RSS Feeds:The commercial's execution is weird, but as a early iPhone adopter who likes watching TV footage during long subway rides, your correspondent wishes there was a male version of this skirt:
via textually
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
Following a controversial police shooting, the police department of Newburgh, New York will be the first US PD to begin testing the PistolCam. The small device clips to the barrel's underside and begins recording the moment the gun is drawn, which will hopefully make trigger-happy officers think twice before playing Dirty Harry. Either that or they'll have to violate people's civil rights in total darkness.
via record online
DoubleButter's civil service furniture graffiti "installations" of these Rogue Benches are to be seen as more civil service, less graffiti. The design duo chose spots in front of Denver's big-name museums that feature next to no local talent to covertly plant these sleek, modern resting places--in and out in less than 5 minutes. No complaints from tired legs, and hey, not too shabby to look at either.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)"LOL People on digg think we stole these displays from apple lol. But we didnt its just an LCD tv hooked into a video ipod. We edited the display video and cut out all the zoom out shots we dont work for apple or anything. I'm a DJ and Bobby is in a rock band. Thats part of the ponytail thing lol."
Wow. Impressive and LOL. The most LOL thing about these guys is their inability to come up with some decent dance moves. Alas, the iPhone only knows how to do the robot and is a terrible, terrible, dancer.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
For production method geeks: Ever wonder how a soccer ball is made? For those of you who suspected it was little more than a strong balloon, think again. Check out these photos from inside the Adidas factory, where making a soccer ball looks only slightly less complicated than building a missile.
via static
In an effort to jump-start basic commerce in devastated Gulf areas, Metropolis Magazine and Modern Modular have joined forces with architects, designers, engineers, local governments and community organizations to develop a system of prefab buildings to serve as transitional retail "general stores" as well as community centers. Those who have committed to working on the design and implementation of these Retail Deployment Initiative (ReDI) structures include Rockwell Group, Unabridged Architecture, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, IDEO, Kalkin & Co., and the University of Virginia School of Architecture.
ReDI structures are being designed to be quickly deployable, highly functional, attractive, durable and sustainable. All of the structures will employ sustainable materials and have self-contained power, water and telecommunications sources. The firms involved are donating their skills and resources and working closely with community organizations and local government officials leading the region's recovery efforts.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)ReDI is simultaneously initiating discussions with leading U.S. retailers and marketers of essential goods and services to brand and operate the retail outlets during a three-year transitional period. The proposal calls for the operators to donate a percentage of retail sales back to the community during the three-year commitment period, with the option of subsequently establishing a permanent presence. Alternately, communities will have the opportunity to assume ownership of the structures and determine their use going forward.
The good folks hosting next weeks Future of Web Design conference in New York have just announced a special 15% discount for Core readers - enter the promo code: CORE77 when registering. The workshops have already sold out but if you're fast, you can still snap up a ticket to wednesdays presentation.
Free design-y stuff. What's not to like?
Starting October 29, visitors to I.D. magazine's website can enter for the chance to win one of 19 choice designs featured in the 2007 New + Notable issue, on newsstands now! From a $580 Trek Lime bike to a $190 collection of Alessi flatware designed by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, the weekly prize will change every Monday, culminating in a grand prize giveaway on February 29 of a $2,600 Rado Ceramica watch.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (6)
Early automobiles didn't have doors and ignition keys, which was fine until people realized anyone willing to crank the front of the car could hop in and take it for a spin.
Over the decades a host of systems were designed to prevent auto theft: alarm systems, kill switches, lo-jack, The Club. The latest system, "Stolen Vehicle Slowdown," is more technologically sophisticated than the previous lot of them, and GM engineers are hoping this will be the one to do the trick.
The program, which is part of GM's OnStar satellite coverage package, uses GPS to track each vehicle. Once a vehicle is reported as stolen, remote operators press a button and the car fills with anthrax. Just kidding, wanted to see if you were paying attention. Remote operators press a button and the car begins regulating its own speed, limiting its velocity until eventually the thief is flooring it but the car's moving no faster than 15 m.p.h. There's even a little LCD on the dashboard that lets the thief know what's happening.
The slow speeds of SVS mean no more dangerous high-velocity chases, so local news just got a little less exciting to watch.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
Be warned: If you're sitting in a beige cube amidst an endless sea of identical beige cubes, brace yourself before exploring this post further. Here's a quick insiders look into where you could be right now...if only you worked for MacLaren, Google, Red Bull, or VW.
Yep, you're looking at a ping-pong conference table and slide-based descent apparatus at Red Bull's HQ in London.
thanks lee!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
These days you can find many things unexpectedly made out of wood, from computer keyboards to bathtubs to Jake Gyllenhaal. LG's latest contribution to the line-up is the Shine Wood cell phone, which basically looks like a Razr cut from the green stuff. Korean-market only for now, but eventually they'll run out of trees and have to start making them near us.
via akihabara news
It's not clear whether the early Northern Russian structures depicted in this unknown Soviet painter's works* really existed, but they sure do draw the eye. With motifs that seem to overlap Native American, Egyptian, Mayan and Scandinavian design elements, the buildings look simultaneously old and fresh to the Western eye. Click the link; the pictures are better when viewed large.
