How To Make Two Opposites Co-Exist

I love resolving dichotomies.

If I were stranded on an island and if there were only one food I could have, it would be feta cheese. And if I were stranded somehow and could only have one creative tool, I would want it to be dichotomy resolution.

Dichotomies are dualities that oppose each other. Dichotomy resolution is finding a unique solution that brings those seemingly opposing ideas together in harmony.

You get it, it's the idea of "having your cake and eating it too." In French they say, not surprisingly, "Butter and the money for the butter." Turks describe it as the best possible seat on the bus, behind the driver, next to the window and it costs 5 cents.

Toyota Design has a special name for it too, the J-factor. Simon Humphries, President of ED2, Toyota's European Design Headquarters, explains it as, "Often successful Japanese design is based on the synergy of seemingly competing aims, think small yet functional, simple yet intriguing."

So how can you resolve dichotomies? Here is a step-by-step guide:

1. Listen for dualities.

Next time you're in a meeting or having a conversation, listen for opposing ideas. You want to catch a need and a want separated by a 'but'. Classic but Modern is a favorite--this is when you want to keep your heritage but you want it to be contemporary.

2. Define each duality.

What are the qualities or characteristics of each duality? If you understand these, you will have an easier time mashing them up. I use dictionary definitions where applicable.

Classic: a. outstanding example of a particular style, something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality, b. a guidepost, modeled upon or imitating the style, c. something noteworthy of its kind and worth remembering, d. of an era

Modern: a. contemporary, relevant to its current time, b. of, relating to, or characteristic of contemporary styles of art, literature, music, etc., c. reject traditionally accepted or sanctioned forms, d. emphasize individual experimentation and sensibility

3. Look for inspiration.

For inspiration, find examples of companies that successfully make modern and classic co-exist. How did they do it? What could you learn from them?

Herman Miller's Eames Rocking Chair is a great example. Herman Miller kept the classic, single-shell form but instead of the original fiberglass material which is not environmental sustainable, they switched to polypropylene, a safer plastic material.

For companies, like Herman Miller, which have a long heritage and history, the "classic + modern" dichotomy is a constant constraint and an opportunity. Volkswagen's Beetle and BMW's Mini Cooper are great examples of classics modernized. So are customizable Converse One-Star high-tops. When you buy them, you're buying a dichotomy resolution--an iconic design classic first introduced in the market in 1917, updated in a way that is only possible with today's technology. French fashion house Chanel is a beautiful case study in making classic and modern co-exist.

4. Bring dualities into harmony.

Next, imagine how you can make these two opposites co-exist in harmony. Intentionally mash classic and modern. To do this pick something that makes your product, brand, experience a classic and mash it with something contemporary and relevant to our time.

Classic can be a classic form, detail, color as it can be set of timeless values.

Modern can be technology or material, as it can be today's cultural values and trends.

This is what the branding consultancy Work-Order did when they tweaked the New York Times "T" to include a little triangle "play" button. It's subtle, it's a wink and it marries their Times heritage with modern, digital technology. It is updating the familiar, so that we still recognize it, while helping us do something new, which is connecting us to their video content.

5. Brain-storm to generate multiple ideas.

Remember when you resolve dichotomies you make opposing qualities co-exist. It is not either, or. It is both. If you are having your cake and eating it too, you're on to a great idea that can generate long-term value.

6. Prototype.

Once you have a few ideas that rise to the top, do some sketches, renderings, quick prototypes, just enough to demonstrate the idea. Do they bring opposing ideas into harmony, for example, do they feel classic and modern at the same time? Test and refine until you have made opposites co-exist and generated new value.

I often think coming from Turkey, a land of great dichotomies, East and West, Old and New, Secular and Religious, is my secret training. That is why almost every project we do as a studio, we seek, pick and solve for dichotomies. One favorite being the potato peeler from the Giada Collection for Target. At $7.99, with a sleek, sculpted, ergonomic handle, it was great design at affordable prices. Too bad it is no longer in production. But the Resolve Office System is, which only has 20 parts with which you can create an almost infinite number of work environments. That is less is more.

What are dichotomies you've solved or in the process of solving. I would love to hear from you.

This article first appeared on Inc.com on August 30, 2017

Why I Love Vacation

On my last day of vacation I wanted to reflect on what I love about vacations. It is going to be short piece because I am going to jump into the Aegean sea one more time before I head home. It is also a personal reflection about what is it about vacation that makes us happy.

Vacation is time with family.

The luxury of vacation is hanging out with your family, close friends or loved ones. I love that we wake up, eat, swim, play together. Richard Branson said, "How can you find time to get to know your children with the very little holiday time they are given in the United States?" I agree. So we need to make the most of this time spent with people you love most.

Vacation is being in the present.

