ISSUE 014

SOMETHING LOVELY
​that I saw

Before I studied interior design, I did a year of industrial design. I loved the theory, but was incredibly bad at the hand rendering that they made us do. Like, SO bad. So whenever I see someone capable of sketching something like this, I have to take a moment to appreciate it! Click on the image for the full post.

PS. Who else specified the Componibili to death as a cost-effective side table for office meeting rooms circa 2006??

SOMETHING USEFUL
​I read this week

There was a study in 2011 that found judges granted parole about 65 percent of the time first thing in the morning. Then just before lunch, that number dropped close to zero.

It tracked over 1,100 parole rulings across ten months, and found the 'favourable' parole rate kicked in after each food break, went up a bit, then dropped again as the session went on. The researchers called it decision fatigue. The internet adopted the term 'hangries', and if I go by own research study of one, I agree with the internet!

Nobody wants to be making decisions (about parole or a finishes board!) when you're mentally exhausted AND have low blood sugar!

I recommend treating 11:45am and 4:30pm as no-new-decisions-zones. And would even suggest avoiding making client meetings for those times for the same reasons! Unless we've all just eaten a sandwich of course.

SOMETHING INTERESTING
​that I'd like to share

Amsterdam's canal houses are narrow because once upon a time the city taxed buildings by the width of their front door (not their floor area).

So the tax dodge became the architecture. Houses stretched back thirty metres instead of out, stairs got super steep, and people built up instead of across. It solved the tax problem…. But created a new one: how do you get a sofa past a staircase that narrow and steep?? ("pivot!")

You might still spot what they did to fix the furniture challenge on some of the houses - a wooden beam with a hook, angled out past the façade, to hoist furniture straight up the outside of the building and in through a window instead. Most of those houses lean slightly forward too, for the same reason, so anything swinging up on a rope clears the front wall instead of scraping down it. Genius!

If my CDS content or newsletter has taught you something you didn't know before - coffee's always appreciated.

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