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Hot on the heels of our entry about the Soap Bank, a reader sent us a tip for another brilliant way to recycle soap. Unfortunately the video is unembeddable, but do click here to see it, it's short and sweet.
thanks Judson!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (11)
According to an interview with Germany's Die Zeit weekly newspaper, Philippe Starck is ashamed of ever taking part in product design and plans to call it quits as a designer within 2 years.
"I will definitely give up in two years' time. I want to do something else, but I don't know what yet. I want to find a new way of expressing myself ...design is a dreadful form of expression."
Claiming that design is officially dead, Starck predicts future designer types to fulfill the roles of the personal coach, the gym trainer, and the diet consultant. (And here we thought a sedentary life of Doritos and Solidworks was our calling...)
As Starck finds a hole to crawl into, his explosive statements will probably stir the design pot, at least once around ...and we can't say we're not pumped to witness his career twist in a couple years. If it involves being a fitness guru, will his workout studio and exercise videos be well-designed?
thanks sandy!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (17)
The last time we saw tile used to decorate the living area of a space was...well, Deckard's apartment in Blade Runner, a/k/a Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis Brown house. Might that be changing? It will be if Italy's Rex Ceramiche has anything to say about it: check out their '08 Neoedonisme line, made for the bedroom and living room. If this catches on...buy stock in Tilex.
via trend dir
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)This is a great example of mass production combined with manual production. The knives in this video start off as strips of rolled steel that are cut into blanks, precision-honed by a grinding machine and shaken around in a huge bowl of polishing stones. Then it travels down the assembly line to a bunch of men and women who sharpen, buff, polish and de-burr the knives multiple times; we expected them to have band-aids all over their fingers, but they're consummate pros.
What we've described above are just the production methods used for the blade; the video also covers how the bone handles are made and how the whole kit 'n caboodle goes together at the end. All told, these simple-looking knives go through at least a dozen stages of production.
(Load the video and you can skip the first 22 seconds, which is an idiotic logo screen and techno music lite.)
via nat'l association of manufacturers blog
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
The Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization (JIDPO), the same people that brought the "Good Design Award - 50 Years" exhibition to the Salone in 2006, present "Japan Design 2008 - Innovation". 15 established Japanese industrial companies were selected to participate for their use of high technology, proactive approach towards design and acute cultural awareness. Products and prototypes on display will focus on mobile communication, vehicles for individual use, personal electronic gadgets, furniture and interior goods that represent Japanese design of today.
Pictured above reading left to right, i-REAL from TOYOTA, Solar Cell Charger from SANYO, MEDIA SKIN from KDDI, NEOREST Hybrid series from TOTO, WoodShell (Concept Design) from Fujitsu and the SHUN Sommelier's knife & Champagne Cork Opener from KAI.
JAPAN DESIGN 2008
Fondamenta Jahier
Via Solari 37-39 /Angolo Via Stendhal
April 16-20, 2008
Daily: 10 am - 10 pm
Technical Assistant to CEO
Autodesk
San Rafael, California
If you haven't had enough AutoCAD, work for the man himself. "The role of Technical Assistant to the CEO is a newly created role. In this role, you will serve as an indispensible and trusted advisor, attending meetings with the CEO, providing responses to technical inquiries regarding Autodesk's family of products, and interacting with Autodesk's key customers."
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
New York's Pier 94 drew massive crowds for the 10th Armory Show, one of the worlds largest contemporary art fairs. While recession fears may have attributed to a more conservative choice of artists featured, many European visitors enjoyed the weak US dollar ensuring massive crowds every day. One noticeable trend was a move towards more sculpture/mixed media pieces and less paintings. Pictured above is John Water's 'Study Art Sign (For Style or Glory)', one of a series in six commissioned for the Armory Show. More details after the jump.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)Hugh Graham asks some searching questions on designers, their role in consumer culture and the philosophy of it all in this thoughtful post. Here's a snippet,
Should designers work toward the end of aspirational consumer culture? Can the design industry, broadly defined, reposition and reinvent itself to provide value and sustainability while still creating desire?Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (3)When I was at Northwestern, I took some classes from a Professor of Philosophy, David Michael Levin, who once asked us whether having a choice was important in our lives. Specifically, he was asking about the difference between choice and the appearance of choice. For instance, he asked, is it important to be able to choose between Crest and Colgate?
[...]
The problem ultimately is that all this consumption fills some sort of void in our lives, at least temporarily. And by feeding the void in our lives, designers are providing the stimulus that keeps the modern economy moving.
Okay, we know that the amount of negative space in the seat shaft is slim, and that the cable's gonna be similarly slim, but the winner of the most recent One Hour Design Challenge to design a better bike lock is RBAid's "TheftProof Bike" seat lock system. We liked that this solution embraces and exploits the behavior that people are already engaged in, and the fact is that this concept never failed to put a smile on the face of anyone we showed it to. So charm gets you half-way RBAid, but it would've been nice to see some iteration on external coiling, or another approach that preserved the "they're already taking the bike seat off" insight, but stood up to robustness constraints. (Oh, and bonus points if the spelling of "combonation" was ironic.)
Some notables: Special mention should go out to tadatadatada's "belt system," thinksketch's "integrated bike lock and pump," sprawlers' "don't lock your bike; ride your lock," kallol mohanty's "lock it graphically," and Jesse Daniels' "blue ink 'sposion!"
Check out these and other submissions right here.
Big thanks to everyone who participated in this 1HDC, and congrats, RBAid! Hope you enjoy your $200 gift certificate at Harris Cyclery!
Posted by: core jr | Comments (8)
We featured "Concrete Curtains" earlier but what does concrete have to do with lightweight architecture? Researchers at the Kassel University are exploring new synergies of constructions and materials - including a combination of membrane constructions and concrete.
To create this lightweight building out of concrete, a flexible skin with an embedded membrane structure is inflated with air and filled up with a special concrete mixture such as UHPC (Ultra High Performance Concrete). Once the substance is hardened a solid concrete skeleton allows the building to be finished from the inside.
Instant housing such as these concrete-based Concrete Canvas Shelters are made to save lives in refugee camps. If Kassel's research works out well, building a solid house might become as quick and easy and as blowing up a big balloon?
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (6)
Triers try, but doodlers do. Words to live by for sure. Check out 38 pages (yes, 38 pages) of what designers are busy doing when they are in meetings, on the phone, or just good old procrastinating from doing what they are supposed to... post up a few of your own while you are at it. Thanks to poster Dygitalvision for the sketch above.
Posted by: yo | Comments (2)XXX
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)XXX
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
We were staring at that little 2mm dot on the top of our Macbook, which the manufacturer gleefully informs us is...a microphone. An amazingly convenient technological triumph, yes; but it's also a sad reminder that a once-beautiful object, a device that truly signified "industrial design," is gone forever.
Folks, we've got a new object fetish, and its name is: vintage microphones! Click the link below for our image roundup, and gosh darn if these things ain't beautiful.
If you're looking for an interesting experience, Belgrade Design Week are seeking volunteers to help with pre-conference planning and onsite assistance during this their modern2 conference (May 8-10). The following volunteer positions are available: office assistance, local arrangements, onsite arrangements, registration, transportation, hosting. If you are fluent in English and interested in getting involved, send your CV to:
nina@belgradedesignweek.com
The 3rd Belgrade Design Week runs May 5-11, 2008
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
British design studio PearsonLloyd are presenting new work with Bernhardt, Martinez Otero and Walter Knoll at this years Salone. The new bar stool project for Walter Knoll is made from a single moulding incorporating a foot rest, seat pan frame and features a unique gas lift actuation mechanism. There are no visible fixings yet the chair is possible to take a part for repair and recycle if needed.
Concept
The stool has been designed with the upholstery in mind so that it can be replaced and repaired with all parts being disassembled ultimately for recycling. There are no visible fixings on the product and the main assembly is push fit making it efficient to assemble and easy to build. It's unique, in that it's Walter Knolls' first, fully integrated plastic product but still draws on the heritage of high upholstery with an innovative design to the seat pan and seat cover.
Technical notes
Our ambition was to optimise the structure in terms of material use. FEA (finite element analysis) was used extensively to ensure that the injection modeled structure was both producible in terms of moulding technology but also in order to use no more material than was necessary to satisfy the most stringent test requirements. All parts can be easily and quickly disassembled with minimal mechanical intervention to enable either repair or recycling. The chair itself is height adjustable and rotates through 360 degrees of movement. The base structure, when not assembled, is extremely compact which means shipping is reduced to a minimum in terms of volume and weight.
You can catch PearsonLloyd here:
Salone Internazionale Del Mobile
Pavilion 7, Stand A19
& here:
Studio Light
Zona Tortona
Via Stendhal 36
The sunlight-window relationship is a simple one: during the day the former passes through the latter, giving us interior light. But Australian designer Damien Savio's Lightway is a window that can conceivably extend that relationship into a 24-hour affair.
The Lightway--details of which are still proprietary--works by absorbing sunlight during the day, storing it in a battery, and giving that light off at night. The time ratio is quite good--four hours of sunshine will give you six hours of 60-watt shine. Savio went with louvers rather than straight glass for his first model, because the individual louvers can be removed and used like ambient flashlights. The OLED-loaded device has been nominated for the Australian Design Awards-Dyson Student Award.
"Whenever I do a design I just want to do something different and something that stands out," says Savio. "I like that with this, you don't even know it's a light until it's on."
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Debate time: Why are we so often wrong about the way new products and services will affect our lives? TV, said radioheads, would kill our imaginations. The VCR and the DVD, said movie studios, would kill their business. The ubiquity of computers was supposed to bring us paperless offices.
The latest mistaken prediction was that the internet--a simple way of sending electronic correspondence--would precipitate a sharp decline in snail mail. Of course, just the opposite has happened. Postal markets worldwide are continuing to grow. Germany, one of the largest European mail markets, saw increased overall volume of one billion pieces from 2003 to 2006. New Zealand's mail spike has been directly linked to the internet. In America alone, eBay is responsible for an estimated 1 billion packages a year that wouldn't have been sent when people couldn't see the contents of your attic online; Netflix has been shipping 2 million movies a day since at least 2005; and most of us are now getting a paper bill in the mail we didn't get 20 years ago, the DSL bill.
Which is not to say we're always wrong: the telephone did in fact lead to a decline in personal, handwritten letters, cell phones make us drive like jerks, and the music business is most definitely dying. (That latter fact, however, may have less to do with MP3s and more to do with the fact that most new music, well, sucks.) But we're not putting this entry up so we can pat ourselves on the back for correct predictions--we're interested in what makes us wrong. How can we, as product designers, look past the obvious and truly understand what global trends will really mean to us as end-users?
Suggestions please!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (11)
OPOS will present a series of personal accessories by designers that exclusively use a vegetable tanning leather process. Their hope is to raise awareness of this alternate to the more common chrome tanning, and while it is a slower method of production, the results have a much lower impact on the environment. The exhibition takes place at the 'asap' (as sustainable as possible) space and will feature work by:
Massimo Varetto
Antonio Cos
Luisa Lorenza Corna - Max Pescio
Studio X
Gianmaria Sforza
Joevelluto
Carlo Trevisani
Fabio Bortolani
OPOS Exhibition
asap space
Corso Garibaldi 104, Milan
April 16 - 23, 2008
Daily: 10.30 am - 7.30 pm
Monday: 3.30 pm - 7.30 pm
From MIT Technology Review, a so-bizarre-it-must-be-true story on plans already in the works to make sure it doesn't rain on the 2008 Olympics, no matter what.
The details of how this gets done are mighty impressive, starting with a supercomputer-driven weather tracking system that gives hourly forecasts for the Beijing area, specific to within a kilometer. Once an errant cloud is spotted though, the big guns are hauled out. Literally.
Then, using their two aircraft and an array of twenty artillery and rocket-launch sites around Beijing, the city's weather engineers will shoot and spray silver iodide and dry ice into incoming clouds that are still far enough away that their rain can be flushed out before they reach the stadium.
The obvious implications of technological hubris are dealt with in a smart and balanced way in the remainder of the story, with nods to some of China's other massive technological undertakings like the Three Gorges Dam, and a brief but engaging history of weather control systems across the globe. Worth a read, if only to see what it looks like when you take "designing your environment" to its logical extreme.
Posted by: Carl Alviani | Comments (4)
The 2008 Dwell on Design Conference will be held on June 5th and 6th in Los Angeles, the very city that will be the focus of many discussions and lectures in the realms of sustainability, architecture, urban planning, interiors, products, and landscapes. The very long list of speakers includes Eric Garcetti, Council President of LA, Benjamin Ball of Ball-Nogues Studio, Enrico Bressan, Principal at Artecnica, Jenna Didier of Fountainhead Design, Monica Gilchrist and Walker Wells of Global Green, Leo Marmol of Marmol Radziner, and many, many more. The Exhibition, open on June 7th and 8th, will feature a marketplace where visitors can check out new products, interiors, pre-fab structures and more design-y stuff from over 200 exhibitors. This weekend will also feature home tours of LA's Westside Single Family Homes and an inside look into Downtown urban living.
Dwell on Design '08
June 5 - 8, 2008
Los Angeles Convention Center
Conference : $349 ($149 for students)
Exhibition : $25 ($50 at the door, complimentary for trade)
Hey remember Pure Design? It's most recognizably known for the blobulous clubby fixture that is K-Rash's DJKREEMY table and it's back on the scene with a brand new sector of children's items. Formerly a quirky/modern home products and furniture manufacturing company, Pure Design recently reemerged as a less-funky curatorial retailer of sorts, with stuff for sale online and a physical location in Corning, NY.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Senior Industrial Design
Rubbermaid
Huntersville, North Carolina
Want to work in an environment where your designs can be prototyped in house? If so, check out this Senior Industrial Design position located at Rubbermaid's new, well equipped studio in North Carolina. "Design process will focus on developing patentable features that drive competitive advantage with an emphasis on end user needs, human factors and ergonomics. Solutions must address performance, functional improvements, marketable features and design for manufacture."
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
In one of the most impressive furniture hacks we've seen lately, Norway-dwelling Smilodon made an etched-glass door, from scratch, with engraved glass lit by LEDs. And with no tripod to shoot the project on, he hacked one out of a chair and an adjustable mop handle.
via bit tech net and techeblog
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Last night's third-only screening of Aaron Rose's Beautiful Losers took place as part of AIGANY's Small Talks series, and seemed to be the hottest ticket in town. (Indeed, Debbie Millman's remark upon entering the space was that she could've sold her ticket for $100 many times over!) The film looks at a group of 90's artists, musicians, and filmmakers who collated around New York's legendary Alleged Gallery (weirdly, no Wikipedia entry as of this writing). Shining its light on Margaret Kilgallen, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine, Shepard Fairey, Mike Mills, Geoff McFetridge, Barry McGee, Stephen Powers, Thomas Campbell, Jo Jackson, Ed Templeton, and Aaron Rose--with a fantastic score by Money Mark--Beautiful Losers presents each and every one of them as a most satisfying treat. You get excited when the camera makes return trips throughout the film ("oh great--more Harmony! Oh perfect--more Margaret!), and the overall craft and care of the thing belies the fact that this is is Aaron's first film. It's a heartwarming (and at times heartbreaking) movie, but in the end, this film is an artifact of absolute, undeniable life-affirmation. Honest--when the credits roll you want to watch it all over again, and it sends you out into the street believing in the power of creative expression and personal vision. Rose, during the post-screening Q&A, drove it home: "All we wanted was to make a film that would inspire people to go out and make things." He did.
(Above: beautiful, winning, poster by Keith Scharwath.)
This portrait's perfectly fitting for the Apple overlord himself.
via swissmiss
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Not content to simply appropriate the entire canon of 80s dance-pop in their musical explorations, French superstars Justice have taken the conceptual video mash-up to a whole new level with this, their recently released video for DVNO.
