New Shoes?!

On route to Milan last month, Core77 caught up with the Campana Brothers to get the lowdown on their latest project, the Corallo flat for Brazilian jelly shoe giant Melissa. These look completely impractical, but then again what beautiful shoes are??

ReVase

New way to hold those Mother's Day Gifts from core77: article here. I'm not sure I would personally put this in my home; I am more one for the pretty with the pretty, organic with orgranic, abstract with abstract, etc. But I understnad the juxtaposition. And I totally respect the innovation...I mean how many times can you design a vase??

Recyyycle Everything

More recycleables! Tel Aviv designers DEMO / design clinic have designed a series of lamps using plumbing parts. And the lamps are made of galvanised iron; the bulbs are turned on and off using a tap-like switch. Here's a couple of the collection!

Here I come Real World

***This survey was left open from November 5 to December 16 of 2008. Respondents comprised a broad sampling of the global creative community, representing over 60 countries, and ranging from recent graduates to seasoned senior managers. They were asked to identify themselves as one of 18 different Positions (see the second graph, below) and one of the eight Specialties used by Coroflot to tag portfolios: Design Management, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Interaction Design, Interior Design, Architecture, Fashion, and new this year, Web Design.

Read analysis here.

Perspective much?

Lisa Rienermann won eighth place in a student design competition with Type the Sky, an alphabet formed of shapes buildings make against the sky. I think its fantastic!!

Rub a Dub

Welcome to the Tender Tub....the most wonderful looking tub I have ever seen. I'm not sure if ergonomic is the right word, but this looks like it is perfectly made to be the most comfortable thing for the human body. Although thinking in terms as a college student and an RA who monitors drunk college students, I feel as if one too many classes of wine and a hot bath equals one step away from impaling yourself on those corners.

Vacuum creeper

Introduced by Panasonic and called the Fukitorimushi, or "wipe-up bug," the device provides feedback by activating a Cylon-like red light when it detects dirt, so you know when it's working. Because otherwise, as you can see in this video, it's not very clear it's doing anything at all. Its supposed to be an improvement on the Rumba, but if I saw these crawling around at night, I'd be freaked.

Call Me

So granted these telephones are pretty cute, but don't you think the land line is becoming obsolete. I mean, I can;t necessarily predict the loss of the inherent need for them, so maybe they're trying ot pick it back up?: London-based ChauhanStudio will launch four new telephones for SunCorp Communications in Milan during the furniture fair next month.

For my apartment? Yes?

Screw IKEA, I want these for my apartment! These are from Italian lighting brand Foscarini launched Le Soleil by Spanish designer Vicente García Jiménez at Euroluce in Milan last week. In this showcase, the designers’ aim was to create “a kind of urban metaphor of a possible Foscarini city, where the central square, an open space of dialogue on the quality of light, is the fulcrum of a dynamic vision that opens onto free roads of discovery of the new products and collections.” Too bad they probably sell for an arm and a leg.

Paper

Almost the end!
Paper NM4.doc

Mac Lovin

Still one of my most favorite blogs:
30 years of apple in 3 minutes

Thats Interesting

Your everyday....made not so everyday. A core77 article that was definitely an eye catcher image wise:

Heavy Stuff

So new Core77 article on Concrete Tableware. Although it doesn;t have a ton to do with web design, or even the design I'm necessarily looking not, it was definitely something that caught my eye. It shows how innovative design are, and need to be, in order to come up with new idea that will be original, effective and make use of an resource not tapped into yet.

Are you kidding me???

"An aluminum Lockheed Lounge chair by designer Marc Newson sold today at Phillips de Pury in London for 1.1 million pounds ($1.6 million), an auction record for a piece of contemporary design art"

Obviously I need to get into the chair business.

When In a Recession....

So my new favorite my new favorite thing to blog about is an kind of recycled item. I.e. anything that saves the environment, is reused from something old, etc etc. Soooo since obviously core77 knew this, here's an entire article on re-manufactured art pieces.
One example below:

Too Much?

