Today Making mischief-
There are a few clever pranks here. I particularly like the Mentos stealth geyser. From the Mischief Makers' Manual.
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- Today Apply for an Awesome Grant!
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That's not an adjective in the title, "Awesome Grant" is the actual name of the grant, from the Awesome Foundation, of Cambridge, MA. Each month, they give away $1,000 to someone who wants to do something... well awesome. Here's how they define what they're looking for:
Awesomeness is often overlooked by mainstream culture, which tends to rehash the same broadly appealing but mediocre creations. Thankfully, there is the web.
Awesomeness is more the product of a creator's passion than the pr... (more)
- Today Japanese POW camp radio
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On today's HacDC Blabber list, Trammell Hudson posted a link to this awesome account of British soldiers building a radio in a Japanese POW camp. Trammel writes:
Since they didn't have a local Digikey or Radioshack, everything had to be sourced from what was available. The caps were made from aluminum foil lining of tea-chests, the resistors were rusty barbed wire with burned tree bark, the rectifiers out of oxidised foil and salt water, they smuggled a tube ("valve") in the camps and bribe... (more)
- Today Contests on Let's Make Robots
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Let's Make Robots is a popular site for robot hobbyists. They've been running two build contests on the site which are now in their finals. Rik, a community member writes:
The LMR Dagu Mr. Basic Challenge invited makers to create any robot from a basic four wheel platform (provided by community sponsor Dagu Electronics). Entries vary from spectacular light shows (using Nixie tubes) to fire fighter to mouse droid (as seen on Star Wars). Three money prizes are at stake. All community memb... (more)
- Today Hardware chess sets
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The tradition of improvising a chess set from whatever's on hand is probably as venerable as chess itself. Chess culture is chock-full of sets put together from odds and ends of every description, but here I'm only focusing on sets built from mechanical and electrical bits--mostly nuts, bolts, and washers of various flavors. If you've got a good one I missed, please do link it in the comments.
If you're interested in making your own and want some guidance, Mother Earth News has a nice tu... (more)
- Today Make: Projects - Outlet-mount device charging pocket
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Most cell phones are provided with a very basic wall-wart charger, and you usually have to pay extra for a proper charging dock. The bundled charger is often unsightly in use, being just a transformer with a cord strung out to an end table or something where the cell phone rests. If you have a cat who likes to chew through cords, as I do, this can be more than just inelegant--it can be totally impractical. It's also a good project if you just hate, for aesthetic reasons, loose power cords s... (more)
- Today 4th of July guide on Instructables
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Instructables has a roundup of 4th projects for a happy weekend. BBQs, recipes, summer clothes, and water abound.
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- Today Thermographic camera on the cheap
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Jörn Loviscach shares strategies for thermographic imaging using an infrared thermometer and custom software. Impressive results considering IR thermometers can be had for less than a hundred bucks while the cameras cost several thousand. [via Hack a Day]
Update: There's also a related discussion in our forums, where Bill Beatty points out an interesting strategy.
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- Today Compressed air rocket goes up, must come down … somewhere?
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From the MAKE Flickr pool
J Miller shares video of the maiden voyage of his rocket built from the plans in MAKE Volume 15. The reaction to the lack-of-rocket-return here is genuinely priceless! And in case you're curious, yes, it was sucessfully recovered. Definitely a good idea to use a very wide open space for testing :)
Compressed Air Rocket Volume 15, Page 102
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- Today Bottle rocket mayhem
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Ever wondered what it'd be like to set off 204 bottle rocks at the same time? I know I have. Turns out, it's a good time (so long as you're not in the line of fire).
I Love Bottle Rockets
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- Today Interview with Mikael Lugnegard, ID'er gone rogue
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Product Design Hub's got an interview up with concept artist Mikael Lugnegard, who has washed his hands of our profession (see quote below) but still designs his Swedish butt off.
