I'm a heavy Apple user and I love their products, but I'm bewildered by some of their design decisions. The one that drives me the most nuts is that my Thunderbolt Display's USB ports are on the back. As someone who is frequently connecting and disconnecting things, this gets super-annoying.
So I was excited when I saw this little gizmo by BlueLounge, the Jimi USB extension:
There's something magical about seeing a design on paper and bringing it to life with your own hands. In true DIY spirit, many of this year's winning designs use materials that can be found lying around most homes—or obtained with a quick trip to a hobby store—meaning just about anyone can create their own award-winning design with a little bit of work. The honorees range from simple wire stamps to elaborate instructions for a workspace staple. Even more important, the winning designs are fun—which, as well all know, is as one of the most important aspects of DIY culture.
The jury team—led by Ayah Bdeir of littleBits—chose a winning group of eight from the submissions that they felt best manifested the vitality and enthusiasm of the DIY community. If you missed it the first time around, see which designs took home the 'mold,' so to speak, from the DIY category:
Winner: NeoLucida, by Pablo Garcia and Golan Levin
Inspired by the 19th century Camera Lucida, NeoLucida is a drawing aid that helps artists reproduce subjects by tracing a superimposed image from a prism. The jury was most impressed with Pablo Garcia and Golan Levin's ability to update a historic tool into a modern and functional device: "There is something beautiful about art that allows other people to make art. It takes an old technology that is obsolete, revitalizes it and makes it open and accessible to people everywhere to make for themselves."
Runner Up: Tri-Horse, by Brian Campbell
On a search for stability, woodworker Brian Campbell designed a three-point sawhorse design fro Fine Homebuilding Magazine that faired much better than the quadruped designs out there. Tri-Horse is made completely from plywood and serves a myriad of purposes—from miter saw and table saw stands to a general catch-all station for your portable workspace. The jury appreciated the way the design encourages DIY spirit: "The Tri-Horse takes a very common tool whose flaws we have come to accept and re-engineers it in a simple but effective way. Like the Neolucida, we like tools that empower people to make their own DIY objects."
3M captures the spark of new ideas and transforms them into thousands of ingenious products. As a 3Mer, you'll have opportunities to make a substantial impact, fueled by competitive pay, comprehensive quality benefits and recognition of your achievements. They are currently looking for an enthusiastic Graphic Designer to join their Global Design Lab who will develop, create and execute upon concepts and visual ideas for product, packaging, and various communication vehicles.
With a bachelor's degree in graphic design and at least 3 years of experience, you'll possess exceptional attention to detail in graphics, layout, and typography, demonstrated flexibility in multiple task assignments while maintaining a high level of accuracy and a knack for translating business objectives into creative solutions. If this sounds like you and you want to be a part of what's next, Apply Now.
Vikings loved to brawl, with both their enemies and with each other. Viking sagas are filled with tales of even longstanding friends happy to settle disagreements with steel. But as they piled onto their longships to go pillaging, their boarding process was a good deal more civilized than the melee that is modern air travel. For one thing, their storage was one-to-one; when 30 Vikings got onto a ship, there were 30 places to store things.
That's because they carried their seating on board with them, and their seating doubled as their storage. Prior to boarding, the decks of a ship were bare. Each Viking plunked his chest down at his own rowing position.
Enough Viking chests have been found, and replicas made, that we can take a look at their design. It's both intelligent and purposeful. The first thing you notice is that the tops were rounded to shed water, and perhaps to provide a modicum of comfort.
This is the latest installment of our Core77 Questionnaire. Previously, we talked to IKEA creative director Mia Lundström.
Name: Todd St. John
Occupation: Designer/illustrator/animator. Founder of HunterGatherer.
Location: Brooklyn
Current projects: We are doing some ongoing work with Pilgrim, which is a surf shop in Brooklyn run by a friend. We just finished up some animation for AM Labs, which is a cleaning-product company based in Denmark. And we're working on our own product designs.
Mission: Striving to make designs that seem inevitable
From Photo-Graphics, an ongoing series of cameras rendered in wood
Cover images for a Money Mark LP and the New York Times Magazine
When did you decide that you wanted to be a designer? When I was younger I was interested in too many things. At some point in school, when I understood what design could encompass, it really appealed to me. Since it was so expansive, you could do quite a number of things and still call them "design."
Education: My degree is in graphic design, from the University of Arizona. Later I taught a design class for 10 years in Yale's graduate program, and I feel like I learned quite a bit from the faculty and students there. I also absorbed a lot about woodworking and engineering from my father.
