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Where I live, upon hearing the word designer, most people presume fashion before industry. While that might also be a likely conclusion in Paris, I doubt that it's true in most of Scandinavia. America should ask itself why that is. Perhaps it's our culture or perhaps it's our scale. As a child, it didn't even dawn on me that one could study design. I just presumed that products appeared through spontaneous generation. The concept that someone actually sat down to design stuff seemed pretty far flung. If forced to pick who was responsible for America's industrial output, my best guess would have been engineers.
Sadly, most people in corporate America feel the same way. The gulfs between consumers, designers, engineers and corporate executives are all far too wide. The difference between designers and artists is that designers (occasionally) make art, but that in design there is always someone on the other end of the transaction, purchasing their work and then interacting with it. Into this confusing field, Jon Kolko, a Professor of Interaction and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design has introduced Thoughts on Interaction Design. While designers have always needed to be jacks-of-all-trades, Kolko's book shows just how fuzzy the boundaries have become. Thus, although Thoughts on Interaction Design is not an industrial design book in the mold of Henry Dreyfuss or even Donald Norman, his Thoughts are just as important, because all industrial design is interaction design as well.
Posted by: Robert Blinn | Comments (5)
Right on time for the NBA Play-offs: The Portable-B-Ball, a hitch basketball system for your car.
Just add this in-car Golf Set so we can start looking forward to the next traffic jam!
via bright
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (1)
Photo: Big Bench, winner in the category 'products'.
"Big Bench is by the Danish duo Poul Christiansen and Boris Berlin (Komplot Design), a sofa that can be extended to a length of 6 meters. The composite materials used in the design give the sofa excellent support characteristics, despite its slim and elegant appearance. The sofa is available in semi-transparent composite or with a lacquered finish in a range of colours."
The International Composites Design Competition salutes designs in which composite materials have been used to the best effect and in an intelligent and innovative manner. The competition was open to professional designers from all over the world: individual designers, design agencies and corporate designers.
An exhibition comprises of the work of the winners of the competition, along with another twenty selected entries and a small number of items. See the website on this second edition of Composites on Tour for more information + agenda of this traveling exhibition.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
Ashley Gehman is a Philadelphia-based designer whose iArtifact project tempts Apple fandom with a logical extreme: non-functional iPod ear buds as silver jewelry. Exploring what happens when the icon is separated from its digital manifestation, the earrings provide a nice commentary on object obsession culture when it collides with fashion. Other projects in the series include a bracelet and wallpaper graphics.
See more of Ashely Gehman's work at ashleygehman.com
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (2)
This isn't the first time we've seen rogue plastic figurines on the streets of NYC, and this one doesn't involve turds or anything, but we're delighted by these uber-literal efforts better known as The Concrete Jungle. Here we see jungle animals scampering about this crazy city we call home--well, not really "scampering" since they've been affixed to their habitats with waterproof glue.
Directions:Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
1. Apply glue to animals.
2. Mix animals with city to taste.
Design Within Reach and Airstream have collaborated with architect/designer Chris Deam to serve up a tastefully outfitted trailer in June of this year. The overall look is to be "light and airy," and favorites like the Nelson clock, Tom Dixon's wire coat rack, and Paul Smith's Maharam fabric-covered cushions are sure to inspire nomadic design freaks to seriously save up for their next road trip.
via mocoloco
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Your narrow-space coat-hanging hang-ups can easily be relieved thanks to Schindlersalmeron's front-facing Kleiderleiste coatrack solution. The CNC-cut stainless steel fixture features grooves where hangers can be positioned to align garments along the wall as opposed to perpendicular to it. Kleiderleiste is produced in 60, 80 and 100cm lengths and can be custom-made up to 285cm.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Car-loving dorks, gather 'round. Fabrik's new SimpleDrive external hard drives were devised with sports cars in mind--not exactly surprising since Pininfarina, responsible for your favorite Ferrari, Maserati, and Peugot stylings (among many others), designed them. They don't have wheels and certainly won't transport you and your hot date to the club, but they can store up to 500GB of data!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)As if we weren't already way too obsessed with sliced bread--whether it be blessed, rolled through, or custom-printed, we sure love us some conceptual toast. The folks over at Evil Mad Scientist have decided to trump smaller-scale efforts by whipping up a CNC printing toaster, fitting the machine with a hot air gun and going X, Y, and Z like nobody's biz. The video demonstrates the hack's performance, replete with the novelty of watching Ze Frank's face emerge from bare bread.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you're the type to spend your savings on fancy footwear, then Jason Markk's $25 Premium Sneaker Solution set might be a smart investment to keep those kicks spic-and-span. It's 98.3% natural, completely biodegradable, and an 8 oz. bottle will spruce up about 50 pairs of sneakers. If the utility doesn't draw you in, the sweet packaging and designed details will certainly be the lure, you know, to gain a little more street cred.
via notcot
Being a couch potato just got easier. The All-Sounds Catch Cubic Pillow is a sound-absorbing headrest that diverts all ambient sound directly to your ear, in case you're too lazy to undertake the strenuous effort of pushing the "Volume-up" arrow on the remote control. Get this for your lazy loved ones and watch as their molecules actually become fused with the furniture.
[Via Tokyo Mango]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
If you drive a car with a manual transmission, you use slightly less gas than drivers with automatics. Now you can take this one step further with the Gaslock Indy Cater, a shift knob with an LCD readout that tells you the exact moment to shift in order to maximize your gas savings.
Of course, if you keep your eyes on this thing instead of the road, you might wind up with a bigger problem than losing a few bucks at the pump.
[Via Sci-Fi.com]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
The Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization is now accepting entries for their 2007 Good Design Awards. Founded by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1957, the competition is now in its 51st year. This year's chairperson is architect Hiroshi Naito. Details here.
For a look at some of 2006's winners, click here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Remember that buzzphrase from the '90s, Universal Design? Margie Vinson is a nurse who designed a motorized cabinet that plugs into a regular outlet and raises or lowers at the press of a button, making life easier for those with disabilities. An article about her (linked at the bottom) lists 33 points, from keeping cabinets shallow-depth to using smooth rangetops that allow users to easily slide pots forward, that designers should keep in mind when undertaking Universal Design projects. Click here for the full article.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
We usually report on stuff you can actually make use of, however, we're content just appreciating Blythe Church's ironic plushy take on everyday, meant-to-be functional objects--especially the electronic devices. Plush You interviews the Nova Scotian crafter on her inspirations and her future creative plans.
via craftzine
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
The New York Times wraps up last week's Milan brouhaha by reporting on the head-to-head attendance of "neo-Surrealist designers whose sensational, impractical, often supersize work is more than anything a form of self-expression, and a more serious group of neo-rationalists, who hark back to old-school Modernists in their desire to make better products for everyday use." In the end, people love to see (and buy) from both movements, so it seems there's enough room for everyone...well there was enough of Milan to go around, at least.
"No one's going to win," said Murray Moss, the New York design impresario, of the war of ideas brewing at the Rho-Pero fairgrounds and at the fringe shows around the city. He seemed upbeat about his prediction, reflecting a mood that had taken hold across Milan: Finally, people seemed to feel, the furniture industry is healthy enough to support a little competition.
(pictured left: Dandelight by Drift, pictured right: Steelwood chairs by Bouroullec)
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
You may have spotted, admired, but certainly not stepped on Sprinkle Brigade's turds-turned-masterpieces on the streets of NYC over the past couple years. These "pooblic" displays aren't politically charged or anything, but they sure do crack smiles on faces, get people talking, and prevent rank poop-shoe casualties. Better yet, these creations have earned the Brigade its very first gallery show called "Welcome to the Office of Urban Beautification" at Neon in Lyon, France, opening on May 14.
Oh wait, there's more--keep an eye out in August for the first in a trilogy of Sprinkle Brigade books: Sprinkle Brigade Volume 1 : New York State of Mind. Behold! The power of poo.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
If you weren't able to check out the Urban Forest banners when they were hanging in Times Sqare (blogged here), you can now have them hanging over your shoulder--if you hurry. 185 banners from "some of the world's most celebrated designers and artists" x 2 totes each doesn't make a lot of bags!
Here's more:
The tree is metaphor for sustainability, and in that spirit the banners from the exhibition are now being recycled into totebags designed exclusively for the project by Jack Spade. Profits from sales of the totebags will benefit Worldstudio AIGA Scholarships and the AIGA/NY Mentoring Program to sustain the next generation of design talent.
Sale begins Monday, April 30th. All info here.
(Above image and bag by Chip Wass.)
ADDENDUM: If you're more of a t-shirt person than a satchel person, you will be able to order up a T with your favorite design printed on it!
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
If you hate rainy days, designers Frederik Molenschot and Susanne Happle might have just the thing to make you flip for a drizzle and wish for a storm. Direct contact with water reveals a floral pattern on these seemingly plain Solid Poetry patio tiles.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)Check out this video of a suitcase bike opening, closing, and peddling itself around. Surprisingly, it's not just another concept--a prototype was spotted last week at the Canton Fair in China. For about $399, the like-luggage bike can be all yours when they start to roll out later this year...and if you're a true connoisseur of low-tech Inspector Gadget-type toys, don't forget that briefcase grill.
via treehugger
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Good news for us: Autodesk recently commissioned a survey of 2,000 people, and among the demographically-desirable 18-29 year olds ("millenials") a majority pay good attention to design. "Almost seven in ten respondents said that the last time they saw a product in a store that they 'just had to have,' it was because of its design."
Some of the highlights:
- Millenials are willing to pay more for an appealing product design, whether it's a car (67%), furniture (60%) or a video game system (31%)._
- They give serious thought to public spaces (66%), beauty and architecture (42%) when considering relocation to a new city._
- They are happier (74%), more motivated (64%) and more efficient (31%) in a well-designed workplace.
- An overwhelming 82% of survey participants would let the prospect of working in a beautifully designed building influence their decision to accept a job.
You can download the entire report here.
[Via IndustryWeek]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Here's a fun hack to turn the beloved moleskin into an 80GB drive.
via lifehacker
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)The latest essay on Design Observer, by Thomas de Monchaux, is a bit of a mash-up. Some very nice points, but then gets sucked into a vortex of formal critique. Or a cortex of vernal fatigue. Well, you decide. Here's a good bit:
The problem is, of course, complicated. First, there is the corruption of the word "design" itself, as it's generally applied to an Apple object. What distinguishes your iPod from your brand-x MP-3 player is not design: that brand x machine also is distinguished by design. By bad design. What is unique to Apple is more accurately called "style": a clear signature vocabulary of forms and materials, superabundant to the mere requirements of function, that convey a certain sensibility, atmosphere, association, vibe. Of course, all those rounded corners may aid in manufacture and structure, but they also say in a comfortingly Jetsonian way: "I'm from the future, and so are you."
Read the entire article.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
2 links from the amazing DaddyTypes blog: Fleurville's Mobi Stroller Bag (made from recycled pop bottles--pardon the pun), and Nika Zupanc's completely over-the-top acrylic cradles.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
When and where the umbrella originated is not quite clear. What we do know is that SENZ Umbrellas does a big step forward in the evolution of umbrellas.
Accordingly, "The aerodynamic SENZ Original is the first umbrella that will never go inside-out: It easily slices its way through all winds, from an afternoon breeze to strong autumn gusts. The SENZ Original is unique for always finding the best position in the wind, which requires minimum effort. Playing with the wind has become not only easy and comfortable, it's extremely fun too!"
Most surprisingly is probably its asymmetrical design that combines a perfect sight with rain protection. Just like airplane wings and Olympic speed-skating suits, the umbrellas have been tested at the wind tunnels of the Delft University of Technology - this one promises to be windproof up to wind force 10.
For these Dutch industrial designers, the rainy climate in the Netherlands was probably the perfect ingredient for this kind of innovation.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (1)
The European Space Agency plans to send an iPod to the astronauts chillin' aboard the International Space Station this fall. The iPod will be transported via an unmanned spacecraft called the Automated Transfer Vehicle--and there's even a contest to add top-drawer spacetastic playlists onto that very cosmic iPod. If your intergalactic musical taste is up to par, (here's the kicker) and if you reside in one of the participating countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, or Switzerland), and if you're over 18 years of age...well, then you're eligible. As cool as the whole idea sounds, annoyed sighs and eye-rollings are sure to ensue when the 'nauts uncover the campy, predictable song selection...also disappointed to be deprived of the hot new Beyonce track.
via crave
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
While American consumers have their soon-to-launch iPhones, Japanese cell phone users have their own innovative handsets in the near future, courtesy of Japan's NTT. Is the difference in features cultural? You tell us:
1. NTT subsidiary Neomeit will release in September a technology you've doubtless heard about (but not yet actually used) before: using your cell phone as a remote control. For about four bucks a month, users can rent the "U-Consento" infrared transmitter to control their stereos, TVs and HVACs via cell phone.
2. DoCoMo will also release (date TBD) a line of phones targeted at the elderly. The phones will provide health-monitoring hardware like thermometers and blood pressure meters.
3. NTT DoCoMo's 904i series of phones due for May release feature accelerometers that enable Wii-like gaming, and/or functionality (i.e. shake your phone like an etch-a-sketch to retrieve your messages).
[Via Digital World Tokyo and Pink Tentacle]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
The fact is that honeybees, which we need as a species to pollinate our crops, are disappearing. Colony Collapse Disorder, the scientists are calling it.
Two weeks ago the cause was apparently cell phones; scientists speculated that radiation given off by our handsets was mucking with the bees' internal navigation systems. (This could speedily be solved if the bees would just hire a snotty flight attendant telling us in no uncertain terms to shut our phones off.)
But this week, they're saying the culprit is actually a virus, not Verizon.
What murderous force is actually causing bee colonies to collapse? No one yet knows, though we here at Core have our own theories.
You know, I sure do love getting the Sunday Times on the weekends, settling down at the table and GAAAHH! GAAAAAAAAAAHHH!
(Apparently this thing is on the market.)
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)
NYC-based designer Harry Allen and Esque Studio have collaborated on a new line of blown glass and steel frame lighting and vases. Think the Blob meets 3-D wireframes, but styled into high-end housewares, and without the slimy mess. The organically designed vessels rest tensely within steel gridded frames, appearing to ooze despite being completely rigid. (Shown above from left to right: Jailbirds vase, Triple Grid Bubble vase, Grid Bubble lamp)
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)What else would you do with all these obsolete barf-beige PCs from 1997? These dudes end it "legit" by giving most of the PCs away to charity or recycling them as part of an overall hardware deal.
via arbroath
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
The Keyport Slide universal key fob lets you tote your house, office, car, and lock keys around in one streamlined casing where sliding modules push keys out from the shell. Integrated RFID allows for remote keyless entry and there's even a built-in alarm remote that's currently in development. Keyport hasn't launched yet, but you can sign up for alerts on the site if you're tired of those prickly-pokey keys in your pocket.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (6)
Of the many cord-keeping lighting concepts that exist today, Nicolo Taliani's Lamp No.1 really stands out as a simple and elegant solution. The lamp uses the excess cord length as an aesthetic element, gathering it into its clear glass belly for all to see. The shade holds a touch-sensitive dimmer plate near the top that controls various light intensity levels.
via pan-dan
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
We've got good news and... good news.
