Getting a real Lift, 22-24 February
by Ellen Wallace
JP Rangaswami presenting at Lift 2012 (photo, Ivo Naepflin for Lift)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The number of conversations in Geneva centred around our digital lives, past, present and future, is up this week thanks to the annual Lift Conference, which opened Wednesday 22 February and ends Friday.
The conference itself pulls in several hundred people from the worlds of business, academia and international organizations, with presentations that address geek concerns and broader philosophical questions
Devices and domesticity, potentially uncomfortable bedfellows
One of my favourites on the opening day schedule was Victoria Broadbent of UCL in London asking if our individual personalized digital devices are destroying our Victorian myths of domesticity, a great example of how good speakers ask the question we’ve had all along without being aware of it.
She pointed to the changing use and design of space in the home, with more integrated and less specialized rooms. Downton Abbey staff and family would have been very puzzled by today’s lofts, not to mention the devices they would find there. “Homes have become relational spaces in which the main activities support the social cohesion of the household. The arrival of personal digital devices in this context is disturbing.”
So that’s what’s going on at home.
The mental twinning of urban space and books that behave like cities
Those of us trying to grasp or imagine the book of tomorrow that is part of the electronic world are offered a Thursday afternoon workshop that talks about “technology driven visions in the effervescent book industry”. This is an elegant description for an industry that is wildly turbulent, not always for the better, and which has authors and publishers scrambling to understand the impact of technology on content and its creation.
Frederic Kaplan and Laurent Bolli, from bookapp.com, the workshop leaders, leave chapter headings in their wake as they take us through a world where books have signage, dedicated neighbourhoods and urban services such as guides and tours.
Outside the conference: more conversations
Hugh Quennec, Geneva Servette Hockey Club
The scores of talks at the conference give speakers and people attending a chance to meet with other groups. I attended a workshop nearby on how to better use videos at work, offered by So Money, a local video production agency, and 23 Video, who have worked with Lift and who are in town from Denmark in part to kick off their new partnership with So Money.
On display was 23 Video‘s answer to what they call the “last orphan child of the web”, video – you can easily create and manage other online content through your own web sites and photos sites but affordable video sites that you can make your own are a new idea. The company offers a video management solution for a fixed monthly fee of $675 that gives unlimited uploads, downloads, user numbers, works with all platforms, distribution options through all channels and a rich set of analytics tools.
Hugh Quennec, part-owner of the Geneva Servette Hockey Club and Olivier Riethauser, communications and community relations manager at the club, talked about their success in using video to create a sense of community that goes well beyond the hockey rink.
My own notes from the workshop included these tips to move beyond boring corporate videos: Know your target audience, offer a helping hand, get them to leave a trace. Content is not about selling: it’s about entertaining. That said, great content provides solutions to real-world problems and it must be worthy of attention and immediately useful to the audience. Don’t preach, though: content is about the conversation.
In fact, just about everything digital is about conversation, and Lift is about joining the talk.
Pfrunder's original winning 2005 entry for the new CHF50 note; the SNB says the final version will differ from this and will be unveiled shortly before production
Swiss bank note, early design (final will differ)
ZURICH/ BERN – New Swiss bank notes, tentatively scheduled to make their appearance towards the end of 2012, are being delayed for a year.
The Swiss National Bank says that “unexpected technical problems were encountered in an early production stage” and that it will announce the issue date “as soon as the first banknote denomination is ready for distribution.”
The delay does not pose significant problems, with the current banknotes considered to offer a high standard of security and they can be produced in sufficient quantities, so “the supply of high-quality banknotes to the economy is guaranteed at all times.”
The central bank has not yet unveiled the final designs of the new notes. It held a competition in 2005 for the design and published the 12 finalists’ submissions.
It announced in January 2007 that the winner was Swiss graphic artist Manuela Pfrunder. The bank said at the time that “In the SNB’s competition for the artistic design of a new banknote series, back in November 2005, Manuela Pfrunder was placed second.
When the designs of the three award winners were developed further, Manuela Pfrunder’s work proved to be particularly suitable for a new banknote series. Nevertheless, her designs will have to be thoroughly reworked – both artistically and technically – before they reach production stage.”
