As part of my foray into product and design over the past year, I’ve learned some things. One of them is: typography matters, sometimes a lot.
There’s not necessarily a direct relationship between font and feelings. But, we’re apt to associate certain emotions with a font based on where we’ve seen its characteristics before.
This is a powerful tool for communicating your message.
Below are three simple slides. They are identical except with different fonts for the header. Notice how they make you feel. Which of these Propshops feels more personal, or more technical, or more modern?
What if you could follow some simple principles to increase creativity and innovation?
When Disney bought Pixar in 2006, they were hoping to import some of Pixar’s magic into the 100 year old behemoth of animation. Their work was cut out for them.
At the time, Disney’sculture was one of error-avoidance. Feedback on films in progress — called “notes” — plays a core role in film development. Unfortunately, it was provided by three separate supervising parties and came as a checklist of (often contradictory) mandated changes to make. Directors didn’t have control over their creative baby. To top it off, an oversight group existed with the sole purpose of pouring over production reports to make sure films progressed on schedule and on budget. This did wonders for staff morale.
Pixar brought changes. The checklist of “notes” was replaced with Pixar’s “Braintrust” system: a team of creatives giving uncensored feedback, often in the form of issues they see, without necessarily suggesting specific changes. Creative control is retained by the project’s Director. Similarly, the oversight group was dismantled. It was made clear that teams would be responsible for tracking their own schedules.
“The oversight group had been put in place without anyone asking a fundamental question: How do we enable our people to solve problems? Instead, they asked: How do we prevent our people from screwing up? That approach never encourages a creative response. My rule of thumb is that any time we impose limits or procedures, we should ask how they will aid in enabling people to respond creatively. If the answer is that they won’t, then the proposals are ill suited to the task at hand.” –Creativity, Inc
This seems like something that can be optimized for. Take any process or system and ask: Does this prevent our people from seeing new problems and coming up with creative solutions without approval from superiors? If it does, scrap it.
The urge for increased control seems to grow as a process, or organization, becomes more established. There’s more at stake. Something worked before, so let’s keep it. There are clear actions that we can take to increase innovation within an organization. The cost is giving up some amount of efficiency, and some degree of control. All with no guarantee of long-term payoff. Creativity is scary.
Coming back from almost 3 weeks in Japan, one of the things that struck me the most was how much better their cities were compared to most Western ones.
High density that still feels humane. Affordability that enables mixing of diverse socioeconomics statuses. Ease of getting around without the painful externalities of cars. Aesthetic pleasure, from single family homes to the high rises a few blocks away.
In the West, we’re used to a relatively strict tradeoff between delightful livability in pleasant surroundings and economic efficiency.
We know how to build environments that are pleasant to live in.
Beyond architectural style, what makes for a more attractive, higher value neighborhood? Let's have a look at some of the things that we have known for decades, centuries, yet still chose to ignore. Thread. pic.twitter.com/SAp8nvGEHt
Japan has extreme density at key transit hotspots. Think a shopping mall that doesn’t suck, that is easy to get to from any part of town, and has lots of office space attached or nearby.
Osaka Station City
Crucially, density can stay high as you move away from transit hubs while still making a space that’s pleasant to live in. No cars parked, smaller streets, but plenty of green. Residential mixed with commercial. But buildings are not tall — plenty of light at street level without needing large offsets from the street. Everything walkable. People walking around because it’s pleasant and convenient.
Basically, Hudson Yardses connected by subway, with West Villages in between.
As housing costs rise, build more. Osaka has a density of 30,655 people per square mile (11,836 * 2.59), making it the most dense major urban area in Japan and among the denser urban areas in the high income world. West Village, NYC is at 73,300.
Yet we find it easy to ignore these lessons, both when improving our existing spaces and when building new ones.
