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Jason Petty, a Brooklyn-based Luthier (yes, that's the real title of a "lute-maker") takes us on a tour of his music-makin studio. This 4 minute wonder is a nugget of one of the oldest crafts around. Take a look after the jump for some close-up stills of the space.
The Video
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Kids, please try this at home. In this episode, Michael DiTullo and Rocko the Ruler sketch up an iSomething-or-Other in about 5 minutes. Check out how Michael gets multiple tones out of the same marker by varying pressure. Also notice how he starts with the overall form and then overlays layers of detail. The selected perspective is dynamic, but not at the expense of communicating the design. Remember, sketching is a communication tool, and practice makes perfect. As always, bonus points to whoever guesses the song first.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (13)Brit Leissler, of Shoot the Stylist Studios in London, demonstrates the Octopulse, an experimental instrument designed for Yamaha's Product Design Laboratory. This little creature has as a goal to turn listeners of music into players of music, which, in practical terms, takes the form of a knitted synthesizer that turns unapproachable technology into an easily approachable, tactile and emotional object. With this cuddly 'alien bagpipe' you can control analogue sound synthesis through unconventional means. The 'tonetacles' of the Octopulse react to motion and light, transferring movements into information for an analogue synthesizer to convert into cacophonous noises. This unconventional soundscape alters perceptions of what music could be and allows the electronic sounds of a synthesizer to be accessed by anyone.
Initially designed using a traditional synthesizer, the next generation of Octopulse will be made using Arduino, an open-source electronics prototyping platform - which means this lil' guy may one day be portable enough to carry in your handbag! See the full length music video here.
Posted by: core jr | Comments (0)In this video for Core77, Steve Portigal takes us into his company bathroom, uncovering examples of bad design and its consequences.
From signage to artifact and back, people are forever mistaking their cues for how to behave, how to use products and systems, and how different, often-conflicting indicators cause our expectations and realities to collide. This 2-minute video is a priceless example. What's in your bathroom?
In this video for Core77, Michael DiTullo, design director at Converse (you know him as Yo), has 2 blue markers and a microphone. Here, he throws down a casual, summer sneaker concept sketch in 4:39. This is real-time folks. None of that stop-motion photoshop stuff, and no aftereffects. (Makes you wonder how many sketches he can do in an 8 hour day?)
For those aspiring design renderers, notice 3 key ingredients:
1) He moves the page! Mike is constantly turning the page so that his fingers and wrist can draw the lines comfortably. Think of this as "drawing with 2 hands."
2) He keeps a supply of sharp pencils! This is critical: you can't get that line quality unless you start off with a nice point and work down from there.
3) He uses the tip as well as the side of the pencil. Duh, but you'd be surprised how many designers forget to change the grip of their pencil while sketching.
(Bonus factoid: That ironic straight edge he uses once at the start of the rendering? He's had it for 15 years.)
Enjoyed this video? Got inspired? Let him know in the comments!
Posted by: core jr | Comments (27)In this video for Core77, Marco Perry of Pensa demonstrates the Tube Rotator, designed for Labnet International. (The design recently won the 2008 MDEA award.) The device is infinitely adjustable on both axes--taking the fuss out of testing messy fluids--and allows technicians to precisely determine velocity and agitation. Watch here as Marco shows before and after devices, describing the design process and coming up with a better solution. (For more on the Tube Rotator, check out the article on DeviceLink as well as this video. Ah, if we could only afford that background music!)
Troika is a multi-disciplinary art and design studio based in London, founded in 2003 by Conny Freyer, Eva Rucki and Sebastien Noel, who met while studying at the Royal College of Art. They are possibly most well-known for their Cloud installation for British Airways in Heathrow's new Terminal 5 that was featured on Core77 in January.
Apart from the Cloud, they also created 'All the Time in the World', a 22m-long electroluminescent wall along the entrance to the First and Concorde Galleries lounges. They comprise an unusual combination of disciplines, ranging from graphic and motion design through to engineering and interactive artworks. Andy Polaine talks with Sebastien Noel (right) and Eva Rucki (centre) about Troika's inventive approach and the secret life of electronic gadgets.
