Core77

The International Home and Housewares Show took place in Chicago between March 14-16 in Chicago, IL. See the latest from Karim Rashid and Ettore Sottsass, or go low brow, and get a load of lasagna makers, Snuggies and Fuzzy Wuzzy Swoozes.

Rain Noe headed north to attend Iceland Design March, a new event celebrating the country's growing design scene. There's lots of uniquely Icelandic things to see; bowls and vases made of volcanic sand are only one example.

"It's a sign of the times when The Economist, the house journal of the global business elite, holds a conference in London on 'design thinking.' Having attended the conference, produced in association with The Design Council and held over 11-12 March, I was left wondering one thing: why is design thinking such a hot topic with business leaders, given that it leaves so many designers cold?"

Core77 is proud to be the media sponsor of Betacup, a design competition in search of a solution to the rampant wastage of unrecyclable paper coffee cups. The competition is running on the Jovoto open innovation platform, and Starbucks is sponsoring as part of its aim to serve 100 percent of its coffee in reusable or recyclable cups by 2015. The winning concept will receive $10,000, and Core77 urges all its readers to get involved.

"I'm waxing lyrical about the Revo Heritage because it was evident from the outset that an awful lot of attention to detail had gone into designing not only the device but the interface...I wanted to know more about this small company based in Scotland turning out such great products..."

"Probably every designer, architect or artist I've ever spoken with has expressed the desire to open and operate a space: a gallery, a store, a classroom. And I would say this is the time. There's a reason this is the age of the pop-up shop: space is available, and it's yours for the taking..."

"My vision is that the hard work and dedication that designers put into making physical products, digital artifacts, and strategy work for the Fortune 500 can be redirected towards large scale social concerns, and that new business models can be created to make this redirection of talent sustainable for all involved..."

"John Stuart Mill coined the term homo economicus, to refer to an idealized human consumer who always behaved with rational self interest. Salespeople, however, whether hawking Cadillacs or Gucci loafers, have long realized that J.S. Mill was a little off the mark. When it comes to money, human beings are, well, more than a little bit crazy..."

This month, Core-toonists tackle the thorny subject of the portfolio. As you begin to get yours in gear for those upcoming job applications, remember, "if you are pure of heart and follow these tips properly, your portfolio will be unstoppable." See the first cartoon now, and stay tuned for the rest of the series!

This year's Stockholm Furniture Fair, Scandinavia's biggest annual design event, reeled in the crowds, as always. The main fair halls may have been a little quieter than usual, but an array of exciting work on show in the Greenhouse, the fair's well renowned student and newcomer section, kept the masses inspired and entertained.

Carlo Heckman was an Industrial Designer from Akron, Ohio whose work in the 1950's went largely unnoticed until just recently. He was best known for his work with birthday candles...

"I envisioned sitting down here to have this conversation and trying to figure out what we're really talking about. So I pulled this statement out of some notes Steve wrote the other day: "The Analog Human; The Digital Machine." I thought that was really provocative, so I wanted to start by asking you to say a little more about this idea?"

Pop-up shelters have been a favorite exploration of designers for a long time, and in light of the earthquake in Haiti and the necessity of creating short-term emergency shelters, this 1 Hour Design Challenge invited designers to create innovative and appropriate pop-up shelter solutions. Designs could be specific to Haiti or generalized to address emergency shelter needs across various contexts.

"You might guess that the carbon footprint from a carton of orange juice is largely due to packaging, transportation and disposal, but the findings from a recent PepsiCo study may surprise you. When the entire life cycle of orange juice was included, growing the oranges turned out to contribute the most to the carbon footprintómainly due to the production and application of nitrogen based fertilizers..."

During a combined work and leisure trip through Asia, Core-contributor Brit Leissler visited a number of manufacturing centers in Vietnam, including Catdang Village, center of coiled bamboo manufacturing and lacquering, and B·t Tr‡ng Ceramic Village, 13 km away from the Hanoi City Center.

Core-toonist lunchbreath visited the Chicago Auto Show, which, as he describes it, is "like the internet, but with a whole bunch of walking." See more of his humorous interpretations of green machines, typical auto show photos, dream cars, and the attendee demographic.

"Design for Disassembly is a design strategy that considers the future need to disassemble a product for repair, refurbish or recycle. Will a product need to be repaired? Which parts will need replacement? Who will repair it? How can the experience be simple and intuitive?"

The North American International Auto Show takes place in Detroit annually every January. Over 2,000 exhibitors showcased their newest production vehicles and concept cars, bringing cutting-edge developments in electric and hybrid engines to the fore. Core77 contributor Michael Doyle attended once again this year, and shares the best of the show in his latest gallery.

We've just launched our newest 1 Hour Design Challenge, this time in response to the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. You've got the usual 60-minutes to design an innovative emergency shelteróCore77 will donate $500 in the winner's name to Architecture for Humanity's Haiti Earthquake Support Program. Get your entry in today!

