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From Me To You is a new project by Gorbet Design that debuted last weekend in Toronto at the Gladstone Hotel, as part of a show titled 'Come Up To My Room'. The letters on top are from a set of Nixie Tubes, designed in the 60s to get output from computers in a pre-screen age. The four letters in the middle are blank, and visitors can turn knobs on the outside of the case to select letters and words to complete the sentence 'I .... you.'
The machine understands the letters and words that are entered, and once a word is input the computer changes one letter at a time to show variations on the original word. As the artists put it, the results are predictably unpredictable.
Check out their slide show for a more complete description of the project and lots more photos.
More info: Gorbet Design
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (1)
Instructables strikes again! Make this DIY vacu-former with a plastic peanut butter jar, a coke bottle, a home vacuum cleaner, and a few other parts. Full plans here, via Make:
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
We blogged about logo trends before, but Kris sends in a nice compendium of logo design history, courtesy of LogoOrange. There's lots to fill in here (even Xerox is missing), but we went straight for J, 'course.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (2)LeonBenjamin's got a link-studded article on Winning by Sharing, outlining some of the principles and exemplars of "fractional work." Here's a taste:
Research from the UK Work Foundation found that the main cause of the 2.6 million people on long term sickness and incapacity benefit is workplace stress, costing the tax payer billions of pounds every year. Our current command and control organisational model is literally killing people. Recent research by McKinsey & Company indicates that "half or more of a company's spending on labour may be devoted to basic interaction activities, many of them internal to the organisation". Again corroborated by other UK Work Foundation research finding that non-productive interactions in many organisations exceed 60%.Most Western economies face a wide range of issues related to ageing populations and the retirement costs of baby boombers. Many blue chip companies cannot replace the talent that will exit their companies in the next 5-10 years, and have not considered the possibility of retaining them on demand, deploying them in a fractional way that allows the 'ex-employee' to choose their unique work/retirement balance. How much more pain does everyone have to be in before these new organisational approaches are adopted by organisations of every kind? Why aren't they doing it now?
An older piece here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (1)
This from Lifehacker: Use a pegboard and some wire to get all those peripherals, power supplies, and routers off your desk and...well, under your desk. Here's how it's done.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (1)
At the recently conlcuded Grand Rapids (MI) Boat Show designer Joey Ruiter unveiled his new concept boat the Front Runner, a hydrofoil with twin forward-mounted 215hp jet-drive motors. the unique design allows the boat to run in extremely shallow water, and the jet drives also enhance the shallow water ability of the vessel. Additionally, it is all aluminum with no glue, a nod to sustainable manufacturing.
More info available at www.jruiter.com
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Teapotters is a social networking site for 3D modelers. Share your work and meet fun new friends!
[via DownloadSquad]
We're a bit late on this, as the show closes tomorrow. But if you're in Chicago you can catch the 'Designs For Life" show at the Museum of Science and Industry, which is profiling the work of African-AMerican industrial designers.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (1)
Nathan Shedroff, experience design guru, author of the seminal Experience Design 1 and co-author of Making Meaning: How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences, sits down with Steve Portigal in San Francisco to talk about the experience and design of experience design. Seriously.
Shedroff's definition gets things started: "Experience design is an approach to design, and you can use that approach in pretty much any discipline—graphic design or industrial design or interaction design, or retail design. It says the dimensions of experience are wider than what those disciplines normally take into account. And if you think wider—through time, multiple senses and other dimensions—then you can create a more meaningful experience."
And he follows it up with the 5 levels of significance:
1. Function ("Does this do what I want it to do?")
2. Price ("There are lots of cars out there to get me from point A to point B")
3. Emotion ("That's where lifestyle is engaged. How does this make me feel?")
4. Identity or Value ("This is subconscious: "Would I be caught dead with this?; am I a Nike fan, or an Adidas fan?")
5. Meaning (Not "Is this me?", but "Does this fit my reality?" "Does this even fit inside the world as I perceive it?")
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After watching this four times in a row I can't exactly recall when I yelled that out, but I am fairly certain I did, or at least that I soon will, possibly involuntarily on the subway ride home. That is the resonance this work has - it is undeniable - the Greatest industrial video ever.
Australia has announced plans to ban incandescent light bulbs and switch to fluorescent light by 2010, cutting the country's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million ton by 2012, according to Malcolm Turnbull, the environment minister. "If the whole world switches to these bulbs today, we would reduce our consumption of electricity by an amount equal to five times Australia's annual consumption of electricity," he said. [Link via Make:]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Okay, so we're so flattered by the appearance of Coroflot in Lisa Troutman's cartoon that we wanted to share it. But there's great photography in here, and a nice side project for Worrell and co., billed as the stuff "designers do in their free time." See issue 00 at www.fivetoninemagazine.com
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (1)Smartmoney.com's got a selection of "10 Things" articles that are irresistable to read. We don't know how many grains of salt you need for these (or if you need any at all), but go ahead and start with "10 Things Your Blogger Won't Tell You," then have some fun reading "10 Things Your Dentist Won't Tell You" and "10 Things Your Plumber Won't Tell You." But whatever you do, don't read "10 Things Your Fitness Club Won't Tell You." Wait. You started with that one! WE TOLD YOU NOT TO READ THAT ONE!!
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
A wonderful subversion: this image, submitted by "rark" at frostfirepulse. [via textually]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)Rob Walker's column this week gives an overview of Savannah College of Art and Design's Working Class Studio, which is "so focused on marketplace realities that it seems more like a company than a college course." Here's the intro:
Since starting his online store Elsewares as a showcase for independent designers nearly three years ago, Ryan Deussing has had plenty of interaction with recent design-school graduates looking to find their way into the marketplace. Often they have interesting concepts but haven't worked out practical issues of production and distribution. So Deussing was intrigued when he was approached by the founders of a program at the Savannah College of Art and Design (or SCAD) in Georgia, called Working Class Studio, that is so focused on marketplace realities that it seems more like a company than a college course. "I'd never been contacted by the product-development arm of a school," he says.
[Link]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
We've always said that food, these days, is exactly like industrial design (raw materials, manufacturing processes, lots of technology, labor, solid waste, etc.), but thought it would resonate metaphorically. Well, it's pretty literal here--if in a DIY kinda way. (Can't believe this isn't a YouTube video.) Come and get it!
[via b3ta]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (1)
The Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional HG Japan is the product of a collaboration between Fujitsu PFU and Daitetsu-Yatsui Urushi Workshop - a traditional lacquerware maker. Each key is handpainted with 10 coats of Japanese lacquer, then sprinkled with gold dust (of course). The made-to-order keyboard is only available in Japan... at a cost of around $4,240.
From designboom.
Posted by: warrenginn | Comments (0)No, not Charlize Theron; she's probably out of the country right now. The object voted most beautiful is Roelf Mulder of ...XYZ's condom applicator. It's a fitting notion in a country racked by the world's worst AIDS epidemic. Life is indeed beautiful.
If the judging criteria were narrower we might have seen Haldane Martin's Ostrich feather lamp win the prize.
Or furniture lovers might have preferred Greg and Roche Dry of Egg Designs' rocker. Take a look at the rest of the finalists here.
The exhibition featured some other beautiful items like Heath Nash's lampshades in riotous colors. Retail buyers from the USA and elsewhere were there in full force so expect some of these items near you soon.
Posted by: Tasos Calantzis | Comments (0)
The winning entry of last year's contest is Martin Blaszczak from Poland. (The press release gives him a boxer name: "Martin BLASTI Blaszczak" says the text--we love that!) Anyway, it's the water image above, and the money raised from the sale of the T-shirt will go directly to HIDO's design projects in the developing world.