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Core77 Broadcasts: Live at the Nokia Design Studio in London
Nokia has over 300 designers worldwide, and ships over 1.2 million products everyday. So we were anxious to attend Nokia's recent London design event, offering a curtainpeek at their design process, ethnographic wanderings, sustainability initiatives, and plans for the future. Listen in as we chat with Younghee Jung from the services and UI design team, Rhys Newman from the Homegrown Project, and Anton Fallgren and Aki Layneh, two industrial designers out of the Copenhagen studio--all of whom share an enthusiasm for the power of design and an appreciation of the responsibilities inherent in creating the next generation of connectivity artifacts.
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Photo: Joshua White, courtesy of SCI-Arc.
The impossible-to-categorize work of LA-based designer Elena Manferdini has been making waves throughout the worlds of fashion, industrial design, engineering and architecture. Her stunning laser-cut creations have nabbed her clients from Fiat to Valentino, and she was recently featured in the MOCA exhibition Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture which opens at the Somerset House in London this Thursday.
For a new site-specific installation, MERLETTI< inter >LACE, Manferdini interprets traditional Italian lacemaking techniques in a dramatic canopy that drapes across the SCI-Arc Gallery in downtown LA. Corelifornia correspondent Alissa Walker caught up with her at the opening just as the DJ cranked up the techno music. MERLETTI< inter >LACE is up until May 11 at SCI-Arc.
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Jason Bruges, founder of Jason Bruges Studio, is one of the key figures in a growing trend of cross-disciplinary studios working across public interactive artworks, architecture, installation and events.
Some projects are high-profile public installations, such a the studio's Wind To Light project, commissioned by onedotzero, used 500 mini wind turbines to generate power, which illuminated hundreds of mounted LEDs, creating firefly-like fields of light, visually interpreting the power of the wind. Others are smaller scale but no less engaging, such as the interactive shared space for Beaufort Community School in Gloucester.
Andy Polaine talks to Jason in his London studio about his roots in architecture, the journey to interactive surfaces, sustainability and his thoughts about giving this emerging area a proper name.
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Paola Antonelli's exhibitions for MoMA often feel like a science fair planted in a museum. Her current show "Design and the Elastic Mind" is no exception, showcasing the fertile relationships between design and science, sculpture, engineering, architecture, and computer programming. Alex Terzich attends the press preview and opening, where he interviews Chuck Hoberman and Peter Hall, and sits with Paola Antonelli for a longer interview the following day.
With backgrounds in sculpture and engineering, Hoberman is a kind of live prototype for the ideal Elastic Mind contributor. He specializes in the design of transformable objects at scales ranging from toys to tents to full-scale architectural enclosures. His kinetic sculpture "Emergent Surface" was commissioned by MoMA specifically for the show and he discusses its origins and ideals.
Peter Hall is a critic who has written extensively about product design, data visualization and emergent cartographic practices. His essay "Critical Visualization" is featured in the exhibition catalog. On opening night he weighs in some of the work in the "Data Visualization" section of the show and outlines his essay on critical visual practice.
Paola Antonelli began her curatorial career at MoMA in 1995 with Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design. Her exhibitions are consistently popular, challenging and expansive. In this interview she reflects on opening night and our emotional attachments to objects.
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London-based Hector Serrano was recently hailed as "Britain's finest young designer" by Space magazine, although he is originally from Spain. Much of the work coming out of Hector's studio demonstrates a playful curiosity about our emotional relationships with the objects we encounter and possess. This is skilfully blended with an imaginative take on sustainability and the future of product design. Here he tells Andy Polaine about the challenges facing designers, tourist souvenirs of the future and giant clouds off plastic floating off the coast of Hawaii.
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There was a ton of material during the discussion and Q&A portions of Core77's Offsite event, Design, Wit, and the Creative Act, but we've put together a tasty sampler of some of the best.
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After a brief introduction by Allan Chochinov, Ze Frank takes the stage at Core77's Offsite Event at the Art Directors Club in New York City: Design, Wit, and the Creative Act.
In this video, Ze kicks off the day by introducing Marcel Duchamp's The Creative Act, and breaking down the triad of players in the metaphoric room--here, Designer, Object, and Audience--talking about the interrelationships and dynamics between the three. "What is the designer's relationship to wit?" "How does this translate to the actual process of making things?" "As you're designing things, do you have a proto-audience member in your mind that you're having a conversation with?" And finally, "What happens when the audience takes control of a piece--completely misinterprets it?"