This is when I smell the wind. Listen to the waves. Watch the sunset. Look at the redness and the shape of tomatoes I am washing. When I am on vacation I am not rushing, I am in the moment. Dina Kaplan, founder of The Path, a meditation community, notes that "Being mindful on vacation can help us fully appreciate each moment, from exhilarating new adventures to relaxing quiet afternoons" and recommends going on vacation without a checklist so that you can just experience it as it occurs.

Vacation is more life than work.

Yesterday I read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, for hours. I did this without worrying about what else I should be doing. Without feeling guilty about not working. Vacation is where life-work balance is heavily weighted to life vs. work. Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, who takes 6 weeks off and encourages his employees to take time off as well, thinks that this time away from work is necessary to see things anew--"You often do your best thinking when you're off hiking in some mountain or something. You get a different perspective on things."

Vacation is also vacation from New York.

My annual summer vacation is the opposite of New York, where I live. It is quiet (except for the cicadas). It is all about nature. It is slow and uncrowded. It is extended family, with my uncles, aunts and cousins. Vacation is a total break from my daily routine and environment. And because of that, for me it also makes me eventually want to go back.

But perhaps the reason I love summer vacations so much is because it is like being a child again. Carefree, curious and playful. Just the kind of qualities I want to immerse my work with.

What is it that you love about vacation? I would love to hear from you.

This article first appeared on Inc.com on August 22, 2017

Ayse's Speech at Design Indaba: Designing a Meaningful Future for Yourself

The award-winning designer talks about applying design processes to our daily lives.

Ayse Birsel grew up in Turkey in a family full of lawyers. While she loved to draw, she often felt destined to follow in her parents’ footsteps. One day, a friend of the family visited for tea and demonstrated the elements of industrial design to her using a teacup.

“See how the cup has curves?” the friend pointed out. “It’s so that we can drink easier. And look at the handle; it’s so we don’t burn ourselves when holding hot liquid.” The young Birsel had never heard of industrial design before but immediately fell in love with the human scale of it and has been working in this arena ever since.

But Birsel is more than a designer; she’s a teacher, and the co-founder and creative director of Birsel + Seck. She’s also the author of Design the Life You Love, a strikingly illustrated and practical guide to building the life you've always dreamed of. Our lives are the ultimate design project, asserts Birsel, and what if we could apply processes of design to our daily lives?

It was from this thinking that the singular workbook emerged. Cognisant of the numerous constraints that hold humans back from pursuing their dreams, Birsel considered the qualities that made a good designer. She decided it was their optimism, empathy and inclination toward collaboration that helped them transform limitations into opportunities and set about designing a process that could be easily shared and taught to others.

“Are you ready to experiment with me?” Birsel asked as she stepped out onto the Design Indaba 2017 conference stage. She then guided the audience through the books’ four steps: deconstruction, forming a new point of view, putting it back together, and giving it form. This is done through doodling, drawing, visualisation, introspective journaling – activities meant to stimulate the right side of the brain, as well as the intuition and imagination.

Developed with non-designers in mind, the Design the Life You Love process is intended to be playful. “Because when we play,” says Birsel, “we’re like kids. We’re not afraid of making mistakes. And that’s exactly the spirit that’s needed to design the life you love.”

Birsel’s process provides an inspired yet simple way for anyone to navigate the challenges of pursuing a dream and serves as a reminder that the tools for success lie within each and every one of us – it just requires a little coaxing. “In design,” she says, “if you can visualise something you can make it happen.”

How To Sell Your Ideas

I am in Cesme, Turkey, near the Aegean sea, for summer vacation. Last night my family and I went to dinner in the village. As we walked down the main street, store owners called out to us in different languages, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, to invite us to look at their goods.

The crazy versatility of the languages they used, their enthusiasm to find the one you spoke, their empathy for your foreignness and tacit understanding that a shared language would put you at ease and make you feel welcome as a buyer, all this reminded me of what it takes to sell ideas.

Your idea, so familiar to you, is a foreign country to the people who are buying it.

When you're developing an idea, you're creating a landscape, a new kind of intellectual space. When you're selling your idea, you're inviting other people--decision makers--into this space. For them it's foreign. You need to make them feel understood and welcomed. Make it easy for them to understand you. Establish trust so that they too can wander into the space and feel like they belong there. Ingratiate them so that they too start to feel a proud ownership. It is only then that you've "sold" them on your idea.

All this is achieved by finding and conversing in a shared language...just like the village store owners. So if you want to sell your ideas, here is how you can cultivate that communication:

Figure out your buyer's language.

If you're selling me an idea, speak my language. I am more inclined to buy something from someone I can understand and someone who understands me. A financial thinker needs to see numbers and the ROI; experiential thinker, needs to live the experience, and so on.

"A lot of us artists and creators, we like to think, 'Well, why don't you get it? Can't you see it's awesome. We're very emotional, but the business side is very rational."--Disney Creative Director Will Gay, in the article "How to Sell Your Ideas."

Practice expressing your idea in various "languages."

