I just read Scott Donaton’s piece over on Ad Age called “Missed Opportunities At Ad Hall Of Fame Luncheon” (Link). It reminded me of my one and only trip to an IDSA national convention. More recently, it reminds me of this brown sugar piece over on Nussbaum’s … whatever (half the time I’m not sure if that’s a blog or a fan site) … “Apple’s Jonathon Ive Speaks Out Publicly” (Link). Funny how people have forgotten Ive’s predecessor, Robert Brunner. And I don’t need to voice my doubts about Kotchka’s “innovations” since I’ve stated those here already (reLink); wish I knew what ex-P&G wonder woman Cathy Rings and Rubbermaid intellectual (and also, former P&G employee) Brian Barton have to say about all this (PDF Link to their work – again, note the date: 1998). Right now the timelines I’ve seen don’t align.

Where on earth are the critical voices within the Industrial Design community? Where are the real leaders and what do they have to say about the state of affairs: job security, offshoring, the future of the occupation, etc? They must be out there. Right? Design Observer is nice, but it doesn’t really focus on the ID community.

The IDSA website has improved, but it’s still kinda slow (the “Buzz” section is decent, but unless you’re a member of the good ol’ boys club, don’t go looking for a discussion). Maybe IDSA is just too closely tied to Jurassic corporate park. No one wants to rustle any feathers; not when the client is paying for the new ride sitting in the firm’s parking lot.

Core77 is collecting cobwebs and the forum – now, too late, a registered-only site – is a sad excuse imo for an online discussion site; professional or otherwise. And the handful of forums that have sprung up are really mostly “how-to” sites. There’s not much critical discussion, imo.

It seems to me the ad industry isn’t the only one with issues.