RSS Feeds:Randall Stross takes a reasoned yet contrarian look at everyone's favorite lust object, the Tesla Roadster. While anti-consumption seems to be the new black this holiday season, Stross fuses his economic logic with a soupcon of social justice.
If investors pass up the opportunity, however, why should taxpayers fork over the capital that Tesla needs? The Roadster is not much more than a functioning concept car that sells for $109,000. The company is requesting $400 million in low-interest federal loans as part of the $25 billion loan package for the auto industry passed by Congress last year.Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (1)The program is intended to encourage automakers to improve fuel efficiency, but should it be used for a purpose like this, as the 2008 Bailout of Very, Very High-Net-Worth Individuals Who Invested in Tesla Motors Act? Can you conceive any way that federal dollars could be put at greater risk — and for no equity in return, keep in mind — to benefit fewer people?
...
Last week, I visited the Tesla showroom in Menlo Park, Calif., and took the Roadster out on the highway. As I headed back to the showroom and waited at red lights, ready to hit the accelerator and fly, I realized that I was experiencing a guilty pleasure derived not just from the speed available at my touch but also from temporarily possessing something that shouted to the world its exclusiveness.
In The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind James Boyle introduces readers to the idea of the public domain and describes how it is being tragically eroded by our current copyright, patent, and trademark laws.
In a series of fascinating case studies, Boyle explains why gene sequences, basic business ideas and pairs of musical notes are now owned, why jazz might be illegal if it were invented today, why most of 20th century culture is legally unavailable to us, and why today's policies would probably have smothered the World Wide Web at its inception.
Appropriately given its theme, the book will be sold commercially but also made available online for free under a Creative Commons license.
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)
Design policy gatherings are fashionable these days. First there was an international design policy conference on 6-7 November in Turin, Italy (that I reported on in detail here on Core77). Then a few days later major U.S. professional design organizations, design education accreditation organizations, and Federal government design assembled on 11-12 November in Washington D.C. for a National Design Policy Summit (also briefly mentioned on Core77).
Today Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall, associate professor of design anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the main organising force behind the U.S. event, gave some more background on what seemed to have been a very systematic affair:
The 2008 US National Design Summit was organized as a two-day super-intense workshop with the goal of creating a shared actionable agenda of U.S. design policy for economic competitiveness and democratic governance among the professional design associations, design educational bodies, and the design-related Federal government agencies.
>> Read story
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (1)
Danish architect Jørn Utzon, designer of the Sydney Opera House, died today. He was 90. Taught by Alvar Aalto and declared a genius by none other than Eero Saarinen, Utzon designed one of the most recognizable structures on the planet.
Still, his name is uncommon, if not unknown. Utzon designed the opera house in 1957 at age 39, but outrageous cost overruns (it was 1,400% over budget) and skirmishes over the design made him quit the project in 1966. It was finished seven years later without him. He never returned to Australia.
The opera house's sail-like roof was supposedly inspired by Utzon peeling an orange; the curved slices fit into a perfect sphere. The house won Utzon the Pritzker Prize—architecture's highest honor—in 2003, proving, the jury declared, that "the marvelous and seemingly impossible in architecture can be achieved."
(AP obit)
Posted by: William Bostwick | Comments (3)
British Royal Mail has announced a new set of UK design icon stamps that'll come out just in time for thank-you card season. The stamps honor the wickedest of British design, from Edward Young's iconic Penguin covers to Mary Quant's miniskirt (who knew?) to Sir Alec Issigonis's plain-old Mini.
Designed by British studio HGV (they've done three other series for the Royal Mail, all worth a look), the stamps release on January 13th, timed to the Mini's 50th birthday, and the Concorde's 40th.
They're nice and simple to a fault—not nearly as energetic as the designs they feature. Verdict: our Eames stamps still have the Brits licked.
More stamps (and no puns, promise) after the jump.
(via Creative Review)
Posted by: William Bostwick | Comments (0)
Nicolas Nova's got some great coverage of the Biennale over at LIFT lab. Thanks to Mark for the link!
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
One of our absolute favorite projects in the Saint-Étienne Design Biennale was Anaïs met den Ancxt's Energy Solstices, a project completed as part of her post-diploma at Ecole Supérieure d'Art et de Design de St Etienne, partnered with EDF R&D (with Mathieu Lehanneur as the research director). The project was one of many inspiring design investigations in the school's "Réalisme énerg#233;tique" exhibition, and had us scrambling for our cameras and sketchbooks.
In Anaïs's project, the notion of daylight savings time is explored, arguing that its practical advantages have been blurred by technology, and that the purpose today would be to transform the practice "into seasonal rituals with a symbolic dimension."