First design job: In school, my first "design" internship was in Hawaii, where I grew up. I worked for a small agency, doing illustrations for a local ice cream shop and coffee packaging and things like that. Out of school, it was for a small firm in San Diego, doing identities and packaging.
Who is your design hero? The answer to that question changes. But I recently read a Jim Henson biography, and I've always thought really highly of him and how he combined communication and fun and visual innovation in ways that do great things for the world.
Inside HunterGatherer's studio in Brooklyn
This weekend saw the unveiling of the collaborative bicycle designs that are going head to head in the third edition of the Oregon Manifest, in which five teams in as many cities set out to create and craft the best urban utility bike. As of Monday morning, the public is invited to vote on their favorite one, which may well be produced by Fuji Bikes in the near future. We are pleased to present exclusive Q&As with each team so they have a chance to explain why their bicycle is the best before the voting period closes this Sunday, August 3.
Yesterday, we heard from NYC's Pensa × Horse Cycles. Here's the story behind Industry × Ti Cycles's "SOLID," representing Portland, Ore.
Core77: Did you and Ti Cycles know (or know of) each other before the collaboration? What was the matchmaking process like?
Garett Stenson (Industry): We knew of Ti Cycles' reputation, their 25 years of experience, and expertise in bike craftsmanship. They are experts in metal, most notably, pushing the boundaries of titanium. The matchmaking and selection process for us was about close collaboration—is our builder willing to change the game, redefine the category, and truly make things better?
By its nature, the design/fabrication relationship for this collaboration is far more intimate than your average designer's relationship with a contractor or manufacturer. To what degree did you educate each other on your respective areas of expertise?
To disrupt any category you need friction. Innovation hurts—tension is an important part of the process. We believe the best idea needs to be stress tested and the process, iterative. Bringing together Ti Cycles' craftsman mentality with INDUSTRY's modern and agile approach was the perfect marriage. We aligned on pushing the boundaries early on, yet respected each other's expertise. At the end of the day, it was about creating a meaningful (and winning) result—together.
Tonight's Curiosity Club is "8 Days A Week" with the prolific Kate Bingaman-Burt, illustrator, educator and all-round creative badass. As she puts it: Kate will involve colorful visuals, excitement about personal projects (both hers and others), her path from wanting to be a morning TV personality (watch out Kathie Lee) to teaching (it was an accident, I swear) to drawing every day (my hand is cramping as I type this). Also, she has a problem with slipping from third person to first person while writing (I am so sorry). Also, she usually gives away stuff at her talks (Will the TSA confiscate a t-shirt cannon? What if it shot confetti? Hmmm...how about hot dogs? I love hot dogs). Bring your own ketchup and mustard. I look forward to seeing you all.
Come by Hand-Eye Supply at 6pm PT, or tune in as we stream live.
About Kate Bingaman-Burt
Kate makes piles of work about the things that we BUY (and want) and the emotions attached to our STUFF. She also happily think and draw for good people and companies. She has been making work about consumption since 2002, teaching since 2004 and drawing until her hand cramps since 2006 (ouch).Along with being an educator and illustrator, she organize events, installations, workshops and she probably talks a bit too much.
Her first book, Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today? was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. Since then, she has collaborated with them to produce two more titles about documentation and consumption in 2012 and 2014. Her design clients include Chipotle, Hallmark, IDEO, VH1, Girl Scouts of America, Madewell and the Gap as well as locally loved institutions like the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Reading Frenzy and Know Your City. She am also actively involved in the organization of Design Week Portland.
Kate is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Portland State University. In 2013, she was the recipient of the 2013 College of the Arts Kamelia Massih Outstanding Faculty Prize as well as a TEDXPortland Speaker. She is the faculty advisor for the PSU.GD student design group Friends of Graphic Design (FoGD) and the in-house student design studio A+D Projects. She also coordinates the weekly Show & Tell Lecture Series. For her, teaching and making go hand in hand. Without one, the other wouldn't exist.
Interaction design has increasingly been supplementing (if not outright supplanting) industrial design when it comes to many of the products that we use on a daily basis, and technology continues to promise new ways to interact with objects, both within and without ubiquitous touchscreens. The Internet of Things may not yet be evenly distributed, but the Interaction category of the Core77 Design Awards continues to celebrate not only what's new and next but also the experiments and breakthroughs of the future made real.
