I used to shoot black and white almost exclusively when it was film. Also had the habit of not cropping my photos, even printing the border around the negative to prove the shot was composed in camera. Now that I have been shooting digital, photos are always presented in color. And typically, only when shooting sports stuff, do I crop. (You just don’t have time to compose when you’re shooting sports.) I’m not sure why I never felt quite right about post-processing images as black and white. Perhaps putting black and white film into my camera was a choice, and it certainly influenced the pictures I took. There was also something to be said for only having thirty-six exposures.

Is the final image the only thing that matters?

FLOWmarket at the Dansk Design Center reminded me of the first time I heard Bruce Mau speak in New York. Following a presentation on the design and release of the Venus women’s razor from P&G, he took the stage drinking water that he proclaimed was treated sewage. The talk ended with a question / challenge as he looked out at the audience of hundreds of (corporate) designers, “We can do anything, what are you going to do?”

The question occurred to me again tonight that why do people seem to want what everyone can have, yet fail to recognise those things that have limitless value? What should we really be struggling for?

So, not a post in nearly two weeks. Things have been really busy. Over the past two years I have been developing and managing a business intervention programme here in Ireland to make companies more competitive through design. I’ve been working with some amazing people and am confident in saying we’ve produced some amazing results. Typically case studies tend to polish out all the rough bits and unmitigated success oozes out of every story. This just isn’t the truth. Good design is hard work. The approach I chose to take was not to get up on my design soap box and preach, but to try and let the companies speak for themselves.

Innovation by Design [PDF, 2.4MB]

(Don’t tell anyone, but not a single word was written until Sunday, August 31st, and we still had these lovely printed books on Wednesday, September 17th. I hope all is forgiven for the lapse in posts.)

I realised I never posted a finished photo of the stone wall. This is the first length, as it will start again and extend around the back of the studio.

The work was some of the most gratifying I have ever done. There is something quite powerful in thinking the wall could well last hundreds of years like others around Ireland. There is also justice in the stone coming from the original house on the property.

Visually stunning, but short on story, Hellboy II left me wanting more than just spectacle. The creatures are fabulous. (Above is a rendering of the “tooth fairies.”) The Troll Market is the Star Wars canteen scene advanced thirty years later. I probably enjoyed the humour more than the suspense, which was lacking. I’m sure this will be up for some debate, but the Barry Manilow sing-along is a classic; like a DVD outtake which made it into the final film. See it on the big screen for the effects and the creatures, but consider it a warm-up for Del Toro’s take on The Hobbit. Can’t wait for that.

I am off to the Giant’s Causeway in two weeks. I’ll let you know if I come across the remnants of the Golden Army.