She's done this with a set of incredibly poetic objects--all housed in a sweet wooden box, with which users can equip themselves for the changes that happen twice a year. Our favorite objects are the wind-up light bulb above, One hour of light (LED, small clock wind-up key, battery) which is used during the Winter solstice--when night falls one hour earlier. Its small clock wind-up key produces a symbolic hour of light.
Another favorite is Recto-verso clock, which slows down or speeds up the time over a four-day period, helping users to "update" their own internal clock. (That's the amount of time it takes us to adjust, apparently.) There are lots of other great items in the set, so be sure to check out the site to see them all.
More pics after the jump.
>> View all Saint-Étienne Design Biennale posts here.
Steve Portigal's got another excellent essay in the current issue of Interactions Magazine, entitled, "Some Different Approaches to Making Stuff" where he breaks down 5 paradigms for the process (or belief) in how stuff makes its way into the world. Here's the setup:
Business case studies are the ultimate in reductionism: A complex business activity rooted in a specific context of people, company culture, time, and place is boiled down to a few key ideas. Consultants, designers, students, and people who read Malcolm Gladwell are especially prone to this form of simplification. Don't get me wrong-these simplified stories can be helpful as touchstones. We just need to remember that they are often apocryphal archetypes more than investigative summaries.With that in mind, I propose an incomplete framework for how companies go about making stuff (products, services, miscellaneous). In characterizing this as incomplete, I hope to hear about other approaches that will flesh out the framework.
It's an extremely readable and useful piece, so subscribe to the magazine, or get the whole article by starting here.
Want more Portigal? Check out the audio podcast he did on Lunar's Icon-o-cast--a great primer on design research and insight generation.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)Click for more info.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (1)
If you haven't heard already, here's what next week is all about:Autodesk University starts up next Tuesday, Dec. 2, and Core77 is headed to Las Vegas to cover it live. We go to lots of fairs and conferences, but are getting especially excited about this one, given the raw amount of technical geekery we expect to absorb.
With 650 classes and several thousand attendees spanning four days, AU is one of the largest 3D CAD events on the planet, and many--if not all--of the world's foremost experts on Alias, Maya, Inventor and the rest of Autodesk's stable will be in attendance, either as participants or presenters.
The conference's content has historically been aimed heavily at the architecture, engineering and construction communities, but with the acquisition of Alias in 2006, Autodesk's push toward ID has been strengthening, and this year's schedule reflects that.
Core will be on hand with live-blogging, images and video coverage, so expect to hear some good things about the latest developments in 3D modeling and rendering tools, reports from the cutting edge of car and product design, a keynote from IDEO's Tom Kelley, and a first-ever 3D version of the now famous Cut & Paste digital design tournament.
Coverage starts Tuesday afternoon, PST, and continues through til the end of the week.
Posted by: Carl Alviani | Comments (0)
A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:
the auto channel
Audi: Sponsor and exhibitor of innovative design at Design Miami/2008
the singleton argus
Design student's teppanyaki table with hideaway grill
var india
Portable but rugged Transcend hard drive receives Japan's Good Design Award
efy times
Tata Elxsi Opens Design Studio Europe
fin channel
SANYO Receives Germany's iF Design Award 2009 for Five Products
the economist
Color-matching device reads paint and textures like nobody's business
design taxi
Call For Entries: 2008 Biennial International Index Design Award
When you take a shower, you turn the water on, wait for it to get hot, then you get in.
It's that second step that's the problem, environmentally speaking: As a company called Evolve Showerheads points out, while you're waiting for the agua to heat up, "two-and a half gallons of hot water per minute are funneling down the drain."
Evolve designs the solution into their products:
Utilizing the unique, patent-pending ShowerStart technology, [our] showerheads [stop] the flow to a trickle when the water reaches a comfortable 95 degrees. This way your hot water's no longer running down the drain while you're away from the shower.Using an evolve showerhead can save a yearly average of 2,700 gallons of water, the fossil-fueled energy it takes to heat it, and up to $75 off your utility bill.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (2)
The designers of General Electric's "Colossal Capacity" Frontload Washer & Dryer aim to remove at least two quotidian tasks from your domestic life: Loading your washing machine up with detergent, and inputting dryer settings. A feature they're calling their SmartDispense Pedestal "holds up to 6 months of detergent and dispenses the right amount, at the right time," while their CleanSpeak Communication System "reads" your loads and presets the dryer settings.
