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Pacifica, CA industrial designer Dirk Dieter has a tiny house. It's 250 square feet. The process of renovating and making the place what he wants has even led to a side business selling the furniture he designed for his own "streamlined living." Some of the principles that have gone into his redesign and renovation:
- Sliding doors or curtains instead of swinging doors
- Flexible furniture (both in terms of bending and multi-use)
- Put furniture on rollers
- Build into the walls
- Don't build into the room - no doorframes, carpet, baseboards
- Cardboard prototyping for any additions
- Go vertical
- Design your own custom stuff
Brand differentiation in China is one of those topics that designers love to debate, but never seem to come to any conclusions on. Is it happening; is it not? Would it be an unprecedented new market for design services all over the world, or the end of the world as we know it? Core and BusinessWeek have addressed this one several times over the last few years, and mostly take a middle of the road stance: Chinese schools produce lots of designers, they're technically skilled and creatively lacking, and most of them will never get a design job because the domestic Chinese market doesn't value brand enough to pay money for it, unless it has the cachet of imported goods. Even Lenovo, one of the few companies to put the money where the mouth is, hired Ziba to do its IDEA Gold winning PC system for the domestic market.
An interesting alternative view came last week from industry blog PlasticsNews/China, in the form of this opinion piece by Nina Ying Sun. Interviewing the heads of several molding and tooling companies at a conference in Guangzhou, she finds that branding is very much on the minds of these guys, even in a relatively un-sexy field like injection press manufacturing
Posted by: Carl Alviani | Comments (0)
Earlier, Philips showcased a new partnership with Swarovski and now it is time to enjoy their first results at the Active Crystals website.
"We are combining luxurious design with the practical, everyday benefits of consumer electronics to complement Philips' brand promise "sense and simplicity" and Swarovski brand promise of Poetry & Precision", says Rudy Provoost, Chief Executive Officer of Philips Consumer Electronics.
via design.nl
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
designafairs homepage presents us its new owners. Last March, the agency was acquired by Nico Michler, Gerd Helmreich, Michael Lanz and Claude Toussaint as part of a Management Buy-Out.
Last March, designafairs also celebrated its 10 year anniversary, a reason to look back at one of Germany's favorite design agencies.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
We are big fans of DesignMind, frog design's bi-monthly newsletter (it's more of a magazine, really), and the issue published today--The Green Issue--is one we've been looking forward to. Very readable, very consumable (sorry), there's a bit of something for everyone in here. Too many references to Prius and Method, of course, but perhaps that just goes to show you that we don't have enough examples to point to. (Though Paul Hawken, mentioned in the issue, would probably argue with that.)
Valerie Casey's Call to arms: The Designer's Dilemma is the stand-out for this crowd, laying it on the line for designers and the design industry. Here's a couple tastes:
Designers are just one of many groups clamoring to contribute within this space. NGOs, commercial businesses, technologists, academics, and governments are all forging ahead with their individual visions, sharing the public's attention. Together, the many voices of this movement form a harmony, deeper and more complex than any solo the designer alone can offer.Yet this is a new and uncomfortable space for many designers to occupy, indoctrinated as we are with the importance of differentiation and exclusivity. To date, we have succeeded in our difference, not our similarities. We are accustomed, in many ways, to known boundaries. This is not to say that designers are not continuously pushing those boundaries and rewriting our own histories and futures, but rather that our design thinking tools and methods (narrative, motion, form, virtuality) have remained relatively constant. Even as our industry has evolved to integrate robust strategic and analytical perspectives, our jurisdiction has remained clear. Even as we engage in transformational thinking, build new business and brand models, and tackle human-interaction challenges in emerging economies, we are still designers. The horizon line moves with us.
Our clients expect our ability to translate research and ideation into concrete products and services. And they know we'll be able to differentiate them--at least for a while--from their competitors. But now we are not dealing with competitors, we are elbow-to-elbow with people who share our ethic, and to engage in the traditional competitive stance would be counterproductive. In a world where everything is connected and we all share common goals, how do we satisfy our deep instinct to create a unique position for ourselves?
and then:
frog has initiated a Kyoto Treaty of design--a call to arms for the creative community around environmental stewardship. Our initial thoughts and conversations have led to these basic tenets, but these are just a start. We ask each member of the the design community to commit to these principles and join with us in building upon them:Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Lately designer Gregg Fleishman has been getting some press for his pre-fab DH1 Disaster House, above, which can be assembled without fasteners; but have you seen his other work? Check out his Samurai-helmet-looking M4 Playgoda, below, and click this link for a look at his truly different furniture pieces.
In a speech at Innovation Night at London's Royal College of Art, Bruce Nussbaum laid forth a good argument for why CEOs should come from design backgrounds. Excerpts from the speech are printed here, in his latest Nussbaum on Design installment, titled "CEOs Must Be Designers, Not Just Hire Them. Think Steve Jobs And iPhone."
Say, whatever happened to the iPhone? Jobs announced it back in January, then you just never heard anything about it again.
A few days ago more than 1000 design experts, politicians, economists, and culture lovers attended the awards ceremony of the red dot award: product design 2007. Of the submitted 2.548 product entries, 43 received the red dot: best of the best for outstanding design performance.
Chris Bangle (here happily pictured) and the Design Team BMW Group were chosen as design team of the year 2007 for setting standards with continually innovative design work.
RCA graduate Greetje van Helmond presents Unsustainable, an unusual title for a surprising series of jewelry products made from sugar. The accessories are part of a project that deals with issues of durability and resource consumption, deliberately using a basic material to create precious, but extremely fragile, objects.
Greetje explains: "in present day life, durable materials are often used for the production of goods that are typically replaced or thrown away quickly. In my work I like to reverse the line of thought by using everyday, basic materials to create products that appear valuable."
via dezeen
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (2)
At this poorly-laid-out but funny page, "Joe Vig" is an unlucky Lego character depicted in a series of calamitous incidents, from starting a grease fire in the kitchen to being abducted by aliens. Shark attacks, mob hits and fire hydrant accidents are all part of the fun.
You can submit your own Joe Vig disaster, too; if you want to impress us, show Joe having an existential crisis or suffering the effects of high cholesterol.
via neatorama
Today Russia launched an inflatable space station module reportedly designed to test the feasibility of an inflatable space hotel.
Launching it into orbit was the easy part; the difficulty will start when the craft reaches space, at which point the astronauts must use their lungs to physically inflate the structure like a huge balloon. Okay, just kidding, we're actually not sure how they inflate the thing, but we know it somehow expands to twice its size in orbit.
The Genesis-2 was backed by Las Vegas hotel mogul Robert Bigelow, who hopes his space hotel will be ready by 2015. As for the design of the hotel itself, we hear the views are great but there isn't much...atmosphere. (Sorry.)
via theage
Viewed from certain angles, its shape may make children (or immature web writers) giggle, but the Bach coat hook, by Delta Design/Art of Storage, is designed to be a "kinder coat hook" that won't damage delicate clothes. Hardware-style coathooks are fine for the crap us dudes wear, but it can put a hole through that flimsy thing your girlfriend wears when it's hot out. "The gentle and clean shape of the hook allows fabric to drape without creating bulges in garments," goes the company propaganda. Pick one of these up or check out more of their storage products here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Valleywag provides a quick intro on how to think when you get to Silicon Valley. Broadly relevant is the advice for designers
This sandwich shop has got to be kidding about the Comic Sans on these menus! Oh. My. God. Clip-art. Ew, who would walk in that ugly building? ...[R]emember to also criticize every "experience" you have. This car hood is too long! This teapot heats up too fast! These stairs are awkward! Who designed this freaking city with all these hills?Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (0)
Guest post from Xanthe Matychak:
I think that Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is a must-have skill for the twenty-first century designer. And no better way to develop that skill than to track the LCA of a seemingly simple product like, let's say, bottled water.
Of all of the critiques on bottled water that I've seen in mainstream media this past year, Charles Fishman at FastCompany lays it out most clearly. Chock full of facts that will, hopefully, inspire you to kiss and make up with your tap.
Here's a bit:
Bottled water is the food phenomenon of our times. We--a generation raised on tap water and water fountains--drink a billion bottles of water a week, and we're raising a generation that views tap water with disdain and water fountains with suspicion. We've come to pay good money--two or three or four times the cost of gasoline--for a product we have always gotten, and can still get, for free, from taps in our homes.
And another:
In Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji.
Read the full article here.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (4)
We're not sure why Eddie in the middle there looks so morose--he's just won the 2007 "Invent-A-Toy" World Games, a toy design competition sponsored by By Kids For Kids. Eddie, Brooke and Russell each won a licensing contract from BKFK, legal support to patent their inventions, professional expertise to bring the product to market, a $5,000 US savings bond and a unicorn pony. (Okay, we made the last part up.)
Eddie invented "a game using air pumps, ping pong balls and a specially designed game board with holes," Brooke came up with "a toy campfire that kids can play with indoors," and Russell devised "a set of pipes and tubes and connections that kids can use to build a structure to send water through." Click here to see some clever ideas that do not technically defy child labor laws.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Most of us designers would leap at the chance to work at Apple, but we don't often hear about designers who once worked there and have now moved on to other things.
Businessweek's got a great piece on former Apple designers, and they found something interesting: most of them, even post-Apple, have very similar design philosophies, as if they were all graduates of the same prestigious and unique MBA program. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In this case we're guessing it's the egg, and by egg we mean, er, Apple.
Judge for yourself, the article's here. Be sure to click the "View Slide Show" button to get the designers' individual testimonies.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Lance Armstrong: 0
Lance Armstrong's Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: 1
via geekologie
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Belgian creative consultancy SUSA covers a wide range of services, but for now, we're into these self-branded SUSA headphones. You may ask yourself, "silhouette dancing people earbuds, or portabella mushroom DJ headphones?" SUSA opted for neither and chose the style of the working man--blue collar chic!--designed specifically to mimic ear protection gear that blocks out the noise, except they totally pump up the jamz crazy style!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you're sick of loose peripherals jankin' up your bag, then Belkin's got your back. Oh, and if you've toned down the Cheetos regimen to prevent further orange-ization of your mouse, well, they've been working on that too. Belkin's new Washable Mouse isn't wireless, but it'll withstand spills and stains. Oh, and for the janky periphs situation, they've come up with Mouse Trap, a zip-up circular pad that turns into a pouch for you to easily tote around your compy doodads. The Mouse'll cost you $29.99 and will launch this August, and the trap, available now, is priced at $12.99.
via notcot
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)We've gotta hand it over to the folks at geeksugar for conjuring up a mock-u-mercial in the likeness of that Xmas-time N64 ad--yeah, the one where the kid is like, "OHHH MY GOOOOOOD!!! OHHH MY GOOOOD!!" (crazy rubber hands) "Yessss!!"...as his sister tries to get her paws on it here or there. Anyway, the video above shows an adult unwrapping an iPhone in a similar holiday occurrence. Compare to the original below.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
A scientist invents a lightweight adhesive; a co-worker notices his bookmarks keep falling out. Through this serendipitous collaboration the Post-It note is born.
The New York Times has a fantastic article on the life of the Post-It. Life coaches use them for affirmation, families with different schedules use them to communicate, a business consultant calls them "outsourced neurons" for their mnemonic function. Click here to see how this little colored square of paper has gone from office desks to refrigerators to the MoMA.
Phaidon Press has put out a monograph on prolific designer Naoto Fukasawa (click here if you need a brush-up on the man, and shame on you). Sure it'll set you back US $70, but as it's Fukasawa's first monograph it's money well-spent. Features his work from IDEO, Muji and tons of other clients, and featuring contributions from Jasper Morrison, Tim Brown, Antony Gormley and Bill Moggridge. Order one or check it out here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
From the Coroflot portfolio of : Natalie Keville
Featured Project : Bloom Bassinet
Kids. They pop out and start growing like crazy, and before you know it, they're having families of their own. But in the very beginning, they must be toted around everywhere, and parents need to be able to adapt to needs and changes at the drop of a hat. Natalie Keville's Bloom Bassinet concept caters to parents who seek stylish adaptability--bedside closeness, portability, and monitoring.
26 year-old Taro Tanaka was recently assaulted in Kunitachi, a western Tokyo suburb, stripped of a chrome-finished cigarette case that the three attackers mistook for the iPhone, which hasn't even been released yet (besides to a select few). A cancer stick-less Tanaka wasn't really impressed with the iPhone anyway. He's not bound to a crappy contract, he's saving some major ca$h moneys, and he likes his smart phone and iRiver anyway. It's better if you read the quote yourself:
"If they're that desperate they could have had my iRiver player instead - I really want a smoke now. Besides, my real phone has 3.6Mbps HSDPA; an IC-chip that works as a train ticket, bus ticket, e-cash, e-credit and can open doors; a 5-megapixel camera with optical zoom and auto-focus; real songs as ringtones; a dictionary; face recognition; a barcode reader and ringtones that make my girlfriend's tits bigger. Oh, and not only did it cost me nothing, I'm not stuck with a two-year contract either."
via gizmodo
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
No, no, this isn't a mirror for varsity football jocks, nor is it targeted towards those dudes at the gym who make weird noises while destroying all the weight equipment. John Greg Ball's new Meathead mirror is actually inspired by his native Alberta, Canada's cattle industry. The basic idea here is that you are what you eat. "Playing with the traditional imagery of the west, the mirror asks us to look deeper within to consider the mental, behavioral, and physical implications of what we eat." (Vegetarians may need to seek out a tofu-shaped mirror...)