Now the organization has launched a new poster design competition, aimed at increasing awareness of violence towards girls and women. Find everything you need here, along with the submission requirements.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
During a two-week fellowship to research his book, "Branding the Totalitarian State," Steven Heller interviewed Frank Luca, the chief Librarian of the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami, Florida.
The library is a rich resource for propaganda and other applied arts, and Mr. Lucca holds the key to its riches. How many riches? Well, in this interview they discuss the 25,000 pieces of ephemera in the library—comprised of fly swatters, fans, razor blades, etc. (Don't worry, they don't talk about all of them.) But the big question is: How do you preserve something that wasn't meant to last?
Frank talks about the collection as "the persuasive art meant to move the masses," and Steve offers design as a way of "changing the complexion of a country." Nice. So you can either get on a plane and go to Miami, or you can listen in and learn one of the reasons why you should.
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Thousands of design fans flooded Cape Town's convention centre today to see the opening of the Design Indaba's second act; the Indaba Expo. More on that tomorrow. Meanwhile upstairs the all-star line up of speakers continued.
Leading the pack was Core's highlight of Day 3: Cameron Sinclair, the ever-visible founder of Architecture for Humanity. The blonde dynamo was punting his organization in his usual passionate way but he departed from the script to share an event that had inspired him as a boy.
In a church hall in an insular America in the early 80's a man spoke about fairness toward people in need around the world. Since no-one would speak to the man afterwards, the young Cameron sat down and chatted to him. Some time later Sinclair saw in a newspaper that the same man had won a Nobel peace prize. His name was Desmond Tutu.
Legendary stuff.
Posted by: Tasos Calantzis | Comments (0)Philinthecircle posts a flick of himself painting portraits or references to some of his greatest influences on his own bare torso. Puts a spin on "self-portrait" now, doesn't it?
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)The next time you enjoy some fine dining, leave you server with a little something extra. They'll either appreciate the craft or get extremely frustrated while undoing and tearing the bill to buy a Kit-Kat.
thanks alex!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
DWR's latest round of Champagne Chair competition results includes Grand Prize winner Cantilever Block by Adam Weisgerber, Kleeko Chair by Stacie Matrka in second place, and Chair Squared by Edward Cristman snagging the Most Popular award.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
The emphasis is on style, and the adjectives are up the wazzoo, but the list has lots of great stuff in it. The official page is here. The Treehugger rundown is here. And from the press release, this looks good: "TEST-DRIVE: ECO LIGHT BULBS. Domino's test-drive taskmaster Stephen Treffinger tested 65 compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and shares the winning bulb for every fixture. (Page 90)" Can't find it on the site though. Help!
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)Andrew Zolli blows it open with his feature story in Fast Company this month, outlining the conditions, opportunities, and reasons for the coming Eco-Innovation Revolution. It's hard to pick a paragraph to quote here, but here are a couple:
As if on cue, however, a suite of new global forces is emerging that will remake the operating environment for global capitalism, obliterate the walls--and the distinctions--between the Friedmanesque Hatfields and the Naderesque McCoys, and inject a "greed is good" mentality into our approach to grand social problems. The clinical, value-neutral capitalism of old is about to follow the recently departed Friedman to the grave.
and
As with the Industrial and Information Revolutions before them, the protagonists in the "Eco-Innovation" Revolution will take the field with new approaches, ideas, and technologies that will upend our notions of production, consumption, wealth, and invention. Our current economic system was devised in an era in which labor was scarce and natural resources were abundant. We're moving into an era in which the opposite is true, and that's going to change capitalism's playbook for good.
Okay. One more:
Resource scarcity is going to be a front-page business issue as well, affecting industries from transportation to electronics. According to estimates by the International Institute for Environment and Development, at today's levels of production, there may be only another 28 years' worth of copper in the ground, another 21 years' worth of lead, a 17-year supply of silver, and 37 years' worth of tin. We will certainly get better at extracting, recycling, efficiently using, and finding replacements for these materials, but it's likely that basic industrial inputs will come under increasing pressure in the decades to come. A shortage of industrial-grade silicon, for instance, has recently spooked both the solar-cell industry and Silicon Valley. Moore's Law never assumed we'd run out of sand.
And those three paragraphs only set up the premise. He's got lots of positive, concrete examples of how we can do better.
Absolute required reading.
(Thanks to Xanthe, who also suggests this.)
This year's Microsoft Next PC Design competition finalists are up for the public choice votes. View them all at www.startsomethingpc.com.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Today Daljit Singh perfectly summarized why Cape Town's Design Indaba is such a unique event; "Everybody gets to chat and mingle; the VIPs aren't shepherded into a separate room". He's right; the congenial atmosphere makes everyone feel like a special guest rather than a conference lemming and you really do get to brush shoulders with the legends.
Core's highlight of Day 2: BusinessWeek readers will be very familiar with Roger Martin, the dean of the Rotman School of business in Toronto. Martin's talk explained why there's a schism between the thinking of designers and business people.
His thesis has Aristotelian roots; it discusses 3 ways of thinking; inductive and deductive logic on the one hand and abductive logic on the other. Moving away from the heavy philosophy, it's about the ability to see what already exists versus seeing what might be. Both are needed but they usually clash.
Martin's school trains people to integrate both ways of thinking, creating a new kind of designer or a new kind of businessperson or perhaps something entirely new altogether.
Posted by: Tasos Calantzis | Comments (1)
Recorded with old-skool technology—mini-cassette!—but don't let the tape noise dissuade you. Steve Portigal delivers an absolutely fascinating interview with Chris Miller, founder of LifePlays, a firm that uses improv techniques to help companies communicate better, think better, and be better. We wouldn't say that "improvisation is the new black," but in case anyone does say it, well, you heard it here first.
"Don't audience yourself."
"Say your offer and let the people connect with it."
"Keep the yes."
Sound too touch-feely? You'll be surprised.
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[photos: the 'all-plastic car' (left); eXasis concept car (right)]
eXasis follows up 'Senso' and 'zaZen' as third concept car out of a cooperation between Bayer and Rinspeed. Once again groundbreaking specialists teamed up to develop this year's automotive masterpiece. Bayer's Makrolon polycarbonate takes care of a full transparent body that allows us to see it's attention for details and gives the car an almost unreal appearance.
The car houses a lightweight 150 bhp engine driven by CO2-emission-reducing bio ethanol. Its horsepower and lightweight construction of no more than 750 kg makes this concept just as fast as your neighbours sporty Porsche and adds the thrill of seeing the road shift by when looking through its transparent floor.
We can consider the eXasis a worthy follow up on Bayer's first "all-plastic car", presented 40 years earlier at the K67 Plastics Fair in Germany. Comparing the cars we see how plastic materials have come a long way and allow today's creatives to exploit its qualities in order to create an own unique identity instead of imitating the status quo of car design.
All together, the eXasis is a great birthday gift by Rinspeed celebrating their 30th birthday this year - we wish them a great party celebrating its premiere at the Geneva Motor Show this March.
This is an essay written quite some time ago by Dr Richard Farson. The timelessness of Dr. Farson's message struck me as I was rereading it today so here's an introductory snippet to encourage you to go read it in full:
Design is one of the few professions dominated by its clientele. Compared to physicians, attorneys, and academics, designers are inclined to do what they're told. That posture is so widely accepted among designers it sometimes seems that the only ones who can occasionally insist on having things their way are the superstars of design.
[...]
That is such an old story among designers that perhaps it is small wonder that designers tend not see themselves as leaders. If they have learned not to expect their professional judgements to sway clients or employers, how can they imagine leading corporations or communities, to say nothing of exercising leadership in the developing global arena? It is simply impossible for most designers to think of themselves as having a place in high councils of decision making.