The annual Consumer Electronics Show took place early this January, with over 120,000 visitors making the pilgrimage to Vegas to see the sick edge of consumer products. Core77 sent the MOTO UX team on-site to capture design highlights from the show floor, including the latest in web books, e-readers, 3-D television, and headphone culture. Their favorite: the robotic, therapeutic harp seal, with a binky.

"Those innovations that are successful at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) are the ones which contain seeds of disruption in markets outside of their intended audience. The original 7-inch ASUS eeePC is an excellent case in point. Inspired by the concept of the $100 laptop for the developing world, it was the wedge that has changed the computer market of today, creating an entirely new category and influencing the pricing and form factor of personal computers for every market in less than 3 years..."

During a combined work and leisure trip through Asia, Core-contributor Brit Leissler visited a number of manufacturing centers in Vietnam, including Catdang Village, center of coiled bamboo manufacturing and lacquering, and B·t Tr‡ng Ceramic Village, 13 km away from the Hanoi City Center.

2009 has been too good to us here at Core77. We can't do enough to thank you all, but for a start, we've assembled some of our favorite moments of 2009 for you to reflect on.

"Heading into the recession, two longstanding waves of change were already driving toward disruptive convergence. The first, technology, is already so familiar we generally fail to appreciate just how deeply and profoundly it impacts design. The second, sustainability, while admittedly still a long way from being genuinely understood by design, is just as tirelessly undermining old ways and conventions for 'doing'. The economic crisis added a third wave to this mix; one which more immediately demanded our attention..."

Ever seen a Christmas tree made out of meat, radioactive Christmas balls or festive superheroes with 'needles of pain'? Hundreds of Christmas tree-like objects, sculptures, installations, graphics and videos were gathered at the sixth episode of the "Oh Tannenbaum!" Christmas tree exhibition.

Now that we've finished off the first decade of the Millenium, it's time to start thinking about where we'll be in another ten years. Which trends will dominate? Which brands will rise and which will fall? Who will fill the Billy Mays vacuum? Answer these questions and more by showing us what you believe will be THE HOTTEST PRODUCT OF 2020.

"Imagine developing design work and traveling the world at the same time, amongst an international community of thinkers and makers. Over four months, your group will travel by sea to several countries, where you will connect with local communities, gain insights into a wide array of design problems, and better understand the global condition through firsthand experience.

"Whether witnessing genetic, geriatric or accidental injuries, healthy people have an aversion to being reminded just how fragile their bodies are. Consequently, a book called Design Meets Disability isn't the first thing that a "fashionable" designer might pick up off the shelf no matter how sexy amputee/paraplegic Aimee Mullins happens to be, nor how gorgeous Cutler and Gross's eyewear advertisements appear..."

During a combined work and leisure trip through Asia, Brit Leissler collected a wealth of design-based insights and experiences, sharing them with the Core77 readers with blog posts entitled "Postcards from Asia". This is the the first half of the accompanying gallery; look for one more next month with a focus on manufacturing.

We've focused this year's guide exclusively on the righteous— from great philanthropies and progressive social impact projects, to books, products, and DIY ideas that'll keep you off the naughty, and land you squarely on the nice.

Fake Dior shoes, purses made of frogs, USB-Sticks that look like fruits, cheap rocks made of plastic...welcome to the world of design mistakes from the "Bad Taste Exhibition" at the Museum of Things in Berlin.

"Too often designers ignore how people interact with products over time, the cultural relevance of the artifacts they create, and the social and environmental consequences of their design decisions. We've allowed this malady to infect our schools and seduce our customers. The problem is pervasive..."

"For two days a high-powered group of about 100 designers, educators, writers, business strategists, technologists, and futurists were assembled by the leadership of the Designers Accord to 'tackle the critical issue of sustainability, consider how best to prepare our educational community to make real change, and imagine what's next in design education..."

The.brief.dvd shows the visualization process of four industrial designers (and Core77 Forum junkies!) as they create renderings from early pen and pencil sketches up through 3D.

"What the 'design will change the world' camp often ignores is that major social problems they try to solve with design are just that, social problems; issues that involve a diverse range of constituencies, largely amoral economic forces and self-interested politics...Consequently, after reading a multitude of 'Business = Design' books, this reviewer was thrilled to read the term 'wicked problem' about halfway through..."

"Depending on how you see it, social software is either all the rage or so 2008. You know the stuff: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Foursquare.... There's no talking about the web these days without itóthat's for sureóbut social software tools are quickly becoming an integral part of the way we run our day-to-day lives..."

This October, Eindhoven presented the 8th edition of Dutch Design Week. In typical Dutch style, visitors were given insight into the entire development process from concept to product. Brit Leissler was on site, selecting the best work from the Eindhoven Design Academy graduation show, the Designhuis, the former Philips complex Strijp-S, and more.

The 2009 edition of the Coroflot Salary Survey saw a significant jump in the number of respondents: over 5000 this time, with significant showings by all eight of the fields surveyed. Taken together these indicate a sea change in the nature of Coroflot's community, from a niche group of product designers to a pan-disciplinary collection of creatives..