The physical design is kind of neat too, even if it does look like a Transformer robot in its dormant state.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
As we do our shopping this holiday season, does it not seem a bit silly that we may buy electronics products that will come wrapped in cardboard, plastic and styrofoam, and then the recipient will throw that packaging away, and buy another product to hold the first product in? Not to mention that second product will also come wrapped in its own packaging.
We feel HP is on the right track with this rather brilliant idea--why not sell a laptop packaged in a laptop bag? Cardboard boxes and styrofoam, after all, are designed to protect their contents; so is a laptop bag, and it takes up a heckuva lot less space, meaning more will fit on a shipping pallet.
HP came up with the concept under Walmart's Design Challenge, which "asked electronics manufacturers to produce a product that would reduce environmental impact.... And the result was a winning solution that reduced packaging materials by 97%."
We know it's not practical to sell refrigerators inside of a 'fridge cozy, but for more portable items, if manufacturers can design cases that people actually want, we could be seeing the beginning of a very positive trend.
via c scout
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:
businessweek
Review of the bizarre, titanium-bristled TiFinity Toothbrush
wallpaper
London Science Museum's new Japanese Car Exhibition
design taxi
Australian International Design Awards call for entries
pc mag
Asus Introduces Bamboo Notebook
marketwatch
CADSEEK shape-searching tech wins iSeek "Most Valued Company" Award
metronews
Iconic Nissan Cube is finally coming to fans outside Japan
new statesman
Mass market modernism book: London Transport Posters - a Century of Art and Design
For those of you who aren't slaving away in the kitchen today, check out these clips of "future kitchens." The first two were produced in the 1950s; the last, a GE piece, seems to be from a more recent decade. Call us crazy but we think the '50s ones look way better.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Blogger John Hatchett of Low End Mac has a good way to stretch a dollar and save the environment some hassle. "Old computers can serve new purposes--and save you money as well," he writes, in an essay entitled Old Macs in the New Economy. "We always use it up, wear it out, and then recycle it. We are the kings of making our computers last, last, and last some more."
Hatchett oughta know--this is a guy who uses a G3 Powerbook (remember those?) as his main computer. His latest project: Turning an old iMac into a digital jukebox.
The phenomenon isn't limited to Macs, of course--click here for a list of other ideas on what to do with an old PC.
via cult of mac and Digital Nomads
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
[photo by Katie Sokoler/Gothamist]
Nowadays we've got green office buildings, green homes, and now, green nightclubs. As Gothamist reports,
Greenhouse [is] a new 6,000 square foot, bi-level club that opened last week in Soho in the former Club Shelter space. As the name suggests, they're working the eco-friendly angle here with (deep breath) high-efficiency heating, an LED lighting system, fabrics made from recycled materials, bamboo floor and wall coverings, and furniture made with FSC wood. Owner Jon Bakhshi, who is applying for LEED certification, tells the Times he spent at least 33 percent more on Greenhouse than he would have on a "non-eco friendly" (anti-eco?) club.
For hard partiers, this is a welcome ripple in the wave of eco-thinking slowly rolling across our planet; the last time I saw green at a nightclub, it involved not knowing how much Cuervo is too much Cuervo.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
A fun blast-from-the-past piece of eye candy is Mr. Wong's Soup'parmtments, a "pixel by pixel" project that had volunteers add their own illustrated "apartments" to an ever-growing virtual skyscraper. With everything from swimming pools and automobile showrooms to Lightsaber academies and zombie attacks, the endlessly scroll-able, virtual Tower of Babel is an entertaining low-res delight. Load it up on your iPhone for the perfect airport lounge time sink.
via reuben miller
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Missing from much of the talk about electric cars has been how to charge them up--"just plug it in" sounds simple enough, but when you're dealing with a 400 pound battery that takes 5 hours to juice up, electric vehicle infrastructure suddenly snaps into focus as a make-or-break part of the picture.
Palo Alto-based startup Better Place has been working on this part of the plug-in car puzzle since 2007; quietly for a while, but lately with some fanfare. Having already secured cooperation and investment to build infrastructure in Israel, Denmark and Australia, a major announcement was made on Nov. 20 that Better Place will be getting to work in its own back yard: the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose have offered their enthusiastic support for a plan to install a $1 billion network of charging stations and battery-exchange stations throughout the Bay Area by 2012.
Getting the network right, though, turns out to be an enormous task. While the gas station network in the US has been evolving for a century now, the task for Better Place is to build something up from scratch in just a few years. To that end, they've enlisted SF-based industrial design powerhouse New Deal Design to work out the details. New Deal founder Gadi Amit explains that six in-house designers assigned to the project are responsible for "any physical embodiment of the charging spot," a task which he acknowledges may sound trivial, but is in fact "very involved."