The idea is pretty straightforward: illustrate words and phrases from the song using visuals derived from familiar TV graphics from the early days of CG. But the execution is nothing short of spectacular. In a breathless initial viewing, we caught hints of an HBO movie bumper, the (original) Battlestar Galactica title sequence, 20th Century Fox's intro reel, the Stephen Bochco Stephen J. Cannell graphic that ended every episode of The A-Team, and something that might have belonged to ABC Afterschool Special. Anyone who grew up watching TV in the 80s may find themselves reeling from the resurrection of so many nearly-forgotten cliches, and blissfully so.
A new high in seamless video retro-fabulousness, and a hell of an object lesson in the subtle power of nostalgia.
Via Design Observer
Posted by: Carl Alviani | Comments (1)
Industrial Design
Giant Bicycle
Newbury Park, California
"At Giant we strive to get people outside having fun on bikes. So if that irrepressible feeling of anticipation, each time you gear up for a ride, is just something you can't keep to yourself, then Giant is the place for you."
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Forget bike rack & theft proof bicycle design competitions for a second, and dive into the world of Takuya Sakamoto's photography. If you're in New York, don't miss the open bar at tomorrow nights opening.
New York Bike Dreams
March 27 - May 10, 2008
MEMES
3 Great Jones St, NYC, 10012
Opening Party
Thursday, March 27, 2008
19:00 - 22:00
RSVP: rsvp-at-concre.net
The eVolo book presents the best 60 projects of the '06, '07, and '08 Skyscraper competition. Founded in 2003, the eVolo architecture group challenge students, architects and designers to question what the skyscraper will be in the beginning of the XXI Century. The site's sample pages are loaded with some great ideas and renderings, pictured above is an urban ski mountain concept by Natalie Ghatan.
Thanks Bruno
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (1)
The next weeks we'll be featuring new applications of well-known materials to refresh our material thinking. We are starting off with a very usual material indeed: concrete!
--
Please update your bookmarks if you are still filing concrete under "rough and clumsy". The Concrete Curtain by Memux architectural design from Vienna redefines the use of concrete with this unusual application.
The curtain might have the looks of a thick fabric but is actually a set of small concrete elements gathered on a flexible mesh of geo-textile. The play of light and it's sluggish movement by the wind gives concrete a more soft and poetic character.
via bright
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
Bruce Sterling writing about the Cornish Pilchard, the Chilean Blue Egg Hen, the Cypriot Tsamarella and the Bosnian Sack Cheese?
It's Bruce's entry into a very intelligent article on the Slow Food movement, the self-appointed anti-McDonald's, a "revolution" whose aim is a "new culture of food and life."
The Feng-GUI heat map service is an automatic alternative to eye-tracking. The heat map is a composition of several algorithms from neuroscience studies of Feature integration theory, Salience, Visual Attention, eye-tracking sessions, perception and cognition of humans. Or in English: "What people are looking at?"
Google's heat map? No wonder that they score well in brand ranking.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (2)
Core friends from the flatlands Tuttobene are back for their 5th consecutive year presenting work from 28 young designers. They're also taking over the Nhow Hotel basement to create a Tuttobene Design Forest, a space which can be viewed through the glass floor entry of the hotel. And Tuttobene cyclists will be roaming the streets of the Zona Tortona offering directions and perhaps even a ride if you can swing it. Don't forget to register for the party unless you like watching from the door.
Tuttobene
Spazio Mortara
Via Mortara 15, Milan
April 16 - 21, 2008
Tuttobene FOCUS on NATURE
Nhow Hotel
Via Tortona 35, Milan
April 16 - 21, 2008
From Here to There will offer reflections and lessons from the frontlines of design research. Core77 superfriend Steve Portigal, along with Dennis Doordan, editor of Design Issues, Dan Formosa of Smart Design, Jason Severs of Frog Design and many more will be sharing their insights. Here's the pitch:
This event is initiated and organized by students from the Master of Science in Design and PhD in Environmental Design and Planning programs in an effort to facilitate learning about design research in the context of academic and professional practice. Crafted to maximize interaction, the symposium will include plenary sessions with ample time for conversation, as well as afternoon workshops to deepen understanding of specific methods and topics. The intended audience is anyone who is curious about the practice of research within the context of design.
The event is FREE to all.
For questions contact Tamara: tfc (at) asu (dot) edu
More details here.
Art Direction, Design
PUMA North America, Inc.
Boston, Massachusetts
Successful candidates will direct and manage the production of the brand’s creative materials combining influences of sport, fashion and lifestyle. They will also work closely with the internal production and design team to bring new campaigns to market in a wide variety of creative executions including print, outdoor, in store, and on line channels.
Some expectations: Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design and/or relevant field of study, or 5+ years experience in similar field, a thorough understanding of print process, color theory and typography, and experience in the fashion, athletic and/or apparel industry is a plus.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Studio Leung's new project Printable Offerings re-interprets the Chinese tradition of burning paper gifts for family and friends who have passed away.
Concept
These gifts are made of paper and come in many product types which are purchased in selected Chinese shops and supermarkets worldwide. Printable Offerings aims to preserve this Chinese tradition with an updated selection of gifts, ready to be downloaded as PDF files, assembled and offered to loved ones who have passed away. The selection ranges from the aspirational iPhone to quintessentially Hong Kong objects such as Tempo pocket tissues and the Octopus travel card.
Download & Print
Collection 1 has been designed in time for the Qingming Festival (April 5th) - a festival which encourages people to enjoy the Spring season and visit the graves of departed ones. The collection focuses on everyday objects that play a huge role in Chinese culture, such as the Octopus travel card and Bic biro. Collection 2 will be made available on July 15th, one month before the Hungry Ghost Festival.
Learning business processes is seen as the exclusive domain of the management graduate and not that of the designer, however as teachers at NID we realized that without this knowledge being integrated into the product creation and development process, the impact of the new product or service offering would be essentially incomplete.
From Prof MP Ranjan of NID's Design Concepts and Concern's class blog on the systems design of business models - check out these entries on "Information strategies for research", "design opportunities in water" and more.
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
The Washup, designed by Sevin Coskun, solves two problems at once. It makes use of the washing machine's waste water to flush the integrated toilet at the bottom, and also puts the washing machine up above the toilet itself, saving space in small apartments. This is one of the entries from the Greener Gadgets competition - check the others in the full site.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (9)Be sure not to skip the very last "ferberizing" step or you'll end up with a hole-less button--as explained by Miranda July, who may or may not (okay, probably won't) have a future in teaching production methods.
via design observer
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (4)
The next 'Inside the Designer's Studio' talk takes place this Wednesday with Dror Benshetrit.
Dror Benshetrit, principal designer and founder of Dror, is a rising talent who has come into his own in the past five years. The Tel Aviv native and graduate of the renowned Design Academy in Eindhoven, Holland, has made a mark in the design world, consistently producing objects that create conceptual poetry through narrative transformations.
IDSA New York presents: Inside the Designer's Studio
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
7 pm at Design Within Reach
142 Wooster (btwn. Prince & Houston)
New York 10012
$10 IDSA members : $15 non-members : $5 students
In search of design opportunities embodying "mass-customization", recent Pratt ID (Master's) grad Martin Konrad Gloeckle churned out a collection of Un-Readymades, objects that "express the involvement of the end-user in the creation of the final product." In a modern world filled with preconceived "choices", Gloeckle's concepts "aim to inspire, encourage, and enable consumer involvement, creativity, and a deeper experience."
For some more in-depth info check out a recent interview with Gloeckle regarding this project over at the serendipitously monikered Mass Customization blog.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you're looking to upgrade that Duct Tape wallet you made last year, but not quite ready to drop your hard earned cash on a freitag, then instructables might just have the answer.
Industrial Designer
Nokia
San Diego, California
Nokia is in search of Product Designers who have a great understanding of human behavior, brands, trends and a willingness to learn. This position will involve collaboration with Nokia partners throughout the Nokia organization and will therefore require a high level of design skills and insight, an appreciation of diversity and a strong personal drive to discover new opportunities in device and experience solutions for the end user.
» view
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Most car hacks are frivolous; performance tuning and cosmetic fluff. But the most arduous, challenging, and functional aftermarket process we've seen is completely armoring and bullet-proofing a car, thanks to an excellent in-depth look by Crooked Brains.
It's more than just slapping a few kevlar panels on here and there; directly above is a shot of overlapping armor plates being welded to the interior frame, and below is a shot of the punishment these cars can be exposed to. (That's an actual photo of a car that came under attack in Iraq, sourced from Lasco International.)
Part of the challenge is indubitably cosmetic--returning the car to its normal appearance after adding ballistic protection...
...but the larger difficulty is making sure the car is still mechanically sound, despite all that added weight. What can go wrong? Take a look at this letter written to Lasco, by the transpo' contractors who own the shot-up truck pictured above:
[Regarding] the way your Suburbans are holding up under the harsh climate and road conditions here in Iraq....from the point of view of the drivers, the [Lasco] vehicles are holding up far better than the 9 other Suburbans manufactured...by another company. These other Suburbans are having electrical, mechanical, and structural problems. The armor plating is coming loose, front fender supports are cracking, radiator supports are cracking, door hinge bushings are breaking, rear hatch pistons are failing, (most hardware is breaking because it is not mounted sturdy enough) and most windshields are cracking in the corners.
Significantly tougher than dropping in a turbo and adding a spoiler, we'd say.
Click here for shots of the whole process.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
"Many institutions we rely on today will not survive this change without significant alteration, and the more an institution or industry relies on information as its core product, the greater and more complete the change will be," writes Clay Shirky professor of Interactive Telecommunications at NYU in his new book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.
Definitely pick up this book, but while you're waiting for your amazon package to arrive, check out some of these fantastic podcast interviews with the author.
Here's one from Business Week's Innovation page and more can be found on Shirky's site.
Posted by: Xanthe Matychak | Comments (1)
We're loving Worth1000's latest P-shop contest:
In this contest your challenge is to take modern products and display them in a vintage light, through advertisements. You can also reverse the challenge and take vintage products and display them in a modern way.
And best of all,
Hit List: iPod or iPhone. Use 'em and get disqualified.
Check 'em all out here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Designers can be found thinking about everything from world peace to a better pasta shape. Frequent board poster, Choto asks "What are you designing now?" The answers quickly spanned the extremes, including diapers, pimp trackers (yes, pimp trackers), DV cams and toilets. Check it out here and weigh in with your latest project... vaguely enough to get around your NDA that is... and ip_wirelessley, good luck with that pimp tracker.
Posted by: yo | Comments (1)
Michael Randle was there in 1958 when Holtom explained his idea: matching the 'N' for nuclear & a straight up-and-down 'D' for 'Disarmament,' with a circle around it. "That's the symbol, very simple and straightforward," Randle recalled. "It was that explanation coupled with his vision of what the march would be like, his sketch of what the march would be like, that really sold it to us and we said, 'Right, we will adopt that.'"Not without controversy. It was inevitable that Holtom's simple three lines and a circle would bewilder at least one of the anti-nuclear campaigners.
"He looked at it and he said, 'What on earth were you three thinking about when you adopted that symbol? It doesn't mean a thing and it will never catch on.' Of course, he was thinking of the traditional things of a broken rifle, or a dove or something that would be immediately associated in people's minds with peace, and if you're looking at it now it's impossible to separate it from all the history that has gone on since."
Impossible, almost, to imagine some history without it.
Read full story
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
Fumiko: How would you both define Super Normal?Jasper: My opinion is that the design world has drifted away from normality, forgotten it's roots and the basic notion that we designers are supposed to take care of the man-made environment and try to improve it. Super Normal is a bridge between the two worlds, an attempt to reunite them. It's not easy to write a formula for the Super Normal object, I'm not sure it can even be planned. An object becomes Super Normal through use. As designers we can aim at achieving the Super Normal by being less concerned with visual aspects of an objects character, by attempting to anticipate the objects likely impact on the atmosphere and how it will be to live with.
Naoto: I think it's probably fairly easy to understand the things or situations that come under the heading Super Normal. One is looking at something that is normal and saying, 'That's really normal'; these things are those that have permeated daily life, things that we don't find any element of design in. Another is a new design that takes the essence of something that everyone recognizes and perceives as normal. When people look at these things, their expectation of seeing something that has been 'designed' is somewhat betrayed, and they come out with things like 'That's so normal' and 'Why is it so...normal?!'. With this kind of comment, what's being expressed is the perfect meshing with the original normal object, and we're reminded that perhaps the continuation of a good relationship that has been around for a long time is better than anticipating something new. I think maybe the moment this hits us is what Super Normal means.
Here's the Supernormal design exhibition blog, gallery of design and the supernormal design philosophy
Thanks to Dave Tait for the link!
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)On design related initiatives ,
'This is a very big win for design,' says Design Council chief executive David Kester. 'Design is being set out as an important part of the innovation process for the first time. There is a long history of defining innovation by a narrow script of science and technology, so this is a big shift from Government.'Minister for Innovation Ian Pearson believes that design is central to innovation and that innovation is key to improving public services. 'Building design into the services of local authorities and Government departments is going to be important for the future,' he tells Design Week. 'The contribution of design to innovation hasn't been emphasised enough until now, but user-led innovation always clearly demonstrated the importance of design in developing new products, processes and new ways of working.'
More highlights after the jump
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (1)
On the hunt for a safer, more accessible, and even cooler-looking way to lock up, the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), in partnership with the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the support of Google Inc. and Transportation Alternatives (catching breath), invites you to design a better city bike rack. The aim of the City Racks Design Competition is to yield superbly designed sidewalk bicycle racks and generate new bike parking concepts for the interiors of commercial and residential spaces. The winning sidewalk rack design will be installed by the City as its new standard for bicycle parking. The winning indoor design will be installed at Google's NYC headquarters and possibly some City-owned buildings.
The jury consists of Patricia E. Harris (First Deputy Mayor, New York City), Janette Sadik-Khan (Commissioner, New York City Department of Transportation), Ellen Lupton (Curator Contemporary Design, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum), some Google Representative (TBA), Steve Madden (not the shoe guy, but Editor-in-Chief of Bicycling Magazine), Duncan Jackson (Industrial Designer, BillingsJackson), and (what the...) David Byrne (Talking Heads overlord, Musician, Artist, Cyclist).
City Racks Design Competition
Registration Deadline : April 30, 2008
According to an article on VNUNET, a team of DARPA-funded researchers (also known as "boffins") has devised a way of instructing robots to find and retrieve items identified with a simple laser pointer.
The robotic arm that carries out the command is know as El-E, "named for the arm's resemblance to an elephant trunk." EI-E can apparently grasp and deliver several types of household items including "towels, pill bottles and telephones."
Now, they're really sure about this, right? I mean, this isn't going to backfire? Because I'd hate to think what might happen if a laser pointer got into the hands of an evil-doer.
Posted by: David Womack | Comments (4)
Softbank/Toshiba's latest cell phone (coming out April 2nd in Japan): more than meets the eye. The 815TPB has AI that lets it express its "moods" through the LCD, and poseable limbs that are hopefully not hooked up to servos--last thing we need is this little bugger ringing and running away from us because he's not in the mood to serve as a conduit for our calls.
via softbank mobile
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)The first two times your American correspondent witnessed folding side-view mirrors in use was in Japan and Italy, where drivers actually had to pilot their cars through spaces with insanely tiny tolerances. And the most boastful parking job witnessed was in San Francisco--parallel parking a stickshift on a steep uphill incline.