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you're getting too old for your drool-soaked Garfield doll, or if you've come to realize that sleeping with the entire Beanie Babies collection is lame, well, it might be time for an upgrade. We're convinced there's nothing better to cozy up to at night than a squishy soft gaming system from the days of yore. Blythe Church has fashioned a remarkable hand-dyed, sewn, and embroidered plush felt Nintendo system including the original NES console, controllers, wires, game cartridges, and even that sweet, sweet gun. The best part? You won't have to blow into anything to ensure a night full of 8-bit dreaming.
via kotaku
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Blanc & Reed's newest flower-holding vessel explores the meaning of beauty and where it comes from. The hollow copper vessel makes room for some blooms thanks to its being shot through by a 45 caliber slug. Shazam! Swell then becomes an "object for its deconstruction in the hope of eliciting new beauty."
danah boyd, a PhD candidate at Berkeley, has studied blogging and social networking (among other things) and is currently examining how people present themselves in 'mediated contexts.' She recently published an essay summarizing her observations on the class divisions among American teens as they flock to either Facebook or MySpace. To summarize her findings bluntly, 'good' kids use Facebook and 'bad' kids use MySpace, for many reasons. Her article includes discussions on the nature of class divsions in America, the makeup of the military, urban vs. suburban aesthetics, childhood obesity and more. For you ethnographic research fans out there this is a quick read on an important subject with considerably larger implications.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
Ultrasound procedures are about to get a lot faster and less cumbersome. Siemens moves toward peacing out from those gigantor innards-spying contraptions, replacing them with sleeker, hand-held ultrasound models like the Acuson P10, which debuted at last weeks' 18th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Society of Echocardiography in Seattle. The P10 is "a system... intended primarily for triage and screening applications in acute care settings" and is currently undergoing clinical trials in the US. The unit has been designed to fit right into lab coat pockets, improve doctor-patient communication, weighs 1.6 pounds, powers up in 5 seconds, has on-board memory for storing images and video clips, and sports a simplified, intuitive user interface.
via medgadget
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)
Do you have enough talent to truly transform time-telling? If so, you might consider taking a stab at Furni's recently announced DIY clock design competition, Show Us Your Skills. Participants can purchase LED alarm clock innards from Furni and then design a case and concept around them. The deadline's September 1st, 2007 and the winning entry might make it to the assembly line as a new Furni product.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Jake of All Trades' steampunk computer mouse is fully functional and optical-sensing. Made with spring cylinders, brass tubing, brass screws and featuring a spiked-cog scroll wheel, this thing puts the "industrial" back in "industrial design." Click here to see the deets.
via dumptrumpet
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"Master of Adobe Illustrator" Yukio Miyamoto does some crazy product renderings; the recorder and camera above were drawn in Illustrator using "a combination of Blends, Gradients and the Gradient Mesh tool." Click here to see some other astonishing, more ID-style examples of his drawings.
Miyamoto is also the author of the Illustrator how-to The Adobe Illustrator Super Guide, which is great news...for those of us who can read Japanese. Peachpit Press has yet to translate it into English.
By now at least half of you are sick of hearing about the iPhone. So, um, this is for the other half.
Although the device goes on sale on Friday, NYT tech columnist David Pogue has had his hands on one for nearly two weeks, carrying, using and living with it; his in-depth review of the iPhone, with all its successes and flaws, is here. Read about it before you join those who have been waiting in line outside the stores since last night.
via internationalheraldtribune
Designers who can't get enough of their Pantone chips can now talk into them (the cellies we spotted in March) and drink out of them. A company called W2 Products now has the exclusive rights to design Pantone-branded products in Europe, and they're starting off with the coffee mugs pictured above. Eight (UK) pounds a pop and pretty cool! But if you want one, click here fast--the popular Red 186C, wouldn't you know it, is already out of stock.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)
While the much-ballyhooed Design Within Reach Airstream we wrote about back in April finally comes on the market this month, another Airstream product that deserves a good look is their limited edition 75th Anniversary Bambi Edition. Designer David Winick paid careful attention to Airstream founder Wally Byam's original design, and the result is a beautiful 19' trailer that blends 1940s tailoring cues with modern-day materials, all done up in a cohesive, rounded-corner Airstream style. Check it out here.
This in from the New York Times Fashion section on June 24: hipsters all dress the same.
Melena Ryzik visits the multi-city Renegade Craft Fair in its latest installment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and writes this review, noticing a few things that have been noticed before, especially by fans of the Hipster Craft Revival movement (capitalization added). Namely, that the current incarnation of the DIY aesthetic experiences pervasive trends, and that hand-made production doesn't scale very well.
The pervasive trends are probably pretty familiar to Etsy.com shoppers or readers of Design Sponge: sparrows, owls, and forest animals as recurring motifs; labor intensive handicrafts like knitting, ceramics and sewing machine embroidery; a rough, intentionally unfinished quality that says Punk Rock, superimposed on a girly palette of floral print, stained glass and moss-colored felt. Closer attention reveals that songbirds are so 2005, and the smart money is on cephalapod imagery for the coming season.
If this all sounds a little like the discussion of Blue vs. Cerulean in The Devil Wears Prada, that's no accident.
Posted by: Carl Alviani | Comments (0)
Dan Witz is taking his art skills to the streets this summer with his Do Not Enter sign modification around the NYC area. He adds mixed media pieces to the signs to create playful, illusion-like imagery with a message. You can check out what he's got up so far, but look out for more later on since this project's still in progress.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
From cell phones to hard drives, there's no shortage of objects and devices that take inspiration from sleek and fast sports cars. William Optics has recently released the new VISIO binoculars, directly styled after the Ferrari brand and design. The bright red carbon fiber body is a dead giveaway, nevermind the name. These waterproof, 25mm binoculars let you scope out from afar with 8x magnification and fully multi-coated lenses.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you and your friends were betting on which one of you would start camping out earliest to get the first iPhone from the Apple store on Prince Street in NYC, all bets are off. That is unless your name is Alicia Keys, Iman, Liv Tyler, Jessica Alba, or Johnny Vulkan (above right). Mr. Vulkan of Anomoly, a marketing communications agency in Manhattan, is out on Prince Street now, as of Tuesday morning. I'll let him do the talking:
"We're doing this for Keep a Child Alive which is a charity that provides drugs for children in Africa. There are 20 million kids living with AIDS in Africa who need anti-retroviral drugs and it only costs a dollar a day to save a life for those kids. The iPhone is all about keeping connected with people and it's important at times like this to remember that we are all in fact connected to everybody, and it would be nice to remember people less fortunate than ourselves. So we're lining up for the next three day. We have about 80 volunteers so far and actually people on the street are coming by and volunteering to sit in as well. We are taking sponsors on our t-shirts; it's a minimum bid of $500. On Friday, one of Keep a Child Alive's ambassadors will go in here and buy the first iPhone. And then we're going to be auctioning off the iPhone on eBay, and the prize will be that iPhone, a Jawbone bluetooth headset, two round-trip tickets on Virgin America which launches in a month, and the prize winner will have that presented to them by one of Keep a Child Alive's [above mentioned] ambassadors. We want people to come by, say hi, and please visit keepachildalive.org and donate money; it's a great cause and we'd love to raise as much awareness for the cause as we can."
Posted by: Sinclair Smith | Comments (1)
Switzerland-based conceptual designer Adrian Rovero's newest project is Sedie pasta, created as a giveaway item for Espace Contemporains. The pasta feels familiar--it reminds us of alphabet soup or wagon wheels, but they're little chairs. In keeping with the notion that chairs are an industrially-made item, the pasta stays true to the manufacturing process. The structure of the chair pasta pieces is designed for extrusion, which is clearly illustrated in this video. Please do not sit.
via mocoloco
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)This guy's been sitting out in front of NYC's 5th Avenue Apple store in the sweltering heat since 5:00 AM this morning. He currently talks on a banana, so we understand why he wants an upgrade. While he camps out for four more days, he'll be welcoming any donations since he's gotta eat and he's "already spent $4 on two hot dogs and a soda."
More iPhone early bird news here.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Port-o-potties. They're a construction worker's best friend, a last resort for many, and, well, just plain gross. Italian portable toilet maker Sebach has opened a call for entries to design the next generation of these otherwise across-the-board uninspired and boring port-o-lets. Contestants with an aesthetic (and hopefully, hygienic) vision have until August 4th to compete for the title of The Dream Toilet and a EUR5,000 ($6,733.58) prize.
Design students. The Competition is part of the communication project run by Oliviero Toscani, together with La Sterpaia for Sebach, the Used to seeing Sebach cabins in our cities, at concerts, events or building sites, and following the peaceful street invasion of the entertaining series dedicated to artists and the great Masters in the history of art, we have reached The Dream Toilet, an International concept Competition open to Architecture, Engineering and Art and leading chemical toilet rental company.
via josh spear
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Yes, the Chinese have started building cars, and no, you shouldn't start driving them. Why not? Well, take a look at this disturbing video of crash test footage done on the Chinese-made Brilliance BS6 sedan. The results of the offset head-on crash is frightening, and the cabin penetration on the T-bone crunch is downright disturbing. The last car that could hurt a human this badly was Stephen King's Christine.
via scifi
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
It's actually a Top 9 list put together by UK blogger deputydog, but we rounded it out to an even ten; the NYPD will start messing around with the Dodge Charger, pictured above, this summer. Click here to see deputydog's nine, from a Lambo chase car to a Porsche ambulance.
There's no word on price yet, but whoever gets their paws on these kicks will surely be the talk of 2nd period Western Civ. Nike's Back to School sneaker package is due around August and includes the "Notebook" Dunk High, "Elmers Glue" Air Max 90, and the "Crayon" Vandal High.
thanks bodge!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
As we continue to move forward into the future, more and more of us shed our analog layers to go completely digital. Digicams prevail over film and make photo booths look like dinosaur cubes with curtains. Even so, many old school fanboys and nostalgia-obsessed hipsters keep the demand alive, and there's even an awesome site that lists photo booth locations across the nation!
via coudal
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
The new Playspot modular children's mat from Skip Hop gives kids of all ages an even, soft surface to roll around and play with toys, while parents rest assured that their little ones aren't in danger of injuring themselves. The $79 set comes with 20 foam tiles but can be reduced and expanded thanks to the flexible foam connectors that fit the tiles together like a puzzle.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)AT&T has just announced their iPhone plan rates. So how much will it actually cost you to get an iPhone, including your first month of service? Let's see: $499 for the 4GB, $599 for the 8GB. Sales tax (for example, 8.375% in New York State). One-time AT&T activation fee of $36.
AT&T iPhone plan rates: 450 minutes, $60 (after taxes more like $72). 900 minutes, $80 (around $96 after taxes). 1,350 minutes, $100 (around $120 after taxes).
(All plans require two-year contracts and will reportedly include access to email and mobile Web services, the visual voicemail service, and 200 text messages sent.)
So what's the damage?
4GB with 450: $648.79
4GB with 900: $672.79
4GB with 1,350: $698.79
8GB with 450: $757.17
8GB with 900: $781.17
8GB with 1,350: $807.17
Please note these are approximate figures, the tax-mongers in your region may vary.
The phone will go on sale at 6 p.m. this Friday in Apple's U.S. retail stores.
Dead batteries are often dead to us in that they'll no longer power our devices, but there's still a modicum of juice left in them. This is where Kikkerland's Battery Eater, designed by David Dear, steps in. You put a "dead to us" battery in the thing's jaws, and its eyes start flashing. And flashing. And flashing...but when they finally stop flashing, you know the battery's emptier than a Fox reality show.
Do we need this thing? Absolutely not. Would we get one? Well, maybe.
via technabob
It would be weird to think of a lighting designer as big as Ingo Maurer having a clearance sale, but since the cut-rate prices at his SoHo, NYC location are being billed as a "renovation sale" we guess it's different. At any rate it'll be running from July 5th to 29th, and you can get 50% off of Maurer's floor samples as they make way for some September exhibitions. Get it while it's hot; more pictures after the jump.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Check out the Unicat Terracross, a modular camper rig that looks like, well, a garbage truck. The website for the Klaus-Darr-designed vehicle was clearly written in German and translated into English, leading to sentences like "The optimum layout of the bodies interior was created by the experts for indviduell vehicle manufacturing" (sic), but that doesn't detract from the coolness of the design.