The first major manifestation of this network is the charging post (see renderings, above), of which 250,000 are expected to be installed by the completion of the project.
Posted by: Carl Alviani | Comments (4)Providing an informative, interactive, and completely engaging exhibition at the Eco City Lab pavilion was Debra Solomon's Lucky Mi Fortune Cooking, a mobile snack wagon (well, pretty mobile) transforming food flows (waste) to delicious in-situ snacks (kimchi...yum!)
Debra and her chef de cuisine Paul Freestone were busily chopping, fermenting, and doing all manner of things to create an incredible array of foods, all of which were documented in an ongoing cookbook. Check out the video above to see some of the tasty action!
>> View all Saint-Étienne Design Biennale posts here.
More info at the site.
If you're heading to Miami for the 2008 hoo-hah, make sure to check out BOX TOP SHOP, presented by I.D. Magazine, Charles & Marie, and Areaware. They'll be selling limited-edition (natch) design objects from Areaware and Charles & Marie, as well as an edition of 300 I.D. tote bags featuring exclusive graphics by Konstantin Grcic, Tord Boontje, and the Bouroullecs. The space is designed by Rich, Brilliant, Willing (you'll recall them from our Greener Gadgets Design Competition last year), who've devised " a practical solution to create a temporary retail environment":
By using flat-packed hollow volumes (cardboard boxes), a shop is assembled in a single day. The boxes provide the necessary presentation requirements of merchandise using a minimal amount of material--the boxes themselves are readymade components drawn from a variety of manufacturers and industrial suppliers. Rich Brilliant Willing assembles these ubiquitous elements into a cohesive, functional whole: The Box Top Shop.
I.D., Charles & Marie, and Areaware present
BOX TOP SHOP
A four-day retail experience
Design Miami, December 2-6
Miami Design District
4141 NE 2nd Avenue, inner foyer
More info here
A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:
west end word
St. Louis: A "powerhouse" architecture firm
asu college of fine and applied arts
Appalachian to hold second Power of Design event
international business times
WowWee's Diverse Product Line Awarded Top Honors from Multiple Organizations
guardian
Better by design: Options to support the teaching of design and technology
canadian architect
Work from 1954 to 1982: Court Noxon, Architect and Industrial Designer
live pr
Industrial Design Services in the US - Companies and Markets adds new report
d photo
Epson's new ID from Italy
Weekly finds from the 3D world.
Rhino
Tutorial: modeling a USB connnector
Idle Processor Plug-in lets you schedule commands to run during downtime
AliasStudio
Video Tutorial: playing around with Canvas Symmetry
Inventor
CATIA V5 Import Translator
CATIA
V6R2009x is launched by D'Assault, and Develop3D does its best job to parse the press release lingo
Autodesk Showcase
Autodesk uses the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" schtick to talk about Showcase
SolidWorks
Tutorial: using decals in PhotoWorks
Three tips for streamlining your assemblies
Until recently, you could decorate your place with Modernist furniture--stuff designed in the 1920s on--and still use it for anything you had to do: eat meals, read books, watch TV. Although items like the Wassily and Barcelona chairs were designed well before television, they were suited for any kind of sit-down purpose you had between the 1920s and the current century.
But now more and more of us are surfing the web, and not at our desks with tower machines; we're lounging around with laptops. As there isn't really much furniture designed for this purpose, designer Manual Saez is taking up the slack with this Daybed, intended specifically for internet surfing.
What do you guys think, do we need dedicated furniture for this activity? Has Saez fired an early shot in what will be a long campaign, or do you think this is just a passing fad?
via dvice
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)
Our friends at Make have published their excellent Holiday Gift Guide, featuring tons of gifts "that will inspire your kids!" Extremely hard to pick our favorites here, but let's just say that we'll be saving up our pennies (and finding that old soldering iron) this weekend to bang out a couple of Drawdios before the New Year.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
One more thing you can bring to your In-laws (that they'll especially dig if they're oenophiles) for Thanksgiving is the Vinturi Wine Aerator. Pour your vino through the top and it adds the perfect amount of air, making the wine taste better, which gives you a perfectly good excuse to get blind drunk and rattle off bawdy, inappropriate anecdotes.
If you hurry, you can order it online for express delivery at the In-laws by tomorrow. (There's a karmic trade-off though--you will help ruin the UPS driver's day by giving him yet another package he has to deliver before he can make it back to his family.)
