When 'I will' means 'I won't'

It's funny what you learn in this job. For example, I've been working with Mint, a design agency in Jordan, recently. Together, we named a new property development company in Dubai, which is creating some of the most exclusive and luxurious residences in the world. (And they really are: all hyperbole permitted on this one.)

With the name in place (it's still a secret), I started work on some marketing materials for the two islands they're developing. (See what I mean?)

I was describing a vision of what was to come, rather than an existing property, so I naturally slipped into the future tense: 'We will create the ultimate in luxury,' etc, etc.

This prompted a call from Tania at Mint, who explained that in her part of the world, if you say 'I will do something', everyone understands that to mean it'll never happen.

Of course, we have something like that over here - it's called builderspeak - but it seems to be the generally accepted meaning in the United Arab Emirates. Curious, eh?

What it meant was, I had to write about something in the future while avoiding the future tense. You try it sometime. It's not easy. (Thankfully, I seem to have pulled it off.)

Manetone

I just wanted to show you this amazing thing. Loitering in reception at The Partners the other day, I was faced with a funny-looking rendition of Manet's Bar at the Folies Bergere. Looking closer, I discovered it was made up of old Pantone chips. Incredible.

The result of a long night, apparently, this utterly pointless creation is also utterly wonderful - largely because it's so pointless.

Why don't we do more of this sort of thing in our business? Just take time out to make some mad idea real? Or do we, and I just never get to hear about it? If you know of similar splendid design nuttiness, do let me know.

(The Partners also came up with the quite brilliant Grand Tour idea for the National Gallery, putting life-size reproductions of masterpieces all over London. But I don't want to be accused of brown-nosing to clients, so I won't mention it.)

The Visual Dictionary

Thanks once again to Ben Terrett's Noisy Decent Graphics blog, I was introduced to the splendid Visual Dictionary this month.

This is an archive of photographs of words, contributed by hundreds of people. Right now, there are almost 6,000 images of nearly 3,500 words. It's a lovely idea, and one of those 'what the internet was made for' projects.

(Of course, it's my professional duty to point out that it's not a dictionary at all, as there are no meanings, etymologies or whathaveyou provided for the words. 'The Visual Lexicon' might have been a more accurate name. Ah, it's a lonely furrow that I plough.)