But this one's got to take the cake--do you think you could park your car backwards in a space with only a one-centimeter tolerance? In Japan, of course, such an act would become a televised competition:
via tv in japan
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
The most recent TED conference was captured in writing, on video, and through photos, as always and as expected. But a new medium was tested using Autodesk's BigViz system (Wacom tablets and Sketchbook Pro) and the artistry of visual cartographers David Sibbet and Kevin Richards who captured each presentation live and on the spot. The sketch-blogging session yielded over 700 sketches which have been rounded up into a hefty 200-page "book" that you can download as a PDF.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
As frequent consumers of bananas--you can never have enough potassium--we couldn't help but smile at this somewhat silly but somewhat functional banana-holding device. What's the point? It keeps your bananas out of the fruit bowl and bruise-free. We suppose the same results could be achieved with a hook and string, but sometimes designers have to have their fun too.
via delight
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)Dazzling in a creepy, special effects kinda way; horrifying when you actually smell them. (Let's just say that in this new climate of toy safety concerns, the outgassing fumes of these admittedly magical orbs are strong enough to fell an elephant.) So ya, you might want to just forward this video rather than going out and buying them for your offspring.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (2)
Product Designer
Bic Violex S.A.
Athens, Greece
Located in Greece, the R&D Shavers department is looking to hire an Industrial Designer. The ideal candidate should have a degree in Product/Industrial Design and 3 or more year's experience. The position available is responsible to research and develop new concepts and prototypes for shaving products.
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Designer Shkinder Maxim from the Ukraine submitted his Transformer into the Tancher Electronic Design Contest. Coming in third place, the communicator consists of three main parts able to rotate 360 degree around a specially designed axis. The only thing this multi-use electronic communication device is missing is a printer. It is stocked with a mobile telephone, photo and video recording functions, a multimedia player and projector, and last but not least a 3-D scanner, just in case you needed one in your back pocket.
Also check out:
1st place: Magic Mirror by Gorlov Timofey
2nd place: Flash From the Light by Peter Zsolt Koren
On April 3rd, a one-day conference will take place at Pratt Institute's Kullman Center to shed light on and discuss innovations, new techniques, and long term social and sustainable potential in modular construction and pre-fab architecture. Speakers include Andrew Blauvelt, design director and curator at the Walker Art Center, Charlie Lazor, co-founder and partner of Blu Dot Design, Ada Tolla & Giuseppe Lignano, co-founders and principals of LOT-EK, Michael Meredith, Associate Professor of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and many others.
Pre-Fab Futures : New Agendas for Mass Customization in Architecture
April 3, 2008, 8 A.M. to 7 P.M.
The Kullman Center @ Pratt Institute School of Architecture
Architecture 2030, the same people who brought you the Face It webcast and Reverberate competitions, has trumpeted a call to action for the upcoming Earth Day weekend. The BYOBlue campaign is rallying the nation to fight against coal-fired power (one of the most major contributing factors to pollution and global warming) by asking everyone to wear blue from April 19 - 22 of this year to signify their vote for "No Coal." On the 22nd, you can also call Congress at 202-224-3121 and ask for an immediate 'Moratorium on Coal' to put the kibosh on the construction of any new coal-fired power plants.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
This year's theme, 'The surprising world of Moroso' is taken from a quote by Patrizia Moroso in Elena Commessati's book Cavalicco Friuli Mondo, "To be good, you have to be surprising. Innovative through and through, but that doesn't necessarily mean being unsettling. Surprising is the right word".
New designs will be introduced by Tord Boontje, Patricia Urquiola, Ron Arad, Ross Lovegrove and Tokujin Yoshioka. The stand at the fair ground has been designed by Patricia Urquiola and Moroso's showroom will be transformed into the 'The Little Wild Garden of Love' by Tord Boontje, to showcase their new outdoor collection.
Moroso
April 16 - 21, 2008
Salone Internazionale del Mobile
Pavilion 8 - Stand C25/D24
&
The Little Wild Garden of Love
April 17 - 21, 2008
Moroso Showroom, Milan
Via Pontaccio 8/10
Hours: 11.00 a.m. - 9.00 p.m.
As the States wait in anticipation for the arrival of the Smart Car, the Smart Car brand have released 'Sideways: A Smart Art Project', which assembles a fresh collection of work evaluating the way in which we think about the environment and mobility.
Inhabitat has the lowdown.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
Though we don't think about it often, cell phones are revolutionary in that 20 years ago few of us had them, and now everyone's got one. Like many products, their designs currently suffer from a "hit" mentality, where a new design becomes a must-have for an ever-shrinking amount of time; anyone remember the Razr, or the Star-TAC?
A Forbes article takes a look at different approaches to cell phone design, from Neonode--the most innovative cell manufacturer you've never heard of--to the big dogs, like Nokia with their $4 billion R&D department, and Sony-Ericsson with their "Clamshell Center of Excellence." Motorola's messing with alternative energy sources while carrier T-Mobile is looking to students at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design, who are in turn "staking out their local Starbucks" in a bid to see what well-caffeinated cell users do. Click here to witness the amusing scramble of all the players trying to knock one out of the park.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Comparing product design and websites, Godin points out the number of steps a toaster requires the user to complete in order eat. Did the designer ever stop to think about the effort?
We recently acquired what might be the worst toaster in the history of the world. It's pretty fancy and shiny and microprocessor controlled. And it makes toast.But there's what I have to do to use it:
1. Choose the number of slices, and bagel or bread.
2. Remember whether it counts the slices from the left or the right (the left).
3. Insert the bread.
4. Push down the handle.
5. Choose toast or defrost.
6. Make sure the darkness level is right. (This doesn't count, because it usually is).
7. Press on.
8. Wait till it beeps.
9. Lift the handle I pressed in #4.
10. Turn it off.Most toasters, of course, consist of steps 3 and 4 only.
Read the rest of his post on simplifying life for the user.
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
Would-be British design students and Sir James Dyson are surely waiting with bated breath for a local UK council's decision: the Bath and North Somerset Council was supposed to vote yesterday on the application from the Dyson School for Design Innovation, scheduled to be built in Bath and opened later this year.
The BNS Council has been objecting to the school--ironically, on "aesthetic grounds." An earlier planning report claimed "The height, scale, design and materials are harmful to the setting of listed buildings and to the character and setting of adjacent conservation and World Heritage sites." Though the final decision was to be made yesterday, no word was available at press time.
Dyson has been planning to open the school since at least '06, to get young Britons excited about design and make the UK into a more competitive design force. If the council rules against him, we doubt the setback will phase him; this is a man who went through a reported 5,126 iterations of a vacuum cleaner before perfecting the 5,127th, which then made him one of the richest men in the world. We'll keep you posted.
via design week uk
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)Apparently they listened to this song on repeat during the entire making of the movie, it makes you work faster!
via swissmiss
A company called Itsnoname is making rings based on the Periodic Table of the Elements--well, the three elements that people like to wear, anyway: gold, silver, platinum.
Projected low-sellers: mercury, lead, uranium.
via boing boing
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)Holy cow. Looks like monsters hiding under the bed aren't just the stuff of childhood nightmares anymore:
via freshome
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
For car designers, these might well be both the worst and best of times. As for the bad: some automakers are forecasting the lowest sales since 1998; emissions seem to have become the new tobacco in terms of public ire and (in other countries) regulation; and with each new lawsuit, designers are beholden to increasingly draconian safety standards. On the upside, these are noble challenges to meet -- the kinds of constraints that will, in theory, make for safer, cleaner, and better looking cars. Maybe even all three at once.
Monday's Times Talk panel "Designing the Car of the Future," presented a provocative subsection of the automotive industry's leading design lights: Edward Welburn, VP of Global Design at GM; Joel Piaskowski, Chief Designer, Hyundai Kia; and Franz von Holzhausen, Director of Design at Mazda North America.
Hyundai's Piaskowsky focused on Hyundai's environmental commitment almost to the point that I forgot the presentation was supposed to be about design. Perhaps also because most of the cars he showed in his presentation looked like, well, Hyundais. The big takeaway here seemed to be that South Korea is investing heavily in hydrogen - and Hyundai is on it. The government has decreed that half of automobiles in the country should run on hydrogen by 2040; a standard reportedly exceeded only by Iceland, which, to put things in perspective has 300,000 people to South Korea's 49 million.
I have to give it to Mazda's Von Holzhausen for having the (whatever it is) to barely mention the environment and just show us the car porn. First, we had to understand Mazda's 'zoom zoom' slogan/philosophy by means of a five minute film of people doing slow-motion donuts in the desert, jumping cars over hills, and generally rocking out in their Mazdas. Mazda is positioning itself as a means by which to return to the visceral pleasure of driving that you may have forgotten while carpooling in your Prius. This is 'zoom zoom.' Practically heresy these days, but they did dress the sin up nicely. Mazda has some of the most beautiful concept vehicles I've seen - one of which, the Furai, is on view at the auto show this week.
Posted by: Ian Curry | Comments (4)
Senior Soft Goods Designer
Belkin International, Inc.
Shenzen, China
As a member of Belkin's creative team, you will tap into emerging fashion and lifestyle trends and design solutions for portable music experiences. Qualifications: Four-year college degree in Industrial Design, two years professional experience, and a proven track record of successful products. (Bilingual a plus: Cantonese and Mandarin.)
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
We see hundreds if not thousands of cars every day, yet we almost never see the faces of the people who design them. In an article on the New York International Auto Show, the Times takes a look--and lets us take a look--at the next generation of up-and-coming auto designers. (Pictured above: Lincoln's Jennifer Hewlett, Chrysler's Bill Zheng, Mitsubishi's Gary Ragle.)
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Designartist Osian Batyka-Williams discovered that some restaurants change their cutlery as often as every nine months (!) With The Cutlery Chair he demonstrates how these hard-to-recycle, unwanted pieces can be turned into a unique piece of furniture.
P.S. For those who scared by the idea of sitting down on some 150 spoons, forks, and knives - we heard Osian considered adding a cushion made from recycled napkins.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (1)
Presented by De La Espada, Matthew Hilton's furniture collection will debut at the Milan Furniture Fair in April. New products launching will include; Light Table, Light Table Oval, Dining Chair, and Fin Dining Chair.
Matthew Hilton graduated with a degree in Furniture Design from Kingston Polytechnic in 1979. He went on to design products for Paul Smith and Joseph Pour La Maison before designing at product design company Capa, London. In 1985 Matthew set up the Matthew Hilton Design Studio and started working for the British retailer and manufacturer SCP. The studio expanded working for manufacturers including Driade, Disform, Sawaya and Moroni, XO, Montis Perobell, the Bradley Collection, Montina, Livit, Ycami, Andreu World Case and Authentics. He has work in the permanent collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Design Museum, London. In 2003, he was given the highest honour in the field of Industrial Design in the United Kingdom by being named a Royal Designer for Industry. Matthew Hilton Limited was established in September 2007.
Exhibition Details
April 16-21, 2008
Pavillion 3 of the ExAnsaldo space
Via Tortona 54 in Zona Tortona, Milan
(opposite Superstudio Piu.)
View directions
Ultrason is one of the high-performance plastics by BASF which is usually found your car's headlights or engine parts. Inspired by the materials properties, the designers at IDEO (Munich) were invited to conceptualize more everyday applications. The HEAT project reinterprets everyday objects such as a hairdryer, lampshade, toaster, kettle and clothes hanger to showcase the versatility of the Utrason polymer.
For instance, the LAMP (photo) is a one-piece item allows the bulb to be screwed directly into the plastic, with no more need for a separate socket. Earlier, the water boiler concept KETTLE has been awarded with the the DESIGN PLUS award at Material Vision 2007.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
In their mission to hulgerise the entire planet, the good folks at Hulger just introduced a DJ Adapter turning your old-skool handset into an awesome looking headphone. Come on! We all know you were only using one earphone of your $300+ set behind the decks to look cool anyway, take it all the way.
(In case you missed it, we caught up with Hulger founder Nik Roope last year)
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (1)
Most people who live in an 8' x 10' space have a toilet with a sink built into it and a shiv hidden under their pillow. But architect Kumiko Inui, faced with designing apartments no larger than 82 square feet, was determined to make them as un-prisonlike as possible. Getting rid of the stairwell landings (to add precious footage) and adding floor-to-ceiling windows (to cut the claustrophobia) help the space feel more like home and less like General Population. More importantly, they keep the rest of us from complaining our apartments are too small.
Inui's Flickr page is here.
via dwell
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Looking around the city, a businessman Kwabena Osei Bonsu decided something needed to be done. "I wanted to come up with an idea that would solve problems in my lifetime," he said. His solution? Collect the discarded plastic bags and stitch them together to make new, reusable bags.In the Trashy Bags workshop a dozen tailors and seamstresses sit at manual sewing machines stitching together old plastic sachets. In west Africa tap water is not fit to drink so millions of half-litre "pure water" sachets costing only the equivalent of 2p are discarded by thirsty consumers every day.
full story via The Independent
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
I wanted to know what it was like to walk down a real street, not see this cleaned-up virtual reality. Where were the urban furniture, the crowded bazaars, the supermarket shelves, the red-light districts? Where were the videos of fashion shows to accompany the showroom dummies dressed in couture? I wanted real people to show me their homes and the design objects they lived with. Excuse me for using a trendy word, but this kind of exhibitions need to be much more of an immersive experience.Even safely on design territory there was an omnipresent timidity. The curators make little attempt to define the emerging aesthetic of Chinese design - although it is detectable in the exhibition. Chinese elements surface in extremely elegant graphic design. In one poster, a leg in a black trouser is intertwined snake-like with another leg decorated with Chinese florally patterned cloth - a neat symbol of modernisation. Literary magazines, meanwhile, use striking monochromatic designs based on Chinese letters. Another purely Chinese quality is the evocation in haute couture ballgowns of the imperial golden age of 1930s Shanghai.
Via "Chinese Art of Deception", Evening Standard
Those of us unable to see the Victoria & Albert Museum's long awaited exhibition on design in China can enjoy it vicariously through reviews. The exhibition opened yesterday and will continue till 13 July.
Paris-based Architects Serero have won an open competition to redesign any of the Eiffel Tower's public reception and access areas. Serero's proposal is a temporary addition to celebrate the Eiffel Towers 120th Anniversary by extending the top floor without any modification to the existing structure. It will expand the usable floor area from 280m2 to 580m2.
The Eiffel tower in Paris suffers from its success. Since its creation the amount of visitors coming to reach its top has increased to reach its limit capacity. 6.5 millions People wait between 35 minutes to 1H10 to reach the elevators. The floor area of each level decreases with the height because of the tower geometry resulting in very long waiting lines and crowd management problems.
Designed by Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 Expo in Paris.
Via Bustler
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (2)
Final notice: Win a $200 gift certificate at Harris Cyclery.
Can you design a better bike lock in one hour or less? Good thing you have 12, so push aside that looming deadline and pick up your Sharpies... it's 1HDC time.
Last Call:
March 19th 2008
1PM PST (8 GMT)
Theme:
Theft Proof Bicycles
JURY:
Winner will be selected by the Core77 Admin. Community discussion is encouraged to help ensure the best design wins.
thanks to ip_wirelessly for settin' this up!
>>>CLICK TO ENTER YOUR SUBMISSION<<<
Panasonic announced the Lumix DMC-FX500 today which is due to hit the shelves sometime in May. This comes days after Canon's announcement of the new SD770 & SD790 ultra compact models from their very popular IXUS series due for release at the end of April. The battle in this category of pocket camera is hinged around a larger 3.0-inch LCD screen and various takes on anti-shake systems. The Lumix DMC-FX500 steps it up with a touchscreen and a 25-millimeter ultra-wide-angle lens, something very desirable and hard to find in this size of camera, but the real question is noise. Does anyone have experience with either of these camera's predecessors in low light conditions without a flash? Given that this type of camera is more frequently becoming the choice for those who don't want the responsibility and hassle of lugging their expensive digital SLR to a live show or random party on a big night out.
E&Y, a Tokyo-based company for contemporary furniture will present new designs from Ilkka Suppanen, Marten Claesson, Mika Tolvanen, Cecilie Manz, Gen Suzuki, Alex Tayler, Koichi Futatsumata along side interior objects by Richard Hutten and Michael Young. The exhibition space for GREENLAND will be designed by Japanese architect Hiroyuki Arima.
