Nur Ahmad Furlong

Tag: Design

  • Design Indaba 2008 ends off SA design Week

    design_indaba(2)Gone are the good ol days when the big ad agency I’m working for sends me on an all expenses paid Design Indaba Conference. Sniff, being an Independent at the early stages of starting a business means I just can’t afford to attend a conference of this nature, in fact it almost went by without me noticing.

    I did a bit of browsing on the Design Indaba portal and was shocked to find out they’re using blogger to power their blog, can you imagine that. I’m not a big fan of blogger based blogs, they all just look a certain way and don’t interest me at all, in fact none of the blogs I subscribe to are blogger blogs. Come on Design Indaba, haven’t you heard of WordPress?

    I’m not anti DI at all, far from it, I would have loved to have been there as there seems to be more activity than all the previous years. One interesting aspect is the “Most Beautiful Object in South Africa” awards.

    Of course the Conference is booked out already, but there’s still a chance to book for the Simulcast screening which will play the presentations on a large Screen and will be hosted in a different Auditorium. If you’re under 25 you’ll pay R950 and over 25’s pay R1500, still a bit steep for my liking but gives anyone who’s really keen but can’t foot the higher main conference bill or those who missed out on the bookings a chance to see the conference. If you have the cash and are into design it’s worth a visit.

    design-indaba-magazine lastly if you miss it all there’s still the quarterly Design Indaba Magazine which is packed with juicy local & international design bits. I have my own collection of mags from the last few years though they usually go walking after I’ve had them for a year or 2 so keep yours safe.

    Design Indaba's primary aim is to advance the cause of design as a communication fundamental, a business imperative and a powerful tool in industry and commerce.

  • Finally a new face to nomad-one.com

    It’s a proud moment for me to have flipped the switch on my new theme for nomad-one.com. Though I’m still ironing out a few bugs and need to fix up one or 2 visual elements, my impatience has just got the better of me and I had to go live with this today.

    I’m hoping you guys will get involved and let me know what you think as well as point out any kinks there might be which I have missed out.

    I’ve done tests in a few of the latest browsers and all seems well, though I think I was pushing it to expect IE 4 to have a clue what to do with this layout. This theme has Small Potato’s Wrath theme as it’s basis though you would never be able to tell that at a glance. Small P still has some of the best free themes out there so I made use of his expertise as a springboard for this one.

    I wanted my new theme to be based on sandbox with it’s rich semantic markup and dynamically generated classes for styling freedom.

    So tell me what you think so far and if you’ve managed to find any mistakes, which I’m sure there are. A few of the links might not be working so bear with me as I patch up a few things.

  • Why use Design in business

    The Business Case for developing a more Design Centric Operation

    Why use Design in Business

    The aim of this article is to bring out some of the benefits of having a design centric operation, one which appreciates the value design has to offer to all aspects of ones business, and using design as an integral part of a profit generating strategy.

    As a designer I am always questioned about the need for design within a business and the value or purpose it serves. A discussion with one of my peers lead to some introspection and research to uncover the facts behind this supposed mystery.

    How do we quantify Design Value?

    To many business people it’s difficult to quantify the effect design might have on their business. This is true for all aspects of the business and all forms of design, be it web, print, internal(within the company), external(customer focused), for products, services, communication and aesthetic purposes. The best way to quantify the value design has to offer is to analyse how design has added value to companies who are Design Centric. Design Centris meaning those who appreciate and employ design to enhance business value.

    Insights from US & UK Design Research

    Research done in both the US and Britain have shown conclusively that design has a positive impact on the performance, profitability and positive image of companies across a wide spectrum of industries. The “Value of Design Fact Finder” study, done in the UK, had the following to say about the impact of design on business performance:

    Businesses which use design perform better than their rivals. There’s unmistakable proof of that in our Value of Design Factfinder, a unique online information tool.

    The Value of Design Factfinder was launched in June 2006 and shows the positive impact of design on practically every measure of business performance, including market share, growth, productivity, share price and competitiveness.

    In businesses where design is integral to operations, over three quarters say they’ve increased their competitiveness and turnover through design. Similarly, four out of five (79%) businesses that believe design is integral to their business think that design’s importance to competitiveness has risen over the past decade.

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  • An e-Napkin for those coffee shop Brainstorms – I’d buy one of these

    Yanko Design is one of my Favourite sources of juicy product design from the drawing boards of some of the most forward thinking product designers out there. Design Sojourn drew my attention to another insanely cool product idea they’re showcasing. Recently I blogged about Sustainable sneakers, e-Write Boards and the MacBook Air but this next product is in a whole other league. Pity it doesn’t really exist, but we can play pretend can’t we.

    A high tech e-Napkin design tablet thinga majig.

    It’s an idea I’m sure many a designer has day-dreamed about,imagining what a utopian dream world they could create if only their tools were … “Hey, snap out of it”. Ok Ok, I know it’s just an idea, but you have to give it to the people who put this presentation together, very slick. We have to think big and dare to be different before we can really achieve something truly innovative. Someone has to be willing to start putting the pen to paper on these crazy cool ideas and motivating the scientists to get their nano’s in order. Check these out.

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