Comes in four different models, ranging from couple- to family-sized, and there are additional photos here.
thanks Roman!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
"Face Your Pockets" is a bizarre but interesting project relying on you, the mass of internet readers, to supply the images. The idea is you empty your pockets onto your scanner, throw your mug on there as well and hit the Go button. E-mail your shot to faceyourpockets@gmail.com with some personal deets, or just check out the variety of submissions here.
via dumptrumpet
You've only got room in your studio apartment for a bookshelf or an easy chair. What to do? Pick up one of Nobody&Co's Bibliochaise chairs, which hold up to "five meters" worth of books. Click here for their site, and check out some of their other innovative products while you're there; we dig the Piola shelves and the Comfort table.
via genartpulse
German designer and recent graduate of the Royal College of Art's Product Design program, Martin Postler, presents "Life/Machine - Scenes from a roboted Life." This project spurred from research that Postler gathered over 3 months in 2006 for a study at the Kyoto University of Arts. These scenes and made-up products and processes paint a picture of what life might be like if robots were to become an integral element in the automation of routines such as eating, hygiene, and leisure--essentially a commentary on certain ways we use technology today--"simplified and emphasized on production robot abilities like memorizing, targeting, order and in the end - robotic stupidity."
Postler's scenes illustrate universal life situations that make us feel uncomfortable and tense thanks to these unnatural-feeling human-robot interactions. For example, the automated shaving method mimics mass production processes of injection molding. The various elements in this project range from "a rather technical approach of problem solving (kitchen tools) to a more critical idea of how we are confronted with our own inventions and how we sometimes bend to accommodate technology."
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Hey all you audiophiles--prepare to rejoice, for the next generation of the Sphere Chair has arrived. Meet the "Sonic Chair" by Holger Fritzlar, Frank Hussong, Michael Kientzler & Daniela Reuter. We've seen a resurgence in acoustically inspired chairs this year and this one can be yours starting at €5,850.00 (plus VAT).
Featuring internal speakers and a specially developed four-channel amplifier, the Sonic Chair comes fitted with a diverse range of input jacks for laptops, stereos, CD players, iPods and X-Boxes. If you're passing through Vienna this summer, take a break and test drive one at the Walking-Chair Gallery.
Walking-Chair Gallery
Opening: 28 June 2007, 7pm
Exhibition: 29 June - 10 October 2007
Rasumofskygasse 10, A-1030 Vienna
NYC-based product designer Mark Reigelman will install Stair Squares across the front steps of Brooklyn's Borough Hall from August 17-26 this summer. The public furniture pieces "are designed not only as an aesthetic asset, but as a functional asset as well. They will be strategically integrated into urban landscape and incorporated into daily life." Neighborhood workers can take advantage of some al fresco lunch dining while passersby get a sprinkle of color while walking past the government building that looks like, well, any other gray, column-clad government building. It's too bad these things are just temporary.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Leave it to Art Lebedev to come up with the most kick-ass USB drive--simply hilarious because it is what it holds. The designers at AL gave themselves a problem: "Flesh out a metaphor." And so Folderix was born...a nice score for electro-tchotchke collectors and great visual reminder for those who forget exactly what flash drives are supposed to do.
via gizmodo
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Mamas & Papas has recently busted out with this daddy-specific carriage concept from the future that looks a lot like a Segway with the internets and a baby Jetsons bubble incorporated in the front. (Could this mom have been the inspiration?) Not only does the child have its own built-in flat screen display to distract it from the real world, but Mr. Cool Dad has his very own to ensure he's not paying attention to where he's going. Shazam! Dangerous pedestrian and traffic accidents and virtual reality brain-rot are both pending liabilities for the Man Pram concept--oh, and why can't moms scoot around on this thing? Also, let's hope they poked some airholes in that clear plastic baby dome...
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)If you're looking to take a quiet moment amidst frantic blog-surfing for a brain meal, stop by D.J. Huppatz' in-depth blog on design, architecture and culture in the 21st century, Critical Cities. You might actually learn something worthwhile from the Design History professor's detailed entries--the current topic being an overview and analysis of the Modernism exhibit currently running at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
You have to love designer Lasse Klein's Alien Abduction Lamp, currently just a concept. Get this thing into production, Klein! You could probably sell scads at the souvenir shops outside Roswell alone.
Our favorite part is that the cow clearly isn't going to fit into that hole, but they're sucking him up anyway.
via geekologie
Businessweek's got a fantastic article about James Dyson, entrepreneur, engineer, designer, and founder of Dyson Appliances LTD. The man is patient (he spent 14 years perfecting his first cyclonic vacuum prototype), stubborn (when marketers warned him consumers didn't want a clear plastic chamber where they could see dirt accumulate, he knew they were wrong) and rich (his company topped US $1 billion in sales last year).
Dyson speaks about his latest product design, his company's system of "wrong thinking" and their process for bringing better products to market. Dive into it here.
via businessweek
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
A recent article in Metropolis Magazine looks at the work of 15 designers, architects and artists who have re-examined the most fundamental building block—literally—the everyday brick. The workshop held in the Netherlands explored everything from the decorative play on light to increasing the functionality incorporating sound dampeners and planters. An exhibition of prototypes are on display until July 1st in Rotterdam at Groot Handelsgebouw, Conradstraat 40-48.
Featured above is the 'Solar Brick'.
German architect Jan Schabert aimed to improve the heat-transmission capabilities of brick. By mimicking radiator fins and including cavities in which warm air can circulate, his brick takes passive solar heating to a whole new level. He is currently seeking a patent on the design.Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
Exploring different materials with one production technique is a great way to generate a distinctive product range of which the Meltdown Chair by Tom Price is a great example. The characteristic seats are all made by heating and pressing a seat shaped shape in a ball of wrapped PVC hose, polypropylene rope, or an ordinary stack of plumbing tubes.
The working method or charred and brittle seat surfaces might be too barbaric for materials scientists but according to Tom still flexible and comfortable enough to sit on. The seats are part of a series, so we are looking forward to his next Meltdown.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
It's either an art project or the aftermath of a terrible motorcycle accident. Click here to see some crazy photos of this house with a hole bored all the way through it.
via geekologie
We can't confirm if this is a hoax or not (red flag #1: bum grammar on the website) but Jetpack International claims to be selling a jetpack with a five-gallon tank that will fly for 19 minutes at speeds up to 83 m.p.h., with a max range of 27 miles. We're also not sure why the guy in the PR photo is flying it next to a windmill, maybe his wife just left him.
Price? US $200,000. And while they're taking pre-orders, the thing won't be ready until December. Hmm. Anyways, here's some video of the supposed device:
via scifi
Most of us ID'ers, having spent at least four years in design school, can usually figure out how to do DIY stuff; manufacturing techniques have been drilled, no pun intended, into our heads.
Still, there are those DIY projects requiring a level of expertise our ID profs never taught us. On that note, we love this post from Wired showing how to pull of a DIY project most urban dwellers dream of--soundproofing! Learn about Green Glue, mass-loaded vinyl and automatic door bottoms; block out the neighbor's wailing kid, the downstairs guy's surround-sound Michael Bay fetish and the basketball-playing punk upstairs.
Thanks Adam!
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Ostel, a new budget hotel with Communist-style, retro decor and furnishings, has recently opened in a former East German housing block in the Berlin Mitte district. Each guest room is bright and unique with names like Stasi Suite and Pioneer Camp, outfitted with hand-selected Communist-era pieces and tastefully appropriate fabrics, wallpapers, bedding, and accessories. Guests can even take a bit of the experience home with them at the Ostel's Konsum store that offers authentic vintage souvenirs for sale.
via dezeen
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Released last week was Jennifer Baichwal's feature documentary, Manufactured Landscapes, where she observes large-scale photographer Edward Burtynsky in China as he captures the landscape transformed by the nation's pervasive industrial revolution, inviting the viewer "to meditate on human endeavour and its impact on the planet."
Check out this excellent slide show of classic surfside "woodies" and an article, "Against the Grain", to go with it...
Long before the environment became a cause, "green" vehicles--in the guise of family station wagons--trolled American roadways. Never mind that their engines weren't carbon-free; their bodies were largely constructed of a biodegradable and renewable resource: wood.
via design observer
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
With billboard catchphrases like "So wrong for so many," counterculture auto brand Scion has become known for fresh and atypical advertising. Their latest campaign is no exception; to promote their upcoming model, the xD five-door due to launch in August, Scion comissioned ATTIK and artist Dave Correia to illustrate a quirkly little webgame called "Little Deviants."
"We wanted to create a pre-launch campaign for the 2008 Scion xD that was rebellious, sinister, and paralleled our street level promotions," said Nancy Inouye, Scion advertising manager. "The 'Little Deviant' campaign helps us to achieve this by spreading Scion's message of non-conformity across all media formats." Play it here and get a peek at the new car!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
From June 28th to July 13th, Napkin will showcase new artwork from renowned illustrators, designers, and typographers in the UK, including Daniel Eatock, Jasper Morrison, Julie Verhoeven, and Hiroko Shiratori. Each artist/designer was sent a blank white paper napkin upon which they drew "illustrations, plans for future projects, sketches of past inspirations or merely scribbles--the medium of ink on paper napkin providing unstructured foundations on which to play."
If you're itching to check out some cool napkin sketches and can't make it to London, don't forget our awesome CATIA Napkin Sketch Competition gallery!
In K.T. Greenfeld's book Speed Tribes, the author details hanging out with Japanese mobster-underling motorcycle gangs in Tokyo; one of the young punks revs up his Kawasaki and plays a Beethoven symphony with the engine.
While no footage of that feat exists, at least we have "We Are the Champions" played on an F1 engine:
via makezine
Prathan Poopat and Flavio Girolami, the brains behind Common Projects, take the idea of trendy street footwear and turn it on its head (or feet?) with the new Achilles mid-top sneaker. Forget those crazy-wild patent leather, zebra-striped, velcro strapped, highlighter-toned shock shoes--Achilles is nothing of the sort. Hearty construction, bare essential styling, and monotone gray everything--from the Nappa leather base down to the stitching--are what spells luxury for this sneaker.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Louise van der Veld receives this year's trophy as winner of the design competition "Mooi uit de brand" (Dutch for "Rescued in style") that challenged industrial design students to design tools that improve fire safety at home.
The jury recognizes the Chick-a-Dee smoke detector as a touching concept with the right combination of the necessary gravity and humor. Unlike real birds falling down, the Chick-a-Dee starts squeaking when sensing smoke.
Apart from the adorable concept, it's worth mentioning that the average Dutch homes seem to lack fire safety measures partly because people don't want to have ugly fire prevention products in their homes... The national association of insurers organized this competition and invited designers to make fire safety look good and prevent a worse case of "to die for design".
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (1)
This month's Design for All Newsletter (PDF) is a special issue on the India-Japan year of friendship with two articles featuring Matsushita Electric's approach to universal design (photo: Analysis of "Vertical", "Drum type", "Slanted drum" washing dryer systems) and design survey on domestic cooking for visually impaired people.
Design for All is the intervention in environments, products and services with the aim that, regardless of age, gender, capabilities or cultural background, everyone can participate in our society on an equal basis.
The newsletter is a monthly update from the Institute of India. Visit www.designforall.in for subscriptions and archived newsletters since 2006 that have been sent by chairman Dr. Sunil Kumar Bhatia.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)Pentagram's design for the epic Global Cities exhibition, which opened yesterday in the Tate Modern's monumental Turbine Hall, was built in 18 days. And they've got a movie to prove it. Learn more about the exhibit at Pentagram's site; here's the pitch on the show.
Global Cities looks at changes in the social and built forms of ten large, dynamic, international cities: Cairo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo. Drawing on data originally assembled for the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale, the exhibition features both visual art and architectural responses to explore these cities through five thematic lenses: speed, size, density, diversity and form.Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
We're big Roger Martin fans (who isn't!), and here's a nice 10 minutes with him on the topics of business and design (natch). This video sits as a sweet "letter to the Overlap Conference"--he had to be out of town--responding to 4 questions with refreshing candor and perspective. You can read more about the conference on Victor Lombardi's blog.
Here's a preview from our friends over at Yonoh Studio, a design firm from Valencia, Spain. The Creative Directors, Alex Selma and Carla del Portillo, will showcase new home furnishings during Habitat Valencia Forward's (HVF) "Nude 2007: New International Design Show" (September 24 - 29, 2007). Nude is an arena where young, international designers can come together and present new ideas and designs. Already in its sixth edition, Nude has established itself as a springboard for budding designers, where they can meet with manufacturers or share concepts with their colleagues.
Yonoh's contribution is a collection of modern products with, as they say, "clean and fluid lines." "Marco," for example, is a modular sofa with infinite possibilities--It transforms to fit any of your reclining needs. The arms and support rests are detachable and interchangeable, making re-arrangement an ease. "Rea," another design premiering at HVF, takes lamps to big proportions. These large, bulbous hanging lamps are perfect for corners, hanging over a dining room table, or in your atrium--if you're lucky enough to have such a thing.
Be sure to check out Habitat Valencia Forward's 2007 lineup, and the designs of Yonoh Studio.
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Most blog entries are about us giving you information, but this time it's the other way 'round--we've got a question we'd like your informed opinion on.
According to the European Battery Recycling Association via this Reuters news clip, battery recycling efforts are hitting a snag in Europe because Europeans are hanging on to their old phones, even after buying new ones. A battery can't be recycled if it's sitting in someone's drawer collecting dust.
Our question is: Why are Europeans keeping their old cell phones? How do the cultural differences of an entire continent influence consumer behavior vis-a-vis outdated technology that would be, to most North American or Asian residents, not worth keeping around? Let us know your thoughts, particularly those of you raised in or intimately familiar with Europe. Thanks!