GREENLAND
April 16 - 21, 2008
Galleria Antonia Jannone
Corso Garibaldi 125, Milano
Opening Hours:
April 16: 11.00 am to 8.00 pm
April 17-20: 10.00 am to 8.00 pm
April 21: 10.00 am to 5.00 pm
It's no secret that Zurich Googlers inhabit an office that puts your foosball fun time corner to shame, and there's no better way to spur envy than through a photo gallery put together by the Googsters themselves. Also check out this recent BBC video and article that delves into the inner workings of this ultimate alterna-workspace's benefits like sliding into work rather than taking the elevator.
thanks bryman!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)It's nice to see people who normally make weapons design something less violent instead. Here we've got two examples:
1) Some five-star General's apparently been watching Back to the Future 3--like Doc, the US military has made a machine that turns garbage into fuel. The "Tactical Biorefinery" is...
...designed to ingest unfiltered garbage, from, say, a barracks or a mess hall. The garbage is ground up and organic food waste is separated out and fermented into ethanol while other waste, including plastics and cardboard, is heated and gasified into low-grade propane or methane in a parallel system. The resulting fuels are burned in a modified diesel engine to produce green electricity for our boys in green, err khaki.
2) "Don't tase me, bro." That University of Florida student would've loved the Net-2000 Shooting Rod, which ensconces you and your big heckling mouth in a spidery net, rather than sending 50,000 volts coursing through your body. Unfortunately we'll probably never see one of these deployed in denser cities like Manhattan, Seoul or Tokyo, unless you need to capture everyone in the subway car at once.
via earth 2 tech and geekologie
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Industrial Designers are known to be the most critical shoppers and in this discussion they share why.
Richard Kuchinsky started this discussion in wonderment of others and by asking the question, "In the age of mass consumerism, designed obsolescence, and quick to market product strategies is there less focus put on staying power, neutrality and restraint in design now than in the past?"
73lotus follows up some 20 responses later with: "As a designer, though, my ideal product (anything and everything) is devoid of any style trends and made to last forever without causing any environmental harm nor wearing out, breaking, or failing. The ultimate triumph of function over form (and design over consumerism/industrialization) which is beautiful in and of itself (to a designer, anyway). But that's not achievable in the real world, at least not for consumer goods, without a massive and total shift in consumer attitudes and shopping habits, and a total shift in the definition of business..."
Read on and join in.
Apparently Bernanke or whomever's in charge of minting US bread is a big Prince fan. Seen the new American five-spot? It's still not worth much--just three Euros, 486 Yen, or a disappointed look from a panhandler--but now it's loaded up with more purple than the cover of 1999.
Most blogs will tell you the new colors are to foil counterfeiters, but we think the US Mint is just delirious, de-lir-i-ous....
via msn money
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)No, no, no, no. We thought the Snakebot was the creepiest robot we'd seen yet, but now Boston Dynamics has gone and made this thing that's giving us nightmares.
You have to see this video--this %#&*@ robot simply won't go down. Watch as the guy tries to kick it over at the 00:36 mark. Watch as it goes uphill and downhill in snow, traverses slippery ice, and leaps accurately over demarcated distances. The most disturbing thing is that once it loses its balance, like at the 1:29 mark, it frantically scrabbles to regain its footing with the grotesque urgency of a locomoting cockroach. This machine looks like it will carry out its mission at any cost.
And what is its mission? Make no mistake: robots are here to replace us. Watching this video, we feel like the Incans watching the Conquistadors pulling into the harbor.
via gizmodo
thanks gina!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (4)
photo:Marie Richie
Over at Coroflot's Creative Seeds blog Carl Alviani has compiled a short list of specifics that aim to shed a little more light on this crucial but undefinable skill, networking. Read the beginning of a few...
"1.It's not about the first impression, it's about the third.Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
You know what they say about the Third Date, right? There's a reason the number three has so much meaning attached to it in relationships, and it's true in professional networking as well.2. A nice business card is nice, but it's just a piece of paper.
I remember the first time I had business cards printed up--500 of them, for Design Week in New York. They were dreadful, but to me they signified that I had arrived. I must have handed out 150 of those things over the course of the week, and I'm confident 99.5% of them never got looked at again.3. Obsequious: Look it up. And don't be it."
This one has done the rounds already but if you haven't seen it yet, take a minute and DO THE TEST.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (4)
Fashion/Apparel: Bag Designer
Crumpler
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
As an experienced designer you will be expected to integrate into our Ho Chi Minh development team. The selected applicants may be asked to complete a small design challenge and need to be available for a number of phone/skype interviews.
» view
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Don't miss out! Win a $200 gift certificate at Harris Cyclery.
We all remember when our first Huffy was stolen. The realization that some lazy-eyed cretin had stripped away our freedom all for the purpose of a 15 minutes joy ride hit us like a ton of bricks. Maybe that was just me, but no one can argue that bike theft is rampant. A recent discussion on the Core77 Blog about a Biomega bike that attempts to turn the whole bike into the bike lock is the inspiration for our latest 1HDC incarnation. Can you design a better bike lock in one hour or less? Push aside that looming deadline and pick up your Sharpies...it's 1HDC time again! What can you bring to the table to prevent more Huffy Heartache?
Last Call:
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
1PM PST (8 GMT)
Theme:
Theft Proof Bicycles
JURY:
Winner will be selected by the Core77 Admin. Community discussion is encouraged to help ensure the best design wins.
thanks to ip_wirelessly for settin' this up!
>>>CLICK TO ENTER YOUR SUBMISSION<<<
As part of their "Considered Design" mandate, Nike has come up with a clever way to turn production scraps from their own factories into a complete shoe. The Nike Trash Talk (yep, that's the name) uses Frankenstyle stitching so that even tiny scraps can be incorporated into the uppers; the midsoles are made from scrap foam; and the outsoles are made from "environmentally-preferred rubber."
Currently available only in New York and New Orleans, the Trash Talks will go nationwide with Footlocker in April. And at 100 bucks a pop, they pass the savings onto...well, somebody, but not us!
Learn more about Nike's sustainability initiatives here.
via inhabitat
thanks jill!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (5)Washington Mutual Bank, in conjunction with the non-profit KaBOOM!, is hosting a series of Design Days where children can design playgrounds to be built in ten US cities.
Kids, if you need inspiration for the shapes of your slides and climbing blocks, look no further than the US housing market. Have fun!
wheeeee!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)The book Dictator Style lacks a chapter on Fidel Castro, so perhaps we'll never know if the Comandante en Jefe was a fan of ID. Still, the island is making progress: Cuba's only design school, El Instituto Superior de Deseno Industrial, has just produced the first two students--architect Miriam Abreu Oramas and industrial designer Sergio Luis Pena Martinez--to achieve Master's Degrees in Management and Innovation Design.
Let's hope their sense of design isn't skewed; after all, Cuba's the only place on Earth where American cars are still cool.
photo via lumika
news via cuba headlines
Professor of sociology at the London School of Economics, Richard Sennett, talks about his new book, The Craftsman. The book is the first in a trilogy about how we relate to people, objects, and the world around us when we make stuff.
Listen to the full interview here.
From April 7-9, the Universität der Künste Berlin (University of Arts Berlin) will be holding the first 3D Modeling Symposium for architects, industrial designers and engineers in cooperation with Visual-Dream.
The three day event brings together lectures, case studies and master classes to boost your 3D modeling skills. National and international experts will demonstrate advanced solutions for contemporary architecture, construction and industrial design - such as ParaCloud software which supports the design, or generation, of free form surfaces and complex constructions (photo: a digital approach to Kiesler's biomorphic Endless House).
All information and registrations under www.3d-msb.de
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
From May 21-25, the DMY organization in Berlin follows up last year's "DMY FLY HIGH" event with the sixth episode of the yearly design event titled "THE SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT". The DMY YOUNGSTERS show, a central design exhibition at the Arena, will be expanded to a 7,000 square meter surface with over 150 exhibitors, accompanied by the DMY KUBLABOR with the necessary beats with DJs and VJs from all over the world to keep us visitors and exhibitors going.
This year, DMY BERLIN turns the yearly exhibition into it's own international design festival. This means that additionally the DMY ALLSTARS will use the city of Berlin for all over town exhibitions including a 'Turkish Delight' exhibit, a school trip by designers from London's RCA, winners of the Swiss Design Award, and precious design works from Israel and Slovakia. Reason enough to keep in touch with Berlin, so stay tuned!
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
We think the alternate-reality of alternate-realities hit a tremendous peak when SNL parodied Star Wars auditions, so it's tempting to look at these rejected ideas for Star Wars products (a long time ago, 1998) as more of the same, but they are legit. Awesome, goofy, silly, cool, at that very special creative place where "so dumb it's good" and "so damn good" begin to collide.
Ok, ok, that's not what it is. It's a cargo carrier by Kifaru, as seen on MIL-SPEC MONKEY's excellent coverage of the annual SHOTSHOW in Las Vegas. If you are looking for some inspiration along the lines of matte black colorways and nakedly utilitarian designs, or if you are just an old fashioned gun-nut, you shouldn't miss it.
Posted by: shaggy | Comments (0)
Science and Fiction: From Parametric Design to Natural Performance.
Monday, 03/17/2008, 6:00-8:00pm.
Speakers: Enric Ruiz Geli, Cloud9, and John Beckman, WRT.
Sponsored by: AIA New York Chapter Cultural Facilities Committee and The Catalan Center.
Location: Center for Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place. (Directions)
Price: Free (RSVP)
When I was a little kid learning to draw, I always had the deepest admiration for comic book artists, along with a profound misconception. Upon actually purchasing a Marvel, DC, or later an Image publication, the reader sees only crisp, perfect drawings, with no construction lines. You see, many artists proffer an illusion. There are several steps to making a comic: In the first step, the artist sketches out a rough with a pencil, complete with construction lines (often this is done on a much larger scale than the final page, so large errors appear small when it's printed). Second, an "inker" comes in and goes over the rough sketch with a pen, darkening only the ideal lines and ignoring errors. Then finally, the "colorist" lays a palate of color over the work.
So for the viewer, the final result omits much of the work that went on in making a "perfect" layout. This sort of trickery is pervasive in art, where artists ranging from Van Gogh to Vermeer may have used a variety of tools like the grid or the camera obscura to attain accurate proportions. Thus a subterfuge has been pulled over the eyes of the viewing public, who are left thinking that artists possess talent beyond their own, when actually a lot of the work that went into art has been erased or covered up and reworked with oils.
As someone who has gone to art school and seen that the act of repetitive practice can turn a mediocre sketcher into someone the world sees as "talented," I have no trouble understanding where Dan Roam is coming from in his book The Back of the Napkin when he speaks to his readers about visual thinking. Frankly, it doesn't matter whether or not people can draw when they present their ideas. All the errant lines and mistakes that they make when drawing under pressure contribute to a sense of immediacy and urgency in the final product.
Roam is a consultant by trade, and I trust that he won't take offense when I say that while his "back of the napkin" sketches lack the technical prowess of a Rembrant or DaVinci, his simple line drawings are clear, concise and evocative of the emotional verve one sees (and casually discounts) in the "funny pages." This, of course, is precisely the point of his book: simple sketches are often more compelling than technically adept Power Point slides.
Posted by: Robert Blinn | Comments (2)
Senior Staff Designer
Stuart Karten Design, Inc.
Marina Del Rey, CA
Stuart Karten Design (SKD) is looking for a senior designer to lead in the design of paradigm-shifting, award-winning products. This person will provide creative leadership in a team environment and challenge our ways of thinking with fresh ideas.
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)RISD student Alvin Aronson's Digital/Analog clock literally lives up to its name, using an analog mechanism to mimic the numbers of a typical LCD clock display. The smooth, subtle transitions are especially captivating.
via swissmiss
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Gus Rodriguez, Vice President, Partnerships and Consulting, Philips Design gave me a few moments of his time when we discovered we had both studied at the IIT Institute of Design, Chicago. Gus is an alumnus from the undergraduate program back in the early eighties and until he took up his most recent role this year, he was Director of Design for Phillips Consumer Electronics.
Phillips Design took an unusual decision about ten years to deliberately offer design consulting services to companies outside the organization. About 10% of their projects are for clients like Nike, Coca Cola, P&G among others. They do this to encourage cross pollination of ideas from outside, to learn and to keep the creative juices flowing. Its a challenge sometimes to stop thinking like a Phillips designer, and take on a project in very different brand or design language, but Gus added, "that's exactly what designers can do, step outside of their comfort zones and think on behalf of their clients.
We also talked about Phillips' Philanthropy by Design initiative begun after a series of conversations in 2005, where Philips Design internally worked on a smokeless stove meant for those at the bottom of the pyramid - the photograph above is only a window display at HQ in Eindhoven not the actual product.
More after the jump, including Nico von Saurma of BMW Group Designworks USA
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
Don't miss out! Win a $200 gift certificate at Harris Cyclery.
We all remember when our first Huffy was stolen. The realization that some lazy-eyed cretin had stripped away our freedom all for the purpose of a 15 minutes joy ride hit us like a ton of bricks. Maybe that was just me, but no one can argue that bike theft is rampant. A recent discussion on the Core77 Blog about a Biomega bike that attempts to turn the whole bike into the bike lock is the inspiration for our latest 1HDC incarnation. Can you design a better bike lock in one hour or less? Push aside that looming deadline and pick up your Sharpies...it's 1HDC time again! What can you bring to the table to prevent more Huffy Heartache?
Last Call:
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
1PM PST (8 GMT)
Theme:
Theft Proof Bicycles
JURY:
Winner will be selected by the Core77 Admin. Community discussion is encouraged to help ensure the best design wins.
thanks to ip_wirelessly for settin' this up!
>>>CLICK TO ENTER YOUR SUBMISSION<<<
We're liking this attempt at a 3D-modeling LOL cat, but it would've been a boat load better if there were actually some nurbs and surfaces...
thanks chris!
"Don't play with your food!" You don't need to read German to understand that Christian Hueckstaedt fully disagrees with this. Apart from using the pencil or cardboard, he experiments with fruits and vegetables to create his latest illustrations. The food-based animals (more here) are published along poetic storyline in this month's issue of Das Magazin.
thanks Inga!
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
Apparently, there's a whole segment of sci-fi geeks who already knew that George Lucas based the AT-ATs on Oakland's cargo cranes, but for the rest of us, super-rad Gawker affiliate io9 is here to give us the run down on various sci-fi creations and their real-life muses. Ever wonder where the idea for Robby the Robot came from?
Nope.
That's wrong too.
Just read the article already.
Posted by: Carl Alviani | Comments (0)
Regine over at we-make-money-not-art catches up with Ben Hughes who gives some thoughts on the philosophy driving the MA Industrial Design program, and takes a stab at defining what exactly 'Industrial Design' means today.
We have been experimenting for several years with different means of prototyping interactive experiences in order to test them. We continue to incorporate everything from role-play to swift cardboard test-rigs to hacking existing systems, to basic programming. In terms of the latter, we have this year started working with Arduino, which look very promising. This year we also worked with colleagues in Textile Design and the Epigenome Network to explore ideas of Epigenetics using design thinking. I would draw the line at projects dealing with the entirely hypothetical, or 'conceptual,' as we are primarily interested in material culture; the 3 dimensional component of this stuff.
Ben trained as an Industrial Designer in the UK, worked for consultancies in Taiwan and Australia and came back London where he's been heading the course since 2000, writes about and practices design, and consults on industrial design, brand and marketing.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)Marc Gobe spoke on Emotional Branding, or Humanizing brands through Emotional Design. A snippet from the intro,
Relying on real case histories that have broken the glass ceiling of commodity marketing, Marc Gobé will demonstrate that the true measurement of a brand success is in how it impacts culture and lifestyles through an emotional meaning that is brought to life through design.