"In Guyana we met and collaborated with factory workers and indigenous artisan weavers from the Wai Wai tribe. For over 8 hours each day we steamed, bent, cut, sanded and wove alongside the men and women of Liana Cane. At each step of the way, our designs were also shaped by the material constraints and constant direction of the skilled workers, whose knowledge of this process greatly surpassed our own..."

"Instead of laying waste to products with screwdrivers and crowbars, a wide range of occasionally famous, sometimes beautiful and frequently innovative products are subjected to the verbal barbs and jabs of unexpectedly-funny designers and engineers."

The latest 1 Hour Design Challenge, The Future of Digital Reading was based on Portigal Consulting's Reading Ahead initiativeórecent research around books, reading, behavior, and technology. It was a tough one to jury, but the Grand Prize was awarded to Hot Studio's SuperFlyer 5000.

Prague Design Days 2009, or Designblok, is the 11th edition of Prague's major annual design event anchored at the Holesovice area. The event took place between the 6th and 11th of October. This year's theme was "Spring" and demonstrated a sense of revival, new beauty and new life.

"We are a collaborative species. No single perspective could possibly cover every aspect of an issue, but together through the collage of our collective experience we wage war on the challenges of our reality...At every level of complexity an individual's best efforts could never compare to the magnitude of the seemingly intelligent behavior of the swarm..."

"Good creative hiring is all about flexibility and relationships—this was the core of the message gleaned from Wednesday's long-anticipated Coroflot Creative Confab at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco. The panel discussion at the heart of the 160-attendee event was easily the most boisterous and impassioned of the Confab's four-city tour so far, with panelists Emily Delmont (Google Creative Lab), Steve Johnson (LinkedIn), Kate Gilman (24 Seven) and John Foster (IDEO) bouncing around opinions on networking, creative skill sets, and employee engagement with dizzying speed..."

"It's hard to simplify the inherent dynamism of an electronic deviceóno matter how elaborate the margin doodle; it often confuses more than clarifies. And how could it not? Electronic devices are alive and interactive. They gather information about their environment or user, process values, and respond accordingly. Even the most well-intentioned sketch quickly reaches the limitations of the medium..."

"In hindsight, having only started Project H about 7 months prior to signing the book contract, embarking on such a huge project was probably a little bit premature, but it gave me the avenue to more deeply explore some of Project H's values and ambitions, and to do so in a way that would hopefully inspire and motivate other product designers to stop talking about doing good, and to take action with some helpful tools..."

The third installment of the acclaimed Coroflot Creative Employment Confab will take place in San Francsico on October 21st. The event will revolve around a panel discussion between guests John Foster of IDEO, Kate Gilman of 24 Seven, Inc., and Steve Johnson of LinkedIn. Afterwards, get to know your fellow SF creatives at the reception that follows. Bonus: this round of the Creative Confab will feature optional morning workshops, led by experts on both sides of the hiring equation.

Over the past few years, the London Design Festival has successfully put itself on the map of international annual design events. This year, Earl's Court housed Designersblock in addition to the annual 100% Design tradeshow. On the east side of the city, Tent London hosted a digital event for the first time this year, while Tom Dixon curated events at The Dock, a new site on London's west side that housed a great number of pop-up stores and new work from both established and emerging designers. Brit Leissler was on-site and shares images from all of these and more.

"About halfway through Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation, Tim Brown repeats Tom Peter's much cited comment that "the MFA is the new MBA." In doing so, however, he doesn't fully endorse the sentiment. Instead Brown observes that the dynamic skills required in business share as much in common with the creativity required for a design practice as they do with the critical thinking required for the MBA...The crux of what Brown is getting at is what McKinsey & Company referred to as the "T-Shaped" person, where the vertical axis represents the depth of the skill set that forms their core competency. Valuable design thinkers, however, "cross the T," holding not only deep familiarity with their core role, but also a disposition for collaboration across enterprises..."

Returning for their second year, gadget blog Gizmodo presented over 60 devices in New York including a collection of vintage electronics, a giant 3D Etch-a-Sketch, a live band ArcAttack performing with home-made tesla coils, many hands-on interactive demos and the crowd favorite - an automatic pancake making machine.

We're conducting our annual Coroflot Designer Salary Survey for the 9th year running! After you give us some survey love, take a few moments to browse the rich pool of data you've helped us build over the years. Compare what you make with your kindred in other regions, fields, and work environments; look at salary trends over the past decade; see which fields are growing and find out which ones are truly taking off.

Filled with hundreds of tips, tricks, lifehacks and advice for practicing designers, Hack2Work covers everything from office politics to office snacks, from essential books to essential software, and from intellectual property and design research to design conferences, working with the press, sustainable practice, and creative hiring.

Core77 has teamed up with Portigal Consulting and 826 Valencia to challenge you to design the Future of Digital Reading...in 90 minutes! What will reading look like as it continues to evolve, going digital (and beyond)? In 5 or 10 years, will we still be holding paper squares in our hands when we read? Will we be back to stone tablets? Will we still be using our eyes? Core77 challenges you to create a rich future digital reading experience based on the research findings by Portigal Consulting's Reading Ahead project.

