Qantas refurbishes 737-800 and installs the worlds smallest airline toilet cubicles

Did a quick weekend dash to Adelaide to celebrate my mothers 91st birthday.

Qantas refurbished 737-800
I flew Qantas both directions. One way in a regular 737 - the workhorse of Qantas's domestic fleet, and the return in one of their planes with an upgraded interior.

These upgrades to the 37 fleet were announced in late July 2015. They have 67 aircraft to upgrade, and at that point were promising it would happen within 12 months - so they have a little over 6 mths to complete the transformation.

New seat covers - quilted body, and leather(ette?) headrest

I was impressed with the new 'quilted' seat coverings, business class barriers, and deeper overhead lockers that encourage you to place your case sideways.

Refreshed cabin of 787-800 with new overhead lights and air vents,
and deeper overhead lockers. Still those drop-down screens, but straps to
hang your tablet from, and wifi entertainment streaming.

From Qantas publicity:

'Economy has evolved with our next-generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
Economy customers will experience the new Marc Newson styled seat with 30" pitch, 5" recline and 17.2" seat width.'

Surprisingly, they have managed to maintain 30' pitch in economy despite adding another row of 6 seats (economy goes form 156 to 162  plus 12 business). I think they gained the space from the back galley and the thinner toilets if these seat plans are to be believed.

The top seat map is the new 737-800 with 30 rows. See how thin the toilets are
and how the line of galley storage behind the toilets has disappeared.
Interestingly there is one less crew jump seat as well.

'Slimline' toilets are really, really slim.
The shock was when visiting the toilets. I think these are the thinnest toilets I have ever used on an aircraft. They have reduced the size, by removing the ledge that usually runs along one side, and having the hand basin jut into the 'standing' space in front of the toilet proper. Presuming the plans above are to scale - you can see the difference in size, and the lack of the side ledge.

I'm a kind of mid-size person, with broad shoulders, and I could not turn around without bumping into some part of this new 'slimline' room.

On the upside, the new business class looks great, as do the new class dividers.

Sorry about the lack of focus - but new diamond patterned
Business Class dividers, and new maroon coloured seats

I didn't get a chance to use Q-Streaming, as I had my own entertainment (2nd to last episode of Series 1 of The Leftovers).

Final Word
Go before you board if you want to avoid toilet claustrophobia.

Oh, and thanks to 2PAXfly.com for the post

Too early? Are Hipsters retro yet?

Fellow Graphic Designers - save a lot of time with this:

Source: hipsterlogo

Qantas can't add up - emails wrong fare price for London flights

Given the difficulties it has had with its budget, you would think that Qantas would be hard at work on its mathematics capabilities.

Apparently not.

Today I received two emails. One with very low prices for London fares in all classes other than economy, in fact making it cheaper to go to London than to go to New.

Nine hours later it issued this correction:

Yep, in the space of 9 hours your economy fare to london got $4 more expensive, your Premium fare got $303 cheaper, your business fare got $1086 more expensive, and first class will cost you a whole $6 more.

Wish I'd booked in business to London this morning. I could have saved over $1,000.

What we've been working on

I don't usually post our work here on this blog, but damn it  - time for some self promotion.

This is the latest identity we have been working on for a London UK based building company client.

They're a new London building company, so aside from their identity, we fixed them up with a quick temporary website at: http://llhomes.co.uk/

Here's what their stacked logo looks like on actual signage:

Kids and video screens - how young is too young?

If you are a parent, or help bring up kids, then this might help you feel better about shoving an iPad in their little hands, or parking them in front of the TV.

"No matter what you do, parents always worry about being perfect, but they don't have to," Dr Bowden says. "They just have to be good enough. There will be times when it is perfectly proper to just put the kids in front of the TV and leave them there, because otherwise you will all be screaming."

Dr Michael Bowden,
Head of the Department of Psychological Medicine
Children's Hospital, Westmead, Sydney, Australia

See the full article by Paul Byrnes at SMH.com.au

Apple - follower or leader - lifter or leaner?

With the launch of iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, the question is whether Apple is an innovator rather than a follower - or in Joe Hockey's terms (Australia's Treasurer) a 'lifter' or a 'leaner'.