This was a fun presentation to sit through and see through the eyes of a creator how exactly deep insights into brands that have managed to touch our emotions do it. Gobe emphasized that design has changed, he mentioned the difference between what he referred to as "Brands in the Industrial Age" where every detail of the corporate logo was rigidly controlled and "brands in the emotional age" using Google's ever changing logo on holidays as a counter example.
"Make them cry"
A GM automotive designer who would surprise in each concept presentation by using different means of showing the same concept using different media.
After the gap, what its like to work with Karim Rashid.
Design/Value, The DMI International Singapore Conference began today in Singapore, on the theme of using design and design thinking to solve business objectives. Or rather, creating business value through design. Here's a familiar snippet from their site,
The role of design in business has shifted dramatically over the past few years, and is now becoming recognized as a key business asset that can add true value. With a panel of international experts, this conference will communicate how to create value through design, based on the triple bottom line: economic, social/cultural, and environmental value.
The conference was kicked off by Tonya Peck, Sr User Experience Manager with the Windows Mobile team at Microsoft who shared her experiences on managing two far flung teams - Beijing and Redmond - working on the same design projects together though separated by vast differences in culture, time and geography. This is a challenge that most of us face and I've summarized some key points from her presentation after the jump.
On design in Microsoft however, Peck tells us that a design centric culture is still at in its infancy at Microsoft but increasingly improving its influence and reach. Just last year, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer actually mentioned the word design in public. "They're not wholly sure what they're talking about yet but at least they've started to talk about it" and that's seen as an encouraging sign of hope in a company whose culture has traditionally been 'Type A', task oriented and goals driven. The flipside as Microsoft attempts to understand and integrate design thinking internally is that the attrition rate of designers is as high as 25% and retaining them becomes difficult. I got the feeling that the 'body' of this behemoth knows this even if the head hasn't figured it out yet and is working towards implementing incremental changes but changing the DNA of a successful organization is not an overnight task. Its easy to be cynical however about Microsoft, particularly since design and Macs go together like mom and apple pie but hearing about the company today tells me that its also a company whose very DNA implies that if it wants to change, it either will or die trying. There's something to be said for that kind of focus and drive.
Designer jeans, watches, and purses can be bought, but designer handwriting surely cannot. rkuchinsky (see his own "upper case italic with almost a script like connection between letters and forms" style above in the blue ink) started a most awesome thread, Designer Handwriting, to see what the norm is nowadays. Apparently, it's not always picture-perfect, not always ALL CAPS, and certainly not a pool of carbon copies. Some of us can totally relate to ip_wirelessly (above in the black ink) who writes with his "right foot in a hole" and "gets lazy after about 30 microseconds of writing."
Feel free to upload your own scribbles and comment on others' down yonder at the Designer Handwriting discussion.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Last week the Spanish city of Barcelona hosted a one-day event on "Disruptive Thinking" organised by the Art Center College of Design, in collaboration with the ESADE Business School.
The organisers promoted the event as part of "a series of on-stage conversations with internationally renowned thinkers in many fields whose 'disruptive' ideas and actions challenge convention, break current paradigms, and inspire positive changes in the larger world."
What are Californians doing in Barcelona? Why did they organise this type of gathering? And how successful was the event in conveying or stimulating disruptive thinking? Read more here.
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)
We've all seen the "Japanese folding T-shirt" video; that trick belongs to a category of Japanese household tips called urazawa, handy little techniques to solve common problems using whatever's lying around.
Lisa Katayama, the blogess behind tokyomango.com, has compiled an entire book of them. Urazawa: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan lists a crapload of effective techniques that go way beyond folding a shirt. (Most will be unfamiliar to Westerners, which adds to their charm.) Want to know how to clean a leather jacket with a banana? Restore a misshapen or shrunken sweater? Improve your skin by bringing an umbrella into the bathroom? Get that club stamp from last night off your hand? With over 100 different tricks, you'll probably be putting your own YouTube clips up in no time.
The book's on sale here; below, Lisa shows you how to get melted candle wax off the floor.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (4)
The oh so popular, artsy-fartsy voyeuristic "show me your desk" trend has made its way over to PingMag, but with a little twist. Keeping in mind UK-JAPAN 2008, "a year-long season of exciting events, performances and exhibitions to showcase the UK's contemporary creativity in the arts, in science and innovation, and in creative industries," only desks from the UK and Japan are showcased here. And another noticeable (and welcome) difference is the departure from the strictly Mac minimal and perfectly hipster-fied designer desks we're all used to seeing--check out the blissful chaos of white-screen.jp editor Kana's desk!
All desks can be seen on PingMag's Flickr.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
As JFK's Terminal 5, the new home-to-be for JetBlue, approaches the final stages of a total overhaul, the NYT reviews the post-9/11 security measures this $750 million project has packed onto the original Saarinen structure. Also check out the slide show of the enormous work-in-progress.
Most airline terminals have been jury-rigged since 2001 to accommodate all the extra security workers and equipment. But JetBlue's new Terminal 5 is among the first in the United States designed from the ground up after the terrorist attacks.The 340-foot-wide security checkpoint will dominate the departures hall the way ticket counters once did, occupying the focal point of the Y-shaped building.
There will be 20 security lanes. "They were sized with the idea that passengers have luggage, have children, have wheelchairs and have special needs," said William R. DeCota, director of aviation at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs Kennedy.
(image : David W. Dunlap/The New York Times)
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Lucia Ordonez and El Maletero's Escalera Piano is perfect if you insist that your interior match your piano key necktie.
via ffffound!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Product Design Specialist
United States Mint
Philadelphia, PA
The United States Mint, Philadelphia is looking for a person to work in the Engraving Division of the Mint as a Product Design Specialist, in this position the incumbent must have a working knowledge of 3-D design software such as Alias Design Studio, 3-D sculpting software such as SensAble Technologies FreeForm and Z-brush, and 2-D design software such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. They must also be familiar with reverse engineering software and techniques that can incorporate traditionally produced designs into the digital workflow.
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Massimiliano De Falco's Bat(h)man public toilet doesn't fight any crimes with the exception of preventing you from urinating in a homelier urinal.
via notcot
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Everyone loves to spot a Photoshop blunder and now there's Photoshop Disasters, an entire site dedicated to its namesake, where you can overindulge in snafus like this DS Game that features the refusal to purchase stock imagery.
via swissmiss
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)A unique insight into design, innovation and the future of change. John Maeda's new blog at RISD. From their About page,
our.risd is here to reach out to the entire Rhode Island School of Design community and everyone else who is interested in following our trajectory into the 21st century. Conceived by RISD President-elect John Maeda, this blog offers a forum for him to share his thoughts and ideas about transition, community, life, work and anything else that comes to mind, as he gears up to become RISD's 16th president on June 2, 2008.
Here's a snippet,
In my various encounters in the world of creativity and innovation, I have always noted that the art/design instinct is always revealed in the eyes of a person. First the eyes, then the hands - one's back posture or degree of portliness has no particular correlation I've discovered. Art and design are about empathy ... directed outwards, inwards, towards a commercial concern, or completely free.Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)Also, some of the best artists and designers are great cooks. There is something to cooking that is not only inherently inventive, but also exemplifies the very nature of unselfish giving from the heart. What you could eat yourself, you choose to give to another as the most meaningful sustenance for survival.
New 1HDC just launched! Win a $200 gift certificate at Harris Cyclery.
We all remember when our first Huffy was stolen. The realization that some lazy-eyed cretin had stripped away our freedom all for the purpose of a 15 minutes joy ride hit us like a ton of bricks. Maybe that was just me, but no one can argue that bike theft is rampant. A recent discussion on the Core77 Blog about a Biomega bike that attempts to turn the whole bike into the bike lock is the inspiration for our latest 1HDC incarnation. Can you design a better bike lock in one hour or less? Push aside that looming deadline and pick up your Sharpies...it's 1HDC time again! What can you bring to the table to prevent more Huffy Heartache?
Doors Open:
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
7 AM PST (2 GMT)
Last Call:
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
1PM PST (8 GMT)
Theme:
Theft Proof Bicycles
JURY:
Winner will be selected by the Core77 Admin. Community discussion is encouraged to help ensure the best design wins.
thanks to ip_wirelessly for settin' this up!
>>>CLICK TO ENTER YOUR SUBMISSION<<<
At SXSW, Michael Lopp, a senior engineering manager at Apple, took a stab at explaining why Apple nails design on the head every time while other companies struggle and fail to keep up. Businessweek reports:
After describing Apple's process of delivering consumers with a succession of presents ("really good ideas wrapped up in other really good ideas" -- in other words, great software in fabulous hardware in beautiful packaging), he asked the question many have asked in their time: "How the f*ck do you do that?"
The seemingly fool-proof process includes pixel-perfect mockups, development in a succession of 10 to 3 to 1 concepts, twice weekly brainstorming/production meetings, and "pony" meetings (think "I want a pony!!").
thanks steve!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you've grown tired of LOL Cats and icanhascheezburger type sites, check out Wordtoyour.com where you can "word to your"-ize any image for a chuckle's worth.
via thrillist
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
Initial Intake is a photography series by Saul Robbins that "examines the chair of the New York psychotherapist from the point of view of their clients."
via New York Times
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Senior Industrial Designer
IDEO
Chicago, IL
IDEO is seeking talented and qualified senior industrial designer to join its Chicago location. We are looking for an industrial designer with 7-10 years of experience in consulting and in-house design positions, and who can lead multidisciplinary teams across projects as diverse as design strategy, brand experience and design language.
We're looking for a talented industrial designer that can see the strategic and business side of industrial design. The candidate will understand that products and objects are part of a bigger experience and that brands are only the sum of the experiences companies have with consumers. Overall, the ideal candidate will be a design thinker with sensitivity to business impact.
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
The Fail Bench, designed by RISD furniture design student James Lear, tests a potential sitter's apprehension against their tired feet.
via mocoloco
UNKL's just released the new UniPo Fan Series which includes 4 new UniPo characters designed by global artists: Birdie Girl, designed by Tummie, Picnick by Peter Creten, Everything by Yosoh, and Rahula by Rultron.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
We spotted Michael Hellgren's green designs at the Stockholm Design Week. This less usual landscape architect designs vertical gardens, or better walls, made out of plants.
Växtväggen (Swedish for "Plantwall") is a self-supporting system composed of a reinforced, multi-layered, synthetic and absorbent felt-surface on which plants are applied into small pockets. Michael says: "Just like any garden, the vertical garden is a place of life and change. I try to achieve it by finding the essence of every plant - it could be a special color of its leafs, its texture, the way it growths etc - and give each species an environment where this may be at display."
His work with these living materials seem to blend with all kinds of places - so keep your eyes open for plant wall sightings. Apart from his interior applications we love this urban approach where contrasting plant walls enrich the public spaces of us city slickers.
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (0)
"Brit Insurance Designs of the Year" is surely an unsexy title, but that's what the London Design Museum is calling their latest design roundup.
The first in an annual exploration of the most innovative, interesting and forward looking new work in design of all kinds. Selected from around the world, Brit Insurance Designs of the Year presents 100 projects nominated by a group of internationally respected design experts, curators, critics, practitioners and enthusiasts. These projects fall within seven categories: architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport. The exhibition gives an overview of the most significant achievements in design and architecture in the last year, whether they are projects by a practice, a team or an individual.
With projects by Ron Arad, SANAA, Anthony Dickens, Nintendo, Apple, and others. Later this month a "winner" will be announced in each category, but the exhibit runs through April 27th.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)High-speed milling is hot, but bronze casting is hotter, literally at least. For this week's production methods vid we rock it old-school with two clips of lost-wax casting, an ancient method still in use today to make bronze statues and, my neighbor's kid insists, parts of the iPhone. (He's five, so he could be wrong.)
The first clip shows the process on an industrial scale. If you already know how it's done, pre-load the clip and go get yourself a coffee--you can skip the first seven minutes and get to the part we really want to see, which is Molten Hot M-A-G-M-A.
This second, shorter clip shows a Gainesville artist doing her own batches and it's inexplicably scored with the type of piano-and-flute music they play at medieval festivals, so watch at your own risk.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)More bad news for US car designers: coming shortly after the recent announcement that Volvo and Chrysler are shedding their California design studios, the Tri-Cities Business Review observes more American design jobs leaving Detroit for places like Germany, China and the UK.
"What we're seeing is the individuals that are remaining--our industry has been pretty much gutted--[are] becoming essentially supervisors or managers," design executive Matthew Pyzik said. Pyzik, president of Design Intent Engineering of Farmington Hills, said those left tend to be a highly skilled but small cadre who oversee lower-cost designers in shops around the world. He's off-shored auto design work too, he said, to keep costs down for his automaker customers--while striving to diversify his company into other industrial products.Displaced or demoralized auto designers, meanwhile, are taking their skills out of Michigan, Pyzik said, often landing jobs with other transportation industries.
Read the full story here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
We are thrilled to announce that Design Observer, one of the most esteemed design communities on the web, has partnered with Coroflot to launch their new Design Observer Job Board. Design Observer provides a global readership with outstanding design discourse, criticism, provocation, and, well...observations on design and the creative industries, and we are proud to welcome them into our network.
If you've got a creative job to post and are looking to attract the best talent, check out Coroflot.com and its partner sites Design Observer, Businessweek, How Magazine, ID Magazine, Print Magazine, and the Art Directors Club.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
UK designer Tej Chauhan has designed some killer retro-futuristic telephones, named the Colombo One and Colombo Two (photo above) after designer Joe Colombo.
Joe Colombo had a short but impactful career in design, from just 1962 until his untimely demise, at age 41, in 1971. In addition to working on furniture for Alessi and Kartell, Colombo was fond of producing hi-tech interiors that featured touches like TVs that disappeared into the ceiling and panels that rotated to reveal hidden bars.
You can read more about Colombo's work here, and if you happen to live in Graz, you'll be able to catch the last installment of the Vitra Design Museum's Colombo retrospective, "Joe Colombo: Inventing the Future."
via switched on set and designophy
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Our planet may be in trouble: according to Top Gear, the best-selling car in the world is the Ford F-150 pickup truck. They are sold at an astonishing rate of 107 every hour of every day of the year, which means two or three went while I was composing this paragraph. Getting only 14/20 mpg, that's not good news for anyone except Exxon and several dozen lucky Sheiks.
What's even more astonishing is the bulk of these sales are in North America alone. Thank goodness for that--if the Chinese started driving and buying these behemoths at the rate Americans do, well, it would be like a global-environmental version of when everyone flushes their toilets at the same time and the water mains all explode.
In the amusing video below, TG's Jeremy Clarkson asks the question "Why don't Brits buy or drive the best-selling car in the world?" And despite his assertions that rural Americans practice incest and are in regular danger of being eaten by bears, he's got some spot-on points.
One more thing you need to see, particularly if you think pickup trucks are safer than cars. As Clarkson points out in the above video, pickups aren't beholden to the same safety standards as cars, as the frightening crash test of the F-150 shows, below.
Polly Verity (aka polyscene) has recently posted her newest intricately folded polypropylene creations (right side) on Flickr, in addition to her older but just as fabulous paper patterns (left side).
via ffffound!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
The spirit of bershon is pretty much how you feel when you're 13 and your parents make you wear a Christmas sweatshirt and then pose for a family picture, and you could not possibly summon one more ounce of disgust, but you're also way too cool to really even DEAL with it, so you just make this face like you smelled something bad and sort of roll your eyes and seethe in a put-out manner.
- "Bershon" defined by writer and blogger Sarah Brown
We're now totally educated on Bershon as Design Observer's Michael Bierut was after delving deeper into the mysteries of his family's smile-less photo collection.
Everyone can relate (ahem- "Chrismas sweatshirt"), and the proof is in the Flickr pool, I'm So Bershon.
