get a torrent of success stories to show me how wrong I am — all of those results from “nice” innovation processes — let me specify here that I’m not talking about incremental invention. I’m talking about big, bold, necessary, save-the-world innovations. I struggle to think of any that were engendered by fairness, politeness, and generally getting along with everybody. Read more

Bookmark and Share
Posted in Archive, Harvard Business Review, Strategy | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Facebook Buys Instagram For a Cool $1 Billion

The growth in the number of users of the photo-sharing app Instagram has been impressive since it was launched two years ago, but no one could have predicted its recent acquisition by Facebook for a cool one billion US dollars.

Instagram allows users to apply creative filters to photos to transform their look and feel and then share them online with friends and family. They can also link their Instagram account to their Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr accounts.

With around 30 million iPhone users and now approximately 5 million since its launch last week on Google Android’s operating system, the appeal of this mobile, accessible photo sharing app is clear.

It will certainly be very interesting to see how Facebook can successfully integrate Instagram into its service.

Bookmark and Share
Posted in Archive, Digital, Trends | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Immortal Legs

In the second of his two-part commentary, Seymourpowell’s Head of Digital Research, Sam Crompton, reveals some interesting insights following his attendance at last months’ Economist Technology Frontiers Conference.

Part Two: Immortal Legs

Hugh Herr’s presentation on The New Era of Human 2.0 explored what state of the art technology can achieve.

Who is Hugh Herr?

1) He is the Director of Biomechatronics at MIT Media Lab (a great job title I’m sure you’ll agree). The purpose of this lab is to understand how legs work in order to synthetically recreate them. Or, as he’d say “to rehabilitate the disabled and the elderly and improve human locomotion.”

2) He lost both his legs (below the knee) in a climbing accident in New Hampshire in 1982. So, he did as all good biophysicists and engineers should do and designed himself his own prosthetic legs that enabled him to be rock climbing at an elite level. He created extendable legs that could allow him to change his height to between five and eight feet, allowing him to reach footholds and finish climbs that other people could not even do.

Read more

Bookmark and Share
Posted in Archive, Product Design, Trends, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

50 Great Innovators, One Better Future


image source

Seymourpowell’s Head of Sustainability Chris Sherwin shares his reaction to this year’s Fast Company 50, as shared on Innovation Management – the Online Knowledge Centre for creating value with innovation management…

Recently, I was disheartened to read that ‘green’ innovations’ make up less than 3% of global patents registered (one measure of innovation progress). So this year’s Fast Company list of ‘the 50 most innovative companies’, out this month, makes all together more optimistic reading from a sustainability perspective. Described as the ‘annual guide to the businesses that matter most, the ones whose innovations are having an impact across their industries and our culture’, the Fast 50 is the go-to place for checking the pulse of emerging entrepreneurial and innovation ideas. This year has a notably green tinge as several companies are listed for their game-changing green innovations. Read more

Bookmark and Share
Posted in Archive, Chris Sherwin, Sustainability | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
  • Meta

  • Archives