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Frank Gehry doesn't typically do one-off pieces but after much convincing, he agreed to design the visitors bench for the World Company building in Tokyo, Japan's largest fashion house with over 90 labels and 3000+ retail outlets. It was just installed a few weeks ago and we were able to sneak in for a closer look last night while they were hanging a banner in the front for design week.
>> View all Tokyo Design Festival posts here.
RCA Graduates Shay Alkalay & Yael Mer are quickly establishing themselves as two of the most interesting designer's in the contemporary furniture scene today. Exhibiting their latest projects at Design Tide Tokyo, the 'Pull Lamp' was literally given it's name when shot this video.
>> View all Tokyo Design Festival posts here.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
SPR Pressurized Rover
Evan Twyford and Carl Conlee are two of three industrial designers working in NASA's Habitability Design Center (HDC), and in just over 2 years they have transitioned the department from one that dealt only with small isolated ergonomic projects to working on arguably the most exciting project at NASA today—a next generation pressurized lunar rover. Since working at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) they have had robots walk past their office door during meetings, experienced zero-gravity flight, had their bodies 3D scanned, and worked alongside some of the most talented engineers and scientists in the country. The thing is, NASA doesn't actually have an industrial design department. They don't even have a design department. Not technically, anyway.
Pictured left to right: Richard Szabo, Travis Baldwin, Carl Conlee and Evan Twyford
Meeting the team
"Things have changed so much since we started, people here don't really understand what Industrial Design is or how it fits into the bigger picture. But once they work with us and see the services we provide—visualizing information, realizing concepts—they see the value of what we do," explains Evan.
Both Carl and Evan graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design's Industrial Design program in 2005, and they both did internships at the HDC. Evan stayed on as the first industrial design hire, and Carl joined later. Travis Baldwin, 32, recently joined the team, moving from San Francisco where he worked for a number of companies like IBM, Frog Design, several start-ups, and ultimately running his own business. He graduated in Industrial Design from North Carolina State University in 1997 and actually attended space camp as a kid. The opportunity to work at NASA was a childhood dream come true—and he is still swimming in the euphoria. "For the first few months it was thrilling; people were talking about how it is on the moon, relaying stories of astronauts bouncing around in 1/6g—it felt like being at a space port 20 years in the future." The first six months were the toughest, he reports, since it's such a specific application of design: understanding the unique constraints of manned space flight and figuring out how to navigate the overwhelming protocol that comes with an institution the size of NASA.
Johnson Space Center
Johnson Space Center
The freeway commute from Houston, Texas to the Johnson Space Center is about 50 minutes, and it is easy to see the appeal of opting for a motorbike over carpooling. It's a Friday, and today's schedule is exciting for Carl and Evan, some custom-built seats they designed for the Rover project are finally arriving. Firstly though, Carl has to take a safety exam which he was routinely selected for by the computer (a byproduct of working at a government facility and a not-so-infrequent occurrence).
The daily challenge
Like most people who work at the Johnson Space Center, the HDC team is made up of contractors who work on site. In fact, the entire workforce at the JSC is comprised of 15,000 contractors (compared to roughly 3,000 civil servants), including 110 astronauts. Not only does this create a huge amount of bureaucracy, it means that job security is project-based. Those who have carved out a long-term career at NASA periodically change from one contract company to another, exchanging their requisite ID tags to follow choice projects. But from a day-to-day perspective, it feels likes one big community working for a common goal and organization.
Saturn V
Security at JSC is similar to what you might encounter as an alien at JFK airport's immigration. To the left of the entrance is a massive hanger housing the Saturn V. It is unbelievably huge in real life, but NASA will never build something of that scale again; the preference now is to build smaller modular units and not risk losing everything in one big ship. For some reason, I imagined NASA would have official transport like golf carts everywhere to maneuver between buildings, but it is really just a massive campus with huge car parks, and everyone uses their own vehicles to get around. I note some bikes parked outside as we enter Building 15, but that's gotta take real commitment in the summer months here.
Rendering of Small Pressurized Rover
Building 15: The Office
There is nothing glamorous about the design studio, located in a two-story industrial building that looks like it was built in the 50's and renovated in the 80's. The interior is defined by beige linoleum-lined corridors, evenly lit with fluorescent lights and decorated with photos from space, posters of projects and communal notice boards covered in memos and photocopies. The building's foyer is like a mini science museum with glass cabinets full of mechanical artifacts
—some cut to show cross sections and many of them actually used in space. There is an overwhelming sense of history and nostalgia here, with many areas dating back to the halcyon Apollo era. To this day, veteran engineers talk about how things were done during the Apollo missions, holding them up as benchmarks for today's efforts.
Got plans for Election Night? If you're in New York, celebrate the changing of the guard with a slumber party at Storefront for Art and Architecture. Booze, blogging, and breakfast the morning after. Plus, while you're there, you can check out the best entries in Storefront's contest to re-design the White House. B.Y.O. Sleeping bag.