All of these juicy questions and more in this wonderful start to a provocative (and amusing) day.
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You've probably read about it, but if you haven't, spoiler alert: Tobias Wong's appearance at the Art Directors Club in New York City for Core77's Offsite Event, Design, Wit, and the Creative Act, was not exactly on stage.
What does that mean? Well, Tobias was indeed in attendance, but he was sitting in the audience, enjoying the day like everyone else. And instead of taking the mic for his presentation--and his director's chair for the panel discussion portion--he sat amongst the crowd, drinking in the design, wit, and creative--in this case subversive act--by having a stand-in take his place at the lectern.
Rama Chorpash, chair of the Undergraduate ID Dept. at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and a great designer to boot, did what can only be described as a pitch-perfect job of presenting Tobias's work (and later answering, Q&A as Tobias, remaining authentic to the designs as well as the philosophical underpinnings of the Wong oevre.
Turns out that the two of them had rehearsed the event to death, preparing responses to any discussion points that might come up, and treating the event not as a stunt but as an artwork.
Chorpash later remarked that "there are a lot of parallels between doing this [switch] and teaching, because in teaching you need to give up your identity a bit to better understand the different models and possibilities of design. To be able to talk about Philippe Starck, for example, you need to understand where he's coming from."
People in the audience who knew Tobias or knew what he looked like were in on the joke, and those who didn't needed only to look in their program for Tobias's headshot. Still, an incredible gesture that provided a sly twist to the day and a workout for Chorpash.
Watch 'til the end of the video, when you can see the two of them together, never breaking character throughout the cocktail reception.
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Paul Budnitz takes command of the room at Core77's Offsite Event at the Art Directors Club in New York City: Design, Wit, and the Creative Act.
In this video, Paul talks about the role of wit and creativity in the work of Kidrobot, and in his own creative acts. After a quick review of some of the merch, he discusses abstraction and scale, followed by an amazing sequence on writers' block and how creativity is beaten out of us at an early age. (DO NOT MISS THIS!) It is essential to learn to kill the ego, he argues, because "to be creative, we need to find ways to work around our minds."
Next, he delves into the roles of nostalgia and appropriation, "since Kidrobot uses a lot of appropriation", discussing the SUCKLORD and his StarWars toys. He ends with a movie from the same, an hysterical romp through, well...you'll just have to watch it to see.
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Steven Heller returns to the Art Directors Club in New York City for Core77's Offsite Event: Design, Wit, and the Creative Act.
Heller keeps his remarks short at the start, telling a couple of jokes and then moving quickly to his main event: "Humor is all about timing," he asserts, "and since I don't think I have much of it, I did a little film for you." Well, we don't buy the first part of that sentence, but the audience was glad to sit back and enjoy a delightful, top-20 list of "what's so funny." We've got the reel film here [sic], so you won't have to sit through a crappy video of a crappy projection. Promise.
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Core77 welcomed Kelly Dobson to the Art Directors Club in New York City for its Offsite Event: Design, Wit, and the Creative Act.
Dobson starts out talking about our relationship with objects and technology, examining how we communicate with them and the role they play in our lives. Showing footage from films she made around Screambody (a pouch-like device worn around the chest that users can scream into and play back later), as well as Core-fave Blendie (a tricked out blender that users growl at to activate), the role of humor and wit took center stage through, most certainly, acts of creation. You've gotta watch the videos to get the full hit here, and the last one--focusing on machine therapy and how machines can "comfort" other machines--is a riot.
Find more of Kelly's work here.
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Dr. Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby are faculty members in the Design Interactions department at London's Royal College of Art and have gained somewhat of a cult following for their provocative and future-scenario-based design work. As authors of Hertzian Tales and Design Noir they are most responsible for popularizing the idea of Critical Design, where objects are used as tools for awareness and reflection upon issues largely surrounding the implications of existing and future technologies. Their work is in the permanent collections of the MOMA (NY) and the Victoria and Albert in London.
