Graphic/Packaging Designer
Kikkerland Design
New York, New York

Kikkerland Design is growing, so is their need for a talented designer with 2+ yrs graphic design and packaging experience in their NoHo/NYC office (no freelance). The Graphic Designer will be responsible for a full range of design projects, including large-scale initiatives, multiple deadline-driven projects and production work. The designer executes all projects from concept to completion, taking concepts from initial exploration through development and refinement, and delivering final production files. This position requires in-depth understanding of the current competitive marketplace and the ability to integrate this knowledge into strong design solutions.

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For the fourth and final round of the Core77 and Braun Design in the Wild photo challenge, we saw a record number of entries, not least because we extended the entry period for an extra week. While some of our readers found unconventional ways to RELAX, many of you opted for quiet moments of solitude, both in the sublime glow of nature and in special spots in urban settings. Some of you took comfort in specific activities or objects, while others were a bit more abstract.

Our pick for the jury winner worked on many levels: besides the excellent composition and the metaphorical use of the locks, we also noticed that the bench is designed to bring people closer together.

JURY WINNER
Surrounded by Love
Kevin Smeeing, Netherlands

A Korean couple is enjoying their leisure time together, while being surrounded by thousands of padlocks at the N Seoul Tower, South Korea. The padlocks are not used for their original function, but symbolise the lovers’ promise that they will never separate. The 'Locks of Love' are a clear example of a products symbolic performance; they show the value of symbolism in the relation between product, owner and society.

POPULAR WINNER
I Put a Record On
Nick Hayes, New Zealand

We find ourselves busier than ever in the digital age, and although we may have the means to relax in our back pockets or our handbags, sometimes we find joy in the trails of the past. Playing a record on my old Sony player brings an inner calm - no longer a nomad, I sit back and relax to the sound and its purity.

Photo by Jan Chipchase

I enjoyed going to the recent Pop!Tech conference—the combination of bright minds, warm hearts and the Maine autumn is highly conducive to reflecting on what has been and imagining on what will be next.

During the event, I gave a talk to the audience about my research work. And in the panel session at the end of my talk I took two questions from a member of the audience, which both related to the personal motivations of doing this kind of research and whether anyone has the moral right to extract knowledge from a community for corporate gain.

Given the asker's frustrated politeness, I'll paraphrase what I (and a bunch of folks that came up to me after the talk) took as the intent of his questions:

• What is it like working for BigCorps pillaging the intellect of people around the world for commercial gain?
• How do you sleep at night as the corporations you work for pump their worthless products into the world?

The short answer is that I sleep just fine*.

Over the next month, in this space, I will confront and address arguments that tend to surface in deep discussions on the role of design research in the context of creating or improving products and services intended for use by resource-challenged communities.

I'll do so by starting with a backgrounder on the role of design research. Then, I will look at the often-overlooked "soft" benefits of design research. Finally, I'll conclude with defining, and examining, the true definition of design imperialism.

But let's start with the catalyst for this four-part essay: the Pop!Tech presentation I mentioned above. You can download it here [PDF, 12MB].

* Give or take permaphuck, the onset of altitude sickness, when there's midnight interviews to run or data to synthesize or it's Saturday night and we're holed up next to drunken, arguing lovers in a Seoul love hotel.

About Jan Chipchase
Jan Chipchase is Executive Creative Director of Global Insights at frog.
You can subscribe to his Facebook feed here or follow him on Twitter @janchip.

This article first appeared here.

While it's the Eastern and Western Conferences I'm preoccupied with right now, the IDSA has three up on the NBA with their upcoming Design Dialogue Conferences. Between March 30th and May 6th, no less than five U.S. cities are hosting two-day events all under the umbrella of this year's "Evolving Design Practices" theme.