(image : ellistrator via absquatulate
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Take a look at this newly posted video from the Greener Gadgets conference featuring a panel discussion on Off-Grid Generation for Electrical Devices. Innovations in battery design, solar power for mobile devices, mobile wind power, and portable kinetic energy generation for mobile devices are discussed by panelists panelists are Arthur Huang, Founder, Hymini (wind, solar chargers), Regan Warner-Rowe, Business Development, M2E power (kinetic energy), Peng Lim, CEO, MTI (micro fuel cell company), Christina Lampe-Onnerud, CEO, Boston Power (battery maker), and Daniel Porras, VP of Sustainability, Solio / Better Energy Systems (solar chargers.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Post-Doctoral Fellow in HCI and Systems Engineering
University College Dublin
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre is looking for a Post-Doctoral Fellow specialising in HCI and Systems Engineering. TRIL is a coordinated collection of research projects addressing the physical, cognitive and social consequences of ageing.
The main role for the TTP Post-Doctoral fellow is in the exploration of applied independent living research questions stemming from clinical, user-centred and ethnographic perspectives. This is a full-time position.
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Italian designer Dum Dum Arredamente's house, La Casa Nella Cisterna, looks as eclectically funky as his name sounds. The cylindrical wonder-abode is made from a restored ancient aqueduct and its interior dons the designer's whimsical furniture and product creations as well as integrated custom fixtures like a carved wooden staircase.
thanks tommaso!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (2)
Check out these 100% cotton Pants in a Pinch for kids age 3-24 months to that fit into a palm-sized disc... perfect for when slacks are beyond soiled or if you merely decide your rugrat needs a mid-day fashion crisis wardrobe change a la the Olsen twins.
via notcot
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
If you happen to have sacks of cash laying around, Wright's Utopia : Lost and Found auction might interest you. Furniture and product designs from the 60s and 70s, a time of radical experimentation in form, color, and materials, by the likes of Gaetano Pesce, Gino Marotta, Ettore Sottsass, Panamarenko, and so on, are now up for bids online. (This Luigi Colani lounge chair is estimated to sell for $1,000 to $1,500.)
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Digital manufacturing is about computerised creation, digital design.
Digital manufacturing tools now come in wide varieties of prices and capabilities. And, they're being hooked to the net and made available to artisans in studios. The virtual is actualising. When? Now! Computer manufacturing produces objects, tools, products and fine-art works impossible to make through any other way.
Today was the opening of manufacturing, the central exhibition of the Turin-based Share Festival, this year curated by Bruce Sterling.
More photos [also here]
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)
These alternating-step stairs are somewhat fascist in that they dictate which foot goes where, but darn if we don't like the storage features. To see the rest of the house--a rather innovative structure from the Czech Republic, circa 2003--click here.
via materialicious
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
"If you design a car, someone will use it to rob a bank," one of our design professors used to say. His point was that you can't worry about how people might misuse a product you design.
It's possible a UK charitable organization doesn't share his point of view; they are allegedly sponsoring an experimental program to pad lightposts so that text-messaging pedestrians who walk into them don't hurt themselves. We're hoping that this is a gag--though the original source attributed the program to the London branch of Living Streets, nothing on their website corroborates this.
This may remind you of the news from a year ago, when a few NYC pedestrians were hit by cars because they were too busy engaging their iPods and yapping on cell phones. Senator Kruger (NY's other Senator, remember him?) proposed a crosswalk ban on the devices, which thankfully came to naught.
And according to the FBI, bank robberies increased 4% from 2005 to 2006, the last years for which statistics are available. Perhaps we'll see more padded lightposts in the future.
via geekologie
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Autonomous robots are not creepy enough, so now CMU's professor Howie Choset has gone and made them snakelike. They can undulate across the floor, they can wrap around things, they can shimmy up your leg, and they can combine two of your correspondent's phobias in one slithery package. The video has to be seen to be believed. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go nail my door shut.
via arbroath
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
Over at Coroflot's Creative Seeds blog Carl Alviani is adding spice to the discussion on the designers lost art form, writing. Where has the eloquence gone? Jumping two paragraphs in:
There was a time when facility and even eloquence with the written word was expected of just about every professional--creative or otherwise--and a lot of non-professionals too. Reading letters and business correspondence from the early part of the 20th century is a gently humbling experience, imparting pangs in the reader who realizes that a request for additional tacks by a carpenter in 1910 was written more elegantly than most correspondence between executives today. There are a range of reasons for this apparent decline--literacy rates are higher now, for example, and so the upper-class association that the written word once held has faded--but this is a larger, more academic question than I'm trying to answer here.Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)...designers create visual documents, and complain that their non-creative counterparts don't know how to read a sketch...
One of the founding partners of Pentagram, Kenneth Grange's CV reads like a list of iconic British products. During a career spanning half a century he has designed the UK's first parking meters, the Kodak Instamatic, the Kenwood Chef, razors for Wilkinson Sword, typewriters, loudspeakers, Anglepoise lamps, Parker pens, London taxi-cabs, and - arguably his crowning glory - the distinctive nose cone of the Inter-City 125. It is fair to say that few industrial designers have influenced so many areas of our lives.
The Engineer interviews Grange on his long career. Here's a snippet,
The designer's role, he said, is to make sure a product marries form and function in a way that will satisfy both marketing people and end users.
He said: '[a marketing department] might come to us with a brief with a strong fashion component but that might not have a strong slant on whether its functionally is as good as it should be. The designer has to use his wits to keep all these things in balance, one without the other is a lost opportunity - that is the nub of the designer's role.'
But Grange does not see much evidence of this fine balance today and believes that the disproportionate influence of the marketing department has changed the role of the designer for the worse.
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
Last month, TankPitstop was officially launched, a world's first automated fuel robot to actually work in practice. We can call it a smart robot since it recognizes the car's brand, model and type and is also equipped with a secure automated payment system.
"The TankPitstop is an automated fuel robot which allows motorists to refuel and pay without actually doing anything themselves. The innovative robotic technology will make refueling much easier. The system reduces the burden on the environment, enhances safety and, by fully automating the refueling process, makes refueling quicker and more comfortable."
Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Maria van der Hoeven was first to use the TankPitstop which will soon be able to serve 80 percent of cars in the Netherlands. The idea actually came from the cow industry where robots milk cows.
Watch the TankPitstop robot video here.
via evd magazine
Posted by: Aart van Bezooyen | Comments (5)Moderator Mr-914 looped back to a point from a previous discussion about what significance, if any, market research holds in the design process. Quoting Steve Jobs' whatever-ness on market research, he reiterates that focus groups don't necessarily point to success in the marketplace--that we don't need no stinkin' consultants. rkuchinsky followed up with a nice quote, "People dont know what they like. They like what they know." And, of course, Zippyflounder, whom the discussion was initially addressed to, provided an appropriately argumentative response that, along with the say of many others, pushed the convo 4 pages deeper, full of opinions on herd dynamics, what consumers really want, and whether success relies upon the power of the designer or opinions of the people.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (1)
Many thanks to Ted Ullrich, a Georgia Tech grad ID student, for posting a bunch of photos of the IDSA Southern District Conference festivities that took place this past weekend. Aside from the lectures and parties, you just couldn't miss the Pink Föm crew.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (5)
In conjunction with the Singapore Design Festival, Beijing, Singapore, and Malaysia-based Orca Design launched its GreenHouse Effect exhibit, a conceptual exploration of sustainable solutions for the home. The collection tweaks products that we use daily to perform on a greener level, where a little change makes at least a little difference--better than none at all. Two of the items include the Post-It Notepad, which works as a notepad in one direction and sticky notes in reverse, and the Bottleneck Saver that restricts the flow on pumped products to ensure rations are economical and shampoos/soaps/lotions are used efficiently.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Before all the nation's hot conferences and events, when all the decent hotels get fully booked in a matter of seconds, don't fear--the scrappy Days Inn off the exit ramp isn't your only option. You may remember AirBed & Breakfast from its rogue debut during Connecting '07, but it's now a new, improved, and ready-to-grow accommodation station. During any major event or conference, you can make extra cash by renting out an extra guest room or airbed, and if you're attending, you may find a thrifty rate with the advantage of hanging with the locals. Over 40 AB&B hosts and guests are currently taking part at SXSW and upcoming events include the SNAP Summit, ad:tech, Web 2.0 Expo, ICFF, DNC, and RNC.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Senior Designer
Steelcase
Strasbourg, France
Steelcase, a global provider of environments that integrate Architecture, Furniture and Technology, is seeking committed designers to join our Design Studio. Working in a collaborative development environment, you will be a part of creating innovative product solutions that help people work more effectively. Our multidisciplinary team works to understand emerging workplace needs that are solved through applied user centered design.
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Derived from intensive research of microstructures and natural structure systems, Timothy Schreiber's Morphogenesis Chaise not only looks sleek and futuristic, but is also extremely strong.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (1)
What if you could virtually build, imagine, share, and play with LEGOs right on your iPhone or iPod Touch? PlayNYC's LEGO-touch application concept has been dreamed up just in time for Apple's SDK.
While the functional usage of touch technology reflects the building essence of the Lego brick, social creativity is potentially limitless while running off a mobile network. Build, share, challenge others, create characters, personalization and more. The interactivity of Lego-touch is quite the lucrative creative experience on a smart phone for all ages.Posted by: core jr | Comments (4)
We're pretty impressed by Landscape Structures' Mobius Climber, which can help kids get exercise and maybe teach them a thing or two about fourth-dimensional wormholes.
But what we'd really like to see is an M.C.-Escher-designed condominium with space-saving anti-gravity staircases.
Early architectural tests indicate it would work! Well, at least in Lego.
Chrysler's been in crisis since at least '06, when the carmaker started taking heavy losses. Now comes the unfortunate downsizing. While they've announced they'll be expanding some engineering operations overseas, designers back home are getting the shaft: say goodbye to Chrysler's Pacifica Advance Product Design Center in California, which they've just announced they're shuttering. The rare design center focused on concepts for 15-20 years in the future.
Maybe we're biased, but um, does anyone know of any business stories where boosting engineering but axing design actually led to better results?
Not that Chrysler's alone in their new tack--Volvo's shedding the Californian design center they opened in 2001, and will be consolidating US design to their center in New Jersey.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (4)
A local Canadian rag has a profile up on Matthew Kroeker, who designed the Splinter Chair (above). We love hearing stories like this--after high school Kroeker spent two years as a ski bum (well, snowboard bum) at Whistler:
"I didn't have any idea what I was going to do, other than some vague inclination to become a commercial artist or graphic designer," he says.[After moving to Toronto to take art classes,] "I found myself studying the objects that surrounded me every day, and I realized these things don't grow on trees, so I started quizzing my art instructors about who designs this stuff."
He then discovered industrial design, and after putting a decade into it has been named one of Canada's Ten Most Innovative Designers by the Interior Design Show. Follow his career arc (still on the uptick) here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Melbourne's newest design blogger and good friend of Core77, Lucy recently caught up with Matt Cotter who's worked on detailed sculptures, props and scenery for Star Wars Episodes II and III, Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, Stealth, Ned Kelly, Ghostrider and projects including the Sydney Olympics opening ceremony. Some good insight for those looking to get a start working on sets in the film industry and maybe even a career path that let's you play in a band on the side.
...There have been occasional clashes between work and music, but most of the time it seems a job finishes just as a tour, or recording or whatever is about to start. And fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective) my whole career has been casual employment, so I'm not really burning any bridges by saying 'no' to jobs if I've got something else on.
And while you're scoping out the design files, don't miss last months interview with artist Jim Clark who has a long history making the sets for one of Australia's best music festivals, The Big Day Out.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
Photos courtesy of Mike Pick's new camera!
Design, technology, parties, robots, beer, barbeque, legos, MIT, Google, video games, blogs, music. Those are some of the words that come to mind after the first few days of the 2008 SXSW Festival. Check their site for podcasts and videos of the sessions, and check Flickr for tons more photos.
From a conference perspective the folks at SXSW really do a lot of things right. Blanket wi-fi at the conference center helps distribute the ideas from the conference across the world as it happens. The vibe is great and everyone here seems to love the whole thing. As with any conference their are a few clunkers in the panels, but there are a lot more hits than misses. If anything the conference is TOO successful, as the lines to get into the parties are really starting to impact my ability to make those valuable business connections.
Granted you'd need a lot of spare time to assemble these into anything meaningful, there is something very appealing about the cardboard modular Bloxes system. What started as a side art project of Aza Raskin (son of Jef Raskin - Mac interface designer) has now become a business venture. So what are Bloxes?
... essentially 3D cardboard legos that ship flat, and fold up in modular building blocks that are strong enough to stand on. While they aren't tech per se, we use them for building tables, walls, cubicles, and desks.
Every year we see the concept of low-cost cardboard furniture get rehashed--it's the classic student project--but this is one of the nicer solutions, maybe more as a wall divider or glass coffee table base, as the charm of working on cardboard furniture runs its course pretty quickly.
via techcrunch
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
Every year, for five days, creative contributions from all over Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark gather here. Stockholm Design Week is growing and by far the biggest design event up north. This year's event is about recognizing young designers and their first steps in setting new standards for the future of Scandinavian design.
>> View the Gallery Here <<
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Trends at this years fair (Jan 7-20) saw a much stronger focus on 'green' issues and a heightened awareness of safety with many manufactures overtly promoting their 'Made in the USA' status. To be expected, a larger proportion of toys were offering a virtual component to extend the experience.
>> View the Gallery Here <<
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
This Nendo-designed office space in Tokyo is divided by a series of low-dipping partitions you have to step over...like you're in a submarine. Was it designed for flooding? To stymie Roombas? Prevent rollerblading? According to the designers,
We wanted the usual spaces and functions--meeting space, management, workspace and storage--to be separate, but also to maintain a sense of connection between them.To achieve this effect, we divided the space with walls that seem to sag and flop like a piece of cloth held up between two hands, enclosing the various spaces more than the usual office dividers, but less than actual walls.
Employees can move between spaces by walking over the parts of the walls that "sag" the most, thus emphasizing the contrast between the uses of the different spaces.
Spaces that need more sound-proofing are enclosed with the kind of plastic curtains you might find at a small factory so that people can work without worrying about noise but not feel isolated. When you stand up and look through the whole space, people, shelves and plants seem to appear and disappear as though floating between the waves.
Perhaps it was also intended to weed out potentially clumsy employees: if you trip during the job interview, "We'll keep your resume on file."
via dezeen
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (11)
Scullcave is a lightweight and portable play hut made of Sensaten (used in the foundations of cement roads) designed by Our Children's Gorilla.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)It's not obvious that the bit is moving slightly on more than one axis, 'til the part (a pump impeller, according to one comment) turns sideways and you see those oval holes.
Man alive--if we had one of these in the office, there wouldn't be a single right angle or flat surface in this place.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Yes, designer folks understand that this sign is clever. Unfortunately, we're not so sure the government officials will get it.
via swissmiss
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (7)
Editorial Web Designer
NYTimes.com
New York, NY, USA
This person will design new editorial and application areas of NYTimes.com, and help enhance existing features and functionality throughout the site. This person will be primarily focused on developing online graphics but will occasionally work in print media as well. A strong competency in Web standards-based design skills, user interface design skills and/or experience creating online experiences for content-rich Web sites is a plus. The position will also include design documentation, producing isolated instances of code and general assistance in the design process.
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)Check out Dan Soltzberg's review and analysis of Stefan Sagmeister's recent lecture at Stanford, where he presented based on his Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far projects. Thanks to an audience member's inquiry on Sagmeister's ideation methods, the audience got an up-close and personal look at the side of him that has the ability to avoid "the dangers of starting ideation from existing solutions and opinions."