Bruce M. Tharp was able to catch up with them at the IDSA/ICSID conference in San Francisco where they presented a recent project that proposes robots with "fragile personalities." Listen as they discuss the ideas behind their work, their dream project, their feelings about "Critical Design" after more than a decade, the relationship between their professional practice and the work of their students at RCA, and more.
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A fantastic holiday weekend treat! For those of you (very few) who may not already know, Don Norman's shining career began with a post at Harvard and then the University of California, San Diego, where his interests in psychology turned toward cognitive science. As one of the founders of that field, he eventually shifted his energies toward the relationship between user cognition and (computing) technology, which led to executive positions at Apple and Hewlett Packard.
Today he is co-founder and principal of the Nielson Norman Group, a executive consultancy for user-centered thinking; a Professor of Computer Science, Psychology, and Cognitive Science at Northwestern University; and co-director of Northwestern's Segal Design Institute (among too many other titles and activities to list). Importantly for design though, beyond his writing, he is trying to spread the word of design to our engineering and business brethren, so that they get how important design is, and so that we can work better together.
Bruce M. Tharp caught up with Don at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's design center for a no-holds-barred chat. Don starts things off by criticizing the design of Bruce's voice recorder, talks about his just released book, what he's writing and thinking about now, the relationship between engineering and design, and much, much more!
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United Visual Artists have created visual productions for bands such as U2 and Massive Attack on tour, as well as interactive architectural installations from intimate club settings to large scale projects. Their work crosses the boundaries of many disciplines, from production design and art direction to software engineering and interactivity. Using a mix sound, LEDs, traditional lighting and projection technologies--as well as highly refined sculptural elements--they personify the changing face of design where the digital meets the physical.
The nature of these large scale, live projects means that they often don't know exactly what the results will be until they build and install them. Andy Polaine talks to UVA co-founder and Creative Director Matt Clark about their interdisciplinary work, trusting in one's instincts, and enjoying the challenge of the "danger zone."
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As founder and President of Kidrobot, Paul Budnitz has surfed the rising crest of the limited-edition art toy and streetwear wave. Not only is he the co-designer of Kidrobot's signature Dunny toy and Munny, he also art directs, co-designs, and collaborates with many of today's leading plastic and vinyl toy artists including Dalek, Frank Kozik, and Gary Baseman to create the majority of toys sold by Kidrobot. The son of a nuclear physicist and a social worker, Budnitz grew up in Berkeley, California. By 15 he was writing computer code for video games and safety analysis programs for nuclear power plants. He studied photography, sculpture, and film at Yale University, graduating with honors in Fine Art in 1990. In 1997 he founded Minidisco.com, a digital recording website for which he wrote back-end software enabling him to run the multimillion-dollar business out of his home. He sold Minidisco in 2002 and immediately founded Kidrobot which in five years has grown from a single online store to a multi-million dollar creative corporation that runs three store-galleries in the United States--San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City (with more on the way)--wholesales its line of twenty toys and clothing to over 250 stores worldwide, and maintains a staff of forty. In this interview Steve Heller talks to the designer/entrepreneur in his New York office, where surrounded by vinyl and hoodies he reflects on the state of this burgeoning art the status of his business.
Edited by Randy J. Hunt.
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Edward Burtynsky has traveled the world documenting humankind's incursions on the natural landscape--quarries, ship breaking fields, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams. His internationally-acclaimed large-format photographs are both beautiful and horrifying, arresting and undeniable, offering a visceral entry point into thinking about industrialization, sustainability, and the human condition.
On a recent trip to China, filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal accompanied Burtynsky as he documented endless factories, dam building projects, waste dumping grounds, and other "evidence and effects of that country's massive industrial revolution." The resultant film, Manufactured Landscapes, stands as a must-see for anyone interested in our impact on the world, and will have particular resonance to industrial designers moving forward into a future where the ramifications of mass production become severe to the point of crisis.
Ed and Jennifer chat with Allan Chochinov about the twists and turns of how the film came to be, what it's like to try to get permission to shoot some of the photographs and footage, the challenges (and limits) of editorial mission, and seeing the work on the big screen.