The third installment of the acclaimed Coroflot Creative Employment Confab will take place in San Francsico on October 21st. The event will revolve around a panel discussion between guests John Foster of IDEO, Kate Gilman of 24 Seven, Inc., and Steve Johnson of LinkedIn. Afterwards, get to know your fellow SF creatives at the reception that follows. Bonus: this round of the Creative Confab will feature optional morning workshops, led by experts on both sides of the hiring equation.

The results of last month's One Hour Design Challenge are in! Congratulations to Thedinomeister for hitting it all: good quality, good quantity and just loose enough to have been done in an hour. Congratulations also to honorable mentions to Blaster, Mikeserafin, Bennybtl and Sergiomora. View the winners and discuss all the submissions (from digger trucks to handbags) in the forum.

"While not exactly summer beach reading, Hartmut Esslinger's new book on Design Strategy, A Fine Line crams as many ideas, themes and disparate story arcs into its 180 pages as a Dan Brown novel. For the first few chapters Esslinger follows the tried and true business book methodology of using real world examples to illustrate lessons in leadership and strategy. For the last three chapters, he begins to apply the design lessons he learned in the corporate world to what he terms "industrial-colonial capitalism" -- the problems of the modern age caused in part by the last century of design strategy...."

Eurobike, the world's leading tradeshow for the bike industry, took place between September 2nd and 5th in Friedrichschafen, Germany. This year, electric bicycles, or e-bikes, were an especially hot topic, appearing en masse alongside the usual lightweight parts, bike gear, and pimped-out accessories. Aart van Bezooyen went trekking onsite, returing with a giant gallery of bike shots... and maybe the BMX trick or two.

The inaugural Maker Faire Africa invited makers and entrepreneurs from around the globe to celebrate and showcase African ingenuity on an international stage. Nathan Cooke traveled all the way to Accra, Ghana to witness this, discovering work by makers and artisans from as far as Liberia, Malawi and Uganda. See homemade cassava grinders, water purifiers, irrigators, off-the-grid refrigerators, plastic fashion, and more in this (especially) exciting Core77 gallery!

We're conducting our annual Coroflot Designer Salary Survey for the 9th year running! After you give us some survey love, take a few moments to browse the rich pool of data you've helped us build over the years. Compare what you make with your kindred in other regions, fields, and work environments; look at salary trends over the past decade; see which fields are growing and find out which ones are truly taking off.

The New York International Gift Fair, the premier gift and home accessories market in the U.S., takes place in New York City every August, with over 2,900 exhibitors and 30,000 buyers traipsing through the Javits Center to see the latest and greatest. Veanne Cao joined them in search of the best tabletop objects, housewares, and accessories for the Core77 galleries.

"The collapse of the US auto industry stands as one of the national tragedies of this generation, but it also provides boundless opportunities for ironic reflection when looking through a book like Heimann and Patton's Classic Cars. The first time we opened their book of historic auto ads, it revealed a blue '67 Olds Toronodo, complete with a matador against a red background, framed against the caption, "After you've walked off with all the honors, what do you do for an encore?" Regrettably we've found out. The copy on the back of this coffee table books contrasts the Stone Age and the Bronze Age with the 20th Century -- The Automobile Age..."

The results are in for the Nidecker Core77 Snowboard Design Competition! Designers from around the world were invited to create the next generation of snowboard graphics for Nidecker's famed snowboards, and the response was overwhelming. Over 3,000 designs came in from all corners of the globe, and we are thrilled to present the winners. Paul McDermid took Grand Prize, followed by five finalists: Artur Tchoukanov, Kai Dame, Hendy Musa, Tom Gregory, and Christopher DeLorenzo. We've got a huge gallery of all the winners, semi-finalists and notables up at the site, so check out the winners and then dive deep into the gallery. There are some truly amazing designs in there!

"While collectives look inward, focused on their own ambitions and sensibilities, these groups look outward, attempting to build a lasting infrastructure for young American designers, capable of outliving changes in personnel and design culture. This change in outlook indicates two things: first, there is a structural gap in the design industry that demands filling, and, second, design collectives are ceasing to function as a satisfactory solution to this problem..."

of June, themed as "Mediterranean Design between Present and Future." In addition to major exhibitions and cultural events, a showroom circuit extended the fair into Istanbul's design shops and galleries, which were invited to compete for "Best Installation". Esin Arsan was on site all weekend and shares her photos with us in the Core77 Galleries.

"We began to understand better their perception of technology and how productivity and play very much intertwine. They are very electronically social and don't distinguish between electronic friends and physical friends, but rather through physical proximity. This means they know where the people they communicate with are, and, whether the relationships were purely virtual, purely physical or somewhere in between, it is the geographic distance that seemed most meaningful to them..."

