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Glynn Kerr: World Famous Motorcycle Designer and MCN Columnist will speak at A&S BMW Motorcycles tomorrow May 15th, 6:30-8 p.m:
Although you may or may not recognize his name, if you've ridden a motorcycle in the past 25 years, you've ridden something that has been designed or influenced by Glynn.As the co-founder and President of the Motorcycle Design Association, Glynn has an exciting presentation for us about the development of motorcycle styling. He'll share photos and sketches of prototypes, as well as demonstrate the actual design process! This will be an informal presentation and your questions will be welcomed!
Find more great design events at the Core77 Calendar.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)The WSJ has an article up on a rather complicated topic: "non-traditional trademarks," or the copyrighting of three-dimensional shapes. Two examples of this form of copyrighting, which should be of interest to industrial designers more and more in the future, are listed: the obvious one (Apple trademarking the shape of its iPod) and an obscure one (Yamaha trademarking the "arcing water spray produced by its personal watercraft").
Needless to say, the average designer will find the copyrighting process nearly as opaque and frustrating as working with Marketing; but the article breaks the process down into five easy pieces. Click here to read.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)The puff-tastic sameness that pervades the language design firms use to promote themselves has bugged us for a long time, but leave it to Design Observer regular Steven Heller to finally take the gun to this particular barrel of fish.
In a wickedly precise article on the AIGA website Tuesday, Heller gives a bit of history on the relationship between designers and the written word, and then steps back to let modern design firms (attempt to) speak for themselves. The results are horribly familiar, and raise the excellent question of how it got to be this way.
The list of samples is long and telling; we dare you to read all the way through the list without either glazing over or dissolving into a giggle fit. A few choice entries from section one: Happiness Is a Warm Client:
* The process begins with analysis, immersion into the client's situation in order to define the true problem.* Our primary concern is with our client's success in their business.
* The basic need of most clients who come to us is to fulfill a business function.
* Our primary concern is to solve the client's communications objective.
* Our goal is to meet our clients' visual communications needs by applying an approach based on discipline, appropriateness and ambiguity.
[huh?]
Read the full article here.
Posted by: Carl Alviani | Comments (0)TechShop is one of those things that makes so much sense you wonder why it hasn't been around forever. Based in Menlo Park, CA, it's a massive, public, subscription-based machine shop and fabrication studio that actively encourages the mechanically curious to get their hands dirty and start making things. In addition to all the routers, laser cutters, welding equipment and RP machines they run, TechShop also offers low-cost classes to get newbies building as quickly as possible. Founder Jim Newton walks us through a few of the toys they brought over to demonstrate, and mentions a bit about expansion plans too (Portland, OR and Durham, NC by the end of the summer, seven more locations next year--check the website to see where).
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)New York City is getting more film and TV crews (Ugly Betty will finally start shooting here, in the city the story's set in, rather than in sham L.A. studios) due to a recent tripling of the tax credit awarded by the city to production companies.
Now the state of Michigan is using a similar strategy to attract creative businesses. If you're looking to set up an architecture or design firm (graphic, interior, fashion, and yes, industrial) or a broad range of other creative businesses, you become eligible for the Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) tax credit, previously available only to those in the manufacturing sector. As bureaucrats try to revitalize a struggling Detroit, it will once again be up to the artists (SoHo story, anyone?) to renew and revitalize. More info available here.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (1)Good news for designers, or 700 of them, anyway: LG Corp has announced they're expanding their focus on design. With a steadily increasing design budget--US $77 million in '06, $88 million in '07, and nearly $100 million this year--and a recently formed LG Design Committee, the South Korean conglomerate is expanding their design staff from 640 to 700 designers. Chairman Koo Bon-moo's "design-first management philosophy" is said to be driving the surge.
LG is probably best known outside of Korea for their mobile phones and appliances; what is not well-known about the company is its history.
