Similar to Pantonism, False Arms is another useful website that trawls through images based on their colours.

Useful for designers, presentations and image searchers.

Vanity Fair have a really interesting article about the design rut Fashion, arts, entertainment, popular culture, style etc finds itself in and why.

It’s easy to say “fashion’s cyclical”, but Kurt Anderson’s article nicely reminds us that it didn’t use to be so; and it’s easy to think about the innovations in technology that have driven us forward, leaps and bounds, in the last 20 years (or even 10, as a recent article referred to on TheScrapBook reminded us)… but actually this “progress” is a fallacy – we’ve not moved on. Not in the last 20 years, we havent.

I have long thought about defining recent decades in terms of significant musical innovations. It’s no a hard and fast science, and I wont pretend that my timings are accurate nor specific to the year, but consider these broad moments of decade defining/influencing popular musical history:

1947 – Rock’n'Roll

1957 – Rock music

1967 – Disco

1977 – Punk

1987 – Dance music (even that’s

1997 – ? Sampling culture? Maybe…

2007 – ?? Erm…

Perhaps Hip Hop is 2007+ given its ubiquity today… but it’s surely more 1987+? And that’s part of the point that Anderson’s article makes. Certainly, “Sampling culture” plays into that hand.

This broad decade-defining should cause lots of debate (which I welcome), and I admit I’m brushing over all sorts of sub-genres – New Romantic, Pop, Grunge etc etc etc – to make the point, but to refer to Anderson again, the last 20 years has not been innovative in music, and where it has it’s been exceptions that prove the rule.

Below is an excerpt of Anderson’s article about the stagnation of popular culture over the last 20 years, and I urge you to read the full piece.

Try to spot the big, obvious, defining differences between 2012 and 1992. Movies and literature and music have never changed less over a 20-year period. Lady Gaga has replaced Madonna, Adele has replaced Mariah Carey—both distinctions without a real difference—and Jay-Z and Wilco are still Jay-Z and Wilco. Except for certain details (no Google searches, no e-mail, no cell phones), ambitious fiction from 20 years ago (Doug Coupland’s Generation X, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow) is in no way dated, and the sensibility and style of Joan Didion’s books from even 20 years before that seem plausibly circa-2012…

If, in 1990 or 1980 or 1970, you’d examined a comparable picture from 27 years earlier—from 1963 and 1953 and 1943, respectively—it would be a glimpse back into an unmistakably different world. A man or woman on the street in any year in the 20th century groomed and dressed in the manner of someone from 27 years earlier would look like a time traveler, an actor in costume, a freak. And until recently it didn’t take even that long for datedness to kick in: by the late 1980s, for instance, less than a decade after the previous decade had ended, the 1970s already looked ridiculous.

There are, of course, a few exceptions today—genuinely new cultural phenomena that aren’t digital phenomena—but so few that they prove the rule. Twenty years ago we had no dark, novelistic, amazing TV dramas, no Sopranos or Deadwood or The Wire or Breaking Bad.Recycling bins weren’t ubiquitous and all lightbulbs were incandescent. Men wore neckties more frequently. Fashionable women exposed less of their breasts and bra straps, and rarely wore ultra-high-heeled shoes. We were thinner, and fewer of us had tattoos or piercings. And that’s about it…

Part of the explanation… is that, in this thrilling but disconcerting time of technological and other disruptions, people are comforted by a world that at least still looks the way it did in the past. But the other part of the explanation is economic: like any lucrative capitalist sector, our massively scaled-up new style industry naturally seeks stability and predictability. Rapid and radical shifts in taste make it more expensive to do business and can even threaten the existence of an enterprise. One reason automobile styling has changed so little these last two decades is because the industry has been struggling to survive, which made the perpetual big annual styling changes of the Golden Age a reducible business expense. Today, Starbucks doesn’t want to have to renovate its thousands of stores every few years. If blue jeans became unfashionable tomorrow, Old Navy would be in trouble. And so on.