Remember that you will have multiple buyers, each speaking his or her own language. Like the store owners saying the same thing in different languages, you need to express your idea in a variety of ways. Each discipline has its own language. Create a redundancy of languages--visual, written, moving, mathematical--to make sure you're building an emotional and intellectual trust with not just one person but the whole team.

Remember that "experience" is a universal language.

Experience is visceral knowledge that you gain from living something. This is why a full-scale foamcore model of a new store (see how Chick-fil-A did one for its NYC store), the wire frame of a new app (here are 35 examples to inspire you), or a 1-2 minute film (like IKEA's Cook This Page) are so powerful. Human experience is universal. It is indispensable to being understood. Make it your language of choice.

Make sure your team is "multilingual."

A pitfall in selling an idea is to believe that you can only communicate using the language you know well and are comfortable in. Instead, be open to having people on your team who can bring in new, complementary forms of expression.

Think of the languages you're good at. Then pinpoint languages you're missing. Find a person who's good at those other languages and include them in your team.

Get a writer on your design and development team (this is standard practice for our client Herman Miller). Their design stories will serve as your pitch, publicity, and marketing material to sell your idea to the company first, and externally next.

Inversely, if you're very fluent in writing but lacking in visual expression, add a visual thinker--a designer, an information architect or a filmmaker to your mix. They will be a boon to how you successfully sell your idea.

What are the languages you use to sell your ideas? I would love to hear from you.

This article first appeared on Inc.com on August 12, 2017

How to be a Champion Like Roger Federer

Roger Federer is an original. He has designed the life he loves, often doing what is counterintuitive to being a champion. He is a family man. He is too old to be a tennis champion. He is a calm, modest personality, even though he is the longest reigning No. 1 tennis player.

Federer walks to the beat of his own drum. He is driven by his personal values and this, in turn, makes him a different kind of champion. But how does he do it? Here is what I've determined -- and you don't need to be a superhuman to do them, too.

1. He stays true to himself.

Federer is perhaps the most elegant player in tennis. New York Times calls his game "languid" which is a beautiful way of saying he can seem relaxed and unhurried in the midst of all the speed and the intense pressure to win. Akash Kapur's description in the New Yorker of his style being reminiscent of a bygone era captures it beautifully--

"The talent--that outrageous grace and fluidity that David Foster Wallace famously compared to a religious experience--comes first. Federer's smooth, effortless style, his near-perfect balance and poise, are throwbacks to an earlier era in men's tennis, before all the grunting and power shots, when men like Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver played into (or almost into) their forties."

And even though the game has changed--it is so much more about muscle power and equipment today--Federer remains true to his style and continues to win by being himself.

2. He is a constant learner.

There are 5 years between Federer's 2012 and 2017 Wimbledon Grand Slam. Anyone else would've given up. He didn't. For a long while he was under the shadow of the Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, but then he figured out how to emerge. He has lost many times to Nadal, his "eternal tormentor," as CBS Sports calls him, but Federer patiently learned how to play against Nadal and won. He is a constant learner.

"Federer has already proved that he can learn new tennis tricks at an advanced age, having come back from knee surgery and a six-month layoff, the longest of his career, to win the Australian Open in January. He has already proved that he can drive his single-handed backhand with new commitment and find an antidote to Nadal, having beaten him three straight times on hardcourts this year." -Christopher Clarey, The New York Times

3. He balances work and life.

Instead of competing at the exclusion of everything, Federer has created a work-life balance. When he had his knee injury, he spent most of his time with his family, traveling and being in nature in Australia and Switzerland. When he competes, his wife and their four kids stay with him, most recently at the Wimbledon village in 2017. In fact, he has said that he couldn't do it without his family. Tennis is important but it is not everything.

4. He puts the hours in.

Federer is not the best server in the game but he has the best return. At the speed the game is played, there is no time to consciously plan an attack. Federer anticipates his opponent's return, almost intuitively, before the brain can truly process it. It is as if he sees what we cannot see.

This is what Malcolm Gladwell calls "the feel for the game." It is the result of practicing endlessly which, according to Gladwell, creates a consistency. Psychologists also call this "chunking" -- our ability to combine things that go together and store them in our memory as one unit. Chunking might well be the secret behind Federer's ability to see his opponent's game and respond to it an almost superhuman way.

"What sets physical geniuses apart from other people, then, is not merely being able to do something but knowing what to do -- their capacity to pick up on subtle patterns that others generally miss." Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker

5. He exhibits joy.

Perhaps what distinguishes Federer from everyone else is the pure joy with which he plays the game. Watching him you can feel the way he loves tennis. Which in turn gives us joy. We want to be around people who are happy doing what they love. They inspire us by example to strive for a similar feeling and attitude in our own work.

An original life is one that's lived on a foundation of your own values. In that, Federer is a true original.

Do you know of people who lead original lives? I am always on the look out for them (I've even started a podcast about them) and would love to hear from you.