[*Note: in the link the paintings are credited to Vsevolod Ivanov, but this is undoubtedly an error as Ivanov was a prominent Russian novelist.]
via english russia
Is your demanding demigod lifestyle hard to cope with? Does everything feel like a Herculean task? It's probably time to start pumping iron Ionian style!
Well...we really prefer Corinthian, but these will do. Greece Is for Lovers' badass Build Your Myth solid brass dumbbells let you pump your guns like a Grecian.
When in Rome Athens...
via pan-dan
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Mark Hoekstra, the dude who brought us the ever so clever iNoPhone, finally got his hands on an actual iPhone, well, with a cracked face...only to mod it, of course.
Maybe it's something in the air, but black finishes seem to be part of the new "Think Different" consensus. But black paint was only one element in Hoekstra's mission to resolve the crack, which ended up being covered up by a piece of Mac-plastic taken from a 1989 Apple Extended Keyboard II, complete with an original rainbow Apple "home" button that functions. For more info you can check out this detailed play-by-play of his iPhone mod.
We're loving that retro table cloth pattern that matches oh-so-harmoniously with the new/old home button. If iPhones existed in the 70's...
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Industrial designer Jason Culler happened to stroll past the James Cohan gallery the other day when something familiar caught his eye...blue foam!
James Cohan Gallery is pleased to announce the first New York solo gallery exhibition by Dutch artist, Folkert de Jong, who reinvents monuments and classical figurative sculpture by combining fictional and factual histories into life-sized sculptural tableaux. His sculptures are made from unconventional, industrial insulation materials - Styrofoam and polyurethane foam - whose color palette of baby blue and pink and their inherent toxicity are what he refers to as, "one big moral contradiction." Best known for work that employs the vehicle of the 'grotesque,' De Jong reflects upon the paradox of contemporary life where advances in global policy, economics, science and art exist alongside the continuous forces of war, misfortune and catastrophe. While his characters often embody the darkest side of the historical and contemporary geo-political terrain, they nevertheless maintain an underlying humor and humanism.
Folkert de Jong
Les Saltimbanques
October 20 - November 24, 2007
James Cohan Gallery
533 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001
Mike McDermott has posted incredibly detailed instructions on how to make a paper model of Halo's Master Chief. The photos throughout are particularly helpful, as is the quote at the end:
If anyone comments on the imperfections of your model (for example, my gun is a little twisted) just say "hey... where's your kick-ass Master Chief model? Oh! That's right, YOU DON'T HAVE ONE!"Note the proper use of the title - kick-ass Master Chief. Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
CITIZEN:Citizen just announced a new, limited edition version of the iPhone a la Tobi Wong. As usual, Tobi's tweaks and twists on this rockstar object are a commentary on our obsession with luxury, stuff, and a constant need for "more." What sets this limited run of 50 phones apart from the "regular" fare includes a matte-black finish, a curated selection of wallpaper, video, and music, and perhaps the juciest tidbit, CITIZEN:Citizen's personal address book in v-cards, which will be updated twice a year. Expect to pay $2000 for a ccPhone with no chance for early adopter reimbursements.
Catch Tobi at our upcoming Offsite event, Design, Wit, and the Creative Act. Last minute registration still open!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)Check out this awesome video directed and edited by high school seniors for an educational program on WOSU/PBS that explains the "cool job" of an industrial designer. The company du jour here is Design Central based in Columbus, Ohio. (If you're still not sure what Industrial Design is, go ahead and revisit David Ngo's interpretation.)
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)If you can't wait til tomorrow to prance around in your costume, you should check out LVHRD's Halloween Eve event tonight in NYC. With a ticket ($11 members, $22 non-members) you'll receive a text message with the secret location of FSHDL IV where three up and coming designers will be crafting ball gowns, on the spot, live at the party, using old magazines. And if you don't show up as zombied-up as you'd hoped, they'll even have an undead makeup bar to further deathify you.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
The Sweep-Away Cabinet Vac is a vacuum unit that you install in your kitchen cabinet, along with an inlet that goes in the toekick. The idea is that you sweep your dust over to the suction slot and turn it on, no more dustpans. This is a pretty neat idea, but we're curious to see if it really works; does anyone actually have one of these?
(Sorry about the crappy photos, but you should see the product website, which looks like it was designed with scissors, Letraset and ADD.)
The San Jose State University campus paper tells the story of designer Russell Henning, the only US designer to have his work chosen for last month's BraunPrize exhibition in Germany. Henning's portable backpacking stove was also his senior project, which won a Red Dot award in '06, and it was challenging to design:
"He put a lot of pressure on himself," [Associate Professor of Industrial Design John] McClusky said. "His biggest concern was that the most revolutionary backpack stoves on the market were developed over a ten-year period by multiple people, and he was looking at 15 weeks as one individual."