Learn more about Edward Burtynsky at www.edwardburtynsky.com
More about Jennifer Baichwal at www.mercuryfilms.ca/jennifer_baichwal.html
More about Manufactured Landscapes at www.zeitgeistfilms.com/landscapes
For playdates, check here
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Rob Walker pens the weekly "Consumed" column for the New York Times Magazine, where he wonders out loud about branding and marketing issues facing consumers. While his columns can encompass everything from the current Crocs phenomenon to the counterculture Brand Underground movement to the concept of unconsumption, Walker cautions that he's not a design critic per se, but rather surveys products and packaging from a consumer, and often quite neutral, perspective. These issues are further explored on Walker's popular blog murketing, a term coined after writing about the innovative yet undefinable marketing practices of Red Bull. Walker also finds himself engaged in a series of side projects including International Review of Wine Packaging Aesthetics and the Martin Luther King Blvd. Flickr set and is the author of the book Letters from New Orleans. On the shady, Spanish moss-strewn Wright Square in Savannah, Georgia (see image above), Alissa Walker (no relation) caught up with Walker to ask him about design and branding, his new book on consumer culture, and, seriously, what is up with those Crocs?
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Land of robot receptionists and more mobile services than you can shake iPhone at, Japan has so far offered few opportunities for foreign students wanting to study digital design at the center of the tech revolution. That's about to change. Keio University is launching a new Graduate School of Media Design that will offer Masters and Ph.D courses in both English and Japanese. Headed by renowned digital artist and filmmaker Masa Inakage, the new program is focused on training "the next generation of media innovators." The core curriculum includes design, technology, management, and public policy. Students will also develop their own research projects in partnership with international corporations and organizations.
David Womack talks to Professor Inakage about the new school, media design in Japan, and the next generation of ubiquitous devices.
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Why does new technology need to be smaller and have more features to be better? Why are so many gadgets so soulless that we are happy replacing them with new ones after only a year? Nicolas Roope thinks we both can and should design products that age beautifully so that we cherish them for a lifetime.
Roope is the founder of Hulger, the 'retro' telephone handsets that plug into your computer or mobile phone so that you can make digital calls with old-fashioned style. He is also one of the creative directors and co-founders of digital agency, Poke.
The Hulger handsets are more than just a clever gimmick though, and the philosophy behind them reveals a deeper understanding of culture and technology. In this Core77 Broadcast, Andy Polaine interviews Roope about Hulger's 'wear in, not wear out' motto and the need for a sense of wit and charm--not only in the design of physical products, but also digital services.
Additional links: Hulgerisation, Bill Amberg.
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Singapore with hummus! Sim City in real time! It's hard to escape the buzz about Dubai: The world's tallest building. The world's largest man-made islands. The world's only seven-star hotel. So, lured by a roster of big name designers (and the prospect of skiing the black diamond slope at The Mall of the Emirates), Frogdesign creative director Luke Williams and Fast Company senior writer Linda Tischler, made the trek to the kingdom for its first International Design Forum in late May.
What they found was a lot more complex than the hype: a city caught between the temptation to ape Vegas and the growing realization that by doing so, it may be losing its soul. Williams and Tischler talk about the design mash-up at the Burj Al Arab (think "Star Trek" meets "Saturday Night Fever"), architectural motifs that look eerily like the digestive system of the camel, a condo project that Apple's copyright guys might want to investigate, Oliviero Toscani's fashion advice, and why Arab mothers don't want their sons to grow up to be designers.
To read more on Dubai's red-hot real estate boom, $1000 cocktails, and the ruling Sheik's authenticity angst, check out Linda Tischler's postings on the Fast Company blog: Future shock, Real Estate, Authenticity.
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For the last few years Brad Holland, a pioneer of contemporary conceptual editorial illustration, has been on tireless mission: To insure that the existing copyright law is not altered in such a way as to erode the rights of artists in this electronic information age--an age, incidentally, where intellectual property is so highly prized that mega corporations seek the exclusive rights to use any art, regardless of creator, for their own profit. As a founding member of the Illustrator's Partnership Holland has become a true expert in copyright legislation. In his new role as advocate, he has spoken up for the rights of all artists, and he's been a witness before congressional hearings on the efficacy of retaining strict laws that protect the fundamental intellectual property rights of artists, illustrators, and designers.
Steven Heller caught up with Holland after one his many an exhausting periods of preparation another legislative battle, when they discussed the importance of retaining long-term copyright protection and the reasons why certain groups and industries are fighting to ease, if not abolish, copyright in the United States.
