Justin J. Boone

"urban space is too valuable to be limited to one use, for only part of the day. creating a way for..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:23:24 -0400

“urban space is too valuable to be limited to one use, for only part of the day. creating a way for activities to come and go, open and fold up, over the day and night will be the way to energize our cities.”

- gary hack, why ever changing cities need elastic environments, psfk.

The truth is, whether we are reading, watching a movie, looking at art, buying products, or...

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 11:02:37 -0400

The truth is, whether we are reading, watching a movie, looking at art, buying products, or shopping, our world does not change that much. We don’t step from one world into a new one when we come from behind our screens to go jeans shopping, or when we go from yoga to the bank. Our desires influence—and are influenced by—our whole paradigm, our entire set of references.

Source: Dwell “‘Trend’ is Not a Four-Letter Word” Link

More than just selling used clothes for charity, programs like Fisher’s are transforming...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:09:20 -0400

More than just selling used clothes for charity, programs like Fisher’s are transforming traditional eco-friendly efforts into two-way projects that build community around a cause. Shoppers at a growing group of clothing companies can now not only buy recycled items or see a portion of sales go to nonprofits, but partner with brands that give them a more active role in giving back.

Source: Huffington Post “Fashion Brands Bet Shoppers Want to Partner For a Cause” Link

Every bit of this area acts as a showcase of some kind. The new design is to the street what the...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:30:16 -0400

Every bit of this area acts as a showcase of some kind. The new design is to the street what the M&M’s store is to candy and Good Morning America is to television: an urban launchpad for a global commodity. In this case, the product is the philosophy of public space preached by the Bloomberg administration’s impassioned transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan. For decades, American cities have treated their streets as traffic conduits meant to speed cars along as efficiently as possible (which is often not very efficiently at all). Instead, the new thinking goes, they should be a flexible network equally comfortable for drivers and dawdlers, parents with strollers, cyclists, truckers, and anyone who would rather just sit for a while and rest. Until 2009, the theater district embodied the disjunction between the way streets were conceived and the way they were used, as Sadik-Khan points out with data-driven fervor.

Source: New York Magazine “Countdown to a New Times Square” Link

“Restaurants have become the museums of Georgian culture,” Tsotsoria explains. “People go out to eat...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:10:00 -0400

“Restaurants have become the museums of Georgian culture,” Tsotsoria explains. “People go out to eat and be entertained at the same time.”

Source: The Atlantic “The Next Big Food City? Tbilisi” Link

SimCity, the city-building simulation game that has spawned numerous sequels since its launch in...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:56:07 -0400

SimCity, the city-building simulation game that has spawned numerous sequels since its launch in 1989, is about to get a major upgrade for the first time in a decade. The newest iteration of the game will be 3-D, have multiplayer capabilities, and it will be the first version to track the flow of finite natural resources. It will perhaps also be the most fun way imaginable to teach people why building a coal plant is great in the short term and dismal on a longer timeline, why solar power is better for the health of citizens but a potential blight on the land, and why dumping sewage directly into the local river might upset your neighbors.

Source: Fast Company “How the New SimCity Will Let You Take Control of a City’s Environmental Destiny” Link

Last year, BAM streamed 18,000 live events—more than any other company, period. (That’s...

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 11:11:00 -0400

Last year, BAM streamed 18,000 live events—more than any other company, period. (That’s just one of the reasons it ranks No. 2 on our Most Innovative Companies in Sports list this year.) Over the last two years, it distributed more than a half a billion feeds. It even acts as a broadcaster at times, producing video and then distributing, for some baseball games and the Webby Awards.

Source: Fast Company “Who’s Streaming March Madness? You’d Be Surprised” Link

With a taste for luxury developed through flash-sale websites, Gen Y shoppers are increasing their...

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:03:52 -0400

With a taste for luxury developed through flash-sale websites, Gen Y shoppers are increasing their spending at full-price online luxury retailers more than any other age group, according to a new report.

Source: CNBC.com “Young and Fashionable: Gen Y Flocks to Online Luxury” Link

The more we go global, the more consumers want to reinforce their communities, shop at neighborhood...

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:37:59 -0500

The more we go global, the more consumers want to reinforce their communities, shop at neighborhood stores and support nearby farmers. For them, preserving the local village is more important than enjoying the global one.

Source: AdAge “Why Globalism Has Made Local More Important” Link

3. Lameness Can’t Create Loyalty Have you noticed how much social media is represented by Tweets and...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:12:01 -0500

3. Lameness Can’t Create Loyalty

Have you noticed how much social media is represented by Tweets and posts like this triteness display from McDonald’s:

Morning! How’s everyone’s week going so far?

