welcome to copycat 101: the lesson where you can be a professional copycat, harnessing the powers of both copy and paste.

yes, you there, in the back row, what’s your question? you want to know what a copycat is? you should have known that before applying to this lesson, but seeing this is a free course, i’ll just answer that question for you, free of charge.
simply said; a copycat is someone who mimics others, imitating their behavior, looks and actions. that sums it up.

as a designer you can easily create fame and fortune by just copying other people’s designs. let’s open up our textbooks at the second page and find out how [for you internet readers out there: this means clicking the "read more"-link]. (more…)

Time: Monday February 12th 2007, 10 AM
Place: Furniture Store, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (51.436,5.4781)

A: Hello, Madam, can I help you?
M: I would like to have this one, but with the looks of this one. However the leather of this one I prefer, because the dog will kill the leather of that one within one day.
A: I’m sorry ma’m, but this only only comes in this colors for this leather. However I you really want this leather you should come with me and take a look at the one on the other side of the store. I’m really sure you are going to like this one.
M: Ow yes my son, I love it, but my man doesn’t want me to bring this one in pink.
A: Okay, now I get it, so you prefer a warmer colour!
M: Yes I think so.
A: There you go my lady… And let me tell you something my dear, this one has a special price, because I can offer you a 10% discount. (more…)

i started the creative columns with designers’ block, a creative problem. this month i will be adding another item to our list of problems; creative overflow.

creative overflow is something which happens to people who are very creative and have a hard time stopping that activity. their minds create more ideas their brain and body can handle, resulting into some catastrophic outcomes.

it is a problem some of us have to face. for a long time this predicament has been unknown to the public. until now! read on to find out what creative overflow is, how you can identify it, what harm it can cause, how you might possibly cure it and finally its great power when harnessed.

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Sunday eve, 23:58h… Current status: 14 beers, hardly any cash left and the dealer starts dealing. I pick up my first card of what might be my last game of the night. It’s an ace of spades… I try not to look too predictable… Come on **** give me that other card!

There it comes… King of spades… This might not be my last game of the night. Although still no success is guaranteed I bet most of the players on the table would pray to be in my position. But still, I have to remain calm not to expose my card-happiness. Although I blamed the alcohol for all my dubious loses this night, at the moment we speak I feel as sober as I was when I entered the room at the beginning of the night.

First bets are being placed… What should I do? Some of the guys look pretty comfortable… What will it be? Good cards, bluffing, the alcohol, misinterpretation? Well what I do know is that I’m definitely not chip leader by now. Should I go big and go with the easy cash? Should I follow and wait, some good cards at the flop will make my day.

I decide to start easy and hope for the big fish at the end. There comes the flop…
Ace of hearts and two lower spades… This is good, really good. Although the Royal Flush I hoped for didn’t show up, you won’t hear me complaining. With the highest pair at hand and the highest follow up card… the king, and the a flush still belonging to the possibilities.
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sleeping, bunking, getting horizontal, cousin of death. at least that’s what some people call it. i tend to call it a waste of time. when it should be time to go to bed you don’t want to get in, and when it is time to get up you don’t want to get out. for many years now i have wondered about the phenomenon called “sleep” [usually at those moments when i should be getting some, but the pondering keeps me awake]. with a very interesting addition to dreaming.

we seem to know quite a lot about sleep and dreaming, on either a scientific or a psychological level. but there’s also a lot we don’t understand. in this months column i will show you this world of sleeping, and the even more exciting world of dreaming. time to open up some possibilities on brainstorming or just plain stupid ideas.

so you know what to do next, stranger; click the link to read more. or you can just remain and ignorant fool and pass on this great opportunity of what is considered as quality reading material [arrogance is a designer’s trade].

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Okay here we go again. A new world is invented. (Literally this time) As a well established designer/marketer you may not have missed upon this chance. Oh no, not another smart-ass trying to convince us about the opportunities of this virtual world you might think. Although I can not disagree upon the fact that Second Life offers you a lot of opportunities, this time Second Life will not be praised as the next best thing.