Mikael Lugnegard is a Swedish industrial designer [who] graduated from the Umea Institute of Design, and worked as a lead designer for Duke Dynamics (BMW styling), as a concept designer for von Braun Sports Cars and as a sketch teacher at a number of Swedish design schools. He has also produced his own edu... (more)
- Today Military folding bikes: The 181st Airborne Division can now pop wheelies
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The terrorists "hate our freedom." If that's true, they're probably going to hate our folding bikes.
Montague's bad-ass Paratrooper Tactical Folding Mountain Bike is jump-ready and can be dropped on a static line or attached to a paratrooper. Accessories seem to include a camo wrap for jump time and a handlebar attachment that stores an assault rifle in a "travel" position.
Some deets on the bike's purpose:
Air Drop Ground Mobility
The Paratrooper Tactical Mountain Bike was designed as grou... (more)
- Today Daily Design Snacks
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A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:
ag ip news
World Intellectual Property Organization examines areas of possible convergence in industrial design law and practice
gizmodo
Cheap, Thin Laptops Suffering From Cheapness, Thinness
fast company
"Starting a Design Studio In a Downturn" four-part article
forbes
Why Dell Can't Do Gadgets
autospies
Volkswagen receives the 2009 red dot Design Award
gizmodo
Steve Wozniak's Most Memorable Gadgets
(more...)... (more)
- Today Shane Crozier's vehicles, furniture, appliances and more
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Sydney-based Shane Crozier's been getting some blog love with his Cycle Wip, as seen above on designcrave.
Be sure to check out Crozier's sketching skills and a host of his other projects (like his Nissan Mori scooter, "Flux" e-desk and White Noise Lamp, below) on Coroflot.
(more...)... (more)
- Today Marc Newson's fractal necklace
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Even using "rapid" prototyping, it took French jewelry house Boucheron's craftspeople 1,500 hours to produce Marc Newson's fiendishly complicated Julia necklace. The fractals-based diamond and sapphire piece will debut tonight in Paris, and unsurprisingly, it will likely be "one of the most expensive necklaces Boucheron's ever made."
Says Newson of his design inspiration, "Fractals are fascinating, complex and rich, and gemstones really lend themselves to exploiting their beauty."
For more o... (more)
- Today Bread & Butter 2009 - Back Home at the Berlin Tempelhof Airport
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"Thousands of fashion minded people at an airport and no one is flying off?" Exactly, after few years of Spanish sun, this year's BREAD & BUTTER trade show takes place from 1-3 July at the historical Tempelhof Airport in Berlin.
Last Tuesday, the Swedish rockers Mando Diao kicked off the event with some great songs. The rock concert is followed up by an even bigger trade show where hundreds of brands such as Adidas, Marc O'Polo, Dickies, Lee, Nike, G-Star, Wrangler, ... (see brand bible), are... (more)
- Today Can Onart's seating surfaces
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University of the Arts ID student Can Onart's Felt Stool (above), produced with classmates Elissa Myres and Bethany Casperite, is eight layers of industrial felt over just two layers of veneer. Onart's Gehry-inspired Basket Bench (below) puts steel ribbons to innovative use, with three tiers of arches providing plenty of structure.
Check out a couple of Onart's other pieces on Coroflot.
(more...)... (more)
- Today This Just Inbox: Materia by Nicolas Le Moigne
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NextLevel Galerie presents Materia, French designer's Nicolas Le Moigne's first solo show.
Materia gives Nicolas Le Moigne a golden opportunity to ennoble four raw materials.
Wood, glass, clay and steel disguise themselves and become the centrepiece of an exhibition
devoted to the duality between art and handcraft, between highly refined objects and the
commonplace.
Matera by Nicolas Le Moigne
NextLevel Galerie, Paris
through July 25th
More pics after the jump. (more...)... (more)
- Today Paul Hawken's Commencement Address: Required reading
- Valerie Casey reminded me to reread Paul Hawken's commencement address given at the University of Portland on May 3rd. It is impossible to pick the best sections here; the speech builds upon itself in the most beautiful way, and seems blasphemous to pick out any one or two paragraphs to paste right here.