"The internet isn't full, but we are"
In this post by Seth Godin, he discusses how we've just about had enough with every kind of thing that was possible to put on the internet....ergo, in a sense the internet is full. He clarifies that everything only has a certain amount of space and the internet's space has run up. Or, even more clearly, we have decided the internet space is run up. People can keep creating more and more and more place to put stuff, but how much until we just stop looking because there is just oo much to go through?

Take some Time

core77 article here

Sander Mulder Studio's awesome "About Time" clock doesn't have moving hands; instead the whole thing moves.

Poetry in motion; this innovative clock reveals the passing of time by rolling around your desk. The hours are spelled out in one long continuous sentence and the part that touches the surface marks the time.

Designed in reaction to our stressed lives, where we tend to plan our daily life to the minute, this clock only tells you 'it's about six o'clock' or 'it's almost seven now'.

While rolling around your desk, the slow but constant, almost meditative motion allows you to relax and maybe even forget about time for a few minutes.

Is it hot in here???

Read the dezeen article here

Architects RMJM have launched a concept for apartment blocks that do not require heating

By using innovative ‘Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery’ (MVHR) technology designed by award-winning Max Fordham Consulting Engineers, combined with an exceptionally high level of air tightness, heat generated within the home – such as body heat and heat from household appliances - is reused to maintain indoor air temperature at a constant level. MVHR negates the need for a traditional heating system.
In the summer, the dual aspect, double height loft-style and open plan living space will provide natural ventilation in high temperatures, reducing the requirement for air conditioning for hot climates. Rain water is collected from the roof and redistributed for toilet flushing.

Potato/Potatoe

"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."

So if it only matters to the design community, who cares? They're all a bunch of hippies anyway...

Career Change

If I could do this for a living maybe I would? Whose to say building materials are only relegated to steel brick or wood. Whats next? Peanut butter?? Architects are invited to submit designs that will be made into jellies that will be exhibited (and eaten) at a special Architectural Jelly Banquet during the London Festival of Architecture 2008.

Slide Show Pres

Abbie Menard Shopspot

View more presentations from amenard.

Solution = Design

"One definition of industrial design is: a methodical way of solving problems with well-conceived products. Sometimes this process happens outside of the design world limelight, by people who have never taken a single Production Methods class or set foot in an ID studio," states the opening paragraph of this core77 article.  Although it is nothing I could ever relate to I always think its so interesting to see how people find creative solutions to their problems. I think it is essentially the beginning of all designs. In this article, Mary Haugh, a Canadian pig farmer, came up with a new way to heard her pigs using just a roll of red fabric. Here's the video of he invention in action:

JetSetting

So I'm about to go Spring Break to Puerto Rico with my best friends. Since we booked so early, its was only $300 ROUND TRIP, fees included. I'm sorry, but you can't been a spring break thats going to cost around $450 TOTAL.
So what does this have to do with design? Well in this post by Nussbaum, he discuss how JetBlue has taken advantage of the outsourcing and put it to "consumer advantageous" use. By aquiring a new jet designed to make short trips with 100 passengers they could offer fares for only $25 from New York to Boston. Delta and American Airline were forced to follow suit soon after ad who does that equal.....lower prices for all of us and cheap spring breaks.

Oooooo A Fancy Wallet

So this is definitely a benchmark of the future.....a laptop, that is literally no bigger than your wallet:

Don't get too excited, there's no guarantee it'll be available anytime soon. Core77 article here.

Drink Up

This sort of reminds me of the airplane trick you use to get children to eat their vegetables.....
London is trying to get their inhabitants to drink more tap water, so they decided to have the Thames Design Competition to see who could design the most appealing cups and bottles from which to serve it from. Somehow I don't think people will be necessarily be fooled by this "crafty" trick, but hey why not?

Map

Here's my shoppers map of midtown Manhattan:

Blue Baby Blue

So have you ever thought what that beautiful blue ink you just used to scrawl 

all your history notes would look like on your walls? What about your furniture? We designer Tomas Gabzdil Libertiny of Studio Libertiny didn't just wonder, he did. He made The Bic Blue Cabinet:

The cabinet is completely coated in the same exact ink used in Bic Crystal Ball Point pens.

