When hang-drying that favorite tee I can't afford to shrink anymore, I take a coat hanger and go in through the neckhole, doing that coat hanger version of a three-point turn. On a clumsy day I'll stretch the neck a bit, but manipulating the hanger by going in through the bottom of the wet, clammy shirt is even more irritating.
The Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show is a trade-only event and we were lucky enough to be able to attend and cover some of the newest design innovations from the category. Here's a quick photo tour of some of the trends, ideas and innovations from 2012 (and don't miss the timelapse of the show at the end!)
MEDIA DAY AT THE RANGE
The day before the SHOT Show opens its doors, Media Day at the Range provides a preview for that year's best new products while giving members of the press an opportunity to shoot and test the best new products for the season.
Charter Arms Chic Lady - Several smaller handguns were released onto the market this year including this little revolver made by Charter Arms. Marketed specifically towards women, the "Chic Lady" could easily be slipped into a purse. However, I found the double-action trigger pull to be a little difficult and the recoil more powerful than expected. I question how many casual gun users would train with it to the degree it would take to become comfortable wielding such a gun. Cuteness isn't everything.
Gatling Gun - An American invention, the Gatling Gun was the first successfully produced machine gun. It is a weapon that transformed the idea of automated mass production into automated mass killing. At the end of the 19th century, Gatlings were most often used to quell opposition to colonial expansion. This replica was brought to the SHOT Show by Colt as a promotional tool and was so popular they ran out of ammunition half way through the Media Day at the Range.
Graphic Gun Tattoo - The tattoos of this firearms company art director caught my eye.
Beretta Rifles - The middle firearm shown here has a rifle stock made of differently colored wood laminate that has been cut to emphasize contour. Its aesthetic is a long way from the stock of the military-esque injection-molded number on the front of the rack.
Just because you work from home doesn't mean you should be lying on the couch in your pj's til noon. Sure, it can also mean that—no judging—for some professions fuzzy slippers just don't count as proper work attire, whether you commute to an office or to your dining room table. In fact, the latest project from Synthesis Design + Architecture proves that even small home spaces can be snazzy, at least if you have $11,000. That's what it cost to turn a London investment advisor's home office, a modest 8' x 11' room, into a sleek, CNC-milled birch work space.
The name of Ikea's new SOLVINDEN lamp translates from Swedish as "Sun Wind," as those are the two things that power it. The cordless LED lamp is charged by a combination of the lampshade, which rotates in a breeze, and the sun's rays hitting the solar panel on top. The solar panel also contains a sensor that apparently swiches the lights on when it's dark outside. (There's also an on/off switch.)
What we're not sure of is how the $30 SOLVINDEN is meant to be used, as the stalk on the floor-standing model seems a bit flimsy for permanent outdoor use. With no power cables it's conceivable you could move the lamp from indoors to out each day for a charging session, though that's obviously not practical in cities and certain climes. And though it's tough to tell from the video, the light produced by the lamp appears quite wan.
Still, I'm thankful a global retail giant like Ikea is promoting alternative power, and I think the lamp is an important "1.0" to get mass-market consumers and designers used to the idea. I'm looking forward to both hearing early-adopter feedback and seeing how Ikea incorporates that into future versions.
Reporting and Images by Marc Thorpe. (Above) Lindsey Adelman, Agnes Chandelier
For the third year running, Parisian design showroom Triode hosted American Design in Paris exhibition to coincide with the Winter Maison & Objet tradeshow. The annual exhibition has become a showcase for American design talent with previous exhibitions showing one-off and production pieces from the likes of Harry Allen, Paul Loebach, Matilde Alessandra and Moorhead & Moorhead. This year's show was a special collaboration with Roll & Hill and MatterMade. The roster of American designers included those who have previously showed at Triode as well as designers who were showing for the first time in Paris.
"The American Design in Paris exhibit at the Triode Design gallery was a beautiful collection of designers from New York City," explained Marc Thorpe who presented a new luminaire, "Pourquoi Pas," for the exhibition. "I was honored to be a part of the exhibition. In the future, I'd hope to see a larger exhibition of designers represented from across the United States. Merci!"