From the Coroflot portfolio of : Simon Kingston
Featured Project : Miele Outpost Kitchen
Simon Kingston and James Rennick's modular office kitchen design for German manufacturer Miele addresses the anti-social and unhealthful behavior associated with desk dining in the workplace. The two units can be arranged and stacked according to the needs of the office, creating a place to prepare meals and relax while dining.
Who taught you how to drive? A bitter instructor? Chain-smoking, know-it-all mom? Super vain sister? Beer-slamming step-dad? BMW just launched Relearn to Drive, a little reminder of who gave you your "skills" and how you can fix them. After you've been reeled in by a funny and familiar cast of characters, you have the option to "relearn to drive," that is, sign up for BMW's Performance Driving School where courses range from teen training to tearing it up. And of course, it ain't free.
via josh spear
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
We still have one collective eyebrow raised on the iPhone's touch screen situation, and now there's even a joke video that'll make many an iPhone-enthusiast taste a little doubt, especially since the recent switch over to glass. Sure, the fingerprints are a given, but what about all that grease from your pores as the phone is pressed up against your cheek? Hmm, you could use your fingers to wipe it away...
thanks bryman!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)Dongguan City, a Chinese 'burg of 1.6 million people just a ferry ride away from Hong Kong, is the third largest exporting region in China (1. Shanghai, 2. Shenzhen). They're also actively seeking foreign direct investment, which is perhaps why they're holding the Dongguan Cup for Industrial Design, seeking "excellent entries from individual industrial designers."
Although anyone around the world can enter, the competition is only open to individuals, not teams, which is rather odd for China. Prize money is 30,000 RMB (about four grand US) for first place, going down by 1/3rd for second and third place. The deadline is July 15th, and full details are up here.
Stretched cowhide makes a great and durable seating surface, as seen in the iconic Wassily Chair. But as cool as the Wassily looks, anyone who's sat in one for, say, the length of Marcel Breuer's Whitney retrospective DVD knows that the chair can get a bit hot around the, er, nether regions.
Modern-day designer Franco Poli also chose cowhide for a seating surface, but he used lasers to precisely cut the leather into an aerated net that can support 350kg (772 lbs) without stretching; the result is his LOOM armchair, produced by Matteograssi, which has just today been awarded Australia's designEX Product Design Award. The free-breathing net surface is well-ventilated and comfortable even in unconventional positions; Poli describes it as "similar to a hammock [and] as comfortable as a chaise-lounge."
To learn more about designer Franco Poli, click here. Info on Matteograssi's upcoming Australian product launch is here, and the company's full product line is here.
Do you take this tasty beverage to be a most thirst-quenching liquid treat?
I do.
Yusuke Fujinuma and Yoko Yamazaki's Cup Ring for Floyd not only looks elegant as you grip a sip, but is quite deceptive upon unboxing, especially if it's been given as a gift. Sooo...don't give it to someone who adores jewelry unless they adore coffee and tea even more.
via mocoloco
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Lund University of Industrial Design students Jacob von Matern and Fredrik Hylten-Cavallius are currently showing their sixth-semester project, the NIM city bike, at the Form Design Center in Malmo, Sweden along with many other selected bicycles for the summer display. NIM's frame is comprised of a carbon fiber twill shell and a foam core, making it super light but extra strong. The aesthetics are derived from the bike's composition and function--minimal, clean, and streamlined.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (4)
Virtual rock stars have become a sizable enough demographic for Takara Tomy to bust out with the Air Guitar Pro, an air guitar player's tool that looks like a headstock with a tiny part of the upper neck and fretboard outfitted with buttons that play a bunch of chords. An infrared sensor embedded in the neck picks up strumming motions from the other hand and a built-in speaker amplifies your jam-out sessions, but if you really need to pump it up, there's also an audio out connection. These should ship out around July 25th and impatient enthusiasts can pre-order here.
via technabob
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
We can all describe the "IKEA experience" in our own huffy ways--it's nearly undeniable that each story would exude feelings of annoyance, impatience, dizziness, and buyer's remorse via inner-conflict. Nevertheless, we're always intrigued to find someone who's taken the time to document their reaction, like Khoi Vin at Subtraction, who struggles to find the balance between supreme convenience, too much design, and brand bombardment. Keep in mind that Vin prefaces his story by mentioning U2's Bono purchasing a fully-furnished house and how that kinda makes a lot more sense after an IKEA excursion...
When everything has been measured, planned, optimized and aestheticized within an inch of its life, it begins to weigh down with the invisible tonnage of oppression. Ikea makes me go haywire because there's almost nothing about the experience that doesn't feel artificial.
via design observer
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
It isn't enough to successfully get from A to B these days. The masses are calling for standard models with "tricked-out" features--soon you won't have to be a rapper with sacks of cash to cruise around in a killer ride, according to Forbes Auto's list of Ten Design Trends to Shape the Future. From crazy sunroofs that allude to Jetson's hovercraft bubbles to more aggressive "faces" to bling-bling headlights and taillights, car makers have handed the torch over to the "quirkies", a.k.a. those weirdos who went to art school, for the next car trend blitz.
The fate of most car companies has been shifting from sober executives and calculating engineers to rest more on the quirky, creative types who head up design departments. As a result, automobile design is changing dramatically.
via mediabistro
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
From the Coroflot Portfolio of: Eoin McNally
Featured Project: Packaging for Re-use
Packaging for Re-use is a product that recycles the cardboard your laptop arrives in by changing it into a protective carrying sleeve. Assembly is easy, and all necessary materials are included in the original packaging. The cardboard casing is treated with natural wax to protect it from spills, and instead of the usual polystyrene foam peanuts, Packaging for Re-Use utilizes sheep's wool felt (which can be recycled and composted). All it takes is a few simple cuts, folds, and glue to make the transformation. Check out the other pics to see how it works. From the portfolio of Eoin McNally in Dublin, Ireland.
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A noteworthy article appeared in the June issue of Shelf Impact, an influential online e-zine. The article, P&G Exec: Design's strategic value is vital to innovation (pages 6-7), features excerpts from a keynote speech given by Claudia Kotchka, Procter & Gamble's vice president of design innovation & strategy at the Fuse's Brand Identity & Package Design conference this past April in New York.
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)
Check out what this year's students stirred up for the Royal College of Art Summer Show, The Great Exhibition 2007, over at Reluct.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Berlin-based design duo Fuchs + Funke join the flat pack party with their Papton chair, a pre-cut fold-and-fit composite panel that forms a structural, geometric gem of a seat that weighs in at a feather-light 2 kilograms!
via pan-dan
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Robert Sollis sent an email out to Google requesting they update Google Maps with a temporary marker for the 150th anniversary exhibition for the Royal College of Art, only to receive an auto-reply message in return. Mr. Sollis replied to inform that he'd create his own physical marker, the Google Carpet, that would hopefully be picked up by satellites and refreshed on the maps in time for the exhibition (only to receive that same dang auto-reply in return).
via vvork
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
The gang over at Who Killed Bambi caters to those of you who need a break from super sunshine sugar happy time here on the interwebs. "Their favourite victims are banality, conformism, lack of humor and good will at any cost." WKB features creative works that take a "stab" at showing us all the darker side of life. Shown above is "Super Human Powers (A Documented Account of Spontaneous Self-Liquidation)" by Alex Dodge.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Leave it to the Japanese game shows to come up with Human Tetris!
via tvinjapan
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (4)DO's Tom Vanderbilt has a nice and breezy piece-cum-book review focused on packaging design and Robert H. Frank's new book, The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas. Here's a taste:
Why, even though the discs are exactly the same size, do DVDs come in such larger packages than CDs? The answer, as supplied here, is that vinyl records came in tightly shrink-wrapped sleeves, 302 mm square. If one made the CD package a little less than half that size, one could fit two CDs in the racks that countless record stores had installed. The height could be kept the same, which is why you may remember CD jewel cases themselves used to wrapped with all kinds of surplus packaging, strange cousins of vinyl sleeves that were to be ripped away and discarded. DVDs, meanwhile, were riding in the wake of the VHS tape, which came in a 191 mm-high box. Keeping DVD cases the same height meant retailers (and consumers) could simply stack DVDs on their VHS shelves. One does wonder if some brave designer, some Howard Roark of the blister-pack set, stood up in an early meeting and asked if the cost of the excess packaging was indeed greater than the cost of retrofitting shelves. It could also be that Hollywood was leery of people thinking they were getting "less" for their money.Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
From early transistor radios and rotary phones to iPods and Blackberries, electronics have always had one thing in common: you can't get them wet. Bathrooms, rainstorms and crowded bars are all places where slippery fingers or an errant elbow can send your Samsung swimming while you struggle to remember if you bought the insurance or not.
If you didn't get the insurance, there's still hope. According to a Washington Post reporter's friend (we know that has a brother's-girlfriend's-uncle ring to it), you can save soaked gadgets by leaving them in an uncooked bowl of rice, which apparently absorbs nearby moisture, resurrecting your device.
Wikihow's got another tip: soak the thing in alcohol. Pure alcohol, of course; martinis will kill your celly dead, but the 200-proof stuff will dry it out faster than Tara Conner.
Anyone who's been to any of the big auto shows knows they are put together by marketing departments, saturated as they are with splashy displays and dramatic lighting.
In contrast, the EyesOn Design car show in Detroit is awesome because it's organized and curated by actual car designers, and you get to see what they like. Displays and lighting are replaced by a simple grass field and sunlight; it's all about the design, baby!
This year's show highlighted the work of Marcello Gandini, the man behind countless Alfas, Maseratis and Lambos. But Italian exotics weren't the only thing on display; click the link below to see the complete lineup, and feast your eyes on everything from a 1936 Stout Scarab to a 1957 Brougham, with a nice selection of '60s muscle cars to round it out.
via motortrend
A sobering article in today's Times titled "As More Toys Are Recalled, Trail Ends in China." Here's the start:
China manufactured every one of the 24 kinds of toys recalled for safety reasons in the United States so far this year, including the enormously popular Thomas & Friends wooden train sets, a record that is causing alarm among consumer advocates, parents and regulators.Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (4)The latest recall, announced last week, involves 1.5 million Thomas & Friends trains and rail components--about 4 percent of all those sold in the United States over the last two years by RC2 Corporation of Oak Brook, Ill. The toys were coated at a factory in China with lead paint, which can damage brain cells, especially in children.
Just in the last month, a ghoulish fake eyeball toy made in China was recalled after it was found to be filled with kerosene. Sets of toy drums and a toy bear were also recalled because of lead paint, and an infant wrist rattle was recalled because of a choking hazard.
Herme Ciscar and Monica Garcia collaborate on a variety of interior, industrial, and event design projects including this line of zipper-inspired furniture, appropriately labeled "Zip." The Valencia, Spain-based duo applied overlapping finger joints to the opening seams of each piece to suggest the teeth of a zipper.
via mocoloco
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Link. thanks kris!
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (13)999 handmade, sealed, and black lacquered cubes have been constructed to each hold very different objects inside--only to be revealed if the owner chooses to destroy the box (that's a no-no). The Black Cubes is an art project that plays with human curiosity. The project evolves when all 999 cubes are sold and the artist reveals the next step, which has something to do with the mystery objects enclosed in the boxes...and the only way to be a part of it is to cash in. The numbered cubes, at least the remaining 929, are priced according to their order, so the higher the number, the higher the price.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (6)
Design has expanded into new terrain and the boundaries between different design disciplines have blurred. The work of designers from previously separate backgrounds increasingly overlaps. New times demand new contextual skills, and the conference "Intersections 07" will map out the new landscape through a series of lively debates between pathfinders from different fields.
'Intersections 07: design know-how for a new era' is co-organised by Dott 07 and Northumbria University School of Design, and will take place on 25 and 26 October in NewcastleGateshead, UK.
(See below for the impressive speakers list)
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)
Last Wednesday's article in The New York Times' Business Day section brought us this exposé: "That iPhone is missing a keyboard." Amid debate surrounding Apple's awaited release are questions as to whether the elimination of a mechanical keyboard in favor of a touch screen will cause the iPhone to revolutionize interface technology or fall flat. Bill Moggeridge of IDEO is quoted saying, "The tactile feedback of a mechanical keyboard is a pretty important aspect of human interaction--if you take that away, you tend to be very insecure." With respect to Mr. Moggeridge--and I hope to remain employable--I would encourage him and those who hold like-minded opinions to get out of the office more often.
Anyone who's had sex or owned a pet, and has done either with a modicum of success, knows how to push the right button without a mechanical keyboard. (For those less successful, the secret usually lies in a repetitive, caressing gesture.) These are ancient human instincts and basic tactile behavior. Sure there's insecurity at first--and I've known my share--but with practice, patience, and care all manner of feedback is possible. And what and where is tactile feedback anyway? A click feeling at the fingertip? Or a sight or sound cognitively and emotionally registered? All of this begs the question, "what is a keyboard and how should we use it?" As technology advances, I say let's get back to our roots: less clicking and poking, and more petting and stroking.