24 Jan Favorite Retweet Reply

Would you want to be friends, and hang out with someone who always feels obligated to spout something, even when they have absolutely nothing of interest on their minds? So if you want to create evangelists, start with being excruciatingly demanding about every single thing you say. And how you say it.

Source: Fast Company “Beyond The One-Time Click: 6 Social Media Rules For Creating Brand Evangelists” Link

Responsive architectures that are sensitive to their local environment can revitalize cities and...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:23:52 -0500

Responsive architectures that are sensitive to their local environment can revitalize cities and equip communities with the ability to deal with and recover from radical disturbances in their surroundings, such as a natural disaster. Indeed, all cities should be designed with environmental crises in mind, whether they have reached the proportions of a megacity or not.

Source: Fast Company “A Trip to the Living City of the Future” Link

Good city branding attracts and retains new talent, startups, services, and the arts. City branding...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:02:24 -0500

Good city branding attracts and retains new talent, startups, services, and the arts. City branding also enhances the ability of local companies to market their products and services internationally.

Source: Fast Company “How Can You Build A Smart City” Link

A neighborhood is a microcosm of a city. If you want to make a city smarter, starting at the...

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:05:00 -0500

A neighborhood is a microcosm of a city. If you want to make a city smarter, starting at the neighborhood level is the first step to building a more manageable ecosystem…Successful neighborhood improvements can eventually be replicated and connected at a city level.

Source: Fast Company “5 Ways The Smart City Will Change How We Live” Link

It turns out that Smiths fans were exactly the demographic they were looking for. Ironically those...

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:34:00 -0500

It turns out that Smiths fans were exactly the demographic they were looking for. Ironically those spotty teenagers who looked to Morrissey to express their sense of youthful alienation have all turned into the kind of 45 year-olds who want to fill their kitchens with farmhouse-style chairs.

Source: Creative Review ”Your song? It’s just a jingle in waiting.” Link

The faster we are, the better we become. The fact is, we should all learn something from software...

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:58:50 -0500

The faster we are, the better we become. The fact is, we should all learn something from software developers and start-up culture. Embracing the agile, learning to prototype platforms and applications, and reconfiguring teams and processes are changes we have made to stay competitive.

Source: Forbes CMO Network “Culture Changes Everything” Link

To understand why detail execution is vital, ask the simple question: why do brands exist? The...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:08:24 -0500

To understand why detail execution is vital, ask the simple question: why do brands exist? The primary reason is to save time. With over 100,000 different products in the average supermarket, we’d be paralyzed by choice without brands. A brand essentially says “I’ll be the expert at one thing and do that one thing consistently and you’ll pay me extra for it” and we pay a premium so we don’t have to choose among dozens of options every time we purchase.

Source: Forbes CMO Network “The Brand is in the Details” Link

The complex understanding of gambling behavior is now being applied beyond the Las Vegas...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:53:04 -0500

The complex understanding of gambling behavior is now being applied beyond the Las Vegas perimeter…Think of eBay, where the countdown puts an urgency on the purchase, or gilt.com which puts the pressure on by making one more fabulous offer just as you’re about to close the deal and exit. Then there are sites like QVC which encourage you to “keep calling even though our lines are busy”. Indirectly, they’re letting you know that this is your last chance to cash in on their latest, most amazing deal.

Source: Fast Company “Online Stores Turn Savvy Shoppers Into Gamblers With Vegas-Style Tactics” Link

No matter where its component parts were made, that bag gets stamped with the San Francisco brand,...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:45:24 -0500

No matter where its component parts were made, that bag gets stamped with the San Francisco brand, something as unique to the city as low-run sewing factories. Cities, Sofis says, should do what they’re good at. That might mean making pulverizers, or it might mean adding a “made by” stamp of approval. For urban manufacturing to flourish in a global economy, it’s going to need both.

Source: Fast Company “Can Hip Urban Crafts Help Revitalize Rust Belt Manufacturing?” Link

Maybe the time really has arrived for someone like [Lang], a leader who is less captivated by the...

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:27:58 -0500

Maybe the time really has arrived for someone like [Lang], a leader who is less captivated by the luster of the brands and is more attuned to explaining what they can deliver in actual results.

Source: The New York Times “Print Empire Embraces a New Order” Link

“Art Basel gave Miami the power to believe in itself, and that’s always a problem with regional art...

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:40:39 -0500

“Art Basel gave Miami the power to believe in itself, and that’s always a problem with regional art places,” said Mera Rubell, a Miami collector who, along with her husband, Don, owns the Rubell Family Collection. “The impact that it has all year round is really quite profound.”

Source: The New York Times “Miami, City of Sun and Beaches, Is Now About Art” Link