Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year's Core77 Design Awards 2013. We will be featuring these projects by category, so stay tuned for your favorite categories of design! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com.
Project Name: Blendtec Stealth - Quiet + Smart in a Blender Designers: Blendtec R&D Team
The Blendtec Stealth is a powerful commercial blender that integrates the latest sound reducing technology, an intuitive touch interface and USB delivery of customizable blend cycles. This allows coffee houses and eateries to serve up blended recipes without the noise discomfort associated with other blenders. The web app with our extensive library custom blend cycles, combined with USB programming functionality makes maintaining a fleet of blenders fast and simple.
- How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
We actually had been keeping up with the live announcements throughout the week and found out like most people through the live broadcast announcement. We we're very anxious since our category was one of the last ones so the build up of the whole week was great!
- What's the latest news or development with your project?
The Blendtec Stealth has been in the market now for a few months and has won some additional awards including the Kitchen Innovations Award. It's quickly becoming one of our most successful commercial products. We've been able to learn a lot from the development of the stealth that we're incorporating into other products throughout our line up. Our commercial partners/restaurants are loving the Stealth and we have gotten some amazing feedback as we continue to improve our product line up.
- What is one quick anecdote about your project?
Blendtec is known for being a hardcore engineering company. We're obsessive about the little details so much that we even manufacture some of our own screws here in our Utah facility so that they meet our stringent standards. One really unique thing about the Stealth is that because of our use of a capacitive interface we had to develop our own algorithm so the interface can detect wether a finger is touching it or if it's a drop of water that may have spilt during use. Those are just 2 quick anecdotes about how obsessive we were with this project.
- What was an "a-ha" moment from this project?
We had several during this project, but one major one was when we were developing our user interface. During our research we learned that some restaurant chains update their menu throughout the year to keep up with food trends, but their equipment would stay the same. Their equipment's function would never change from when they purchased it to when they would dispose of it at the end of the products life. The interfaces stayed the same the whole time because their buttons/interfaces were static. When we learned this we decided we would develop an interface that could be reprogrammed on the spot. The blender can go from having blend cycles specifically for smoothies to blender cycles for iced coffee or ice cream or even hot soups. We made our entire library of Blend Cycles available to the Stealth.
As part of this we learned that there was no easy way to change these cycles on their blenders throughout all the locations in their chains in the country. As a result we made an online web-app where a corporate chef or menu coordinator can organize a series of blend cycles into a blender profile and email that out to all their restaurant chains throughout the country so that all their Stealth blenders can be updated immediately regardless of where in the world the restaurant is located.
This was our aha moment. We were able to deliver a commercial product whose interface can be adjusted to the users specific needs and can be easily replicated across their whole fleet and getting rid of the notion of one size fits all.
View the full project here.
Bureau Matylda Krzykowski and still-life photographer Christoph Sagel assembled a series of photographs visualising simple but intriguing combinations of ingredients. The diverse settings introduce the subtle and abstract nature of food.
- How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
We received an e-mail from you guys. A happy moment. A 'BOOOM' moment.
- What's the latest news or development with your project?
Since the beginning of the year we were talking about continuing to work together professionally. After we won the award, it gave us a final kick to actually do it. Now we are working on our website and on the definition of our collaboration.
- What is one quick anecdote about your project?
During the 2 days we were shooting the series I had a favorite word. "Booom!" was pretty much the description of the moment when I was happy with what we assembled for the picture. Sometimes Christoph looked at me and said 'BOOOOOM!' just 2 seconds before he knew I would say it anyway. We laughed a lot about it.
- What was an "a-ha" moment from this project?
As I mentioned earlier, we were already working together before and it always feels so naturally. Shortly after winning the award we had a new client for a project. That's when we decided to make it official that both our practices, Studio Christoph Sagel and Bureau Matylda Krzykowski act as 'Sagel & Krzykowski, initiated & photographed' when working together.
View the full project here.
Project Name: Sensitivexplosion Designer: Delphine Huguet
Sensitivexplosion is a transdisciplinary show that combines sound, video and gastronomy to create a comprehensive sensory experience. The performance is divided into three acts during which dishes are prepared in sound bowls. After every act, spectators are invited to taste the dishes that are prepared and served on stage by a squadron of sound trays.
Here, culinary creation and sound design are inextricably linked: it is music that mixes, coats and sprinkles the food preparations and causes the plate to be served. Through palpable and impalpable, imagined and real, true and false perceptions, Sensitivexplosion plays with all our senses.
- How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
We received a fantastic e-mail! But, in fact, we were looking on the website every day, waiting for the announcement!
- What's the latest news or development with your project?
The logistic part of the project has been review and the team has grown bigger: we now have an official chef! This year, we are going to play in different cities in France: Pau, Marseille... and hopefully we will soon cross the Atlantic.
- What is one quick anecdote about your project?
For the first "sound & food test," Vivien, the musician, brought some of his old, vintage, subwoofers. After the test, the subwoofers were really dirty so Delphine decided to clean them up with a sponge and some water. The membranes were made with cardboard... oops! That was the first meeting between Delphine and the subwoofers: she never approached them with the sponge again!
- What was an "a-ha" moment from this project?
In fact, there were a lot of " a-ha" moments in this project: all the tests were quite funny. We were working in the big dancing studio in Césaré Center—a very tidy and clean place with a beautiful parquet floor—and for one month powders were flying all around the room! One day, the Center smelt carrot, the other citrus. The staff was hallucinating but comprehensive. It was overall a crazy and a funny project. We did everything that is generally prohibited in a place filled with delicate machines, especially sensitive to dust. One big a-ha moment for the production-team was when Vivien found the exact sub-frequency, low enough to make the food in the bowls explode just as it should but without destroying the subwoofers. Especially since it took him quite a while.
View the full project here.
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