kuniform

What an apt title. It’s an amazing installation.

Wow. Troika blew me away (pun intended) with this amazing cloud. See a great writeup on the technology behind it at PixelSumo.

Nathan Shedroff links off to Reveal Info, which looks like an attempt to begin bubbling forward the energy and materials costs involved in the lifecycle of a product. Great idea, and necessary.

The big challenge to me is: outside of companies who have high scores in these attributes, what is the incentive for companies to publish these attributes. There is a market of people who are concerned about buying responsibly, and there is a market of people who don’t care and want to buy based on price. Typically, these two markets don’t overlap, or, if they do, the products that serve the needs are sometimes very different. We’ll call them ‘Greenies’ and ‘Pricers’.

Let’s look at t-shirts. A t-shirt with high scores in terms of social justice, human rights, and responsible lifecycle in today’s economy will be higher priced than that produced with the cheapest commodity cotton and slave labor. Having confidence that their money is actually buying the right thing is probably important to the Greenies. To the Pricers, it’s a nice to have, but won’t affect their decision making process.

Now, let’s look at cleaning supplies. In a lot of cases, cleaning supplies can be replaced by items like vinegar, which may actually be cheaper. Something like RevealInfo may not help make an apples to apples comparison, nor does it effectively channel consumer behavior.

The fact RevealInfo doesn’t do those things is a sign of a strength, not a weakness. Instead of being all things to everyone, it seems like they are probably targeting products more like clothing, and less where sustainability is achieved through abandoning some of the ‘new and improved’ products of modernity.

Again, I can’t wait to see it live!

I bought a Fujitsu Scan Snap scanner, and it rocks. It’s all duplex, full text indexing, faster than a speeding bullet, paperless office, blah blah blah. And with a $50 rebate, who could go wrong?

Well, the thumbs are pointing at ‘this guy.’ I sent Fujitsu exactly what they asked for in the rebate packet, and what did I get in my email today? This:

Unfortunately, we were unable to honor your request for the following reasons: We did not receive an original serial number label with your request; We did not receive a rebate certificate with your request; You must submit more than one UPC symbol or proof-of-purchase tab to qualify for the rebate.

You will receive an additional notification by mail. You may also access your submission by contacting us at:

Online: http://www.fujitsu-fcpa.rebatestatus.com/link.aspx?xxxxx-xxxxx

Customer Service: 877-247-2328

We appreciate your business. Thank you.

I did send it all in, exactly as they asked for. Ironically, I can’t find my copies of those forms. I think these rebate form companies get extra cash for denying legitimate requests, it’s all I can fathom. This is the second rebate I’ve sent out and had this happen with, even though in both cases I followed the letter of the law.

The disadvantage of outsourcing everything is that there is no legitimate way to register dissent. Fujitsu has their cash, the rebate company probably keeps a premium, and calling them doesn’t let Fujitsu know how badly they’ve screwed a customer. It’s a win-win-lose proposition. So, I’m done. Done with warranties, done with rebates, done with operating with corporations as though they actually meant to honor contracts. It’s not like this is new ground for me, but it certainly is painful to tread it each time I do. It’s a system designed to screw people over. Feel the karma of that, Fujitsu, you’ve earned it.

This article on Slate about Japanese design retailer Muji (think: Target, Ikea) sums it up:

Muji contends that design needn’t announce itself—rather, it can become apparent to you through use, over time. Nor is Muji interested in capitalizing on consumers’ seemingly insatiable appetite for designer goods. From day one, the company has maintained a “no brand” credo, refusing to put its name on any of its products. And although many Muji products are designed with guidance from the most thoughtful designers working today (Naoto Fukasawa, Enzo Mari, Jasper Morrison, Konstantin Grcic, and Sam Hecht among them), Muji does not promote or even discuss its relationships with these luminaries.

We need more of that spirit in design, and less ego-driven work that serves no one but the designer. That type of work only debases the nature of design, and the products such work creates.