Thanks to Randy Hunt for co-production on this Broadcast.
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Edwin Schlossberg has long dreamed of building an immense high-tech gaming arena smack in the middle of Times Square where hundreds of people playing together at any given time would control power grids, move investments from one market to another, or build structures that revitalize urban spaces. If this sounds suspiciously like pop culture meets utopia, it is because Schlossberg believes that shared experiences--what we now call human interaction--will inspire cooperative relationships among strangers; and the stronger the bond, the healthier the world.
Along with a team of designers, inventors, and psychologists at ESI Design, in New York, Schlossberg, a pioneer of human experience design long before the Internet made the term popular, has been the driving force in creating everything public from museums to exploratoriums, parks to recreational spaces, information kiosks to study centers--each built on a foundation of mutual reliance. Steve Heller visited him in his new office on lower Fifth Avenue to discuss his thoughts about the new era of social networking and the generation gap it has produced.
Thanks to Randy Hunt for co-production on this Broadcast.
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Once simply the name of the most ubiquitous typeface on the planet, now the documentary Helvetica is becoming almost as ubiquitous--at least among members of the design community. The film not only tells the story of the typeface itself, from its birth in Switzerland fifty years ago to current gig as American Apparel mascot, but it also serves as an entertaining primer on modern graphic design, featuring major players from Massimo Vignelli to Experimental Jetset.
Director Gary Hustwit has been accompanying the film to screenings and Q&As at festivals, cultural institutions and AIGA chapters in the U.S. and Europe, almost every single one of which has sold out. Over 50 cities have scheduled screenings, and more dates continue to be added as the buzz builds. Just in the last month, Hustwit's traveled from Istanbul to Ohio and back, appeared on CNN and the public radio show "DnA," and showed the film at the Museum of Modern Art as part of an exhibition on Helvetica. Audiences everywhere are raving--from hard core typophiles to members of the local press marveling at the phenomenon of a "movie about a font." Alissa Walker caught up with Hustwit at the Los Angeles premiere, as a giant Helveticake was being lit with birthday candles.
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We're told that Blue Q out of Pittsfield Mass has been manufacturing life-improving, joy-bringing, mind-altering, universally-praised products since 1988. While we can't vouch for the life improvement part, joy-bringing and mind-altering is not far from the truth. Under the creative direction of Mitch Nash, Blue Q has brought together scores of talented graphic and product designers, as well as quirky artists and writers to produce a variety of fragrances and soaps, gums and candies, stickers and magnets, and car air fresheners with brand names like as Cat Butt, Dirty Girl, Get Real, Hot & Flashy, Miso Pretty, and Steve Heller's favorite (natch), "Steve's House of Charm." Nash is currently taking Blue Q into the literature space with a series tiny books, on a range of weird and wonderful themes--like "The Holy Bibel," an exploration into what the bible would be like if not for a good copyeditor. Steve caught up with Nash on a recent visit to New York looking for new authors.
Thanks to Randy Hunt for co-production on this Broadcast.
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Steve Portigal talks with Will Tschumy and Chris Bernard who recently joined Microsoft as User-Experience Evangelists. It's an interesting role that requires them to be designers, user advocates, user researchers, process wonks, consultants and much much more, serving constituencies both inside and outside of MSFT. Although they each describe (in their own words) what it means to go over to the other side (and how their friends are often perplexed), there is something exciting going on at Microsoft around design and user experience that has excited and engaged these passionate folks.
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Last summer, the PBS series Design:e2 explored the "economies of being environmentally conscious" through interviews with sustainable design experts like William McDonough, Sergio Palleroni and Susan Szenasy, and narration from none other than Brad Pitt. After the success of the first season, a second season about design is currently in production, which will be followed by future episodes focusing on topics like water, energy and transportation.
The vision behind Design:e2 originated with kontent>real, a production company founded by Karena Albers and Tad Fettig to create entertaining and engaging programming about issues important to them. Cinematic-quality production makes Design:e2 one of the smartest documentaries to cover the current green movement. But by simply using the familiar medium of television, kontent>real has launched a new chapter in the way that we share and absorb messages about design, sustainability and the built environment. Karena Albers spoke with Alissa Walker about kontent>real's mission while on location in Santa Monica, California.