But that is where designers are most needed - at the top. It is a travesty that the only professionals close to the CEO's are lawyers and accountants. Designers have more to offer, because increasingly our organizations need to be design driven, not just market driven. To truly prosper, our global society must have its needs met, not just its wants.
Here's the full article "Designers as Leaders" - Also worth reading is "Management by Design" where we get these few lines,
But if design is everything, how can it be something special, focused, and usable for leaders? To clarify this we need one more definition: Design is the creation of form. [...]
But why is form so important? The short answer: In human affairs, form rules. For example, form always wins over content. How you say something dominates what you say. A written message carries more weight than a spoken one, a printed one weightier than one that is typed, which is weightier than one handwritten, even though all the words may be identical. These are metamessages, sent by the form of the message, and they are powerful.
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (2)
That's how Cape Town's Design Indaba is being billed on its 10th anniversary. It's hard for designers to argue when titans like Milton Glaser and Wally Olins star on the opening day. The program is packed with famous designer names; Neville Brody, Hella Jongerius, Jasper Morrison, Cameron Sinclair; all under the same roof for 3 days.
Core's Day 1 highlight was an amiable engineer/sculptor from Port Elizabeth South Africa. Keith Helfet is the ex-chief designer of Jaguar Cars. He discussed the revenue Jaguar got from the emotional appeal of its concept cars. Helfet's slides featured cars like the breathtaking XK220 which snaffled blank cheques from punters at its launch in 1988, despite being a concept with no price tag. People literally handed over millions of dollars in cash for a beautiful shape. Some return on investment!
Helfet says: "The ultimate prize is to design an object of desire". And to gather some blank cheques in the process...
Posted by: Tasos Calantzis | Comments (1)
Tyler Brule, responsible for bringing you Wallpaper Magazine (a glossy design fave), brings it to the next level with Monocle, a new (not so glossy) periodical delving into the crossroads of Design, Business, and Culture. We haven't had the chance to browse it just yet, but we look forward to discovering exactly what this healthy dose of words has to offer.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)L.A.S.E.R. Tag is Graffiti Research Lab's newest endeavor in future-forward vandalism, easily trumping your run-of-the-mill tagging efforts with its ability to go mega-massive. Just imagine driving your cat bonkers with a laser pointer, only making cool words and shapes, and having them appear full-scale on the sides of gigantor buildings. This project is totally D.I.Y. with a laptop, software, projector, and yes, a wicked laser, along with some other components. Note: don't point laser beams at buildings with people in it.
Check out our previous coverage on GRL.
via bb
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
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ECCO Design extends this invite to join them for Chinese New Year festivities to take place at their offices in NYC this Thursday, February 22nd from 6:30pm to 11:00pm.
ECCO Design Inc.
900 Broadway Fifth floor
New York, NY 10003
Spiegel has a colourful photo gallery of Carnival costumes [some nsfw], floats, masks and exhibits from Brazil to Cyprus to Germany all celebrated today.
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
Bank of America's Keep the Change program (quite impressive) has successfully "attracted 2.5 million customers, translating into more than 700,000 new checking accounts and one million new savings accounts." B of A took the dive, arm in arm with IDEO, fully committing to an innovative ethnographic approach--a refreshing move for a such a huge financial institution. The end result yielded a no-brainer system that allows all types of banking customers to properly save some extra loot...with interest to boot!
To better understand the desired market--boomer-age women with kids--IDEO traveled with members of Bank of America's innovation team across the United States, conducting observations in Atlanta, Baltimore, and San Francisco. They discovered that many people in both the target audience and the general public would often round up their financial transactions for speed and convenience. In addition, the team found that many moms had difficulty saving what money they had, whether due to a lack of resources or willpower.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)After bringing these observations into a series of brainstorming sessions, the team arrived at a solution that uses the habits existing on one hand to resolve the problems persisting on the other. Ultimately dubbed "Keep the Change," the service rounds up purchases made with a Bank of America Visa debit card to the nearest dollar and transfers the difference from individuals' checking accounts into their savings accounts. The convenience and ease of rounding up now helps members save money over the long run.
The best part is when Steve Jobs uses that god-forsaken swirling rainbow from hell as an actual weapon! That thing is freakin' frustrating...can i get an amen?
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Here's a nice follow up to our previous Dell 2.0 leaked memo post. Dell's Idea Storm crowdsourcing site encourages consumers to post new ideas for Dell products and services which are then promoted (or not) by the community. "Good" ideas are then considered by Dell for possible implementation. This is definitely a great way for Dell to harvest ideas without paying anyone, but then again, let's hope they do a thorough job of distinguishing the good ideas from the ass-backwards ones.
thanks bry
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)cg brings up the topic: What's Worth Spending More For, propelled by his working on a presentation discussing the value of design. Obviously, don't be stupid and buy month-old clearance beef at your local grocer. In some cases, you definitely get what you pay for. In others, brand names only offer one difference, which is literally the brand name. Popular choices for extra cash-worthy purchases so far are footwear, clothing, cars, and Apple products. Add your own picks to this discussion right here.
hot tip from the one and only yo.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Arnold Freidling's eXplorius Hydra Foil Yacht concept proposes the implementation of an underwater hydra foil fin onto the underside of the yacht, which would greatly reduce friction to improve stability and increase speed.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Tokyo-born, London-based conceptual product designer Emiko Oki introduces her own line of quirky tableware. Trophy is a set of various tabletop items that disassemble from a stacked trophy-like formation. The Pint Glass Series uses a classic sturdy pint glass-shaped exterior that integrates interior forms that accommodate flowers, wine, candles, or an ashtray...definitely not your favorite brewsky.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Russian luxury cell phone manufacturer Gresso Ltd. introduces its Gresso Symphonia Collection of MP3 players. The players are made of African Blackwood, an extremely hard wood that's highly prized in the manufacture of concert-quality clarinets and oboes. They will be available this spring in various combinations of African Blackwood with white or pink gold trim and cost between $4,000 and $6,500. But amazingly, they have only 1GB of storage (oh yeah, and an FM tuner).
From Gizmondo.
Posted by: warrenginn | Comments (0)
In the past year, the ethical movement has crossed into the mainstream and become a central issue for everyone from politicians to retailers. Now, as we launch our second annual awards, celebrity campaigners, environmental experts and you, the reader, can nominate those who have done the most to protect the planet.
Read the rest of the article.
Link via Emma Ginger of MakesAChange - do vote for her in the first category!
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
The winner of the Peugeot Design Contest 2007 is the Flux. Twenty-year-old designer Mihai Panaitescu said the car is meant to please its occupants in every way. See the designer's comments about his creation.
For his creativity, Mr. Panaitescu will see his dream car translated into an actual concept to be displayed at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show in September and a €6,000 check (or is that cheque?). The Flux will also be digitally rendered for an upcoming Xbox game.
Second place went to the NJooy and third went to the Allscape. Check out our gallery of all the semi-finalists.
[Source: Autoblog Green]
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
This is a great post by Fintan Darragh, imho, because he lovingly reviews one single cellphone, analyzing the design of every aspect of this product. Here's a snippet of his style,
Finally, through the power/data connector on the side of the phone (which is hidden by an improved pivot-based flap this time), you can plug the Shine into your computer and it behaves the same as a USB flash device, which makes it really easy to put music or take photos off of it. You can also upgrade the 50MB internal memory with a MicroSD card.
Just one design, the Chair, created in 1949, assured Danish designer Hans J. Wegner a seat among the greatest designers in the world, but when he died in Copenhagen on Jan. 26 at 92, he also had a place among the most prolific. He created on average five new chairs for every year he lived.
To create the perfect chair was a quest he never lost sight of.
"The good chair is a task one is never completely done with," Wegner (pronounced Vay-ner in Danish) has been quoted as saying. It was "a continuous process of purification, and for me of simplification, to cut down to the simplest possible elements of four legs, a seat and combined top rail and arm rest."