Capitalism may depend on perpetual creative destruction, but the last thing anybody wants is their business to be the one creatively destroyed. Now that multi-billion-dollar enterprises have become style businesses and style businesses have become multi-billion-dollar enterprises, a massive damper has been placed on the general impetus for innovation and change.

Pantonism should probably have a secondary search function beyond colour… but it’s a rather lovely resource, especially if you’re like me and tend to remember things by colours (my books are arranged by the colour of their spine).

But hey, it’s not like it’s a random bunch of images, they happen to all be beautiful and worthy of adding to any presentation.

Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer from Visual Editions on Vimeo.

Tree of Codes is as much a sculptural object as it is a work of masterful storytelling. With the story literally carved out of another book, Tree of Codes has a different die-cut on every single page. Telling the haunting story of “an enormous last day of life”, it is a book that looks every bit like it feels: unlike anything else.

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Green Ambush by Enzo Henze for Maxalot. (Red Ambush is also good).

Surface View have the rights to some incredible Masters paintings and more, from the collections of the V&A, National Gallery and Getty.

Muji always bring the design heat at Christmas. My favourites this year include the Solar System, the London/Paris/New York playing cards that form a map, and of course their city blocks (Edo is a lovely recent edition to the “street”). An honourable mention must also go to the penguin skittles.

If anyone wants to buy me something for Christmas, check out Muji’s website

In 2005 the Gensler Workplace Survey introduced the Work Place Index (WPI). They analysed four key criteria that allow the creative and innovative power of employees to be fully realised: focus, collaboration, learning and socialising. The top performing companies were found to spend on average 23% more time collaborating, 40% more time learning, and 16% more time socialising than their peers. As those scores rise in a company, so too do their profits, market position, innovation capabilities, employee management and brand. For profit alone, the higher WPI scores of top performing companies translated to 7 to 14 percentage point higher profits.

But the most relevant finding for me was that effective workplace design directly correlates to better business performance. It’s not just about aesthetics, but about understanding what employees need to do their job successfully.

I’m massively excited by the new office (see picture above). I’m not on any committees for the new space, the furniture choices or even the lighting, and in many ways the job is so daunting I don’t envy those who have to appease everyone. But still, it’s a subject area that’s always fascinated me.

The building itself has been described as “like the script of a B-movie (which never made it to production, for obvious reasons) in which giant mutant chewy sweets have, following a radioactive accident, invaded the world.” Clearly, not everyone’s going to like its colourful splash on the otherwise dull grey London skyline, but at least it stands out.  Did you know it is part owned by Legal & General, and part by Mitsubishi? We all know about the roof terrace, but hearing the ceiling heights are above average, and that Starchitect Renzo Piano has worked to create “a joyful heart” to the area makes me think that the building’s finer details will not be overlooked for those of us lucky enough to work there. It would be a shame if some of his principals did not continue inside the building, and not remain on the outside alone.

Of course, what’s really important is that the new office space promotes productivity and sharing. 86 percent of the “American Society of Interiors Designers 200” respondents say that it is important for a company to appear flexible, adaptable and forward-thinking. However, only 15 percent of respondents believe that their office design currently communicates that image. 67 percent of the respondents say that redesigning their offices would show employees, clients and competitors that their company is flexible, adaptable and forward-thinking.

This article explores some of the considerations our interior designers will be thinking about, including the basics such as access vs privacy, wire and cable management, mobile office solutions…

But what’s exciting for me to think about are things like lighting. Ambient lighting, task lighting, natural light (there’s plenty at CSG!), contrast lighting to concentrate on what’s in front of you and more.

And textures. Textures are really important – carpets and walls with more than just colour. The outside of the building works because it’s not plastic or metal behind the colours, but instead ceramic. The inside walls should be treated similarly – fabric walls, deep grouted tiles, wood panelling. Having furniture and fittings that are different or unexpected will not only encourage participation and interaction with the environment, but actually foster conversation and therefore greater understanding about our clients.