Posted by: William Bostwick | Comments (0)A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:
design taxi
ICSID Senator to give closing speech for Seoul's Design Olympiad
michael huebner's blog & column
Hoover's Moss Rock Festival combines art, architecture and environmentalism
businessweek
2008 Paris Motor Show Roundup
home rejuvenation
Home Rejuvenation's 10 Most Influential Design Bloggers 2008 (and we ain't on it!)
apple insider
Can the iPhone resuscitate interesting in reading the Classics?
concordia university
Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
the economist
Weapons design: Ray guns are real!
From the Coroflot portfolio of : Vanessa Su (Taipei, Taiwan)
Featured Project : Chair Chair Pad
Too clever... is there such a thing? After clicking below, one may think so.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
ASUS and Intel are pissing off at least a few in-house designers by turning to the general public for design help. WePC.com is their new joint venture, a crowdsourcing effort that asks the average Joe to "join us in making the world's first community designed laptop."
ASUS and Intel have created WePC.com, a place where users like you come together to share ideas, images and inspiration about your ideal PC. But what if it's not just talk. Your designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and could influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside.On WePC.com, the web's most creative minds are blogging about what innovations they'd like to see in a PC, chatting with you about your ideas and fueling the community brainstorming session. Join them in creating the perfect PC!
Check out the suggestion entries here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
I.T. Managers are becoming the Hall Monitors of adult life. In a recent study by FaceTime Communications, 60% of I.T. Managers report that employees are using Facebook and other social-network sites at work, and this has now been linked to security incidents; "Information [can leak] out through those channels they can't monitor."
Among the most surprising finds in the report, according to [Frank Cabri, vice president of marketing and product management at FaceTime Communications], was that one third of the employees surveyed said they had the right to run these applications on their desktop, even if it was a violation of IT policy. "If applications are attractive and they allow the benefits for work or both, people are willing to go against corporate IT policy," he says...."I would never advise a company to give access to each and every [Facebook app] to its users," [Cabri] says. "First, determine which Internet apps users are deploying and how they are using them, he says.
"The key is putting controls in place," Cabri says. You could allow Facebook, for instance, but only with business applications within the group and block chats, he says. "And you should be measuring and reporting on what they are doing" with it, he says.
And there's more bad news for the social lives of office drones: A company called TextGuard "quietly released a beta version of its eponymous application, which offers a method of blocking and monitoring text messages on Windows Mobile and Blackberry telephones."
Now get back to work!
If flatscreens could have eating disorders, Samsung would be the guilty stage mom driving the complex. Their new OLED "Flapping Display," exhibited at Flat Panel Display International 2008, is an absurdly thin 0.05mm thick.
"It is technically possible to make the panel thinner," says a Samsung employee. We'd hate to be that guy's kid.
via tech on!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Assistant Professor of Illustration - Graphic Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Providence, Rhode Island
The successful candidate must possess experience in both teaching and professional practice as an illustrator, with expertise in visual communication/illustration concepts, traditional and digital media, and the history of illustration and visual communication.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
The candidates have until next Tuesday, but you? You have just nine hours left, to get your brilliant Voting Booth concept finished up and posted to our 1 Hour Design Challenge forum. The competition, with guest judges William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand (of Winterhouse, Design Observer and Polling Place Photo Project fame), closes tonight at 9pm sharp, Pacific Time, meaning those of you out east have all the way until midnight, and the rest of you have until...breakfast or happy hour or something.
Specifics are as per usual: spend no more than one hour (honor system) not including time spent thinking it up; submit your concept as an image to the 1HDC forum; use whatever digital or analog media you prefer; and completely blow our minds with inventiveness, clever commentary or sweet imagery. The clock is ticking, and design democracy hangs in the balance--we're counting on you.
>>See all entries, and submit your own here<<
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Japan loves vending machines (jidoohanbaiki, I think). Food, books, clothes -- get it all by pushing a button. And remember this? They're so ubiquitous you can wear a vending machine suit and blend right in (kind of).
Taking this obsession to its illogical extreme, on November 18th, Uniqlo invades Times Square with an army of Human-Powered Vending Machines. Provocative commentary on the depersonalization of retail space design, or bizarro publicity stunt?
Posted by: William Bostwick | Comments (0)
Tokyo Designer's Week & Design Tide Tokyo (pictured above) kicked off today and Core will be on the ground over the next few days seeking out the freshest work and talent. Design Tide wins hand down for exhibition design, it's hard to tell from the photo but the stands divided by sheets of transparent fabric--a commercial cloth material used in water filters--are entirely suspended by balloons filled with helium. It looks awesome and yes the base is weighted to hold it in place. Click through for more pics.
>> View all Tokyo Design Festival posts here.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:
creative match
From the Post Office to Aston Martin: Britain's design genius celebrated in 2008 Prince Philip Designers Prize
clitheroe advertiser and times
Student's award-winning design enables disabled to ski
canberra times
ID student develops new rotational moulding process
marketwatch
Autodesk Inventor of the Month for October: ClearEdge Power
businessweek
Review of Robert Brunner-designed Dr. Dre headphones
the earth times
FACTON's Event for Manufacturing Professionals
pack expo
"The one show that can solve all of your packaging challenges": Chicago Pack Expo 2008
Umm, wow. Flickr user lunger girl reminds us why ApartmentTherapy would have sucked if it was launched in 1971, with her photo scans from the book set The Practical Encyclopedia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement. The page is a must-see, but do yourself a favor and don't eat beforehand.