Read about his life and work here.
- 921 hexagonal black-anodized aluminum tube extrusions
- 921 chrome-plated plastic balls
- 819 motors
- control electronics
- video camera
- computer
So far, our shopping list for the Shiny Balls Mirror by Daniel Rozin, an artist who has been developing interactive installations for years. True fans will surely remember his first Wooden Mirror (1999) - a piece that explores the line between digital and physical, using a warm and natural material such as wood to portray the abstract notion of digital pixels.
Since it's unlikely to find this kind of work at any instructables site, check out Daniel's website for more mechanical mirrors.
reminded by vvork
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (1)
Putting People First has a great post linking to the range of toys launched this year based heavily on consumer electronics. Here's a snippet and a few of the links:
Consumer electronics for kids is the fastest growing trend in the $22 billion toy industry. With children becoming ever more tech savvy at ever-younger ages, toymakers are scrambling to capitalize on the rapidly growing market for youth electronics.
* colorful optical mice by Kutoka Interactive
* digital cameras and graphics tablets by French toy giant Smoby
* Click & Create With Mia - a kind of Photoshop for tots that teaches kids to draw, paint and animate shapes on screen, and allows them to create posters, invitations and birthday cards
* the SmartKids laptop for children aged 3 to 6 that features a piano keyboard and bilingual programs in Spanish and English
* the Marvel Ani-Movie Studio, which allows kids to create digital stop-motion films starring Marvel Comics characters
Check out the rest of the toys .
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (1)
Here's a pre-President's day eye-candy treat! Check out Rich Legg's incredible photograph showing a light bulb in the midst of a burn-out.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Metafilter posts a nice collection of links to celebrated designer Luigi Colani's fluid form-heavy works. Also, London-area dwellers take note of the Design Museum's upcoming Colani exhibition, Translating Nature, open from March 3 to June 17, 2007.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)Not-so-glam computer giant Dell recently scored a bit of attention due to the "leaked" memo from Michael Dell to Dell Computer employees proclaiming a radical and strategic new course of action. Niti Bhan attended a presentation by Dell's Manager of Visual Identity and Brand Experience Brookes Protzmann at Adaptive Path's MX Conference, only to return less than impressed by his follow-up response to the recent hype. Interesting call-out on Dell's stance on design:
I believe that strategically, Dell would have been better off if they had not in fact announced their plans and intentions this quickly in response to recent reorganization and thus media buzz, particularly with respect to design. They spoke about their commitment to their design languages, in plural, which alone worries me. Any single brand, such as the one word DELL, would in fact have one design language - any one brand with multiple languages should either be very very clear on what their core identity is and what they stand for, in order to share the control of their brand language interpretation to their customers - OR - stick to one clear design language.
Get a full dose of Niti's POV on Dell 2.0 right here.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Martin Frey, a Munich, Germany-based experimental interface and interaction designer, has developed SnOil, a physical interactive display that utilizes ferrofluid, a liquid that reacts to magnetism. Frey has integrated SnOil with classic arcade game Snake (get it? snake + oil = SnOil) to illustrate game actions via the ferrofluid display. Check out his video here.
SnOil makes use of the ferrofluids magnetic sensitivity to selectively position and shape the fluid. This is done by electromagnets, which enable the appearing and disappearing of a magnetic field by switching the flow of an electric current.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
The 2010 Imperative Global Emergency Teach-In will launch a live webcast addressing global warming and climate change on February 20th, 2007. It will be broadcast live from the New York Academy of Sciences, dropping knowledge on over 500,000 students, educators, and practicing professionals in the architecture, planning and design fields in North and South America. This event is produced by Architecture 2030, a non-profit organization focused on sustainable architecture solutions, and is sponsored by The American Institute of Architects, the Home Depot Foundation, US Green Building Council (USGBC), New York Academy of Sciences, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the AIA Large Firm Roundtable.
For those in the NYC area, scurry on over to Pratt Institute's Memorial Hall at the Brooklyn campus where they will be showing the live broadcast, free and open to the public.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Just got a press release from The Exploratorium (the best place on earth, btw, period), announcing the win of an AIA award for the design of the "Wave Wall," a kinetic skin on the surface of the new Science Education Center at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Livingston, Louisiana. Super-apt for its context of course, but there was only a small pic in the email. Hopped over to YouTube, did a search, and presto. You get some Rockettes-style action at the 2:30-minute mark, but we suspect that this thing is even more wonderful when it's only slighly moving. [more]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (2)
To all you weary travelers who've lost ones of tens of dollars from confiscated toiletries:
PKOH NYC presents a stylish 3 oz. silicone bottle that's just the right size to tote your fave "liquids" to your future travel destinations.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)Well, there's a lot of talk in here (the device does EEVVV-rything), and not a lot of action. Especially no action "on" the screen, so who knows how real this is. It does "fold," (not roll), but it folds only once. Still, worth a look. [more info at freshcreation]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (1)Tim Singh is an Edmonton-based designer who has just returned from Shanghai, where he spent several months working at a language school and doing research on business opportunities related to the automotive industry. His research led to some revealing and insightful discoveries of current domestic and international attitudes towards industrial development and production in China. Here's the set-up:
My journey started with 15 pages worth of contact information I had put together while there, of firms operating in Shanghai province that had some relation to the automotive industry. With few leads on who to talk to, and in some cases not even knowing what some of the firms did, due in part to a language barrier, I was nevertheless fortunate to secure meetings with vice-presidents, managers, and senior designers of domestic Chinese and foreign firms, who for the most part were happy to engage in lengthy discussions, some of which I will expand on here. Because these meetings were made with relatively little prior contact, many of the questions I asked were impromptu and varied from meeting to meeting. My intention was to open up discussion to its fullest extent to provide for a meaningful dialogue on both sides.
Read the full post here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
UK based legendary design studio SeymourPowell takes us through this wholly imagined in great detail animated visualization of Virgin Galactic's brand experience when they finally get around to designing the spaceship that will take us to the moon for short vacation trips. One wonders whether they'll need to rebrand once they've made their maiden spaceflight?
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (2)
MIO : SoftBowls
Philadelphia-based design studio Mio presents a design and eco-conscious solution for everyone's containment needs. SoftBowls are 100% molded wool bowls produced by one of the last remaining millineries in the US, hand-crafted by local workers. More info in the Studio Bullitts section.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Yes! Virgin Atlantic's "Design for Chunks" international sick-bag competition yielded over 600 entries, with 20 selected to be placed in the seat-back pockets of their aircraft, adding an artsy-farsty (or should I say barfsy) edge to each passenger's yak-alicious experience.
via unbeige
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Quick afternoon treat...Let the page load and push the human-powered cursor around. BTW if you give 'em a rest, the dude near the bottom takes a squat and a scratch.
via arbroath
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
This goes along the same lines as Nadine Jarvis' Carbon Copies pencils that you might remember from our Studio Bullitts archive. LifeGem offers mourners the opportunity to carry on their deceased loved ones' legacies within a man-made diamond crafted from the carbon captured from a lock of hair. The diamond does not necessarily have to come from a corpse--LifeGem also suggests this process for those who "purely want to create a symbol of [their] precious bond with someone [they] love." Let's leave this post with a sampling of their mush-mush vocab-filled sales pitch:
Love. Life's single greatest risk. Life's single greatest reward. Intangible and unexplainable, yet ever so real and powerful. Love captures your heart in a second and holds it for eternity...To desire a LifeGem diamond can mean only one thing. You have experienced a love without equal. You have had someone truly special in your life and mere words simply will not do.Love knows no boundaries. Love knows no end.
dang!
via scifi tech
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Marco Tinajero, a Mexico City based industrial designer, presents us the Paach Pack. Paach is Mayan for "back" and reveals its origin since the products are produced with an ancient weaving technique in a Mayan location near Yucatan (Mexico). The product is the result of a project on giving traditional techniques a new dimension to use and preserve local craftsmanship.