 

Bic actually provided the blue ink, but Carmen and I decided it would be much more interesting if he had actually extracted the ink himself, pen by pen.
Read the full article here.

Sustainable Light

African based Cape Town creative consultancy Animal Farm are launching their new Lite at Design Indaba Expo. Designed so that it can only fit an energy save bulb, Lite is light on electricity and spun from plantation wood so it’s sustainable and light on the environment. Although this is a very interesting and eye catching design solution, I think the most important thing to note is that it ONLY holds energy saver light bulbs. This seems to be the trend...forcing (in a sense) people to use energy saving devices.

My shell!

So I forgot to post the most important part of my device, the shell itself! So here is how I converted a palm treo (scroll down to earlier post to see original image) into my own device shell. Here it is!:

Practical Solutions

So this may not be the most amazing or exciting piece of new technology but its something almost every person would find useful. Here is a new tube dispensing technology from UK company Butterfly Technology to solve those toothpaste woes. I mean who hasn't gotten frustrated with trying to squeeze out the last drops of toothpaste? this is also a really good example of how design and technology is not just for electronics or high functioning products or new technologies, etc. It is also a great asset for solving everyday practical problems. Read the core77 article here and take a look at the cool video below.

2 Touches

In this article core77 posts a clip of Sharp's new dual-touch screen phone. It's a video from a snotty French man who apparently doesn't like the phone, but it's main significance is that it's a first look at this new phone. See the video below!

Logo

Here's the logo I came up with for my device, it's pretty self explanatory:

Phone for Internet Junkies

Ok so we all new phones were getting more and more high tech; but what about more specialized? Sure we have phone that can do everything under the sun, but there's something to be said for editing. In reality most people use their phone for a repetition of the same handful of functions, like email/text or email/phone/navigation or text/internet/phone, etc. Personally, I use my phone for text, phone, and the alarm clock; yes there are some other useful functions, but overall there alot of other stuff that I'm never even going to touch. What about a phone that is specifically geared to what you use it for the most. Mozilla may be onto something with the creation of the their Open Web Phone. Obviously its a phone for those who love to surf the net wherever they are, and as one prototype shows it would be even more customizable than the browser on your computer. Check out the core77 article and give your input on how you think the device can be approved.

Shell base

Here's the photo of my shell I grabbed from the internet:

And here's how I changed to make it my own device!:

IDEO Recognition

Core77 just posted on IDEO's founder, David Kelly, receiving the Edison Achievement Award. In light of this event, Fast Company decided to do a series of articles highlighting Kelly's achievement. So I decided to take a look into some of his best work and see what is deserving of this award. The article on 17 Career Lessons caught my attention the most because of my current close-to-graduation state, but check out the others too.

Description & Scenario

Thats Not Supposed to Bend

"A Restless Chairacter" has won for best design in the [d3] international design contest for young artists. Pepe Keyhoop is the winning designer and his chair has some uniquely flexible qualities. This chair is made with an aluminum frame and is then coated with a polyurethane rubber that allows it to look like a traditional wooden chair, yet it bends with the sitter's weights and movements. Read the full article here.

Shell designs

Here's a few designs I'm choosing from for my device shell:

DD-ing Gets an Advance

Wearable media can be considered relatively new to the average person; we're typically more comfortable with thinking of our cellphones/smartphones/etc as being our main bridge between human and technology. However wearable media, like a gps able watch for example, is looking to become more popular, and one sure fire way to do it is to make them more useful. 

Here is one take from a collaboration between the The Province of Brescia and MIT Mobile Experience Laboratory featured on Core77's design blog, read the article here. Their invention is called Ride.link and it connects a social network of people through cellphones and media bracelets in order to facilitate safe drinking situations. With the unfortunate amount of drunk driving that occurs every year this looks to be a comprehensive, technologically forward solution option. Watch the video below to see this wearable media in action.

Ride.Link - Scenario from MIT Mobile Experience Lab on Vimeo.

Treatment

-Pick a "shell" - the device you're going to change/work on

-Pick a group - target user audience

-Set up narrative/ scenario of how the user will be interacting and using your device. Write one page draft for Tuesday. Like a sales pitch. Clarify intent.