Those of you who actually want to buy the book set can do so here.
via design public
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)A good bench is sturdy and heavy; it's also a pain-in-the-neck to move. But Dutch designer Rogier Martens has handily solved the problem:
via swiss miss
Maarten Baas' 'Clay Furniture - Stacking Chairs'
Is 'Good Design' an asphyxiating dogma?
Design is a peculiar activity: It's a creative process, but a process that subscribes to and reinforces certain restrictive attitudes. It can be rigid and self-policing, since a profession that earns its living by discerning what is good and bad must necessarily become judgmental. Ultimately this judgmental nature creates and enshrines certain points of view, which left unchallenged, become dogma. Today, one could argue that this dogma, generally predicated on longstanding ideas of 'rightness' and 'beauty' is choking the profession down, and worse yet, stifling its creativity as it faces some truly great problems—problems which if handled with new thinking and true creativity, will define the substance, practice and contribution of a generation of designers.
Pretty: Right priced beauty
But wait. Truth and beauty are good things, right? Not necessarily. Design's traditional preference on establishing 'order' has had the consequence of driving a collateral and unchecked pursuit of beauty. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, of course, and as such is subject to the vagaries of cultural bias and popular opinion. By degrees this pursuit of beauty has gradually been replaced with the much more predictable and less admirable accomplishment of achieving 'pretty'. And while consumer culture, planned obsolesce and design culture in general have benefited soundly from the creation, production and documentation of pretty things—the pursuit of pretty hasn't pushed the discipline of design into the tighter, less comfortable and ultimately more rigorous inquiries that outside forces (sustainability for example) are aligning to demand of us.
How might product designers better position the discipline to take on the hairy problems of sustainability, economic uncertainty, global competition and the like? Well, one thing is for certain, simply co-opting present patterns of consumption into activities and services linked to conservation won't get us there. That path might work if the world population of 6.5 billion was to stay fixed, but with an additional 3 billion consumers arriving to the party by 2050 we'll need to find more expedient (read: more creative) solutions.
Tjep's 'XXL Chair' and Front Design's 'Sketch Furniture'
PrettyUGLY: The case for 'UGLY' thinking in popular design
Whether attributable to a crisis of faith or economic malaise, High Design's recent fascination with the aesthetics of the unorthodox has given rise to some of the freshest design proposals of recent memory. It's too early to tell whether these musings signal a genuine turning point in the evolution of design, but the newfound acceptance of UGLY as a legitimate voice in design sets the stage for some interesting possibilities at a time when the profession faces deep challenges.
Longtime anathema of design circles, I'd like to suggest that design capitalize on UGLY's present arrival on the scene to boldly re-imagine itself and its future. Appropriating UGLY affords a latitude that would serve to liberate design and design thinking, expediting the introduction of new voices and ideas that might stimulate and revitalize the practice of design. Embracing a word so readily identified with everything popular design claims to have been a reaction against seems a logical choice if we are to create a vision for the practice of design freed from the restrictions and prejudices of its past.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (11)
Desire: The Shape of Things to Come, by Gestalten Press is visually interesting on every page. The oddly framed and somewhat flat front cover's picture of simple wooden furniture and gaudy gold tableware is by no means representative of the elegant furniture designs contained within. The introduction by Andrej Kupetz sets the tone by explaining the context of 21st Century design as a natural successor to the functionalism of Louis Sullivan's edicts and the visual expression of the Memphis movement. I still find the description of eras from the last fifty years as "modern" and "postmodern" somewhat confusing, but since it has become common usage I understand the authors need to use the terms. More interestingly, however, the remainder of the book does provide some new and useful (though not likely to become common usage) categories for recent design movements.
After the introduction, the book is structured in four parts: The Modernists, The Inventors, The Taletellers, and The Entertainers. Each section has a short introduction detailing the movements and their major players. The layout includes a mix of full bleed photographs, silhouettes and nicely gridded pictures with descriptive text. For some work, short background essays on the designers accompanies the photos. A lot of the furniture included in Desire transcends the neat categorization that the author provides, but is equally effective at provoking the emotion to which the title aspires. Though much of the work profiled here is more exhibition piece than industrial production, any reader is likely to discover something to lust after. For me, it was Kjellgren and Kaminsky's "Pompous Fat Armchair" which looks like set design from the Matrix met an 80's couch and a folding umbrella in an S&M club. Since that may not quite be your thing (and both the designers and myself admit that it isn't normally ours either), I encourage readers to find their own wish list inside.
Posted by: Robert Blinn | Comments (1)
Director of Engineering
Radius Product Development
Clinton, Massachusetts
We are looking for an engineering leader with imagination, passion and the technical expertise to turn great ideas into compelling, successful products! This leadership position requires a strong ability to effectively collaborate across multidisciplinary teams on challenging programs, and ensure department performance and results.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
You've got until 9pm Pacific Time tomorrow night to enter our latest 1 Hour Design Challenge: Voting Booth, so get those Prismacolors sharpened and put some politics to paper! Guest judges are William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand of Design Observer and founders of The Polling Place Photo Project now featured on the New York Times site.