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
College websites are notoriously difficult to maintain, keep vital, and imbue with a sense of place. John Maeda's made RISD's a priority, with an updated "microsite" just launched. Here's John:
I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and expressed their errrr...complex...feelings about our main website here at RISD, which hasn't been given real love in many many many years. I'm proud to say that we've been getting swimmingly positive feedback on the new RISD Online Viewbook microsite--it's a small sign of things to come in the future for RISD's online presence. Thanks to the RISD Media+Partners team for lighting this important beacon of digital hope. And be sure to click on the VIDEO button--it's quite satisfying. Happy upcoming Turkey Day to all!
And to you too.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
A company we'd not heard of previously, called Hara Chair (not to be confused with the Hara Chair by Kundalini--see Hara Chair, part 1) has been rather prolific in generating different models, spread across four different series.
The sheer number they've got makes them interesting to look at, even if the originality is somewhat lacking--it's as if your college design professor had you study the Aeron, the Freedom, and whatever Ikea had on offer, then had you generate thirty thumbnail sketches combining elements from each.
The split-seat models make us curious to try them out, but the company's website has a half-assed (no pun intended) quality to it, with no prices listed, janky English-as-a-Second-Language-style copy, and a Gmail contact address. Still, it's worth a gander, particularly if you're working on a seating project now and need a crapload of variants to pin to your sketchboard.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Here's something we can't understand: The Hara Chair, designed by Giorgio Gurioli for Italy's Kundalini, sells for US $3,019 to $3,500 on sites like Interior-Deluxe and Unica Home. But a Canadian site called Urban Chic Direct is selling it for only $349. Is this philanthropy, a scam, or the most cruel typo we've ever seen?
Incidentally, the amazing fiberglass shape, which looks to be a manufacturing nightmare, is accomplished by a mold that breaks into no less than 13 parts. Thirteen parts--yeah, there's no way this thing is going for three-small.
Client Director
Landor Associates
Cincinnati, Ohio
The Client Director must have the experience to win and lead relationships that are primarily in the consumer branding areas. This type of client work centers on packaging and print design, which may include positioning, brand architecture, the "off-pack" brand experience, naming, and new brand development. It almost always has a creative deliverable, so the ideal candidate will have both strategic and aesthetic abilities.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
The closest thing to French cafe society we Americans have ever had was the drive-in restaurant, and, well, we all know how that turned out.
Sadly, the French antecedent may also be falling by the wayside. As a recent Times article points out,
In 1960, France had 200,000 cafes, said Bernard Quartier, president of the National Federation of Cafes, Brasseries and Discotheques. Now it has fewer than 41,500, with an average of two closing every day.
Factors to blame are manifold: the smoking ban, a crap economy, and most disturbingly, a cultural shift: "The way of life has changed," said cafe owner Bernard Picolet. "The French are no longer eating and drinking like the French. They are eating and drinking like the Anglo-Saxons.... They eat less and spend less time at it."
Well, for as long as it's lasted, at least the French were burning calories--and not leaded gasoline--to get there.
The Citrus Clock, designed by Florian Dussopt + Julie Girard and spotted in the City Eco Lab at the Saint-Étienne Design Biennale, uses primary school chemistry for power--an electrolysis of zinc and copper (the plug under the lemon) in an salted or acid liquid (the lemon). Oxidation creates the juice, er electricity.
More info here.
>> View all Saint-Étienne Design Biennale posts here.
If you're around on December 5th from 7-11pm, head on over to Cornichon in Brooklyn. Project H Design, the industrial design nonprofit working on initiatives from the Hippo Roller re-design to design for education and a homeless-run retail enterprise, is hosting a GIFTING FOR GOOD holiday event to support their New York Chapter and a local Women In Need Family Shelter. Here's the pitch:
Local designers and vendors will be selling their wares (jewelry, accessories, t-shirts, paper goods, and more), $1 for every $5 going directly to fund household items for the shelter. Project H will have their own schwag for sale, or for free with a donation. RSVP here via Facebook, and bring your holiday shopping spirit and a few extra bucks for a worthy cause (cash or check only please!). More event and vendor details on the Project H site here.Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Photo: Ornella Orlandini | Torino World Design Capital
Review by Mark Vanderbeeken (Experientia) and Marcia Caines (Cluster)
The days after the American presidential election are clearly a period of reflection. Newspapers and magazines are full of thoughtful articles, and conferences seek to define the new agendas and directions for our world to move towards.
The World Economic Forum gathered about 700 global thought leaders in Dubai for a summit on some of the key issues on the global agenda.
An international conference in Turin, Italy, last week had a much narrower focus, and tried to outline what constitutes good design policy.
The event, which was organised by Torino 2008 World Design Capital in collaboration with Michael Thomson, director of Design Connect (London), comes at a time when a major discussion is emerging internationally on design policy and innovation.