Get inspired. Read the speech now.(more...)... (more)
- Today Coroflot Design Job of the Day: Senior Design Manager - Proctor and Gamble, Singapore
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Senior Design Manager-Visual MerchandisingProctor & Gamble
Singapore
The Senior Design Manager's responsibilities include: supporting, protecting and growing the Olay brand, managing the development of design across various consumer touch points with primary focus on packaging and below the line communication, developing, briefing documents that include a creative vision and direction, inspire, lead, innovate and create a premium beauty experience in-store for Olay.
» view
The be... (more)
- News: Publikumswahl gestartet: James Dyson Award 2009
- Bis zum 20. Juli ist die Webseite des James Dyson Award 2009 in den 21 Teilnahmeländern für die Publikumswahl frei geschaltet. Der Teilnehmer... (more)
- News: If you ask me: Der King of Pop
- Vor einer Woche starb Michael Jackson. Stilikone, Popidol, Inspirationsquelle oder Skandalkünstler - wir fragten Designer nach ihrer Beziehung zum King of Pop.... (more)
- News: Neue Führungsstruktur für Design Center Langenthal
- Michèle Thüring wird Geschäftsleiterin des Design Centers Langenthal. Zum 1. November 2009 tritt sie die Nachfolge der Kuratorin Heidi Wegener an.... (more)
- News: Jahresausstellungen und Diplompräsentationen
- Es ist wieder soweit: Jedes Jahr Ende Juni, Anfang Juni finden an vielen Hochschulen die Diplompräsentationen und Jahresausstellungen statt. Termine im Überblick.... (more)
- News: Gewinner des 5 Gum Vision Lab
- Das Ocean_Cookbook von Nadine Freischlad
und Nina Eggemann hat den Nachwuchsförderpreis des 5 GUM Vision Lab gewonnen... (more)
- Neue Bücher: Aus britischer Sicht
- Aus britischer SichtJeremy Aynsley, Professor für Designgeschichte am Royal College of Art in London, legt das erste profunde englischsprachige Buch über die Geschichte des deutschen Design vor. Sein designhistorischer Abriss reicht von 1870 bis 2005 und umfasst von Handwerk und Mode über Produkt- und Grafikdesign bis zu Architektur alle Bereiche der Gestaltung. Dabei betont er wiederholt, wie sehr sich die [...]... (more)
- Neue Bücher: Die neuen Naiven
- Die neuen NaivenDas zeitgenössische Grafikdesign feiert eine Renaissance der Klassischen Moderne: Junge Designer entdecken etwa Siebdruck und Holzschnitt wieder, aber auch viele stilistische Elemente. Das Buch versammelt Arbeiten dieser größtenteils aus dem angloamerikanischen Raum stammenden Szene und zeigt, inwiefern sie sich von Grafiklegenden des 20. Jahrhunderts wie Charley Harper oder Alexander Girard [...]... (more)
- Neue Bücher: Design-Kanon
- Design-KanonVon Buckminster Fuller über Theodor Adorno und John Walker bis hin zu Pierre Bourdieu: Der Reader versammelt 70 Schlüsseltexte (auf Englisch), die jeder Designstudent gelesen haben sollte. Hazel Clark und David Brody haben den Kanon zusammengestellt. Die Texte sind nach übergreifenden Themen wie Geschichte, Theorie, Nachhaltigkeit, Neue Technologien, Globalisierung etc. gegliedert. Jedem [...]... (more)
- Neue Bücher: Frauen im Bauhaus
- Frauen im BauhausRechtzeitig zum 90. Jubiläum des Bauhauses widmet sich Ulrike Müller dem Leben und Werk der jahrzehntelang in Vergessenheit geratenen Bauhaus-Frauen. „Das Bauhaus hat einen bedeutenden Teil seines innovatorischen Potenzials Frauen zu verdanken", sagt sie. Lilly Reich, Gunta Stölzl oder Marianne Brandt: In 20 Porträts würdigt die Autorin jene Studentinnen, Lehrerinnen und Meisterinnen, [...]... (more)
- Neue Bücher: Von Eames lernen
- Von Eames lernen„Dieses Buch wird den emotionalen Umgang mit dem Thema Universal Design für immer verändern", sagt Bill Moggridge, Mitgründer von IDEO, über Graham Pullins Buch. „Design meets disability" zeigt, wie Designer sich vom Thema Behinderung heute inspirieren lassen können -- denn Pullin ist der Meinung, dass die Ansprüche behinderter Menschen das Mainstream Design im positiven [...]... (more)
- Book a spot in the Sahara to plant your tree: Tree-Nation
- If you hang out a lot of the web, you probably have heard about the $1 million page. Its principle is dead simple: the page features 1 million pixels and allows you to book your tiny pixel-size ad for $1. Tree-Nation technique is comparable yet with a more citizen spirit. Instead of pixels, you support trees; instead of investing into an individual future fortune, you contribute to re-green desert areas in the Sahara.