And social spaces. Luckily at Mindshare we don’t have a problem with hierarchy and unapproachable people. We’re all lovely! But it is interesting to think about the cues that the office can give that might put up false barriers – a democratised workspace where everyone shares the same design of chair might run the risk of being anonymous, but having an egalitarian approach makes newcomers feel welcome. Natural materials would contrast the potentially harsh yet striking surroundings of London’s skyline, and bring in the wonderful new terrace we’ll have access to.

It’s important to have a balance between working together or separately too. Social spaces are going to be crucial and it’s great to hear that hot-desking will be the norm in the new place. Frank Duffy understood the need for a “hub”, to meet and converse. The workstation comforts of old have been replaced by laptops and souvenirs, but social spaces lubricate conversation. Cliques will naturally form, but they must not be prohibitive. Having lunch together, eating at single long tables might nurture a collegiate, open culture.

And well-being. Indeed, a fully stocked and manned kitchen is massively important too. Let’s have chefs on rotation, cooking a variety of meals. In this day and age, meal plans could surely be created that maximise concentration, productivity and efficiency… not stodgy meals that send you to Carbo-sleep. This would not only manage the well-being, health and productivity of the staff, but in an era of making Mindshare our clients’ lead business partner, having an excellent kitchen would also do wonders to encourage clients to stay that extra hour or so in the building. The outdoor space is going to be fantastic, and I hope we can offer that as a dining experience too.

Studio Ilse suggests that the notion of a perfectly lit, climate controlled office is actually a hangover from the industrial revolution and no longer suited to the demands of today’s office life. That it actually denies our productivity. Henry Ford said “When we are at work we ought to be at work. And when we are at play we ought to be at play. There is no use trying to mix the two”. But in fact, in order to do well at business we should be masters of empathy, team work and communication. The Well-Being Institue at the University of Cambridge found that “techniques which encourage the mindful awareness of one’s sensations, thoughts and feelings, or techniques which increase the frequency of positive emotions can have beneficial effects on wellbeing, health and productivity.” As an example, Studio Ilse is currently designing an ad agency with outdoor space for movie nights and pizza parties. It’s not a conceit. People rarely succeed at anything if they don’t have fun along the way.

For a few award winning examples of interior designed spaces check out the following:

Wonderwall cater for the likes of Nike and Bathing Ape stores, as well as New York hotels and more, but their own offices are fantastic. Distinctly unique, yet every single space has a sense of Wonder, magic and curiosity.

Clive Wilkinson Architects have designed interior spaces for Mother, JWT and TBWA\Chiat\Day, and technology firms in the Silicon Valley and Nokia in Finland. If you get a chance to visit any of those spaces, you’ll know what they can bring to life. Have a look at their work on the Macquarie Investment Bank – Sydney.

Designed by M Moser and Associates, Ogilvy & Mather’s Guangzhou office has gone all out with the theme “Carnival of Ideas.” Though the staff’s commute has, in some cases, doubled, the environment is so vibrant that they don’t mind. Have a look at the images here.

More from Monocle on the future of the workplace, here and in their current issue

More from TheCoolHunter on fancy-pants offices, here

This is the latest collaboration from Italian cycle company Montante.

Producing mainly town bikes that opitimise the Italian ethos of style, colour and generally making thigs look good, Montante have teamed up with fellow purveyors of cool, Maserati, to produce a single speed worthy of them both.

The frame is reminisent of the classic british lightweight builder Hetchins, with the elegantly styled seat post and seat stays.  Attention to detail that sets this out against the rest.

I want, i want, i want….

Useful reference of “interesting” and “creative” things currently being memed around the internet.  The usual augmented reality, word-clouds, projections and interactive videos are paired with new examples, grouped into areas of Audio, Movies, Visual, Art, Physical, Light, Tech, Politics, Sport, Books, History, and of course straight up, old fashioned, Advertising.