Here's the short of it:

Mideast Design Conference
Detroit, March 30-31
"Rebuilding our Region with Design"

Midwest Design Conference
Chicago, April 13-14
"Exploring Creative Fusion"

Northeast Design Conference
Philadelphia, April 13-14
"Forward Thinking Through Vintage Perspectives"

Southern Design Conference
Atlanta, April 20-21
"Grow. Expand. Advance."

Western Design Conference
Seattle, May 4-5
"Breaking Boundaries"

Hit the jump for the full descriptions of each.

Scaffolding: Construction work at the Lehrter Hauptbahnhof, Berlin. By Tup Wanders, via Wikimedia

So. You have an idea. You're sold on crowdfunding. Now you're ready to jump in headfirst. Where do you start? In this part of the crowdfunding series, I will cover how to get ready to launch your project.

There are two sides of launching: Structural work (the boring stuff) and Storytelling work (the exciting stuff).

Structural work refers to the way you set up your project to operate. This includes figuring out how much money you should raise, how long your project should run, how to set up your Reward Tiers, looking into patent protection, etc. It's boring stuff, but extremely necessary to make sure things run smoothly.

Storytelling work is how you will describe your project to the world. This involves shooting a video, what types of images you should use, writing copy, etc.

There is a lot of ground to cover for both of these aspects, so we're going to split them into two parts. This part will focus on building your structure.

Note: From here on out, this series will focus mainly on running Kickstarter projects. They are the go to site for product designers, and it only makes sense to talk about how to work within Kickstarter's parameters. However, there is a lot of overlap in how Kickstarter works and how other crowdfunding sites work, so even if you launch your product on another site, you should still get something out of this.

But before you start...

Every product design Project Creator should first decide what phase they will launch their project from. Lets go back to that development timeline I talked about last time.

Click for larger image.

I launched my own project somewhere between the Proof of Concept and Refinement phases. At that point, I had a working proof of concept, quotes from vendors, and a pretty good sense of how my Stylus Caps were going to be made. The reason I turned to crowdfunding was that I had gone as far as I could go on my own money. I had a lot of work and several surprises still ahead of me, but looking into crowdfunding was the only way the project was going to continue.

A proof of concept is a prototype that mostly looks and works like the final product will. It exists to tell you that your idea works, that it's manufacturable, and to communicate to others what your intentions are. It should answer most, if not all, of your questions of how you will proceed with your development. You will also need it to help you demonstrate your idea in the video that will be on your main project page.

Production quotes are cost estimates that you receive from manufacturers that tell you how much it will cost to produce your idea and how long it will take to make it. Its good practice to get multiple quotes and make sure you have trust in the people you will eventually work with. Make sure you put all of those quotes plus any other anticipated costs, including shipping, into a Bill of Materials or BOM, that will give you a detailed look at how much money it will take to make your idea.

So what phase should you launch from? Manufacturing? Refinement? Proof of Concept? Obviously, the further along in development you are, the less chance for delays and surprises you will have.

My recommendation is to do as much as you can on your own dime, before you try to crowdfund your product. The further along in the process you launch, the more predictable the outcome and timing of delivering your project will be.

At minimum, you shouldn't even consider launching until you have a working proof-of-concept and production quotes. Launching with anything less is asking for a world of pain. You owe it to yourself, your manufacturing partners, and your future Backers, to know if your idea will work and how much it will cost to produce. Once those things are in place, you can think about how to set up your crowdfunding structure.

Coverage sponsored by the IHA

DomePress, a vacuum-sealed solution for leftovers

After enjoying a delicious home-cooked meal, there's always the question of what to do with leftovers. If you're like me, usually this means wrestling with a roll of saran wrap and a Jenga-level stacking job inside my fridge. At this year's International Home + Housewares Show, we saw a new category of food-saving solutions coming from two small entrepreneurs in the marketplace. Using a silicon sealing ring and a BPA-free plastic lid, these stacking food-savers both create a vacuum seal to help keep food safer, for longer.