For a student to design a successful product in 15 weeks vs. ten years is no small feat; on top of that, Henning insisted the design be green.
"Everything about the stove is with an emphasis on environmental sustainability. I felt a strong responsibility as a designer to push those kinds of things forward in society, because I think we have a lot of responsibility to create trends that are morally sound."
Maybe there's hope for you younger generations after all.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
That there is the Antelope car by Marcel Wanders. Since it's from 2004, I guess we now know where the "design inspiration" for the last-gen iPod nano, not to mention the Apple remote, came from.
This just came across our desk, and the registration deadline is tomorrow. So act fast if you want to participate - it sounds interesting.
5th FLOSS Usability Sprint @ Google HQ in Mountain View, CAPosted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
Friday Nov 2nd - Sunday Nov 4th (Deadline to apply is Wednesday, October 31st 5pm)
The event puts user experience professionals together with FLOSS software projects (free/libre/open source) who have limited or no access to User Experience (UX) design support. Many people use the projects coming to this event, including Mozilla, Chandler, WiserEarth.org, and SocialText. This event helps projects in need of usability work, evangelizes the user experience profession, and is open to all types of user experience professionals: from usability engineers, interaction designers, information architects to visual designers. UX Masters and PhD candidates are also welcome to participate too. The event also welcomes open source developers with a passion for great usability and who want to learn more about UX. You must register at the site to apply to participate. Participation is FREE but 3 days is preferred but 2 consecutive days is OK.
One of our favorite recurring photo blog themes is Houses From Around the World in Crazy Locations; this latest one comes to you from phottle. The New Guinean tree roost, above, seems to have been built by Ewoks with death wishes. And while we're sure it's got great views, you probably have to tip the pizza guy an arm and a leg.
via a welsh view
OMG! Awesome Party Guy is totally going as OMG! Awesome Party Guy Vid! YouTube Page for Halloween. Those comments are gold.
thanks bryman!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (6)
The new Xenith X1 helmet's shock absorbing discs release air at varying speeds according to the severity of impact unlike traditional foam inserts that perform identically in any situation. The helmet features a flexible, vented casing embedded with these specialized shock absorbers, and aims to greatly decrease potential damage to the head and brain so players can do more damage all the way to the end zone.
thanks lee!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)Well, like a fish who doesn't know that he is wet, I have no idea what it is like to not be a design thinker. And I suppose that, conversely, a lot of people who talk about design thinking have no idea what designers are actually taught. Are we really taught different skills than our MBA counterparts? Is there really something unique about what designers are taught, about how we think?
via design observer
Finally. Well-lit corners can find relief from awkward spatial tension caused by standard lighting fixtures thanks to a simple corner-friendly shade modification seen on the appropriately named Corner Lamp, available at Zinc Details.
via casasugar
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Durex's new "Last Longer" campaign by DDB Auckland included the doling out of these mood-killing pillowcases. (A tad bit racy, sure...but not so far from any American Apparel ads we've seen.)
via ffffound
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Bad news for drug dealers looking to play Santa with the Partridge Family: you can no longer walk into any Apple store and buy five iPhones with cash. Yes, you read that right, the new limit is two, and no cash allowed, you've got to use a credit card.
The move is intended to thwart resellers who might buy up all the inventory before the holidays to increase scarcity. Maybe this little ploy works, maybe it doesn't, but it looks like either way Bonaduce and co. are getting Zunes for Christmas.
via cnet
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Maybe we're crazy, but we think the following might contain a lesson for product designers vis-a-vis human desire.
Apple is widely recognized as selling people easy-to-use products that they actually want, but these products are often attacked relentlessly in forums and online chatter. Did you ever notice that when people criticize Apple products, it often starts "I love the [iGadget] but..."? Seems to us people never used to complain about products in this way.
Our theory is that when you give people what they want, they actually complain more than they did when they were simply putting up with whatever was doled out to them. It's kind of like you're in the Soviet Union circa 1985 standing in line for 220-grit toilet paper, then you get whisked to a 2007 supermarket where there's aisles upon aisles of soft, fluffy Charmin, and suddenly you want the Jumbo roll so you don't have to replace it as often, and you want a coupon to pay for it.
Anyone have any thoughts as to why this might be? Bueller, anyone?
Oh, and the article that prompted this entry: PC World quibbling about OSX Leopard, which came out last week. Predictably, the article starts with "First, a disclaimer: I like Leopard...but...."
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (8)
Index 2007 (the Middle East's largest interiors show) will open this Thursday in Dubai, that bastion of frugal, understated design for people of modest means. Or is it a showcase for the super-rich, we always get those two confused. In any case Index will feature 1,500 exhibitors from Dubai and 55 other countries that have way less money.