This demonstration... got me thinking about the art of research.Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)Design research is often positioned as a kind of counterbalance to the type of creative act I've just described. But, when it's well-practiced, research includes a juxtaposing and synthesizing of ideas... Just as with other aspects of the design process, research culminates in possibilities for new ways that things can go together. For design researchers, the materials for this synthesis include a deep and focused exploration of people: behaviors, bodies, meaning, culture, complaints, wishes, lies and truths.
...The beauty of integrating a focused understanding of people into the whole design process... is that what comes out the other end of the pipe will be imbued not only with the vision of its creators but with the soul of that wider audience as well.
Crooning erroneously to the smooth sounds of Hall & Oates is one thing, but faking a PowerPoint presentation you've never seen before is, well, flippin' weird. At a bar, beers in hand, a group of geeks gather to "present", as best they can, to random slides a la everyone's most abhorred application.
If you've never heard of PowerPoint Karaoke, that probably means you're neither German nor a hardcore techie. The phenomenon has been spreading geek to geek and conference to conference since it was invented by a German artists' group in 2005. PowerPoint Karaoke sessions have been held at last year's E-Tech conference in San Diego, the Chaos Conference in Berlin, and at smaller tech gatherings in Los Angeles, London, and Montreal.In a typical event, a few brave people volunteer to "present" a random deck of slides pulled off the Web, or borrowed from friends or employers. (I first heard about PowerPoint Karaoke when an organizer asked if she could use a deck I had presented on word meanings.) The audience laughs, cheers, and yells out suggestions as the presenters gamely struggle to link one slide to the next, transforming something that probably started life as a tedious corporate monologue into a five-minute flight of creative irony.
via design observer
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)Colle + McVoy, the same agency responsible for the Human Flipbook, has just launched another crazy-fun-time video, also for the Erbert & Gerbert's sandwich shop, to celebrate their 20th anniversary. Watch as a gigantor air vortex cannon blows out these numerical cake candles from 180 feet away.
Here's some different form factors for everyday computing devices:
The GeCube Genie PC (above) is a subnotebook with an Anne Boleyn twist: the screen pops off, retaining most of the computer's functionality, and giving you touchscreen interaction to boot. The DreamCom 10 Ergonomic Laptop's screen (below) doesn't pop off, but it does get taller so you don't have to hunch.
On the input side there's the handmade Jupiter mouse (below), which is actually neither a proper mouse and not quite a trackball; it tilts on a base or in your hand, gyro-style, and the cursor moves accordingly.
The annual Tournament of Books, a home grown literary award organized by The Morning News, opens for business today. An esteemed panel of judges will pick their favorite using a bracket resulting in a "Battle Royale of Literary Excellence." At the end a champion emerges, and the author is awarded a live chicken as a prize.
This year our friends at Coudal Partners are upping the ante by allowing people to bet on the winner, for a good cause of course. Bets cost $10, with all wagers going to First Book "a nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books." At the end of the tourney ten people who have chosen the winning book will win a mysterious huge prize package. That chance alone is worth the $10 bet!
But wait - there's more! To top it off, Core77 (and a bunch of other good folks) are participating as matching sponsors, kicking in even more money at the end. The math is complex, but the bottom line is that each $10 wager has the power to buy 36 new books for underprivileged kids. So take a few moments and get your bets in. You'll be a winner no matter what the outcome.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
It looks like it has some nefarious medical purpose, but Reddish Studio's ready-made bath chair is just a metal tub that lost a lot of weight (50%) and now has a new perspective on life (by 90 degrees).
Founded in 2002 by ID'ers Naama Steinbock and Idan Friedman, Reddish Studio "spends most of the time helping objects feel better about themselves." Click here for more info.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Do you remember the first time you'd ever heard of an iPod, or text messaging, or a computer mouse? Were the benefits of that product or technology immediately obvious to you?
Sometimes after a company designs a new product or tech, their marketing department worries the public won't "get it" and commissions a "lifestyle video" to show us ig'nant consumers how the product will make our lives better. Microvision, a US company working on mini- or "pico-" projectors that can be embedded in cell phones and portable devices, has a hysterical series of promo videos up in that vein.
With high-school-play production value, the videos show "us" using projector technology to pitch projects in an elevator, watch music videos with an unnatural level of enthusiasm (even for middle school girls) and most sadly, pick each other up at a bar when we've not got the stones to actually talk to each other.
The last one's the kicker--since you can never objectify an attractive female bartender enough, they must now do double duty as projector screens for our home videos.
Hey buddy, get that projection off my back before I break this Heineken over your %#$@& head!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Mazda Taiki interior
Dutch architecture critic Michiel van Raaij examines Mazda's bold new design language.
In the past year the Japanese carmaker Mazda has been working consistently on a new form language, and this week unveiled their most extreme 'sculpture' yet: the Mazda Furai. A car designed to take the 24h Le Mans challenge.
The design features 'crossed folds' everywhere. Normal steel plates feature only single folds, but here multiple folds are applied that cross each other diagonally. That is completely new. Unprecedented.
He goes on to talk about "maximalism" in design, and - without saying so outright - asks that we re-examine our definitions of "beauty". (At least that's what I took from it.)
Maximalism is our future. Maximalism is the end of good taste. Maximalism moves the border of good taste a little further and thereby makes room for emergent futures.
"Architects are obsessed with good taste", Crimson writes in their book 'Too blessed to be depressed'. I think that is true. But I also think that taste moves in a certain direction, in the direction of form, of maximum form. Zaha Hadid is just the beginning.
(Or, in the direction of "maximum joy", as we learn to shed the shame of Eden and rediscover the uninhibited virtues of wonder and possibility. Mazda does an excellent job demonstrating a new kind of beauty, unburdened by the type of shame which is at the root of outmoded definitions of taste.)
Posted by: Michael Doyle | Comments (0)
Do androids dream of electric sheep? It's a question that rang through my brain while visiting "Design and the Elastic Mind" at the Museum of Modern Art, a show where science and science fiction share the stage.
The science on display is fascinating--genetic engineering, nanotechnology, biomimicry--but it's the science fiction that makes the show particularly compelling. This is not a typical science museum exhibition transplanted into a MoMA gallery. Curator Paola Antonelli altogether avoids the often dry repackaging of scientific material for a general audience. Instead, she's filled the upper floor with projections about possible futures and explorations of poetic technology. Like so much good science fiction, here science is the stage set for playing out the tangle of human relationships and emotional ambiguities that unfold when the technology that connects us begins to infringe upon or even claim our affection.
The prince and princess of this techmo trend are Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, who together have helped build the Design Interactions Department at the Royal College of Art into a provocative program where design is a critical probe that explores our evolving relationships with technology. Their "Technological Dreams Series" featured in the show is a set of four robots that, well, look nothing like robots. One is a chunk of oak shaped more like a table leg or a hockey stick. Dunne and Raby call it a sentinel, a slow-processing retinal scanner that requires the user to cradle it and stare longingly into its eyes. Though the robots sit unimpressively in the gallery under glass, it's the imagery on the wall that's most charged: a kind of Freudian-Droidian scene where the sentinel is embraced by a woman who unmistakably evokes Rachael, the replicant android played by Sean Young in Blade Runner.
Robot from Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby's Technological Dreams Series
Shows curated by Antonelli can leave the viewer disoriented and spent, overwhelmed by schools of objects, an octopus of themes and murky environments. This exhibition poses a challenge to anyone trying to neatly summarize the over 200 objects on view. I'm not even sure it's possible to reconcile a space telescope designed using the principles of origami with sperm mutated into typographic forms, and I'm not going to try except to acknowledge that each is scientific in it's own way. But one of the things I truly appreciate about Antonelli's shows are the way currents and countercurrents pull me through the show, and in the occasional calm, objects from different rooms and different disciplines swirl around a common set of questions.
What's experimental in a Flat World?
A fragrance by Zaha Hadid. Jewelry for Tiffany's by Frank Gehry. Self-help books for hipsters by Karim Rashid. Signature designers had arrived in the luxury market long ago and by now it's ordinary. Radical or poetic form, once considered experimental, is the not-so-secret weapon of modern brand building. Where design once served industry, now industry often serves design. Here Design meets Art meets Fashion meets the Devil-wears-Prada Catch-22 of a culture industry starving for new icons and rocket-fueled by a viral Web. If the world is flat as Tom Friedman claimed, then so is design--stripped of the hierarchies that used to distinguish high and low, design and art, theoretical and applied. Has this newfound freedom produced wild experimental design thinking? Not enough. Instead, design's intellectual edge has been mostly employed by the vanities of a fashion system. Someday we may recall this period as design's fashion phase. Is it finally time to revive experimental design thinking from this fashion hangover?
It's not that fashion is bad, or unimportant. Design's marriage to Fashion was fated and permanent so that beauty and design storytelling are here to stay. It's just that it's not so experimental any more. The honeymoon is over. It's as if Memphis never died, and instead is continually reincarnated in an aesthetic economy endlessly hungry for new styles, with plenty of colorful characters ready to exploit new aesthetic markets. Outside this fashion system there are plenty of juicy design issues that deserve experimental exploration in search of new modern meanings. Experimental design is the way that design comes to know itself better and to advance its potentials. It's the way the field of design moves forward. Design has absorbed fashion. Uncharted waters await.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (2)
Everything tastes like chicken. People eat alligator, they say it tastes like chicken. Kangaroo, chicken. Snake meat, well that tastes like chicken too.
Drunk driving is apparently the chicken of the motor function world. A Stanford study showed sleepy driving "tastes" just like drunk driving, with similar impairment; a University of Utah study showed driving on a cell phone was just as bad or worse than drunk driving. Now textually tells us a CMU study shows that even if you're talking hands-free while driving, it's just as bad as, you guessed it, drunk driving.
All of us multi-task. You're probably not reading this and doing only this--you're flipping between this and work, or there's a TV on somewhere, or you're eating, drinking, something. It's the way of the world now. But somehow, the message that multitasking while piloting what is essentially a 3,000-pound missle is not a good idea just doesn't seem to get through to people.
We all know changing human behavior isn't a viable solution--left to their own devices, people buy knockoff purses, smoke crack, gamble, elect unqualified Presidents, you name it. What's the solution? Can design play a role, and if so, how?
Just give us one idea!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (6)
Over at Critical Cities, D.J. Huppatz reiterates the foundation of Frank Gehry's supreme starchitect status as that of the architect as artist. In reference to Gehry's infamous artistic vision, Huppatz describes in detail the Issey Miyake store, IAC building, and Atlantic Yards, the most notable of NYC projects by Gehry, a designer who pulls inspiration via expression rather than a concern for or awareness of the greater social or environmental good...the end point being that "form follows finance."
Certainly in a New York context, Gehry's architecture as art fails to engage with the city's most crucial urban issues: affordable housing, repairing or replacing the decrepit infrastructure and the creation of diverse communities. But for the New York projects of America's greatest artist, the starchitect formula holds true: form follows finance.Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)
This summer, California College of the Arts will launch its Summer Institute of Sustainable Design, a two-week immersive program that invites both design and non-design professionals to learn about and discuss the latest and greatest trends and advancements in green strategy and other sustainable design applications. This year's program will be held from June 15 - 27 in Point Reyes and San Francisco. The registration deadline is May 1st, 2008 and the program cost is $4,100 ($3800 for early birds).
Posted by: core jr | Comments (1)
West Coasters and spring time West Coast visitors should keep an eye out for Design Green Now events making their way from Washington to Southern California. DGN is an ongoing series of *free* panel discussions focused on sustainable product design. Panelists from companies like IDEO, frog, fuseproject, Nau, and ZIBA, and institutions including The Designers Accord, Art Center, Sustainable Style Foundation, and o2 will share with the audience the green projects they are currently working on, the challenges they face, and the tools they use for successful sustainable design.
The tour kicks off on April 1st, 2008 at Western Washington University in Bellingham and will continue down along the coast to other design universities like The Art Institute of Portland, California College of the Arts, and California State University. At the end of the tour, DGN will provide video coverage of the events as well as a dynamic list of resources and tools for designers on the official website.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)"...this...this is the design!"
via infosthetics
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)According to a few Danish researchers, IKEA's use of Danish names for products are reserved for the least prestigious products such as doormats, floor runners, carpeting--basically anything that touches the bottoms of shoes. The Swedish company assigns Swedish town names to furniture, bookcases and multimedia consoles, Norwegian ones to beds, dressers and hallway furniture, and Finnish ones for chairs and dining tables. "As it turns out, nothing is random at IKEA -- and certainly not light." A boycott was planned but unfortunately, very short-lived when "Danes realized that there is no real alternative to the giant home furnishings stores in their country."
IKEA's spokesperson Charlotte Lindgren responded, "It's nonsense to say that we did this on purpose. It was a pure coincidence, and it happened many decades ago...Besides these critics appear to greatly underestimate the importance of floor coverings. They are fundamental elements of furnishing. We draw worldwide attention to Danish place names with our products. That has to be a positive thing."
via swissmiss
Art Director
ID Society, Inc.
New York, NY, USA
ID Society is an ideas driven integrated digital agency that deals with ground-breaking creative, within digital, guerilla marketing & integrated advertising for the likes of Armani, The Guggenheim, AMEX, Diageo, L'Oreal and many more.
We need truly explosive talent to join our already powerful team, as an Art Director. We are excited about our industry and are pushing the boundaries, however we need your help.
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
I Do Design will debut the Union Bench, a new design for indoor and outdoor public seating, at the upcoming SaloneSatellite event in April. The bench aims to provide stylish and ample seating space for all who need to rest their feet, whether they wish to interact or keep to themselves.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
A far cry from yesteryear's elastic-banded, Smartie-like candy necklace, Sweet Silver replaces jewels with candy and gives you the option to leave 'er there or devour it to reveal an underlying pendant. The necklace design is by Gisele Garcia and the candy by Papabubble.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)
In an article on Oliver Neuland, a design consultant now teaching Industrial and Transportation Design at Massey University's Auckland School of Design, the former BMW Motorcycles designer reflects on some differences between car and bike design: "[With motorcycles] the separation between body and inner technology is not so clear. For motorcyclists--who are even more emotionally attached to their machine--the mechanics are a core part of the beauty of their vehicle."
Might that trend be changing?
The 1988 anime blockbuster Akira was the first time many of us saw a bike with enclosed mechanics (and an articulating canopy); alas, it only existed on the silver screen, though fanatics have hacked working replicas.
Twenty years later Swiss designer Franco Sbarro's Pendolauto concept bike has completely enclosed mechanics, and two extra wheels to boot. It'll be on display at this month's upcoming Geneva Auto Show.
To the bikers out there, what do you guys think? Do designs that obscure the motorcycle's inner workings detract from its "suchness," as the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance might say?
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (12)
Throw a cocktail party and you need some big plates to hold the hors d'ouevres, and a bunch of little plates for guests to make off with them. SNS Design's neat Appetizer Tray combines the two, and gives you an aesthetic incentive to limit your guests to a number divisible by seven.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
If you take a good look at a metal soda can, you might wonder some things. How do they get those little airtight cans out of a huge sheet of aluminum coming off an industrial-sized roll? And if you've ever tried Sharpie-ing a can, you know ink and metal aren't a great combo; how do they get the graphics on there?
This is an awesome manufacturing vid from Discovery that shows how 2,000 cans a minute blaze off of the assembly line.
The part that most surprised us: how is that pop-top attached? We always thought it was somehow bonded, but in fact it's just a simple roll-fold. Who knew?
via techeblog
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
"If I'd have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me 'A faster horse.'"--Steve Jobs quoting Henry Ford, on why asking customers what they want is not always the best way to do things.
Fortune via CNN.Money.com has an excellent interview with Steve Jobs, perhaps the best we've read yet. This is not mere Apple-idolatry--Jobs lauds the company as usual, sure, but he also speaks candidly about self-doubt on a corporate level, reflects on Apple's failures, and offers some surprising insights. It's refreshing to see this kind of...well, humanity, coming from a key product planner and a guy who really gets industrial design.