Posted by: Sinclair Smith | Comments (22)
A CNET News slideshow that highlighted some predecessors to the Microsoft Surface interface, contained the above photo that you wouldn't exactly expect from a multinational that prides itself on its experience design focus.
But Philips pulled it off. The photo is about as bad as you get: a bunch of researchers, looking distinctively Dutch, seemingly enjoying a family game on the Entertaible computer that Philips Research prototyped last year. The photo is also featured as top choice in the Philips Research News Center.
Philips, with all due respect, what is wrong with you to allow photos like that?
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (1)
Sometimes competing corporations coincidentally launch similar products at the same time, and sometimes they "coincidentally" launch similar products at the same time. Is it an honest coincidence, designer's paranoia, or the case of blatant "Inspiration?" Longtime poster slippyfish outs his nemesis on the Core77 boards. Check out the fully story, weigh in with your take, and feel free to post up other coincidences. . . Or "coincidences."
A hot tip passed on from the one and only yo!
Posted by: | Comments (1)Zoro Feigl and Oscar Peters recently installed "Sugar Storm" at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam. The machine whipped up a plentiful batch of cotton candy for all to enjoy, but instead of a fluffy wrapped cloud around a paper cone, onlookers had to brave the "storm" to retrieve their own sweet treat.
thanks martijn!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Richard Harbus
Last week marked the unveiling of Asrium's spaceplane, a leisure spacecraft with interiors, color schemes, some exterior elements, and passenger interactions designed by Marc Newson. A nearly mirror image competitor, the Astrium/Newson team, is joining the space travel for regular people game and giving the pioneers and/or early marketers at Virgin Atlantic, with celebrity designer-on-board Philippe Starck, a run for their moon rocks. The launch for launches is planned for 2012 where a commercial flight will start on the low end for around $265,000.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Today's new compound word is webinar, as in web-viewable seminar. Microsoft, in conjunction with Boston's Design Management Institute, is sponsoring a bunch of webinars called the Design Leadership Series.
The next one will be this Thursday by Steve McGrew, Creative Director of Philips Design. Topic: "Bridging the Gap From Product Design to Marketing Strategy." You will learn how to "develop strategic tools to enable clear design direction" and to "guide product design and maintain integrity and relevance through to the creation of effective marketing communication." You will also learn how to spend $175 on registering for a webinar. Because while "sponsored by" implies some sort of subsidy, all bets are off when the sponsor is Microsoft.
Interested? Sign up here.
One of Freedom of Creation's newest lighting products is the laser-sintered polyamide Falicon light by Janne Kyttanen. Falicon can be affixed to the wall as a sconce or simply placed on a surface as a table lamp. The geometric pyramid silhouette is studded by the patterned negative space created in the dirt resistant, flexible plastic.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Way back in 1957, the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma buried a time capsule in the form of a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere (photo above left and center), whose massive tailfins and sleek design represented the best of American manufacturing at the time. On burial day, a contest was held to guess what Tulsa's population would be fifty years in the future, in 2007, and whomever came closest (or their living heirs) would get the car, which was loaded with other artifacts of the era: a woman's purse loaded with accoutrements in the glovebox, and leaded gasoline and six-packs in the trunk.
Well, they dug the thing up last Friday, unearthing the historic piece of Detroit machinery from the concrete bunker where it's lain for 50 years, and what a bust! Apparently the vibrations of five decades of nearby traffic caused the bunker to crack, allowing moisture inside, and the rusty hunk of junk they pulled out (photo above right) wouldn't start. The purse in the glovebox and its contents had seemingly fused into a singular brown lump of leather.
The original 1957 newspaper article covering the burial is here. And incidentally, this is what a 1957 Belvedere is supposed to look like:
In 2037 Tulsa officials will dig up another car, a 1997 Plymouth Prowler they buried ten years ago. Let's hope they did a better job on the bunker for that one.
"Ecopreneur" R. David Gibbs (also a member of green team Collective Four) presents NYCWTF, or New York City Water Tower Furniture, a public works concept that creates an interactive public resting/meeting place using reclaimed wood from the city's iconic water towers.
These upcycled benches would ideally be placed at strategic points throughout the city to accommodate a solar-powered LED light show ("Manhattan Borealis") highlighting various wooden water towers across NYC's skyline, enhancing the existing nighttime glow. Accordingly, the previously mentioned benches would become the "best seats in the house" for the nightly light shows, and on top of it all, a website would be launched to support NYCWTF projects by creating a virtual community surrounding this and other sustainable design activities.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
It's not every day we get to tell you the final design phase of a new continent is underway, but today's one of those days.
The architects of Dubai's "The World" project, a series of man-made islands in the shape of Earth's continents, announced today that OQYANA-WORLD FIRST, the island community in the shape of Australasia, is undergoing its final design steps.
Over 50 consultants from around the world have been working on issues from engineering and ecology to security and water quality. We're looking forward to the finished "product," and would also like to see a 51st consultant explain to us how "OQYANA-WORLD FIRST" is actually supposed to be pronounced and inflected.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
This year's Central St. Martins grads will show off their wares at the annual MA Industrial Design Degree Show until July 21st at the school's Innovation Centre in London. The white space is defined by black marker representations of the home mixed in with student work. Among the graduated exhibitors is Thomas Ballhatchet whom you may remember as the creator of the Hamster Shredder. If you can't make it to the show in person, featured students' work can be seen here.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
It seems only natural that a product designed to help you design products should be, well, well-designed.
Sorry for the tongue-twisting lede. We're talking about Solidworks 2008, released today, which incorporates over 250 user-suggested improvements. And since we users are designers, you know we had some thoughtful ones.
On the outs are esoteric commands and arbitrary placement of tools, on the ins are mouse-manipulable "live cross-sections" and a system that predicts which tools you'll need next, and makes them readily available. Mouse-travel distances are shorter, switching between files is easier, and the "design for manufacturability" feature alerts you when you've sleeplessly drawn something expensive or difficult to manufacture, like no-draft sidewalls or 90-degree milled corners. (Come on, we've all been there.)
The complete list of (rather cool-sounding) features is way too long for this entry, but those of you salivating for the new cut can read about it here.
With the iPhone launching in less than two weeks, Apple is still tweaking the design and engineering of the ballyhooed little rectangle.
On the engineering front, battery life has been increased in talk time (eight hours vs. the previously claimed five), internet time (six hours vs. five) and audio playing time (twenty-four hours vs. sixteen).
On the design front, the plastic screen so prone to scratches on previous iPod models will be replaced--by actual glass! Let's hope the iPhone doesn't drop calls, and that you don't drop the iPhone.
It's good to be reminded of how profitable design can be. Here's a neat explanation of IKEA's design-at-low-prices concept straight from the horse's mouth (click "replay" after the link). Now here's a quick look behind the curtain at how extraordinarily successful the strategy has been (click on"turnover" after the link).
Posted by: Tasos Calantzis | Comments (0)
From the Coroflot Portfolio of: Damian Mackiewicz
Featured Project: Lima
A prick of the pin for a drop of blood isn't so simple for diabetics with hemophobia--it's more like a starring role in the "Saw" trilogy. Damian Mackiewicz, an an industrial design student from the University of Applied Science in Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany, has a concept that makes for wince-less glucose monitoring. Lima utilizes infrared technology that sends a light through the skin to detect sugar levels in the blood. As the infrared rays pass through the skin into the blood, it is reflected back into the sensor on Lima. The system can identify bits of glucose by the frequencies and wavelengths they transmit . It's simple to use: place the lime shaped device in the palm of your hand, push the on/off button, and wait as the scanning process begins.
Posted by: | Comments (1)"Just doing my job" isn't anywhere near a valid excuse for careless marketers, according to Seth Godin in an interesting post on the need for more responsible marketing. "If marketing works, it means that free choice isn't quite so free. It means that marketers get to influence and amplify desires." And when those marketers happen to be blind, remorseless evangelists, well, that's when the storm comes a-brewin'. Basically, the message is that if you're gonna be paid to push, heaven help you if you're pushing eco-killers, health hazards, and all other known evils--and more importantly, tsk tsk! Shame on you.
If you get asked to market something, you're responsible. You're responsible for the impacts, the costs, the side effects and the damage. You killed that kid. You poisoned that river. You led to that fight. If you can't put your name on it, I hope you'll walk away. If only 10% of us did that, imagine the changes. Imagine how proud you'd be of your work.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)The amazing thing is that over and over again, we're discovering that marketers who actually take responsibility for their marketing are actually more successful. Go figure.
Mark Coleran is a visual designer specializing in the design of interfaces for film and television (eg. James Bond, Tomb Raider, The Predator).
He dreams up and visualizes the types of interfaces that we drool over in movies but think impossible, though some of them end up in our lives a few years on. Case in point: the interactive table from The Island (in the picture above) which has an uncanny resemblance to the Microsoft Surface.
via peterwrites
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (1)
Dezeen has posted updates from Design Miami/Basel in Switzerland where designers have been creating objects live and on-the-spot--an excellent chance for other designers and design enthusiasts to peer over the shoulders of these exhibitionist creatives.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Yuento's new svelte calculator ain't no iPhone-killer, but it's definitely a hot take on the classic digit magician. The device is modeled after a cell phone, meaning you can easily operate it with one hand, and the function key and casing design is clean and simple with no fluff. It'd be great for around the house and day-to-day use, but if you're into advanced calculus and such, you might want to stick with your Texas instrument.
We're pretty pumped about Tom Dixon's up front 'tude regarding sustainability-- specifically his admitted lack thereof at times--having committed a couple "crimes in unsustainability." Accordingly, during his conversation with design journalist Julie Taraska at this year's Haute Green, Mr. Dixon discussed the ups and downs of "greenness" today, both through his own eyes and as an observer. Watch the unedited version here.
Barcelona native and London-based industrial designer Jordi Canudas has just completed his graduate product design studies at the Royal College of Art. His projects are a collection of process-intensive, interactive curiosities that involve the user's participation both in action and reaction. A great example of this is his Share Hat. Although we wouldn't be caught dead at our Monday meetings in this thing, it's still a sweet sight. The idea is that the hat sharers are brought together by a socially-charged object that enhances the everyday occurernces of conversation and, well, hanging out.
Our social lives are defined by the people we know. "Share" celebrates our relationships by transforming the standard and personal form of a hat to accommodate several wearers at once. This multiplication of function represents the way we integrate within social groups. A space that was invisible, but existing intuitively becomes both visible and humorous. It represents the umbrella of our everyday conversations.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Here's a sneak peek at some of the designs that graduate students will exhibit at London's "New Designers," July 12 - 15, 2007. This group of students from the University of Brighton, calling themselves "Design Minds," will present eco-friendly design concepts--ranging from sustainable materials to designing for reuse.
More pics after the jump. . .
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Oh man, oh man! Another nifty alarm clock for us weather-conscious ID folk has arrived! Our crowd won't ever let up on the design downfalls of any product, even alarm clocks, but Oregon Scientific's new visual crack, the Crystal Weather Station, is sure to pacify us--at least for a few early morning sound-offs. Wake up to 3D, yup, that's three dimensions of weather notification goodness made possible by laser-etched, color illuminated icons with radio controlled clock reception. (It's like those lame etched glass street souvenirs but with lots of awesome and minus the lame.) With a wave of your hand, you can switch back and forth between time and indoor temperature on the animated backlit LED display.
via gizmodo
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Customer experience--it's all the rage these days. (Shameless plug warning...) Hey, we've even got an excellent article up by Peter Merholz on the importance, nay, necessity of this key design process element. Keeping with this spirit, Businessweek's posted a nice case study on peripherals company Kensington's move towards incorporating user experience measures into their strategy to yield the new Ci Lifestyle Collection.
The article compares Kensington's shift to that of Nintendo's, where both companies suffered a lagging rank due to lack of resources, slightly dwarfed by industry giants--in this case, Microsoft and Logitech. As Nintendo has already risen from the flames thanks to the red-hot, not only user-friendly, but user-infatuated Wii gaming system, Kensington now embarks to test out the first fruits of its recently revamped customer-focused labor. The new Ci Lifestyle line includes two mice that will land on shelves, and hopefully many desks and kitchen tables, after feeling out the user in the home, at the office, and on the go. Enlisting the services of design firm One & Co., the team dug deep into the psychology of usability, heading straight for the people to find the real problems that were left to solve. After research and development, Kensington's new products focused more on the experience and less on features by addressing style, function, convenience, and performance accordingly.
Slimmer profiles without sacrificing ergonomics, combined wired and wireless connectivity, and improved portability are some of the fixes that make this collection a lot more about the customer, and consequently, about the customer taking it to the checkout counter.
...their goal in seeing the process through from research to final design was to create the total product experience. 'You have to be satisfied with a product in all facets of your experience with it, whether it's something you're doing eight hours a day, or it's something you do once every six months.'Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)For Kensington, this approach has changed the way they think about product design. 'If you ask most people what design is, they say it's what the product looks like: pretty colors, nice finishes...The breakthrough for us internally was the realization that design goes much deeper.'
The attack on fossil fuels is coming on two fronts: alternative fuels and alternative design. These days we're either trying to come up with vehicles that can burn corn, or designing vehicles that burn fossil fuels more efficiently.