As the fast pace of construction continues in the region and new hotels and residential complexes open on a regular basis, demand for interior products and services has never been higher. This, coupled with the region's rapidly growing population and ever evolving lifestyles, has led to increased demand for high quality, exciting and innovative designs for both commercial properties and private homes."Index continues to meet the challenges of the market and new ideas and innovations are always a key feature of the show," [says Kim Willis, Exhibition Development Director.] "This year, for the first time, we are delighted to welcome exhibitors from Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Laos, the Republic of San Marino, Monaco and Finland."
Finland! They're really stooping. The faucets aren't even made of gold there--they use regular metal!
The Index 2007 website is live but there aren't any images up yet, just some shots from last year (like the one above). Hopefully we'll have something to see by Friday.
Tomorrow the SEMA automotive specialty products trade show opens in Vegas, and technology company JDSU will be there to unveil a new line of paint. That's right, paint:
"New customization technologies are revolutionizing car color," says Barb Parker, color designer at JDSU. "Thanks to breakthrough design efforts already used on consumer products from cellular phones to sports equipment, we have really begun to change what we expect in product design. Consumers are looking for options beyond just silver and black...."Colors project our feelings," adds Parker. "Silver dominates in hard times, as they have the last few years, while green, which was common during the '90s, reflects optimism. White, black, and beige are conservative colors. And red, orange, and yellow are 'look at me' colors."
Not everyone will be looking at the "look at me" colors; the SEMA show isn't open to the public. But there's a gallery of JDSU's latest paint colors (covering a lot more than cars) here.
What is everyone staring at? What's the true story behind the carbon chair? What are pink dogs doing in town? and how is it possible to drive a car that isn't straight at all?
We'll get you some answers soon with this year's gallery is coming up from the biggest design event ever in the Netherlands. We didn't ask the fancy lights, we didn't ask another vase, we even didn't search for the one-off $1,000,000 chair -- instead we talked with the Dutch designers themselves about their plans and products at this year's Dutch Design Week.
Stay tuned for the upcoming galleries from a week less ordinary with a graduation show that will turn you upside-down!
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
Image credit Elizabeth Sanders
If you are interested in finding out more about the status of design research around the world, the trends, the research areas, the new approaches and methodologies used, Liz Sanders' comprehensive analysis provides valuable insight into where design research is heading .
Intro and full article via Robin Good
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (1)Okay, the article is really titled Making the Most of a Design Engagement, but it's all about how to better work with a design firm once you've signed them up. It's a great piece, and mandatory reading for all clients, would-be clients, frustrated and disgruntled clients, and anyone, basically, who is thinking about working with creative people anywhere in the world in any industry. So ya, it's an important piece. And here's a tip from us--if you've got a current client who needs a slap or two upside the head, send them the link anonymously! (It'll hit 'em harder than this, but will pay you back in more significant ways.)
Here are a few favorite items:
Some clients try to ensure they get the most value by pushing for more wireframes, more scope, more whatever--all quantitative indicators of value. Instead, clients should be pushing hard to get better quality products. Spend your consulting dollars on design work, not just communication (explaining the process and what's going on to the rest of the organization).
and
Have an executive who is willing to make the difficult decisions that may be internally problematic but are in the best interests of the product and its users. One of the most consistent challenges our clients face is the ability to make a decision and move forward. The possibility of removing options from the table often seems like removing the safety net from the project. Don't bind your consultant to superficial work by "keeping your options open."
and the best one:
Don't ask for little bits of everything when shown distinct ideas for you to choose between. It's not a menu.
thanks Steve Portgal!
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (1)
Richard Seymour was good in San Francisco last week, but he was great today. It was one of those moments when the room becomes one, speaker and audience breathing together, pausing together, moving together. Too much? Perhaps, but this was a take-no-prisoners talk (filled with cursing, finally!) and criticizing designers--again, like in James Woudhuysen's presentation yesterday--for their lack of bravery and omnipresent pessimism. There were lots of provocative bits, but a point that kept showing up was his contention that we need to separate the "its" from the "hows." Here's an example: At the end of the 19th century, people started saying, "The electricity is coming!" Then when they got it, they talked about "electric heating," and "electric lighting." But then they soon stopped using the term "electric." Quick jump to modern technology: "The internet is not an 'it'; it's a 'how.'"
He followed with a series of axioms: 1. Post convergence: Naming the beast; 2. Jam with real visionaries; 3. The future's encoded in emergent behaviour; 4. Whole-ism; 5. Us-ism, not Them-ism; 6. 'Inclusive' or 'universal' design shouldn't be lowest common denominator; 7. Get the best design brains on the hardest problems--no more fucking cruets for Italian luxury goods companies, get off your arse and do something important, for chrissake! (I included the subtitle on that last one.)
We'll definitely post the recording of this one, but Seymour's final remark is worth some pixels: "We are facing the most appalling negativism right now. If you're not an optimistic futurist in design, fuck off and do things a lot less damaging."