Firstly, the DESIGNMAI 2007 website has just been launched. From 12th to 20th May, this international design festival will transform the city of Berlin into a platform for it's design scene, a stimulating place for international exchange and a seismograph of the latest design trends. This year's fifth edition will be all about DIGITALABILITY or: "What are we doing with digital technologies?" and "What are they doing with us?"
Secondly, last year most events were centralized at one location creating a kind of designer ghetto (see last year's A Letter from Berlin) - this year will once again lead us through the streets of Berlin with eventful location in the middle of the everyday life.
Berlin itself is part of the show, so get your calendar and city maps (PDF) here to find your way through the design and the city.
P.S.
Again, the Designmai Youngsters will pushing the other side of the story at the 'Kunstfabrik am Flutgraben' in Berlin. This year stands for a 96 hour non-stop program marathon on DIGITAL
These three designers have been steadily working, putting pen to paper--or at least pen to graphic tablet--to create spirited, fresh and sometimes frightening images.
Leonardo Baptista Lopes
Balneário Camboriú, Brazil
Leonardo Baptista Lopes' digital paintings are reminiscent of the rotoscoped, tripped out characters from "A Scanner Darkly". Like their dark(ly) inspirer, Lopes' grim, brooding and freakish characters live in an introspective dystopia.
N.C. Winters
Escondido, California
Introspection, detachment and melancholia are key themes in the work of N.C. Winters. His designs display his need to fill ever blank space with visual stimuli--or at least tame it, prompting the viewer to stay a while and search through the details of these solitary environments.
Karo Akpokiere
Lagos, Nigeria
Like the Nigerian underground hip hop and graffiti scene, Akpokiere's work is forceful and irreverent. The designs are ornate and dense with text and images that co-exist and collide (check out his stool drawings).
Posted by: | Comments (5)Peter Hall's got a great piece in Metropolis on the crisis facing product design schools right now, summed up in the subtitle: "Design schools need to shift focus from the form of objects to understanding the systems that produce them." Here's a taste:
It seems to me that there are at least three responses from design schools to the current crisis: position product design as a business(week)-friendly, innovation-focused process (IIT and Stanford); focus on research rather than form making and align it with other humanities disciplines (Hunt); or take the art-school route epitomized by the Royal College of Art, in London, and Cranbrook Academy of Art, which have reputations for critical thinking and producing sexy imagery of objects--often more hypothetical than manufacturable.
Read entire article.
Thanks Jason!
Lonneke Gordijn of Netherlands-based design studio, Drift, has conjured up this delightful device that marries technology and nature. Dandelight is a battery-powered LED delicately adorned with a phosphorus-bronze stem and dandelion seeds. It looks exactly like an illuminated fuzzy dandelion that stays alive thanks to "batteryfood."
via dezeen
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Remember the Intel Challenge PC-designing contest we posted about a few weeks ago? One of the entries is pictured above. And while architect Won-Chul Kim's "Once Again in Front of the Mirror" will probably not be flying off the shelves at CompUSA, the guy gets points for originality. Or vanity. Or for receiving an undue amount of pressure from his girlfriend.
[Via Sci-Fi.com]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
These days it seems even the Amish are carrying digital cameras, and those of us that shoot in urban environments know it's not long before the lens gets dirty. Specks on the glass can foul your autofocus and light sensors, turning your $300 toy into a Lomo.
To keep the glass clean, we're supposed to use that space-age cloth thingy, which most of us fail to carry around. To solve this problem, Sigma has produced the Micro-Fiber Lens Cloth Keychain, which goes for less than four bucks. And don't worry; the cloth stays clean inside its own little pouch, so your pocket lint doesn't ruin your shot of those rule-bending Amish.
[Via ProductDose]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene, or ETFE, has been in use for 15 years, however, it may soon experience a surge in notoriety thanks to its major role in the design and structure of both the Beijing National Stadium and Aquatics Center, which are being built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Related to Teflon, ETFE is a transparent plastic that has been selected in lieu of glass and plastic for the construction of many future-forward buildings and concepts.
ETFE can be made into glass-like sheets or inflated in pillows and is being used in some of the most innovative new buildings around the world....Compared to glass, it's 1% the weight, transmits more light, is a better insulator, and costs 24% to 70% less to install. It's also resilient (able to bear 400 times its own weight, with an estimated 50-year life-span), self-cleaning (dirt slides off its nonstick surface), and recyclable.
More info and a nice slide show at BusinessWeek.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
The Carry and Go Briefcase BBQ and Fold Flat BBQ are both compact enough for grillin' on the go, however, mention of the giant bag of charcoal you'd need to lug around has been conveniently omitted from the promotional copy. Both grills are pretty affordable--just GBP19.95 for the Fold Flat BBQ and (if you really mean "business") GBP24.95 for the Briefcase BBQ...so you might be able to justify your purchase purely based on camp value.
via gizmodo
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you enjoy watching paint dry, then you'd be thrilled to get your paws on Thorsten Streichardt's Rasen shredder. It's been modified to operate at a severe fraction of its normal speed, closely matching the pace of growing grass. Rasen shreds less than 1 cm of paper over the course of 24 hours, so don't hold your breath. (If it's shred-tastic entertainment you seek, you might want to invest in a hamster or two.)
via vvork
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Nokia's got bored British commuters playing games, but Solo takes a different approach to interactive bus stop marketing by showcasing the phone's walkie-talkie feature. Under Vancouver-based agency Rethink's creative guidance, bus shelters in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, and Calgary were equipped with built-in two-way radios that connect commuters between different cities, in real time, with just a push of a button.
via ad goodness
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
So, the ginormous Airbus A380 has finally made its way into the hands of the wealthy. An anonymous Middle Eastern "head of state" seeking some high-flying pimposity tapped design firm Edese Doret Industrial Design to deck his jet out. EDID made do, working within the tight framework of the $150 million budget.
The thing features guest suites, a cocktail lounge with movie viewing area, wet bar, dining room, multiple living rooms, you name it.
It's depressing when your apartment is nowhere near as nice as this thing that can land at JFK.
[Via Unbeige]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
In case you missed it: An interesting anti-pollution campaign run in China by the World Wildlife Federation. The balloon represents how much CO2 the average car generates on an average day, though we have a feeling the real amount was too large to construct a balloon for.
[Via Neatorama]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Duct-Tape Sculptures. What will become of our society? And why is a dinosaur scaling the CN Tower?
Using Ants in Advertisements. Out of ink? Draw something with syrup, let the critters do the rest.
[Via DumpTrumpet]
Ex-IDSA President and designer Mark Dziersk is an expert speaker in the field of Industrial Design who holds over 100 US patents. He also runs an Essentials of Industrial Design class in Northwestern University's Master of Product Development program.
The five-year-old program was created as an out-of-your-comfort-zone hybrid to fill the gap between the finance, marketing, and leadership courses students get in business school and the topics they'd cover--materials selection, specification, and validation--at the university's engineering school. A soupcon of wacky design thinking leavens the innovation process and teaches creative risk taking.
Dziersk's MPD students at Northwestern have designed products that have won awards as well as received direct VC funding. An example of his teaching methods:
"Take out some paper," he instructs. "You have 30 seconds to write down 15 ways in which a cat is like a refrigerator."
Read an article about the class by FastCompany, here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Sure, everyone is blogging about Sheryl Crow's eco-focused one-square manifesto (but is it for poo or just pee, Sheryl? And if you're doing this tour with Laurie David, will this show up on a future episode of Curb?) but we bring you the design-y details, as Sheryl Crow turns fashion designer. Or perhaps that's "fashion" "designer."
Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (2)
I have designed a clothing line that has what's called a "dining sleeve." The sleeve is detachable and can be replaced with another "dining sleeve," after usage. The design will offer the "diner" the convenience of wiping his mouth on his sleeve rather than throwing out yet another barely used paper product.
Earlier this week, the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) saluted Earth Day by publishing this year's top ten list of sustainable projects that have invested in considerable modifications to exist more harmoniously within the natural environment. You might recognize one of the selections from a 2005 Studio Bullitt on Steven Holl Architects' Whitney Water Purification Facility.
The selected projects address significant environmental challenges with designs that thoughtfully weave architecture, technology, and natural systems. This year's COTE Top Ten include a model single-family home, sustainable master plan and library, two nonprofit headquarters, a school, and a water treatment facility that doubles as a park. In addition, public education of sustainable practices was a key component of most projects.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Street art and design collective DOMA introduces 15 over-the-top vinyl toys in its new Acid Sweeties collection. The cracked-out characters appear as if they've escaped an acid trip only to find their way into some proper packaging, ready to be purchased for $7.95 each on April 26th at 11am EST at Kidrobot.
via notcot
Japanese toilet manufacturer Inax has just released their 2007 Satis Asteo Washlet toilet, which is a good example of how toilet design seems to be taken more seriously in Japan than elsewhere.
Some features:
A) The toilet has an SD card, pre-loaded with Bach, Chopin and Mendelsohn. Once you show up to take care of business, a sensor activates the tunes, either to relax you or to prevent houseguests in your thin-walled Japanese apartment from hearing anything other than Bach, Chopin or Mendelsohn.
B) The smoothly-designed exterior of the basin is easy to clean, absent of the dust- and grime-collecting nooks and crannies present in many Western toilets.
C) Another sensor figures out whether you're going to need the seat up or down (crikey, would love to know how this one works) and motorizes it into the appropriate position. After you leave, it automatically places the seat in the down position if it was up, preventing countless marital spats.
D) A nightlight in the bowl helps guide you during those 2am emergencies, though this feature may not be so desirable if you've had too much tequila and are making that other use of the toilet.
The (somewhat poorly Google-translated) webpage is here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Wet Foot Publications/Piebird press created these Paper Towel Flashcard sets as the first part of a series called "Know Your Household Products." The cards differentiate each brand by the unique dotted texture patterns on every roll. Before you know it, you'll be at dinner parties impressing your friends with your clean-up savvy. The group is currently developing a swatch card set inspired by dish soap colors.
via happy mundane
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Hobbling around on a lame leg no longer means bearing the cross of lame style. German design team qed has bestowed upon the trusty crutch a much-needed 21st century makeover. The Flexability crutch is composed of molded glass-reinforced plastic and sports a stackable, streamlined shape. (More qed goodness after the jump.)
When it comes to displays you've got LCDs, LEDs, and OLEDs; now make way for Hairy-Ds.
Electronics giant Philips has filed a patent for an as-yet-unnamed "display fabric" that operates by controlling hairs. Each pixel is made of fabric of a certain color, and embedded with hairs of a different color. When the hairs lay flat, all you see is their color; apply an electrostatic charge and the hairs stand up, revealing the color of the fabric beneath.
The initial applications are forecasted to be clothing with changeable displays on them, as there doesn't seem to be any use in having furry flatpanels. So we can continue to clean our laptop screens with electrostatic rags rather than, say, Pantene Pro-V.
[Via Oh Gizmo]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Make:blog's got a great roundup of everyone's favorite DIY project, the crystal radio. We love the one up top, contructed from household items, but you'll find all kinds of creative enterprise in the post. Listen up here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
We've all had the same fast food dining experience thought at one point or another: "This does not look anything like the [enter gimmicky fast food item name here] in the picture." But now you can feast your eyes on an entire collection of value meal misrepresentations thanks to this side-by-side comparison study. The real Big Mac up there looks like it's even grossing itself out.
via design observer
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)
BMW debuted their Concept CS car at last week's Shanghai auto show. A couple notable things:
- For a concept car, it doesn't look too concept, suggesting the high-end luxury ride may go into production soon. If you were to see one of these whipping down the road tomorrow, you would stare in awe, but not disbelief.
- BMW chose to debut the car in China. Surely familiar with the weight such a message carries in face-heavy China, BMW is probably trying to win some market share and consumer goodwill with the gesture.
The latter point is a sort of acknowledgement that the world's most desirable car market is steadily shifting from America to Asia. Manufacturing has already been going that way for a while--another article points out that Toyota has just outsold GM for the first time this year, in a trend that is expected to continue.
Aspiring auto designers, set your sights Eastward.
[In-depth coverage about the car in The New York Times]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
As of press time (9:57am Tuesday), Jonathan Ive, Apple's Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, is currently ranked 11th on Time Magazine's List of 100 Most Influential People. He's ahead of Brad Pitt and President Bush, but behind Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who currently tops the list. But internet participation can change these things, so vote now!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)We've blogged about this before with the Pronto Condom, and truth be told, the Pronto video provides a longer, more satisfying experience, but here's another--the Pullit Condom. Cheers to industrial design solving the world's most urgent problems!
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (1)
EMUDE (Emerging User Demands for Sustainable Solutions) is a programme of activities funded by the European Commission, the aim of which is to explore the potential of social innovation as a driver for technological and production innovation, in view of sustainability. Behind the initiative are a consortium of partners, including the Milan Polytechnic, Doors of Perception and Philips Design.
Their newly published book, Creative Communities, sheds more light -- by adopting a design perspective -- on cases where subjects and communities use existing resources in an original way to bring about sustainable system innovation.
The book is available for download: low res. (46.6 mb) - medium res. (66.5 mb)
(via John Thackara)
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)
A packed RISD auditorium enjoyed one of the best-programmed conferences ever, with concentrations on Sustainability, Interaction and Experience, Research, and Creativity--exactly the issues most urgent in the growing and maturing field of what is still, stubbornly, being called industrial design.
After a Friday night "mixer" at DWR (Bob Brunner from Pentagram and Fuego North did their futile best to give a presentation amid the pandemonium), Saturday morning started off a bit groggy, but nevertheless inspired, with the theme "Major Shifts." A central thread was sustainability, (a highlight was Eric Rice from Patagonia), with the line up of Stephen Lane from Item NPD, Cynthia Smith (curator of the upcoming Design for the Other 90% at the Cooper-Hewitt), Meagan O'Neill from Treehugger, and Allan Chochinov from Core77.
[tons more pics after the jump]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (6)
Summer's coming, and while all of us are looking forward to getting outdoors, New Yorkers will, as usual, dread having to take the subway. Poor ventilation makes temperatures on some of the underground platforms feel something like being in the center of the sun. A notable exception to this is last year's unveiling of air-conditioned platforms at Grand Central, but the coolness could only be felt if you stood directly underneath the huge (and hugely inefficient) blowers.
Now there's hope! Well, sort of; folks at the MTA are talking about installing glass-edged platforms on the upcoming 2nd Avenue line, like they kind they currently have on the Airtrain to JFK platforms and in Hong Kong's Kowloon, pictured above. This would enable air conditioning to be "locked in" to the platforms.
The reason we say "sort of" is because city officials have been talking about building a 2nd Avenue subway line since, wait for it...1929. The original schematics were probably drawn on a piece of slate with a rock.
In the meantime, we broil.
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Meat, bones and neurons. That's what our discussion board members say is missing from D-schools after reading Dan Sheffer's article, ''Design Schools: Please Start Teaching Again.'' The consensus is that schools are putting too much emphasis on innovative thinking, polarizing designers and placing some at a disadvantage. So what do they want? Schools that teach the fundamentals of design, PERIOD. One member, who carried the discussion over to his blog, put it best when he said, ''If meat is knowledge, then bones are technical skills/craft. And of course the mind represents Thinking.'' You need all to make the Design body move.
