musings on NOOISMO™

i am often asked to define the nooka customer in terms of demographics, which is difficult for me as the nooka customer spans many different age, economic, and cultural groups. i am able to describe one part of their personality to which i coined the term "nooismo™" – a person who appreciates new developments in technology, art, design and culture. people who exhibit signs of nooismo are sometimes the trend-setters themselves, well-versed in the visual language of context in pop culture and able to see when something truly is 'noo' and fresh.

for example: courreges was a ground breaking fashion designer in the 1960s. he was one of the first to pioneer the use of industrial synthetics in fashion and his looks presented a utopian vision of the future. he is one of the grandfathers of 'nooismo'. the iphone is also a product that has nooismo appeal [and it would have even more without ATT!].

music is a good place to find an emotional connection to nooismo. at the moment, the label modular records is the finest example of a music company that successfully presents noo and fun bands [fun is an important component of nooismo]. if you're interested in bands in the past who exhibited the ultimate in nooismo for their time, i recommend this blog by Dave Renard – it's amazing, he digs up long forgotten and hidden gems.

other random past nooismos: inline skates were hailed as an innovation over traditional roller skates, but actually, their design predates the truck design that was popular for most of the 20th century. luckily someone found a way to reinvigorate their nooismo in the 1980s! fuel cell technology is another old innovation [invented in the 1800s] that will hopefully be noo again big time!