Clive Grinyer then took to the stage next, and although following Seymour's act would be hard indeed, things got off to a good start. Grinyer structured his talk around the people in his life--his father, his wife, his mentors, his boss, his colleagues, and back to his dad. The presentation started to frame up as an Empathy 101 session, but then spiraled out to an overview of, well, basically everything. Not sure this talk was spot on for the conference, but the insights and examples on user-centered design were enlightening, and Grinyer's passion was evident. And his final admonition was strong: "We have to be louder! We are silent. We've got to be proactive. We've got to stop just being designers; we need to be visionaries."
A wrap up with John Thackara followed, answering some write-in questions from the audience, and then volunteers brought out flowers--ballet recital style--to the prime movers of the conference: Louise Fowler, Wendy Hutchinson, Tracey Urwin, Kevin McCullagh, and Jeremy Myerson. (Okay, the men got plates.) Congrats to all.
All Intersections posts:
Intersections Conference and Dott'07 underway!
Intersections Conference: More pics and blasphemy!
Intersections Conference, Day 2
Intersections Conference, Day 2 - more highlights
From the Coroflot portfolio of : Yohanan Siskindovich
Featured Project : Groovy Banana Rocking Couch & Magazine Rack
Umamy's rocking couch design (spotted on Yohanan Siskindovich's Coroflot portfolio) looks almost as fun as its wildly entertaining name, "Groovy Banana." Umamy throws in the ol' "magazine rack" bonus feature, but we'd also shove blankets, books, dog toys, remotes, or even younger siblings in there--bring 'em along for the ride. A roll-up pod pad sits atop the Banana as to provide the utmost comfort whilst you rock.
There was an analog beauty to the mixtape: you'd drive around in your Datsun and appreciate the fact that your friend dropped a Dylan track between Elvis Costello and Billy Idol.
Those days may be gone--e-mailing your friend an iTunes playlist isn't the same, and they don't even make Datsuns anymore--but at least you can easily convert your magnetic-head memories into MP3s and transfer them into that iPhone you paid too much for. The USB-enabled BTO plusdeckEX will be out next year, and with any luck you can time its release with your midlife crisis.
via slippery brick
Some cleverly disappear into water, others have cars that rotate on various axes, and still others are so tall you'll throw up just looking at them. Click here to see the best vomit-machines our planet's structural engineers can devise.
via static
Painfully talented designer and illustrator Tim Lahan's Sale Study illustration is "a visual experiment with popular advertising catch-phrases." Definitely take a gander at his other awesome work--there's no shortage of it.
via swissmiss
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
...is "the designer's virus," according Adrian Shaughnessy in a new piece over at Design Observer.
Empathy in design leads to harmony and professional accord, perhaps even to riches. It's an essential part of the job. But it's also responsible for lots of mediocrity and formulaic design solutions. And if you've got the empathy virus, there's no known cure.
Dammit!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
At some point--starting in the 1970s, by the looks of it--designers slaved over couch designs, choosing cushion depths and selecting fabrics. Years later mean people on the internet take a few minutes to savage their work. So here it is, Surefit's 2007 America's Ugliest Couch Contest, which is admittedly a couple months old, but nowhere near as old as these couches.
What's even worse, your correspondent swears he's slept on entries 3 and 5 at some point.
via curbly
Before you roll your eyes at the hint of nauseatingly pointless design for design's sake, we're talking "use less" here. Quite the antithesis of "useless." Using an exhibition, a conference, talks and workshops, a publication, and a retail concept store as various platforms, Utterubbish aims to explore and highlight the many ways design can pave the way for a sustainable future.
This year's independently curated collection of UseLess Ideas will be shown for the first time as a main attraction, along with the UseLess conference at the upcoming Singapore Design Festival at the end of November.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Jeff Harrison over at Rethink just clued us in on this distractingly kick-ass CD packaging they just did for Vonnegut Dollhouse. Peek behind-the-scenes on Jeff's Flickr set.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Design news from Belarus...Solovyov Design's newest creation is this subtly decorative, wall-mounted, laser-cut and bent metal key holder.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
The day got off to whirlwind start with what was at first a dirge--but then a critical celebration--of design and design enterprise through the lens of architecture. Peter Higgins of Land Design Studio delivered what can only be called an opus--touching down on everything from Chernobyl tourism to Diller and Scoffio's Blur to Olafur Eliasson's Weather Project at the Tate to James Wine to Jenny Holtzer, Roland Paoletti, and Robert Lapage. Whew! There were several threads through it all though: It's critical to be aware of the legacies and left-over artifacts of the built environment; there is a need for interlopers to infiltrate the process of city and master planning; we all need to think "scriptwriters" instead of "managers" (indeed, Higgins argues that you literally need actual scriptwriters in the room if you're serious about designing around a narrative). This was a BIG presentation, moving just a little faster than our collective morningmind, and drawing connections (intersections?) between disparate topics, all corralled through a consideration of the built environment. Strong start.
The next presentation was a group presentation of Jeremy Myerson, George Cox, and Andrea Siodmok, all targeting the business considerations of design rather than the craft or the practice. It started with a discussion of Innovation, got off that treadmill, but then seemed to run out of time. The panel acknowledged the higher profile of the profession, natch, but there were some great quotes on top. Favorites were "Designers love strategy; many designers would have a strategy meeting about where they'd go for lunch if allowed"(Siodmok); and "No business can survive with what they were doing yesterday. No business." (Cox, emphatically).
