I heard somewhere that Irvine Sellar, the property magnate behind the tower, intends for his creation to stand for more than 200 years. Well, of course it does, but this concept did the most to shift my perspective.

Imagine how this city will feel in two centuries: totally transformed, utterly modern and yet (hopefully) still uniquely London. The Shard is another step towards an exciting Future London.

To illustrate my point, here’s a video flyover showing the tower in context. Watch closely and you’ll see  London’s slow climb towards a cyberpunk sky:

His stuff is traditional with a very modern twist: think 19th century meets TRON. Yeah, pretty awesome. My favorite piece is an antique chair found in a flea market somewhere in Paris, “left unrestored and then adorned in turquoise neon, giving it new life but without forgetting its journey.”

Some of the other designs that I liked (click thumbnails to expand):

For the discerning cyberpunk, Broom’s full range of products are listed here.

Beer: tool of the trade

But NDAs are way too formal for the modern entrepreneur, who is more likely to meet a potential partner or investor at a conference, in a coffee shop, or over a beer than arrange to meet at the lawyers.

In an informal situation, the most common business exchange is probably handing someone your business card. I’ve been thinking about this, so in the spirit of sharing ideas, here’s what I’ve come up with:

What if your business card could unlock new conversations?

On the understanding that a signed non-disclosure agreement allows for a far smoother flow of communication in the exchange of business ideas, my business card design offers the ability to turn a casual conversation into a pitch scenario, but without the formality.

Take a look at this mockup I created for MOO Cards, who sadly weren’t interested in the exclusive ownership rights!

Click the image to see in fullscreen

My design is a perforated piece of card designed to be ripped in half:

• One half lists the usual business card details
• One half has space for a signature against the statement:
  “I hereby agree to treat your idea as confidential in a bond of trust”
  (or whatever)

Each party keeps one half of the card in this interactive business exchange. Not legally airtight, of course, but still an innovative means of quickly forming trust with a potential partner.

So then, anyone out there want to help turn this design into a reality?

I’ll be talking on the subject of technology and evolution, probably around how the liberal arts act as playground to new & culturally transformative ideas. If you’re interested in coming along, tickets are available right here.

In the meantime though, here’s the first of some less heavyweight posts I’ll be making over the coming weeks!

I love how this invention takes an analog medium (plastic / liquid) and mimics a digital one (LCD display) in the guise of another analog medium (the typewriter) to output not words, but what looks like a terribly strong concoction of different drinks. Each customer would create a different, personalised recipe based on their input.

I can see this being really fun in a bar that sold tokenised access to the machine, along with predefined recipes such as the keywords ‘pineapple’ or ‘cherrybomb’, each letter plugged into its own mutually exclusive blend of base flavours. Nice work morskoiboy (site currently down).