Even so, the content itself is often familiar—if not outright commonplace—which only underscores how new modes of interactions have the potential to reinvent age-old experiences such as socializing, storytelling and wayfinding. Led by Jury Captain Aaron Siegel of Fabrica, the jury selected these projects and products—over a dozen in all—for top honors in the Interaction category of the 2014 Core77 Design Awards.
Professional Winner: Sadly By Your Side, by Angelo Semeraro and Davide Cairo
Turn your iPhone into a visual and musical remixing tool with Angelo Semeraro and Davide Cairo's Sadly By Your Side. Bring each song in the 8-track album to life by using the app in conjunction with the imagery in the accompanying booklet, or by 'scanning' the real world. By deeply integrating disparate media—an album, book and iOS app—the project easily stood out to the jury: "Sadly by Your Side captivated us visually and emotionally. It explored an interaction paradigm that was new to most people, and it bridged a number of disciplines and mediums while also rethinking how we experience music, causing the user to become a part of the composition process."
» Learn more about Sadly By Your Side
Student Winner: inFORM: A Dynamic Shape Display, by Tangible Media Group
MIT Media Lab's Tangible Media Group turned heads with their Dynamic Shape Display, and for good reason. The device turns digital data into virtual objects that can be manipulated in real life, allowing users to play with things that aren't actually there. "The integration of telepresent characteristics helps bridge the virtual divide with the additional fidelity of experience through haptic feedback," says the jury. "While we would love to see this scaled, we thought that even this prototype demonstration was extremely compelling and the fact that it got us talking for a lengthy amount of time about its different applications in the world very much pointed to its worthiness."
» Learn more about inFORM: A Dynamic Shape Display
You might exchange ideas, motivations and inspiration within your own circles on a regular basis, but how often do you get to do it with people from all across the globe? Your chance to do just that at 2014 IDSA International Conference is almost gone. Late registration for this annual IDSA event ends this Sunday, August 3, but you can also register on-site from August 3rd to August 16th.
Not only is there an impressive line up of speakers and events to attend, the local arts and culture of Austin, TX should keep you busy and perfectly entertained when you're not at the conference center. And don't forget about the Core77 Party on Friday, August 15, at the historic Scoot Inn, kicking off at 9pm. Get your tickets today before it's too late and we'll see you there!
Images via Robbie Khan / PetaPixel
While I'd previously caught wind of LG's new 34" monitor, the company's hero shots showed little more than a rectangle covered in Photoshopped fake screens and devoid of local scale. But I just came across photographer Robbie Khan's write-up on his, and seeing it with actual work on it drives home how gi-normous this thing is.
Like many of us creatives Khan spends long stretches in front of a monitor, and the 34UM95's 21:9 aspect ration and 3440x1440 resolution would go to good use in his work editing panoramic photos.
LG's product copy points out that they've included a "Screen Splitter" feature (both Windows and Mac compatible) that automatically tiles out four screens with a single click...
NYCxDesign 2014: ICFFAfter some troubling years, the ICFF is back with a ton of lighting and new design.
NYCxDesign 2014: Satellite ShowsHighlights from the numerous exhibitions and events that took place throughout New York.
NYCxDesign 2014: Sight Unseen OffsitePresenting almost 50 emerging design studios in a massive two-story 20,000 square ft. raw space.
ZAI SKI FACTORY TOURA detailed look at high-end ski manufacturer Zai's factory located in the heart of the Swiss Alps.
Material ConneXion's New Book Series Offers a Handy Guide to the Latest and Greatest Material Innovations for Architects & DesignersReviewed by core jr
A More Beautiful Question, by Warren BergerReviewed by Robert Blinn
'Hello World' by Alice Rawsthorn, a Survey of the Past, Present and Future of DesignReviewed by Ray
'Maker Dad': The Book Us Grown-Up, DIY-Inclined Daughters Wish Our Fathers Would've HadReviewed by erika rae
The Malinalco Project: A Cross-Cultural Collaboration between Masters Students & Master Craftspeople
By Etty Beke
Case Study: Designing Everything but the FoodBy Greater Good Studio
WHY WE NEED A NEW HYPER-LOCAL MODEL FOR DESIGN ACTIVISMBy Julie Kim
IN THE HANDS OF GOD: INSIGHTS INTO DESIGN RESEARCHBy frog
WHAT THE FUTURE OF FISH CAN TEACH US ABOUT DESIGNING SYSTEMSBy Cheryl Dahle
Creative Opportunities at Coroflot.com
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