Michael Tseng recently completed his studies to be a medical doctor after earning a degree in electrical engineering at Princeton, but even these impressive academic accolades didn't stop him from pursuing his entrepreneurial passions. It seems like the real problem he's been trying to solve in the world is what to do with leftovers. Launching his PlateTopper just two weeks ago, we were intoduced to his product in the Home + Housewares Going Green display. Microwave and dishwasher-safe, Plate Topper is a simple solution using an air-tight vacuum seal to get leftovers from table to fridge, fridge to the microwave without hassle or messy cleanup. Check out Michael's quick demo for us below.

You won't be using it to drive framing nails into dimensional lumber, but for hanging photos and tightening the occasional drawer pull, this Hammer Screwdriver Combination Tool provides a dainty kitchen-drawer-dwelling alternative.

Sold by Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co. (whose light fixtures we raved about here) and manufactured in Pennsylvania, the diminutive 8-inch hammer holds a Phillips-head and two flat-head screwdrivers in the handle. Just don't let your contractor buddy see you hanging this thing from your belt.

Anyone familiar with this site knows we have the deep love for our Cupertino Bros but the recent addition of camera accessibility to the lock screen of our iPhone has mixed us up a bit; sure, the utility is awesome but the execution doesn't have the ol' Apple Intuition. This was a purely internalized conflict till it was surfaced by Brye Kobayashi's proposal for a different implementation in our discussion boards—what do you think, better or worse?

See the full proposal in the thread here.

Is there anything better than falling asleep to the sound of waves lapping on a beach? Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen, a Helsinki-based creative duo with backgrounds in architecture and record producing, have developed an excellent substitute in the name of fine art.

Their "Wave of Matter" is something like a low coffee table surfaced with a large sheet of metal with a lip around the perimeter. Thousands of ball bearings sit atop the surface, and every few moments a motor tilts the surface to one side. The results have to be seen, and heard, to appreciate:

Over the past three years ArchDaily has established itself as one of the largest and most up-to-date resources for architects all around the world, serving as both a place for inspiration and a reliable site to learn about new projects from large firms and small studios alike. Every year they allow their readers to select the Building of the Year, an award that celebrates the best in new architecture. There are fourteen winners in the following categories: Interiors, Offices, Institutional Architecture, Religious Architecture, Cultural, Refurbishment, Houses, Housing, Hotels & Restaurants, Industrial Architecture, Museums & Libraries, Public Facilities, Educational and Sports Architecture.

As a reader myself it's rewarding a to see projects go from the proposal stage to the finished product. These awards are also a chance for my fellow architecture fans and me to geek out over those buildings near and dear to our hearts, the ones we've watched grow from the ground up. The winners were selected after a two-stage voting process with more than 65,000 votes, and while every winning firm is remarkable, here's a list of some of my favorites. As good as they look in pictures I've never visited a single one, so if you're lucky enough to have been up close and personal with any of these sites please let me know what it was like in the comments so I can live vicariously.

Educational: Milstein Hall at Cornell University by OMA
Religious Architecture: Chapel Tree of Life by Cerejeira Fontes Arquitectos
Public Facilities: Moses Bridge by RO&AD Architecten
Cultural: Tverrfjellhytta by Snohetta
Refurbishment: Town Hall Hotel by rare
Houses: MIMA House by MIMA Architects
Industrial Architecture: Fuleky Winery - TOKAJ by Ejtpitesz Studio

Senior Digital Concept Manager - Football
adidas
Herzogenaurach

adidas is seeking a Digital Concept Manager who will be responsible for the successful management and implementation of digital programs for our football category. The role is based in Herzogenaurach, Germany, but has worldwide responsibility for the successful creation and execution of digital strategy, tools and marketing activities. This position requires a talented ex-Creative or Digital Director who can define the why, what and how we would undertake any digital activities. The ideal candidate is an innovator, a planner, a strategist, a trend setter, a progressive thinker, a digital media expert... and, above all, someone who loves football.