"Bauhaus City, get on site!" says the international summer school organized by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, celebrating its 90th birthday this year. Creative folks from all over the world were invited to experience the famous Bauhaus buildings firsthand, while reimagining the future of Bauhaus City through hands-on workshops. Aart van Bezooyen shares his experience as a participant of this intensive weeklong summer school in the Core77 galleries!

"Anyone who thinks that minimalist or clean product design begins and ends with Jonathan Ive would be well served to check out the latest exhibit on Dieter Rams. Unfortunately, the exhibit in question was already held at the Suntory Museum in Osaka, Japan, but the contents of the retrospective have also been catalogued in a book, Less and More available in limited numbers through the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Rather than working for Braun, Rams was Braun..."

Run to the closest printer or copier, grab a small stack of copier paper, and show us some ideation love. Yup, it's as simple as thatócreate the most number of ideation sketches in as many angles, forms, and scribbles of a single subject of your choice. If you love shoes, sketch 'em. If you're feelin' it for cars, we want to see those. If you're into cellphones, gadgets, gizmos, fashion, or accessories, have at it! We've all seen these ideation pages populating your Coroflot portfolios; now's your chance to prepare a stunning array live with the kitchen timer set to 60 minutes!

Core77 proudly introduces a limited edition bicycle—named the "Dutch Master"—celebrating New York bike culture and a heritage of local manufacturing. The Dutch Master is based on the beloved Worksman cruiser frame—a workhorse foundation used throughout the New York delivery community, and manufactured in Queens, New York for over 110 years. Core77 customized the frame, fitting it out with a carefully curated set of components, each with its own story.

"Summoned by phone, your ATNMBL arrives. You enter from the curb side through an electric glass sliding door into a standing-height entryway. Upon entering, you are presented with a simple question: "Where can I take you?" There is no steering wheel, brake pedal or drivers seat...."

NeoCon, a trade show revolving around commercial interiors, happens every year at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, one of the world's largest indoor commercial spaces. In addition to the showroom mainstays like Herman Miller, Knoll, Bernhardt, and Steelcase, two floors of temporary exhibition space are filled with the latest products for the interior contract industry. This year, we also visited four offsite events: Making Modern at The School of the Art Institute, The Promise of this Moment, Object Society, and the annual Guerrilla Truck Show.

"We have been operating under the assumption that the primary challenge is to convince businesses to focus on fulfilling user needs with higher quality products, with more meaningful experiences. But what if the 'users' themselves are the problem? What if users represent not a coherent set of needs but a messy mix of desires and influences? What, ultimately, is the role of the designer in sorting through these desires to determine which should drive our design decisions? And what frameworks, other than intuition, should we use to make these judgments?"

The MD&M East expo (Medical Design and Manufacturing) is an annual exhibition of medical devices and product manufacturers, and is the world's second largest medical OEM event (next to MD&M West). MD&M runs concurrently with ATX (the automation technology expo), which features the latest in automated manufacturing technologies.

Bread & Butter Berlin (BBB) takes place at the historic Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, a special venue for the international fashion scene to meet up and showcase their latest collections. From hangars full of fashion we captured highlights such as G-Star's Fashion Show, Italian craftsmen designing jeans at the LABORATORIO, and live events at the Luna Park.

After reviewing Sketchbooks: The Hidden Art of Designers, Illustrators and Creatives just a few weeks ago, it seemed premature to cover another one so soon, but any drawing teacher would concur: you can never do enough sketching. Sketchbook: Conceptual Drawings from the World's Most Influential Designers, by Timothy O'Donnell, covers similar material in a slightly different manner. While Brereton's book caught artists and ad execs at their most candid, O'Donnell documents primarily illustrators and designers doing real projects. Thus the art throughout is more precise, a little tighter and far less kooky. While this bodes well for the pencil chops of designers as a whole, it also means that looking at some of these sketchbooks is totally demoralizing.

There are only a few days left to enter the Nidecker Snowboard Competition, produced by Nidecker Snowboards in partnership with Core77. The Grand Prize winner will receive $2500 and be included in the Nidecker 2010/11 line, so be sure to enter by July 12th.

New York Design Week was busier than expected this year, with plenty to see at both the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and off-site events throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. The local design presence was especially strong, represented by exhibits like Indisposed, McMasterpieces, Model Citizens NYC, NY Local, Purpose & Worth, and The Future Perfect Editions. Check out our massive gallery of over 400 images of the best from ICFF, satellite shows, parties and more!

Check out the winners of our Wave Sport Kayak Hull Trip-Tych Competition! The Grand Prize winner received $2500, and the Top 5 designs will be displayed at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Show in Salt Lake City in July 2009, in addition to getting a kayak with their own design.

The Portland edition of the Coroflot Creative Confab took place on June 11th, a networking and knowledge-sharing afternoon for creative recruiters and professionals. The event ran for three hours, featuring ample opportunity for networking with local creative professionals and recruiters and centering on an engaging panel discussion with some of Portland's top designers and design recruiters, including: Kirk James of Cinco Design, Nick Oakley of Intel, Beth Sasseen of Nike, and Chelsea Vandiver of Ziba Design.