Read on for a list of our favorite excerpts.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Enjoy this fizzy delight for Schweppes, directed by Garth Davis.
Web Project Manager
Core77.
New York, NY, USA
If you're as big a fan of all things Core77 as we are, then join the team!
Here's what we're looking for: smart, gets things done, loves design, tenacious, motivated, and of course, smart! If this is you then help us by leading an endless list of projects through to completion.
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But why!?!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (5)
Choosing effective and intuitive symbology can boggle the mind of any good designer. The Enter Button Standard discussion began as, well, a question about standards concerning "Enter" buttons. As the discourse continues, however, we're all realizing what a challenge it is to apply icons to buttons that make user say, "Hey I know what that does when i push it" upon first glance. So, if you're in the know about Enter Button Standards, or better yet, the best button labeling techniques, speak up!
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Interaction Designer
EnergyHub Inc.
Brooklyn, NY, USA
EnergyHub is a funded, early-stage startup dedicated to developing green consumer electronics for reducing home energy consumption.
We're looking for a talented interaction designer to work closely with the Design Director to develop the look, feel, and key functionality of the screen-based user interfaces in support of the overall product experience.
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
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From the Coroflot portfolio of : Luis Berumen (Calgary, AB)
Featured Project : ZeroPointZero Watch
Tonio de Roover's East Meets West sofa is great for those who love to sit on the floor.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (1)In a recent Newsweek article, Expertinent: Why the Obama "Brand" Is Working, Andrew Romano asked Michael Bierut to pinpoint the the circuitry of Obama's graphic design workhorse--that logo and branding that can't be stopped.
Is Obama's stuff on the level with the best commercial brand design? I think it's just as good or better. I have sophisticated clients who pay me and other people well to try to keep them on the straight and narrow, and they have trouble getting everything set in the same typeface. And he seems to be able to do it in Cleveland and Cincinnati and Houston and San Antonio. Every time you look, all those signs are perfect. Graphic designers like me don't understand how it's happening. It's unprecedented and inconceivable to us. The people in the know are flabbergasted.
via unbeige
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Signity, a subsidiary of Swarovski and a leading gemstone manufacturer, has just launched a watch design competition (Full disclosure - they are an advertiser with Core77). The competition site is pretty full-featured - there is a watch configuration tool, online voting, member profiles pages and more. In addition to the prize money, early submissions may also be presented at Baselworld, the largest jewelry and watch fair, taking place in April.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Giles Miller's Brown Paper Bag is made out of cardboard, cut on the bias to reveal the accidentally interesting pattern created by, well, cutting cardboard on the bias. It's been treated for water-resistance and is priced at about US $358.
We can't help but wonder--isn't making a pricey purse out of such readily available materials simply begging for it to be knocked off? Last week saw another huge "counterfeit purse ring" bust in New York's Chinatown, mere blocks from Core77's offices. We maintain that the reason these fake bag rings will keep proliferating is because a) people want to buy them and b) the means of manufacturing knock-offs is relatively easy to reproduce on an industrial scale. You'll never get rid of a), but maybe you can do something about b).
via switched on
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (5)
Okay folks, what kind of factory are we looking at here?
(Hint: You're lovin' it)
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
Nissan's Cube, the boxy Scion-like microcar that's unavailable in the 'States but a common sight in Tokyo, is being used by Nissan in joint projects with Pratt Institute and the Brooks Institute.
The project puts the Nissan Cube, currently sold only in Japan, into the hands of these U.S. film and design students to create provocative films and designs that communicate the Nissan Cube's unique personality and style.The Brooks Institute film concept communicates the Cube story through character and setting, using innovative equipment, material and advanced special effects software.
Pratt Institute students have chosen materials that will be used on the exterior and interior of the vehicles. After reviewing several proposals, two vehicle concepts have emerged: the Quaze and the Nielus. The Quaze concept is a high energy, urban interpretation of "Cube-ness," using 3D design elements and an innovative combination of materials. The Nielus concept fuses two bold styles; one juxtaposes aggressive shapes and vibrant hues, the other melds organic colors and mechanical forms.
Both schools' projects will be shown in a special "Cube Gallery" at press events on March 19-20th at the New York International Auto Show.
via trading markets
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Eric's Really Good Idea - A stop-motion explanation of how designers really come up with their brilliant concepts. If this short film reminds you of more than one of your studio classes back in school...well...join the club.
Via Blu Dot and Campzine.com.
Posted by: Carl Alviani | Comments (1)
If you enjoy taking notes by hand but loathe re-typing everything onto the computer, or if you loathe taking notes on the computer, IOGEAR's new Mobile Digital Scribe could be your ticket to note town, no strings attached. The device consists of an electronic pen that uses ordinary ink and a receiver that captures natural handwriting or drawings from any surface, with no special digital notepad required.
It seems silly to chop trees down to make pencils; that little graphite rod in the center is the active ingredient, and the other 95% of the pencil is essentially a wasteful, disposable wooden handle.
Smencils makes their pencils by tightly wrapping newspaper around the graphite rod, then hardening it so it can be sharpened like a regular pencil. They also take advantage of newspapers' absorbent quality by pre-soaking them in liquid fragrances, hence the name; Smencils come in "flavors" like Chocolate, Watermelon, Orange, etc. (The previously available Toasted Marshmallow, alas, has been discontinued.)
You can also order custom-printed Smencils, though there's currently no option to spec out your own fragrance. Too bad--it'd be nice to disrupt your classmates by taking the SAT's to the strong smell of Drakkar Noir.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (8)
Here's a clever ad for hair care products designed by Young & Rubicam. We hope people don't get so distracted they get their Crocs caught...
via swissmiss
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (3)
Customer Experience Designer
Amazon Enterprise Solutions
Seattle, WA, USA
Amazon.com is seeking a talented, passionate Customer Experience Designer to join our creative team within the Enterprise Solutions group. We are looking for a highly motivated person with proven user-interface and visual design skills to create innovative customer experiences to support our platform partners ranging from sophisticated e-commerce websites to innovative multi-channel applications for world-class retailers like Target, bebe, Marks & Spencer and Lacoste.
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (1)
Courtroom sketch artists don't always get all that pent-up creativity out of their systems by doodling judges, lawyers, and witnesses. Take Steve Werblun for instance. You may recognize his works from the notorious O.J. Simpson trial--the likenesses of Simpson himself, Judge Ito, Johnny Cochran, and the whole gang were depicted by Werblun's artful hand and eye for realism. In his spare time, he does fantasy and sci-fi illustration and had since progressed to do storyboards for major flicks like The Day After Tomorrow, Along Came Polly, and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. Check out what other courtroom creatives do in their spare time here.
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)If Star Wars was realized some 20 years earlier, Saul Bass would've been in the mix and the intro might've looked like this.
thanks steve!
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Biomimetics strikes again: Toronto-based WhalePower Corp. has been closely studying the flippers of humpback whales and putting their findings into a new breed of fan blade.
Turns out those little bumps on the edge of the whale's flippers, called tubercles, aren't just to make whales look purty; they "channel water flow across the flipper," resulting in 32% less drag than the smoother flippers found on other whales.
"...the tubercles...make the fan quieter, more efficient, and they're better at pushing down the air," says Monica Bowden, CEO of Envira-North, which is licensing the newly designed blades for a line of industrial ceiling fans.
Having drawn industrial-fan interest, WhalePower is now setting their sights on their next market: the windpower industry. Read the full article here.
via the star
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Mark Newson's solo exhibition at the Gagosian opens today, and BBC One will feature the designer on tonight's episode of the Imagine series (10:35pm UK time).
Um...can one of you Brits DVR it and throw a torrent up, so us Yanks without international cable can have a look?
via design week uk
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (4)Ex-art-education-major and ex-architecture-student Nick Blair was at a wedding when he met an industrial designer. Upon hearing the description of the profession, he decided to get a degree in ID.
Later he would audition for, and win, a job as host of Discovery Channel's "Smash Lab," whose team of "the designer, the engineer, the ideas guy and the scientist" conducts outrageous technological experiments (like connecting rockets to trucks as an emergency braking measure) that often end in Bruckheimeresque destruction.
So how did Blair get the job? His audition video, "Nick's Science Omelette," depicted what is often the first project an ID student ever gets: The drop-eggs-from-the-roof-in-a-vessel-of-your-own-design assignment. Who knew?
Full article here.
via milwaukee journal sentinel
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Webert is sponsoring a tap/faucet design competition, seeking "an innovative single lever mixer or double control taps for bathroom and kitchen:"
The sets of mixer taps must be composed of: a washbasin and a bath tub set including shower head; a kitchen sink mixer with swivel spout or with pull-out-spray.
We initially thought Webert was a German company, but further investigation revealed they're Italian (the competition is co-sponsored by the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale). And while the contest is about taps, not sinks, we couldn't help remembering this silly but endlessly amusing Berlitz commercial:
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
Openmoko, creator of the first completely open mobile computing platform, expanded the meaning of Open Source by posting the industrial design source files for its Neo branded mobile phones. Industrial design artists now have the same freedom as software engineers.
Earlier, the source code was freed for complete transformation of the phone software. Now, by publishing mechanical CAD files (here), we can start thinking about redesigning the Neo branded mobile phones to fit their vision and market needs. Some already have.
"Open Source development encourages contributions from a diverse, imaginative, and creative software community. Unlocking the CAD files for the Neo cases empowers the industrial design community to share and contribute their unique designs," said Openmoko Head of Developer Relations, Michael Shiloh. "And, with ready access to benchtop CNC machines and 3D printers, people will build these designs, even in single quantities."
If your phone only had the number keys for 1 and 2 it would be no good; if your computer keyboard only had the vowels, it couldn't function. But One String Willie makes his guitar work with only, well, guess.
via spiral pocus
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Here's an open letter over at Ten Thousand Things reminding all designers that diva-like behavior is simply unacceptable.
Seriously people, what's wrong with you? I don't know where exactly, but somewhere in between Saul Bass and Joshua Davis, a new breed of designers was born. A breed with tremendous talent (most of them anyway) but with one big flaw: they developed an arrogant attitude and started acting like Divas instead of acting like the professionals they were supposed to be....Be nice and graceful to the people who want to learn from you, like with everything else in life, you will too feel curious about someone more talented or experienced than you down the road. How would you feel if they ignored you?
Booya!
via unbeige
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
The NYT reports on a Hacienda Heights, CA McDonald's that was recently revamped with harmony, tranquility, and balance in mind. Perhaps the balance in feng-shui makes up for an unbalanced diet?
The franchising Carmack family who owns the McZenned-out establishment used the power of design to remodel in reflection of the community. With the help of Brenda Clifford at JBI, a Long Island design firm, they were able "to make the restaurant a little bit more of a destination."
Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
Colorist
New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc.
Lawrence, MA, USA
As a Colorist, you will be responsible for applying color to create innovative and dynamic color direction for New Balance's athletic footwear products. You will collaborate with the Color and Trend team and make recommendations based on the knowledge you gain at color and material trade shows. In this role, you will present your footwear color ideas to the Design, Development and Marketing groups. You will work with in-line teams to assist in merchandising categories and across multiple categories to create a cohesive product line.
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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Rhode Islanders now have an IDSA chapter to call their very own. Matt Grigsby, chapter chair, informed us of the launch--and what's a launch without a party? (Not as fun as a launch without a party.)
To celebrate the newest state to chapter-up, a launch party (how appropriate!) will be held in Providence on March 20th:
Thursday March 20, 5:30pm - 9pm
Tazza Cafe & Bar
250 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903
RSVP : party-at-ecolect-dot-net
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
German student Gregor Dauth's awesome, collapsible Urban Street Concept Bike keeps folding...and folding...and folding; he claims it will eventually fit into a rucksack, though no mention is made of where the wheels will go.
Dauth, we've got the solution! You need to hook up with this guy!
via treehugger
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
This coming weekend (Mar 6-8) is the first of the five 2008 IDSA Disctrict Conferences. Core77 will be sponsoring the portfolio reviews at each conference, so we hope everyone who is attending will make a point to participate as a presenter or a commentator. Check the full schedule here and contact your local VPs and reps for specific details of each event.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (1)
If the Volvo V50, above, was a bar of soap and you used it for six weeks, you might get something that looks like this:
That there is the Quaranta concept car from Italdesign Giugiaro, slated to be debuted at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, and it was apparently designed to give A-pillars and C-pillars existential crises. ("I don't know where I end and you begin!")
Interestingly enough, this supercar has a hybrid Toyota powertrain that gets 38.8 miles to the gallon. It'll also do 0-60 in 4.05 seconds, so if you're late for your Greenpeace meeting, this is your ride.
via autoblog
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)
Right now you own a cellphone, and we both know you ain't gonna have it forever. In a year or two you'll either donate it, give it to a friend who needs it, sell it on eBay and dump the scratch into a better model, or toss it in the trash.
Inspired by last month's Greener Gadgets conference, the similarly-named but unaffiliated thinktank TheGreenerGrass.org has come up with Linc, a phone concept that thinks differently about product lifecycles.
The Linc concept takes into account that your phone is as temporary as the computer you're using to read this. So rather than being a product, the Linc smartphone is a service; you lease it by the year and once it becomes obsolete, you ship it back to the manufacturer, who harvests and recycles the parts, and they ship you a new one. (The info on your phone is transferred wirelessly in a low-hassle manner.) From the user point of view it's something like a long-term Netflix for phones.
Shipping things back to the mannie for recycling is nothing new--check out the Y Water bottle--but what's different here is that the phone is specifically designed for automated disassembly, and designed without paints and adhesives for easier recycling. Read more about the concept here.
via kitsune noir
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)
There is now so much transforming furniture out there that we're waiting for someone to give the genre a dedicated blog. (URL hostage-takers: www.TransformingFurniture.com is still available!) In the meantime check out the latest workstation-in-a-box, the Trunk Station AD from Japan's SoHo Street.
At US $1,980 it ain't cheap, but saving space never is. (Used to be that "time is money," but somewhere along the line "time" got swapped out with "footage.") Anyways if one of you decides to pony up for this thing, we have the perfect chair for you, below.
via unpluggd
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
The city of Santa Ana recently dropped this diagram as part of a campaign to educate folks on how to spot if their child could be a 'tagger'. What happens when you swap Your child with ID student:
* Your child The ID student frequently wears baggy pants or carries a large backpack. These are used to carry cans of spray-paint, various colors and types of magic markers, etching tools, slap tags and cameras to take photos of their taggings. The clothes and backpack may be paint stained.
* Your child The ID student has large quantities of magic markers in various colors, types and sizes, spray-paint cans, shoe polish containers, or dot markers used to mark bingo cards.
* Your child The ID student has or carries tools used for etching glass or mirror surfaces such as spark plug porcelain, drill bits, screwdrivers with a sharpened tip, small rocks, or any other type of sharp instrument.
*Your child The ID student stays out late at night or has taken to sneaking out of the house.
* Your child The ID student frequently has paint or marker residue on their fingertips.
* Your child The ID student has or carries a black artist notebook that contains tagging or drawings. These books are called "bibles" or "piece books."
via notcot
Good story today about the (business) power of improvisation highlighting Portland's On Your Feet.
The openness and playfulness that characterize improvisational acting can create a sense of cooperation and affirmation that is foreign to highly competitive workplaces. When one worker actively shoots down another's ideas to help his or her own ideas win, nascent notions that could develop into something brilliant die on the vine. ... "Saying yes sounds implicit, but it's profound," she says. Barriers go up in front of fresh ideas within moments of their creation, leading to an atmosphere of "we can't do that," she says. "The improv idea of saying yes from the start," she adds, "allows business folks to entertain things that would ordinarily get axed out."
For more improv goodies, check out our Core77 Broadcast with Steve Portigal and Chris Miller and come to next week's Southern District IDSA Regional Conference where this author will be speaking about improv and design research (check out a preview on Slideshare).
Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (1)