All Intersections posts:
Intersections Conference and Dott'07 underway!
Intersections Conference: More pics and blasphemy!
Intersections Conference, Day 2
Intersections Conference, Day 2 - more highlights
We're really gearing up now as our next Offisite event, Design, Wit, and the Creative Act is fast approaching and are so pumped to announce a super fresh limited edition poster a la Little Friends of Printmaking that will land in the hands of every registered guest. So, for those of you who've already registered, arrive ready with enthusiasm and an eager grip for poster-holding...and for everyone else, there's a still a little time and a little room left to join the festivities.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Wall Cleats solve one of those "well if it's there anyway" problems by adding extra utility to the standard outlet cover. As part of his Covers project, Brooklyn-based designer Karl Zahn asks, "What use is an electrical plug when you're not plugged in?" Say "ahoy" to a modified classic inspired by boating hardware--perfect for those who say "no" to vampiric energy use and appreciate neat-freak alternatives to leaving limp cords just hangin'.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
It was an action-packed day at the Intersections Conference in Newcastle, with morning breakout session choices breaking everyone's hearts (too much good stuff to choose from). I took in the Business thread, chaired by Jeremy Myerson with panelists Janet Abrams, John Bates, and Christoph Boninger, asking: Are design schools the new B-schools? The entire session was open to audience questions, and question they did. (Would have been nice to hear a bit more from the panel, but in the bottom-up spirit of Dott...) The session ended with a weirdly synthesizing bon mot: "I think we need," offered an audience member, "not a B-School nor a D-School, but a C-School--for Convergence." Nice.
The next mainstager was the frankly-beyond-belief James Woudhuysen, whose presentation, entitled "Mission creep--the limits of design," did everything it could to stretch the limits of the audience. He warned us from the start that he wasn't the kind of person who kept his opinions to himself, and boy did he not! There's nothing better at a design conference than a first-rate rant, and this was a barn-burner. The audience loved it, of course, and it got to the point where we were cheering him on in his light sabering of everything held dear (these days) by the design community. He chastised us for pitying the Chinese "who want cars too;" he shamed us for using the term "users" instead of people (agreed); he took swings at the WWF (the other one), Prince Charles ("the buddha of Balmoral"), B.F. ("Bloody Fool") Skinner, "Sustainababble", and, at the very root: designers' pessimism, lack of sheer ambition, and the confidence to believe in science and technology's abilities to get us out of this mess. Needless to say, we will definitely post a link to the podcast of this one when it goes up at the conference site. If this were on YouTube, you'd be watching it right now.
The day progressed with a session on "What is the new know-how in service design?" with Jeremy Myerson, Gillian Crampton Smith, Chris Downs, and Heather Martin, where each panelist shared horror and glory stories of good and bad service design. Myerson commented near the end, "What we saw was not so much good services but good experiences." He also paraphrased a quote (sorry, will hunt down the source) about cake: In going from an agrarian, to an industrial, to a service, to an experience economy, we went from growing the ingredients and baking the cake, to buying the Betty Crocker version of it, to buying the cake outright, to taking the kids to McDonalds, having the party there, and having the cake thrown in for free!
John Thackara ended the day with co-conspirators Jane Blackburn, Lionel Helhir, Andy Mace and Belinda Williams, who told stories of their Dott experiences and shared their challenges working in both local and global contexts. It was a wonderful, friendly close to the day, and now it's off for drinks. British ones.
All Intersections posts:
Intersections Conference and Dott'07 underway!
Intersections Conference: More pics and blasphemy!
Intersections Conference, Day 2
Intersections Conference, Day 2 - more highlights
Decorative coins? Nope, Japanese manhole covers from the Okachin Manhole Cover Gallery, which is over a thousand images deep. If you're going to make your living climbing down into sewers, you may as well have something pretty to look at on the way in.
via pink tentacle
Swedish designer Lisa Bengtsson's Familjen wallpaper is chock-full of fill-in-the-blanks vintage frame silhouettes, perfect for embarrassing family shots, pictures of you and your siblings from each year of grade school, and whatever else you want to highlight for all to see...with no need to bust out levels, rulers, pencils, nails, or hammers! (Er, but you'll need to know how to hang wallpaper.)
via pan-dan
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you take Nick Graham, founder of Joe Boxer, and mix him up with Goodwill's discard bins, you get a brand new shopping experience with an eco-conscious cherry on top. Graham and a San Francisco area Goodwill have teamed up to re-vamp and re-sell clothing from reject piles headed for landfills--that's 75% of all donations! William Good is the brand name of this valiant start-up that hopes to take its line to mass market.
via unbeige
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Steve Portigal continues to rep from the West Coast after 5 solid years of all-around Core77 goodness. Portigal power!
