Core77

Day 2 ended with a rousing presentation by three cultural influencers: Bob Gruen, Massimo Vignelli, and Karim Rashid.

Gruen started it off with a moving presentation on his experience as a Rock photographer. From John Lennon to Greenday, Gruen is responsible for some of the most influential music photographs of all times. He cited his desire to work with "not what's known but what's interesting." His father was an early source of inspiration and drive, prodding him at an early age to seek out his own way. It's "better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission," Gruen stated. Such gusto cleared a sensational path that, he admits, is not easy at times:

There's a huge fear factor in being a free agent. I am afraid of getting up in the morning...I'm afraid of falling over...Fear is the adrenaline that keeps me going...I crave peace and quiet but i thrive in chaos.

It is this energy that Gruen admires in other artists:

I prefer people who are seeking solutions rather than creating problems...Society is afraid of people who make their own rules - they can't conain them...[This is] the job of an artist...to dream up new ideas.

He went on to describe the work of musicians like John Lennon, the Clash and Bob Dylan as artists who had power and meaning behind their work that catalyzed society. This, for Gruen, is essential:

If you're not living in the present then you're wasting your life.

more after the jump

Massimo Vignelli then took us on a tour of his epic relationship with the New York CIty Subway map. An often disputed design, Vignelli's original subway map design was rejected by the authorities because it was deemed too abstract.

"I don't see why we have to provide this piece of trash to everyone," he stated, citing the present-day map. "It's a mess...and a great example of what transit authorities like to do -- put 5lbs in a 1lb bag."

Vignelli is thus embarking on yet another re-design of this venerated map. He detailed his process of mapping the subway system over a 90 and 45 degree angle grid, thereby creating a structure and discipline to the new design. The new map is actually closer to the real layout of the subway than his original proposal was. Vignelli is presently looking for manufacturers to produce thousands of these maps, "so people can choose if they want to get the 'nice' map or the 'ugly' map," he stated.

In stark contrast, Karim Rashid, clad in his ubiquitous white ensemble, defended the notion that design can change the world. As a slide show of his 2,000+ projects unfurled behind him, Karim, a la Virginia Wolf, cited example after example of ways design can (and has) altered the world. He stated that the "consumer is king" now, citing the age of wireless communication as facilitating our consumer power and bringing us all together in a "beautiful" way: "If [we] don't buy or consume, the world collapses." He continued on to emphasize the need for beauty in our world, affirming that all humans have a universal desire to just 'be'. He declared his personal desire to live in a world where one would no longer need objects, much less tools, and admitted herein that he couldn't use a hammer, much less choose one in a store. Within this catch-all, Karim also maintained that design should concentrate on the subject of the object rather than the form and that designers should take responsibility for everything they make.