The original version is made out of natural fibers though due to its scarcity the local artisans currently work with a plastic alternative offering more flexibility, durability and color variations. Marco is currently looking for an alternative natural fiber in order to make the Paach-Pack a full biodegradable product. Find him at www.oqramdesign.com for any suggestions.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
Patrick Gunther : nDoo nanotech concept
Patrick Gunther's nDoo concept takes a half fantastical, half scientific approach to the application of hypothetical nanotechnology forty years from now, suggesting the use of nanobots within the human body's bloodstream in conjunction with a mediator device to act as a supplementary immune system. Check out the Studio Bullitt for more details.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Florence Zacks Melton died last month at age 95. She held the patent for foam slippers, as well as 18 other patents for products like shoulder pads and cushioning devices for exercise and physical therapy machines.
Early in the postwar days, fashion still had a military look: women wore double-breasted suits with padded shoulders. To clean the garment, the shoulder pads had to be removed, then sewn back in place. In 1947, Mrs. Melton patented a cotton-batting shoulder pad with an elastic tab that could be snapped to a bra strap, eliminating the need to sew it into a garment. The product, Shoulda-Shams, sold well.Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (1)..."She thought: Wouldn't it be great to mold foam rubber into the shape of a shoulder pad, eliminate the cotton batting and have a machine-washable product." They went to the Firestone headquarters in Akron and signed a contract to use foam rubber for their shoulder pads.
"On the drive back to Columbus," Gordon Zacks said, "my mother said: 'Aaron, you know what we ought to do with foam rubber? We ought to walk on it.'" She patented the idea in 1948. Since then, the company has sold more than a billion pairs of slippers....Mrs. Melton's company remains competitive: last year it sold more than 25 million pairs.
Details are just starting to emerge from the gathering of the good and great from the world's CAD related press in San Francisco this week -- you can tell all the good guys are there - I'm not. I'm told that Autodesk has realised the benefits of its Alias acquisition.
Posted by: al dean | Comments (0)
These are three of the designer buildings planned for the desert kingdom of Abu Dhabi - Arts Centers, Perfomance Theatres and another Louvre. The royal family has just purchased a sizable portion of the Louvre's collection and will house it for twenty years.
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (2)
The next Doors conference (New Delhi) is right around the corner (Feb. 28 - March 4), so if you haven't booked your tix yet, get moving. The theme is "Juice: Food, Energy, Design" and here's the pitch:
Global food systems are not sustainable. Industrialised food consumes ten times more energy in production and distribution than enters our bodies as nutrition. In 'developed' countries, the food consumption of a single family generates eight tonnes of CO2 emissions a year.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Promise (American Style) by Caroline McCarthy.
No description necessary.
via vvork
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)This great video posted by the Triple Pundit blog - "serving people, planet and profit" - is a remix of Pink Floyd's The Wall with a black and white video on the various ways one can conserve energy - really worth a look!
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
Attention "I must have all things Mac" fanatics: Soren Kjaer and Holmris Hansen A/S have joined forces in the creation of MILK, a desk devoted entirely to Mac machines and monitors, designed with the particular equipment and user in mind. Features include convertible "boxes" (fish tank, storage, bin), specific cable drawers and exits, height-adjustable base, surface finish options, and hidden filing/storage space. The site looks hot but it pretty much promises the world, so let's hope that MILK owners are satisfied with their purchase. The price is hard to find/has been conveniently omitted btw.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Matthew Swinton
Cleveland, Ohio
Featured Project : Roundup
Matthew Swinton, a graduating ID student at Cleveland Institute of Art, received a first place prize for his Roundup hose storage concept at the International Housewares Competition. Roundup solves cumbersome trip and tangle dilemmas by automatically rolling the hose back onto the spool as the user walks the unit back to the storage location.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
PingMag interviews Anke Haarman, creator of the documentary "Public Blue," which takes us into the world of the No-jyuku sha, or "campers in the rough." The state of Japan's homeless communities (estimated at about 25,000) is like none other, aesthetically as well as behaviorally, where communities and villages gather, unite, sustain, migrate, and regroup.
Especially in Osaka, these 'campers' not only organize themselves increasingly over the internet. They also engage in political activities to stand up for their rights and protest against the increasing park clearings by the municipality.
Public Blue trailer below:
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Mark Charmer sends in this photograph with the caption "Amory Lovins, one of the world's leading energy thinkers, was keen to scrutinize the tailpipe of BMW design boss Chris Bangle."
Here is Mark's report on Chris Bangle's presentation at Art Center's Summit on Designing Sustainable Mobility that took place last week on campus. And a snippet,
Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, worked hard last week to translate its leadership position in vehicle design into one based on sustainable mobility. Yet for many, the shift remains problematic. The leaders of Ford's advanced design studio in Irvine sat soberly on the front row (though a much more lively Larry Erickson - the small car chief designer - spoke pretty lucidly). A miserable selection of alternative-fuelled cars cowered in the spectacular wind tunnel hall. A flex-fuel Focus, that fuel cell Honda FCX again and the absurd hydrogen BMW 7-series looked about as sustainable as Bush junior's presidency.
Graham Pullin sends us MoLI, the Museum of Lost Interactions.
His 3rd year students in the Interactive Media Design course at the University of Dundee were asked to explore the history of interactive design and reflect on the social impact that the technological changes have brought.
They were asked to research Lost and Dead Media ... and build working models (using found objects and MaxMSP on iMacs) of fictitious historical products that might have been lost precursors to modern products and media. To underpin their authenticity, they filmed documentaries with archive film footage, and uncovered contemporary photography and packaging.Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay them is that the ex-head-of-a-major-mainframe-computer-manufacturer came round the exhibition and left believing every one of the exhibits - this was actually a bit embarrassing (although we had been inspired by the ambiguity of the Museum of Jurassic Technology all along).
Pictured above: Edwin J Baird's PRAT Sampler (1918), the birth of modern day multi-track audio recording.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
What could be more romantic then blinging out your loved one's V-Day gift with the Neu Neu treatment like Hulger did in Tokyo. Typically a request reserved for fingernails and mobile phones, the Penelope Shibuya Phone came to life in a couple of days, meticulously detailed with crystals, trinkets and sparkling metallic bows. Currently on tour in selected retail stores, It's still up for grabs if the offer's right.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
The award season starts to heat up around this time of year. Think of the Golden Globe, Grammys, Oscars, and others. Online you can find NetDiver's Best Of The Year 2006 collection of outstanding web sites, in no particular order. Included are Core77 faves Obsessive Consumption and Hector.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)You could always drop some loot on a cordwinder/keeper, but if you're the frugal type, watch and learn.
via lifehacker
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)Armin Vit's got a piece up today at Speak Up, reflecting on the site's past and potential future. Comments have just started (9), but nothing's going to top this from paragraph four:
...This allows us to move forward with a new focus. To find a new voice and a new approach. But what is this new "it"? It can’t be "fuck everything", we are all now too close and too involved and too interconnected with one another to take this attitude.
Hmm. Can there at least be a little of that?
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Banpresto's DangerBomb alarm clock relentlessly sounds off with faux explosion noises until its crusty-eyed owner connects all three wires in the correct order to "defuse" the weapon of mass interruption alarm.
Kinetica, the UK's first museum dedicated to kinetic art, is now showing its annual group exhibition, "Luminaries and Visionaries."
In art involving technology, a single theme can produce enormously different results. Every work is based on a dialogue between artist, idea, and experimental techniques whose properties cannot always be controlled, or even anticipated.