“Our objective is two-fold: Primarily environmental, but also closely... (more)
- No walls, reused materials, but a real fitness club
- Green warriors have their green fitness club. Where? In Spain, in Valdespino de Somoza, in the countryside of Leon. It’s there where some Spanish villagers have built a low-tech green gym area called Lumen. Don’t expect to meet steamy trainers, listen to trendy music, or carry heart beat tracker. There, you get in shape by playing with exercise machines made from a worn car battery, tree branches, boots, rocks or concrete.
There, you essentially learn everything by yourself, by re... (more)
- French mailmen to ride electric vehicle
- French mailmen have a new vehicle. La Poste, the French postal service, has ordered 500 electric delivery microcars for this year and 10,000 within the next five years. Great move that we applaud, although the new squad will be a tiny portion of the gigantic fleet of fossil-fuel vehicle. By far to private sector companies, La Poste has around 60.000 vehicles, 25 airplanes and 3 high-speed trains.
Nevertheless, the electric vehicle will bring substantial energy saving. According to La Poste CE... (more)
- Bicodi, a simple and aesthetic stool for your bar
- We could be filed this under “camper knowledge for the living room.” After all, campers sit on any tree branch and when they could find one, they consider a tree trunk as a temporary stool. We were quite like this when we first way the Bicodi stool from the Italian design agency 2CWorkshop. Their bar stool has something from the rather simple camper trick but with a more aesthetic approach.
The Bicodi concept consists of linking a base and a seating with a bar. Many variations can... (more)
- En-Fer: Solid furnitures made from solid gears
- For an explicit name, En-Fer is a good one. The atelier, founded by Swiss designer Stefan Lehner and Christina Lanzos, is only interested in thrown-away steel products like old supermarket carts, worn industrial chains, springs, rings or used tin cans. What for, will you ask. To make new furniture, to make new things from materials that have an history.
Take this spring chair for example. The frame is a classic industrial chair with membrane springs. “Membrane springs are used in conden... (more)
- Once worn, cardboard boxes turn blankets
- This may not the most colorful blanket, but the material used to manufacture it is abundant: worn cardboards. While they are rigid and uncomfortable, those Cardboard Coverings blankets are soft and supple. Plus they’re light enough to be folded and carried easily in a bag.
While the still visible graphics of the original box remind us that they were once disposable containers of consumables, we wish they could be customizable or come with different patterns. This way, they would provide... (more)
- Your carpet, this wool balls piece of art
- Tennis balls aren’t only for tennis games. They can be make a seat. Wool balls aren’t only for knitting purposes. Consider them as ready-made pieces of carpet.
That’s right, Belgium designer Diane Steverlynck brought this nice idea up. Her Modul_le is a flexible carpet made of felted wool balls. Each round unit is independent from the others. To stick them together, just pin them on the velcro layer. What is great in this big puzzle is that everyone could change the pattern ... (more)
- Pump bike tires up with the seatpost
- How to get a bike pump always at hand without attaching it to the bike? Dumb question, isn’t it? Just put one in your bag, will you answer. Okay, but how do you do if you want to carry a bag, if your bag is too small or that your pump is just too big? Ah.
