“The first step on the road from thought to website is text. Text is the most fundamental kind of web content. When websites have images, audio, or video, responsible authors will make sure these things have textual equivalents. However pale such alternate text may be compared to the media it represents, it’s a baseline. Text is the common denominator of web communication.” — Tim Brown, of Nice Web Type, on his new tumblelog, Making Nice Web Type.

And,

In the last year, this website has been powered by Expression Engine, Drupal and later, once I found the appropriate fit, WordPress. It has been skinned with a handful of publicly available free themes — present one included. I will say, I have a great respect for any individual willing to put their code out there for free — however, of the themes I have personally tried, none have focused on what I value most: legibility.

Legibility is very dear to me because, well, I have difficulty with that which is near to me.

Second, though we have all embraced short-form communication, I’m afraid, generally speaking, we’re collectively ignoring the value of long-form articles.

That said, I felt it was time to do something. I have been working on a WordPress theme that puts the reader first — if its worth it, I’ll even try and make it public. My hope is that, once in place, it will allow me to focus on writing longer posts and have them presented in a manner that encourages you, the viewer, to read them.

Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert has shown that we deal with failure better than we’d expect. In studies, “when people are asked to predict how they’ll feel if they lose a job… or fail a contest, they consistently overestimate how awful they’ll feel and how long they’ll feel awful.” In other words, “we overestimate the intensity and duration of our distress in the face of future adversity.”

While we tend to focus solely on building our skill sets or expanding our knowledge, the greatest advancement and learning most often comes from action, experience, and taking risk. And our regrets in life reflect this. According to Gilbert, studies show that “in the long run, people of every age and in every walk of life seem to regret not having done things much more than they regret things they did.” –Michael Schwalbe, The 40–30-30 Rule, from The 99 Percent blog. via Destroyed by Design.

“When Borgenicht came home at night to his children, he may have been tired and poor and overwhelmed, but he was alive. He was his own boss. He was responsible for his own decisions and direction. His work was complex: it engaged his mind and imagination. And in his work, there was a relationship between effort and reward. […]

“Those three things—autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward—are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying. It is not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine to five. It’s whether out work fulfills us.” –Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers, pp149-50.

I am slowly settling into an idea of what, to me, constitutes meaningful. I know that I need to be excited each day by what I do or I flounder. Autonomy, complexity and a connection between effort and reward. I should alight every morning with a terror rattling through my bones – then I know I’m challenged! Navigating within the confines of that challenge brings reward, but challenge is the key.

1. Henri Bergson, ‘Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic’, 1899; repr. Macmillan & Co., London, 1935, pp. 3–21

“One of the core challenges, particularly in North America, is overcoming the development of strategies from silos. Market strategies are often done without consideration for the overall retail environment. Advertising can be done in the absence of looking at the actual store. How many times have you been to a store and then seen the TV ad and felt like they could be two different businesses? They have to bring that integrated message together or it gets lost in the noise.

“The winners in retail after this recession will be those who operate from a truly brand-centric point of view. [This means] the core essence of an idea that translates into all the touch points of your customer.”

Further, he identifies that customers are seeking “the right choice” over “every choice available.” Personally, I believe a curated product line is important, and would add—and firmly believe in—attention to detail and an unrelenting committment to quality.

Every time I’m tempted to overcomplicate a project, I listen to Sonny Boy Williamson and he restores my faith in simplicity. You’ll understand.

“Throughout the years I’ve become uncomfortable with this business of branding and brand identity. I’m not the type of person that buys something for the brand name. I’ve also never done a very good job at creating a captivating identity to our own brand logo. Also, within the streetwear culture, the promotion of a company’s brand has become downright silly to me.”

Worth noting is that Freshjive is a sub-brand of General Pants Co., which includes 70 retail locations across Austrialia, generating at least $250M in revenue annually. So: is this a ballsy corporate move? Is it punk, as Klotz states, for an iconic company with two decades of history to drop it’s name?

Catch the full interview with Klotz at The Hundreds blog.

“And the rebranding of France has proceeded sporadically and often violently ever since. Napoleon’s Empire gave way to the restored Bourbons, who were overthrown and replaced by a bourgeois Monarchy, which was followed by a Second Republic which turned itself into a Second Napoleonic Empire. In an attempt to recreate the glory of his uncle, the first and incomparably greater figure, Napoleon III and the Second Empire went down to humiliating defeat by Prussia in 1870. By the time the Third Republic emerged from the ashes of the Second Empire, French politicians had become the worlds specialists at branding and rebranding the nation.”

And further draws parallel between the brand strategy of nations and businesses:

“Businesses have to create loyalties; loyalties of the workforce, loyalties of suppliers, loyalties of the communities in which they operate, loyalties of investors and loyalties of customers. In creating these loyalties they use very similar techniques to those of nation builders. They create myths, special languages, environments which reinforce loyalties, colours, symbols, and quasi-historical myths. They even have heroes.”

Here in Alberta, there are ongoing concerns with presenting the province to the world in a positive light, sometimes controversial, sometimes regarded as expensive and ultimately unsuccessful. This has resulted in a multi-front war of words divided amongst the Provincial government, advocacy groups, environmental stewards and the news media.

(Suncor Energy upgrader and tailings ponds. Fort McMurray, AB. Photo by Edward Burtynsky.)

For some, Ed Burtynsky’s aerial photos of the tar sands are the only insight into the operations happening in our own back yard. Or, they would be if anyone here had paid attention.

“The value and importance of the oil sands will make that much harder the choices that Albertans and all Canadians suddenly face. Canada has now become a major-league merchant of one of the most desirable—and dirtiest—sources of energy. The money is flowing in, and the profits are rolling out—good news for stockholders, the Canadian dollar and government coffers.

“But there are environmental and social costs to stuffing our pockets while the oil speeds south. And Canadians will have to answer a question already being asked by many Albertans: When does a boom become a burden?” —Erin Anderssen, Shawn McCarthy and Eric Reguly, An empire from a tub of goo, Globe and Mail.

See also: Better Nation Building Through Design, via Design Observer.

Built around an aluminum frame, this Dutch bike features a single-speed, coaster brake, integrated solar powered LED head and tallights and not much else.

“We were inspired by the good old-fashioned Dutch bike,” explains the 28-year old Dutch designer Sjoerd Smit, “we stripped the bike from whims that can only break or cause frustration and added innovation and style”.

The VANMOOF is a thoroughly modern town bike, and looks nothing like the old stadsfiets my Old Opa would have built at our factory, (though that’s not necessarily a bad thing!) It certainly resonates with me: I suspect cycling is in my blood.

VANMOOF promises a new model every six months, and this is a firm I’ll continue to watch.

Update: Portland-based, Specialized-owned, Globe Bicycles looks to have a small, but growing collection of practical and not-so-practical models for sale. More interesting than their offering, however, is the running commentary on factory-built/imported bicycles vs. locally built by a skilled framebuilder in the post comments at the NAU blog. (via Luke Dorny/@luxuryluke.)

As the weather turns, I tend toward the workshop, squirreled away turning wrenches and smelling of two-stroke motor oil. This is a world I stumbled upon, years ago, that has become very much a part of me—despite the challenges of geography, parts availability, and prevailing attitude towards such means of transport in an oil town, such as this.

A very good friend of mine has decided to have a go at a shop, and I’m happily along for the ride. If you ride a classic Vespa or Lambretta, BENZINA is here for you, from the ground up.

I hope to be able to show you more, as our venture proceeds.