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (1)
Pearlescent acrylic, stainless steel trim, simulated wood: These are the materials chosen by Hot Spring Spas for their new, uber-design-y line of Limelight Hot Tubs.
Design timelines take months to years, so even though the economy's in the crapper, luxury projects planned during the salad days continue their relentless march into the marketplace.
"The Limelight buyer is immediately attracted to the innovative design and dynamic features of these hot tubs," says the optimistic Samantha Weiser, Hot Spring Brand Manager, referring to the accent lights, integrated music systems, and undulating shapes that look like they were designed by a Cylon on Battlestar Galactica.
With no prices listed on their website, we're guessing these things ain't cheap; but they're probably hoping that even though you took a bath on the market, you're ready to take a soak in a Limelight.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:
thomas net
Four Key Design Trends
babson
Babson MBAs Show Off Innovative Products at December Design Fair
bike eu
Shimano's electronic road racing components with 'Digital Integrated Intelligence' have won iF Award
businessweek
The Year's Best Japanese Product Design
pocket now
Microsoft to Build the Uber Phone
prensa latina
First Ibero-American Design Biennial in Madrid
ap
Solar Panels on Graves Give Power to Spanish Town
The 360 paper water bottle from Brand Image is an attempt to address 60 million plastic bottles thrown away daily in the United States (of which 86% become garbage). The paper vessel is made from 100% renewable food-safe resources, fully recyclable and versatile in a number of potential liquid categories.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (9)
A search inspired by a recent desire to listen to music in the shower yielded a surprising number of devices designed to let you combine MP3s and ablution. The products first started coming out a couple years ago and have continued up to the present day, hit the jump to see 'em all.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)
Loft Life is a new magazine dedicated to "loft culture" from around the world. Two cool pieces spotted in the latest print edition:
UB Studio's Kovan ("hive" in Turkish) is a modular storage system inspired by bees, even if intended to fit into gargantuan lofts where space is not a consideration.
Normann-Copenhagen's Cognac Glasses, by designer Rikke Hagen, are beautiful pieces one ought to be careful with, as the site's photography cheekily illustrates.
From Instructables comes three ways to make an iStand out of binder clips: Rich Sipe's, Petrov's and Crucio's.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Project Architect
Dror
New York, New York
Our multidisciplinary approach to design takes a fresh look at every design challenge, from reinventing the sneaker for Puma to designing an island in Abu Dhabi. Behind the scenes, the architecture department at Dror has been working on a series of large-scale confidential architecture and interior projects and is now seeking an imaginative, hard-working employee to assist in design and production. This is a paid position.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)Industrial design has always been a particularly male dominated industry, we've discussed this before here at Core77. The Wall Street Journal has some tips for female professionals joining such lopsided environments that may be of use to us grils. Here's a snippet,
Make sure women are valued. Before joining a firm in a male-dominated industry, make sure the company values and promotes women. Check to see if women are represented on the board and in leadership positions at the company, says Betty Spence, president of the National Association for Female Executives, a women's business association in New York. During the interview process, consider asking to speak with female employees to get their input and contact human resources to ask about policies like maternity leave.Identify alpha and beta males. Separate the two types of men in the office and engage accordingly, says Christopher Flett, founder of Ghost CEO, a professional development program for women. Alpha males have a "get it done" mind-set, so when speaking to an alpha co-worker, use "goal-oriented" language and get to the point quickly, says Mr. Flett. Beta males are more concerned with collaboration and partnership, so tailor your language accordingly.
Find a mentor. Look for a female employee at your company to mentor you. She can provide you with a built-in support system and can help you figure out the lay of the land, says Raylie Dunkel, an executive coach and director of development with the Women's Leadership Exchange. If you can't find someone in the company, join a professional organization and build connections there. Mentors with direct experience in a male-dominated workplace can offer invaluable advice to navigating tricky situations. (Note: you may find that some men can be extremely valuable mentors as well, so don't think it has to be a female, particularly if the organization has a shortage of them)
The other three points are to speak assertively, socialize with the boys and to not assume stereotypical roles. You can read the whole article here. Do you have any tips of your own, as a designer, to share with us? (maybe some tips for the guys?)
Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (3)
NASA astronaut Don Pettit may have discovered the cardinal form of all space vessels (har-har) to follow.
click thru for zero-g video!