Artist Edina Tokodi's idea of graffiti, or gra(ss)fiti rather, invites the viewer to explore with touch and reclaim a bond with nature. These works of greenery really pop in contrast to the surrounding condo-clustered Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, sheathed in steel, glass, pavement, and stone...and a handful of bed-headed hipsters.
I think that our distance from nature is already a cliché. City dwellers often have no relationship with animals or greenery. As a public artist I feel a sense of duty to draw attention to deficiencies in our everyday life.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)...I believe that if everyone had a garden of their own to cultivate, we would have a much more balanced relation to our territories. Of course, a garden can be many things.
Breaking design into its core components:
"I can say product design constitutes five main categories: minimalism, soft minimalism, organic minimalism, retro minimalism and emotional expressionism. I think more specified minimal styles will be the main pursuit of product designers, given the increasing number of high-end buyers."
So says designer Kim Eun-young in an article on the latest design trends in electronic devices being turned out by Samsung and LG, laden with multiple designers' leanings and opinions.
via korea times
The boomerang-ish lines of the MYTO chair, pictured above, make us certain that if you threw the chair across the room, it would whip around and come back. Designed by Konstantin Grcic , the MYTO was unveiled yesterday at the world's largest plastics trade fair, the K 2007 in Dusseldorf, and uses special BASF plastic:
This innovative piece of design furniture is a cantilever chair made entirely of BASF's novel, especially easy-flowing engineering plastic Ultradur High Speed...its special processing properties come from nanoparticles. The high flowability, coupled with the strength of this plastic, allows an elegant transition from thick to thin cross sections. Even though the chair is manufactured as a monobloc and has a sturdy frame, its net-like perforations integrated into the backrest and the seat give it a graceful appearance.
For more information on the chair, click here.
Germans abroad, spreading design goodness: Last Friday students from the Technische Universitat Darmstadt won the 2007 Solar Decathlon, a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored competition to design sun-powered homes, and this week German professor/entrepreneur Michael Braungart is holding workshops on his "Cradle to Cradle Design" philosophy in Taiwan.
The cleverly-designed house produced by architecture students from TUD, with its multiple and functional exterior layers, was deemed the best of the 20 colleges' designs to enter the Solar Decathlon. Audio interviews of two of the students are available here.
Professor Braungart's lectures in Taiwan "[call] for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design" and are sponsored by the German Culture Center. His "cradle to cradle" philosophy looks past traditional "cradle to grave" thinking, positing that products should be designed to be passed on to the next generation. More on his thoughts are here.
And speaking of passing products on, a VHS copy of the Jet-Li-and-DMX actioner "Cradle 2 the Grave" can now be had for $2.99 on eBay, here.
via architectural record, the china post and eBay
The Intersections Conference kicked off today, capping a month-long (actually year-long) Dott initiative in the form of the Dott Festival. Located on on bank of the River Tyne in Newcastle UK, the festival is free and welcoming visitors through the weekend.
The conference opened with keynoters Frans Johansson of The Medici Effect, who (I think) wowed the audience with a fairly motivational speaker-like presentation on design at the intersections and the value of cross-pollination. The talk was solid, but I wasn't sure how the local crowd would react to the call-and-response "can't hear you!" approach from the stage. No worries; everyone had a smile on their face, and Johansson literally wound down the show over a background soundtrack of a techno version of The Martin Luther King's Speech. No joke.
Tim Brown then gave a presentation on the relationship between design and design thinking, providing some gravitas and a more sober (yet still inspiring) overview of how IDEO has been grappling with moving design up the value chain (not his words). Indeed, moving design down the value chain might be a more apt way of looking at it, placing more emphasis on groups than individuals, and systems rather than artifacts. Okay, up or down--no matter. The two gave an ideal start to the conference, providing a perfect frame for the presentations and debates to come.
Again, if you're in the Northest, come see DOTT. And bring your kids.
All Intersections posts:
Intersections Conference and Dott'07 underway!
Intersections Conference: More pics and blasphemy!
Intersections Conference, Day 2
Intersections Conference, Day 2 - more highlights
Some Japanese products are just plain kooky, others are accurate predictors of future trends. We sincerely hope Kaneko Sangyo Co's latest product doesn't fall in the latter category; the Kurumarukun is a portable toilet for your car that can be used in case of traffic jams. Goes on sale in two weeks, and should come in handy for commuters and jealous astronauts.
via jalopnik
A little late on this, but Jessica Helfand's got a wonderful new post up on DO titled "Science and Design: The Next Wave," where she stumbles on some common (and not so common) ground between designers and scientists. Things get pretty interesting in the comments (as usual), but try this taste and then buy the whole dish:
Contemporary design culture privileges authorship, values entrepreneurship and autonomy. We prize novelty and innovation, reward advancement, and celebrate progress. We look ahead, not behind--and seek enriching collaborative partners with whom to crystallize our collective visions.Scientists look inside. Backwards. And then they look deep. They ask questions based on what they see, and look again. It's a perspective that combines scrutiny with humility, specificity with open-mindedness--factors not altogether mysterious to designers.
