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Kim Elam, from the Ringling College of Art and Design, graciously invited Jakob to speak to their Graphic and Interactive Communication (GIC) students this coming Monday in Sarasota, FL. He’ll be there to act as a guest juror in their Best of Ringling competition.

When we awake in the morning very little escapes habit or custom. The regime of the shower. The ritual slipping on of shoes. The automated patterns of the work commute, where we gaze at our newspapers and iPods, sipping, perhaps, from our coffee cups. Work has its own rhythms, too, and we like it that way. The familiarity allows us to function, and each person has his or her own daily customs made up of hundreds of objects consumed, coveted or ignored.

But who designs the computer, the cell phone, the potato peeler, how and with what intention? What is the relationship between the designers and their products? Gary Hustwit, filmmaker of the 2007 documentary on typography, Helvetica, turns his eye on industrial design in his new documentary Objectified, which premiered at SXSW earlier this month in Austin. In his examination of the product-design process, Hustwit arrives at some very pointed insights concerning what lies at the center of the relationship between the product and the consumer.

Jakob associate-produced Objectified as well as Helvetica. Trollbäck + Company did the titles and some montage work for Helvetica.

View the trailer for Objectified here.

Screenings

Do you believe that words can move you to act? Then what about moving words? Here’s the opening sequence we did for TED’s 25th anniversary conference, which is taking place this week in Long Beach, CA.

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The Realscreen Summit, the industry-renowned non-fiction film & TV conference kicked off today in Washington, D.C. Jakob will be presenting tomorrow (that’s February 2) on effective packaging & broadcast design as part of the Ask-An-Expert session.

The four-day event, held annually by Brunico Communications, delves into the best new ideas in factual programming and content creation through a series of workshops, presentations and other business development opportunities (Speed pitching sessions? Yep). Delegates from more companies than I can count–from producers to programmers, executives to creatives–will gather and mix a little business with pleasure.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music, downtown Brooklyn’s storied cultural institution, launched its $300 million capital campaign, called BAM Next Stage, today. What was our part in this? Well, we designed the website! The nearly 150-year-old arts center will, over the next five years, look to launch new programs, upgrade their facilities and secure their financial future amid these tough times. Roughly 50 percent of its overall fundraising goal has been reached at this point, according to BAM’s website. As the recession deepens, and public funding for the arts grows scarcer, arts organizations will need all the help they can get. Please donate if you can.

The launch, which Jakob’s attending this afternoon, will be followed with a concert this evening, curated by the polymathic artist and musician Laurie Anderson. Joined by a host of diverse musicians and performers, Ms. Anderson will no doubt put on a good show.

Jakob recently took part in a five-person roundtable discussion for the December/January issue of Boards magazine. He and four other creatives considered the current and future state of the mograph industry, arguing for the continued commitment to substance over style.

JAKOB: I think technology is fantastic when it comes to production. But there’s very little that’s positive about it when it comes to presenting something to a client, because we’ve made it possible for the client not to have to think at all. It’s not that it’s about the effort behind doing all the motion tests, presentations and Photoshopped storyboards - I don’t care about that. But it’s the difference between reading a book and seeing a movie. They expect to see exactly what you give them, and they refuse to think.

The participants:

Jake Banks, Founder/Creative Director, Stardust
Mateus de Paula Santos, Creative Director/Partner, Lobo
James Price, Creative Director, Transistor
Vivian Rosenthal, Co-Founder, Tronic
Jakob Trollbäck, Founder/Creative Director, Trollbäck + Co.

Currently featured in the exhibit section of Comm Art’s website is the opening sequence we did for Pop!Tech ‘08 , the annual innovation and technology conference which took place in October.

You know that new Pepsi logo design? Well, Creativity magazine asked Jakob and four other branding experts for their thoughts on the soft drink icon’s first major makeover in a decade. The consensus is probably not what Pepsi would like to hear.

Only a portion of Jakob’s response was printed, so to see his complete opinion, click here.

Jakob headed out to Denver last week to speak at AIGA Colorado, and had a chance to answer questions from the folks at the advertising and design news blog The Denver Egotist. In the interview, Jakob discusses what’s absent in advertising, his favorite movie title sequences, and the importance of abandoning ideas.

Dyckman Street/200th Street Station

from Paul Lowry

and make sure others do too.

Friend, and fellow designer, Gui Borchert created this limited edition poster, “Words of Change,” for Artists for Obama. All work is donated by the artists, and purchases are 100% contributions to the campaign.

If the buttons didn’t give it away, all of us here at T+Co. are supporters of Obama. In a world where so many people play it safe and worry about being politically correct, I’m happy to work with people who are willing to speak up, no matter who might be listening.

Yesterday Afternoon, I had the pleasure of spending a little over an hour talking to high school students at Cooper-Hewitt’s Teen Design Fair. It was a fun and appropriate kick off for National Design Week here in NY. A few minutes in, after worrying that nobody would actually want to talk to me, I found myself with a table full of teenagers. They kept me talking about what I do here at Trollback, and design in general, for the entire session, leaving me a little hoarse by the time Tim Gunn gave his keynote address.

It’s exciting for me to see so many students interested in design at the high school level. At that point in my life, I barely knew what graphic design was, and these teens are already putting together websites, making album covers for their friends bands, and giving me their contact information.

If you believe recent polls, our country’s most important presidential race in decades continues to be startlingly close.

For those who support Obama, T+Co recently produced four sets of campaign buttons, with each of our designers chipping in a design of their own. Take a look here.

Update: Sweden’s Dagens Media did a short piece about the campaign buttons, which you can read here.

Two of our designers were dubbed Young Guns by the Art Directors Club (ADC) this year.  Paul and Emre joined the other rising stars in design last Thursday for the opening exhibition at NYC’s ADC Gallery.

You can view their work here, starting September 22.

From Communication Arts, an interview with Jakob for their weekly insights feature:

If you can read Swedish, check out the profile of Jakob from Saturday’s Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s largest daily morning newspaper.

Thanks to Liz and All Songs Considered, I’ve been on a Talking Heads kick for about a week now in anticipation of the new David Byrne and Brian Eno collaboration. It’s available exclusively through their website.

This is also the last week to see Playing the Building.