>>See all entries, and submit your own here<<
All the details after the jump.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
It ain't exactly dog hair, but retailer Muji has found a way to make shirts out of castoff material: Ochiwata, "short fibers that are removed during the weaving process. With an earthy feeling and simple design for multi layering, the shirts are more comfortable to wear and more eco-friendly."
Called Rescue Cotton Shirts, the new garments are currently for sale at a Muji near you. Which means if you live in Ohio, you're S.O.L. We'd hoped Muji would have an online store by now, but their U.S. website, which was only meant for publicity, still has pages saying "Under Construction" that are dated from 2007.
Weekly finds from the 3D world.
Alias Studio
Natural surfacing tutorial Part II, by Joshua Maruska
Prepping Alias files for Autodesk Showcase
Rhino
Using Rhino in fast P.O.P. design
Inventor
Rendering and documenting designs in Inventor Studio
New eLearning section on the Inventor Manufacturing Community Portal - 14 lessons already posted
SolidWorks
Tips for importing sketches
Why your mate gives you two different measurements
Pop!Tech, the Biggie to TED's Tupac, brings the year's most brilliant, engaging, and PowerPoint-savvy thinkers/doers to the East Coast every October. This year's standout was economic heavyweight Juan Enriquez.
His presentation (it's long, but worth it) used LOLdogz and econ graphs to show that yes, we are in fact screwed. Unless...
Watch to the end for his 10 Commandments to Save the Economy. For all you frustrated and freaked out tech designers out there, take heart! Making sure your internet startup gets off the ground is a cornerstone of the solution.
Posted by: William Bostwick | Comments (0)
Our DesignPhiladelphia 2008 gallery is now online with images covering a full week of events in the city of brotherly love. Highlights include Philly Heart Design local designer exhibition, A Clean Break: Pop-up Neighborhood, Make:Philly Art Cart Derby, and many lectures and exhibitions. Enjoy!
>> View Gallery
View all DesignPhiladelphia 2008 posts:
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: SOS Stool by Josh Owen
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: Matthias Pliessnig
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: The Hacktory
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: Two Days Left
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: A Clean Break
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: Student Work at 222 Gallery
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:
thomasnet
Award-Winning Design for Counterbalanced Lift Truck
ten links
Autodesk Launches Free Formula Car Design Curriculum
marketwatch
Legal Ruling on Design Patents Favors Consumer Goods Companies
bangkok post
Thailand: Bathroom Design banks on innovative products
wales online
"Chairs that should make the world sit up and notice our design talent"
insurance news
Kansas State U. Exhibition of Architecture and Product Design Student Work
byu news net
Students trying to explain to your parents what ID is, e-mail them this link
TechShop, the membership-based machine shop for DIY gearheads, has been a favorite of us here at Core for a while, getting glowing mentions here and here. The biggest criticism we've always had of the place is that there's only one of them, and it's in Menlo Park, CA, which is great if you're a Silicon Valley tool nerd but annoying if you're a tool nerd anywhere else.
Thankfully, that's starting to change: after more than a year of anticipation, several of the planned expansion locations are starting to see some action, first at the Durham, NC Techshop, whose building was previewed in July, and just last week in Portland, OR, where Core contributer Molly Purnell hopped on a bus to the industrial section of nearby Beaverton to check out the new space, and talk to some other excited makers. Here's what she found:
On the bus I get to know Dave, a self-proclaimed inventor and maker who's excited about TechShop's CNC router. Dave builds Fretted Dulcimers which are apparently coming back into fashion in the Japanese hand-made instrument market, and he needs access to the shop in order to build prototypes.Dave seems to be the typical clientelle of TechShop; a maker with big dreams, little space, and no equipment. TechShop's goal is to remedy this situation for the 300 or so potential members that came to the opening event. TechShop plans to have milling machines, lathes, welders, a laser cutter, an electronics shop, blacksmithing tools, a finishing room, workstations, a 3D printer, and of course the coveted CNC router. Along with all of this equipment there will be a tool and materials shop, a small library and a communal kitchen.
The greatest benefit of Techshop will be the probable development of community. The owner of TechShop, Jim Newton and the Portland shop manager, Denney Cole, claim that the community is one of the greatest drawing powers for continued membership. Most builders know that another's experience and knowledge is the best tool available.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (1)Wednesday, October 29[Note - This edition of Daily Design Snacks was mistakenly left unpublished yesterday; today we will have double the Snacks.]
A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:
time compression
Minima uses design to add value to science at Bio-Technica 2008marketwatch
Belkin Wins Three 2008 Japan Good Design Awardsmaranouchi house
Tokyo: "The Mother of Design" eventinternational herald tribune
Volkswagen passes Exxon as world's largest companyapple insider
Surprise: Apple's got more cash than Microsoftdesign taxi
Annoucing the winner of the IDSA Education Awardtaipei times
Taiwanese product design recognizedPosted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Wednesday, October 29
The elegant BEE (top photo) combines elements of biomimetics and aviation engineering, drawing inspiration from honeycombs and airplane wings to produce this beautiful bamboo fiber chaise longue.
