Professional architectural photographs have one thing in common: they almost never have people in them. Browse any architectural magazine and you'll notice this, rather weird thing. Why is that?

I've come up with some explanations for the lack of humans:

• Architectural photographers are expected to present the architecture at its best. People are not in the leading role this time.
• Architectural photos have long exposure times. People should not move a bit unless you want to use fuzziness a special effect.
• It takes time to come up with a good composition. People should be at the right place at the right time, and that's not easy.
• People steal the attention. Look at any picture with an individual in a built environment. Do you admire the architecture first?
• Are passer by ready to be shown in published photos? You could use models, but it might look a bit fake.

There are, of course, reasons why people should definitely be in these photos:

• Architecture is for people, not the other way round
• A person is a good yardstick, making the dimensions of the building comprehensible
• People demonstrate how the building or environment actually works

It is interesting to see that computer-generated 3D visualizations of buildings often include people. It is much easier to use virtual persons since you can place whoever you want, wherever you want. In real life that's more challenging.

Photo: iStockphoto

Freedom of Creation is a Finnish-Dutch design and research company. They use 3D modeling and 3D printing techniques for design and production. They've created items like furniture, shoes, lighting, bags, jewelry, and phone cases. Some of their products are available for online purchase.

They showcase their 10 years of work during Helsinki Design Week 2010 at Cable Factory.

More at http://www.freedomofcreation.com/

Personas are archetypes of potential users or customers. Personas have needs, desires, habits, and values. In B2B service design personas have roles, organizations, bosses, and customers of their own. We've used personas successfully in developing and improving services with our consulting clients. 

Sometimes our personas are fictional, sometimes real characters. To create personas we collect information from our client's own staff, from customer interviews, surveys, and research reports. We give our personas faces by using portraits of people that "look right" for the profile.

Here are some of the questions that we use for defining a persona's profile:

• What is her role in the organization?
• What does she do, daily?
• Who are her customers (internal or external)?
• What does she want to accomplish?
• What does the management expect from her?
• What does she value?
• Who are in her team?
• What or who influences her?

Once we have a picture of the character we can ask the following questions:

• What would make her job easier?
• What tangible benefits would she get from our client's offering?

You can use personas in marketing and sales as well. Organizations don't buy, people do. Define decision maker and influencer personas and use them to improve your sales process.

Today I made a brief visit to Porvoo, a Finnish town that originates from the 13th century. King of Sweden granted it town rights in 1346. The older part of the city is charming with its old wooden houses.

The town was quite busy. I had a couple of minutes to take some photos with my iPhone.

                       

Click here to download:

a-brief-visit-to-old-porvoo-CBhGFzEIbstbqrmsmmos.zip (5434 KB)

I spotted this video of a huge Japanese aquarium tank about a year ago. Every now and then I watch it again. It is so relaxing and beautiful.

I recommend that you watch it in HD (click on the HD text in the video frame) and full screen.

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

"Stendhal syndrome, Stendhal's syndrome, hyperkulturemia, or Florence syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly beautiful or a large amount of art is in a single place. The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world." Wikipedia

We are exposed to hundreds of images or videos every day. The Internet is the biggest gallery that ever existed. Are we still susceptible to Stendhal syndrome? I'd argue that it is still possible.

When you visit huge museums or other places with an abundance of original art you can become overwhelmed. Not by the quantity alone but the quality, the history, the connection to the makers of the art objects - the feeling that this is something original and genuine. There is nothing between you and the real thing. I could imagine that a live concert with some famous artist might have the same effect.

On the Internet, however, everything you see is a reproduced by a device. The whole concept of an original is vague. What and where the original web page design? This does not imply that digital design or art is of less value than objects that exist in the material world. Originality is not tied to the physical uniqueness of a work but it is in the uniqueness of the experience. 

Is Stendhal syndrome possible online? I haven't heard of any cases, but a visit to Vimeo or other sites that burst with creativity might trigger it.

 Art Gallery of New South Wales. Photo: State Records NSW

Here are awesome photos the I've picked from the Flickr collection of the Swedish National Heritage Board. They are from 1880s onwards and present scenes from Europe.

More information on the photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/swedish_heritage_board/.>

                           

Click here to download:

wonderful-scenes-from-old-europe-IhCawCisskyAqdkIjFHn.zip (3693 KB)

Legendary designer Philippe Starck gave a very personal TED presentation without any slides in 2007. He starts with a bold claim, "I think my job is absolutely useless. I mean, I feel useless."

He continues by painting a view of our evolution. We are now half way between the first living organisms and the end of our sun. 

"Because we have almost finished, I’ll repeat this story. And the beauty of this: in perhaps fifty years, sixty years, we can finish completely this civilization, and offer to our children the possibility to invent a new story, a new poetry, a new romanticism. With billions of people who have been born, worked, lived, and died before us, these people who have worked so much, we have now bring beautiful things, beautiful gifts, we know so many things. We can say to our children, OK, done, that was our story. That passed. Now you have a duty. Invent a new story. Invent a new poetry. The only rule is, we have not to have any idea about the next story. We give you white pages. Invent. We give you the best tools, the best tools, and now, do it. That’s why I continue to work, even if it’s for toilet brush."

Some artist say that they never read reviews about their performances. Famous Finnish pianist, conductor and composer Olli Mustonen obviously did. He refused to play for several years in Helsinki because of a music critic of the leading newspaper. Mustonen new that he was (and still is) a great pianist, but somehow couldn't stand the poor reviews that the critic gave him, time after time. Was the critic harassing the artist, or was he honestly trying to be objective? Many supported Mustonen's decision and felt that he was attacked unduly.

We are taught not to take criticism personally. I think that's as difficult as trying to be objective. Here are some reasons why I believe we cannot give objective criticism:

• Personality - we reveal our own personality in our appraisals, like the critic of Olli Mustonen
• Values - we judge according to our values
• Context - we think what's right or wrong in relationship to other similar things
• Ideology - we interpret things according to our beliefs and morality
• Social pressure - we tend to conform with our social environment
• Experience - a nicer word for prejudice
• Knowledge - as experts we know better
• Fear - we don't want to be ridiculed
• Personal gain - sometimes a certain kind of evaluation can raise our status or further our aspirations

If objective criticism is a myth does it have any value? I think that designers and artist can still learn from it. It is, however, important to understand that critics are people, too.

Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford has published Bootcamp Bootleg - a "loose collection of methods, modes and mindsets". It is freely available as a pdf download.

There are five modes:

• Empathize
• Define
• Ideate
• Prototype
• Test

Some of the methods:

• Assume a Beginner's Mindset
• Team Share-and-Capture
• Empathy Map
• Bodystorming
• Feedback Capture Grid

Image: d.school