One of my friends on facebook, a former Apple fan, recently posted:

I loved how everybody pointed out yesterday that there isn't a single feature on the "new" iphone that hasn't been standard on Android since 2012.

So - I looked at some reliable tech blogs, and found out that by-and-large he was right. Is my faith, and apparent devotion (my business  and I own 7+ Apple devices, and no longer have any PC's) misplaced?

But as Charles Arthur of the Guardian points out  the leader/follower dichotomy - is far too simple an analysis as he reviews Apple's history:

The lesson is that calling Apple a “follower” overlooks what it does best, which is wrap excellent usability into top-quality design, often alongside an innovative interface and then keep iterating to produce a hugely popular product that also wrings huge amounts of money from people.
To the latter point, consumers seem satisfied with what Apple offers. Its shares of total sales in PCs and phones has ticked up steadily over the years. Its share of tablet sales is falling along with overall device sales, though that may be due to people simply not renewing them: tablets do not really wear out in the way that phones do.
For those reasons, it is dangerous to dismiss what Apple does as “following”. Its track record, combined with the products it showed during its event on Tuesday, has the potential to have enormous and long-term effects.

So maybe this Android versus iOS is another age old story. Like  Betamax v VHS its quite often not the first to market or the most technically advanced that becomes the success?

Here's the whole article. And for the basis of the GUI, mouse and how Xerox gave it away, then try this wry article in cracked

To click, or not to click? That is the question.

Should I click, or will I be too late?

Ok - now its time for new design software – Sketch!

Its been a long time since I learn't new design software.  The last major move was to InDesign about 6 or so years ago.  I actually went and did a course (a morning a week for 8 weeks) which was well worth the effort.

Today, faced with an onslaught of mobile responsive websites - I have been persuaded into purchasing 'Sketch'. Its a vector based system that sits somewhere between the Adobe products Illustrator and Photoshop. At under AU$100 it sounds like a bargain if what I have been told about it is true.

Version 3 is promoted as 'Professional digital design for Mac.'

"Sketch gives you the power, flexibility and speed you always wanted in a lightweight and easy-to-use package. Finally you can focus on what you do best: Design."

Well I can only hope that is true - on to watching the video and exploring the features . . .

Paws in the air

Sometimes you just have to give in to a good cat video:

Source:  JMG

Apple iPhone Rumour updates reaching fever pitch with reputed packaging

Well with pressure building for a rumoured iPhone 6 launch event on September 9, the rumour mill is turning at full speed, with all sorts of claims and purported photos of bibs and bobs, and even packaging.

If you just can't wait, then look here, and here, and here and here

But of course - until its launched - this might all be bullshit.

This is the way my day is shaping up

Thanks to Rick Shrober

Bears Hate J.Crew

From one of my favourite websites - Joe. My. God:

JMG reader Dick snapped the above photo at the J. Crew outlet in Soho. I called the store and the clerk that answered the phone said the slogan is a reference to the "campfire theme" of the window display. She said that she was unaware of the meaning of "bear" in gay circles and that the Columbus Circle store has the same display artist and therefore the same display and window slogan. Still, it seems like an odd word choice. Unless there's a straight window display artist working in Manhattan, which seems rather unlikely. Photo source.

I want Kalinda's Notebook!

I'm a bit of a fan of 'The Good Wife', but even more of a fan of the orange notebook that Kalinda Sharma always carries.

Despite my smart phone, laptop, and iPad Mini, I still like to carry a notebook to take to meetings, jot down to-do lists (and more importantly: tick them off), sketch, take notes and generally use as a record of my business life.

I currently use a RHODIA. I like the feel of their paper - they do make one in orange, but I can never find it in stock - so I am stuck with the designers default: black.

Orange is kind of my signature colour, So Kalinda's notebook is my point of envy.

RHODIA

Moleskin - don't seem to do one in Orange at all. Pinetti do an orange leather cover, but it doesn't look as polished as Kalinda's.


I have a sneaking suspicion that it is not a RHODIA, but HERMÉ. In which case, I'm looking at more than AU$600plus $140 for the refill.

Anyone know of any other options?

HERMÉS

For More: Notemaker.com.au, or if budget is no problem Hermés

UPDATE: I think I just found the prefect Kalinda's notebook!