When you google on Second Life you will find definitions like: “A virtual reality community in which you create an identity, meet people, buy land and build your own objects. It is a “massively multiplayer online role playing game” (MMORPG), but one that offers users total freedom to create and interact as if they were living another life.” (www.pcmag.com) Despite this nice descriptive definition I would like to define it as: “A virtual reality community in which you can create dubious identity, meet sick people, pay for something non-existing and build rubbish. It is a “massively multiplayer online role playing game” (MMORPG), but one that offers users total freedom to create and interact in a way the can’t/won’t/try to do in real life.” (more…)

Many in-house design firms and consultancies in the industry today adopt different design management styles to survive in the design business, we distinguish mainly two types - design specialization and design generalization.

Design specialization, is a design approach used by firms that have large resources. In these firms, dedicated departments are created for specific talents like 3D, Cad, Sketching, Marketing, and Research. They do not overlap one another. The designers employed in these firms are allocated to where they can best make use of their design capabilities to help to build up the company’s design ability.

While it is good that designers working in such firms become very good at their specific abilities, they face the lack of opportunities to learn other design skills. In the course of only accomplishing a certain area of design over the a long period of time, one may even come to find it monotonous. When one leaves the company, s/he might find it harder to try on new approaches of design. their specific strength may become their weakness to adapt to other approaches of design. Long periods of not practising other design skills may cripple one’s all-round ability. We are curious to find out what type of design practice you prefer… (more…)

user-centered design. user-focussed design. user-design. and a dozen more. i just can’t find my way around the terms, whatever you want to call it, that’s what this column is about. just some subjective creative spamming to satisfy you, the reader, and provide you with some quality reading material.

when designing from a user-centered starting point a common approach is to use a problem statement. “oh-my-god! i cannot call someone when i’m not within 3 feet of my telephone!” thus we invent the mobile phone [because it’s mobile]. we fill all our needs by looking at our problems; “what time is it?” [the clock], “how can i listen to music without carrying my dolby digital dts 12.8 blu-ray home cinema set everywhere i go?” [the ipod], how can i get to the 1st floor without hauling my ass up the stairs?” [the elevator], and so on.

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and that was all the time i am going to give you to reflect on this first section. as of now your only goal is to click the link below and read the rest of this incredible feast for your mind! go on! click it!
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Welcome to the freshest content on studio469. Marketing Monday is here to present you with provoking and innovative design and marketing trends. Furthermore Marketing Monday will review some business events. Marketing Monday is brought to you by our newest addition to the studio469 panel, Martijn Jegerings.

So let’s start right off with Microsoft’s new born, the Zune Media Player. Last week Microsoft introduced the Zune Media Player in the U.S. as a response to Apples success story, the iPod. Although Microsoft officials already declare at the launch, that they don’t expect the Zune to attack or even come close to the iPods’ leader position, we suggest it would be a fairytale if Microsoft ain’t keen on breaking into Apples hegemony on the media player market.

Zune’s market entering timing is simply good. November is the month to start thinking about Christmas presents. You might even suggest Microsoft’s’ idea is to launch an almost identical product to the iPod just before Christmas to compete with Apple when Santa arrives. This suggestion can be supported by the fact that the Zune doesn’t have any surprising attributes and/or innovating features. Although Microsoft will not agree on this statement, because they seem to be very proud of the wireless file sharing feature, unfortunately that’s not new. Philips already introduced it 2 years ago. Therefore I’m just wondering where on earth Microsoft wants to compete on with the iPod? Because they won’t compete on price, because both are equal ($249,-). They won’t compete on attributes, because as stated before Microsoft didn’t add any value creating attributes to the Zune. As well as they won’t compete on image or design, because they simply can’t come near to the iPod. The only thing they can compete on is on color. Yes Microsoft bets on the expressive color brown. Well you can say everything about the color brown, but you can’t say it ain’t a reliable color.
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this month a revolutionary step was made in the field of teleportation: professor eugene polzik and his team at the niels bohr institute at copenhagen university in denmark successfully transported information from one macroscopic atomic object containing thousands of billions of atoms to another, located half a meter away. The technique involved the use of quantum entanglement, quantum measurement and quantum feedback. the first successful completion of the three necessary steps to achieve a complete teleportation.

now i can continue this exiting news with a explanation on these quantum-like happenings but after last months creative column i thought it would be time for something “light” to digest, and i’m not in the mood for quantum mechanics today.

so it is time for us to explore the wonderful world of all that teleportation can bring us!
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