A hot tip passed on from the one and only Yo!
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Designing in a vacuum is no good; it's always great to see how people actually use the products we crank out.
Jan Chipchase has got a great essay, based on three years of Nokia research, on where people from different cultures (11 countries, 4 continents) carry their phones, why, and what it all means.
[Via Textually]
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If you think your apartment is small, you need to visit Tokyo, where they've got domiciles that make submarine cabins look spacious. Perhaps that's why they've now got Tsubomi, a pre-fab system for adding spaces made out of aluminum and glass. Pictured above is an ad-hoc office parked over a parking spot, sent to Jean Snow by a reader. Click the link below for more info.
[Via Jean Snow]
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In an exploration of fictional tools for hibernators, Susanna Hertrich developed the Chrono_shredder, a product that serves as a reminder to live one's life productively. The 365-day calendar is dispensed day-by-day from a single roll, each day shredded over an exact 24-hour period.
The Chrono_Shredder's function is not to show the current moment, like a calendar. Instead, it shows the nearest future (the next day) - and all the time that has past from the time the device has been switched on. Whilst you spend your time in hibernation - the Chrono_Shredder messes up your space with wasted time!
via vvork
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Minimalism is hard to pull off when you've got the amount of crap on your desks that we do. So we're fans of this combination USB hub/tape dispenser, currently available only in Japan, as they seem to know from minimalism.
Please give us your suggestions: Which of the following indispensable desk items (or add your own) would you combine?
- stapler
- pen/pencil holder
- mouse
- paper clip dispenser
- mail in-box
- external hard drive
- digicam dock
- 750ml bottle of Jim Beam
- embroidered "Bless This Mess" sign
[Via Tokyo Mango]
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Lost Found Art is a company in the Tri-State area that that does installations and assemblages. "We put together complete collections of weird and unusual vintage and antique pieces for residential and commercial applications," is how one employee puts it. They also buy antiques, so if you've got some tchotchkes or grandpa's war medals lying around, drop them a line.
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Drivers in Tunisia might not be so annoyed with Ilyes Jaryan's under-the-wiper music school flyers if they're attentive enough to notice the conceptual touch. Let's hope takers don't show up with windshield wipers in lieu of horsehair bows.
via ad goodness
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Check out this video of Nokia's new N95 campaign plastered on the sides of bus shelters in the UK. While waiting for transport, you can pass the time by playing an interactive touch-screen matching game. Unfortunately, this person didn't even come close to winning, so we have yet to find out what appears at the end.
via wired
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
They don't light up or do anything jazzy like that, but Jim Woodring's Moleskine pop-ups definitely get some major homebrew points. What's even more impressive is the level of execution given that these were "done on the run with pocket tools and available light."
thanks bryman!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Not to burst your Magic 8 bubble, but the secret's been revealed. You might already know this is if you busted yours open during your destructive inquisitive childhood years--it's not a spherical miracle! That's right folks, we've been duped by a cylindrical container and cheap fortune-telling piece of plastic...kinda makes sense as to not waste the extra mystery liquid blue-dyed water.
via boingboing
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
The Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail provides some perspective today on the current design movement.
The article contains short interviews with (Canadian) design "visionaries", such as Bruce Mau ("We live our lives inside of design"), Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management ("I tell CEOs that they don't need to understand designers, they need to be designers"), and computer interface design specialist Bill Buxton, as well as the non-Canadian IDEO co-founder Tim Brown.
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)
If last looks mean anything, Milano Design Week 2007 leaves us with one thought: re-use, re-think, re-invent. Evidence below:
1) The signs posted around Zona Tortona reminded visitors to think about personal time and energy expenditure in terms of a carbon footprint. Part of the "Best Up" initiative, this signage played a part in raising awareness about equality and sustainability.
2) French designer Tete Knecht won a place in the Promosedia exhibit with her straw shoes. Materiality aside, her unconventional means of production make for a joyous product experience. Made by hand -- or feet? -- by jumping through straw while covered in latex, the product humourously transforms an overlooked material into a fashionable good.
Posted by: elle* | Comments (0)
THE main language spoken at the Shanghai auto show is Chinese, but the vocabulary of the designs is polyglot: Italian flourishes, high Japanese roofs, German solidity, American assertiveness.
What is missing? Almost anything that could indicate the emergence of a distinctly Chinese school of automotive design.
China has the world's fastest-growing auto market and has already overtaken Japan in domestic sales; it now trails only the United States. Both multinational and Chinese automakers have learned that it is a lot easier to build new car factories than to instill a new generation of Chinese designers and engineers with the sensibilities to have a lasting effect on global automotive design.
The New York Times has an interesting article on the need for developing a distinctive Chinese design language for automobiles. Full story here.
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (1)
The week winds down in Milan. Off-site venues were quiet as everyone recuperated from last night's festivities. Is that Marcel Wanders we catch having an afternoon pick-me-up?!
TuttoBeNe, the collective of designers from (or based in) Belgium or The Netherlands, took over a former car wash/market outpost in Zona Tortona and filled it to the brim with their wares. Warm sun drenched pieces such as Joana Meroz's clever "Lace Plate with Drain", while further down the road Maarten Baas showed his new collection called "Sculpt." Reminiscent of Gumby-gone-furniture, the most successful pieces were his playful upright fans.
Posted by: elle* | Comments (0)
Friday in Milan: The offsite events in the Triennale and Zona Tortona were filled to capacity. Home to Material Connexion Milan, the Triennale showcased a variety of innovative materials and concepts. A dramatic, textured staircase served as centerpiece to the experience.
Zona Tortona captured elements of both high and low design. Expected, but always delightful, was the decadent Swarovski exhibit. From old favorite Yves Behar to newcomer Jaime Hayon, the creations continue to seduce visitors.
Posted by: elle* | Comments (2)
As part of our new partnership with Federated Media, we're conducting a survey of our readers. Since most people don't like filling out forms for no reason, we asked our friends at Mimoco for a set of their new Star Wars Mimobots to give away. So give us two minutes of your time and complete the survey, and make sure to include your email address at the end. On May 9 we'll pick four winners from the pool. May the force be with you.
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It's a scenario familiar to most design freelancers: you're working in some company's office, hoping they'll go home at six and leave you behind to work on the project--so you can print your own stuff out on their kick-ass printer or high-end plotter, making use of equipment you could never afford on your own.
Alas, the few times your correspondent was lucky enough to work in a firm with an RP machine, the coveted device was never left unattended, so dreams of making resin army men or self-designed eyeglass frames were never realized.
But now there's hope, without having to milk a client! The nutters over at EvilMadScientist have been working on a "home-built, DIY, CNC, 3D printer" that all of us could theoretically build for under 500 bones. The printing medium? Granulated sugar, in two- to five-millimeter "pixels." It's less expensive than resin, and when you screw up the first three army men, you can just drop the little buggers in your coffee.
The fellas over at EMS hope to debut their creation sometime in May. Click here to read more.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
A design competition sponsored by the A1 Team Netherlands racing group requires entrants to download line drawings of their car and uniforms, then design the pattern or paint scheme that goes on it. The winning design will then be applied to the real car and seen (in person, by the winning designer) zipping around the track at 200+ m.p.h., as the winner is invited to follow the team as a VIP guest.
The somewhat odd rules stipulate the car has to be at least 50% orange (national colors), but the good news is you won't have to build any mock-ups; you can do this whole project in Photoshop.
Deadline is June 1st, and runner-up prizes include a variety of gift certificates and paid-for trips. Click here to read about the contest and download the relevant files.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
If you're one of those people who can't ever finish a book, likes to read a few books at the same time, or both, these Flying V shelves by Massie Office were made just for you. Sure, you can arrange them in straight alignments, but the actual "flying v" formations look so dynamic...and they hold pages to boot!
via bltd
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
If you're seeking treatment at Blekinge Hospital in Sweden, leave the Crocs at home! You might remember our past discussion on Croc fugliness, but in this case, it's not about the fashion police. Apparently, the popular plastic clogs generate static electricity that interferes with hospital equipment--they've already reported at least three incidents where respirators and other machines malfunctioned! Thankfully, nobody was hurt.
via medgadget
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Compared with most Hollywood fare, foreign films are great; yet it is American theaters that typically have "stadium" seating, and if you're short, you'll need to combine these two experiences. Why? Because sitting behind a tall person often obscures the subtitles.
With the invention of Subtitle Glasses, brought to you by Madrid's Carlos III University, you can have your own personal subtitles. A receiver in the specs picks up a signal transmitted within the theater, and you get your subtitles projected onto your own mini-screen. So you no longer have to passive-aggressively kick the seat in front of you because the guy's got an afro.
[Via gizmodo]
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An article in this week's Economist contains an interesting product prediction: based on what they saw at the CTIA Wireless 2007 show, Apple's "ho-hum" iPhone is an "also-ran," while it is the Helio Ocean's "ingenious user interface" that will capture the market. One of the biggest criticisms the article levels at the iPhone is that Apple decided to go with Cingular's EDGE network, which operates on dial-up speeds, compared to the broadband speeds of the Ocean's EV-DO network.
We feel there is a design lesson here. The thing Apple's detractors and competitors usually underestimate is emotion. When the 1st generation iPod Mini came out, everyone predicted it would fail; for $249 it offered only 4 gigs of storage, and for another 50 bucks you could get a 20 gig iPod. It didn't make mathematical sense to purchase a Mini.
Yet the Mini sold like hotcakes, not because it was the most logically sound product, but because it was like that person at the bar you can't take your eyes off; cute, sexy, and you want to take them home with you. This principle, embodied in a product, is something you're simply never going to get with, say, a Microsoft Zune.
As for the "ingenious user interface" of the Ocean--a pull-out keyboard, rather than a touchpad--we think The Economist is a little out-of-touch, no pun intended, on this one.
Ironically, most Economist online articles are available only to print subscribers; but anyone can click the link to read this one, because the link is sponsored--by advertiser Microsoft.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (5)
Dutch artist Edwin Zwakman produces large-scale photographs by painstakingly reconstructing objects and landscapes from memory. The pylon pictured above is 50cm tall, made from approximately 400 pieces of copper soldered together, the cables are made from vinyl and cotton wool is used in background.
"As I reconstruct the world, I work entirely from memory," he explains. "I never use photographs or other reference material. All the places, objects and buildings I have seen morph into new variations. Scale and perspective change as well: the images do not show what one could photograph in such situations, but how one experiences and remembers them."
His work is currently on show in the UK in his exhibition Tales From the Grid at the Q Gallery until 6 May.
via: CR Blog
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
Is there anything better than devouring unborn chickens for breakfast? Sure, just used this heart-shaped egg mold to hipsterize your sunny-ups. Crack the egg, plop it into the metal mold, and fry as usual. It's too bad eggs aren't exactly the most (human) heart-healthy breakfast option...but maybe you can make up for it by fixin' some whole wheat Holy Toast in your Rollertoaster.
via swissmiss
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
We've seen our share of artsy TV cover-ups, but this one's very thought-out, and best of all, it looks freakin' awesome. TV2ART's Lightascope comes in three patterns: dots, lines, and curves. The cut-out shapes (some clear, some color-tinted) glow and dance from the light and movement on your flat-panel television. The flexible sheet is backed with a strip holding millions of tiny suction cups that never wear out and leave no residue on the screen.
via mocoloco
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
It's easy enough to appreciate great architecture when it already exists, built to the top. Now that Architectural Record has released the Unbuilt Houses 2007 list, you'll have to muster up some visualization--or better yet, just sit back and enjoy the process of conceptualization that leads up to the whole shebang.
Collectively, these unbuilt projects demonstrate the value of drawing, irrespective of their potential for realization. Unencumbered by construction, they affirm drawn architectural propositions as a legitimately autonomous practice--and help to reframe the discipline of architecture as a condition of possibility.
via archinect
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Thursday in Milan: The Fiera was buzzing as crowds piled into the Euroluce exhibit. From decadent to delicate, Euroluce returns for its 24th biennial, representing an entire gamut of lighting design.
Concurrently, the furniture portion of Salone displayed a collection of this season's greatest hits. Evidence of handicraft was everywhere. Big names like Moroso and Roche Bobois showed off colorful, textural new creations by the likes of Patricia Uriquiola and Hans Hopfer respectively. Urquiola's Antibodi felt chair and Hopfer's hand-sewn bright purple Mah Jong sofa offered warmth and comfort without sacrificing style.
Posted by: elle* | Comments (0)A company named Fotowoosh has developed a killer technology that turns 2D photographs into 3D ones. Algorithms use visual cues in the photo to figure out where the horizon line is and where the vanishing points vanish to, then it "folds" the photo along those seams.
But enough tech-talk--this is the kind of thing that has to be seen to be believed; check out the video.
Applications for the technology have not yet been settled upon, but now that everyone owns digital cameras and has a hard drive full of photos, we're fairly certain this is not one of those technological breakthroughs that's going to fade away.
Any ideas, guys?
[Via GizMag]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (9)
Japanese timepiece maker Seiko will be manufacturing a women's E-Ink watch, which uses the eponymous technology to change the display, like a primitive LCD. Right now there are only two modes: "Efficiency," which displays the time in an easy-to-read format, and "Mystery," which renders numbers in a more artistic fashion.
Pictured above are a prototype from 2005 (left) and what the actual release model will supposedly look like (right). The photo on the right shows the timepiece in Mystery mode, but the real mystery is when Seiko's going to release the thing. No date has been announced.
[Via Techie Diva]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
If only there were one of these in our fair city! San Francisco's Techshop is "a fully-equipped open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own projects at your own pace." Essentially a better version of the ID shop you had in school, Techshop stocks milling machines, metal lathes, plastic printers and RP machines, CNC laser cutters, MIG- and TIG-welding equipment, and more.
If you're a manufacturing processes newbie, they even offer classes for $30 to $60 on how to use various pieces of equipment. Anyone can walk in and work metal, plastic, fabric, leather, etc. For the equipment list, click here. For the complete course list, click here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (4)
If you're like me and you've got a lot of crap, you like putting stuff in boxes. Problem is shoebox manufacturers so rarely make the exact size you need.
Well, problem solved. EvilMadScientist has a pretty simple DIY tutorial on how to make those Japanese papercraft boxes in any size you need; just download the template, tweak the dimensions, and now you've got a box that will precisely fit your spare ethernet cables, postcards from your lover in Alsace or whatever unstandard-sized thing you need that must be boxed.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
You might recognize Tjep from older work filed under his full name, Frank Tjepkema, but as of late, he's busted out with new goods, including this Heartbreak necklace, under the abbreviated title. Heartbreak is a wearable interactive piece, composed of a rubber core surrounded by an attached porcelain heart with a handy little titanium hammer for the user to create chips and cracks. (Great alternative to taking a real hammer to someone's chest.)
When broken the heart will show cracks, yet it will never fall apart as there is a layer of rubber on the inside that will keep the heart together. Indeed as one will usually recover from a broken heart, the small cracks will inevitably add up and form who we are.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you qualify as non-sketchy, are a frequent flyer, and can spare $99.95 per year (includes a $28.00 TSA vetting fee), then "flying Clear" might be a sweet option for you. The Clear service supplies pre-screened travelers with a biometric card used to check in at special Clear security lanes, reducing wait times and missed flights. Once you're in the clear, you can move on to buy trashy magazines at the news stand without feeling razzed from the "regular people" security checkpoint.
via gizmodo
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (4)
In May Phaidon Press will release & Fork, a book featuring 100 of the industrial design profession's soon-to-be illuminaries, as selected by the likes of ID Magazine's Julie Lasky, the Seoul Arts Center's Sang-kyu Kim, Habitat's Tom Dixon, and Domus' Francesca Picchi.
