Oregon Humanities

Old-growth media and adaptive reuse

An interview with Sohrab Vossoughi

Sohrab Vossoughi is founder and president of Portland-based ZIBA Design—an award-winning firm that designs everything from workaday stuff (KitchenAid, Black and Decker) to “user experiences” (Umpqua Bank and Gerding Edlen Development). Born in Tehran, Vossoughi immigrated to San Jose in 1970 at age 14. He founded Ziba (a word that means “beautiful” in Farsi) in 1984 and is the recipient of more than thirty patents and two hundred design awards. Vossoughi recently sat down to talk with Portland writer and community cultural advocate Tim DuRoche about old-growth media, the process of change, and how we might reenvision the experience of reading the news.

DuRoche: We frequently hear people say that we’re moving beyond a traditional economic model of scarcity, of looking at goods, that we’re moving towards a new-growth economy, which is about ideas. But, at the same time, we see the newspaper going away. Do you think the desire, the tactile sensibility of holding a newspaper will disappear?

Vossoughi: It won’t go away.

DuRoche: Because I think there’s no replacement for that.

Vossoughi: No, it won’t go away. The business model is not so sustainable right now because the whole advertising piece is falling apart. But I was thinking about this: I still go and look on the Web and find what I want to read and I print it and I take it because I have the flexibility, the tactile feel of being able to go back and forth. So that’s what I’ve been thinking about—even with books (like the Kindle—we’ll see some adoption on that). But I don’t think that you are going to the newspaper go away completely. It’s not this or that, it’s this and that but in a different form. You are going to have a general newspaper with as much circulation as you have now. Are you going to be able to charge that much for the advertising now? I don’t know—things change. I think the tactile feeling of a book, a magazine or whatever, it’s just something that is part of us, we need that. . . . Access, it’s the right access.

DuRoche: As someone who designs stuff, can you see moving towards designing, reshaping an idea? Suppose somebody came to Ziba and said, we want to change the way that people think about the idea of a newspaper. We don’t want the newspaper to go away. Can you see taking that on?

Vossoughi: Absolutely.

DuRoche: The brand or the rebranding, which?

Vossoughi: I would love to take the Oregonian … to figure this out. But there are issues that the old guard have to face. The world has changed, so, it’s not about trying to cut costs or this and that. That’s not going to get you out of this mess. What’s going to get you out of this mess is thinking, first of all, through innovation—innovating on what’s really right for consumers. That’s how you’re going to come out of this thing. It’s really difficult for the newspapers, to let go of their business model. In the context of this new world, it is not working. And I’d love to solve this because I know there are ways to understand more about the way people are consuming information, finding a way to reach people . . . how the newspaper could be meaningful to them in ways we didn’t know. But you can’t be meaningful to them based on a 30, 40, 50 years ago artifact model. People still want to know about stuff—they want to read the newspaper. They want to know what’s happening. How do you deliver that and where do you deliver it? Is it based on activities, you know? So, okay, if you look at the day in the life of a person, you know, you go through different environments. You are going to your car. You are going to home. You are going to work, whatever. So, hey, these are opportunities.

DuRoche: Could the newspaper embrace “adaptive reuse” like the historic building has?

Vossoughi: Yeah. There are a lot of things that (people, activities) change during the day. There are so many different ways of thinking about people going through their life. I mean, small is beautiful these days. Just focusing on that, the whole thing, and see how we can deliver on that. How many times I’ve sat inside an airplane and tried to read newspaper and they are this big. They are not designed to be read in small spaces. … I wish they would have made it narrower, so I can actually manage it, you know. There are a many opportunities for innovations that make your life experience easier. What is desirable and what is feasible technology and what is achievable? Achievable means the behavior and mindset of the company for whom we have to deliver on this innovation. That’s the biggest obstacle, it’s the mindset of this …

DuRoche: Permanence, as opposed to change?

Vossoughi: Yeah, nobody wants to change. Even us, as designers, when it comes to ourselves, we know not to change. It’s funny. We try to change everything but ourselves. So, I understand it. But, you know, somebody has to, the mavericks are the ones who are going to win. They are the ones who we love to work with. They say, yes, let’s do it! Let’s try it! You know, let’s throw the dice.

About Tim DuRoche

Tim DuRoche is a writer, musician, and community cultural advocate. He is the community programs manager for Portland Center Stage.

02 October 2009 | Posted by Tim DuRoche in New Ideas
Permalink | Comments? (0 so far)