British designer Philip Robinson proposes another way to solve the case: Hide it in the bike itself.
Its BioLogic ZorinPump is a combination of a seat-post and a floor-pump, hiding the pump mechanism inside the seat-post without addin... (more)
- BottleCycler crushes bottles to save space
- Ask Germans what they think of beer in can, they’ll answer you it’s lame. Glass bottles are much better for the aroma, plus they could be recycled easier than white tin and paper brick. Remains this problem: glass bottles are harder to store.
Hopefully, the problem has its solution. Bottle Cycler issued a bottle crusher machine which, according to the Australian company, reduces the disposable volume of your empty bottles by 80% (enough to store some 200 wine bottles). The machine... (more)
- Road ramp generator better than windmill turbines
- “More than 200 local authorities had expressed an interest in ordering the 36,000 euros-ramps to power their traffic lights and road signs,” Peter Hughes said. His order book is full. 2,000 units should be sold next year. He should create 300 jobs in Somerset this year.
But who is Mr. Peter Hughes?
Creator. Mr Hughes is 70-years-old mechanical engineer. He lives in Dorset, UK and has spent ten years of his life as a United Nations adviser on renewable energy. And above all, he in... (more)
- Today How-To: Make Independence Day Paper Swag Banners
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Crafty Chica Kathy Cano-Murillo shows how to do this super fast 4th of July paper swag banners using patriotic scrapbook papers.
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- Today Visit Iceland
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In 2007 my husband and I traveled to Iceland. It's a country that he has always wanted to visit, but I was less than convinced. I was thinking Fiji, or Hawaii, right? I couldn't have been more wrong. It was the best time of my life, and I did not want to leave. Our trip included hot springs, sheep, music, graffiti, wool, fashion, art galleries, and night clubs.
Craft and art are massive parts of the culture in Iceland, and so is wool. Downtown Reykjavik's tourist shops are packed with hand... (more)
- Today 4th of July Snack Cups
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Cindy of Skip to My Lou has a downloadable template to make these 4th of July snack cups. Check out her other 4th of July projects too!
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- Yesterday Twitter Giveaway: Follow Us and Win a CRAFT T-Shirt!
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Just a reminder about our Twitter Giveaway that's going on this week. Three lucky CRAFT Twitter followers will win a CRAFT T-Shirt. Start following us here @craft.
We'll announce the winner next Monday, July 6th. Good luck!
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- Yesterday Circuit Board Candy
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Here's some circuit board candy Collin @ MAKE found in the MAKE Flickr pool. It's based off of the iPhone circuit board and has some innovations I haven't seen before including a sour straw ribbon cable. Nice!
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- Yesterday Spaghetti and Meatballs Cake
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For me, this almost falls into the kitty litter and/or thorax cake category; it's amazing to look at, but could I actually eat it?
But then, discovering that the meatballs are some sort of chocolate truffle goodness, and seeing a piece of the cake sliced to expose a moist, banana cake center, and my inhibitions melt away! Read all about it and lots of other yummy dishes on the tasty Ciao Chow Linda blog. (Thanks, Diane!)
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- Yesterday How-To: Make 4th of July Ric Rac Flowers
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Vickie Howell shows how to bring a little crafty nostalgia to your 4th of July table with these dandy little ric rac flowers.
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- Yesterday Wind-Powered Knitting Machine
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This rad wind-powered knitting machine knits a long tube while the wind blows. It uses a vintage sock knitting machine. I love it as a visualization of how windy it's been in the last few hours/days. Via knitgrrl.
More:
CRAFT Video: Antique Sock Knitting Machines at Maker Faire Austin
CRAFT Video: Machine-Knitted QR Code Scarf
Knitting your voice
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- Yesterday Finger Knittin' Good
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Finger Knittin' Good
By Vickie Howell
In the past, I've had little luck getting my sons interested in learning to knit. Even when presented with jazz hands, in their eyes, my needles make much better swords than crafty tools. Alas. When summer vacation hits, however, a mom has to get creative in order to keep the kids busy. It's time to approach the situation from a different angle: keep the knitting, but ditch the needles!