The book's odd title makes sense once you realize it's supposed to be the companion piece to Spoon, an earlier title released by Phaidon that also spotlit 100 designers, among them Jonathan Ive and Marc Newson. If the naming convention continues we will presumably see future iterations called Knife, Salad Fork, and perhaps Chopsticks.
& Fork will be going for about US $70 when it comes out, but Amazon's got it for around $42; used copies of Spoon, published in 2002, are going for as little as $14!
[Via Businessweek]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
Dog with a humping complex? Bored with regular ol' matches? Feel Addicted's bold products should appease your uncommon woes. Grab a Hotdoll (pictured left) for your horndog to relieve your own legs of this messy and time consuming activity. After he's done his deed, feel free to celebrate by lighting a match a la Lucifer (pictured right), an alternative match lighting tool where the match is lit as the user pulls it out.
via notcot
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Everyone's favorite home improvement wonderland/deathtrap, otherwise known as Home Depot, plans to carry an environmentally sustainable line of 6,000 products by 2009. It's projected that the Eco Options line will generate 12 percent of its sales, to make it the largest green labeling retail program in America. Even if sales aren't eye-popping at the beginning, the Depot will keep the green goods front and center to make sure shoppers at least become more aware of sustainable options.
Mr. Jarvis said Home Depot found that "given the option of a product that performs just as well, we are seeing the consumer would rather buy something that has less of an impact on the environment," adding, "We are just making that easier."
via NYT
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Pattina's got a great Flickr set of mid-construction photos showing the latest progress on Daniel Libeskind's Crystal structure, which is being built as an addition to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
via archinect
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Who designs your life? That's the question being posed to the people of North East England by a new initiative aimed at getting people to think about how design affects them and the future of the planet's resources.
Dott 07 (Designs of the time 2007) is a year of community projects, events and exhibitions in North East England that explore what life in a sustainable region could be like - and how design can help us get there.
Dott 07 is lead by programme director John Thackara, who said "Dott 07 is about local communities taking the lead in real life situations to change the way they deal with issues that affect their daily lives - from the way they use energy in their home, to the way we get from A to B, or how we can grow food in the most urban or city centre."
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)
Yesterday Torino, named World Design Capital 2008 by ICSID in collaboration with the magazine Abitare, launched TORINO GEODESIGN, an international consultation of ideas aimed at the design of complex tools (household objects, furnishings and fittings for public spaces, urban furniture systems) to be realised in conjunction with the local communities and businesses present in Torino and Piedmont.
The project, one of the highlights of Torino 2008 World Design Capital (see also this interview with director Paola Zini), was presented and discussed at a press conference at the Milan Design Fair by Sergio Chiamparino (Mayor of Torino), Stefano Boeri (direct or Abitare and project leader of the Geodesign competition), Fernando and Humberto Campana (designers), Guta Moura Guedes (President ExperimentaDesign Biennial, Lisbon) and John Thackara (director of Doors of Perception and Dott07). Zaha Hadid (architect) was caught ill in New York but contributed via a written statement.
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Salone Satellite, the birthplace of many a young designer's dreams. Inside, a special exhibit, "Avverati," looked back on the evolution of products previously presented in the Satellite. From inception to production it traced the path that many hopefuls wish to take.
Alongside, student work offered a bounty of inspiration. A group of students from Central St. Martins in London broke free of academic institution and formed their own show, calling themselves merely "Art School." Constantinos Economides' "rocking chair" is shown here as part of their collection. The French school ESAD presented a humourous collection of "No Risk" objects, inflatable laptop bags included.
Deliciously suprising was the NUX LED Light from Stefanie Gogolla at Fachhochschule in Muenster. Shaped like a peanut and glowing inside a bowl of popcorn, movie-snacks take on new light.
The day ended in full force with the inevitable Salone festivities. Fighting hordes of students and aspiring designers, even Ingo Maurer managed to have a drink at Ron Arad's Dolce and Gabanna opening. Not bad for day 1...
Posted by: elle* | Comments (0)
Livia Labate shares her inspiration and experience in creating a Wall of Ideas for her design team.
Capturing an idea is concrete step that helps you shape it and frame it, giving enough boundaries to allow it to grow. It's like eggs: If the chicken doesn't sit on its eggs, they won't hatch. On the other hand, if the chicken is a really busy web professional, she needs a hatcher to handle that for her.Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (0)
[...]
* What is it called - Give it a name, or a tagline. Show it off.
* What does it do? - How it works and/or what problems it solves.
* What does it look like? - A sketch, behavior flow, napkin drawing, nothing at all.
As a reviewer, one feels an obligation to read a book from cover to cover, but Made with FontFont begs to be explored rather than read.
The book showcases the output of FontShop International, a type foundry begun in 1990, around the time that Apple designed their TrueType system and Adobe released its previously proprietary PostScript Type 1 Format. Whether that sort of jargon makes you drool or cringe, there can be little doubt that it was an auspicious time to be creating fonts. Their collective output is breathtakingly diverse, frequently beautiful, occasionally disquieting and almost completely overwhelming.
With the impending release of tools like Adobe CS3 and the relegation of once-modern dot matrix printers to art installations, the etymology of terms like leading may soon be forgotten; but just because we have these new digital tools doesn't give us license to forget the past. A collection of essays, articles, graphics and promotional materials, Made with FontFont is a virtual history of the digital typography revolution.
Posted by: Robert Blinn | Comments (3)Worldchanging's got a great series of "Earth Day Voices," each pretty short 'n' sweet, but collectively adding up to a good primer on progressive thinking. Today's is from Ed Mazria, architect, and founder of Architecture 2030. Here's a (sweet) taste:
It is an unusual concept - for humanity to be held environmentally accountable. We have enjoyed many years of substantial personal fulfillment with few strings attached, and we will enjoy many more gratifying years, but they will not be defined by reckless consumption on a road to happiness. I believe we will find our ideals once again, like college students entering a new world where anything is possible. We will take pride in leading by example. We will again find confidence in ourselves and discover the means to achieve our goals because we are determined, because we truly care and because it really matters, now more than ever. We will be working together to literally save the inhabitants of our planet.
[Read the whole thing here]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
+sign, a young, Milan-based graphic design and branding team, is now auctioning off their first round of services on eBay, running in conjunction with Milan Design Week. They'll provide original graphics for t-shirts, boards, cars, wallpaper, or film masks (not including production costs). The whole eBay dealie is different and notable, however, it's a shame that +sign's website doesn't really show work examples, except for the website itself, which is, honestly, not too shabby. If you want to take advantage of +sign's unique offer, you'd better place your bids before the auction ends on the 25th of this month.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Eva Paster and Michael Geldmacher of Neuland Industriedesign have teamed up with Nils Hoger Moormann--a staple of the "New German Design" school--in a partnership to create innovative furniture that challenges the traditional conception of bookcase design. The collaborative effort produced Insert Coin--a wall mounted bookcase that'll remind you of your earliest Erector set. The design uncaps at Milan's Salone de Mobile next week.
The trays can be inserted into the wall panel in any order or configuration, so that each shelving system has a unique look. Insert Coin creates an off-kiltered arrangement not just for books, but for everything else that deserves a special place on the wall.
Some of the other designs accompanying this transforming bookcase are Bookinist, a mobile reading chair designed on the principle of the pushcart, and Walden, a hybrid between a treehouse and garden shed that encourages adults to go out and play in nature--or simply lay back and count the clouds.
Salone Del Mobile
New Milan Fairgrounds in Rho
Pavilion 12, Stand F18 (Entrance: Porta Est, Porta Sud, Porta Ovest)
20017 Milan
April 18 - 23, 2007 (9:30 - 18:30 Daily)
Didier Hilhorst and Nicholas Zambetti's Cushion Control pillows for Droog remotely control power, channels, and volume levels. The designers' aim includes provoking users to argue over "who has the remote," ultimately ending with a pillow fight.
If you're chillin' in Milan this week, visit Didier and Nicholas at the Droog Design Smart Deco 2 exhibition.
via wmmna
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Just released: The "Lomme Design Platform" bed, and it doesn't get any fresher than this--their website went live like, fifteen minutes ago.
According to the product copy, "Owners of Lomme beds will benefit from state of the art light and sound therapy, which remove outside disturbances and allow you to wake naturally feeling refreshed and full of energy." Unfortunately it doesn't say what this light and sound therapy consists of; perhaps the copywriters were too tired from testing the bed out to elaborate.
The copy also points out that "the egg shaped design gives you comfort and protection," presumably from large, carnivorous birds.
The bed is interesting-looking for sure, but single males may want to think twice about springing for one--if you bring a woman back to your place and she sees this thing, chances are you'll be having breakfast without her. For maximum irony, have eggs.
If you're feeling devoid of inspiration today, take a quick peek at nature's eye candy when your boss isn't looking.
via design observer
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Do you often find yourself slurping up bland soup all by your lonesome? Sabine Scheurer's soup-side creation solves both problems with a simple twist of a key...and a healthy imagination. The soup-sipper winds up Der Suppenvogel (The Soup Bird) and places it to perch on the edge of the soup bowl. The bird not only acts as a companion, but it also dispenses (regurgitates?) herbs or sesame seeds to flavor the soup--now that's loyalty.
via design spotter
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Long before the word software even existed, Raymond Loewy coined the design acronym MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) as a way to assess design solutions...Is that what happened to my hoverboard? MAYA is still in action today, from megapixel digital cameras that look like traditional 35mm point'n'shoots to cordless phones that look like cell phones. Weigh in on the topic here. (Topic started by The_Boogey_Man)
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Pro-cyborg Daiwa House Industry Co. of Japan has developed a cyborg exoskeleton that is not just the stuff of science fiction--it will be going on sale and lease(!) next year. The suit was designed for people who have difficulty moving limbs under their own power, such as the elderly and infirm. When the wearer attempts to move a particular limb, the suit reads their brainwaves and activates motors in the suit to obey the command.
The suit does not think or move on its own; it is a true tool. Now if only they could get some designers on it, so wearing it wouldn't make you look like one (see photo, above).
[Via Japan Times]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Chris Conte, born in Norway and raised in New York, has recently begun to offer his unique collection of biomechanical sculptures for sale. It's no surprise that he's now represented by the same agent as one of his earliest influences, H.R. Giger. Aside from pursuing these cyber-fantastical creations, Conte harnesses his affinity for sculpture, medical-science, and biomechanics to develop and make prosthetic limbs for amputees. (Battery-powered microbotic insect shown above.)
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
You may not recognize designer Dilip Chhabria's name, but perhaps soon you, and 1.2 billion Indians, will. As reported in a recent Businessweek article, experienced fiftysomething designer Chhabria (who's worked for Aston-Martin and GM, among others) is opening India's first automotive design school, the DC College of Automotive Studies, in Pune. The 1,500-student-capacity DC CAS will open this August, and has received help developing courses from Italy's Polytechnic di Turino and the Istituto Europeo di Design.
With China's car market growing explosively and India's soon to follow suit, the school couldn't come at a better time. India's native carmakers are already cranking out 1.4 million vehicles a year and demand will only grow.
Bollywood already trumps Hollywood in size; will India soon boost a Big Three of their own? One thing's for sure--India's car commercials are bound to be catchier than Detroit's.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
For upcoming British design, check out Pulse 2007, an upcoming retail trade show seeking "to deliver new products not seen elsewhere, to discover new trends...and to discover tomorrow's creative talent today."
This year's incarnation of the five-year-old exhibit will again feature Launchpad, an area dedicated to showcasing 100 emergent designers and design collectives including New Designers, Metropolitan Works, Hidden Art, Cockpit Arts, Design Factory, Design Nation and Clerkenwell Green.
Running June 3-5 at London's Earl Court, with an estimated 800 exhibitors and 10,000 visitors. Click here for info/registration.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Satyanarayan Gangaram Pitroda, better known as Sam Pitroda, born in Titlagarh, Orissa, India, is an inventor, entrepreneur and policymaker. Currently chairman of India's National Knowledge Commission, he is also widely considered to have been responsible for India's communications revolution. He is the Chairman and CEO of World-Tel Limited, an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) initiative. He holds many key technology patents, has been involved in several startups, and lectures extensively around the world on the implications of communications and information technology. Ric Edinberg, recent MDes graduate of the ID-IIT, Chicago, spoke to him personally over the phone.
DesignwithIndia had the opportunity to interview him to share his thoughts on design and the future of India. And here's a snippet,
Question: Mr Pitroda, you have extensive experience with the user centered design methods and tools that the Chicago school promotes through your position as member of their Board of Trustees.
Can you share with us your vision of how India's design community can apply design thinking, design research as well as tools and methods in order to best effect positive change in India and add social and economic value? Also, What key 5 areas do you see as priorities for India to focus on for social and transformation design initiatives?
The Japanese obsession with presentation has permeated multiple subfields of industrial design, perhaps none more so than package design. In recognition of this fact is the currently running Suupaa Pop - Package Design from Japan, an exhibit at the AIGA National Design Gallery in New York.
From their site:
Many design concepts and product ideas have been borne out of the inspiration offered by the Japanese market; Japanese packaging is one of the leading forces of innovation, applied technology, and risk taking in the industry. The selections on display provide examples of unique design, unexpected use of materials, innovative products, beautiful aesthetics and inspiring surprises.
Show runs until May 25th. No word on whether they'll be displaying last year's infamous Nut-Busting Doritos pack, but we can hope.
[Via Jean Snow]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
If you're one of the fortunate ones to have attended a TED conference, then you know they're chock full of insightful speakers schooling the audience on the most fascinating, forward-thinking topics. TED's new website focuses on these "inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers," with an attractive and easy-to-use interface that let's you get right to the good stuff: over 100 talks to watch, with more to come. We suggest you visit the site asap and stock up on as much knowledge as your brain capacity will allow.
...and many kudos to TED for not bogarting all this great brain food and/or charging money for it online. These talks are thought provoking and, as TED likes to stress, so very inspiring. Everyone should have a look and a listen. Yay TED!
via josh spear
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
We'd love to see the infomercial that would accompany the SmudgeGuard-- perhaps in due time. The smudge-prevention glove ensures against ink and graphite stains on the side of your hand and pinky and keeps your writing, artwork, and tablet PC smear-free. There were some other reasons like "No more dry, chapped hands from washing smudges off repeatedly," and "No more washing expensive hand lotions down the drain," but we think the first two are viable enough for those in the fight against smudges.
The left-handed inventor was driven to develop the SmudeGuard when her son, also a lefty, repeatedly returned home with smudge stains on his hand. The product improved their pen and pencil activities and now, "[they] hope this new product can help left-handed people, artists and others too!"