LG claims that it was the first Korean company to introduce the concept of industrial design in the 1950s. Started as a cosmetics maker, the group has been considered to have more feminine qualities among Korean conglomerates, compared to Samsung and Hyundai Group that are based on heavier industries such as cars, ships and construction."Design does not only mean visual beauty. It has become a crucial factor in improving the value of people's lives," the group said in a statement. "With sustainable investment in design, LG will focus on creating unique designs that can lead the lifestyle of customers."
via korea times
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (0)
Years ago at my first ID internship, I submitted my $15/hour invoice--which beat the heck out of the $9.10 I'd been earning as a short order cook. But my eyes popped out of my head when I saw another bill on the boss' desk: for the project we'd just completed, the modelmaker was getting five figures!
That was then, this is now; the profession of modelmaker, alas, has been listed on Boston.com's list of the fastest declining occupations, as reckoned by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Technology improvements will cut into job availability for these workers," say the experts, "[but] there will still be opportunities for those who know how to create and produce designs on a computer."
To say the tables have turned would be ironic, because it was often the modelmaker that helped us figure out how the tabletop attached to the base in the first place.
Posted by: hipstomp | Comments (3)
Jake Barton is designing a new breed of museum, one that favors local voices over curatorial authority. They are places for dialogue, not lectures. In this video, he explains his work.
Posted by: Mark Vanderbeeken | Comments (0)Lori Hobson's got a quick and inspiring post up on MindTribe's blog entitled, "Early Evidence the Designers Accord Is Working." Okay, so she gave away the ending there, but here's a bit from the middle:
Late in the discussion I asked, "So how recyclable is this stuff?"The fascinating part of the vendor's answer was not that he didn't know--he didn't. The part that was stunning is what this veteran sales rep said. He shot me a glance and said, "That is only the second time that I have been asked that. The first time was yesterday."
The rep was an in-mold decoration (IMD) supplier who is well known and well liked within our ID/PD community. The people with whom he had met the previous day were industrial designers in San Francisco that MindTribe knows (and loves).
Read the rest here; adopt here.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0) 
(econnovation = ecologic-economic-innovation) If you are in the Bay Area before June 19th 2008, plan to visit "econnovation," a multidisciplinary showcase of sustainable design projects pioneered in the far West. And if you are going to be, or already are in San Francisco tonight, don't miss the opening:
"Get Fried up!" Friday, April 18, 7pm -11pm
The show officially opens its doors at 7pm. 'Teacher With a Bus' founder Jens-Peter Jungclaussen will be presenting his vegetable-oil fueled bus and speaking on the latest news and controversies on biodiesel and alternative fuels. Delicious finger foods fried in organic olive oil (later to be fuel for the bus) will be served throughout the evening along with cocktails from our sponsor Veev. Knoend will begin taking patients in their ReLife Clinic - a special clinic that designs the next lifecycles for objects. Show-goers are encouraged to bring photographs of personal objects that need a new life.
Find more great design events at the Core77 Calendar
After the jump, check out the Veggie Bus floor plan.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)
This Indian pellet burning stove meets the triple bottom line criteria: People, Planet, and Profit. It helps people because it replaces the traditional wood burning stoves that cause health problems for the women who use them. It helps the planet because the pellets are made from a renewable resource, agricultural waste. And it helps profits because for $17 a pop, they're a good sales product for India's door-to-door entrepreneurs.
And the profit part of this equation turns out to be even more valuable than the money earned by the sale of the stove:
Many analysts agree that the commercial approach has better odds for success. "Anything that comes to the beneficiaries for free is not taken seriously," says Pradeep Kashyap, vice president of the Rural Marketing Agencies Association of India. Kashyap, who has evaluated previous stove projects, recalls other stoves that ended up as dusty shoe boxes because government programs typically suffer from "no targets, no accountability, and no responsibility."
Find out more here.
via YaleGlobal
Posted by: Xanthe Matychak | Comments (0)
The International Design Centre in Berlin, the German Design Council and the TÜV NORD CERT, have joined forces to develop the "Excellent! Industrial Design" quality label for user-friendly products.
Upon request, designers, technicians and test persons of different age groups will test your product. Accordingly, "Products that meet the criteria of Universal Design (self-explanatory, easy to handle, universally usable, for all ages) can be certified by us."
The quality label will be supported with targeted marketing and image campaigns. Regarding the widespread 'quality label culture' in Germany (we just say "Stiftung Warentest") the "Excellent! Industrial Design" label should affect the buying decision of the everyday consumer in a positive way.