The beautiful and bone-like Free Jump clip stirrups & riding boots (bottom photo) combine high-tensile steel with a plastic shell, and the whole thing disassembles cleanly for recycling.
Both of these eye-poppers were designed by Fritsch & Associates, a design firm outside of Paris. F&A will be presenting these and other projects this November at the International Biennale of Design in Saint-Etienne, where Core77's own Allan Chochinov will be lecturing.
The rest of us at Core will just say behind, which I guess is no big deal...I mean France, big whoop...the food is just so-so, and I guess their designers are okay. And anyways, New York is really...pleasant in November.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Wednesday, October 29
You're probably wondering what the heck those photos are. That, friends, is the Hobart I-Cool seat, perhaps the most radical-looking in a long line of devices designed to make you lose weight while doing nothing.
Designed by Tel-Aviv-based Padwa Design, the I-Cool is
...the first ever Exercise-Free, Calorie Burning seat designed to deliver significantly increased sedentary calorie burn rates.This proprietary system, which induces accelerated calorie outtake via temperature regulation, creates a revolutionary personalized micro-environment, by allowing individual users to set their preferred temperature within the comfort of their own personal space, regardless of the climate around them.
We're not clear on exactly how it works, but apparently you sit in it and sweat. No clue as to how effective it is, but at any rate, it looks a damn sight better than these did:
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Wednesday, October 29
Social networks are providing tremendous opportunities for people to collaborate. But until now, thinking has focused only on how organisations can respond to and capitalise on networks. This report by the UK think tank Demos argues that we have to look equally at how networks use organisations for their own ends. That is where the new contours of inequality and power lie that will shape the network world. We have to face networks' dark side, as well as their very real potential.
Bringing together in-depth case studies of six organisations, Network Citizens maps the key fault-lines that people and organisations will have to address in the future world of work. Not doing so puts at risk the very qualities we had invested in them: openness, innovation, collaboration and meritocracy. Since networks can act for good or ill, incubating the talents and ideas of the many, or promoting the interests of the few, the need for a new set of responsibilities is growing. If we are network members, we must be network citizens, too.
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)Wednesday, October 29
New Media Creative Director
Arcad
Auckland, New ZealandThe ideal candidate will have a strong conceptual vision and the ability to inspire and communicate that vision to the creative team as well as to clients. You must have a passion for design, a thorough grasp of online technologies and programming - along with the ability to balance cutting edge technologies with the realities of execution. You must be a natural problem solver with strong project management skills and also be comfortable working in a fast paced environment. You must be able to work well with multiple disciplines (3D, Programming, Media, TV) and support common goals.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (1)Tuesday, October 28Behind the scenes tour of of an award-winning creative farm, juicing process and distribution in South West England.
There is also a high res version
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)Tuesday, October 28via kottke
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)Tuesday, October 28
From the Coroflot portfolio of : Sherwood Forlee (New York, NY)
Featured Projects :
>> Anti-Theft Lunch Bag
>> Sleep Safe Tape
>> Easy JarYou may have seen Sherwood's Anti Theft Lunch Bag floating around the blogosphere, but have you seen his Sleep Safe Tape?
If you're interested in a kitchen trick click below for another tactic by Floree.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (2)Tuesday, October 28
Most visitors to Japan during the rainy season have noticed the variety of umbrella-drying devices placed at department store entrances; the most common is the one that slides a sort of plastic condom onto your umbrella in one swipe, and you may have seen seen a larger hairdryer-style contraption.
But the hairdryer one needs to be plugged in, and the condom-style umbrella wrapper will generate thousands of plastic bags that go into the trash. Annon's cool umbrella-drying device, on the other hand, requires no electricity and generates no waste; the film coating on the pie-slice-shaped sponges just squeegees the water off of your umbrella, draining it into a pan below.
Of course if you really wanted to be green, you would drink the water that accumulates in the pan, so it wouldn't go to waste either. But I guess that's kinda gross.
via dig info tv
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)Tuesday, October 28
I remember buying jeans on a trip to Beijing in '01 and thinking: As a child of the '70s and '80s, I never thought I'd be trying on blue jeans in a store in Communist China.
Nor did I ever expect Chinese design to compete on the world stage, and while their cars still have a ways to go, they've arrived in terms of appliances. Haier's double-drawer 'fridge-freezer is bumping into LG territory, and if I saw the photo cold, I wouldn't doubt you if you told me it was designed in Italy.
The center-mounted LED features a neat, high-tech update to leaving notes on the 'fridge: a video camera that lets you record messages. You can record abusive messages to yourself regarding self-control--"Sure you wanna finish that, fatso?"--or nag your roommates not to touch your potato salad.
via appliancist
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Tuesday, October 28
Rob Tannen and his team at the Bressler Group, where he is Director of Research, have been working on the FieldCREW User Research Concept Platform, photo above. In Tannen's own words, "It's a concept design for a data gathering system for user researchers who...spend so much time gathering information to design high-tech products, but have very limited tools themselves. It also brings together some interesting 'near-future' technologies, like subvocalization to silently take notes while conducting field observations."