This year's featured collection includes new items from Random International: the largest Temporary Light Printing Machine to date, a UV light-transfer Pixelshade, and a phosphorescent Pendulum Installation.
Luminaries and Visionaries
Kinetica Museum at Spitalfields Market
January 18 to March 11, 2007
London, UK
thanks hannes!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)How many times can you hear the word "innovation" in a day before your brain damn near explodes? Prepare to gather your meninges. According to BusinessWeek, "a chorus of voices is calling for an end to the hype--and a focus on the fundamentals that drive real bottom-line-boosting innovation." The article investigates what this word really means and how it can be measured.
Consumers, businesses, and designers alike might bemoan the constant repetition of "innovation" in advertising, marketing plans, boardroom meetings, and brainstorming sessions. But the quest for products designed with improved usability or fueled by fresh new technologies, true innovations, won't soon end. As experts are starting to prescribe, innovative products can continue to drive profits if pursued with ROI, rather than marketing, in mind.
For some backlash variety, make sure to check out, "Beware the Backlash: A rising tide of disaffection towards design," by Kevin McCullagh.
talk20 gathers a diverse crowd of students, educators and professionals to each of their idea-sharing engagements with an intent to "become an itinerant journal of art and design."
talk20 is not a lecture but a gathering, an open forum for the dissemination of ideas in art, architecture and design. Produced in cities around the world, talk20 has emerged as a live catalogue of contemporary creative production that seeks to instigate a conversation within and without the design community.
If you're in the Chicago area, you'll have a chance to get involved this Friday, February 16th, 2007, at IIT's Crown Hall...with free drinks. Get details here.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)
Adaptive Path's newest conference on managing user experience - MX Conference - was kicked off by Jesse James Garrett and Peter Merholz, both of whom are President of the company. To note is that they are not "co-Presidents". After a social lunch at the City Club of San Francisco, Peter took the stage with Flickr cofounder, Caterina Fake who is now head of the Design Technology Group at Yahoo for an interview on product design and development.
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
We had blogged this back when it was just a concept, but now it's getting close. The structure has become, of course, the "Skywalk" (could've predicted that one), but not everyone's happy about it.
An engineering marvel or a colossal eyesore, depending on who is describing it, the horseshoe-shaped glass walkway will jut out 70 feet beyond the canyon's edge on the Hualapai Indian Reservation just west of Grand Canyon Village. Buttressed by 1 million pounds of steel and supporting 90 tons of tempered glass, the see-through deck will give visitors a breathtaking view of the canyon.
(Thanks to TorTor for the link.)
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (3)
Ingo Rauth sends in this great overview of the recent VOLVO Design Forum:
The Main topic of this year's forum was "Personal Design" in the area of sports. The event was held for the 6th time now, and there was a great set of speeches and workshops offered during the whole day--culminating with the Volvo Design Award.
After a "Bavarian breakfast," the day started with an introduction by Andrej Kupetz (Manager of the German Design Council) and Frank Piller (TIM Business School) who spoke about the background, history, potential, and challenges of Personal Design. They were followed up by Stefano Natoli (Head of NIKEiD EMEA) who talked about NIKEiD and their experience and understanding of "personal design." He addressed marketing and production issues, emphasizing the huge value of the direct customer feedback. Stefan Jansson (VOLVO car cooperation) got a nice laugh from the crowd when he commented that "VOLVO is thinking man's BMW." (Munich is basically BMW's hometown.)
Check out the charity auction, hosted by Furni and Rekognize: 30 premiere artist-decorated clocks from the snowboard and skateboard community. Opens tonight! [www.uselessartshow.com] (Above: Clock by Dorot Jonkajtys)
Design experts say that a backlash is brewing against all the buttons on gadgets like cell phones. A children's mobile phone from Firefly, pictured here, is designed to account for the fact that a child will primarily be calling mommy and daddy.
Credit: Firefly
Complete slideshow of good design.
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (3)
While I was out at New Orleans last week, I ran into Bunkspeed and got a quick look at their forthcoming Hypershot tool. If you're into rendering and visualisation, you'll be aware that to generate truly photo-realistic imagery, in which every system you're using, takes a good deal of time - for both set-up and calculation. Hypershot flips this by providing a very minimum interface in which you load geometry, apply materials, load a HDRI scene, calculate a fully raytraced images, in a fraction of the time usually associated with the task. Its still in the development stage, but the render times are incredibly small - we're talking seconds and minutes, rather than hours - and the whole thing is pretty much independent of your graphics technology.
Posted by: al dean | Comments (0)
For those of you that are in the SolidWorks user community, but didn't make it down to New Orleans last week, here's a quick run down of those features, functions and whizz-bangeries that are slated to make it for the next SolidWorks rev -- scheduled for June/July 2008.
Posted by: al dean | Comments (4)
Continuing the trend to bring back real materials into the consumer electronics arena, this concept is by Joseph Graceffa at IDEO:
"The spinning CD, displayed as a table saw blade slicing through a rich piece of walnut, draws our attention to an element of elegant activity within a simple, tranquil object."
From idealist.
Posted by: warrenginn | Comments (5)
Many thanks to all you PDXers who packed into Someday Lounge (awesome venue btw) last night to hear UNKL's most excellent story, and of course, to par-tay! We learned from the pros, did some power-networking, and had a fantastic time...see you next time! Stay tuned for more pix and highlights from the event in the soon-to-be-published Offsite PDX gallery.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Steve Portigal opens up a can of whoop-ass on a recent design school survey, and surveys in general as lazy substitutes for design research. We could not agree more; most of these things are ridiculously unscientific, flawed, and don't reveal anything that the designer didn't already know.
A plea to all design educators out there (and to students as well): please stop using crappy surveys as a substitute for actual research.Survey design is a craft. If you haven't studied it, you don't know how to write a survey well, and the data you get is garbage. Surveys are quantitative tools. They require math to plan (what does your sample size need to be to ensure that your results are valid?) and to analyze (regression analysis (or any other buzzword) anyone?). They are very tough to write. Questions have to be worded correctly, and sequenced correctly.
Yet design instructors constantly send their students onto the Internet to "do research." Students spend about 30 seconds writing open-ended questions about their issues, and then blast the "survey" off to email lists populated by other designers. And so in the spirit of helping a good cause, people might respond. But the questions are vague, hard to answer, and not at all controlled.
Garbage in, garbage out.
Do read the whole post here, and enjoy.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (7)Sure, you could hire one of those fancy ethnography consultants, or you could just watch this. (Well, on second thought, maybe you should hire one of those consultants.)
Good for a Friday though.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (2)Another great post from Jeremy Faludi at Worldchanging, this time on ADHESIVES. Here's a taste:
You say, if the glue is weak, doesn't that defeat the purpose? But that's where smart design comes in: you can design the interface of the two parts so that during actual use of the device, the glue joint is always pushed on from the outside, pushing the two parts tighter together instead of trying to separate them, while during disassembly (when the electronic guts of the device are already removed) it can be pushed on from the inside. However, the weak glue solution still leaves the problem of glue-gunk on parts that you want to recycle.
The bottom line is that you should avoid them when you can (Remember, "screws better than glues"), but the info in Jeremy's post is a good primer.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Two of the standouts of the Cooper Hewitt Triennial were the Lifeport Kidney Transport and Snow World. You can learn more about both, and meet some of the folks involved, next Thursday, February 22nd, at the museum. All info here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Steve Delahoyde is tearing up the CAS coverage over at Unbeige, so if you can't make the show, check out his excellent posts. Our favorite?: "Forget the Cars, Let's Talk Displays."