Marc Thorpe, Pourquoi Pas
American Design in Paris
Triode Gallery
28 rue Jacob, Paris
Through 16 March 2012
Works By:
Lindsey Adelman
Bec Britain
Cmmnwlth
Joe Doucet
Fort Standard
Kleinreid
Jason Miller
John Pomp
Jonah Takagi
Marc Thorpe
Um Project
David Weeks
Joe Doucet, Marc Thorpe, Claire Pijoulat (Wanted Design) Odile Hainaut (Wanted Design), Jerry Helling (Bernhardt Design), Richard Hinzel
The 88 is a digital agency offering creative services, social media management and content creation. Located in SoHo, they are seekign a full-time art director/designer to support their work for a variety of high-end clients.
Londoners with a taste for minimalist design are in for a treat: A Muji exhibition revealing archives of their work, prototypes and some of their not-for-sale-in-Europe objects, opens March 9th at London's Design Museum. The somewhat baffling exhibition title, Product Fitness 80, makes sense when you read Muji's latest philosophical musings:
The products in the exhibition all address the question, what would happen if we used 20% less materials and energy in the actual process of making products? And in terms of the final object, what is then the role of the user in customising, re-using and recycling products in order to reduce energy consumption?
On the one year anniversary of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, Muji presents a display at the Design Museum that reconsiders the way we look at what makes good product design. The natural disaster and the ongoing concern about damaged power plants in Japan, has prompted Muji to rethink the way in which design impacts on the way we use energy.
March 8th will see what looks to be a kick-ass kickoff featuring Naoto Fukasawa, Konstanin Grcic and Sam Hecht discussing "craftsmanship, quality and efficiency of materials and energy." Alas, the darn thing is already sold out.
The show will run through March 18th, and admission is free for whomever shows up with a Muji receipt.
In 2009 Monocle took notice of Reykjavik's growing businesses and optimistic entrepreneurs, a hopeful sign that the city, and Iceland in general, might be on the brink of overcoming their 2008 economic collapse.
The start-ups here are not deterred by conditions and take inspiration from successful forebears, such as CCP Games, [whose]...executive producer Nathan Richardsson notes, 'This wave of innovation happening in Iceland is a result of the dire consequences of 2008, which provides a useful constraint on developing ideas to find the simplest, best solution.'
In stark contrast to the frothy days of high finance, these bright young leaders have helped create an entrepreneurial culture where banker bragging rights have been traded for humble lunches and transparent business. The view...is one of optimism.
No small part of Reykjavik's burgeoning economy is due to tourism, an industry the country continues to push with all its might. The latest evidence is an interactive city map, soon to be expanded into an online shop and a mobile app. Designed by Borgarmynd, the map lets you zoom in and out of a cheerful illustration of Reykjavik's streets, with a special focus on restaurants, bars, shops and cultural sites. The business descriptions are pretty cute. According to the map, Faktory is where, "You fell in love 7 times a live concert, made 30 new friends, danced to a DJ set and crashed a private party. The suns up now. Just another night at the famous Faktory, the hottest partyplace (their spelling, not mine) in 101."
The map is still a bit beta, but for the most part it's pretty user-friendly and, I imagine, actually helpful if I were traveling to Reykjavik, which I really, really wish I was.
Storytelling is a concept that we are all familiar with, regardless of our background. As designers, it is often utilized as a tool during the design process. In Ireland it has been part of their culture for centuries. During Interaction12, IxDA organizers did a great job of incorporating Irish culture into the conference through different activities and performances at the venue. In between talks, I found myself attending an interactive storytelling experience called "Storytelling a la carte" with professional bard Coilín "The" Oh-Aissiex and Claire "Ambiencellist" Fitch. The audience was able to choose from a menu of stories, which consisted of options such as Ancient Irish Tales, Contemporary Irish Tales, and International Folktales. Each category had descriptions as if the audience was ordering off a menu at a restaurant. For example, under the category Ancient Irish Tales, one of the "Flavour" descriptions consisted of pity and magic, while another consisted of outrage and triumph. Audience members were asked to choose a category and a corresponding flavour of their choice from the menu for a unique tale accompanied by improvisational music.
I had the opportunity to experience two stories before moving onto the next 45-minute block of talks. The Storytelling a la carte experience was a perfect segue into Tom O'Rahilly's talk titled "Identity and Imagination."