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
The world of USB doodads is far too vast for us to plug every single newcomer, however Solid Alliance's new USB FoodHub really stirs up the whole gag memory pot. It's kind of like SA's USB sushi deal, but much stranger and not as delectable-looking. The maggot ball-like Rice Tomato hub has ports for four individual 1GB USB drives: a Fried Shrimp, Fried Crab, Hamburger patty with mystery sauce, and Purin (something that resembles a tall flan)--all served up on a plate. While we wouldn't go near this food combo in real life, gross-out campiness works well for flash drive fun times.
via akihabara news
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
If it's a good read you're hunting for, well, you won't find it here. 3-D eye-popping art using books as a medium? Now you're talkin'! Fun Forever has posted a quick roundup of magical book artistry like Georgia Russel's scalpel-carved creation (pictured right) and Robert The's intertwined illusion-like sculpture (pictured left).
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
A recent Vanity Fair article takes a closer look at Murray Moss, who's now bringing his design sensibility to L.A.; his Melrose Avenue branch is due to open in a few weeks.
Moss had some interesting things to say about the layout of his store:
"I believe in a totally manipulated experience," says Moss.Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
"...the reason I locked things behind glass...was to create a proscenium, to slow the experience down."
"We keep the temperature freezing cold [because] I don't want it to be comfortable. I want you to be awake. If you want to just find out where the candlesticks are, the store doesn't work. This is why I very purposely had the store designed so that you cannot see any of the objects from the street. All of the cases are turned away from the street, so you can see only the one object that I put in the window."
Since advertisers in Sao Paulo, Brazil repeatedly defied city rules, above-eye level ads were banned back in December of 2006 (as part of an entire set of new ad regulations). We could only imagine what a city would look and feel like after being stripped gigantic visual solicitations, but thanks to Tony de Marco's Sao Paulo no logo Flickr set, we can all catch a glimpse of the skeletal remains of what was once a horizon filled with billboards and posters. It feels kinda barren and devoid of distracting eye candy, but you can actually see and appreciate the sky!
via boingboing
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
(Photo from Archidose)
Today Pratt Institute is cutting the ribbon on its new Design Center at the Brooklyn campus. The 200,000-square-foot structure brings all of Pratt's design disciplines--interior, industrial, fashion, and communications--into the same building, in the hopes the proximity will lead students to "bridge disciplines."
The official title of the building is the Juliana Curran Terian Design Center, named for the ex-architecture student ('90) who threw five million bones into Pratt's pot.
The event kicks off at 6pm, and around 9:30pm they'll be projecting a "stunning graphic presentation" onto the face of the building. More info here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
It was a great crowd last Friday night at d3o's design competition results evening, with a sweet jazz band on one end of the room, delicious cocktails (some of them orange!) on the other, and a festive mood for the winners, fans and media in the middle. After a heartfelt introductory speech by CEO Richard Palmer, the awards were distributed to finalists, many of whom flew in for the event. After the top prize was announced, the entire room joined in a champagne toast, celebrating a night of design and materials innovation, and providing a wonderful finale to the competition.
First Place and Overall Winner went to Gary Moore (USA) for his Hydroshoe; First Place to Steve Derfiny (USA) for his Multi-Purpose Wrap; Second Prize to Carl Arnese (Denmark) for his Flip Shoe; Second Place to Heidi Newell (USA) for her Venturing a Design Dialectic for the Intrepid Amoung Us; Runner Up to Trihariyanto Kadir (Indonesia) for his OXO EB Pad; and Shawn Lane (USA) for his softShell.
View all the winners at the d3o site.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (1)
This week, the HANNOVER MESSE (Germany) is the showplace for industrial technologies, materials and product ideas - the place to be if you want to refresh your industrial know-how or consider business with Turkey (this year's partner country). iF Design has its headquarters at these trade fair grounds and creates a special display for new or unknown developments in the world of materials and design, titled Material Trends. This year's show is featuring news by Material Sense, Material Connexion and the iF Material Award winners.
Yesterday, Ralph Wiegmann (Managing Director) handed out all iF Material Awards. The jury selected a total of 18 prize winners for four categories (materials, products, ideas and processes). Six lucky ones received an additional iF Gold Award - or, 'design oscar' - for their material innovation efforts. Also, students are encouraged to share their concept thinking - this year, five students have been rewarded with the iF concept award, including a 2,000 Eur pocket money each (sponsored by BASF).
See the press release for all award winners and stay tuned for more material alerts.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
Uniqlo's line of T-shirts-in-a-canister will be getting its own store, later this month in Harajuku, and they've got a pretty cool website up. Check it out here.
[Via Jean Snow]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Just when you think flying can't get any worse: The Premium Aircraft Interior Group has come up with a seating proposal called the "Freedom" concept, where they can squeeze another column of seats into each plane by reversing every other seat.
This configuration allows people's shoulders to overlap, meaning the seats can be closer. Because on airplanes, what prevents us from getting closer to the person next to us is not revulsion, repulsion or a desire to occupy our own cubic foot of personal space, it's our shoulders. Eliminate the shoulders and problem solved.
Great job, guys. Maybe you can do the same with the toilets in the lavatories.
[Via Gizmodo]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (18)
A Chinese company named Powershoes is now selling the 2nd generation of their motorized, exoskeletal footwear that apparently bestows bionic abilities on its wearer.
Call us crazy, but we'll pass on trying these things out; if their engineers spent as much attention to safety as their marketers did to writing product copy, the bionic users are going to be in some bionic trouble:
We are the manufacturer of POWERSHOES (some people also called it as Flyjumper, Powerizer, Powerskip, etc) We have modern production lines and passed the accreditation of ISO9001. Our powershoes have passed the CE authentication and the present yearly production capacity is 1000,000piars.
A thousand hundred! That's a lot.
[Via RedFerret]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (4)
1. Webmaster and domain, in repose. 2. ??? 3. Tubes reconnected, Core77 reunites with old friend, Cyberspace.
Despite a slightly Sunday-morning impaired crew Core77 moved its servers across downtown Manhattan yesterday. Scheduled months ago, the move happened to land in the middle of the worst rain storm in years. Some might label it incautious, even reckless: rushing the still-beating heart of your enterprise across oncoming traffic and overflowing gutters - in the middle of a monsoon - on a cheap cart - with little but a plastic sheet and broken umbrella lending cover. Some might be right to do so! But we would argue that it is this swashbuckling style of Webmastery that makes Core77 what it is! - 24 hours and counting and no short-circuits.
Posted by: shaggy | Comments (1)
These days you could be forgiven for mistaking a Volvo for a Honda, or vice versa. But once upon a time, car designs from different carmakers were so unique there was simply no confusing them for anything else.
"Curves of Steel," an exhibition that launched this month at the Phoenix Museum of Art, recalls this era by showcasing "22 of the rarest and most stunning cars ever to be presented in one show."
Although models from American and European carmakers from the 1930s to the present day will be on display, the bulk of the cars are from the '30s, an era when fledgling aerodynamic studies first brought the word "streamlined" to the lips of designers.
For those of you that want to see the exhibit but can't make it to Phoenix, you can order the 192-page, 200-photo book on the exhibit by clicking here.
[Thanks to S. Krause for the tip!]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Envyrobubble! is a recycling container specifically for the chewing gum that its designers found clogging Toronto streets. They created an iconic destination for your chewed-over Bubble Yum, with a biodegrabdable bag inside. The whole thing is then shipped off to be made into fertilizer. Excitingly, this appears to be a real product that is installed in locations with the right arrangments with municipal infrastructure and recycling groups.
[via Canadian Design Resource]
Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (3)
If you're an analog junkie, these handmade cardboard miniatures of vintage synths and such are a must-have, and luckily for you, some are available for purchase. After you're done swooning over those mini gems, take a deep breath and prepare to contain your jealousy while peeping danmcp's house.
via fecal face
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
It's all about round-ups these days and Time Magazine takes a stab with "The Design 100." It's kinda predictable, if anything, but being backed up by Time is a pretty sweet deal for those who were highlighted. Kudos!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Scandinavian newcomers Vujj are in Milan for the second time presenting fresh work from Artur&Jonas, Filip Lipinski, Niklas Madsen, Sophus Bruun, Johannes Herbertsson, Martin Berg and Gustaf Wollin. Combining the northern european tradition of efficiency & elegant minimalism with a playful sensibility, the Vujj collection debut at the London Design Festival in 2006 has set high expectations for their second collection. Once again they have teamed up with Megumi Matsubara and Hiroi Ariyama from Assistant to design the exhibition space and graphic designer Micke Thorsby of PMKFA.
Vujj in Milan
Via Savona 43, Zona Tortona
Hours : 18th - 23rd April. 11:00 - 22:00
Party : Fri, 20th April. 20:00 - 24:00
Just sitting around, surfing the net, and downing some Mountain Dew? Well, your body's working a hell of a lot more than you think. BioVisions at Harvard University has released "The Inner Life of the Cell," a vivid animation of the extraordinary activity that occurrs within one teeny little cell. Get the full versions (gotta see it big!) here.
via make
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Remember all that UNKL madness from our last offsite event? If you missed the boat, check out the gallery! The latest news from UNKL caters to the indie-rock crowd, announcing a special six-pack of UniPo toys in the likeness of the band members to be released at Comic-Con in July.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)In Sunday's NYTimes' Ping column, there's a nice overview of the role that cultural identity plays in design and innovation. Here's the start:
The riffs on nationalities go something like this: The Chinese do not invent anything; they only copy. Italians design beautiful shoes, but who ever heard of a Tuscan computer programmer? Russians dominate chess, yet cannot seem to engineer a children's toy. Germans excel when they control all variables--of a high-performance automobile. The French routinely lead in technologies that require large government subsidies. The Japanese so yearn for acceptance that individuals won't promote a new idea without the approval of their peers.If I have offended anyone, I will not apologize. I am recycling crass stereotypes about national traits in the service of a better understanding of how innovation works.
[Link]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
An ode to all the silly stuff:
Many factors have come together to make this a golden age for gadgets. On the technological side, there is the increasing ease and decreasing cost of adapting technologies like USB, the low-voltage computer networking connection; the global positioning system; and Bluetooth to almost any use. On the marketing side, the home-shopping cable channels have 24 hours to fill, and, on a smaller scale, niche gadget retailers can easily set up Internet storefronts and pick up traffic from the gadget blogs.
(Above, Black & Decker's Gizmo Tip 'N Mix Automatic Salad Dressing Mixer. Not in the article. Journalists!)
[Link]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Running alongside Milan activity is Wallpaper* magazine's online green design exhibit, EcoEdit. The site covers "101 beautiful, innovative but environmentally friendly designs - from the worlds of architecture, beauty, fashion, food, packaging, product design, transport and travel - from all over the world." The earth tone-based illustrative depictions of the products, buildings, and concepts add an extra nice touch to this already comprehensive selection. (Pictured above: Godoylab's Sugar Lamps)
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)If you're at risk for an overly-jaded whining fit at the sight of yet another Mac vs. PC ad, take a breather and travel back to the '80's with this old Apple II commercial. What is that...720 pt. type?
via gizmodo
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Yes, you read that right. ID Magazine invited six designers to dream up the ideal givin'-it-up shangri-la spot--certainly not one of those back of a car-type dealies...er, wait. One of them is.
Odds are, if we could do it again, there'd be candles and soft sheets. But in reality, most of us were deflowered in a haze of alcohol or teenage self-doubt. For an issue devoted to life's milestones, I.D. asked six eros-minded designers to create the perfect space for sexual initiation.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)
Reminiscent of Caroline Woolard's "Have a Seat" project, the Paraseat by Steven Haulenbeek is a portable resting spot that latches onto a nearby host/pole, whether it be on the street or the subway. Paraseat's minimal footprint and light mass makes for easy portability around town. (Great for when the only available seat on the train car has a creepy stain on it.)
While you're perusing Haulenbeek's site, make sure to check out his entire collection of projects--good stuff!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
If James Bond's Q worked for Staples: The Memo Pen looks like an ordinary pen, but loaded inside is a two-inch-wide strip of paper for writing notes, and you can unspool two feet's worth before it runs out. Not sure where the idea came from, but I'm betting the designer was sitting on the toilet at the time.
[Via RedFerret]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
If you're a dude and you drive a Miata, you must be gay, right? If you're a woman and you drive an Outback, you must be a raging lesbian, correct? Not so fast--here we have the New York Times reporting on one of those subjects you've snickered about with your bff and thought of in your head, but wait a minute...are these rides "Gay by Design, or a Lifestyle Choice?"
Indeed, the extravagant displays of muscle car machismo and sensuous, high-design femininity on display this week at the New York International Auto Show at the Javits Center would seem to cry out for deconstruction along gender- and sexual-identity lines.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (4)But to some people, such stereotyping is homophobia, pure and simple. A poll seeking to determine the most gay automobiles, conducted by a South African Web site, was a topic of heated interest last December on Gizmodo, the New York-based technology blog, where one reader wrote: "Since when are cars gay or straight? We're really polling people's prejudices here."
Others, though, including gay theorists, say many gay motorists happily embrace certain cars as reflections of identity.
German furniture and product design group ding3000's clean-lined Charge Box can mount to the wall or chill freestanding, but either way, it'll juice up multiple devices at once while masking the tangled mess of wires that comes with the territory. (If your devices prefer to lounge solo, you might want to spoil them with some of these.)
Things to do with cardboard.
Pragmatic: A company named Cardboard Frame uses the stuff for a low-cost artwork shipping and framing system. Ship your prints without getting them banged up, and they're ready-to-hang right out of the box.
Fantastic: An unnamed architect stacked 360 layers of cardboard into a 2.5 meter cube, then carved a sound-insulated listening room out of it, complete with stereo and integrated wiring. And the layers aren't even glued; the weight of the sheets hold themselves in place!
[Via Josh Spear and The Cool Hunter]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Some of us are curious to see how the Other Half lives--but what about your own half? Assuming you're "normal," that is. The website NormalRoom.com has photographs of hundreds of ordinary apartments and homes featuring the regular couches, entertainment centers and lives of ordinary folk.
From living rooms in France to kitchens in Holland, satisfy your urge for voyeurism, or quick ethnographic research. The site also has a handy "get new random image" button if you don't know quite what you're looking for.
[Via Design Spotter]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Now here's a clever little webcam that a) doesn't resemble a fugly racquetball with an eye, b) is very portable, and c) doesn't break the bank. With a 640x480 resolution, you won't get the Flat Panel PC cam to count hairs, but for a reasonable $31.95, you get a nice looking, collapsible cam (which helps protect the lens in transport) with a built-in mic, 30 fps video, and laptop clip.
via gizmodo
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you're the type of guy who runs off to help your friends rather than completing your Jedi training, this is the backpack for you.
It's also an excellent backpack to use to hold an extra seat in a movie theater; while fellow theatergoers often have no compunction about moving your Jansport, whomever tosses Yoda aside is sure to feel a disturbance in the Force.
[Via Neatorama]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Looking to switch from the morning joe to a healthy brew? A recent CoolHunting entry features a variety of teamakers. From infusion-sticks to apothecary-like glass pods to pseudo coffee makers, tea-loving designers have figured out some interesting ways for hot water to pass through herbs.