Mark Moskovitz's Future Perfect bench, currently showing at MOCA Cleaveland, is a nice collision of old skool techniques and modern materials. Essentially, he's used classic carpentry techniques on plastic lumbar, but designers have as much to say as artists do, so here goes:
The concept is to juxtapose antiquated and primarily obsolete technique with modern materials and technology in order to enhance how we think about objects both proactively and retroactively, hopefully creating a dialogue that can be at first hypersensitive and later blind to the linear history that created them. In theory, putting together conditions of different eras magically imagines other entire sets of questions, solutions, and aesthetics, perhaps one day helping to positively reinvent the wheel. This initial piece in the series features all hand-cut joinery (dovetails, mortise and tenon, butterfly joints) and is constructed without powertools, glue, screws or other such fasteners. Surfaces are milled with a combination of hand-planing, draw knife, broad axe, and finished with a cabinet scraper. It is made from 100% recycled HDPE Plastic (milk jugs, etc.) and Polyester cord woven in a traditional style commonly associated with furniture caning.
We're fans of Mark's work; check out his Writer's Cabin from back in 2005.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (2)If you're in Minneapolis tomorrow (or you're there all the time, but are looking for something to sink your teeth into on a Saturday), check out the Design Institutes all-day symposium on mapping and knowledge. Here's the pitch:
A one-day workshop exploring how the mapping of social networks can reveal interdisciplinary connections and opportunities for innovation within knowledge enterprises, with a focus on the University of Minnesota's new College of Design.
Moderated by core-faves Janet Abrams and Peter Hall, the line-up includes Mark Hansen, Laura Kurgan, Josh On, Brad Paley, and Marc Tuters. Get all their bios and the rest of the info right here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Recently, Marte den Hollander has been recognized as 'Best Graduate 2006' at the Faculty of Industrial Design (TU Delft). We share the compliments for her project Footloose, a high-heeled shoe that turns into a low-heel version with a simple switch.
Enjoy the (brand new) Virtual Shoe Museum for Footloose and more shoe fetish - or continue reading after the jump.
Thanks to cor-e-spondent Victoria Kirk for this recap on the Design With India Strategy Session held last Monday at the Asia Society in New York.
The Confederation of Indian Industries, the Industrial Designers Society of America, New York chapter and the Asia Society held a strategy session on Monday at the Asia Society in New York. The event was a follow-up to the 6th Annual International Design Summit in New Delhi. Uday Dandavate, Founder and Principal of SonicRim, Global Design Research, partnered with Deb Johnson, Director of the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable/Social Enterprise and Chair of the IDSA/NYC to organize the event.
Rather than a conference, the Design With India Strategy Session was a thought-provoking participatory panel discussion exploring the challenges and opportunities for applying design methodologies with and for Indian companies, professionals and consumers.
Mary McBride, Principal, Strategies for Planned Change, moderated the discussion between the distinguished panel of design and business professionals on stage and in the orchestra, and the audience, both in the auditorium and participating via webcast. Mary Boone of Boone Associates meticulously captured the points raised by taking real-time notes that were projected on stage and given to participants to take home.
Three topics sparked the discussion: 1.The challenges and opportunities for companies and designers to collaborate with India. 2. Identifying the real stakeholders in the process of innovation. 3. Defining the elements involved in collaboration between stakeholders.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (2)
Squirrelbait's reppin' in PDX and we can't wait for the festivities to take place tonight when Core77 presents a brand new Offsite event in Portland, Oregon, featuring Derek Welch and Jason Bacon of UNKL Brand.
For those of you who can't make it to PDX, make damn sure to check out the live webcast of this fine event.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
From Bernat Cuni, this very-web2.0 site "is a platform for designers and creators to publish and share their creativity and increase the popularity of their ideas." Our favorite? Let's start with the Lego Ice Cube Tray. Be an idealist at idealist.blinkr.net. (Delete It Eraser above by Art. Lebedev Studio.)
Never before have so many people sent in an item for us to blog, so in case you've been living under a rock this past week (or haven't worn your respirator while sanding bondo), here it is. The now ultra-famous, ultra-blogworthy, Folding Chair.
*note: Collective conscience strikes again. Let's hope this young gentleman is aware that someone else had designed an entire line of this kind of furniture years ago.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (11)
As concepts go, this seems bright. But is it really better than what we've got? (Well, it's probably better than this.) Get more info here.
Twan Verdonck alerts us to his latest project, the Green Light, which he's showing at Dream In Green. Shown above is the light with a Hedera plant growing in it, and he has tomato and grape plant versions under way. According to the site "You can grow it or cut it to dim or brighten the light. " The best part is that the project comes in three formats: product, DIY and download.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (1)
As Valentine's Day approaches, we're always on the lookout for something tender but unique. Now, normally, we'd be all over this, but if you're deciding between the diamond-ring-in-the-cupcake or the pearl-in-the-seashell, trust us: go with the cupcake. (Thanks to Raluca for sending this in.)
In case you missed it in yesterday's NYTimes, there was a particularly disturbing article on space debris, unintended consequences, and short-sighted design. Here are the first 4 paragraphs. (The rest is just as bad.)
For decades, space experts have worried that a speeding bit of orbital debris might one day smash a large spacecraft into hundreds of pieces and start a chain reaction, a slow cascade of collisions that would expand for centuries, spreading chaos through the heavens.In the last decade or so, as scientists came to agree that the number of objects in orbit had surpassed a critical mass--or, in their terms, the critical spatial density, the point at which a chain reaction becomes inevitable--they grew more anxious.
Early this year, after a half-century of growth, the federal list of detectable objects (four inches wide or larger) reached 10,000, including dead satellites, spent rocket stages, a camera, a hand tool and junkyards of whirling debris left over from chance explosions and destructive tests.
Now, experts say, China's test on Jan. 11 of an antisatellite rocket that shattered an old satellite into hundreds of large fragments means the chain reaction will most likely start sooner. If their predictions are right, the cascade could put billions of dollars' worth of advanced satellites at risk and eventually threaten to limit humanitys reach for the stars.
Photo from The New York Times
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (5)
Teruhiro Yanagihana a.k.a. Isolation Unit will soon be exhibiting with MUJI during Milan Design Week 2007. An excellent example of their work is the Cover-It vase, comprised of simply any drinking glass or vessel covered with a webbed foam cylinder, much like those used to protect fruit.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
[Photo: 'Tangy Lights' by trailblazer]
Designing efficiency is one thing (previous post) but sometimes you just need that little craziness going. When I see my comrades fall asleep at MatWeb, I usually wake them up with Alternate Materials - maybe not that ID-proof but great to spice up those ideas.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
Photo: Beijing's 'Water Cube': an organic network of steel members with 4.000 translucent polymer cushions that turn the building into a greenhouse since swimming centres need heating most of the year.
Earlier, we noted John Thackara's thoughts on 'Resource Efficiency as Design Opportunity'. Newsweek continues with a nice piece on energy efficiency, or how to save the world, saying: "If saving energy is so easy and profitable, why isn't everyone doing it? It has to do with psychology and a lack of information." We just got rid of the last part - read the full article here.
thank you o2
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)Clearly we're pretty late on this one, Stefan has been drawing a monster a day, 7 days a week (he's up to #81, you do the math) and posting them on youtube. The're kind of charming to watch and you gotta respect a man who has the art of writing upside down, totally down.
spotted at woostercollective.com
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
Just as the blogosphere is ridiculing the Moominite scare, a trial starts in San Jose over a 2001 murder committed using a booby-trapped robot dog. Calls to ban robot dogs? Not yet. Why can't bombers use stuff that sucks like tubs of fake banana creme filling or rotating-bling-wheel-rims? Instead they use shoes and robot dogs!
