The year 2012 marks ten years since Locus Research was formed. We have enjoyed a diverse range of projects and learned a lot from the challenges, successes, and failures over the decade, whilst working with some fantastic people and companies along the way.
The logic, importance, and synchronicity of the number ten are obvious. It is at once a number, but also a symbol of both humanity and our evolution. It is a simple platform for larger ideas (like money), but has enough resolution to imply and form its own meaning.
It is the number of fingers on both of your hands, and the number of your toes. Hands provide us the dexterity to be designers and crafts people and to think and communicate quickly and easily through a variety of both drawn and three dimensional forms.
Our ten fingers are the basis for modern numbers with the early Proto-Indo-European numerals containing the root word for finger or digit. The definition of digit means a finger but also is one of the elements that collectively form the system of numeration (0-9).
Through this drives the metric decimal system, where all multiples and divisions of the decimal units are factors of the power of 10; it was first proposed by Simon Stevin in 1586. Greek Mathematician Pythagoras and Roman General Agrippa even considered ten to be the symbol of the universe, a thought nicely expanded on through the prescient film Powers of Ten created by the legendary designers Charles and Ray Eames. It depicts the relative scale of the universe in factors of 10 from molecular to astrological scale. And perhaps uncannily the Palomar Observatory discovered in 2005 there were not just nine planets, but ten.
The number ten is deeply rooted in our psyche; it was not five or six commandments that came down from Sinai with Moses but ten. Perhaps savvy religious leaders had already worked out it might be easier to remember ten (counting on your fingers) than trying to laboriously write out a more complete set of don’ts when most of the population could not write.
In sport the number 10 has quizzically found a central role in both soccer and rugby; the playmaker often wears the number 10 as a mid fielder, or a first five eight. The fastest men in the world have to run under the mystical ten second barrier, whilst the most demanding event, the Decathalon, tests athletes over ten track and field events.
Ten even found its way onto the British Prime Minister’s door at Downing Street, Ten is arguably the best album of Pearl Jam, and every time you reach into your pocket to pay for something you are paying in a denomination of ten.
Wherever you look, ten finds its way into our lives like a piece of invisible infrastructure. Ten is a dimension, a measure. For us, reaching ten years is a measure of success.
The concept that caught our eye early on as the perfect analogy for the celebration of ten years was the tree. Through analysing the growth rings of a tree you can define its life-span, and in many cases a ring is almost exactly a calendar year. It visually charts a tree’s growth through the good years and the bad.
Like the number ten, trees are pervasive. They are often planted in honour of an accomplishment, an important rite of passage or for the life of a loved one. Trees are symbols of life and their ability to enrich the air we breathe accentuates this as they process the most common greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) into oxygen.
In New Zealand, Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest) is a majestic Kauri tree metaphorically tied to the creation myth where Tane, son of the Sky Father Ranginui and the Earth Mother Papatuanuku, separates his parents from their embrace to give us the world as we know it. Tane Mahuta was linked in 2009 to another deeply aged tree in Japan called Jomon Sugi in Yakushima which is staggeringly dated between 2,170 and 7,200 years old; an age sufficient to see almost the entire civilised period of humanity.
We used the concept of a tree’s rings to create a graphic that charts our ten years and all of the interesting events along our timeline. It captures the idea of growth, change, and evolution without necessarily setting an end point.
All ideas start somewhere, from an origin, a position, a place, a point – a locus. With time and attention, a seedling can grow, develop, and influence its surroundings.
In 2002, we sought to create a company that could become a world leader in product development and to do it in a certain way; with ethics, integrity and originality. Our approach to design was founded with the idea of creating products as a total work of art; a holistic consideration of all elements that influence a product’s life cycle, like an ecologist studies an entire ecosystem.
The word research reflects the systematic way in which we carry out our work. Product development requires deep research to generate the genuine understanding that can drive the insights needed to create products with a lasting point of difference.
Being in New Zealand has provided a sense of place and also an important source of inspiration through both the environment and the people. We have drawn inspiration from the resourcefulness, independence, creativity, and mana of people as diverse as artist Len Lye, sailor and environmentalist Peter Blake, coach Arthur Lydiard, climber and philanthropist Edmund Hillary, engineer and entrepreneur Bill Hamilton, designer and director Mark Pennington, and potter and teacher Doreen Blumhardt. New Zealand has inspired and enabled us to think differently about what we do and to do it the right way.
As a company, we modelled ourselves off businesses like Design Mobel and Macpac. Each business was founded by a visionary person (Dave Macfarlane and Bruce MacIntyre, respectively). Under their stewardship they were both highly innovative and strove for excellence in all facets of their business, whilst being about more than just the money. They cared about their environment, people and the community in a genuine way.
We have worked assiduously to constantly improve and evolve how we work to learn from each program. Incrementally we have created a unified approach to developing products which is fully integrated, a process that has literally taken ten years to settle out. Every project, client, and collaborator is a part of this important output.
We have enjoyed the ten years, and hope we can build on this to create a durable and lasting impression in product development, design, innovation, and sustainability.
For a digital version of the book: http://issuu.com/locusresearch/docs/locus-research_a-measure-of-success
For a physical copy from Blurb: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3718304
Or to request an A6 Booklet version of the book and poster, simply email us at enquiries@locusresearch.com.
Kind Regards,
Timothy Allan
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