On the latter front, low-cost airline easyJet is looking into a narrow-bodied plane whose special design should cut carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent, noise by 25 percent, and nitrogen oxide emissions by a stunning 75 percent. "This is not Star Trek technology," says easyJet CEO Andy Harrison, "this is technology well within our reach." The new design uses "open rotor" engines located above the tail and a lightweight carbon composite airframe, two design tricks that have yet to come into widespread usage.
While it sounds easy enough on paper, the alternative design will take quite some time to implement; Harrison estimates Airbus will have them ready in 2015. (The Starship Enterprise, for the record, launches in 2207.)
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
The Urbantine Project is a competition aimed at emerging designers and architects, with the winner getting £10,000 to create a structure which will be showcased in the outdoor spaces at The Truman Brewery as part of Tent London 2007. For those who don't know, Tent London is a multi-faceted design destination happening during the London Design Festival in September. This project will be one of six main events happening as part of this show.
Specifically, the brief is to design a structure that responds to issues of rapid change in the 21st Century workplace. Shown above are examples of 'fast architecture' from the competition web site. It's not often you get someone to pay you 10K to build a wacky clubhouse, so take advantage of their generosity. The deadline is July 16 and info and applications are available at their web site.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (1)
Joost has posted a great gallery of the new projects from Design Academy Eindhoven's graduate show at Reluct.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
As Alfa Romeo prepares to re-enter the U.S. market, they've tapped a new boss for their design center: Frank Stephenson.
Stephenson, an Art Center grad who once worked for GM and Ford, is perhaps best known for designing the new Mini while at BMW. Most recently he served as design director of Ferrari and Maserati, and his new Fiat 500 (pictured above) is coming out this year.
In addition to being a talented designer, Stephenson speaks no less than eight languages--English, French, Spanish, Norwegian, Arabic, Turkish, German, and Italian. All of us have padded our resumes at some point, but if you want a job at Alfa, you'd better crank it up a notch!
Japanese designer Takafumi Nemoto at +d presents Goony, a "personal tray of remembrance." Goony's flexible arms can be finagled to accommodate your loose gear--suggested items of placement include wristwatches, wallets, keys, cell phones, and jewelry. This little dude would certainly make a harmonious accompaniment to the other alien creature-like stuff-holders in your accessory-ridden pad.
via plastic bamboo
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If the standard sign doesn't get your message across, consider this "upgrade."
thanks raluca!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
"Parts are the center of the universe, so you better know how to get them faster, cheaper and better." So says Roland L. Hollis, author of Better Be Running: Tools to Drive Design Success.
The book aims to educate readers on "critical information on currently available product development technologies;" while that's admirable, the fact that many lessons in the book are relayed through the adventures of a character named "Johnny Quickparts" is kind of annoying.
"Quickparts," incidentally, is also the name of author Hollis' company, an RP and CNC outfit. Better Be Running: useful guide to design or bound-and-printed commercial? You be the judge, you can download a synopsis of the book here.
The sports industry is a great breeding place for new materials and technologies. The ispo BrandNew is one of the recognized competitions for the sports industry and an useful barometer for upcoming trends in this field.
Check out this year's ispo BrandNew Awards winners with an exiting overview of low-to-high tech innovations such as the clothing line by "Losgeloest" made of all natural materials such as the bark of trees, the exclusive "Waldmeister" bike with a handcrafted wooden frame, or the eco-friendly "Easy-Glider" as chariot-like transporter and overall winner (photo).
Next month, we can see all winners displayed at the ispo Sport & Style 2007 in Munich, Germany.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (1)The Design Business Center at NYDesigns is running two one-day courses focusing on sustainable design during July. The first is 'How to Design and Sell Greener Products' on July 14, followed by 'Principles of Sustainable Design. Sustainable Strategies and Rating' on July 28. The courses run for full days on Saturdays and cost $120. For details and registration information check the web site at www.nydesigns.org
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
From the Coroflot portfolio of : Rafael Morgan
Featured Project : Hope Table
It's not very often that we find a designer who's designed something for, well, other designers--but Rafael Morgan's said "to hell with that" by designing the Hope Table, a reminder to young designers that someday, someone will really get their message; that great ideas are everywhere, like messages in bottles waiting to be discovered. Aside from this optimistic message embedded within visual poetry, Mr. Morgan has created a truly stunning physical form (like a Saarinen/Dali mashup) that compels the viewer to ask what's behind it all.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
F.A.M. is comprised of graduated professionals who studied in the Fine Arts and Media departments at the Savannah College of Art in Savannah, Georgia. Each member of the group acts as a support system for each other as they move forward in their independent ventures as artists and designers--"a bond of confident professional individuals that understand the need for strong connections in the business world." New design graduates can learn from F.A.M. who found power in numbers. And the site is pretty sweet to boot!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
"Sometimes I wonder...is my work beautiful because I'm beautiful?" "Perfect people create perfect design." "You have to be beautfiul to create something beautiful." Har dee har. Kick ass creative agency Digital Kitchen recently whipped up Designer Slash Model, a sort of mockumentary site that pokes fun at the nauseating glam-o-rama image fest otherwise known as the design scene. This project focuses more on the 2D visual side of things, but there's no doubt us 3D folks can relate.
via design observer
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Your Name on Toast will literally write your name on toast and put it up on their site in exchange for a charity donation to Save the Children, World Vision, or Oxfam. Larger donations are pushed toward the top, but all toasts are displayed on the homepage. Our one bone to pick is that they use a sharpie to write on the toast!! The humanity! There has been plenty of toast-printing buzz around town for them to make a change, which they do mention is possible in the "How it Works" section...
via mug
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Amsterdam-based photographer Thijs Wolzak shot a collection of portraits of notable Dutch designers such as Hella Jongerius, Demakersvan, and Joris Laarman (above) in their creative environments. The series serves as a more up-close and personal follow-up to the Dutch Design Port exhibit in the Meatpacking District during last months' New York Design Week.
via dezeen
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Pepsi challenged US designers to design artwork for the next aluminum can. 100,000 entries later, the pool was reduced to just 5 final designs. Now there's a nifty little interactive website up for the public to pick and choose which designer is awarded $10,000 with their artwork printed on 500 million cans. Sooo, if you sip this fizzy cola, choose which can would look the best in your hand!
thanks todd!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
You break vases and can't afford nice things. A loved one is allergic to cats or you're not exactly a "nurturer" when it comes to plants...or animals...okay, you can barely take care of yourself. Well, not all is lost thanks to Can't Have it? Stick It. decals--they're adhesive 2D images of pets, plants, and housewares that you stick up and feel halfway satisfied with for a fraction of the price with no responsibilities attached.
thanks anna!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
This obviously isn't the most eyebrow-raising announcement from Steve's keynote at WWDC yesterday, but it's definitely one of the first things we'll try out! This Photobooth effect lets you pretend like R2D2's shooting a hologram of you from his laser eye for your online pals to oooh-and-ahhh at, unless, of course, they got Leopard too.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
The latest trend in airline cost-saving measures is airplanes with no windows!
Just kidding. That's Boeing's new 777 Freighter, currently undergoing its design process and due for completion sometime next year. In addition to the cool, raked wingtips, a notable design feature is the cargo door, which engineers sized to perfectly "interline" with existing 747 cargo planes; payloads can be directly transferred from one plane to the other. If only transferring in Dallas was that easy.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Unless you live under a rock, you're already up to speed on all the London 2012 logo hubbub. We know some think it's more hideous than a bad 80's jerry curl--but hey--others think it's pretty radtacular. The animated version of this controversial logo sent some into convulsions, and others made lemons from lemonade--more specifically, married the epilepsy-unfriendly animation with the Saved by the Bell intro, spawning a ridiculously harmonious mash-up. Apparently, the creator's a hater. Avoid viewing this if you're epileptic.
via design observer
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)
For those who never eat their leftovers or don't even bother getting them wrapped up, Replate urges you to change your ways--get it to go and leave on top of the nearest trash receptacle for the less fortunate and hungry citizens of the streets. Replate hopes to get this "food activism" going with free stickers and downloadable posters for supporters to post around town, spreading the word and pushing movement. Wasting not--it's a great concept and we should always think of ways to conserve, but there are definitely a few holes in the plan (when it comes to our fair city, at least). A lot of NYC waste bins have no tops so the food would have to go beside, if not inside (heavens forbid) the cans. If humans don't get to that 1/3 of a burrito first, there's no doubt the food won't go to waste thanks to our healthy population of rats and roaches. There should be some room to appease urban hunger without birthing another dilemma involving unsightly litter...
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (5)Attention camping geeks: Nemo's lightweight Morpho AR tent is erected sans clumsy poles thanks to inflatable "airbeams"--supposedly twice as strong as standard aluminum poles. The 4.8-pound, 40 sq. ft. tent cozily houses two people and takes around 45 seconds to set up.
thanks rayna!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Kensington has just announced their new lineup of space-saving computing accessories, called the Ci (for "control it") Lifestyle Collection. Their design philosophy is "sleek, modern-design products that feel good, look good and travel easily," says Juan Rodriguez, Kensington's Senior Global Product Manager.
Their Ci70, Ci75 and Ci80 wireless notebook mice (pictured above) are 25% thinner than competitor's models and have backup power, so you can use them on airplanes (because, as every stewardess will assure you, the use of wireless devices will cause your plane to fall out of the sky). Check out the whole lineup here.
via businesswire
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Once upon a time, if you wanted to join two sheets of metal you used a rivet gun, an arc welder and harsh language. But now a company called TWI has devised "micro-friction stir welding," a process that joins two sheets of metal, or even plastic, with tiny spot welds of only 200 microns. (Technical note: 200 microns is like, totally tiny.)
To explain this complicated new production method, an analogy is needed:
In micro-friction stir welding, a rotating tool applies pressure, like an overbearing and passive-aggressive mother, to the joint area. The friction softens the material, making the molecules needy and ready to cling to the next thing that comes along, in this case, another sheet of metal. No welding wire, glue, or therapy is necessary.
Potential applications include, predictably, electronics and automotive industry solutions. But if you ask us, the killer app would be to make vacuum-formed plastic packaging even harder to open than it already is. Seriously, how do they seal that stuff?
via eureka magazine
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Tomorrow night late night action will be at the UV Phactory/Tokion party in Manhattan. UV Phactory will be showing new reels of their latest work and Tokion will bring the music.
When: Wednesday June 13th. 10pm-3
Venue: Dirty Disco, 248 W. 14 St. near 8th ave.
RSVP to party-at-uvph.com
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (1)I spent some time with the Rhinoceros guys down in mexico recently and one of the announcements to come out of that was that Rhino is going to run natively on the MAC OS - its going to be, as McNeel has always done, free whilst its in development. Thought you guys would like to know.
Posted by: al dean | Comments (9)
Ian Walton, a recent ID grad from the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, goes out with a bang thanks do his awesome Ulo chair design. To accommodate compact living spaces, Walton designed Ulo to be a truly adaptable piece, effortlessly converting from an upright to lounging configuration with one smooth motion, made possible by a flexible frame. Gotta see it to believe it--check out the video below.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (19)
Here's the fantastic new italian limited commemorative edition of Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea designed by Paolo Orsacchini. It's printed on waterproof paper and enclosed in a clear pouch filled with real sea water. Collectors can either bust it out of its original packaging, dry it under the sun, and enjoy a classic read, or they can preserve this limited piece in all its designed glory.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Start-up DesignGO! Studio (you might remember the Splat doorstop from a few months back) has added a new design to its repertoire--the Dog Cage, a more stylish solution to effective crating. The cage looks as if someone took the classic steel wire cage and literally smoothed out the corners and edges resulting in a less-harsh bubble shape. The cage includes a bed pan/pad that fits into the floor of the cage and a zip-off wool "sweater" cover for chillier times of the year.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
The IDSA LA chapter is presenting an intriguing event on the evening of June 28th: the entire executive team of Method Products will discuss their complete story. Ranked the 7th fastest growing company in the US, and green green green, Method (and this event!) should help school other companies about how to do things better--building brands and good will all along the way.
All info and tix at the site.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
As the Sopranos entertained for the last time over eight years last night, Design Observer's Michael Beirut gathered his notes to deliver an excellent piece: Everything I Know About Design I Learned from The Sopranos. He runs through an amazingly tangible list from client relationships and professional behavior to technology and aesthetics. Here's a good point on creative professions:
"Event planning? It's gay, isn't it?"Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)On The Sopranos, interest in certain things, including but not limited to event planning, fashion design, literature, and certain psychological theories, are considered indications of effeminacy. A not unsimilar macho attitude often obtains in corporate boardrooms when it comes to design. A lot of executive decision makers are comfortable with spreadsheets. Show them colors and shapes, on the other hand, and you can see the panic in their eyes as they frantically grope through their memories for that time they helped pick out the fabric covers in their beach houses. Part of your job is making these fellows comfortable with their softer sides.
