Core77

Relationships were the theme of Tuesday morning. Theo Jansen kicked it off with his stunning kinetic explorations of life . Ever the wise sage, Jansen demonstrated how his "genetic algorithms" come together to poetically create everything from "stomachs" to "muscles." Theo also divulged his early work as a painter and the rogue stunt of launching a flying saucer over his hometown in the Netherlands. The scheme made national news, Jansen became a minor celebrity for a few days and never painted again. Quite a start to one of the most prolific careers art and engineering have ever seen.

Deborah Adler followed with an inspiring presentation on her Clear Rx pill box design for Target. She spoke of her development process while a student in the Masters program at SVA. Deborah decided to take on the project as her final thesis in response to a near-death illness her grandmother contracted by mistakenly taking her husband's medicine instead of her own. Adler started researching pill packaging and discovered a wealth of problematic design issues "aching to be solved." The project resulted in neatly prototyped packaging made from plexi-tubes and doll-house material (remember those days?!). Her handiwork paid off and resulted in Target buying her design. After months of development work the packaging launched in Target stores across the country. Numerous design awards later, Adler's process is an exemplary story of taking personal interest to a universal level, from "Design for One" to "Design for All."

With a presentation that resembled more spoken word than academic discourse, Stephen Brown, “the Antichrist of Marketing," barraged us with piercing elephant noises (ouch) and circus curtains (ooo) while speaking about "Failing Better," the notion that all successful people have failed miserably. (who knew the Colonel was a freelance gynecologist before his KFC empire took off at the age of 60?!) Brown followed up with a discourse on customer-marketer relationships, emphasizing that metaphors are the rogue elements of commerce. "The trouble with relationship marketing is that it tries to build a social bond between the brand and the consumer," he stated, when in reality, no such social bond exists. What does exist is a business bond. Brown cited Ryan Air as a great example of no-nonsense marketing, a brand that offers a simple promise with no social or emotion strings implied. Simply put, you get what you pay for - a fine note for all to take to heart.