If you want to see one in action yourself, the site is giving away an Adagio TriniTEA teamaker (pictured above, right) by random drawing. To enter to win, click this link, follow the instructions, and kick your coffee habit. The drawing ends Monday, so hurry!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Asics Europe B.V. and Formadistics are inviting European designers to bust out with their best ideas for new Asics brand casual and sports footwear for the Fill in the Box design competition 2007. The only catch? You'll have to find a bitchin' way to integrate that bold logo of theirs onto your concept kicks. A total of EUR6,000 in cash prizes will be awarded in addition to the production and limited run of sample concepts.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Via Inhabitat, perhaps you're into something a little more...well, a little less, actually. Here's a bra that converts into an eco shopping bag. And there's a YouTube video. And it's red, not green. Which is probably right, come to think of it, for this kind of thing. "No! Shopping Bag Bra" product site here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Greengrocer Bags, from the UK, are an environment-friendly alternative to the ubiquitous single-use plastic bag. There are 4 styles in the product line, but their new foldable bag caught our attention. Why? Because of the copy: "Folds down to the size of a mobile phone!" (The Velcro flap is built right in.) And you've always got your phone on you, right?
So now you can always have this on you too.
Get more pics and all the ordering info at their site: http://www.greengrocer.uk.com
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (1)
Before heading out to the show in Milan next week, make sure to review (and print) DesignBoom's listing of the top events. For those not going, look for live and up-to-the-second furniture/design overexposure on blogs worldwide starting next week.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
We know there was some chatter about this back in January, but now it's official: today Sony announced they will be producing OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TVs before year's end.
What's the big deal, you ask? Well, OLEDs can be made thinner and lighter than other technologies, meaning Sony's first OLED TV will be eleven inches across, and 3 millimeters thick. This will be followed by a 27-incher that's less than a centimeter in depth. Shipping charges for these bad boys has got to be next to nothing.
[Via Asahi News]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)
Notebooks that nest together. A company called Start Here has a line of notebooks that can stand alone or physically link together, like Voltron. Well, not exactly like Voltron; basically the cover of one book slides into the next, and they admittedly do not do battle with King Zarkon. But they're still cool.
The notebooks, available in lined, blank and daily planner versions, feature covers made of 100% recycled, waterproof and tear-resistant paper. They also open flat, so you don't get that annoying letter run-off you get with a typical composition notebook.
These are the Trapper Keepers of the 21st Century.
[Via CoolHunting]
HULGER are hitting Milan hard this year making an appearance in 3 separate shows including the debut of the ASTOR & SOPHIA, two limited edition Bluetooth phones inspired by the opulent design era of the 1920's and 30's but the most intriguing event is 'The Confessional' at Designersblock.
'The HULGER confessional washes away your sins or helps cleanse the souls of others. Join us as a sinner or find your calling as the voice of God.'HULGER have teamed up with communications specialist Associate to present a specially built HULGER-powered Confessional Booth at Designersblock Milan 2007, offering visitors the chance to play the priest or the penitent.
Museum Piece
Spazio Rossana Orlandi
Via Matteo Bandello, 14/16
20123 Milan
April 18-23, 2007 (10:00 - 20:00 daily)
The Confessional
Designersblock
Studio Romeo Gigli
Via Angelo Fumagalli 6
20143 Milan
April 18-23, 2007 (10:00 - 20:00 daily)
British Design Day
Consul-General's Residence
4th Floor, Piazza Sant'Ambrogio 10
Milan
April 19 (10:00 - 20:30)
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
David Friedman's posted a sweet idea on his blog, Ironic Sans, and it involves keeping the CD jewel case, or at least its spirit, alive. Before you sneer, please note that this concept doesn't involve you dusting off your 500+ collection of cases in your mom's attic. It's almost like a nostalgic tribute before the damn things are even extinct. Here he proposes the Digital Jewel Box:
The DJB sits next to your stereo or computer in its charging dock. Similar to a digital picture frame, it syncs wirelessly to your home network via WiFi, syncing itself with iTunes or whatever digital player you use. When a new song comes on, the DJB's screen shows the album cover art for that song.At any time, you can take the DJB out of its dock, sit on the couch with it, and use the controls on its side to flip through the rest of the liner notes, including track listings, lyrics, song credits, acknowledgments, and whatever else is included in the paper version. The pleasure of flipping through liner notes doesn't need to go away just because CDs do.
via design observer
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
If you've seen her performances or her hit movie, "Me and You and Everyone We Know," then you're already familiar with Miranda July's kooky yet inviting style. The site for her new book "No one belongs here more than you" is quickly gaining popularity, and for good reason. July narrates and intros her new book of stories on the surfaces of her refrigerator and stove used as dry erase boards.
oh yeah, and...
))<<>>((
Interesting invention here designed by Max Kistner--but we find that the name's actually a bit more intriguing. The Load-thing folds from flat-pack sheet to lil' mod nest for any device that needs comfortable lounging/charging in an outlet. Since the "thing" mounts to an outlet via the plug, there's no chance of you tripping over your iPod/cellphone/PDA wire and smashing the iPod/cellphone/PDA into little pieces. Okay, okay, so the "thing" doesn't really do much, but hey--your devices can kick back and relax for a reasonable price of around $13.
via crave
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
We're told that Blue Q out of Pittsfield Mass has been manufacturing life-improving, joy-bringing, mind-altering, universally-praised products since 1988. While we can't vouch for the life improvement part, joy-bringing and mind-altering is not far from the truth. Under the creative direction of Mitch Nash, Blue Q has brought together scores of talented graphic and product designers, as well as quirky artists and writers to produce a variety of fragrances and soaps, gums and candies, stickers and magnets, and car air fresheners with brand names like as Cat Butt, Dirty Girl, Get Real, Hot & Flashy, Miso Pretty, and Steve Heller's favorite (natch), "Steve's House of Charm." Nash is currently taking Blue Q into the literature space with a series tiny books, on a range of weird and wonderful themes--like "The Holy Bibel," an exploration into what the bible would be like if not for a good copyeditor. Steve caught up with Nash on a recent visit to New York looking for new authors.
Thanks to Randy Hunt for co-production on this Broadcast.
LISTEN NOW (15 min.) | iTunes | More Broadcasts
Posted by: core jr | Comments (1)
BusinessWeek reports on the revival efforts of Korean cellphone manufacturer Pantech after seeing no returns from their 3-year hardcore focus on design. This included semester-long collaborations with students at the California College of the Arts, where students walked away with real-world industry experience and Pantech gained insight into the uninhibited mind of the student. The resulting concepts yielded design awards and some media attention, but to Pantech's dismay, they did not produce revenue.
For its part, Pantech was also reminded of the need to keep one eye on its core business at all times: The semester-long project may have resulted in a series of interesting prototypes and new ways of thinking about mobile communications, but its conclusion also saw the company being put into a debt-rescheduling program by creditors. A $613 million rescue package was announced at the end of March. Chief Executive Officer and Co-President Sung-Kyu Lee resigned earlier this month.
Read the article and view a slideshow of the Pantech/CCA concepts here.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Skateboards were once little more than planks with wheels, but today they're made from seven plies of polyvinyl-glued veneer, formed in a steel or concrete press and CNC'd into their final shape.
As one of the first designers to produce concave skateboards way back in the '80s, Tim Piumarta was one of the industry's most influential designers, and more than twenty years later he remains so. Click here to see how Piumarta renders seven brittle layers of veneer into an indestructible street tool.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Have you ever thought of making your own joints (the non-smoking kind)? Our ever-so-informative buds at Instructables have posted an intro to joinery basics where the processes of forming two very popular joints, the edge and mortise and tenon, are broken down into illustrated steps. Next thing ya know, well, after some practice, you'll have a clean, nail and screw-free seam to call your very own. (Wood) Work it!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
[Photo: Luigi Russolo and Ugo Piatti with the Intonarumori or 'noise generators' (1913)]
Luigi Russolo, a well-known sound artist from the early 20th century, would've been proud of today's [Ambient Addition] by Noah Vawter. For his thesis Noah questioned himself "How to Turn Urban Noise Into Music?" and came up with this great walkman concept.
"Ambient Addition is a Walkman with binaural microphones. A tiny Digital Signal Processing (DSP) chip analyzes the microphone's sound and superimposes a layer of harmony and rhythm on top of the listener's world. In the new context, some surprising behaviors take place. Listeners tend to play with objects around them, sing to themselves, and wander toward tempting sound sources. With Ambient Addition, I'm hoping to make people think twice about the sounds they initiate as well as loosen up some inhibitions."
via o2
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
Britt Ashcraft
Portsmouth, NH
You may be wondering what to do with those archaic CDs now that you're rocking with iTunes. Britt Ashcraft's OLO design finds a solution to this dematerialization of music. The combination of pliable, translucent plastic and an adhesive backing lets you hang your CDs on the wall in multiple configurations--and with limited wall damage. It also gives the appearance that the discs are floating against the wall. Take those old discs off the shelf and place them on the wall for cool "album art."
Posted by: core jr | Comments (2)
The Uline Dual Handle Steel Hand Truck product copy:
Built-to-last, heavy-duty workhorses for reliable, consistent performance.
- Stabilize heavy or hard to handle loads
- 800 lbs capacity
Usage in New York's Chinatown:
More video from the Futures Channel, this time on an industrial designer working on backpacks:
Columbia Sportswear Designer Chris Araujo combines innovation with design to create backpacks for one of the largest outdoor apparel companies in the world. Whether he's measuring the straps for comfort or designing the shape of the front pouch, math is essential to his designs.
Click here for the video. Enjoy.
Here we have a Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec "carrot" to dangle before they bust out with their new wares in Milan next week. The two brothers wow us again with this elegant new chair design, the Steelwood chair--like a cross-breed of plastic patio seating and wooden splints.
via reluct
P.S. Stay tuned with us next week for Milan design week coverage and a shiny new gallery to soon follow.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
These new digital audio players from Sony look good enough to eat, but we'd actually prefer to have a look and a listen. Sony's connectivity-convenient Walkman E series really plays up the gloss factor with candy colors and a seamless OLED color screen. The USB DAPs come in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB capacities, and range from $92 to $168.
via akihabara news
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Maxim Velcovsky and Jakub Berdych of Qubus Studio have given the Czech Republic's St. Bartholomew's church a bold interior makeover simply by treating the seating. White Panton chairs with custom cross cut-outs replace rigid pews, and Eames Shell chairs with Eiffel tower bases take center stage. With pop-styling like this, who could possibly fall asleep during mass?
via swissmiss
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Move over shower radios and shower radio/CD combo players -- it's time to make room for the Juke Tower splash-proof MP3 player. The Juke Tower brings bath-time audio to the 21st century (finally) and camouflages itself nicely amidst soap and shampoo bottles. This minimal jam blaster holds 2GB of your favorite hits and runs on three AAA batteries for 12 hours of playback.
via new launches
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Carmaker Kia is the latest manufacturer to get on the trend of "Design your own..." clickthroughs on their UK website, following in the steps of Nike ID and the Mini Cooper.
Having messed around with all three, we rank Kia's effort as fairly primitive, with Nike's site being pretty neat (who knew sneakers had such complicated anatomy) and the Mini Cooper site getting fun once you start messing around with the interior design of your virtual car. Click away:
- Design your own Kia
- Design your own Nikes
- Design your own Mini Cooper
If you missed the boat on the car show, PSFK's ever-so-thorough coverage of this year's New York Auto Show is up and running for your perusal. The Flickr set sports 3 pages of sparkly new car sights...and maybe smells if you really use your imagination.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Every once in a while you come across a cool design blog that quietly died. No explanation, the entries just stop, as if the creator got bored or lost custody of the ISP during a messy divorce battle.
Australian Marc Clancy's concept work blog, Mechaniq, is one of those sites, and dead though it may be, we thought some of his concepts were worth a gander. Maybe if enough of us e-mail him he'll get back on the ball and/or hire a better divorce attorney.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have invented a new type of cement mixed with aluminum oxide. While cement hardly sounds like technology from the future, this one's different: it conducts electricity and can be made into super-thin, almost transparent membranes. They're thinking they'll be able to use the stuff in LCD screens, as it's cheaper than iridium, the current favorite material used for thin-film coating.
So how 'bout it, you designers got any ideas for the stuff? Smart roads? Prison cell walls? Hi-tech mob informer shoes? Let us know.
[Via Pink Tentacle]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)I take back that last post. THIS is like watching paint dry: "madCAM Finishing a Mould."
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (1)
Since its inception in 1790, the US patent system has delivered a period of unprecedented innovation. By protecting the long-term ownership of new ideas, the system enabled individual inventors to profit from their innovations without fear of the theft of their intellectual property. By guaranteeing future proceeds, entrepreneurs could be motivated to pursue new and innovative modes of invention, with potential revenues promising to offset the significant financial burdens incurred along the way.
With hundreds of thousands of patents filed every year, however, the United States Patent and Trademark Office is now feeling the burden of the sheer volume of creative thought. Individual patents can take up to 18 months between submission and publication, resulting in the ubiquitous notation "patent pending." As any patent lawyer will tell you, the enforceability of patents is directly correlated not only with the robustness of the patent's claims, but also with the legal resources and funding that can be applied to actively pursuing patent violations in the court of law. A brief review of www.uspto.gov will easily demonstrate the sheer scale of the Byzantine patent organization.
Mostert and Apolzon's book From Edison to iPod: Protect Your Ideas and Make Money ably explains the variety of legal mechanisms an aspiring creative can use to "protect" their intellectual property. For a layperson, the book serves as a quick overview of design patents, utility patents, copyright protection, and a variety of other modes of protection. At the same time, however, the book fails to fully account for the daunting business realities that now face most new patent applicants.
Posted by: Robert Blinn | Comments (1)
From the overflow of fancy hi-tech gizmos emerges Tom Ballhatchet's hamster-powered paper shredder -- a sparkling beacon of analog promise, for lack of a better description. Not only does this contraption keep your documents safe from wandering eyes, it also teaches the hamster a bit about responsibility (okay maybe we're pushing it, but bear with us) -- he's gotta work those little legs to spin the wheel that shreds the paper that becomes the crunchy, crinkly stuff he loves to prance and poop on.
If you're in the Milan area, take a peek at Tom's work, along with the concepts of 14 other graduating designers from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design in their exhibit, "Art School," at Salone Del Mobile next week, from April 18 - 23 at stand A15.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (7)
Ciao, dinosaur.
Shh...do you hear that?
That's the sound of your, my, and all of our hard drives dying, forever.
Hard drives are officially on the way out. Sony has just announced their Type G laptop, which has a 32GB flash drive, and two weeks ago, Samsung pulled the covers off their new 64GB flash drive. The death rattle for hard drives (which sounds like a clicking hard drive anyway) sounds.
Flash drives (also called SSD or Solid State Drives) have no moving parts and if you drop them...well actually, if you drop them I think they still break. But they are faster and lighter than platter-style hard drives, so you should embrace them with the unquestioning loyalty demanded by technology's inexorable march. Sure, they're prohibitively expensive, but so is everything in the beginning. You'll get over it.
[Via Digital Tokyo, Sony laptop and Samsung flash drive.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)
iRobot has just released the Verro Pool Cleaning Robot, an ominously amphibious robot that, unlike humans, does not die underwater.
The un-Photoshopped picture above shows the contraption trailing some sort of snakelike blue coil, with which it can apparently entangle humans and drag them beneath the surface for the 60 to 90 minutes it spends down there "cleaning."
Threats of suburban infidelity aside, I think I preferred the pool boy.