Tom O'Rahilly gave our readership some insight on storytelling from both a cultural and design perspective in our Interaction12 preview. O'Rahilly, Director of the Leprechaun Museum in Dublin, began his talk by sharing his experience as a product designer, realizing that people primarily wanted to experience their products. He then moved into a discussion on identity. People often think of identity as items that identify us in daily life, such as a social security card or driver's license. However, O'Rahilly addressed cultural identity. According to O'Rahilly, components of identity include location, perspective, play and people. In storytelling, key components are making sense of the unknown, engagement and experience. These components were taken into consideration during the design of the Leprechaun Museum.
The nice thing about design school projects is that most are meant to be conceived of and completed within the same semester. In the absence of manufacturing problems and political issues, you're presented with a problem and expected to solve it with design in a matter of months.
In the real world, of course, the process of going from problem presentation to design solution can seem interminably long. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, cities like New York and London began removing trash cans from certain public spaces. In 2005 London suffered their own terrorist attack on July 7th. By 2007 two entrepreneurs named Kaveh Memari and Brian James designed and began testing a bombproof trash can; we first wrote it up in 2008, and it was scheduled to land on London streets, featuring internet-connected LCD screens that could warn Londoners of local emergencies, in 2009. That release date was then pushed back to 2010, with a target of 100 cans on London streets, but the release date came and went.
The Future of Integrated Health Care
Google Maps: Designing the Modern Atlas
Design Miami 2011
Tokyo Design Week 2011
Born Digital: Exploring Digital Culture & Interactivity 
SHIFTBoston 2012 GLOW Competition 
Book Review: Where They Create, by Paul Barbera and Alexandra Onderwater
Book Review: Design by Nature, by Maggie Macnab
Teach Less, Integrate More 
Public Service Announcement 
Lego...for Girls?
Your First Car?
Core77 Design Awards 
SHIFTBoston 2012 Glow Competition 
Images and Reporting by Barbara Eldredge
Charter Arms Chic Lady - Several smaller handguns were released onto the market this year including this little revolver made by Charter Arms. Marketed specifically towards women, the "Chic Lady" could easily be slipped into a purse. However, I found the double-action trigger pull to be a little difficult and the recoil more powerful than expected. I question how many casual gun users would train with it to the degree it would take to become comfortable wielding such a gun. Cuteness isn't everything.
Gatling Gun - An American invention, the Gatling Gun was the first successfully produced machine gun. It is a weapon that transformed the idea of automated mass production into automated mass killing. At the end of the 19th century, Gatlings were most often used to quell opposition to colonial expansion. This replica was brought to the SHOT Show by Colt as a promotional tool and was so popular they ran out of ammunition half way through the Media Day at the Range.
Graphic Gun Tattoo - The tattoos of this firearms company art director caught my eye. 
Beretta Rifles - The middle firearm shown here has a rifle stock made of differently colored wood laminate that has been cut to emphasize contour. Its aesthetic is a long way from the stock of the military-esque injection-molded number on the front of the rack.
Reporting and Images by Marc Thorpe. (Above) Lindsey Adelman, Agnes Chandelier
Marc Thorpe, Pourquoi Pas
Joe Doucet, Marc Thorpe, Claire Pijoulat (Wanted Design) Odile Hainaut (Wanted Design), Jerry Helling (Bernhardt Design), Richard Hinzel
David Weeks Shell tableware on Jeff Miller tables
Google Maps: Designing the Modern Atlas
The Messy Art of Saving the World
Big Idea, Little Printer
The Landscape of User Experience Design in Asia
Tour Guide at the Leprechaun Museum
DESIGN MIAMI 2011
TOKYO DESIGN WEEK 2011
DUTCH DESIGN WEEK 2011
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK 2011
Where They Create, by Paul Barbera and Alexandra Onderwater
Design by Nature, by Maggie Macnab
The Portfolio Handbook, by the Class of 2012, Industrial Design, DAAP, University of Cincinnati
9
Making Promises at the End of Time
Space Migration and Designing Our Future Habitat
The Landscape of User Experience in Asia
The Path Less Followed (or, Why I Didn't Work at Circuit City)
Masters of the Cutaway
