We are obsessed by the ‘new’, but what’s really new?  I think that in many cases, we are repeating history and not getting the ‘lessons learned.’

Let’s look at a few design examples.  After 1973 Lyall Watson’s Super Nature book, a multinational food company now packs its frozen peas in pyramid-like plastic packages.

It’s not forty centuries after the Egyptians, it’s but forty years since Watson wrote that pyramidal packages are more effective packages than square boxes.  A milk producer is also using pyramidal packing with the result that milk shelf-life was much improved.

Watson also wrote that razor blades, when stored in pyramidal boxes last much longer.  Probably some Swiss razor maker would not be happy.  And Watson also wrote that the rising moon makes plants grow faster and beards and most hair, too.

PAST IS PROLOGUE
“Past is prologue’ is from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest play.  It basically means that history defines and frames the context for the present.  History, the past, has immense sources of knowledge and experience that we can use today to innovate smarter.  We need to learn from past events – positive and / or negative.  And creativity should not only emphasize new ideas, but review of established, validated ideas.

Try on this metaphor.  We’re all used to sunrise, but less so to moonrise.  Leaving aside some well known moon-affected biological events, it must not be forgotten the Moon-made tides.  Which means that the luminous side of the world is sunlit, it may also make us blind and the ‘dark side of the moon’ may reveal itself more enlightening and possibly lead to more innovation.

While we have explored the parallelepiped and spherical forms, we think we know everything about  them, so we make most of our widgets look like these forms.  Maybe, we should still explore the pyramidal form a little more.