[Via Engadget.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
During an eight month-long international escapade, Doug Wilson documented the "rainbow" of hand dryers he came across in public restrooms from Sydney to Beijing, Cairo to Vienna.
This is a study in the banal. The boring. The completely uninteresting. The things we see everyday. The utilitarian objects that become invisible. Its fascinating that the absolute banality of the objects is what makes them all so unique and interesting.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)
Have an interest in lighting design, but don't know where to start? Do you not want to be one of those goofballs who slaps a couple light sockets together in some weird configuration and thinks it's a functional lamp?
Click here to download a free PDF-format "lighting design guide" from task lighting manufacturer Sunnex. Sure, some of it is just propaganda trying to get you to buy their stuff, but there is some honest-to-god useful information in there on lighting basics and technical specs. And the guide is, like sunlight, free.
We're already super pumped about non-object's ID efforts and its new book, "non-object" (design fiction), which we hollered about last week. Wired's posted an interview with non-object author/co-founder/partner/designer Branko Lukic, a former lead designer at both frogdesign and IDEO and consultant to high-profile clients such as Nike, Intel, Pepsi, Starbucks, and Ford.
Success as a designer does matter. It helps credibility, in who is going to listen to you, and what you have to say. But design today struggles. In a time when we have so many advanced tools to make almost anything, design became very diffused. That was another big influence, why I started to develop the nonobject "thought." If I can achieve the level of excitement in designs I create, on the same level as how you feel after watching a great movie, than I've accomplished my goal. It is a difficult mountain to navigate, but nothing is impossible.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Here's a video on the design of cell phones, interviewing an industrial designer, a mechanical engineer, and a human factors expert at Motorola. While the video's interesting and the interviewees are articulate, it still doesn't explain why Motorola's UI drives me nuts!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (4)
Check out ilk: Turkish Touch in Design for a nice preview of the latest in Turkish design to be shown this year in Milan. The ilk group is rolling deep this year with 35 designers in tow at the Zona Tortona, Superstudio Piu during the Salone del Mobile 2007 from April 18-23, 2007.
(above: formed wire shelving and lighting unit by Aykut Erol)
via mocoloco
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Here's your chance to win some cool stuff for all that stalker purely hypothetical 007-inspired equipment you've been dreaming up (make sure it's in a native Autodesk file format). Prizes for Autodesk's Spy Gadget Design Contest will be awarded for Top Overall Design, Most Creative Design, and Best Use of Member Content. The Top Overall Design winner gets a sweet Sony James Bond 007 TX Spy Gear bundle which includes a VAIO TX notebook PC, a privacy screen, and Cyber-shot digital camera--all bundled up in (what else?) a slick Bond-esque briefcase. Other prizes include a Zune, Cyber-shot phone, and Vault Micro Vault 1GB Flash Drives. Hurry up because submissions won't be accepted after April 18, 2007.
Tomorrow the Stanford Graduate School of Business hosts their Cool Products Expo 2007, a "showcase of companies and products at the intersection of manufacturing, design, and 'cool.'"
I guess the question is, what's "cool?" According to their website:
How do we define "cool"? -- Ready: end-user products, not components. -- Factor: coolness is readily apparent, requires no explanation. -- Edge: radically new, not just an improvement on an existing product. -- Function: the essential combination of design and manufacturing.
Did that make any sense to you?
To say that their copy needs tightening is an understatement, but I'll tell you what is cool: the Expo is free, so if it sucks, all you've wasted is time.
Not that that's likely. Confirmed exhibitors for this year include Toyota, Tesla Motors, Logitech, Linden Labs, and frog design.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Core friends Rory Dodd and Piers Roberts of Designersblock are back in Milan again for their 7th time featuring work from 35 UK and international designers. Located 5 minutes from the Zona Tortona, at the very least you'll be treated to the goodness of Guinness--something you surely won't see at any other opening.
Our show is a joined up event for all sectors of the industry. Bringing together in one space a blend of new furniture, lighting and accessories, with presentations from retail, graphics, photography and communications companies who provide specialist design services. From new Eindhoven Academy graduates through to established names like Pinch, Hulger, Timorous Beasties and Beyond The Valley, db Milan 07 is a platform for high quality content, dialogue and collaboration.
Designersblock
Studio Romeo Gigli
Via Angelo Fumagalli 6
20143 Milano
Show:
18 - 23 April
10.00 - 22.00 hrs Daily
Cocktails:
17th April 18.00 - 22.00
William Drenttel has posted the equivalent of a (flaming) motorcycle rider jumping through a (flaming)(chinese) ring. Yup, it's on the Koolhaas CCTV building.
Here's the start:
According to Rem Koolhaas, there are three seminal events in the history of architecture: Samson tearing down the house of the Philistines in 1100 BC, the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001 AD, and his design in 2006 AD of the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing. Obviously, this is a reductionist view of history--and the kind of hyperbole one expects from a manifesto in Wired Magazine. But this is no manifesto: instead, as Koolhaas himself recounts the story, he chose between working on NYC's Ground Zero and the Beijing project based on a fortune cookie he was given at a Chinese restaurant--in it, the goofy prognostication "Stunningly Omnipresent Masters Make Minced Meat of Memory."
Read the whole thing at DO.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Drexel University and Material Connexion have teamed up to present an exhibit and a lecture series that opens tomorrow night. The website describes it as
A cross-pollination of information regarding specific cutting edge textile developments in the fields of medicine, materials engineering, chemistry, architecture, interior design, and fashion design.The line up for the lectures is interesting - especially #4, which features Dr. Shan DeSilva covering his work on the Planetary Space Suit project. The exhibit and lectures are free and open to the public. Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
The architectural version of the tank-stopping kid standing in Tianenmen Square was pulled down last week. Wu Ping and wife Yang Wu's "nail house," which stood in defiance of local developers hoping to put up a shopping mall, became a cause celebre in China, as the defiant couple refused to sign the papers even as their surrounding neighborhood was razed into something resembling New York's Ground Zero.
Developers apparently sweetened the pot; Wu Ping and the missus, once so prominently in the spotlight, have "gone dark," with no recent appearances in the media, and their house recently saw the tender ministrations of a bulldozer and wrecking ball. The couple has apparently received a large cash payout and a residential spot in a neighboring high-rise. Cue theme music to "The Jeffersons."
[Via Chicago Tribune.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Motorola is the latest U.S. company to fall victim to the peculiarly American habit of design retro-itis, with which Detroit's Big Three are intimately familiar. The philosophy is basically "What we're doing now sucks, but what we once did was good, so let's go back to the old stuff." Witness Plymouth's PT Cruiser, Ford's "new" Mustang, Chevy's SSR truck, etc.
With that thinking apparently in mind, Motorola--who's really good at making a phone that's hot for six months, then fades, like a Hollywood blockbuster, until you can barely remember what the fuss was about--is resurrecting their Star-Tac line of mobile phones, a must-have back in the '90s.
Hit or miss? We can't yet be sure, as the phones are currently available only in Korea. Motorola phones typically pair an interesting form factor with an incredibly crappy user interface. It's almost as if their design department, talented though they may be, has no contact whatsoever with engineering.
Has anyone reading this in Asia gotten their hands on one of these yet? If so, please sound off!
[Images via iTechNews.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Venerable Pop!Tech has launched the first in the list of Podcasts, and they are sensational. It is hard to know where to start (and can't figure out how to link up the links here)...but go ahead and start with Tom Friedman, then take a musical break with Reggie Watts, then hit Richard Dawkins, then break again with Jonathan Coulton. don't Don't DON'T miss Erin McKean though. She's our new hero. Everything here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Via Unbeige, Dieter Prucker, aka The Cantankerous Consultant, posts this spoof of Tom Kelly's 10 Faces of Innovation. Our favorite of the ten? The Misanthrope, of course. View the large-scale image here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Inspired by The Netherlands' windmills aplenty, Demakersvan busts out with the Light Wind wind-powered outdoor light, sporting a propeller 2 meters in diameter. This freestanding wood, stainless steel, and sail fabric structure stores energy with every passing breeze to provide light at all hours of the night.
via dezeen
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
PingMag has a nice interview up with Eleanor Fawcett from Design for London, "the Mayor of London's new urbanism and architecture team to support the delivery of a world class, sustainable and inclusive built environment across London." They discuss big plans that include sustainable implementations, event facility concepts, and the controversial regeneration of London's Lower Lea Valley area.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Eight Dutch designers and design agencies will present their latest and greatest works at Tales from Eindhoven during the Salone del Mobile (April - April 23, 2007). Produced by Yksi Designers and Design Connection Eindhoven, the fairytale-themed exhibition will feature Marko Macura, Drift, Peli Design, Kocx Ontwerpen, Jo Meesters, Joroen Wesselink, and Lily66.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Recently, some of the more clever observers fitting human needs to existing technologies have not been industrial designers, but hackers. Last year we started seeing the first hacks that turned your computer's webcam into a motion detector; some hacks even enabled it to automatically snap a picture of someone using your computer while you were away.
Now IT consultant Jesse David Hollington has gone a step further, by getting his computer to recognize when he, specifically, is around and acting accordingly:
As an IT Consultant, I am frequently working in various locations at different clients' sites, and it's nice to have my Powerbook secure itself when I'm away from the machine. In addition, my other objectives are to keep the OS X Address Book application connected and to iSync my phone whenever it moves back within proximity of my machine.
How does he do it? Through Bluetooth proximity detection; he's rigged his computer to recognize when his phone (and therefore him) are nearby, and perform the appropriate actions. Get the applescripts to do this yourself here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)Joseph Kosinski's new commercial for the Saab Blackbird sure makes us wish that we were from the future too. If you can manage to peel your eyes away from the ride, take note of the sweet bulldog-bot and van der Rohe stylings.
via cpluv
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Those with eyes bigger than their thirst will be more than sorry when they're sprayed in the face with their own greed. Alesina Design's witty need/want glass physically illustrates the very serious issue of unbridled overconsumption.
via notcot
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)
Grant Meacham has designed and built "The Barbie Box," an mp3 player case which is doubles as a boombox, converts to a quarter-inch headphone jack, and camouflages itself as an early-nineties tape player. Want more? Well, when paired with thirty-year-old aviator headphones, this rig will make you the farthest thing from a white earbud target.
It's a portable music player on your way to your studio or office, and then on arrival--with a flip of the switc--it becomes your desktop stereo (the speakers are built in).
And the best part? Meacham has posted the instructions for making your own at core77 fave instructables. Don't know how to solder? Contact the designer at www.grantmeacham.com and see if he can bust one out for you.
Sol Lewitt passed away yesterday at the age of 78. He will always be remembered for his unforgettably lively drawings, paintings, and structural explorations.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
As technologies shift, manufacturers need to be able to adapt. Companies that once made telephone landlines were able to survive by shifting their copper wire into producing automobile airbags, as demand for the former slowed and the latter increased.
Remember virtual reality? California-based MicroDisplay does, as they were well-poised to ride that wave in the '90s, with their M.I.T.-developed liquid crystal chip for VR goggles. With that trend now colder than the doctor on House, MicroDisplay believes they have found a way to survive: by producing huge, not-quite-flatscreen TVs.
MicroDisplay's "Liquid Fidelity" televisions, based on unfashionable rear-display technology, have one thing going for them: price. Their 56-incher goes for $1,500, vs. $5,496 and $3,298 for comparable LCD or plasma screens. Now the market will determine whether MicroDisplay has a hit on their hands, or if they will be needing airbags of their own.
[Via CNet.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Chinese manufacturers have been known to counterfeit everything from Gucci to Pepsi. But as an article in this week's Economist points out, counterfeit cars, produced by manufacturers like Shuanghuan Automobile and Chery, must be the most difficult. (Above, BMW's X5 and the Shuanghuan CEO. Below, a Toyota dashboard and a Shuanghuan dashboard).
With nearly 6,000 parts in the average car, not to mention the teams of people needed to fit them together in such a way that the car is actually driveable, no one can figure out how the Chinese still manage a profit. A running automobile requires a materials cost that simply cannot be offset by cheap labor alone. As the Economist puts it:
That they can sell these cars for half the price of the originals suggests that something odd is going on. They either do not know their own costs (a distinct possibility), have revolutionised carmaking (highly unlikely) or are being subsidised in some way. For the time being, no one knows.
Until someone figures it out, you can get your Shuanghuan pimped out in Shanghai on the cheap.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (10)
"Most of the new designs flooding onto the market are failures," writes Alice Rawsthorn in today's International Herald Tribune.
"They're not especially efficient or environmentally responsible. Nor are they lovely to look at, to touch and to use, or any of the other things we expect from "good design." The grim truth is that most new designs are much more likely to be derivative, pretentious, ugly, cumbersome or wasteful. That's why buying some new products - cars and cellphones are regular offenders - is a dispiriting process of choosing the one you dislike least, rather than one you really love.
The odd thing is that no one sets out to design something that's mediocre. So why does design go wrong so often? Let's set aside the rational reasons why projects can fail - like budgetary constraints, deadline pressure and lack of talent - to concentrate on the scenarios that should be easily avoidable, but crop up again and again, with predictably dire results."
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (1)This is a test to see forum feeds in MT blog post template. Check out everything that they're chatting about here:
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Great MeFi thread about Kai Kruse, his playful tools (from an era gone by) and the flashy interfaces. Some strong and thoughtful opinions about how the tools for design determine that kind of design that gets made.
Wired.com has a photo gallery on television sets through the years, and it's totally fascinating to see the form factors that designers, over the decades, came up with for our once-beloved idiot box. I found myself staring at the photos like, well, like they were TV.
[Via BoingBoing.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)A laser pointer and a cat are cheaper, but if you're jazzed about physical computing and aren't sure you can stomach invisible fencing, perhaps this rig is for you. Fetch!
[Thanks to Jerry for the link!]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
If you're in New York, you've still got a week left to catch the Open City exhibition at Eyebeam, over on 21st Street. Open City takes a look at some of the higher-tech guerilla artists' techniques:
Be it through projection, writing on walls or robotic pamphleteering, Open City presents the work of artists who communicate through the surfaces and structures of our communal spaces and offers a deeper look at the means and motivations of urban action and creativity.
Click here for "Interactive Architecture"--video of portable, guerilla-rigged projection-on-buildings.
[Via Gizmag.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
For years I've told myself, ''I Don't Wanna Grow Up!'' And every year, the inevitable seems even more daunting. What happens when we, as adults, turn to our childhood for inspiration?
HDK (The School of Design and Crafts at Goteborg University) put this challenge before their students, and created a slew of products that reflect the different phases of growing up. The results premiered at the Stockholm Furniture Fair in February. Now, as a part of THAT'S DESIGN!, a collective of 20 design schools from 12 different countries, HDK is sending 4 designers to present 7 of their inner-child inspired designs at this year's Salone del Mobile in Milan, Italy (April 18 - 23) - a program called GROW UP!
The designs from the first edition, like the beautifully constructed CEO (Legos) Desk, have morphed into works that combine adult sensibility with a great sense of imagination! Take Grass, for example. It's a chair that uses 25 Styrofoam tubes as the seat -- the same ones you used to clobber your sister at the pool. If you're worried that the extra pounds you've put will make sitting on this spongy seat difficult, you can place it in your office, and strip the chair of its tubes whenever you get the urge to beat the crap out of your work mate.
