Some of My Design Heroes at a CCA Party circa 2008
Left to Right: Dan Harden (Whipsaw), Paul Bradley (Frog), Gadi Amit (NewDeal), Phil Hobson (Apple)
It started over the weekend when Gadi was quoted for an article in The New York Times. It used to be that great designers didn't make it into the popular media unless they were somehow outlandish and wore pink jumpsuits and big sunglasses. It demonstrates of how far our industry has come that Gadi would be a reference for how design and manufacturing can differentiate companies in the marketplace. (Although, there were no photos of Gadi so I can't confirm he wasn't wearing a feather boa during the interview to appease the journalist's vision of what a designer is.)
It was Phil's birthday on Wednesday, so that was on the agenda in the House of Hobsons. I asked what he wanted, and he gave his usual answer to that question: a Bundt cake. Not that he's ever even had a Bundt cake. He was making reference to a scene from There's Something about Mary when Matt Dillon knocks out Mary's vicious terrier and tries to stall for time to revive it by asking for a Bundt cake. Totally off the wall. (http://www.flickclip.com/flicks/somethingaboutmary.htm) While that is Phil's standard answer to the question, to surprise him, I decided to actually make a Bundt cake. (To ensure it was a surprise, what better time to do the cooking than in the middle of the day during a conference call about a project? If the kind clients who were on that call read this, it was in the oven while we were talking. I was listening -- I promise!)
Dan Harden lives a stone's throw from my house, but it was another Whipsaw neighbor, Gerson Goldberg, whom I met up with while running on Thursday morning. Gerson is on the engineering side at Whipsaw, and it is always a pleasure to hear how things are going from their corner of the Valley. Besides, I doubt that I'll ever run into Dan at that time in the morning for a chat. It was still dark out.
Finally, this week I thought very much about Paul Bradley and how long it has been since I have seen him. Paul is responsible for me actually learning about industrial design while we were both at IDEO, long before he left for Frog Design. Having had the recent pleasure of interacting with Mike Nuttall on some business and being tearful over the recent loss of Bill Moggridge, my IDEO design mentors are definitely on my mind. Paul is definitely on my mind.