Posted by: shaggy | Comments (2)One of the most narrative installations in the Eco City Lab pavilion of the Saint -Étienne Design Biennale 2008 was Franççois Jégou's Sustainable Everyday installation--a series of small LCD screens with an array of personal stories displayed on each. Here's François:
What are more sustainable ways of living? What would the daily life of a family, a student or a pensioner be like if all the sustainable initiatives, projects, and ideas presented at the Biennale International Design were available now in Saint-Étienne?To try to answer this question, we asked some people from the French city to imagine themselves in a more sustainable society, to imagine their current life using solutions that reduce our impact on the environment and regenerate the social fabric around us.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Emma, Gabriel, Marie, Margot, Martin and Paul have brought us their "slice of the everyday" to inspire us and show us how we too can imagine ourselves living a more sustainable lifestyle.
Monday, November 24
There's something timelessly appealing about the challenge to fit an entire 'system' into a suitcase. It's no kayak but the optimism behind the transforming suitcase bike animation is worth a quick look if you haven't seen it before. Guess it never made it into production. Vote for your favorite at oobject.
via gizmodo
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)Monday, November 24
Just sent in from Kris. Thanks! Link.
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Monday, November 24
Can you learn about design research and user experience in a bar? Why yes! says Nate Bolt of Bolt|Peters, the brains behind User Research Friday. On Friday, November 7, we travelled to San Francisco, CA to check out this bi-annual event. The event brought together design research and user experience professionals for education, conversation and the all important networking.
The big conferences can be great - CHI, IDSA, IXDA - but there was something great and very tangible about this short and fairly small gathering. 150 people gathered for 5 hours to learn and network - then it was gone.
Highlights:
Steve Portigal of Portigal Consulting discussed the role of prototypes, not just as a precursor to a product, but as a real development tool where you learn about next steps. He also reminded researchers that it's our job to talk the language of the user, not to get them to speak our language - or that of the product company. A simple but important message.Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
Indi Young, founder of Adaptive Path and now independent, focused on a tool creating mental models. She discussed the real importance of knowing your "customer", whether that is a company or a person. She proposed segmentation not by market research demographics such as age and gender, but by behaviors, beliefs and reactions.Monday, November 24
Make Magazine take an in depth look at the origins of the ubiquitous light-emitting-diode (LED) and even show us how to one.
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Monday, November 24A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:
pr web
Autodesk University's Design Slam: First-Ever Live 3D Design Competition, Powered by Cut&Pastedesignophy
Winners of Samsung Young Design Award 2008this is bath
University of Bath Researchers to develop new packaging techthe brown daily herald
RISD students pilot bike-sharing programeconomic times
Product with great design becomes amazing customer experienceengineer live
Aberdeen Group's new online Digital Prototyping Assessment ToolPosted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Monday, November 24
More highlights from the Saint-Étienne Design Biennale 2008, from top to bottom: Clothes-Sofa by Sébastien Cluzel, Philippe Deray, and Quentin Simonin; Dennis de Bel's Trois Instruments de Musique Expérimentaux; Le Garage, curated by Gilles Roussi.
>> View all Saint-Étienne Design Biennale posts here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)Monday, November 24
Some objects that caught our attention at the Saint-Étienne Design Biennale 2008, from top to bottom: Christiane Hogner's Cushionized Sofa (2007), Jean Sebastiaen Ponget's Tub Seat, Atypik's Scale Chair.
>> View all Saint-Étienne Design Biennale posts here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)Monday, November 24Everyone hypnotized by this humble yet beautiful "lamp" was looking for the same thing: electrical wires that powered it. But there weren't any: BoYoung Jung's Prism doesn't plug in. Each element of the object is a small solar-powered LCD panel; in the presence of light, a brief electrical impulse is transmitted to the crystals, forcing them to twist and change their optical properties. Each section refracts light as it passes through, a responsive quality that offers viewers an ever-changing color spectrum. Enjoy.
Find more info and lots more work at www.drawmeasheep.com
>> View all Saint-Étienne Design Biennale posts here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)Monday, November 24
We've put all our Saint-Étienne Design Biennale coverage in one convenient post here, so check out the info and videos, and get yourself to the exhibition. November 15-30. All Biennale info is at the festival site.
Saint-Etienne Design Biennale 2008: Energy Solstices, by Anais met den AncxtSaint-Etienne Design Biennale 2008: Citrus Clock, by Anna Gram'
Saint-Etienne Design Biennale 2008: More assorted projects
Saint-Etienne Design Biennale 2008: Assorted projects
Core77 Video Drive-by: Reservoir Dog by Charles Maze, Saint-Etienne Design Biennale 2008
Core77 Video Drive-by: John Thackara at Eco City Lab, Saint-Etienne Design Biennale 2008
Saint-Etienne Design Biennale 2008: Eco City Lab
Saint-Etienne Design Biennale 2008: Come on over!