Now we'll just need Roger Martin to come in and compare/contrast businesspeople, designers, and scientists.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)Just one more entry on our coverage, this time, from guest blogger Janet Galore:
Throughout the conference we had seen heroic figures dressed in silver vinyl jumpsuits, recruiting designers to save the world as we know it. The stamina required to withstand the steamy body heat in these suits had me impressed. And the yo-yo skillz.
Later that night, over 200 people gathered in the Grand Ballroom of the Fairmount Hotel to form teams to participate in the Defenders of Design game, sponsored by HP and created by The Go Game. The organizers were matching solo defenders with others to make teams of four, and I joined three design students I had never met. We grabbed our gear, a mobile phone and an HP iPAQ Travel Companion with dangling white earbuds, some basic instructions (don’t turn off the iPAQ!), and set out as others rushed around us. Instructions came via text messages on the mobile phone, while we tried to figure out the password for the iPAQ.
A rather hysterical accident befalls a small (very small) town. You've gotta click the link to really understand the tragedy.
via who killed bambi and dumptrumpet
Keeping with the spirit of Heller-mania as of late, we'd like to share some recent words of "white" from this man in the spotlight.
So basically, everything fresh and cool seems to be the new black, but since when is black the new "everything great" and what ever happened to white? White is still really awesome but the polar opposite of black and nobody ever says "is the new white"...and was there ever a time when someone uttered that "black is the new white" to result in the "is the new black" craziness that is ubiquitous today? Grass stains aside, why hate on white?
Get it, um, verbatim, at Heller's recent Brief Message.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
The perfect way for ankle-biting designers-to-be to learn their Aaltos, Bertoias, and Castiglionis, Blue Art Studios has busted out with this beautifully designed poster that redefines the English alphabet according to only the best and letter-appropriate modern classics designers.
via notcot
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)Roughly fifty years ago,
[India's] government invited Charles and Ray Eames to travel the nation, talk about design and recommend how it could shape India's future....
India today is reaping the rewards of the investment it made in design education when, following the Eameses' report, it established the National Institute of Design in Ahmedebad, India's nearest equivalent to London's Royal College of Art...
India's savvy new industry is wide awake to the urgency and scale of its calling. Hot product designer Mukul Goyal explains that, "The future of design in India does not lie in the hands of designers, but in the expectations of a billion people."
Read a full article here about how the Eames' journey indirectly influenced the state of industrial design in India today.
via design week uk
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
MUJI's Blackboard Globe gives everyone a chance to redefine the geography of this or some other spherical planet. A butt-shaped continent called Cracktonia? Sure, why not...
via swissmiss
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
If you like to eat LEGOs, perhaps you'd go wild about the idea of living a city constructed from them. The Storefront for Art and Architecture's currently exhibiting CPH Experiments by BIG, a Copenhagen based group of over 80 architects, designers, builders and thinkers. From shopping at Dean and Deluca to chess players in the park to people working out at the gym, sipping coffee, and doing "it" (yes "it"), we still recognize the New York nuances in an otherwise block-happy world.
The last 50 years the Danish building industry has been exclusively devoted to prefabrication. Denmark has become a country built from LEGO bricks. Rather than seeing the modular mania as a straightjacket, this project is a homage to Danish building industry. By turning the site in to a modular matrix of 12X12ft we created an elastic field of peaks and valleys. A thousand plateaus ascending and descending, separating and merging to form a fluid space of private and public plateaus. Combining the rigorous and the adventurous. The box and the blob.
More images on dpstyle's Flickr.
CPH Experiments
October 2 - November 24, 2007
The Storefront for Art and Architecture
97 Kenmare Street
New York, NY 10012
The Architecture department at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design has recently launched City/State Unit, an independent R&D project that brings together students, architects, and industry specialists to address the challenges of urban and regional planning in Israel as well as prepare the next generation of designers and architects for real-world problem solving.
The unit was established with the goal of mobilizing the design community to engage in multidisciplinary research into the unique spatial conditions of Israel and the consequences of global trends on these local conditions. The unit consists of a core staff of architects and landscape architects who cooperates with professionals from other fields on specific research projects. City/State Unit is aimed at educating architecture students to excellence in both research and practice; establishing a platform for public debate; and connecting with official planning authorities and private organizations engaged in large scale projects.
thanks dan!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you're dissatisfied with the types of type you see when you type, then perhaps you should consider designing your own...type. If you're font-crazy but have yet to find "the one", make it your dang self. I Love Typography's got the play-by-play whatnots you'll need to get started in So You Want to Create a Font. Keep with Comic Sans for now...
via the serif
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Mary Beth Privitera, a medical-device designer and biomedical-engineering professor at the University of Cincinnati:
"In school, I disliked industrial design," she said. "Vacuum cleaners? Lawn mowers? But this is great to design medical devices. You're doing something that is helpful and good, but you're also using your design sensibilities."
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