Nur Ahmad Furlong

Category: Creative Thinking

The coolest Eco Footprints I’ve seen
When we talk about carbon footprints we think about those forms we fill in online which ask us all kinds of probing questions about our homes, our cars and our activities which impact the planet. William McDonough’s book cradle to cradle discusses the concept of re-thinking how we design things extensively and gives us a new way of looking into the future of product design.
This is an eco-footprint of another kind which makes fantastic use of the concept of recyclability and re-usability in an ultr-cool way. Like McDonough states in his book over & over eco-friendly design does not have to be boring or less brilliant in functionality or visual appeal to fullfill it’s ecological responsibilities. It’s about the design approach.
Designer: Ben Chappell, has taken up the challenge with a not completely original but very much unique sneaker design which embraces the cradle to cradle thinking fully. The “Think” sneaker, a fully modular, meaning it’s made of seperate parts which can be removed & replaced, recyclable shoe.

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October 19, 2007
Blog Action Day 2007 a huge success
Spending the last few weeks just focussing on getting my business going has caused me to neglect my environmental and sustainability focus for a while. Even though I had writing a Blog Action Day post on my calendar I just never got around to it so I thought the least i could do is report on the success of the event.

Just so you know, October the 15th was Blog Action Day, a day devoted to blogging about the environment and highlighting global environmental issues to create awareness for the plight of our planet. Bloggers were called upon to break with their usual blogging schedule to take part by posting about the environment and in that way making the environment an issue at the top of the agenda on that particular day. It’s a great experiment in social networking and tackling societal issues via these channels, a topic I hope to write alot about very soon and one I have started applying some thinking and action to myself.
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October 17, 2007
Re-thinking my view on the London 2012 Logo
A little while ago I wrote an article discussing the Logo & Identity Designed for the London 2012 Olympic Games. At first glance everything about the logo seemed completely appalling from the colours to the jagged shaped and seemingly meaningless random nature of it all.
Well I’ve just read something which completely shifts my perspective and I’m not shy to say I’m thinking twice about how I view the whole thing. It might be a tad impulsive of me as my initial criticism was inspired by the outcry which followed to unveiling of the design. I still hold many of my views on the pure graphic nature of the Identity but applying some perspective and context changes the impact of my initial views.
Â You’ll have to read my intial article and then this one I found on “A Brief Message.com” written by Rob Giampietro (principal of Giampietro+Smith and a board member of AIGA/NY) and formulate your own opinion.
Critics, in the excitement of newsmaking, have rushed to judgment. Theyâ€™re writing history before itâ€™s happened.
Theyâ€™re forgetting that the games these identities signify havenâ€™t happened yet. How the London 2012 and Chicago 2016 identities interact with their respective events and audiences will ultimately determine whether they are lasting, valuable marks or not.
Ugly or beautiful, these identities will ultimately belong to us. We will wear and trade them. We will merchandise and trash them. We will honor and deride them. They will belong to us the way celebrities do, the way monuments do, the way media spectacles do. Years from now, I suspect different opinions will prevail.
Maybe both perspective have their merits, but sometimes its good to see both sides of the story. Its a good lesson in design, to know that no one design can be perfect or completely inappropriate at the time of their inception, but that perspective, opinion, experience and time are factors which have a say.
October 13, 2007
Branding Bettina Branding
I was approached by Bettina Moss, a Strategic Brand Consultant, to develop a visual identity for her new brand consultancy, "BettinaBranding" and to assist with creating a simple yet interactive online presence. Bettina had a few ideas for starters which helped get the process going, but once ideas were put through their paces a few new directions developed. One of the initial conceptual ideas was to create a spiral element which conveyed the message of Branding being an inward and outward looking process. As is the case many times what is seen in the mind comes out very differently in reality and we progressed to develop a simpler yet bolder identity.
Draft Logo & Branding Ideas
Because of the name BettinaBranding and the emphasis on the B it Bcame clear very early on that the letter B was our friend though at times it wasn’t Bhaving the way we would have liked it to. Oh I’ll stop B’ting around the Bush, oops, couldn’t help that last one.
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August 30, 2007
Startup Business School
Like many, I’ve been agonising for years about going out on my own and starting some kind of business. So many ideas have come and gone, some even making it to the planning stage, but I’m very much used to being permanently employed within companies and sooner or later whether due to lack of time, energy or motivation the business ideas end up on a dusty shelf in the back of my mind. Recently my entrepreneurial mind has started bugging me again and due to many circumstances in my life it seems I am being forced into the position of taking a step out there into the great big unknown of self-employment.
A while ago I came across the Startup Business School while searching for some online productivity tools. Back then I was still very much comfortable in my day job and things seemed stable but the internet industry is in a constant state of flux and things change so quickly. Today I hunted around for this tool and checked into my free account that I had set up back then. Why didn’t we learn a bit of this type of thing back in school I ask myself, so many people are in need of the simple skills required to get started with some kind of business or entrepreneurial venture.
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August 24, 2007
A Brainstorm Process I use. Sometimes
When you’re stuck for concepts or solutions as I am quite often it helps to organize your thinking. Just sitting there and pushing can have a similar effect as it does when you’re constipated. It’s also helpful to think a bit before starting to create something. I use many different brainstorming techniques depending on my needs, energy, mood. Mind mapping out your thought process is a good way to collect thoughts and create connections or links between thoughts. A cool free mind mapping tool I started using is Free Mind. Don’t you just love people who share. Grab yourself a copy of freemind, or just a piece of paper and pull those illusive ideas out of their hiding places.
1. Identify problem
- What are we trying to achieve
- Objectives, aims, goals
- Define the problem from different angles
- Define the criteria for a successful solution
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July 20, 2007