Check out the GROW UP! project gallery on HDK's site.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
The always-prolific, ever-amazing Design Institute at the University of Minnesota has teamed up with the Department of Art History to produce an upcoming event that is gonna be a barn-burner. 14 boldfaced names will gather on April 27th and 28th to discourse on, well, the state of contemporary design discourse. Here's the pitch:
The conference, "Design and Its Publics: Curators, Critics, and Historians" (DAIP) brings together leading scholars, top critics, broadcasters and design practitioners with curators from some of the most influential museums in the United States, London and the Netherlands to address how public understanding of architecture and design is shaped by criticism, scholarship and curatorial practice.
Conference speakers will include Paola Antonelli, curator, Department of Architecture and Design, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Ole Bouman, director, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam; Margaret Crawford, professor of Urban Design and Planning Theory, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Mass.; Jean-Louis Cohen, professor of architecture history, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; Deyan Sudjic, director, Design Museum, London; and Brooke Hodge, curator, Architecture and Design, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
And...it's free.
Full list of speakers and all the info at http://www.design.umn.edu/go/project/DAIP07
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
If you're a regular Core77 patron, there's no need to go into detail about Muji's success in building an iconic brand based on "no brand." BusinessWeek reports on Muji's move to the states, namely Midtown, NYC, with possible future outposts in Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco. The 5,000 square foot mega-store will, no doubt, carry a bevy of puristic lifestyle items, however, pricing remains up in the air. Muji items are currently only available in the US through MoMA, where prices are about twice what they are in Japan. "Muji's chief is treading carefully. He expects the New York store to turn a profit within a year...While Muji is riding the same Japanese pop-culture wave that has landed retailers such as Uniqlo in New York in the past year, Matsui believes his brand has staying power: 'Muji's roots are Japanese,' he says. 'But we think our products will appeal for their simple, universal designs.'"
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
3rd Infantry Division soldier Kevin Garrad exchanged fire with an insurgent (armed with an AK-47) within a range of only a few feet, leaving the other party dead and Garrad alive and well, thanks to an iPod in the pocket. The 20GB iPod thwarted penetration of Garrad's body armor at the site of the pocket on his left chest. It's a miracle he's alive, and he might even be blessed by the angels of portable audio! Flickr pix were spotted by an Apple engineer who's looking to get Garrad's iPod replaced.
via gizmodo
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (4)
The novelty of snap-apart kits never gets old, however, the PD-300P not only provides the satisfaction of popping off tiny little parts, but it comes in super handy-dandy when you're far from your tools. Let's see...we've got some tweezers, a few driver types, multi-purpose handle, spanner, and wrench. For the sake of Engrish humor, we'll leave you with a half-way decent translation:
Being lightweight, because 315 Yen very it is [rizunaburu] at the compact, and set, as the tool of errand usually of course, it is good you utilizing as the instrument which you insert in the disaster kit emergency use item probably will be. In addition it is optimum, to also the little gift to the companion of the tool lover and the mechanic lover.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Yes the actual name for this product is "Retractable Wii Sports Cuff For Remote Control" -- a mouthful of a name to go with (dare we say?) a product that's just a little over-the-top. The neoprene cuff adjusts with Velcro and allows the Wiimote to extend out to a generous 13 inches -- quite an allowance, but giant-wristed freaks won't feel left out on this one. Sure, we're feelin' a bit snarky on this one, but for only $5.99, extreme Wii fans just might go for the upgrade.
via crave
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Here's a great example of marrying efficient production methods with a nice-looking and fully functional design. Snag a set in a black or brushed nickel finish, punch out at will -- just don't mess up! Matt Carr's Numbra house number system for Umbra gives your house a digit-lift for a thrifty $11.00.
via make
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)
Steve Portigal talks with Will Tschumy and Chris Bernard who recently joined Microsoft as User-Experience Evangelists. It's an interesting role that requires them to be designers, user advocates, user researchers, process wonks, consultants and much much more, serving constituencies both inside and outside of MSFT. Although they each describe (in their own words) what it means to go over to the other side (and how their friends are often perplexed), there is something exciting going on at Microsoft around design and user experience that has excited and engaged these passionate folks.
LISTEN NOW (42 min.) | iTunes | More Broadcasts
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Cell phone concepts are a dime-a-dozen, and since the iPhone announcement, especially with touchscreens; what's different about this one is that the designer is a fifteen-year-old kid. Andrew Kim's twin-touchscreen Butterfly concept is generating forum buzz, but now we have to wait two years 'til the kid gets into design school, so we can see if Doogie Howser's really got the goods.
[Via SlashGear.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
We're super-digging this idiot-proof Cube Timer, which uses (we're guessing) a mercury switch to set the countdown. No buttons to fiddle with, you just set the cube down with the time you want on top, and the clock starts ticking. Comes preset for 5, 15, 30, and 60 minutes, and works anywhere there's gravity.
[Via RedFerret.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Drop your cellie (ringer off) into the Signal Cell Phone Adviser, and the device blinks when you've got a call, so everyone in the office doesn't have to hear your annoying Timbaland ringtone.
Doesn't matter what type of cell you have; the radio waves of an incoming call are what triggers the blinking.
We're putting this in the kind-of-cool-but-not-sure-we-need-it category. If you're more certain than we are, bring 21 bucks to this link.
[Via Product Dose.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Design Can Change is a non-commercial initiative by Vancouver studio smashLAB aimed at bringing together the design community and making system-wide change to how our work affects the planet. In other words, how designers can embrace sustainability.
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (1)
Danish designer Ane Lykke has applied her bold textural sensibility to a new "living" entrance at the Exhibition Hall in Copenhagen. The illusion-like treatment is meant to create an immediate interactive experience and boost the senses of visitors upon entering the main space.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
The needle started jumping on the BS meter when I saw the plaque under this bike (currently on display in China), but on the off-chance it's real, figured I'd include it.
It also reminds me of the book Dictator Style: Lifestyles of the World's Most Colorful Despots, a coffee-table must-have. You simply haven't lived until you've seen Idi Amin's parlor, Benito Mussolini's writing table, and Manuel Noriega's Christmas tree. (Hint: good taste in design was not among their strong points.)
[Via BoingBoing.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
We seem to be a bit behind the curve on this event, as the tickets are already sold out. But judging from some of the ideas incorporated into the identity/look of the logo and the interaction with the participants, the Interesting 2007 gathering should live up to it's name. If anyone out there managed to get a ticket please let us know. A report from the day should be....interesting.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
Don't let the name fool you -- Normann Copenhagen's new Spaghetti Dozer doesn't crush carbs into little pieces, it "doses" and measures out precise portions. Serge Atallah's design fans open and shut for easy measurement and storage and puts an end to awkward, stringy leftovers. It's a pretty specific and limited tool, but perfect if all you eat is spaghetti. The Spaghetti Dozer will be available in retail stores this spring for EUR13.75.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (4)
Cube-haters can dream: Knoll's slick new WA (a broad verbal expression of "harmony"/"peace" in several eastern cultures) office system, designed by Piero Lissoni and Marc Krusin, includes adjustable desks, screens, storage, and meeting tables, and features polyurethane foam "soft parts." Check out an in-depth interview with Lissoni and Krusin over at Dezeen.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Hmmm...judging from these pix, do you think LG wants you to compare its new LG SV80 cellie to, oh I dunno, a banana?!? Okay, so it's curved and has a lil' yellow (more like orange) in it, but we suggest you refrain from peeling, biting, chewing, or licking the device. Unlike the oblong fruit, LG's "banana" has 142MB of memory, an MP3 player, and a 1.3 Megapixel camera. Real banana-fanatics can pair it with the Banana cellphone holder. And someone should tell Mom to quit hoggin' the LGs -- that poor little girl looks like a fool.
via akihabara news
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Illuminated flights of fancy turn real with (former product designer for IDEO) Takeshi Ishiguro's Book of Lights pop-up lamp, produced by Artecnica. When the very ordinary looking book is opened, the meticulously folded street lamp-style pop-up emerges from the paper pages and emits a bright glow supplied by LEDs (powered by a simple low voltage adapter) -- tres convincing as scaled-down bulbs! ...and we all lived happily (aglow) ever after. The end.
via mocoloco
The Japanese Design for Peace exhibition 'Retired Weapons' is taking place in Milan this year, the first time it's participated in an event outside of Japan.
The project produced by Yuji Tokuda and Junya Ishikawa combines incisive graphic design with a straight message of peace through a variety of tools including it's distinctive and iconic element: an inflatable, real-size tank. Seeds of flowers will be distributed during the exhibition, conceived by Japanese design expert Yoichi Nakamuta, as an invitation to happiness and dialogue.
retired weapons
April 18 - 23
Hours: 10am - 8pm
Opening: April 20, 7pm
lombardiniventidue
via Lombardini 22,
20143 Milan, Italy
Stay Free! Daily offers this amazing interview about obsolescence, design, and our relationship to our stuff.
STAY FREE!: Business people in the 1920s and up through the 1950s talked openly about planned obsolescence in trade publications. Are they less likely to talk about it now?GILES SLADE: They call it different things now: "death dating" or "product lifespan." It's an established strategy. When a junior industrial designer is assigned to a work site and tasked with designing a product, one of the first questions is: How long is this thing going to last? How long does the competition last? How long is the warranty? This kind of planning is common knowledge among design teams.
Slade's book (Made to Break) on Amazon here; reviewed here.
Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (10)
Earlier, we wrote about the recycling initiatives by the 2012 Architects. Superuse is their new online community for designers, architects and everybody else who is interested in inventive ways of recycling.
The website features inspiring case studies which all seem to acclaim the "Screws Better Than Glues" section in Allan's Sustainability Manifesto. For instance, this wing desk made out of an historical wing part of the DC-3 by Dutch designer Dolph Bode - if you think recycling can get any cooler than this then get yourself registered and write us about your own Superuse.
Superuse is also a book showing supercool examples of re-use architecture. The book will be published later this month so stay tuned for this worthy one to fill up the bookshelves.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (3)
Ever miss the ID studio at school, where you've got all that crap lying around and late at night you just start making stuff with it? Our studio at Pratt spontaneously spawned a tree made of functioning stereo speakers, a CD-storage treadmill made of leftover dowels, and the grad students (including some of the Core77 boys, though they'll deny it) even installed an illegitimate firepole to easily get from the 5th floor to the 4th.
Anyways, a Human Computer Interaction researcher with the handle AK has some interesting DIY projects on her blog that have that late-in-the-studio-on-too-many-cups-of-coffee feel, even if they don't involve sawing holes in the floor.
If you've got stacks of printouts waiting to be trashed, turn them into giftworthy notepads. For the moleskine-inclined, she's got Moleskine Mods. And while this third one is less DIY than BIY ("B" for "buy"), here's some flicks of Costco vs. Ikea storage.
Have any of you seen blogs with similar (and do-able, as opposed to MacGyver) desktop DIY projects? If so, please post in the comments, thanks. Self-nominations accepted, just make it worth our while!
(Thanks to Wolf for the heads-up.)
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
The Design Trust for Public Space's Taxi 07 project will finally show some fruits of labor at this year's International Auto Show at the Javits Center in NYC (running in conjunction with NYC Taxi Week from April 6 - 15). The design team, led by Smart Design, and including Antenna Design and Birsel + Seck, took results from research and user testing in safety, social interaction, and sustainability to maximize comfort, accessibility, and efficiency in the new 2007 Kia Rondo taxi experience.
You can expect to see a new seating plan that is socially sensible for both drivers and passengers, an integrated child booster seat, all-access elevator seat, better lighting, re-styled mirrors and seat elts, and sustainable tweaks like better mileage, integrated ozone scrubber and non-vinyl upholstery. Sounds quite promising, however we won't mind at all if they decide to throw in a city-savvy driver as an afterthought (wink, wink).
The obvious answer is just an inhabitat-green-colored t-shirt, of course, but go ahead and try to beat that with all your Illustratoriffic machinations. All details here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Holy breakfast--this repurposed CD spindle, seen on pwka's Flickr, finally gives us a good reason to keep those damn things around! Add your fave toppings, stick it on the spindle (you should probably wash it first), and voila! Your bagel delight is ready for transport. If you're exceptionally hungry, we're hoping you buy your CDs and DVDs in those jumbo packs (stack 3 bagels at once!).
via coudal
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (12)
To kick off their new multi-functional furniture effort, Flip Furniture, designer Bill Woodroffe and developer Tim Popham have busted out with the Flip table. Flip converts from a coffee table to full-size dining table with stools in four steps. The table can now be ordered in FCS, PEFC certified sustainable European Oak (GBP1950) or Walnut (GBP2150), and the cork stools run for GBP80 each. The design duo plans to brew up more convertible pieces in the near future to expand the Flip Furniture line.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Pumped to spark up a creative collaborative project, Darren Di Lieto came up with MAiLmeART, a visual art competition where contestants send their entries through the post -- their canvas being the outer wrapping only. Entries are posted online and winners get a bunch of rad prizes.
Submissions can be envelopes or packages which have been drawn on, painted , dipped in acid, covered in paper mache (anything you want really) but they must look amazing and they must have travelled though the post with the postman able to see the work...
There are some great illustration entries so far, but why not add some 3D flair? We know you guys have it in you!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you're planning to hit up the Milan Furniture Fair this year, it's definitely key to check out the more independent happenings around town. Take a break from the main fare/fair to visit NABABOOM!, a three-day parasitic design event featuring shows, events and workshops in design, fashion and new media, put on by NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti) and guests from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design. The NABA campus in Milan will be made over into an "urban festival with illuminated tents, digital experiments and local and international guests that further contribute with projects on the theme of 'parasites' applied to design."
NABABOOM!
April 18 - 21, 2007
NABA Campus Via Darwin 20
The Froggie Robotic Pen is one of the more interesting designs for folding pens we've seen:
Overdesigned? Maybe. Cool? You be the judge. At only eight bucks, could you resist buying one of these?
[Via GizModo.]
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)
Each letter and number in Robert J. Bolesta's Value Pack raw hamburger alphabet was individually hand-shaped, packed, and photographed.
via boingboing
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Allan Chochinov gives us exactly 1000 words on Sustainability in Design. Here are 105 of them:
Hippocratic Before Socratic "First do no harm" is a good starting point for everyone, but it's an especially good starting point for designers. For a group of people who pride themselves on "problem solving" and improving people's lives, we sure have done our fair share of the converse. We have to remember that industrial design equals mass production, and that every move, every decision, every curve we specify is multiplied—sometimes by the thousands and often by the millions. And that every one of those everys has a price. We think that we're in the artifact business, but we're not; we're in the consequence business.Posted by: core jr | Comments (18)
Mark Vanderbeeken interviews Paola Zini, director of Torino 2008 World Design Capital. Here's a taste:
This is one of the missions of Torino World Design Capital. Nowadays, it is impossible to speak about form as a goal in itself, disconnected from its function and its economic repercussions. That's why the first part of the year is aimed at the general public, not at a professional audience, because we want to reach out broadly about what design can be and how it can affect our daily lives. Norman Potter wrote in his seminal 1968 book "What is a designer " that all people are in fact designers, because we all create something. I think it is very important to focus on our basic education: we are setting up an initiative aimed at primary schools, to share with children what a design project is and what the word designer means.Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)