We're putting the final touches on our limited-edition Dutch Master bicycle, the ultimate blend of street and cruiser riding. Designed and hand-built in New York, It will hit the pavement soon, so we can't give too much away yet - but rest assured, this will be one super smooth summer ride!

"The bottom line is that designers need to see and understand the economy before they can grapple with how to organize their own work. Unfortunately most discussions of sustainable design gloss over the workings of the economy. Designers alone can't bring about a steady state economy, but we can begin to use the economy for sustainable ends, rather than letting the economy use us solely for economic growth..."

"Martin Bone is one of us. The opening pages of his collaboration with Kara Johnson, I Miss My Pencil, include fetishistic shots of everyday objects like kitchen knives and attache cases that the authors know and love. In the short blurbs of text that accompany the beautiful product shots, Johnson explains a part of the product lifecycle that designers too often ignore. Recounting the effect of a ding on her experience as a car owner, she explains, "My previously flawless car now registered a dent above the back rear wheel. But my love did not waver. In fact, perhaps surprisingly, it grew: I love my car even more now with this little dent," that now serves to remind her of a weekend snowboarding..."

"Though it may often seem like the industrial designer's job is to create a "black box" around circuit boards, the ability to take the complex nature of data and translate it into meaningful form is more important than ever before. More than mere shells for electronic components, they play a totemic role in the home and act as the threshold for rich, emotionally-laden content and timely personal communication..."

"Peter Opsvik, a Norwegian designer, has been working on improving the human working posture for over forty years, with a single-mindedness that makes his whole career look like one extended project. Rethinking Sitting showcases Opsvik's career with a variety of chairs that make Bill Stumpf's Aeron seem downright anachronistic..."

Milan Design Week was a sprawling extravaganza this year, with many thriving clusters. The Fairgrounds and off-site events provided endless venues for exhibiting design, and the streets of the Zona Tortona and beyond were bustling with clanking glasses, great Italian food, and a vibrant scene of artists and designers. In addition to the furniture, this year saw a ton of sculpture, art performances, environmental discourse, and great music.

Check out Core77's Essential Guide to this year's New York Design Week, featuring the best exhibitions, events, and parties from the ICFF on out to Brooklyn, from the Meatpacking district, Soho, Tribecca, and Chelsea, to Midtown, the Flatiron, East Village & LES. Check the page often for updates, and don't forget to print out a set for your bag. Want it on your phone? We've got that too!

Wave Sport has partnered with Core77, inviting designers around the world to create a new generation of boat graphics for their Fuse 56 river running / freestyle kayak. The Top 5 designs will be displayed at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Show in Salt Lake City in July 2009, and will receive a kayak with their own design. Download the templates, work your graphic magic, and enter to win!

"In keeping with hospital protocol, every time we crossed from one ward to another, we paused at the double doors and carefully washed our hands. (I washed my hands fourteen times that day.) Although the nurses were adamant about hand washing, we watched them roll IV poles from one ward to the next with no authorization or cleaning regimen. IV poles were a potential source of cross-ward infections..."

The results are in! The latest 1 Hour Design Challenge: Business Card Hacks brought out some serious 3D creativity from the participants, and produced some utilitarian, ornamental, and just plain whimsical business card hacks. Huge thanks to our sponsors on this challenge: UPrinting and to our guest judge Gino Orlandi. The Top 5 Winners will each receive 1000 free business cards, courtesy of UPrinting.

Coming off the smash success of their Illustrated Fieldguide for Designers on the Home and Housewares Show in Chicago last month, Lunchbreath and Fueledbycoffee will be contributing design cartoons to Core77 on a regular basis, taking aim and providing insight into the wide world of design.

"In the title and throughout this article, I've used the phrase 'market research' versus 'design research' for two reasons: First, 'Design research,' a term invented by the design community, is not recognized or known outside of this group; the term recognized by other individuals in business (and as an established profession) is 'market research.' I'm using this term then, as I believe it has more universal appeal and understanding. Second, when the design community refers to 'design research,' traditional methods such as focus groups and surveys are often dismissed, where more emerging methods like ethnographic research and listening labs get all the ink (or pixels). I'd like to help balance that out..."

On route to Milan last month, we caught up with the Campana Brothers to get the lowdown on their latest project for Brazilian jelly shoe giant Melissa. Exclusively for the month of May, we're happy to offer readers the chance to get your hands on the Campana Zig Zag and Campana Corallo shoes through our trusted partner store Epaulet. Located just across the bridge in Brooklyn, not only do they carry the largest choice of colors online, they're also offering free shipping for orders in the US.

"Midway through Richard Brereton's Sketchbooks: The Hidden Art of Designers, Illustrators and Creatives, commercial artist and graphic designer Ed Fella confides, 'in 1976 an artist friend gave me a sketchbook, saying 'Even though you're a designer, you think like an artist and should keep a sketchbook.' Well, even if you happen to be a designer and you don't think like an artist, we at Core77 still think you should carry a sketchbook..."