The nifty for-designers, by-designers tablet features
...several wireless data gathering components, including:- Wireless, remotely controlled tracking video cameras for audio and video recording
- Handheld wireless taggers that allow each observer to tag key events of their choosing for later review - tagging is synched to a common timeline on the tablet
- Subvocalization sensor allows the researcher to silently dictate notes that are automatically transcribed to text and stored on the tabletThe tablet manages and receives data from these wireless components and provides features including:
- Video notation (i.e. telestrator) for annotation of events as they happen
- Speech-to-text translation of recorded audio (and subvocalizations)
- Access to stored and online project and research reference materials
- Built-in storage and recharging for wireless components
- Synchronization of all input sources (video, tagging, notes) for streamlined analysis
Check out the full slideshow and description here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)
Tuesday, October 28
Core's favorite local designshop, KIOSK, is hosting an opening tomorrow night, Wednesday, to launch their latest exhibition: Matt McGregor-Mento, Black Cross "Flying Machines". 6-9 with beer, cider and cheese. 95 Spring Street on the 2nd floor. Here's more:
What is it about things made with our own hand that makes them more fun to use? Why is a rough handmade aesthetic so appealing right now? How can making an object intentionally less "functional" bring us closer to the pure experience of using that object? And ultimately, what is the human fascination with speed--and why is our exhilaration heightened when coupled with the sense of unpredictable disaster?BlackCross "Flying Machines" is a re-inventing of three common recreational objects. Built crudely of wood, the plywood bellyboard (or paipo), the shipping palette sled, and the simple lumber skateboard all feel like Middle School shop-class inventions.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (1)Tuesday, October 28
From the "You've gotta be kidding me department" come two lamps from Franco Zavarise and Ingo Maurer sure to piss off New Yorkers: The Ociu and the Seven Rats Table Lamp, respectively.
The former is a 72-inch pendant lamp, which I agree is beautiful, but makes me bitter because no one I know could fit this darn thing in their apartment. Plus, how much juice does this thing suck up? And is it just me, or does it look like the kind of thing where you pull a lever and this falls onto James Bond, trapping him underneath it?
The latter is a table lamp (admittedly from '07, missed it the first time around) comprised of seven rats trapped in cages. This is every New Yorker's dream. Another thing we need is a silverware set that uses cockroach shells for the bowl of a spoon and their grotesque little legs for the fork tines.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)Tuesday, October 28
Senior Web Designer
frog design
Stuttgart, GermanyQualified candidates will share our belief that design is as much about behavior and emotion as it is about utility and ease of use. Senior interface designers provide leadership in concept development, creation of original art and wire-frame interaction model, project design/development, and QA. They are responsible for the development of innovative navigation systems, interface designs, typography, and screen or page layouts for software, application, web sites, and other interactive media. They will push the state-of-the-art with every creation and thrive in our fast-paced studio.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)Tuesday, October 28
Cannondale is hoping their Bad Boy will be a good incentive for design; they're giving a BB to the winner of their "Commuter Bike for the Masses" design competition.
Do you have an idea for a bicycle that might persuade the average person, with no prior interest in cycling, to park the car and pedal to work? That is the main idea behind this competition. The scope is up to you--choose to come up with a whole new form factor for a pedal powered machine, or focus on specific details that you consider key to accomplishing the goal of getting the average non-cyclist to consider riding a bike for transportation.Don't be constrained by products that are currently on the market, but do make sure that your concepts are based in reality (don't break the laws of physics, etc) and that they are manufacturable using existing technology. All concepts submitted will be considered, so be creative and have fun.
A jury of 6 industrial designers and 1 journalist will review and discuss the submissions to choose a winner. The jury will be looking for creative and sound concepts that are clearly defined, original, and innovative. Presentation counts too, so do your best to sell us on your concept.
Deadline's December 5th, so get those pedals churnin'.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Monday, October 27Posted by: Jeannie Choe | Comments (0)
An existence as "makers of stuff" has long been accepted but, more recently, it's been thrown out many a proverbial window by designers worldwide. To set things on track to where they always should have been, Emily Pilloton founded Project H, a non-profit organization that puts design to work for humanity, habitats, health, and happiness. Its latest project is Design for Education, an initiative to design tools to improve teaching and learning in both the US and developing markets.
Learn extensively about what Project H is up to now and Pilloton's P.O.V. on the future of design over at Ecolect LimeLight.