Finger knitting is a great way to keep little hands busy, while cre... (more)
- Yesterday Wishing Well Redux
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We've always got plenty of things to do around our house, from scrubbing the fireplace stones that have been gathering soot since 1949 or thereabouts, to pulling weeds in various flower beds around our yard plus a quarter acre or more of hillside that the thistle and blackberries are fond of. The mudroom walls really need repainting, it's been 10 years since we said we were going to grout an exposed tile edge in the living room, and it's high time for a purging session in both the boys' rooms.... (more)
- Zon Hearing Aid
- SKD designs a better hearing aid for Starkey Laboratories... (more)
- The Nylon Backpack, the Nylon Slim, and the Canvas Vertical Sling
- Review of three laptop bags from InCase designs, followed by an interview with designer Tim Wall.... (more)
- KEER chair
- Dutch designer's three-way chair... (more)
- ShakerScope
- Patient inventors bring a self-powered flashlight--no batteries, no power, no problem--to market, with a little design muscle from PDR.... (more)
- Motorola/Clearwire Signal Booster Accessory Antenna
- Elemental8's wi-fi signal booster: simple solution to a complicated design brief... (more)
- Y Water bottle
- Yves Behar and fuseproject's revolutionary water bottle for kids.... (more)
- Enertia Motorcycle
- Oregon-based Brammo Motorsports introduces Enertia, an eco-vehicle that delivers a sleeker option for guilt free transportation. Enertia is a 100% electric motorcycle that is efficient and lightweight. This zero emission bike will appeal to true motor enthusiasts and novices since it is designed from the ground up with the rider in mind... (more)
- BACTRACK Breathalyzer
- David Shaw, Industrial Designer and founder of San Francisco-based Metaform Product Development, has created a unique alcohol breath analyzer called BACTRACK.... (more)
- Flaik
- CMD Product Design and Innovation, a Brisbane-based design and development firm, has a new way for snow sports enthusiast to stay in touch with friends and family while tracking their own performance. Their newest design, Snow Sports Flaik, will change the winter sports experience for all.... (more)
- Preserve Kitchen
- Just as Organic food production is gentler on the environment, making products that reuse and recycle materials leaves a smaller environmental footprint. Two leading proponents of green design team up to create a line of kitchen products that will make a big impact in preserving the planet.... (more)
- Yesterday Issue 074 out now
-
SUBSCRIBERS' COVER
CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE NOW
Young Londoner Peter Marigold graces the cover of the August issue. The designer, whose ingenuity and sculptural dexterity are clearly taking him places, leads us through the woods - where he nicks all his materials. Further afield, the long-awaited High Line has finally opened in New York. Ambling along this hyper-narrow park on an elevated railway, we soak up the joy of looking down on the streets.We also take a prolonged look at Berlin this mon... (more)
- Yesterday Sou Fujimoto interview
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Icon's editor Justin McGuirk recently interviewed Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto for Detnk TV. Fujimoto-san discusses his bench project for Lexus and how Japanese architecture should embrace the primitive.
... (more)
- 3 days RCA student radically improves the UK plug
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words Anna Bates
The Royal College of Art's graduate show has opened, and this year, the show-stopper was a plug. Min-Kyu Choi impressed every passer by with his neat, apparently market-ready plug that folds down to the width of an Apple MacBook Air. "The MacBook Air is the world's thinnest laptop ever. However, here in the UK, we still use the world's biggest three-pin plug," says Choi.Choi's plug is just 10mm wide when it is folded. To unfold it, the two live pins swivel 90 degrees, and t... (more)
- Overloaded, Under-informed
- In 1893 the Newark Ohio Daily Advocate ran a series of articles predicting what the world would look like in a hundred years.