In order to promote the physiological benefits of movement and motion of lower leg activity, in addition to remedying the all-around-lameness of lazy legs at the workplace, BriteConcepts has developed the Webble. Making its debut today at NeoCon 2007 in Chicago, the Webble is an ergonomic ottoman that lets your lower half surf the floor while you surf the web, pretending to work. There are two versions: Webble features a hardshell surface with grips while Webble AIR sports a flexible mesh membrane--both versions have smooth casters, a patent-pending spring suspension, and a self-braking mechanism.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Produced by the Finnish Cultural Institute here in NYC, the traveling contemporary Finnish design exhibition that is SAUMA [Design as Cultural Interface] will makes its rounds at the A + D Museum in Los Angeles from June 30 to August 2, 2007. Here, SAUMA will present seventeen new installations featuring new portable devices, an experimental kitchen, an urban sauna, gaming prototypes, and other projects that explore usability, user experience and the design process.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Maxwell presents the MXM Gallery, one of the online galleries featuring modeling materials. Besides its cross-platform functionality and realistic representation we are having a second look a its materials statistics. For instance, the Top Download Materials section does not only feature the sweet renderings of 'Brushed Steel' or 'Glossy Plastics' but also includes 'Low Grade Glass' followed by 'Old Wine Bottles'.
It is hard to define whether these renderings are considered for new product development but instead of wondering whether or not, why not push this? With more sustainable materials in this library -- "a call for all materials suppliers?" -- designers are more likely to explore the aesthetics of recycled materials and start considering renewable resources such as bamboo or use their modeling skills to reuse waste. Feel free to drop a comment or suggestion on this one.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (2)
Nintendo's surprise smash hit Wii gaming console continues to dominate. At the end of April it had sold twice as many units in the US as Sony's PS3 and a month later it outsold the same device 5 to 1 in Japan. Seems like the fun is catching.
Posted by: Tasos Calantzis | Comments (0)
Pacific Design and VH1 have teamed up on a design competition to benefit the Save The Music foundation, a charity that provides money for musical instruments to cash-strapped public school districts. Designs for case artwork can be submitted at the Pacific Design web site until June 20. During July people will vote on their favorites, and the winner will be announced in August. The winning design will be applied to the case collection, with 10% of the revenue from these cases going to the foundation. Best of all, the winner gets an Apple iPhone!
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
Adaptive path invites Information architects, visual designers, interaction designers, user experience practitioners, or anyone else involved with user experience to User Experience Week, a four-day conference offering insight into the newest UX strategies and practices to date. Attendees will be educated on emerging trends in participatory design, cross-channel design, interaction design for rich internet applications, user research and prototyping, practical user experience skills and techniques for web and mobile applications, and will be guided on how to effectively communicate, evangelize and contextualize user experience across an organization. The networking scene should be pretty sweet as well. It'll seriously cost you, but if you're ready to sign up, register here.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
From the Coroflot portfolio of : Markus Michalski
Featured Project : Piilo
The Piilo personal enclosure is a cocoon-like structure designed for interior spaces. Use it when you need a bit of privacy, or as a translucent play house for kids. From the portfolio of Markus Michalski, an industrial designer based in Valencia, Spain.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
BCXSY, a design cooperative between Boaz Cohen and Sayaka Yamamoto, has recently launched Play, a new line of super-fun home objects like the See-Saw bookshelf, Fruit tiles, and the Swing lamp shown above. The plexiglass, rope, and SMD LED lighting with press-switch mechanism are joined together into an iconic swing shape for illuminated rides at all hours of the night.
via coudal
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)You could take the chic and clever savings route...or you could lose some tact and scoop up a Face Bank. To be released on August 6th, this money munching receptacle from Banpresto recognizes nearby coins with its object-sensitive sensor then readies itself for a metal feast.
thanks raluca!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Events promoted on illegal bill posters around Glasgow are getting the shaft since city workers who patrol the streets are slapping "cancelled" stickers on the banned ads. As part of the city's GBP100,000 per year project against illegal posting, the sticker tactics have proven to be an effective rogue measure, with clueless, huffy event and music fans irate over "cancelled" shows.
via boingboing
Some bite their nails in anticipation of the iPhone's June 29th release date and others, well, could give a rat's multi-touch ass. In any case, we can all appreciate the revival of this Conan O'Brien iPhone ad spoof from earlier this year when it was first announced. It's nowhere near as glossy as Apple's recent commercial lures, but it sure is silly. A phone, camera, pan flute, treadmill, and sideburns all in one...
via switched
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Roland Kaufmann's goal for his graduate ID thesis project at the University of Applied Sciences, Joanneum in Graz, Austria was to develop a hybrid bicycle using wood as a main material--unexpected but sensible since wood is lightweight and incredibly strong, used for many kayaks and sailboats. Under the guidance of his supporting tutor Christoph Pauschitz, Kaufmann concepted the JANO Dual Bike--and what's even more impressive is his thorough documentation of the project on the JANO site...and if you're bored and can read German, download the 138-page thesis (pdf).
thanks james!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Here's one of the best offers to come across our desk in a while. The American Academy in Rome is accepting applications for their Rome Prize, with a deadline of Nov 1, 2007. The Academy is a leading center for independent study and advanced research in the arts and the humanities, and they offer up to thirty fellowships for periods ranging from six months to two years. Rome Prize winners reside at the Academy's eleven-acre center in Rome and receive room and board, a study or studio, and a stipend. Stipends for six-month fellowships are $11,500 and stipends for eleven-month fellowships are $23,000.
While the majority of the fellowships are awarded in various disciplines related to the humanities (literature, ancient studies, etc.), they also offer awards specifically for design and architecture. The awards are competitive, but not overwhelmingly so. The odds are no harder than an entry-level job at any top design firm, and probably better. So get your independent study cap on and submit a proposal. A one-year paid residence in Rome to pursue your passion in design is a great opportunity! Download guidelines and application forms from the Academy’s website at www.aarome.org.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
Last weekend in Tokyo, Sony unveiled its new eco-friendly "odo" line powered solely from good old fashioned human-made power. For instance, the odo Digital Camera is powered by putting your fingers in the viewfinder holes and spinning it until it's ready to take your picture.
Whether Sony will turn this concept into business can be questioned but giving consumer electronics a sustainable kick will surely grow the consideration of creating sustainable alternatives in more industries.
via sustainableday
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (2)
Diego Rodriguez of Metacool has posted some great suggestions for Toyota to keep the Prius brand trucking by rewarding customers for active behavior that promotes in an unorthodox, but effective, manner. He lists ten, but we've plucked a few favorites:
Per the photo above, reimburse any owner who slaps an appropriately- themed custom license plate on a Prius....paint the roof of every Prius white. The better to bounce sun rays back and reduce the air conditioning load. Plus, white roofs are in. Critically, tell owners why the roof on their car is white (even if they paid $2,000 extra for black paint), so that they can educate their friends about the concept of albedo.
Sell the Prius as a service. If I'm a Prius Maven, I'm not buying a car -- I'm investing in a public confirmation and signal of my worldview. What if Toyota could make the entire Prius brand cradle-to-cradle by maintaining it and taking it back in a completely holistic way?
thanks christopher!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Designer Christie Wright's "Building by Leaving" project is a "ladder that grows through time, place, and experience. An accumulated object that is built by its desire to grow."
via pan-dan
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Leave it up to the birds to one-up us non-winged creatures dependent on stairs and elevators. Highbrow living isn't just for us people anymore--more than twenty artists and designers from around the world have devised and constructed a colorful array of modern birdhouses far from the nondescript snooze-inducing wooden fare.
The structures--of laminated wood, plastic, clay, and even stainless steel--include several designed especially for this show. They range in size from a six-inch creation to a 2-foot birdhouse...Modern Birdhouses' sleek architect-designed homes made with oil-finished teak, stainless steel screws, and sandblasted aluminum roofs. For a little whimsy, there's even J. Schatz's colorful ceramic birdhouses shaped like eggs. Seattle artists Erich Ginder and Toi Sennhauser are also contributing original pieces to the show.The Modern Bird : A collection of contemporary birdhouses
opens July 5, 2007 Design Commission Gallery
121 Prefontaine Pl. S.
Seattle, WA 98104
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
To help celebrate Liverpool's title of European Capital Of Culture 2008, sculptor Richard Wilson has constructed "Turning the Place Over", an art installation on the facade of the derelict former Yates's Wine Lodge building. Wilson removed an egg-shaped section of the front and reattached it on a pivot so that the panel will rotate, giving passersby the chance to peek inside. The GBP450,000 installation officially launches on June 20 and will continue to operate until the end of the year.
thanks mark!
Time has posted fifteen eye-opening examples from Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio's book "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats", covering a wide span of families' weekly "grocery" expenditures, food selection, family recipes, and favorites. While we relate to familiar families who spend around $200 to $300 per week, with staples like pizza, ice cream, fatty snacks, and plenty of soda, we realize other families across the globe chow down on the real--like the Ayme family of Tingo, with a weekly budget of about $31 and a prized family recipe of potato soup with cabbage.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Minimalists are rearranging the two things in their apartments to make some space for plusminuszero's new collection consisting of a clean-lined coffee and tea maker, toaster, container, sliced bread dish, mug, two calculators, humidifier, and heater.
via dezain
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Visitors are no longer forbidden to romp the grounds of Governors Island, nestled between Manhattan's tip and the Brooklyn waterfront. The main highlight on this island located in the New York Harbor is "The Park at the Center of the World: Five Visions for Governors Island", showcasing design proposals from five architecture and landscape architecture teams, including Diller Scofidio and Renfro, WRT, Rogers Marvel Architects, and WilkinsonEyre Architects, chosen by the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC). The teams are competing to design the new park, Great Promenade and open space on Governors Island--the largest NYC waterfront redevelopment project yet. "The Park at the Center of the World" exhibit will be on display at both Governors Island and the Center for Architecture.
Exhibition @ Governors Island
Building 110 (follow the green line)
June 2 - September 2, 2007
Exhibition @ Center for Architecture
536 La Guardia Place, NYC
May 31 - August 25, 2007
thanks jonathan!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
It's hard to resist keeping your eyes of coworker's desks and computer screens while passing by, and it's even harder to resist when those desks and screens belong to accomplished designers, with images on the internets for our perusal at will. NowNow has a nice series called Desktop-Desktop that "provides insight into how designers construct their work environments both physically and digitally" with first-person shots of their computer and physical desktops. Shown above is the latest in the series--Atypyk's Jean Sebastien Ides says he didn't rearrange a thing before submitting his photos.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Art Lebedev masters the innovation of simplicity with this glass-half-full-minded savings receptacle. The Copilcus Piggy Bank looks quite familiar to us, however the traditional coin slot, ill-fittingly shaped like a minus sign, is replaced with a plus sign-shaped slot...because "'Plus' savings are far better than 'minus' savings."
via mocoloco
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Back hair might be the butt of many jokes to smooth operators with hairless shoulder blades, but it's no circus for those who have it. Professional waxing is painful and expensive, asking friends and loved ones to shave your back is just plain embarrassing, and who's got arms long enough to reach around and do it themselves? Well, we're not sure how many nicks and cuts you'll suffer, but there's now the iShave option--an extra-wide disposable blade set on an adjustable, extending handle that lets you do the dirty furry work yourself.
via gizmodo
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
The Ten Sneaker Collaboration Commandments, just published at Sneaker Freaker, is a great guide for budding collaborists. While written specifically for the sneaker market, these rules can be applied to any collaboritve cross-brand design. After reading through their rules, I must say that the Core77 Blu Fom nails all of them. Conceptually pure, definitely not following the hype machine, with a few secret elements for those in the know. It just so happens that we have a few pairs left, and with Father's Day approaching...
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
What do you do with a carbon fiber/mylar sail that cost $40K once your boat loses in the America's Cup? Taking a cue from the Freitag playbook, BMW has cut out 32 patches of the main sail from the USA 87 boat and mounted them on frames. The company is now auctioning the items, with all proceeds going to the Que Chido foundation. Unlike Ebay, this is a silent auction, and you have no idea what the prices are for each piece. Something tells me it will be higher than the 10 euros starting point. The auction ends on July 7, so get your bids in soon.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
A search for a magazine title at Amazon landed me on the Amazon tag cloud page. After glancing over the words, I of course clicked on 'crap', as I was interested to see all the things at Amazon that are, well, crap. This led me to Aaron Gabriel's list of Things to Avoid Buying. Mr. Gabriel is certainly the sceptic, as some of his more commonly used tags are words like snake oil (93), worthless (92), total bs (91), fraud (89), crap (88), junk (88), lie (88), waste of money (88), wishful thinking (88), and rip off (87), among others. My favorite entry on his list, in regards to the Bioelectric Shield - Sterling Silver with 14k Gold Accents - Satin Brushed Finish:
This product claims to "Shield(s) you from other people's negative attitudes and energies." RIGHT! MAKES PERFECT SENSE! So what have you got to lose? ABOUT FIVE HUNDRED BUCKS!!!Posted by: StuCon | Comments (1)
Lunabrite is a patent-pending, linear lighting product that covers a span of uses including architectural, wayfinding, athletic wear, footwear, pet gear, and other applications for night activity. It's an eco-friendly solution for nighttime safety illumination-- rechargeable with no need for electricity or batteries, non-toxic, and deemed safe for use around children and animals.
thanks peter!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)If you've got a few good minutes, check out ideasonideas' right-to-the-good-stuff interview with far-from-shy designer Erik Spiekermann, a founder of MetaDesign and current face and brains behind SpiekermannPartners. Here's a tempting morsel:
EK: ...What do you feel stands in the way of your firm doing even better work?Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)ES: Young, know-all MBAs who avoid risk because they don't want to endanger their career prospects.