You can buy Part I of Design:e2 at the PBS shop or look for it in reruns. And stay tuned for Part II, premiering on PBS this fall.
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This Broadcast is brief, but oh-so-sweet. Maira Kalman, children's book author, illustrator, product designer, librettist, and critical mass of inspiration, innovation, and imagination, teaches a class at the School of Visual Arts MFA Designer as Author program, where each year she conceives new ways of telling stories. This year, for her "suitcase project," students are invited to create three-dimensional, autobiographical visual narratives. Steven Heller, co-chair of the MFA program, caught up with Maira during the formative stages of the project.
After a rundown of some of the suitcases (one emits light and sound; another telescopes out to tables and chairs), the conversation moves to the take-away. "And what are YOU getting out of it?" Steven poses. Maira responds, "A headache."
Perfect charm.
Oh: Special thanks to Randy Hunt for co-production on this Broadcast; Photo: Rebecca Pollock.
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Steve Portigal speaks with Debbie Millman, partner at Sterling Brands and host of the scrumptious Design Matters radio talk show.
Steve and Debbie traverse a lot of topics in this one, with stops at cultural anthropology, behavioral psychology, commerce, and creativity—and a nice discussion on the commoditization of the term "strategy"...bringing it back to Michael Porter's classic definition, "deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value." (Debbie asserts that strategy is ultimately owned by the smart people in the process: smart designers, smart brand people.)
Around minute 27, she talks about the monologues at the start of the DesignMatters shows—always a highlight for listeners, and, in our opinion, reason enough to tune in to her weekly show: How does she prepare them? What makes for good topics?
Then things wrap up with a discussion of Maira Kalman and her recent work at the Times. Ironic, since next week's Core77 Broadcast will be with Maira, hosted by Steve Heller. Thanks for the perfect segue Debbie...always a great audio host!
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Web designer Ze Frank has created some of the most memorable internet-based entertainment in recent memory. His short web film "How to Dance Properly," created as a birthday party invitation in 2001 and emailed to a handful of people, became a bona fide viral phenomenon, and his website, zefrank.com, soon became a popular repository for dozens of games, videos and short films.
On March 17, 2006, Ze Frank began an experiment: To create a three-minute episode of his videoblog every day for one year. "The Show" has become an unbridled success, creating an audience of faithful viewers who not only comment in massive forums but also participate in open source projects, including the "Human Baton," where a vacationing college student was successfully passed off between audience members all the way across the U.S. and back. On Saturday, March 17, 2007, "The Show" will end. Ze spoke with Alissa Walker just after hosting the 10th Annual Web Awards at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas.
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From the city that never sleeps, Emilie Baltz prowls New York looking for the secrets of its favorite fuel: Coffee. Defined as everything from life to enlightenment, this beverage has a particular power over us, and Emilie's out on the streets to write its ode. (Or break its code). Uh, both maybe?
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LivingHomes has been splashed across almost every design, architecture and sustainability publication for almost a year, and for good reason: The company's first modular home prototype was the first residence to receive Platinum LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. LivingHomes founder and CEO Steve Glenn is the company's best spokesperson, and not just because he started the company--Glenn moved into the prototype soon after it opened and has lived there ever since.
On a beautiful Southern California day, Alissa Walker joins Glenn in the family room of his Santa Monica home to discuss the history of LivingHomes, Glenn's inspiration for the company, the praise that the prototype has received and the inevitable blasts from critics, what it's like living in a green home and how exactly his collection of childhood toys has everything to do with green building.
Take a tour of Steve Glenn's house at livinghomes.net, where you can see the house's features room-by-room.
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Nathan Shedroff, experience design guru, author of the seminal Experience Design 1 and co-author of Making Meaning: How Successful Businesses Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences, sits down with Steve Portigal in San Francisco to talk about the experience and design of experience design. Seriously.
Shedroff's definition gets things started: "Experience design is an approach to design, and you can use that approach in pretty much any discipline—graphic design or industrial design or interaction design, or retail design. It says the dimensions of experience are wider than what those disciplines normally take into account. And if you think wider—through time, multiple senses and other dimensions—then you can create a more meaningful experience."
