Have your say, share your thoughts on this article written by Greg Taylor, Director of Brand Provocation at Elmwood, London
General strikes are taking place in Portugal with anti-fascist and Carnation Revolution chants outside the National Assembly. In the UK, unemployment is now at 2.62 million, a 17-year high. And because there is not enough cash in the Eurozone bailout fund, fear persists that the Italian debt crisis on top of that of Greece, Portugal and Ireland could sink the Euro. All this has led us to the rather shocking statement from the IMF’s head, Christine Lagarde, that we’re moving towards a ‘lost decade’, not just in Europe but globally. Her optimistic call to action is for us to act boldly, and together. It seems we cannot carry on as before. We need a new way of doing things, a new currency for a new society.
Against this gloomy backdrop and probably because they’ve Hobson’s Choice, a new breed of social innovators and entrepreneurs is emerging. Because they feel there’s little prospect of traditional employment or financial investment in their ambitions, they’ve adopted a self-starter attitude to life. Necessity is, after all, the mother of invention!
Doing a Jagger
Adam Morgan of eatbigfish recently highlighted a way forward for the Hobson’s Choice generation. Having read Keith Richards’ autobiography, Life, he called it ‘doing a Jagger’. In the book, Richards talks about how Jagger’s highly distinctive style came about, saying that when the Stones started they were playing very, very small venues – often rooms in hotels – and by the time the band had set up its equipment and the audience were in place, Jagger often had a space no more than the size of a table to work. But as the frontman of a band ambitious to break through, he learnt to really work even the smallest space. It was from this combination of desire and restriction that his unique, almost pantomime style of movement evolved.
Morgan’s advice, ‘less leads to more’, particularly when, ‘considerably less resource’, combines with, ‘a very big ambition’.
Social innovation meets entrepreneurship
So how can design play its part in fostering this new kind of currency? A currency that’s more suited to the Hobson’s Choice generation. Remember, it’s a generation that has little but believes in the principle of what goes around comes around and that when diverse people come together good things happen. One example comes from Dutch artist duo Haas&Hahn’s idea of creating community-driven art interventions in Brazil. Their vision is ‘to collaborate with local people to use design as a tool to inspire, create beauty, combat prejudice and attract attention’.
Their efforts yielded two murals in Vila Cruzeiro, Rio’s most notorious slum. The artworks received worldwide coverage and have become points of pride in the community and throughout Rio.
Photo: Haas&Hahn’s murals in Rio’s slum
Another project in Santa Marta converted 7000 square meters of hillside slum into a new monument for the community.
Photo: Santa Marta’s ‘arty monument’
Brands too are searching for ways to innovate socially. Similar to the projects in Brazil, paint manufacturer Dulux also believes in the power of colour. Its “Let’s Colour” programme is committed to making a positive difference in people’s lives globally by colouring grey public spaces from as far afield as Tower Hamlets, London to District 6 in South Africa.
Photo: “Let’s Colour” programme’s logo
But perhaps where this new form of currency adds most value is when you combine social innovation and entrepreneurship in a way that uses technology and networks. A case in point is Airbnb, one of the success stories of the ‘Great Depression II’. Like Jagger’s dance moves, the idea came from necessity and ambition, but also helping others like themselves lacking in cash. The founders, ex Rhode Island School of Design students (later joined by a third friend), couldn’t pay the rent on their apartment in San Francisco. Luckily for them, an international design conference was coming to town and all the hotels were full! This gave them the idea to rent out airbeds and provide breakfast in their apartment, hence the name Airbnb. Two air mattresses and a thousand dollars of income later, the three set off on a course to change the way people travel. It’s now a thriving business offering a diversity of accommodations from private homes to private islands in over 16,000 cities in 186 countries. Airbnb unlocks the doors to unique spaces around the globe so people can discover an authentic, local side of the cities and cultures they visit while providing their hosts with a new stream of income.
Photo: Airbnb logo and screenshot with rental properties
Airbnb’s idea is a simple one, make the most of technology and networks to share the things you own and aren’t using with strangers. This idea of combining social innovation, entrepreneurship and a dash of technology to spread the word is starting to grow.
Take the story of Baruch Herzfeld. In 2008 his bike was stolen, so he went online to replace it and discovered a police auction site where bikes were available at $8 a piece. On the spur of the moment, he purchased 500 and established Traif Bike Gesheft, Yiddish for ‘non-kosher bike shop’, in his Williamsburg backyard to repair, sell and rent bicycles. Through his business, Herzfeld is not only making cycling more affordable and accessible, but also bridging the gap between the neighbourhood’s hipster and Hasidic communities.
Invest in the new currency – it’s the future!
Russian venture capitalist Yuri Milner, who along with Starbucks founder Howard Schultz and Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, participated in a $4.5 million investment round in General Assembly (GA) NY in September, plan on making another undisclosed investment in GA London’s Shoreditch.
Photo: the GA founders
GA was originally founded in January 2011 in a 20,000 square foot loft in New York’s Flatiron District. It’s not a degree-granting college; it’s not a high school; it’s not a traditional trade school. It’s something new. It’s a campus for technology, design, and entrepreneurship: an education for the start-up economy.
Power to the people
Much like Tate & Lyle’s classic line ‘Out of the strong came forth sweetness’, it is good to see that out this economic mess, goodness comes. People’s capacity for invention, to design ways help each other as well as helping themselves in times of hardship is truly remarkable. This is the fabric of the new currency and our hope for the future.
Perhaps it’s fitting that the final word goes to crowd-sourced investor Kickstarter and one of its greatest success stories. Unable to secure a manufacturer, the Chicago-based designer Scott Wilson placed his TikTok and LunaTik wristbands, which convert the Nano into a watch, on the Kickstarter funding site.
Within a month, he broke a Kickstarter record, raising nearly $1 million from 13,500 backers. All of a sudden, retailers came calling, including the most prestigious of all: Apple, which is now rolling out the wristbands. Obviously the time is right for the Hobson’s Choice generation to invest in themselves!
Photo. Kickstarters watch
About the Author
Greg Taylor became founding partner in global brand design consultancy Elmwood in 1989. Now Director of Brand Provocation, Greg is the creator and facilitator of Step Change™, Elmwood’s strategic tool for moving ideas forward. Clients include ASDA, Wal-Mart, Arla Foods, BBC, COI (Defra and DfT), Cable&Wireless, Comic Relief, Debbie & Andrew’s, Durex, Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, McCain, and the Met Office.