"Every person" they said, "of fairly good education and of restless mind writes a book. As a rule, it is a superficial book, but it swells the bulk and it indicated the cerebral unrest that is trying to express itself. We have arrived at a condition in which more books are printed than the world can read. This is true not only of books that are not wort... (more)
- Get Social Now!
- Several blog posts this week, combined, pinpoint what are arguably the two most influential trajectories for the impact of communication technologies on business these days: from real-time web to real-time business, and from social media to social business design.
Let’s start with the former. Referring to Salesforce.com founder and CEO Marc Benioff and his presentation at the Structure 09 conference in San Francisco last week, DigitalBeat claims that the real-time web is not only shaping ... (more)
- The Garden of Cosmic Speculation
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Nice, attention-grabbing title for a blog post, isn't it? Hat tip to my friend Stephan Trueby, an architectural and design critic, who pointed me to The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, a thirty acre private garden in the Borders area of Scotland created by architect and architectural critic Charles Jencks. It is a joining of terrestrial nature with fundamental concepts of modern physics (quantum mechanics, super-string theory, complexity theory, etc.), and the literal and physical manifestation... (more)
- The 'Ethnography Defense'
- As I continue to explore the issues around behavior and influence I find myself caught up in a debate between the proponents and critics of 'Persuasive Design'. This is not a trivial debate, though it can come down to some very fuzzy semantics, such as the difference between intent, influence, persuasion and coercion. Try to imagine Fred Thompson's booming voice here:
"Mr. Fabricant, did you Design with the express purpose of persuading end users?"
"No, your honor. I swear, I w... (more)
- Breeze Openness in the Summer
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I know, I know. The word of openness has been blended with too much flavor from the fast-changing mobile and software times to be self-explanatory any more. As we all attempt to solve the puzzle of openness, we unintentionally add more complexity and mystery to the word. Today's post could be read as a necklace of pearls by which I want to share a few random thoughts around openness to record my recent footprints, and hopefully, invoke more conversations on the buzzword.
Openness as Heart Op... (more)
- Future Possible
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Illustration by Syd Mead.
Imagining possible futures is a large part of a designer's job, and it's no surprise that so many people in this field are also sci-fi fans. Sci-fi is the designer's role on steroids. The genre's ability to take liberties, to imagine a world that mirrors our own, and explore pathways that we'd never convince a client to follow make it attractive to those in the business of shorter-term future-casting.
Unfortunately, we don't often get to imagine as far out as the ar... (more)
- Father's Day Special: Baby Care and Meaningful Marketing
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The $10 billion market for baby and young children’s furnishings (cribs, other case goods, layette, nursery decor, and the like) and accessories (car seats, strollers, baby monitors, diaper bags, etc.) is a lucrative market, and the baby stroller is one of its most competitive sectors. Hundreds of models vie for the attention of parents-to-be, and the level of detailed research, due diligence, and individual preferences may come close to the decision making process by an airline for the ... (more)
- Mobile Impact
- I recently participated in a Design Roundtable at Fast Company on the incredible impact of cellphones as well as some thoughts on how they might evolve in the future. Happy to be in such great company with the other design experts: Ravi Sawhney, Mark Dziersk and Ken Carbone. Thought it would be nice to throw out the full text of my response to the questions:
How have cellphones changed our behavior -- and were they designed with that in mind?
The Apple app store marks a profound change in our ... (more)
- Post: 21st Century Micro Agriculture
- Here's an interesting remix of what Matt Jones has recently called the Gershenfeld-Negroponte switch (intangible services who think they are tangible products, and tangible products who think they are intangible services).
Check out Le Verdure del Mio Orto (via Gianluca Brugnoli).
The website is in Italian, but worth a visit even if you don't speak the language.
Basically this is a very intangible online service that lets you sign-up for a very tangible vegetable plot.
You get to choose th... (more)
- Hartmut Esslinger's "A Fine Line" Debuts at frog's DMI Reception
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If you’re not invited yet, invite yourself.
... (more)
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Product design