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Is design criticism alive and kicking? Celebrating the inclusion of Design Writing & Commentary as a new category of entry for the 2012 Core77 Design Awards, Core77 Editor in Chief Allan Chochinov sat down with Jury Captain (and Chair of MFA in Design Criticism at School of Visual Arts) Alice Twemlow to talk about misconceptions of the field, her "deep bench" of co-jurors and demolition derbies! Core77 Design Award entrants can get a sneak peek at what this year's jurors will be looking for in the Design Writing & Commentary category in the first of our 2012 "Meet the Jury" posts.

Allan Chochinov: Let's start from the beginning Alice. For the upcoming 2012 Awards program, Core77 has added a new category called Design Writing and Commentary. As the jury captain for this category, can you first start by telling us a bit about the jury team you've selected?

Alice Twemlow: Well I think I've selected a magnificent jury team! We're asking for people to submit writing about objects, spaces and systems—designed things and all the ideas, infrastructures, social and economic forces, uses and resistances that connect and disconnect them. So it's clear we need a team of jurors who are both experts in their subject areas and sufficiently nimble to cross their boundaries. I also wanted to plant the seeds for a good debate when we meet to discuss our decisions on the entries so I made sure to assemble jurors who take different approaches to their own writing and who have strong views on what matters both in writing and in design.

Michael Sorkin, Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Design at the City College of New York, and founder of Michael Sorkin Studio represents academia and architectural practice but also the kind of fiery writing fuelled by political beliefs that I truly admire. With a long career in journalism, Michael is the most seasoned of the group and will help give us the long view, and help to counteract a tendency in much online writing to ignore the long and rich history of design writing.

Maria Popova is the editor of Brain Pickings, a selective online inventory of fascinating information about, and insights into, a vast array of topics. She has an excellent grasp of contemporary issues in design and the interconnected nature of design's significance. She also appreciates new and experimental approaches to, and venues for, writing which I feel will play an important part in this competition, influenced perhaps by Core77's own innovations with regard to format and approach.

In examining the political power structures that shape our designed environment and the systems through which designed entities move, Tom Vanderbilt's books Traffic and Survival City: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America, represent the direction that good writing about design is headed. Tom understands the difference between point of view and polemic and is a master of deep research.

Coverage sponsored by the IHA

Like Core faves Kikkerland, Fred & Friends and Suck UK, housewares purveyor DCI offers a whole range of clever products, from humorous housewares to stylish stationery and plenty of 'things-that-look-like-other-things.' Founder Roni Kabessa wasn't sure what to expect when he first relocated from New York City to Providence, Rhode Island, but he's been pleasantly surprised by the local talent pool (thanks largely to perennial top school RISD). In fact, DCI was pleased to partner with student-run conference A Better World By Design on a design challenge, and we were pleased to see the inaugural results of the collaboration at IHHS2012. (This year's challenge is currently open for submissions.)

The three items in the ABWBD designer collection included Ren&eacute Woo-Ram Lee's "Plug Out," a wall-mounted cord organizer intended to facilitate energy conservation; McKenzie Powers' "I Am a To Go Box," a microwave- and dishwasher-safe silicone container; and the "Eco Tray" by Queenie Fan & Angie Lee, a conscientious take on a picnic plate.

We hope that a couple of augmented scissors transcend their novelty appeal: the "Straight Edge" laser-guided scissors feature a built-in laser pointer to ensure straight cuts, while the "Scissortape," designed by Lou Henry (A2), is a combination of exactly what it sounds like.

A brand-new collapsible water bottle design (by Wei Young of Mydesign Group) fit both the trend of silicon kitchenwares and portable drinking vessels. The bottle comes apart in the center, such that each half can be extended, as in seen in the bottles in the foreground and center above.

These Peleg-designed magnetic vases appear to stand on their own: the magnetic plate (as seen in the bottom right) can be concealed beneath the tablecloth for the gravity-defying effect. They come in a set of five.

