• Home
  • Contributors
  • About Core77
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Get Our RSS Feed
Coroflot Design Job o' the day octOpus is seeking a Maya 3D Art 
 Director
in Dubai, UAE

Core77

c77 coroflot
  • articles
  • photo galleries
  • calendar
  • books + links
  • design schools
  • discussions
Our Other Sites
  • design firms
  • design jobs

Most Popular Posts

Most Viewed Most Commented (THIS WEEK)
  • 1. Project Subliminal Messages into People's Photos
  • 2. The Highest Popping Toaster in the World
  • 3. New Nanopaper is Stronger Than Iron, Still Made of Wood
  • 4. The Emperor Workstation
  • 5. Sol Focus: All That Silicon Valley Alternative Energy Investment Bears Some Fruit
  • 1. Core77 Show+Tell: Converse Design Director, Michael DiTullo, Sketches a Sneaker in 4-Minutes
  • 2. It's the Economy, Stupid: A macroeconomic primer for design(ers) and sustainability, by Robert Blinn
  • 3. No use crying over spilt milk, it's the cost of being green
  • 4. German Supermarket of the Future - today
  • 5. Rethinking the Kegstand
Photo Galleries
100 Percent Design Shanghai100 PERCENT DESIGN SHANGHAIFrom June 26-28, the likes of Richard Hutten, Michael Young and Patrick Jouin joined creative directors Tobias Wong and Aric Chen in the Shanghai Exhibition Center to showcase design in one of the fastest developing parts of the world.61 imagesHamburg Harley Days 2008HAMBURG HARLEY DAYS 2008They said: "Oh my God, Harley-Davidson is coming to town!" We decided to see for ourselves at the Hamburg Harley Days (June 20-22) with some 75,000 (custom) motorbikes and a talk with Bill Davidson about the rock and roll of design.80 imagesBerlin Design Festival 2008BERLIN DESIGN FESTIVAL 2008"The Sky Is Not The Limit" at the Berlin Design Festival. The five day event (May 21-25) by DMY Berlin wants to show us that anything is possible. From a city where design is always and everywhere we highlighted the Swiss Design Prize and central Arena exhibitions.64 imagesICFF 2008NEW YORK DESIGN WEEK 2008The pit-stop between Milan and Art Basel, New York Design Week 2008 (May 17-20) nontheless presented a hearty collection of the best the Design World has to offer.224 imagesThe 2008 Maker FaireMAKER FAIRE 2008A sprawling wonderland of populist and homespun technology, courtesy of Make Magazine. San Mateo, California - May 3-4, 2008.48 images
 Commerce imitating life: format wars for soon-to-be-obsolete technologies
 Three rendering tutorials
Cassette tapes and the way of all things
Posted by: hipstomp  |  Comments (4)

sony-uxpro90-cassette-tape.jpg

HD DVD's impending demise reminded us music lovers of a time when cassettes filled our lives. They littered the glovebox of your first used car, and if you pulled the visor down, more would hit you in the head. You couldn't take a trip without packing six or seven in your bag. You'd spend hours making mixtapes, and when your ex-girlfriend wanted to get back at you, she'd find your favorite and do this to it:

23285594.jpg

Though they starting phasing out in the '80s, the cassette's form is still around, repurposed for irony and kitsch. Nowadays we can see the cassette as...

...a bag with the unspooled ribbon as a handle (my ex would love that one);

cass1.jpg

actual cassette housings used as a cladding for wallets;

cass2.jpg

the ribbons from cassettes formed into dresses;

cass3.jpg

cassettes cast into faux gold for the ultimate tacky belt buckle, which is saying a lot in the world of belt buckles;

cass4.jpg

and given second lives as purveyors of other media, like books,

cass5.jpg

and their indirect successor, MP3s.

cass6.jpg

Cast-off CDs have already begun this cycle, finding their way into everything from lamps to chairs to the ever unimaginative coaster. It will be interested to see what the next decade brings for DVDs. If consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, DVDs will be the building blocks for people who have hobgoblins.

And now, if you'll indulge us, the money shot.

cassette_row.jpg

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Monday, February 18 • Permalink • Posted in Object Culture Digg This! | Save to del.icio.us | Submit to Reddit | Stumble It!
Listen in on your favorites

Interviews

Troika Interviewed by Andy Polaine (39 min.) Paul Budnitz from Kidrobot interviewed by Steven Heller (21 min.) Jason Bruges Interviewed by Andy Polaine (35 min.) Donald Norman Interviewed by Bruce Tharp (38 min.)

Comments



Christopher FrelinFebruary 18, 2008 01:54 PM

I think the kitchy affinity I have for the cassette tape has something to do with its wobbly plastic innards and tactile quality. It has an apparent mechanical honesty to it, and its mass and the feeling of its dimensions in my hand makes me think that it belongs to me as much as it belongs to the machine it goes in. Pretty soon there will be no more tactile media in the western world. What will we wax nostalgic about after that? Charmingly outdated codecs and file formats?

muskawoFebruary 18, 2008 06:01 PM

I still listen to cassettes (sometimes) and I have a cassette belt buckle. Need to keep the cassettes handy for when I find a boombox, then I can have a kickin' 80's style beach party.

Andy PolaineFebruary 24, 2008 05:35 AM

Check out the Mixa USB 'mixtape' stick too: http://www.makeamixa.com/

ClarkApril 20, 2008 07:23 PM

My car is still overflowing with cassettes. But the cassettes themselves might be over 13 years old.

Name:
Email:
URL:
Comment:

Most Recent Design Jobs at Coroflot.com - Where Design Never Sleeps

Product Design Manager-Modern Design–Home Décor-International-Growth Huntington Park
NOVA : Huntington Park, California
Junior Production Artist
Factor Design : San Francisco, California
Creative Director
The Garrigan Lyman Group : Seattle, Washington
Research Associate | Innovation Technologies
Product Ventures, Ltd : Fairfield, Connecticut
Design Manager
Macys.com : New York, New York
Senior Art Director/Design Lead
EyeballNYC : New York, New York

+ View all Design Jobs
+ Post a Job

Most Recent Design Firm Updates at Designdirectory.com - Where Design Firms Get Seen

BACON.
exodesign
PRIME STUDIO
UBER FX Design Agency
m Industrial Design
blue ocean
three old souls
Animavi, LLC
Nordkapp
vaughshannon

Recently Featured Portfolios
at Coroflot.com

TAKUMI YOSHIDAJeff SmithAldo BarretoJohan Bergstrom
+ See More Design Portfolios
+ Make your own Portfolio

©2008 Core77, Inc. All rights reserved
about | contact us | advertise | mailing list