A year ago I started to write a book on creativity. In it I discuss how we’ve made this notion so mythic that it has become ridiculously exclusive. This seems rather silly, given that it’s learnable, just like any other discipline. The point, however, is that all this time has passed, and I only have half a book ready (I’m a walking cliché—sorry folks!)

A couple of weeks back I took part in a panel discussion on Web 2.0, which quickly moved into a debate on the implications of social media. It’s funny; I don’t look upon myself as a particularly optimistic person. Throughout the course of the evening, however, I realized that in fact I’m not just someone whose livelihood is connected to the web. I’m a believer.

This is an open blog post to Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. Steve, I want you to sit down for a moment. I have a little request, and I think you’re going to get excited. Okay, truth be told you could even pass-out. Take a seat and get comfortable; you don’t hear this kind of thing every day and I want you to be prepared. I want you to raise taxes.

 Warhol wasn’t even close, but who could blame him? Could he have even fathomed a world of Twitter and Facebook when he spoke of everyone in the future being famous for fifteen minutes? Today, I look to our pop culture habitat with the lens focused on a new being… the F.M.C.; please allow me to explain.

The ADC sent us a poster. It contains an apocalyptic scene of gluttony, violence, greed, nuclear holocaust, crippling tidal waves and gas-guzzling Humvees. The fiasco is peppered with paparazzi, whilst the four horsemen of the apocalypse fly in on flaming horses. Some designers are aghast by it and have posted their disapproval to the ADC.

Forgive me; I have been a bad, bad blogger. I’ve been busy. “Oh sure” you say, but it’s true. The studio has been chaotic as of late, and we’ve been working to keep on top of things. At times like these it seems that this blog is easy to put aside amidst all of the projects. Now that I have tried to present a rationale for my bad blog behaviour, I’ll attempt to steer my writing back on course. Today, I’d like to present the notion of “bad” design.

This month, our good friend Wil Arndt, from mod7 is providing a guest editorial/rant on all of the hype surrounding a white elephant that goes by the moniker “Web 2.0″. (By the way, if you are in Vancouver on June 16th, you can catch him, and Eric, at VIDFEST 2006, where they will be presenting at the Creative Exchange sessions.) So, without further ado, I leave you with Wil, and his article: Web 2.0 is Bull, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Web 2.0

To our American readers, I apologize in advance. I’m going to be writing some not so nice things about the place in which you live, and some of you may not like me so much as a result. In my defense, it’s not Americans I’m critical of; rather, I’m skeptical of this media juggernaut which takes up residency in your nation.

Around our studio the notion of original work is highly important. Perhaps this has roots in my background as a painter, where the pursuit of the new always felt quite important; however, design is not art and I ponder whether some of those aspirations are simply out of place in this pursuit.

This morning at coffee Peter, one of the designers at our firm, noted that he had a hot topic suggestion for our ideasonideas. He wasn’t kidding, but when he sent me this link I thought that someone might be. Go ahead and read the post, and see if you agree with me. We have quoted the content below.