Again, though, I think Paul Rand’s already existing reputation is what wowed Steve Jobs into giving him carte blanche with the NeXT logo. When I was in my mid twenties, I met Saul Bass, and was equally wowed, but looking back, I’m reasonably sure it was his groundbreaking work in the 1960s that established his reputation that wowed me.
At work, the social media people fall under my supervision, and I largely set their agenda and priorities, then let them run with the ball on implementation. In client meetings, however, when social media is part of the equation, I’ve found that I absolutely must bring them into the room because clients invariably assume that I don’t have a clue what I’m doing and that all social media wisdom resides in the minds of young 20-year-olds. It’s weird.
The fact that these 20-year-olds know very little about strategy, tactics and the bigger picture of how everything fits together goes unappreciated. The clients don’t know that after the meeting I typically spend another 30 minutes in a follow-up session answering questions about what just took place, what it means and how we’ll go about developing a social media strategy around it.
So, for about 16 years, we’re good. My only problem is my retirement is coming in after that … sigh. I would hope, perhaps, that before that there will be enough of a public outcry to hopefully resolve the funding issue. If not … well, watch out for PD and his shopping cart.
It seems that the younger people are, the less distinction they make between strategy and tech-savvy. And now we are entering an age of technocracy. We will be replacing people with machines for all the wrong reasons.
Well, I’ll likely be housed in a dirty room inside the Alzheimer’s unit of a public rest home by then, so I won’t know the difference anyway. Getting my diapers changed and my catheter adjusted will be a bigger priority.
Retirement/Nursing Homes are so incredibly insulting (and so too is 99.9999999 % of residential (and institutional) architecture in general, and yes that leaves just .0000001 % …and no I’m not exaggerating …I’m being generous!).
Life is a celebration of living … living is a celebration of life.
To gang / mass rape the aged is nothing short of a heinous criminal act perpetrated by what has been allowed to culturally pass as ‘architecture’.
I’m a product of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural schooling so don’t even get me started. There’s very little else that can get me more upset than the wanton manipulation of the essential elements which we need by NATURE to exist … nothing … architecture is one of those elements.
For ever corporations have puked up vile architectural residential structures cookie-cutting short your natural celebration of Life … through PURE ignorance and contempt.
Harsh words?
Not even close … note that not one swear word was used … I must softening/maturing … either that or I haven’t had enuff to drink!
Even becoming Soylent Green gives you that long lasting moment of happiness at the end.
It haunts me to this day that on one visit to my dad, a woman was sitting on a bench by the nurses’ station, all prettily dressed with nice shoes, hat, coat and white gloves, her purse in her lap. A nurse told her it was nearly suppertime, time to go back to her room.
“But I’m waiting for the bus to take me home,” she said.
“Honey you missed the bus,” said the nurse.
OMG, the chin quivers and the tears in her eyes, but not crying out loud, as she got up and slowly walked back down the hallway…
I can only hope she lived in the moment but I can’t imagine doing that every day.
I hated that nurse.
Yes, Taliesin West. I started off here in Ottawa at Carleton’s School of Architecture and during my first semester it was recommended that I apply. So I did … Class of '93. Back then it was called the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.
Let me say much about pure Architecture … Architecture is a life force on to itself.
Well, that’s pretty cool. My wife and I lived in southern Scottsdale for a brief stint in the early 90s. While we were there, I discovered Frank Lloyd Wright and have been visiting Wright sites ever since. We’ve toured or driven past many of his buildings in Phoenix (including multiple tours of Taliesin West), we’ve done the Oak Park area plus other sites in Chicagoland, our 20th anniversary trip was to Fallingwater, and many others. We are planning a fall trip to Taliesin in Spring Green.
I don’t want to derail this thread, but, if you’re a trained architect, what’s your tie in with graphic design?
Beautiful question Steve_O … for what it’s worth I’ll talk about it as best as I can.
Basically I get a chance to speak with a much more dynamic (which also can also be very temporary) and straight forward (as in clarity of message) about subject matter that I felt I needed to try to say with the time I taken from my life over the few years or so.
So subjects like … Love … the kind of love where one lays down their life … not the kind on Sunday morning or the kind that smiles a dog … but rather the kind that is deep down and inherently within us all … as human beings. Peace and War the other two subjects which, in my own personal way, I have been able to reach ‘into’ people via graphics and speak about those two. I’ve also been humble to do work for the such wonderful orgs as the UN, NAACP, amongst many other amazing folks.
But over the course of the last 2 years or so Architecture has been weighing on me really really hard … so I hold it back much longer and I’ve been developed my graphics enuff anyways.
Here’s one of many many Stop War examples, this one comes from one of my street campaigns…
…my manager/agent took that shot with her young son in her car. She told me that without any provocation her son turned to her and said … “Look! Get it mommy? Stop War.”
So anyways, thankfully I’ve been able to take some time with my life to use graphics and try to say what I needed to be said.
About F.Ll.W. …
He didn’t walk on water … you know that right? His understanding of Architecture ‘evolved’ over the course of many decades … and many influences.
At its core architecture is all about loads … just like us humans.
Definitely. I’ve read enough about him to know that he is not one that I’d want to model my life after. He certainly had his fair share of shortcomings in many different areas of life. There are modern day Wright devotees that seem to put him on a pedestal . . . bordering on worship. I would not put myself into that camp.
I think people’s imperfect lives and struggles do little to diminish the genius they might have displayed in those area where they excelled.
I also think those historical figures we look to as artistic geniuses are usually deserving of their reputations because of their influence on what followed rather than the actual quality of their work, which is often flawed and, ultimately, better executed and perfected by those they influenced.
Sorry, I was referring his understanding of architecture and not to his personal life.
It’s a long way from the boxes built early in his career to the more disciplined compositions at the end of his career. Also, Wright borrowed and was greatly influenced As a quick example those mushroom columns in Johnson Wax were done years before in Germany and the exterior of the tower was done way early in Italy.
When he signed over his design studio to Neutra … that was a tipping point in his understanding of how fluid and clean compositions could become.
Etc., etc…
His personal life was slightly more f’d up than mine … but not by much!