I'd love for communities, both in the US and in India, Africa, Asia, and beyond, to begin to view design as something we rely on to solve our problems- one of the first lines of defense in ameliorating social ills. Design can be a form of capital, a form of public health, and a vehicle for social and political progress. I hope that Project H becomes proof of that.Monday, October 27
Good entries keep rolling in for this months 1 Hour Design Challenge - Design Democracy edition - and you all seem to be having a lot of fun with it. Recently we've gotten several proposals that take the concept of the voting booth to some ridiculous, commentary-laden extremes, like this one from jknodell, that puts voters through a hudraulic-enabled carnival ride showing the potential consequences of their vote before letting them stagger dizzily to the adjacent voting booth:
Then we've got Brett_nyc's keen observation about the similarity between the decision Morpheus poses to Neo, and the one we're all facing on Nov. 4:
Vinishree turns the booth into a sculpture, depicting a barren tree that bursts into life as votes are added to it:
But the most fun so far is probably this gem from TheMunesterOfPortSalut. Not much to look at:
but read the description:
...November 4th, all channels broadcast recordings of debate/discussion during voting hours.-Cameras behind the screen identify the viewer's retina and track eye motion.
-A monkey with a tamborine is superimposed between the candidates.
-The candidate who gets the most attention gets the viewers passive vote.
-Attendance at a polling place replaces the passive vote with an active vote.
-If the monkey wins, congress must entertain a motion that the US recognize the next American Idol as Supreme Dictator of the Known Universe...
You've still got three more days to submit your democracy-saving design, and remember, every entry gets personally reviewed by no less than William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand, who constitute two-thirds of Design Observer's editorial staff, and founded The Polling Place Photo Project now featured on the New York Times. So you know you'll be getting some good feedback.
>>See all entries, and submit your own here<<
Posted by: core jr | Comments (1)Monday, October 27
Is Prototyping finally entering the pop-cultural lexicon?
Where it was once an opaque techno-fabulous term used by Q in James Bond flicks, or forming the dubious core of a Star Trek episode, we've now got a word that actually has meaning for the average TV viewer. "Prototyping" arouses interest and fascination, but lately it's also started feeling accessible, like a sexier version of building a birdhouse in the garage with your dad.
Case in point: in addition to reality TV phenomena like Project Runway, Mythbusters and Junkyard Wars, all of which feature on-the-fly construction as part of the drama, we can now count Discovery Channel's Prototype This, which not only uses the term in its name, but invites viewers to submit ideas of their own. This is a marked break from the established depictions of hi-tech: people pay attention when Apple rolls out a new product, but Steve Jobs never asks viewers to suggest what they ought to be working on next.
Now it looks like Prototyping may have its greatest advocate yet, in the form of recent Carnegie Mellon grad Johnny Chung Lee, whose YouTube video explaining how to hack a Wiimote into a VR display has earned him a TED talk, a pile of job offers, and over six million views. If you haven't seen it yet, you pretty much have to stop whatever you're doing and watch it right now:
Posted by: Carl Alviani | Comments (0)Monday, October 27
[image credit: Curventa Bloodhound SSC]
We're conflicted about putting these images up because yes, we're supposed to be designing green vehicles to save the planet, not land-rockets that go over 1,000 miles per hour; but darn if this thing doesn't look cool.
You read that right: Curventa's Bloodhound SSC is a car (well, a land-based vehicle, anyway) designed to hit 1,050 m.p.h., which would make it faster than a bullet fired from a .357 Magnum. The three-year mission is still in progress, and if an actual production model ever sees the light of day, we can tell you they needn't include a seatbelt and airbag; slam into anything at those speeds and you will probably disintegrate entirely.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Monday, October 27
The saying goes "Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," but there's no corollary for those who live in glass temples. Then again the monks at Thailand's Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew temple should be able to throw stones; they've earned their fair share of good karma by recycling over 1.5 million glass bottles, incorporating them into the premises as walls, railings, columns, and they've even used the bottle caps to make mosaics.
As you'd expect from monks, the construction wasn't exactly a rush job-- these patient gents have been at it since 1984, and counting. More incoming bottle donations means they can build more structures.
via inhabitat
thanks mike!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Monday, October 27A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:
ny post
Manhattan's hottest architects (and their proteges)industrial it
Nothing lost in translation with accurate digital prototypingwired
Nottingham applying to be World Design Capitalsun star
Pinoy designers to help RP break into new marketsthe star
Quick interview with Rolf Benz head of designvfx world
Cintiq Digital Pen Fosters Product Design at Oakleydexigner
European Design Since 1985: Shaping the New CenturyPosted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Monday, October 27
Roman letters are low-res.
What we mean by that is you can get away with fewer "dots" in an LED display to spell them out than you can with, say, Chinese; the latter's more sophisticated characters make reading them difficult without high-resolution.
Jiangmen Seekway Technology Ltd. makes a pretty cool 3D LED display that can render Chinese characters with clarity, not to mention spin them around in animations we'll one day have to learn to ignore when walking through Times Square, just as we learned to ignore blinking neon.
Ironically, the company has chosen to display their high-quality LED display in a crappy, lo-res YouTube video:
And just for kicks, below is what is reportedly the most complicated Chinese character (for a type of noodle):
Whatever store sells these noodles and uses an LED display saying so, is going to have a higher electricity bill!
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)Monday, October 27Came across this one in a "Modern Morals" column:
Q: I have been working in industrial design for almost 20 years. Recently a friend told me about a design idea he had proposed for his daughter, who is just starting out in her design career.The idea, which is linked to the 2010 World Cup, would make her lots of money if she were to follow through with it. Since being given this idea two months ago it seems that she has still done nothing about it. For my part, I have thought about little else and really think that with some improvements it could really be a money spinner. I want to put in a proposal, but feel I am stealing their idea. Should I just be ruthless and go ahead with it?