And he follows it up with the 5 levels of significance:
1. Function ("Does this do what I want it to do?")
2. Price ("There are lots of cars out there to get me from point A to point B")
3. Emotion ("That's where lifestyle is engaged. How does this make me feel?")
4. Identity or Value ("This is subconscious: "Would I be caught dead with this?; am I a Nike fan, or an Adidas fan?")
5. Meaning (Not "Is this me?", but "Does this fit my reality?" "Does this even fit inside the world as I perceive it?")
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During a two-week fellowship to research his book, "Branding the Totalitarian State," Steven Heller interviewed Frank Luca, the chief Librarian of the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami, Florida.
The library is a rich resource for propaganda and other applied arts, and Mr. Lucca holds the key to its riches. How many riches? Well, in this interview they discuss the 25,000 pieces of ephemera in the library—comprised of fly swatters, fans, razor blades, etc. (Don't worry, they don't talk about all of them.) But the big question is: How do you preserve something that wasn't meant to last?
Frank talks about the collection as "the persuasive art meant to move the masses," and Steve offers design as a way of "changing the complexion of a country." Nice. So you can either get on a plane and go to Miami, or you can listen in and learn one of the reasons why you should.
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Recorded with old-skool technology—mini-cassette!—but don't let the tape noise dissuade you. Steve Portigal delivers an absolutely fascinating interview with Chris Miller, founder of LifePlays, a firm that uses improv techniques to help companies communicate better, think better, and be better. We wouldn't say that "improvisation is the new black," but in case anyone does say it, well, you heard it here first.
"Don't audience yourself."
"Say your offer and let the people connect with it."
"Keep the yes."
Sound too touch-feely? You'll be surprised.
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Natalie Jeremijenko, designer, technologist, teacher, thinker, and shit-kicking activist takes the stage at the Boston 2.0 event at Vessel, sharing a plethora of projects, and thrilling the audience with the sheer breadth of her work. You won't be able to see her power-switching between the various apps she used in her PowerPoint, but the content of her words (and that accent!) will give you more to think about than you can handle. Promise.
[Design 2.0: Design, Technology, and the Future--A Panel Discussion on the Opportunities and Imperatives Ahead, took place in Boston on November 15th, 2006 at the Vessel Showroom. Read all about the event, see photo galleries, and listen to other Design 2.0 Broadcasts at www.core77.com/design2.0]
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John Maeda, writer, designer and new media guru presented at Core77's Design 2.0 event in Boston, and charmed the house with an eclectic mix of observational photos based in and around his new book, The Laws of Simplicity. Ultimately he gets to some of the 10 laws, so if you're looking for a quick glimpse into the book, you won't be disappointed. But you'll get a lot more than that too. Simple!
[Design 2.0: Design, Technology, and the Future--A Panel Discussion on the Opportunities and Imperatives Ahead, took place in Boston on November 15th, 2006 at the Vessel Showroom. Read all about the event, see photo galleries, and listen to other Design 2.0 Broadcasts at www.core77.com/design2.0]
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Jason Pearson, founder of GreenBlue in Virginia, took to the microphone with an incredibly motivating presentation on the roles science and sustainability in the future of design and technology, teaching us about "material health" and a host of other eyebrow-raising considerations. He also spent a lot of time talking about metrics, and about the new opportunity spaces for design and innovation. A Master Class in your iPod, if you ask us.
[Design 2.0: Design, Technology, and the Future--A Panel Discussion on the Opportunities and Imperatives Ahead, took place in Boston on November 15th, 2006 at the Vessel Showroom. Read all about the event, see photo galleries, and listen to other Design 2.0 Broadcasts at www.core77.com/design2.0]
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Bill Cockayne, founder of Change Research in San Francisco and foresight specialist, came to our Boston Design 2.0 event with tons of instructive nuggets for thinking about design, and technology, and of course, the future. Bill was particularly inspiring to students and educators in the audience, offering practical strategies in terms of both pedagogy and practice.
[Design 2.0: Design, Technology, and the Future--A Panel Discussion on the Opportunities and Imperatives Ahead, took place in Boston on November 15th, 2006 at the Vessel Showroom. Read all about the event, see photo galleries, and listen to other Design 2.0 Broadcasts at www.core77.com/design2.0]
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