What have we got for you today? Another email 😬 sorry, it is packed full of handy break-time reading if you are into interiors and design. We do not want you to unsubscribe but you can 😥

If you stay we're talking about AI (is Skynet coming), I also just happened to find an $80million mansion you might like, and a few interesting points about gym spaces which might seem a bit contrarian and finally some colourful stuff!

AI Art

It seems not a day goes by at the moment when we are hearing of a new AI project being launched or hitting the headlines. AI, artificial Intelligence, not Adobe Illustrator as a graphic designer might be confused with, is set to transform industries. Some believed creative industries might be immune but it turns out that AI is quite the dab hand at this stuff too.

It may take a while for AI to become truly brilliant at your chosen craft, but the thing with self-learning software is, the speed with which it learns is way faster than us human-types. Chess Master Gary Kasparov became the youngest world chess champion at 22, Deep Blue IBM's AI beat Kasparov in 1997 after 12 years of development. AlphaZero another AI, in 2017 took a matter of hours for it to teach itself chess, and within 24hrs of training, it beat Stockfish the then-current best chess software. Today Magus Carlsen, the current chess Grandmaster, has a relative strength score of 2882 and AlphaZero's AI is 4650.

But should we be worried about the rise of machine-learning? Yes and No is always the answer I would give. This is partly down to understanding that AI is still very much a massively processor-intensive process. AI learns by having huge amounts of data to learn from all of which is powered by computer processors and electricity. And much of the world of AI is within walled gardens. Chatbots know languages, but they don't know how to send a self-driving car from A to B. Thankfully we humans still have the edge as our ability to learn and adapt from different datasets is our current ace in the hole.

At some point in the future, this will change, but it is unlikely that a general-purpose AI will be able to pull in all sorts of influences and cohesively create a wonderful experience like we can, for a while yet. However, can we utilise AI as a tool for our purposes, the answer is yes. Much like the bike, car and train are mechanical assistants to our desire to travel, AI can also help us with various aspects of our work days. This could be checking our text, it could be generating a background image for a design, or editing photos for us. But we have a way to go if you look at the AI-generated image above.

There is a darkside to AI (but not quite Skynet, yet) and that is the sources that the AI was learning from. Stable Diffusion has just been taken to court over the fact that the AI just scraped the internet for content, including copyrighted images... the giveaway is that the generated images had also copied the company watermark into the images 🤦‍♂️

Benjamin N. Duke House is one of a few 'Guided-Age' mansion left in New York, most have been demolished and built over. The remaining 120 year old buildings are fetching significant sums, like the one linked here from last year's Robb Report at $33m. 

Benjamin N. Duke House, also called the Duke–Semans Mansion, is located at 1009 Fifth Avenue (StreetView). The 20,000 sq. ft. townhouse, was built in Italian Renaissance palazzo style with Beaux-Arts details. It has 8 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms spread over 7 stories, a grand staircase connecting each floor, high ceilings, a private roof deck, and scenic views of Central Park. The home was built between 1899 and 1901 and the last owner was Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim.

In 2015 Slim put the home of the market for $80million, however it failed to sell so was removed. Then on Jan 19 2023 the home was placed on Compass for $80million. With the housing market in decline at the moment it could be a hard sell, but this is no ordinary home.

The juxtaposition of this building next door to the modern multistorey building on 1001 5th Avenue is a contrast in design styles you do not get that close very often.

If you go to some gyms you may see 'motivational' images of people with great bodies, the types of bodies you'd expect to get if you turned up at the gym daily and ate all the right food. Sadly the majority of us do neither, so do those images work?

It would appear not, in one research article published in 2018 it pulled together a number of studies, including one exposing male students to images that represent the ideal male physique, compared with neutral images, this increased muscle dissatisfaction. Other studies in female groups found similar body-image-related dissatisfaction with images from magazines. So we can extrapolate a little to the use of these images in the gym space.

This also leads to another gym practice that is not as it would seem. The majority of gyms have floor-to-ceiling mirrors. This is now something that many feel is 'required' in a gym, but whilst some users do like to see their form, it was found to actually put female gym users off. Especially when the user was new to the gym, again this was related to body-image dissatisfaction. The study did find that the longer the user was at the gym, the less of a concern it became, partly down to familiarity and physical progress.

So how do we create environments that are visually safe for users? Firstly we need to recognise the user base, are they athletes or just normal people, newbies or die-hard-gym-bunnies. We also need to consider what others might believe from the imagery we use, remembering some things are subjective. Then we need to use colours and non-physique-related imagery to define spaces and bring visual stimulation, lighting is another subject as is the use of the space.

Colour is a hugely complex issue with links in specific industries and in psychology. Colours are often subjective and can’t be detached from personal perspective, i.e. if blue is your favourite colour, you will have a different experience of blue from someone else whose favourite colour is red. Studies have shown that colour does play a part in purchasing decisions, so you could just choose your favourite colour and ignore all that, but you might be missing a trick.

If you have a fun brand, use red and yellows. If you want to be trusted in finance and law, then maybe use blue or grey. Green is synonymous with natural products and peace. Purple is seen as creative and imaginative.

On the flip side, choosing to use something outside of the convention for your industry could get you noticed. However be careful of the opposite effect, your luxury brand may not work in the cheerful orange as Hermes does, it may 'signal' better in silver, gold or black.

So what do you do with your offices/building, make everything red and yellow in Mcdonald's case? Maybe, but brands are much more sophisticated these dates and often just have a subtle nod to the colours. Then use all sorts of finishes and colours to bring out their brand look and feel.

This is our little recommendation section.We thought we'd do a little shout-out each newsletter to those businesses that help us in some way or we'll give our friend's businesses a space to promote themselves. 

We work with all sorts of designers, creatives, trades and suppliers and this has to be one of our favourite, and most unique suppliers we know. 

Map Sculptures create hand-finished elevation maps that showcase the unique contours of nature's landscapes, with a focus on the beautiful rolling fells of Ullswater in The Lake District and the moorlands of the North Pennines. We utilise a data-driven process to create custom 3D models, sometimes using LiDAR data from the shuttle mission to provide worldwide coverage. Our relief maps capture the exquisite detail of your favorite landscapes. Additionally, we only offer a small number of ready-to-ship relief elevation maps to support sustainable and local materials.

EVENTSWhat's going on in the world of design, architecture and branding?

Surface Design Show - 7th - 9th February 2023 - Business Design Centre, Islington

The only dedicated European furniture event of its kind taking place in the first quarter of 2023. Brands from around the world will gather to launch their new collections along with fresh new brands, industry insights, emerging trends and much more under one roof.  

The Workspace Design Show - 27th - 28th February 2023 - Business Design Centre

The Workspace Design Show brings together the UK’s workplace interiors community to explore the experience of tomorrow’s workspaces.

Save the date - Clerkenwell Design Week - 23-25 May 2023Clerkenwell is home to more creative businesses and architects per square mile than anywhere else on the planet, making it truly one of the most important design hubs in the world.https://www.clerkenwelldesignweek.com/

What happened this week...

We just posted this little beauty of a timelapse in a stairwell in Cardiff.

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That's it for now folks, I hope this was interesting. Send us any items you'd like to see.We wish you all the best for the rest of Jan 2023. Don't forget to #brandeverywhere