"It should be clear by now what I mean by design is the problem. Design that is about appearance, or margins, or offerings and market segments, and not about real people--their needs, abilities, desires, emotions, and so on--that's the design that is the problem. The design that is about systems solutions, intent, appropriate and knowledgeable integration of people, planet, and profit, and the design that, above all, cares about customers as people and not merely consumers--that's the design that can lead to healthy, sustainable solutions..."

We're thrilled to announce the winners of the "Shoot Your Inspiration" photo contest, held in conjunction with the 2099 Braun Prize. We had a tremendous turn out, with more than 2,400 photos submitted from around the world. Thanks to everyone who participated!
Grand Prize:
Kids at Play, by Jayashankar - India
Runners up:
The Survivor, by Szabo Balazs -Hungary
Family Love, by Hadi Sattari - United States
Boston, by Felipe Caralho - Brazil
People's Choice Award:
Condor de los Andes, by Cesar David Martinez Rodriguez, Colombia

Aart van Bezooyen visited the PICTOPIA festival, the world's first ever large-scale presentation and celebration of "reduced and abstract character design and art." Running until May 3rd, Berlin is transformed into a character biotope and a meeting point for an international scene of designers, artists, producers and an interested public. Mickey Mouse, meet your worst nightmare!

Filled with insanely pragmatic advice, persuasive argument, and impassioned calls for action, Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must Be Sustainable is essential reading for all designers, design students, business people, business students, innovation specialists, and advocates of all stripes. Core77's Allan Chochinov sat down with Nathan to chat about the book, the challenges ahead, the culture of business, and the amazing opportunities for designers right now.

Every year, tens of thousands of people mob the International Housewares Show in Chicago, touring through the latest, greatest, and sometimes-lamest homestuff as far as the eye can see. This year, Core77 sent Lisa Smith and Caroline Linder to shoot the show, putting together a huge gallery of what's next to show up in a store (or home!) near you.

And that's not all: Lunchbreath and Fueledbycoffee walked the show for Core77, preparing an illustrated "Fieldguide" for designers and housewares fans, and rendering (literally) their experiences and insights in cartoon form.

"Designers are truly at the center of this paradigm change. While these are scary times, this is also an opportunity for us to focus on what is real. Any designer focused on producing useless doodads to be made in China, hawked to geriatric couch surfers on QVC, financed with second lien mortgages, denominated in a rapidly devaluing currency, propped up by the government of the underpaid Chinese workers who built it, should be rightly terrified..."

"Objectified is a very affectionate film--toward its cast, its subject, and indeed the entire enterprise of design. It's not a sociological study, but, as in Hustwit's previous blockbuster, the movie surfaces its arguments through the eyes (and mouths) of famous designers and critics. Helvetica-style, we watch everyone from Jonathan Ive to Hella Jongerius discuss their unique brand, their point of view (and points of departure)--personalities blazing and hearts on sleeves..."

"For a graphic designer or a product designer interested in applique, New Skateboard Graphics is an eyeful. In the foreword, Michael Leon explains the realities of the modern sales environment where the consumer tends to observe the boards with the bottom graphics visible at a distance on a wall or in miniature in a catalog. Hardisty follows up with a short essay on the two-way connection between the branding of the company and the aesthetics of the riders, but from there it's all about the graphics..."

In Darwinian fashion, we cross-pollinated these central forms to create hybridized form statements. The result is the beginning of a kind of Periodical Chart of Forms that can be parsed for their associated Meanings. Like the Periodic Table of the Elements, this system holds ample opportunity for mixing proportions, creating alloys, and adding impurities. We propose that this visual paradigm has room to house all the things that have been, and the things yet to be.

It was a roller-coaster ride of a panel discussion at the Live Greener Gadgets Design Competition Judging at the close of Friday's Greener Gadgets Conference in New York City. After an overview of some of the notable entries, the judges--Jeff Kapec of Tanaka Kapec Design Group, Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabitat, and Saul Griffith of Makani Power--toured the audience through 13 of their favorite projects before deliberating to get things down to the Top 3. Find out who the semi-finalists were, and who took home the prize!

We were thrilled to unpack the finished Longboards last week, delivered from Ponoko and Bustin Boards, our two completely awesome sponsors of last month's 1 Hour Design Challenge: Laser-cut Grip Tape Inlay for a Longboard. The challenge was to create graphic explorations for the "top" of the board (graphics are typically screen printed on the bottom), utilizing the laser-cutting precision of Ponoko, and applied to the beautiful boards of Bustin. As you'll recall, the winners of 1 Hour Design Competition were "Day of the Dead" designed by delaojoser, "Freedom" designed by leebaz, and "Muse 2" designed by b_fuzz, and the prize was to receive their design...laser cut and applied to a complimentary board! But not before we got 'em and photographed them for your viewing pleasure.