Last time we looked at how to set up the structure of your project. In this section of the crowdfunding series, we're going to look at how to tell your story.

If you want to you know why Kickstarter has been so successful, look no further than how they help people tell their stories. Kickstarter has created a step-by-step guide that helps organize story elements that is so easy to use, that it takes most of the guesswork out of how to talk about your project. You make a video, upload some images and text, and boom: instant crowdfunding project.

Understanding the purpose and placement of the individual elements of their format will help you fine tune your story and stand out from the crowd.

I like to think that Kickstarter's storytelling format shares a lot in common with the way you would layout a book. You have a cover, content, and footnotes. For crowdfunding, that book format translates to this:

Cover = Project image, Title, and Short Blurb
(The 0:05 second pitch)

Content = Video
(The 5:00 minute pitch)

Footnotes = Copy and Images
(The 10:00 minute question and answer session)

The Cover: Project Image, Title and Short Blurb

Everyone likes to say they don't judge a book by its cover, but as designers, we know better. First impressions are critical. A lot of snap judgements will be made about your project by its Project Image, Title and Short Blurb, but the goal should be the same no matter what your project is: Get people to click.

Your Project Image is the first thing your potential backers will see when finding your project. Like a good app icon, it has to visually summarize the point of your project and get people excited to learn more.

Click for larger image.

Your Project Image is seen in two modes: Project mode and Search mode. The goal in both modes is to make people interested enough that they want to click your Project Image to get more information about your project. In Project Mode, your Project Image will be seen as the image that covers up your video, waiting for someone to push play. In Search mode it will be a much smaller image amongst a sea of other projects. Your Project Image has to work in both modes, but focus on getting the Search mode right. If your Project Image reads well in the smaller format, it will work even better in a larger format.

Like naming anything, giving your project a title is a totally subjective act. What works for one person, will not work for another. That being said, the more successful projects tend to have titles that are short and memorable.

Your Short Blurb is the elevator pitch for your project. They're only viewable in Search mode and are limited to small amounts of text. This is a good constraint to have because the best blurbs (and best elevator pitches for that matter) explain why someone would want to back your project in just one sentence.

Lets use an example from an actual Kickstarter project: Frank Chimero's The Shape of Design.

Click for larger image.

Cats like moving objects, but only for a while. I once bought a radio-controlled mouse that zipped around the living room, and my cat couldn't help but follow it around and try pouncing on it. And then, eventually, she got tired, and she took a nap right next to it.

All images via Burrard-Lucas

Brothers Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas certainly learned their lesson from much bigger cats—lions—which destroyed a remote control camera they dubbed the BeetleCam. And so they created the lion-proof BeetleCam, armed and prepared for the legendary king of beasts. Here's thetir recen report from Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve:

The pride had four cubs and it wasn't long before they were all circling BeetleCam suspiciously. They grew bolder and more inquisitive by the second and soon they were approaching to within inches of buggy as they probed for weaknesses.

They intuitively recognised the front of BeetleCam and would try to circle around to attack it from behind. They also grew bolder whenever BeetleCam retreated, swiping at it with their oversized paws. We were just getting the hang of this new game when disaster struck; BeetleCam's front left wheel hadn't been tightened properly and it worked its way off! The cubs instantly seemed to recognise that the buggy was in distress and they closed in.

A male lion graciously helps test out the new BeetleCam...

...which fared better than this wildebeest

Amazing footage after the jump

Last week James Corner of Field Operations and and Ric Scofidio of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, two of the leads from the High Line Design Team, unveiled never-before-seen images of their initial concepts for the High Line at the rail yards, a section located between West 30th and West 34th Street to the south and north and 10th and 12th Avenues from the east and west. This last section extends the Meatpacking District and West Chelsea segments of the High Line into Hudson Yards, which—by the time construction is complete—will become New York's newest neighborhood, "a new kind of urban experience...with more than 12 million square feet of new office, residential, retail and cultural uses."