The project has been delayed previously. Philipp Hildebrand, then vice-chairman of the bank, announced in late 2008 that “Manuela Pfrunder, the graphic artist, has further developed her drafts and completed the design for the CHF 50 note, taking the technical aspects of banknote production into account. At its meeting of 29 August 2008, the SNB Bank Council approved the design of the new CHF 50 banknote and gave the go-ahead for the further work that is to be done.”
Hildebrand noted that “A particular challenge is posed by the security features that will be used in the new banknote series for the first time. Based on the progress of work to date, the SNB is confident that the first banknote in the new series will be ready for production within the planned time period. The CHF 50 banknote will mark the beginning of the new series of banknotes and is scheduled to be issued in autumn 2010. The appearance of the new banknote and the security details for the entire series will be presented shortly before the scheduled issue date.”
This size?
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Computer content and other tech designers now have a helping hand in getting their displays right for an aging population. Iso, the Geneva-based International Standards Organization, 3 February issued new standards that will make life easier for anyone over 50, if the designers read the fine print on the standards.
The first standard is ISO 24502:2010, Ergonomics – Accessible design – Specification of age-related luminance contrast for coloured light.
Iso states in a press release that “it specifies a method of calculation that can be applied to the design of visual signs and displays, so that they are clearly visible to older people, although the luminance contrast can be applied to people aged from 10 to 79 years of age. For example, increasing the contrast (especially for blue light), size and overall visibility of sign displays or integrating features such as oversized monitors or large character display fonts as part of product design can greatly help people with visual difficulties.”
or this size?
The second standard, ISO 24501:2010, Ergonomics – Accessible design – Sound pressure levels of auditory signals for consumer products, “aims to determine an appropriate sound level range of auditory signals, so that all users, including people with age-related hearing loss, can hear them properly against interfering sounds.
Iso produces Guidelines for standards developers to address the needs of older persons and persons with disabilities, available through the Iso store.
UN pin for San Francisco conference
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Architect Donal McLaughlin, who designed the symbol that was adopted by the United Nations, has died at his home in Maryland, USA, aged 102. He graduated from Yale University where his thesis was on circular graphics.
After working for the CIA’s forerunner, the OSS, where he was chief of graphics during the war, he was commissioned to come up with a pin that could identify delegates to the first UN conference in San Francisco, USA in 1945. The symbol of the continents seen from above the north pole, surrounded by olive leaves, was adopted by the new organization as its own. He also designed the courtroom for the Nuremburg war crimes trials.
Link to other site: NZZ (Ger), Yale Alumni Magazine
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - There will be no Foire de Genève this year. Viviane de Witt, director of Geneva’s signature trade show, announced the surprise cancellation on Radio Cité 9 September. Citing a lack of interest on the part of the cantonal authorities, and one third fewer reservations from exhibitors, as well as fears concerning the flu pandemic, de Witt said she hoped that the 2010 edition of the fair would go ahead under her management.
The fair attracted 600 exhibitors and 300,000 visitors to its exhibits in 2008, and highlights garden, living, design, and wellness exhibits over nine days in November. Cantonal authorities were surprised and promised to put something else in place instead at Palexpo, the fair’s venue, whose management expressed dismay at the news, as well.
© Carlo Borlenghi/Alinghi 2009
Villeneuve, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The 90-foot catamaran that Alinghi has spent 100,000 manhours building for the next America’s Cup race was unveiled in Villeneuve 4 July. The boat now goes through a de-bugging process before it will be launched by helicopter into Lake Geneva this week for its first time out on the water. Alinghi, as the winner in July 2007 of the last race, one of the sailing world’s top events, is the Defender of the America’s Cup. This gives it the right to set the rules, including those for the boat type, for the next race, and the new boat’s design has been a tightly-guarded secret.
The race, says Alinghi, is scheduled for February 2010, but a series of court battles Read more…
Title: Design of the 20th century
Location: Vevey, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: Furniture of the 20th century including Scandinavian design.
Start Date: 21 Nov 2008
End Date: 23 Nov 2008
Lausanne, Switzerland (24 Heures, Fre) – Ecal (University of Art and Design of Lausanne) has begun its new master’s degree, a one-year programme in luxury design that aims to fill a gap in the design world, with a focus on sustainable development and new technologies as part of design work at the highest level.
Lausanne, Switzerland (Le Temps, Fre) – Roger Federer had a magical birthday present from Nike, a one-of-a-kind set of t-shirts given him on his 27th birthday, the eighth of August – that magical 08.08.08 of the opening day for the Olympics in Beijing. Read more…
