The Gloaming

It's the eve before I fly to DC and I just finished reading the 2009 Transatlantic Trends report from the GMF. The good news: the U.S. brand is improving in favor. The bad news: not by much.

Why is that bad? It probably wasn't bad 100 years ago before technology unified the world. But now we live in a codependent age when each country's actions can no longer be considered independent. Our economies depend on each other. Our welfare depends on each other. Even my apple juice is homogenized from seven different countries!

I'm stepping into awareness with a deer in the headlights look. I consider how hard it is for our own Congress, representing 50 states, to agree to agree. At least we all speak the same language and have the same fundamental culture. Imagine the same scenario, but each state is a separate country with unique languages, cultures and histories. That's the EU. Now imagine our own disagreements meeting their disagreements and hoping for an amicable resolution.

One of the sections in Transatlantic Trends sizes up EU and American interests in climate change. I was surprised at the the survey results. Portugese showed the most concern with 62% being very concerned. The Netherlands came in lowest at 23%. The U.S. was 40%. Of these respondents, EU countries were more adamant that effective change would only come about through international cooperation (81%) versus one out of every two U.S. respondents that felt the same. I wonder if this is because we still tend to think of ourselves as independent rather than dependent? More telling was the attitude toward economic growth versus climate change. Two out of three Europeans (69%) were willing to slow growth for a better environmental state while majority of Americans (43%) were not.

Yesterday IDEO launched a web site called "Living Climate Change" as a preamble to COP15, the UN Climate Change Conference being held in Copenhagen this December. We asked each studio to create a short film envisioning the world 20 years from now if carbon emissions were reduced or increased. Twenty years isn't that far away so it's no George Jetson or Blade Runner scenario. Imagine yourself with pegged jeans in 1989 and you'll understand what I mean. Over the next few months we'll continue to add new films and content to the site, hoping to create richer dialogue about the challenges ahead.



Rich dialogue is what I'm hoping for on this trip. I'm not well-versed in politics. I've not affiliated with a political party. I believe that people are more important than ideologies and I hope we can find a way to build empathy for one another rather than walls.

Transatlantic

On Thursday I begin a nearly month-long journey across Europe as a Marshall Memorial Fellow. It’s a program memorializing the Marshall Plan with the intent of strengthening Euro/American relations. I was nominated and selected as a fellow while living in Chattanooga but my original itinerary had me departing in the fall of 2008, a week after starting at IDEO in Boston. Thanks to the flexibility of the German Marshall Fund and the support of my friends at IDEO (and my wife!) I'm able to go now.

I’m looking forward to the trip because it’s quite unusual for a designer to be among the fellows. The majority are on political cabinets, in public affairs or from non-profits. Bringing design thinking into the discussion to explore options as an alternative to legislating limits excites me.

In each city we'll meet with civic leaders, business leaders, dignitaries and like-minded professionals to learn about their cultural and social challenges. We are also receiving broad briefings from the staffs at NATO, the EU and the UN.

I intend to post regularly throughout the trip so check back weekly if you're interested.

Here’s my schedule.

01: Washington, DC
03: Brussels, Belgium
07: Munich, Germany
12: Thessaloniki, Greece
16: Prague, Czech Republic
21: Leipzig, Germany
22: Berlin, Germany

Your past is your future

I began my career as a junior art director in 1994 at a start-up ad firm in Chattanooga, TN. My starting salary was $13K/yr. (That's not a typo.) After four years of learning the ropes I hit a glass ceiling and decided to go out on my own, working two jobs until I could get established: stereo installations by day, design by night! During these few years I helped start The Urban Art Institute, a non-profit art school for teenagers, eventually moving my studio from my home to the school. I also began teaching adjunct at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. In 2001 when UAI fell into funding issues I took the opportunity to merge my studio with one of my clients, a web company called RSOA. I had been contracting for them and they approached me to build a design team for the business. During this period I came across a simple sketch by Charles Eames that changed my life. The drawing showed how he chose the work for the Eames Office, choosing the overlap of client needs, societal needs and his own interests.

In 2002 I left the tech co and co-founded Tricycle, a sustainable design company. Inspired by the sketch, I was on a search for a career with greater meaning and social impact. I had practiced graphic design in its traditional forms for seven years. Increasingly, I found the piecemeal design projects frustrating. I wondered what it would be like to design large scale systems for industry using the same experience and skill set I used for corporate identity design. At the time we were calling it "Big D" design. Today we call this design thinking.

30 employees and three rounds of venture capital later, I’m happy to report it was a good idea. Tricycle created a new category for digital sampling in the commercial carpet sector receiving recognition worldwide for sustainable design. In autumn 2008 I amicably left and moved to Boston to join IDEO and continue my pursuit of cultural, social and business impact through design. Though I don't get to design my own business cards anymore it's absolutely worth the trade. IDEO affords me the opportunity to apply my experience to multiple industries and organizations across the globe, and collaborate with some of the best designers of my lifetime.

The posts on this blog from 2007 share a little insight into my career prior to this move.