Final construction of the High Line is being carefully coordinated with the development of Hudson Yards. The MTA, who owns the West Side Rail Yards, an active train yard for the LIRR, has leased the property so that the platform can be developed. It's hard to believe that abandoned train tracks can be turned into 12 million square feet of space, but if the first two phases are any indication, the High Line Design Team delivers. Take a look at some of the different concepts the High Line Design Team is tossing around, like dense plantings of wildflowers, 'play beams' for the kids and ampitheatre-style seating for outdoor performances.

It's been an exciting two months of head-to-head competition but our Braun & Core77 Design in the Wild photo challenge is drawing to a close. VOTE TODAY for your favorite example of beauty in every day design from our four categories: EAT, PLAY, WORK and RELAX. The photograph with the most votes will receive an industry leading tablet! Our distinguished jury team of Core77 partner Stuart Constantine and Braun section head/manager for Product Design Duy Phong Vu will also select a Grand Prize Winner that will receive an industry leading notebook computer and tablet.

With a global representation of every day design from Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United States, we've been delighted by the incredible breadth of entries we received and learned a lot about designed objects from around the world.

And here are our eight finalists in alphabetical order. Vote for your favorite photograph today!

Design in the Wild is presented with the support of BraunPrize 2012. Established in 1968, the international BraunPrize competition is a triennial design competition aimed at promoting the work of young designers, highlighting the importance of industrial design and increasing the profile of innovative product ideas globally. This year's theme, "Genius design for a better everyday," emphasizes the importance of well-designed products that enhance the everyday lives of consumers around the world.
Visit the BraunPrize 2012.

The letters "AMG V12" probably make you think of a Mercedes supercar, but in this case the AMG stands for Analog Manufaktur Germany, and the V12 has nothing to do with cylinders, but a platter instead.

The Viella 12 is a gorgeous, largely CNC'd turntable produced by Werner Roeschlau, whose Bavarian machining operation has been producing precision turntable parts for other manufacturers for years. AMG is Roeschlau's newly-launched independent line, with the V12 being their first product.

It's a bit perverse that there are parallels between camping—a recreational activity for folk from wealthy nations—and the daily life of those living in developing nations. The upshot is that designers of camping gear have the potential to enrich the lives of millions of people living without first-world infrastructure. The Jompy portable water heater is a good example of this.

Developed by Scottish inventor David Osborne, the Jompy consists of lightweight metal tubing that has been bent into a flat coil, with the ends joined together side-by-side, resembling a frying pan shape. The user attaches a water source to one end of the tubing—in a camping situation, this could even be a water bladder--and the water then flows through the coil before exiting from the remaining end of the tubing. This allows the user to maximize the value of heat: If they light a fire or burn any type of fuel, the Jompy can be placed over it. Water flowing through it begins to rapidly boil, heating the coil up, which allows it to be used like a stovetop burner for cooking. And most importantly, that water is purified in the process. The hot water exiting the Jompy can be used for bathing, food washing, additional cooking tasks or laundry, or simply allowed to cool and used for drinking water.

The Jompy will come in three different sizes, and Osborne is hip to the fact that it can help more people than campers—in fact, the developing-nation use was the prime motivator, with the camping market intended to prop them up. That's why whenever you buy one, the manufacturer sends a second unit for free to a family in Kenya.

We applaud Osborne's type of thinking, though there is one area in which the company could use a little more foresight: Correctly anticipating demand. Overwhelmed by demand, their website has exceeded their bandwidth limitations and was down at press time. With any luck they'll have it rectified soon.

via gizmag

Creative Director, Advertising
Hulu
Los Angeles, California

Hulu is looking for a talented Creative Director to lead our creative services team. The creative services department is made up of passionate and hardworking creatives who take initiative to execute beautiful client work. The ideal candidate will fit in with Hulu's culture and core values and will be a driven, transparent and passionate thought leader.

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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.