Street artist KNOW HOPE recently installed a series of limited-life pieces on the streets of Tel Aviv. They're composed of hand-drawn illustrations on handmade paper lanterns--the drawings embellished with the unexpected illumination from a candle.
...the longest life span of these pieces will be that of the candles, which is probably just a few hours. therefore, when someone runs into it on the street they know that it was placed there not so long ago and they, by coincidence, got there in the small time frame that the piece was "active", hopefully giving them the feeling that it was placed there especially for them, and maybe guiding them, following them home and subtly lighting up their way.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
We're reminded of Jerry Seinfeld's comparison of cough medicines: "This is quick-acting, but this is long-lasting. When do I need to feel good, now or later?" Here, Safeway tries to information-design its way around a complex, socially-constructed food/health choice problem.
(shots of the full display here and here)
Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (1)
Sure, you can get hung up on megapixels, ISO, and all that jazz--but who knows when your shutter's gonna croak? Well, photographer and camera aficionado Oleg Kikin is certainly closing in on some solid numbers. His Camera Shutter Life Expectancy Database is a comprehensive collection of user-generated data revealing the number of exposures taken on a given camera and whether or not the shutter continues to operate. Feel free to add your facts and figures and keep this mother going!
via wired
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
From July through November this year, ASM/Mtrl will be hosting a series of Metals and Polymers for Industrial Design workshops in Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and Cleveland. These power-classes aren't free, but designers, engineers, artists, and sales professionals are urged to sign up if materials are an important player in their game. The in-depth workshops cover the newest, most innovative materials available today, as well as selection, behavior for aesthetics, consumer acceptance, durability, cost, fabrication, compatibility and workability.
Tomorrow night (June 6) the Boston chapter of the IDSA will hold a shoe design event at Wentworth Inst. of Tech. in Boston. The main attraction will be a shoe/softgood design demo using Modo software, but hopefully you'll get to see some work by others in the crowd. Modo has a 'sports shoe' training video, and the image above was created by Chris Hayes after using the tutorial. The event is free, and starts at 6PM.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
June 5th, 1977, the original Apple II went on sale featuring the first use of the rainbow striped Apple logo to reflect the computer's color graphics capability. The advertising campaign focussed on the machine's sophisticated design as a differentiator and boasted it's simplicity of use to previous hobby models and competitors.
"... you don't even need to know your ROM from a RAM to use and enjoy Apple II. It's beauty is in it's simplicity ... Even if you've had no previous computer experience, you can invent your own color games, create artistic displays, or instruct Apple II to chart your home finances."
Not to mention it was a great ice breaker for first dates, I want one.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (1)
The artist's statement is quite a mouthful, so we'll leave that for the blockquote below. For now, enjoy Mark Luthringer's Ridgemont Typologies, a collection of photo mosaics that depict the current lifestyle of excess that runs rampant today. The realization is heightened by the tiled, repetitive configuration of these items, making the viewer observe what's usually mundane in an unorthodox manner.
The typological array's inherent ability to depict prevalence and repetition make it the perfect technique for examining the excess, redundancy, and meaningless freedom of our current age of consumption...The typological form achieves an uncanny synergy and resonance with this subject matter because it mimics the mental images I suspect many of us form as a way of ordering the chaos of abundance that surrounds us. We can't help but form in our heads lists, groups and categories based on product, brand, price point, style, market segment, country of origin, etc.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
We love watching footballers kick major ass, but those cleats also kick some major grass--what's a soccer field to do? German designer Daniel Wilhelms developed Naturistick Fertilizing Studs for this exact dilemma. The 1.5 cm-long studs are filled with fertilizer, which is released in doses with every step. This way, players can keep their brains on the game, their feet on the ball, and the greenery looking lush.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Interview with Dov Kelemer, curator of The Vader Project which was recently on display at the 5 day Star Wars Celebration IV event in LA to marking the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars. Over 60 Darth Vader helmets (retailing at $900 US) were customized.
... Star Wars was getting very nerdy ... and watching it go down the way of Star Trek, and just thinking the words of William Shatner on SNL, you know "get a life." It's SNL and he's at this fake comic convention, and he's like "Get a life, have you ever kissed a girl?" And I'm afraid Star Wars is headed in that direction. So my pitch to Master Replicas was hey, I have a concept here that I can try and make Star Wars cool.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (1)
Pravin Sathe and Andrew Doro use photocells, sensors, and motors to give barf bags a chance to breathe--literally. When the airline sickness bags are closed, they "breathe" normally, but when opened, they begin to hyperventilate. Seriously, check out the creepy, yet nearly hypnotizing, videos.
"Detritus (III - XIV)", the second in a series, is a statement on the life embedded within the objects we buy, use and ultimately discard. This series in particular addresses the anxiety associated with travel.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
thanks to Danny Alexander for the guest post:
Perpetual provocateur Damien Hirst unveiled his latest masterpiece this week--a 19th century human skull cast in platinum and encrusted with 8601 diamonds (weighing in at over 1100 carats, but who's counting?). Titled "For the Love of God," the piece is priced at $100 million, which, if sold, would be the highest price ever paid for a contemporary artwork. London-area jewel junkies can worship the sparkling skull in person--it's a part of Hirst's current exhibition (June 1 - July 7, 2007), "Beyond Belief," at the White Cube.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
While Sense Worldwide's previous submission-driven publication, "I Love My Chair," revolved around a subject any designer could relate to, the newest calls for submissions dare to poke at an even larger audience. T-shirts and mothers: we've all got 'em. So this time around, the latest "I Love My..." collections will be of, um, T-shirts and mothers. Submit an image and some personal info about your ratty ol' tee to "I Love My T-Shirt" or about your very special mommikins to "I Love My Mum," and wait to see if you make it into the book. If Mom's cooler than the shirt, we suggest you submit a photo of her wearing the shirt.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
It's a given that creative types need creative work environments, and for that reason, we're pretty keen on This Ain't New Disco's growing documentation of agency interiors. You can submit photos of your own creative workplace, but if you're a cube casualty, you'll have to settle with a daydream. Shown above is a cozy little nook at the Naked Communications offices in Surry Hills, Australia.
via mit adlab
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Nokia, not content with blitzing the world with new models like the E90, the lush Luna and the tasty 6500, has rung up a #1 spot in AMR Research's Supply Chain Top 25.
As you know, this year the Finns showed up at #13 on BusinessWeek's recently published list of the 50 most innovative companies, lengthened their lead over Motorola in the phone handset stakes and moved 200 million units of one phone model. Let's take a look how they got there:
1. The math
To sell large numbers of anything; it helps to have huge, growing markets with an insatiable desire for your stuff. Ok, so it may not sell for top dollar but you might get oh, say, orders of $2.5 billion at a time. No wonder Nokia increased its lead in the world's biggest emerging markets again this year.
2. Design it right
Not as sexy as a huge megapixel count, but simple, innovative features for local needs, such as phones which lend themselves to phone sharing have consolidated Nokia's appeal in emerging markets. The new Nokia design studio in Bangalore takes the global/local theme even further.
3. Show the people
Nokia's interesting marketing efforts have included Nokia-branded vans and train carriages as concept stores. Both have assistants who show off the latest models to potential purchasers, even to passersby during long stops at stations.
True innovation is showing up all over the place at Nokia as they get back on top of their game and it seems to be delivering the results.
iStudents, iCheapskates, and frugal iSpenders can forego shiny new parts for refurbished Apple devices at a fraction of the price at the Apple Outlet. The revamped merch, including iPods, MacBooks, and MacBook Pros, comes with a 1-year warranty with an option to purchase Apple Care.
via gizmodo
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
When people have exhausted their vocal chords with DRM complaints, they can always turn to a Flickr photo pool! The "DRM is Like..." pool presents many a visual representation of the ass-backwards nature of DRM, such as a bike with square wheels, an iPerson silhouette who's wrists are bound with iPod earbud wires, and these awesome not-quite-Phillips screws (above) from Vonrik's set.
via boingboing
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Calling all professors of sustainable industrial design: TreeHugger.com is inviting those I.D. profs encouraging environmental design to subscribe to TreeHugger.com's (free!) Education Mailing List. Upon joining, professors will receive brief e-mails up to twice a month notifying them of opportunities to feature work on TreeHugger.com and user-generated website, Hugg.com--a great way to put students and their work in front of a huge readership.
Interested teachers who want to join to join up, contact Olivia[at]TreeHugger[dot]com.
"In the most conspicuous sign yet of India's unprecedented prosperity, the country's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is building a new home in the financial hub of Mumbai: a 60-story palace with helipad, health club and six floors of car parking," reports The Guardian newspaper.
The building, named Antilla after a mythical island, will have a total floor area greater than Versailles and be home for Mr Ambani, his mother, wife, three children and 600 full-time staff.
The Mumbai News (who also published the rendering above) provides more details on the plans.
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (4)
Dwell Magazine's Building Green in Harlem project includes a pro-bono design/build office space by Collective|4, a group of 5 Pratt Industrial Design students with an "eco-preneurial mindset." Dwell has covered the green renovation (now complete) of actors David Basche and Alysia Reiner's newly purchased home in Harlem with a series of webisodes.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
live edge, a green electronic design competition sponsored by Premier Farnell, will be doling out quite the prize package for a deserving winner. The basic idea is that entries must be original, sustainable, and an electronic design. The list of terms and conditions is nothing short of extensive, but it might be worth a read-through if you've got a winning concept. Not only will the grand prizewinner take home a cash sum of $50,000, but they will receive the support of an electronics design consultancy to push the concept toward prototyping and production, legal assistance with Intellectual Property (IP) registration, patents and contracts, and even PR/marketing services to boot. On top of that, the winner will hold onto all IP rights for the design and will be invited to serve on next year’s live edge judging panel.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Paul Isabella, a current furniture design student at Savannah College of Art and Design, has loaded up his personal site with new work including the Modfather clock (left) and Pepto napkin rings (right). The Modfather clock pays homage to the traditional grandfather clock, but strips it down to the bare essentials, replacing elements such as decorative woodwork and the pendulum with simplified graphic notation. His Pepto napkin rings serve as a humorous yet daunting reminder to watch what, and how much, we eat.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Crossover in design and business is, no doubt, a smokin' hot topic these days, so envision/d, a bi-weekly podcast series, has decided to add some audio to the blaze. The series, exploring "design within its business framework," kicked off with Chuck Pelly (DesignworksUSA, the Design Academy) and is currently featuring Paul Wylde, creative director at Imagination NYC. Upcoming guests include Jerome Mage of Mage Design, David Gonzalez of Sozo Design, Cees de Bont, Dean of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University in the Netherlands, and our very own Stuart Constantine.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Stacking Hommage is Dirk Winkel's redesign of The Barcelona Chair, The Eames Lounge Chair and Le Corbusier's LC2 as low-price stackable plastic chair. Hope the fresh graduation work of this German designer will find its way to production soon and start replacing 'those white plastic chairs'.
Spotted at DESIGNMAI 2007
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (2)On Tuesday, June 19th, Sotheby's will be auctioning off a collection of 20th Century goodness that'll make us all want to raise our paddles. Whether we'll be able to pay up in the end--that's a different story. The "Important 20th Century Design" auction will feature pieces from today's chart-toppers like Jasper Morrison, Zaha Hadid, the Bouroullecs, Marcel Wanders, and Shiro Kuramata, as well as old-skool players like Jean Prouve, George Nakashima, Frank Gehry, Ingo Maurer.
thanks, chris! (btw chris' hive shelves will also be in the auction.)
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Corporate attorney-turned-LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya builds incredible structures from LEGOs in his studio apartment in Manhattan--from trees and the human form to over-sized everyday objects and even a functional air conditioner! CNN's got a short and sweet interview up with Sawaya along with a gallery of his work.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Let your Geek flag fly and get down to the Computer History Museum on Monday June 4 for an evening discussion with Robert Brunner and Jerry Manock, two legendary Apple designers. Between the them they were responsible for the Apple II, Apple III, the original Mac, the PowerBook, and the Color Classic (among others). Moderating will be IDEO co-founder Bill Moggridge. Also included will be a photography exhibit and book signing for "Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers" featuring machines from the Computer History Museum. This is a free event (suggested donation, $10) and a rare chance to see some of the pioneers of today's industry on one stage.
Register here: Computerhistory.org
Monday, June 04, 2007 starting at 6PM
1401 N. Shoreline Boulevard
Mountain View, CA 94043
This great story just in from Jason Yore:
A Love-Hate Relationship (of product naming/branding)
In researching an ipod capable alarm clock, I found that there are really two major names two pick from: the iluv and the ihome. What I found so funny about this was that the current iHome model is the iH8 (or "i hate"). So i had to choose between ilove and ihate. Ihome had to be aware of this name, being that they advertise their "reson8" speaker technology. It just seems like a foolish name--almost comparable to the nova or colgate.Either way, I went with the ih8 and iluv it!
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