Paint vs. vomit? I'll take the paint please. Rosemarie Fiore utilized quite the array of tools to create "Good-Time Mix Machine: Scrambler Drawings"--a 1964 Eli Bridge Scrambler ride, generator, compressor, bucket, acrylic paint, and 60' x 60' vinyl sheet to be exact. Watch the video here.
via vvork
thanks lolz!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Umea, Sweden-based 3-D visualization studio Vizualtech has posted a great photo-set showing three sleek new caravan concepts--nothing like Uncle Cleatus' pop-up camper. Two of the concepts communicate a strong and modern design sense while the third harks back to classic days of olde. Scroll right to see a few drool-worthy renderings of speedboats.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)If you like what you see, be sure to incorporate these "power words" into your next presentation.
IMM Cologne 2007: photos by Arnold van Bezooyen
For many, the new year really starts January 15th when Cologne opens the IMM furniture fair partnered by its PASSAGEN off-site design program. We explored Cologne's design scene putting the latest trends in the spotlight.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
D.I.Y. ID: Indie Designers on the Rise by Jeannie Choe
The rising profile of design is creating new demand and, predictably, more supply. But it's also creating new opportunities for designers themselves, especially those fresh-out. Indeed, one could argue that there has never been a more opportune time for young designers to snub the norm, and to pursue trajectories that challenge the definition of design and design practice.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
2007 Consumer Electronics Show: photos by Emilie Baltz
The Consumer Electronics Show hosts the largest display of technology in the world, attracting record numbers of attendees and exhibitors. CES 2007 was held in Las Vegas (Jan. 8 - 11) this year, showcasing everything from cellphones to robotics.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Postcards from Palm Springs by By Mike and Kristina Ditullo:
Palm Springs is the perfect spot for a weekend of design and mid-century architecture indulgence. And in early December, it's like visiting a tourist spot in the off-season. Except that the McMansion summer homes are replaced by Wexler's and Neutra's. Designer nirvana? Not quite, but close.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
It looks as if employers are catching onto the fact that forty hours per week in a beige cubicle may not yield the best results or happy employees. NPR posts a quick read, "Latest Office Designs Offer Comforts of Home," noting a recent shift in office design where environments inspire and reflect creative thinking as opposed to...something close to impending doom. The article also includes a few hot tips to help you flip the switch.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Marmalade Pet Care, makers of fine feline furniture, are giving away these sweet mouse-shaped cardboard cat toys for free! The site also allows you download cutting templates for the mouse as well as a ball and a jack.
thanks bobobot!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Jan Ctvrtnik
London, United Kingdom
Featured Project : Tactoo rings
Jan Ctvrtnik's designs for Tactoo titanium ring designs incorporate rigid, geometric lines and shapes into an indestructible, wearable piece of art.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Dutch Designer Marijn van der Poll presents the first five prototypes of Chairman, an upholstered lounge chair that appears as if it were pulled directly from a pixelated comic book. The entire structure, including the base, is covered in Kvadrat fabrics.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
A patent has been filed for the design of a mobile phone with the keypad positioned above the screen - considered more ergonomic for texting - expect these to be released in Asia any day now.
The new design repositions the keypad above the screen and ensures that most of the handset rests in the palm of the hand for improved support and control.
As well as the improved grip, the thumb rests in a comfortable position directly above the buttons of the keypad. The improved angle for the thumb makes it unnecessary to shift the mobile phone around in the hand while typing text.
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (22)
Portland design fans really know how to fill up an RSVP list. Core77's Offsite event featuring UNKL brand is now "sold out" and the RSVP list has been closed. See you there!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
I couldn't tell you how many times I reach for "CTRL + Z" in real life...it's almost disturbing. Dmitri Siegel posts a nice piece at Design Observer on Interface Space and how our on-screen activity affects physical life--expressed through the means of contemporary art.
Daily immersion in a two-dimensional space has raised an intriguing question that many contemporary artists can't resist: what is the physicality of the screen? The ubiquitous interface experience has created a symbiosis between the metaphorical space of the computer and the physical world.
Siegel takes us through a few great examples from artists including Hans Gremmen, Doug Aitken, and Jan Robert Leegte.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
You either hate 'em...or you wear 'em. ip_wirelessly brings up the anomaly of Uggs' and Crocs' astounding success. "Can someone please explain the phenomenon of Uggs and Crocs?" While rkuchinsky adds a nice poke in the beginning: "Dunno...but if she comes with a pair of Uggs, im getting some," the conversation continues to dig deeper into the logistics of the Crocs phenomenon. Somewhere in there someone posted Crocs' boat-style shoe (above right, barf), along with other examples of functional footwear freaks and faux pas. Add your insights to the Uggs and Crocs discussion right here.
hot tip from the one and only yo!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Caleb from Tricycle sends in a great link to a short documentary filmed at Greenbuild in Denver earlier this year. The video aims to communicate a better understanding of why green building is taking off and how it will tip into the wider market. The piece includes interviews from a few good thinkers on the issue. Keep an eye out for Caleb towards the end!
Milan, Italy-based design studio Modoloco introduces the Ferma Porta door stopper. Ferma Porta not only effectively holds a door open, but it also hangs on the doorknob when not in use, preventing accidental trips and (heavens forbid) a concussion.
We all love FLOR for their spectacular modular indoor floor tile solutions...and apparently they'd like to treat your outdoor grounds as well. FLOR offers 3 stylish coverings: Cut It Out is available in vibrant colors and a smart geometric pattern with openings to allow water to drain. Green Acres is FLOR's take on Astroturf, described as "grass on steroids, a modular lawn party." And Seeing Spots, the "swiss cheese of cool rugs," functions similarly to Cut It Out. Snag these styles for yourself and you'll have enough tongue in cheek humor under your feet to last a few summers.
via swissmiss
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
German artist Thomas Raschke produces 3D wireframes for the real world. There's some arthaus navigation to deal with there, but stick with it for some compelling looking everyday objects.
Found at heavy-backpack
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
If you're already a fan of UNKL's beloved UniPo vinyl toy characters, it's time to apply your skills and add some personal flair. UNKL invites us all to "take a crack at UniPo." Download the pdf entry form and submit by March 9th, 2007.
...and for all you NW folk...see you at Core77's Offsite PDX on February 8th, featuring UNKL brand!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Manufacturing Material Effects : Rethinking design and making in architecture
April 6 & 7, 2007
Institute for Digital Fabrication
Ball State University
Indianapolis, IN, USA
The Institute for Digital Fabrication will assemble leading thinkers, designers, and manufacturers from around the world to closely examine collaborative design and production practices based on innovative and experimental process of material exploration. The symposium will frame the various levels of engagement of new forms of architectural production that bring designers deeper into the complexities of making, assembly, and material formulation.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Studiocharlie's Rigo Table is a 'table of theatrical lightness." While it is visually light and airy, Rigo is constructed from heavy-duty materials--steel, blackboard slate, and glass to be exact.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Designing Sustainable Mobility is a 2-day event filled with presentations, discussions, and brainstorming sessions focused on sustainable design and solutions. Designers, engineers, scientists, product planners, government officials and leading educators who are seeking creative new ways to achieve sustainable mobility through design are encouraged to attend. The main interactive Summit will be limited to 100 participants so register now!
A devastating price is being paid for how we live and do business, particularly in terms of the social, environmental, and economic costs of maintaining a mobile society. Join us for this pivotal exchange of ideas and information leading to new and sustainable methods of moving about the planet.The Art Center Summit : Designing Sustainable Mobility
Wednesday, February 7 & Thursday, February 8, 2007
Art Center College of Design
Pasadena, CA, USA
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
There are still a few days left to sign up for the Design With India Strategy Session, taking place this coming Monday, Feb. 5 at the Asia Society in New York. Rather than a conference, the event will be a participatory panel discussion for those interested in exploring the application of design in the context of India and the global market/economy. The list of participants is impressive, and should make for a lively evening.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)