So--what would you do? And we wanna hear what you'd do before you read Mr. Morality's answer, here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (12)Monday, October 27
Communication Design Professor
Fashion Institute of Technology
New York, New YorkExpertise required in areas such as web design, interface design, motion graphics, and other associated disciplines. Candidates must demonstrate expertise in screen-based typography and design principles as well as in two or more of the following areas: XHTML/CSS, JavaScript, digital video editing, digital audio editing, motion graphics, or 3D modeling and animation. Experience teaching courses such as Web Design, and Motion Graphics, as well as Graphic Design is required.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)Monday, October 27
During a recent speech Professor Yrjo Sotamaa, former Rector of the University of Art and Design Helsinki (TaiK), described Finland's educational strategy to remain at the forefront of innovation:
The new strategy aims at strengthening the core competencies of Finland through a radical university reform. And it is turning innovation thinking 180 degrees around to human-centric thinking. It does not lessen the importance of technology and business know-how, but in the future the innovation drivers are stronger tied to the needs of users and the opportunities on the market. The shift to user-driven innovation highlights the importance of design. Design has a huge and very new potential for innovation."Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (1)Aalto University, scheduled to officially open its doors in Autumn 2009, is a new university being created through a merge between the Helsinki School of Economics, the University or Art and Design Helsinki and the Helsinki University of Technology. The merge between the three universities will create a new science and art community from the three universities of technology, business studies and art and design and provide possibilities for multidisciplinary and strong education and research.
Sunday, October 26
Brilliantly simple. From the portfolio of Ignacio Pilotto, an Argentinian designer.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (2)Saturday, October 25
The inside cover of Daniel Eatock's monograph Imprint is covered with a rather exhaustive list of tasks that could be construed as either design projects or performance art pieces depending upon one's point of view. While certain items like "I have spent twenty-four hours in a pitch-black room, lying on a mattress with ear plugs in my ears, without eating or visiting the toilet," suggest David Blaine's feats of endurance, others stray from conceptual art into true iterative design. While his project to draw ten thousand circles by hand before selecting the best one sounds like an introductory sketching exercise (and the final circle is indeed nearly Zen in its perfection), the ream of A3 paper consisting of the other 9,999 imperfect circles stands as the real piece of art.
In the accompanying text Eatock admits that he's not an intuitive sketcher, instead describing the ideas behind his work as the true art. Instead I would posit that his process stands as his most substantial artistic achievement. Sometimes, the idea and the output fuse perfectly, like arranging an entire set of Letraset Pantone Markers according to the color spectrum and leaving them open to bleed into 500 sheets of paper. The resulting set of prints was both aesthetically pleasing and, I assume, easily numbered. Inviting participants to help to manufacture "the world's largest signed and numbered artwork" by signing and numbering labels themselves, however, is more intellectually than aesthetically interesting. Eatock works and has trained as a graphic artist, so his output isn't industrial design by any stretch of the imagination, but the process is the same. In effect, Eatock has made the process of the art into the art, and the results are both inspirational and humbling. I once heard that looking at a Picasso makes one want to paint, but looking at Rembrandt makes one want to quit. Miraculously, reviewing Eatock's prolific output manifests both urges at the same time. For any designer struggling to find a place to start, reading Imprint should be ample proof that almost any starting point will look brilliant in retrospect, provided that enough work, practice and repetition went into the final product.
Posted by: Robert Blinn | Comments (0)Saturday, October 25
Last week marked the end of DesignPhiladelphia, but Gallery 222 is keeping Product 01 and Build 02, two exhibitions of work from two of Philadelphia's premiere design education courses, running through November 1st.
Checkout some of the highlights after the jump.
Posted by: Bryce | Comments (0)Saturday, October 25
After Shock is the world's first massively collaborative disaster simulation, about a major earthquake affecting much of Southern California.
Starting Nov. 13 2008, you'll experience the earthquake as if it's really occurring, and what happens next--How do we survive? Can our region recover and rebuild?--will be up to you.
And if you don't live in Southern California, you can still participate.
Created by Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA and the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, CA.
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)Saturday, October 25
Day 2 at Poptech rang in with bright sunshine and thoughts of digital freedom as old fave Chris Anderson took the stage with Clay Shirky and Matt Mason. Anderson emphasized the need for non-monentary transactions in today's society, while Shirky contemplated the role of generosity in organization. The piracy expert, Matt Mason, filled out the morning session by presenting piracy as a new form of capitalism, marketing and business tool.
We're seeing a lot of design for social innovation projects this here year, and mid-morning kicked off one of the more powerful -- the announcement of Project M, a mobile HIV prevention program, which brought the speakers to tears and audience members to their feet. Additional inspiration came from Heather Fleming of Catapult Design, an initiative of Engineers Without Borders, as she described their work in developing countries. Fleming, one of the Poptech Fellows, emphasized the need to act: "You have to be the change you want to see in