Strictly for hard-core fans, we're releasing the official Core77 raised silver ID nameplate, the perfect way to customize pretty much any gadget you own (especially laptops). Backed with 3M's 300LSE high strength laminating adhesive, you'll want to position this one right the first time - there's definitely no second chances! Highly detailed with crisp edges, our metal nameplates are finished with a mirror chrome textured surface guaranteed to catch light from almost any angle.

Transversale 2009 is a wide range of objects and installations by artists, designers, craftsmen, and students exploring the boundaries where art meets design and design meets art.

Companies would never send their ideas off to market without determining what materials they were to be made of or what color. It follows that Industry should commit this same attention to how their ideas move. The animation of products is at least as important an aesthetic factor as form, color, or material.

There's no reason why every finished design can't be built from a cornucopia of failures, so much so that perhaps the very nomenclature of failure needs to be reconsidered. Perhaps we designers have already subliminally assimilated this lesson. After all, most people I know don't call it failure, we call it process. For me, success and failure are the same things, just on a different timeline.

The annual New York Toy Fair, located at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, drew over 20,000 attendees this year. Visitors took the isles to check out over 100,000 products, and Core77 was there to bring the hottest ones right to your desktop.

Looking at the actual work contained within, I couldn't help but notice that stereotypes about the feminine aesthetic seemed to apply more broadly to the client than the designer, which strongly indicates that the capacity of a designer to produce good work for a client has little to do with gender.

More subdued than previous years in regard to presentation spectacle, the 2009 North American International Auto Show focused on product, especially high efficiency and electric vehicles.

"My goal is to get designers thinking more about writing the way writers do--as a tool, a craft, and yes, an art in its own right--rather than a necessary chore. Your training as a designer will influence your writing, and your work at turning ideas into narratives will influence your design, and who knows, that might not be a bad thing..."

The Cologne International Design Festival consists of two main (unfortunately competing rather than collaborating) events: The IMM Furniture Show and the Passagen - a show program with a great number of exhibitions in the main fair as well as galleries, show rooms, bars and shops across the city.

"You have these beautiful forms or really interesting functionality that are then stuck with an ugly UI or in a black plastic box. One of the amazing things about the launch of the iPhone was that the commercials focused almost entirely on the UI, which I'd never seen elsewhere..."

The response to this year's Greener Gadgets Design Competition was phenomenal. Check out the gallery of the Top 50 Semi-Finalists and vote for your favorite greener gadget!

George asks why such a fundamental aspect of our designed lives remains on the margins of polite conversation. After all, she points out, Le Corbusier called the toilet "one of the most beautiful objects industry has ever invented."

The results are in! The latest 1 Hour Design Challenge: Laser-cut Grip Tape Inlay for a Longboard brought the largest number of entries in the history of the 1HDC, with participants uploading an incredible array of grip tape graphic designs. Huge thanks to our sponsors on this challenge: Ponoko and Bustin Boards.

Amazon's publicity blurb for The L.A. Earthquake Sourcebook bills it as "the coolest earthquake preparedness-book ever published," which I imagine to be true, but I also can't think of much competition...

"Without a compelling, indeed, taxonomic, way of organizing design activity, we are selling ourselves short; we not only have difficulty understanding the profession ourselves, but also in communicating to the world our potency, range, and potential impact..."

"Buying behaviour and decision-making criteria imply that those in the lower income strata--particularly in the developing world--are not 'consumers' but in fact extremely careful 'money managers' for whom an expense is often an investment whose return must be maximized..."

Since May 2005, the Buchstabenmuseum (German: Museum of Letters) organization has been rescuing typographic icons of our time. Today, the Buchstabenmuseum preserves an immense collection of historical letters from all over Berlin and beyond.

"Clearly, there's something about using human detritus that's uniquely resistant to industrialization, and work like Splan's seems more suited to the Gugenhiem than to the Cooper-Hewitt, but it still provides a valuable commentary on human society (e.g. Why does a skin negligee seem utterly unmanufacturable, when we've already done such a marvelous job industrializing the skinning of cows, lizards and some small furry mammals?)..."

The Museum of Arts and Design inaugurated its new home at Columbus Circle with Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary, a special thematic exhibition featuring 51 contemporary artists from 17 countries who transform discarded, commonplace, or valueless objects into extraordinary works of art.

"The concept of 'needsfinding' seems unique to our consumer culture. True needs like air, sleep or hunger announce themselves with neurochemical fury, tearing animals away from what they think they should be doing and dragging them into the immediacy of their body. So when we industrial designers talk about the customer's undiscovered needs and how our products can address them, we should admit to ourselves that needsfinding, as we know it, is an oxymoron..."

2008 was an incredible year for us at Core77. Design event coverage, competitions, blog posts, articles, Drive-by Videos, interviews, galleries, 1 Hour Design Challenges, FlotSpottings, book reviews, discussion boards, portfolio highlights...there's just too much to take stock of. But in the spirit of somehow wrapping our heads around it all, we present a selection of some of our all-time favorite items from the world of Core77 2008. We hope you enjoy this look back, and we join you in looking forward to another great year ahead.