Photo above: Clothes-Sofa by Sébastien Cluzel, Philippe Deray, and Quentin Simonin
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)Monday, November 24The video above is Réservoir Dog, by Charles Mazé. You could hear this thing barking and squeaking throughout the Bâtiment 335 pavillion, but until you turned the corner and looked down, you had no idea the surprise awaiting you. "My kid could've done that"? Well, I suppose she could have. And perhaps with less racket too. Still, this was one of the more delightful pieces in the entire Biennale.
>> View all Saint-Étienne Design Biennale posts here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)Monday, November 24Above is John Thackara, curator of Eco City Lab at the Saint-Étienne Design Biennale 2008, introducing the intentions of the 5000-square-foot space dedicated to design and sustainability. Read more about the project on the Doors of Perception site here.
>> View all Saint-Étienne Design Biennale posts here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)Monday, November 24
Full-Time Faculty, Department of Industrial Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Providence, Rhode IslandAs key members of the faculty, the Assistant and Associate Professors will develop and assist in the implementation of new curriculum in response to the rapidly expanding roles of industrial design in contemporary practice. In addition to teaching responsibilities, responsibilities include academic advising, committee work, and documentation of an active engagement in professional work in accordance with college policy.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)Monday, November 24
One of the highlights of the Saint-Étienne Design Biennale is Eco City Lab, curated by John Thackara (Doors of Perception) and housed in a 5000-square-foot space outfitted with various installations dealing with design and sustainability. Gathering several projects and their prime movers, the festival poses the questions, "How do these projects work? And How can the examples they set be used to improve our own work?" Here's a bit from John's accompanying essay:
City Eco Lab is an event, "a market for nomadic projects," dealing with experiments from all over the world which will be combined with initiatives developed in the Saint-Étienne region. These are often small-scale projects which set important examples for the transition to a sustainable world. In its own small way each of these projects is helping to save the planet. They are trying to find practical ways of improving everyday life and they deal with subjects such as food, energy, water, mobility, education and responsible economics. City Eco Lab will offer tools and expertise so that everyone, both visitors and project leaders, will find ways of acting more responsibly.Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)Monday, November 24
The Saint-Étienne Design Biennale got underway here in France last week, filled with installations, exhibitions, panel discussions and a pile of off-site events. This is the 10th anniversary of the Biennale (so there have been 6 of 'em--counting year zero), and the mood was celebratory on the one hand, and a bit nostalgic on the other. The venue for the event is Cité du Design a completely re-furbed (well, almost finished) site of a vast former weapons manufacturing plant, which will be home to a design school and various studios once the festival pulls up its tent pegs. So ya, swords into plowshares as it were, but of the "design thinking" kind.
Saint-Étienne is a very easy city to get around in (trams run almost continuously) and quite charming too, so if you're in the neighborhood, make sure to take a train over and check out the event. Tons of info at the Biennale site.
Panel above: Elsa Francès, Director of the Cite du Design and curator of this edition of the Biennial; Maurice Vincent, Mayor of Saint Etienne; Jean-Jack Queyranne, President of the Rhones Alpes Regional Council; Françoise Gourbeyre, elected representative in charge of the culture.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Monday, November 24
Something we Yanks will be thankful for this Thursday is earth911.com, which lets you quickly find the nearest place to recycle all that crap you've got lying around your house--dead batteries, old clothes, cardboard boxes, et cetera.
In the search fields you just type in a) what you've got, and b) your zip code, and the site spits out the nearest locations complete with a map and listings of what else that particular institution will take off your hands. Do the environment a favor and purge your house before Black Friday.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Monday, November 24
By now you've probably heard of Axiotron's Modbook, a tablet-based Mac that comes from pairing a Macbook (yours or factory) with a Wacom pen-friendly display. Now they're shipping with Autodesk's Sketchbook Express 2009, for no extra charge, making a Modbook the ultimate portable rendering tool.
Two downsides: One, Axiotron is currently only capable of modding up pre-Aluminum Macbooks, and two, the price--Sketchbook Express may come free, but it runs you $1,299 to convert your existing Macbook, and $2,199 if you want one out of the factory.
via the apple blog
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)Monday, November 24
Over 250 participants are expected to attend the first European regional conference of the Usability Professionals' Association (UPA) next month.
From December 4-6, 2008, the beautiful baroque city of Turin, 2008 World Design Capital, will host the conference, themed "Usability and Design: Cultivating Diversity", with important contributions being made by companies such as Google, IBM, Oracle and many others.
The conference will concentrate on overcoming the traditional professional divide between the concepts of usability and design, with a particular focus on uniting the diverse cultures and practices within Europe
>> Read article
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)
