Derek & Clive’s Labels sketch

by Andy Polaine on February 3, 2012

in Links

Derek & Clive’s Labels sketch is Peter Cook and Dudley Moore tackling service design in a discussion about the use of labels.

(Note:This is very much not safe for work or kids. Many will find the language is offensive, but that’s Derek and Clive for you).

omas_kuche_freiburg_menu.jpg

This restaurant in Freiburg, Germany, called Omas Küche (Grandma’s Kitchen) was super family-friendly, but what caught my eye was the first page of the menu. It has all the usual stuff about opening times and lactose and gluten-free diets, free wi-fi, etc., but then goes on to offer single cigarettes for sale for “Gelengheitsraucher” (casual smokers), a case with reading glasses of different strengths and they will even post your mail for you and have stamps available to buy at the bar. A nice set of service extras that have probably grown out of people asking for them over the years. Shame the website lets it down.

Touchpoint Observatory: Armed Ticket Collectors

February 2, 2012

These people – five in total – were ticket inspectors on an early afternoon bus in Luzern, Switzerland, very much a tourist destination. So why are they dressed like armed police (no guns, but with pepper spray and earpieces)? And what is a security firm, Securitas, doing supplying ticket inspectors to a public transport company? [...]

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Accepting Less

February 2, 2012

Accepting Less is a plea from designer James Victore about getting back on the right path in life – downshifting, essentially. “Emails, chats, texts, games, pads, pods, and clouds have become a leash jerking us out of our quiet time,” he says. It’s definitely worth a read if you don’t mind the irony that you [...]

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Designer Founders

February 1, 2012

Designer Founders is a “non-profit book of 35+ rare personal interviews with the founders of tech-startups who have various design backgrounds.” Looks pretty interesting and I’m glad it’s been backed on Kickstarter. The backing price looked a bit steep for what you get, though. Let’s hope the info is worth it.

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The Myth of the Brand New Innovation Myth

February 1, 2012

The Myth of the Brand New Innovation Myth I hear a lot of talk about innovation in my travels as an academic and consultant in service design. Innovation is not only the new black, it’s the Holy Grail. This piece from Fabio Sergio does a good job of exploding the fairly naive thinking out there [...]

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Master level program in Social and Collaborative Housing: Designing, planning and managing the contemporary housing

February 1, 2012

A new Master level program in Social and Collaborative Housing: Designing, planning and managing the contemporary housing has been organized by the POLI.design consortium and supported by the School of Design and the School of Civil Architecture, and by the Departments INDACO (Industrial Design, Arti, Comunicazione e Moda) and DPA (Progettazione dell’Architettura) of Politecnico di [...]

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Ten rules for writing fiction – Part Two

February 1, 2012

Ten rules for writing fiction (part two) The second of The Guardian’s series on rules for writing from a survey of established authors. (Part one is here, in case you missed it).

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The Irony of Neuroscience & Behaviour Change

December 7, 2011

I have been enjoying the Brain Culture: Neuroscience & Society series via BBC Radio 4′s podcasts recently. In the series Matthew Taylor looks at how developments in neuroscience are changing the way we think about everything from law and punishment to education and marketing. As a fan of Raymond Tallis’s writing, who is somewhat of [...]

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Pre-digital versus digital services

December 2, 2011

Seth Godin has written an interesting observation about a common experience of hospitals in a piece titled Pre-Digital: A brief visit to the emergency room last month reminded me of what an organization that’s pre-digital is like. Six people doing bureaucratic tasks and screening that are artifacts of a paper universe, all in the service [...]

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