There were cries of protest from purists when the technology was developed to colorize old black-and-white movies; one of the companies doing it generated plenty of bad press for colorizing an old Sinatra flick--and rendering his eyes brown. (Does the nickname "Ol' Blue Eyes" mean anything?)
We wonder if there will be similar outcry now that technology has been developed that can colorize ancient Greek and Roman statues. The difference here is that the colors are not being arbitrarily added--a combination of ultraviolet, infrared and X-ray spectroscopy can apparently divine the approximate hues these statues were painted in. And folks, it ain't always pretty:
Good gosh, Caesar Augustus' breastplate looks like a freaking five-year-old's birthday cake! And who knew the guy was ginger. io9's got the full story here.
[I shot this with] an iPhone 4, and the scanning typically goes from top left to bottom right so moving objects lean to the left. Essentially any electronic shutter camera (i.e. not an SLR like mechanical shutter) will give these effects. Wikipedia has some good articles here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_shutter
For those who want to try this out, just point your simple electronic shutter camera at an object moving parallel to you, preferably fast, and take the photo. The faster the relative speed between you, the more the distortion. Rotating objects go really weird!
Hit the jump to see more examples, this time shot by Soren Ragsdale.
This year at the London Design Festival, the Korean Design Pavilion will continue to showcase a selection of Korea's top designers. They have selected designers based on the platform "Innovative Design through Advanced Technology," focusing on how new materials, new techniques and an experimental mindset can "introduce a whole new way of coexistence between the people and the environment."
Reading a business text explain that while the Indian economy is growing rapidly, the vast bulk of the populace still engages in subsistence work might dryly get the idea across. To really understand an economy, however, prospective students would be well served to look at both macro and microeconomic issues. That's why clicking the multimedia links in the first case of the Yale School of Management's Design and Social Enterprises Series provides a more modern approach to the case study method of learning. Hearing SELCO's Thomas Pullenkav explain that, "For about 90 percent of SELCO's individual clients, the solar system they purchase is the most expensive system in their household, and will probably be the most costly item they have ever owned in their entire lives," contextualizes household spending power in a way that a per capita income figure in Rupees never could.
Historically, the case method of studying business was pioneered at Harvard Business School. Early teachers found that there were no business textbooks, so they examined existing businesses and their problems by interviewing executives. Out of that primary research, they built case studies as historical narratives describing the business's past and then asking a series of questions about what it should do in its operations to better prepare for the future. Nowadays, Harvard's cases include exhibits and multimedia links, but remain focused on business and management issues. We at Core77 (perhaps because industrial design is a multidisciplinary craft) tend to see things more holistically. For a teacher or student in a design field then, Yale's Design and Social Enterprises Series will be a very welcome tool, and an intriguing step forward in how the intertwining strands of business and design can be articulated and shared. In partnership with Design Observer and with funding from Rockefeller Foundation, the first case, on Indian solar lighting company SELCO is now available under a Creative Commons license for free noncommercial use. (More backstory from Design Observer can be found here and here.)
Back in March, we wrote about Israeli designer Itay Laniado's wooden ladder, walking stick and wallet. Expanding on his explorations in wood and simple mechanisms, he recently completed an investigative study on the material, aesthetic and functional properties of what he calls garden tools (but which seem to us to be more historically-minded farm tools). The result is a group of six oak and stainless steel tools, all with the pop of red twine-wrapped handles.
For the six tools (machete, sickle, spade, shovel, scythe and bow saw), Laniado developed a technique of bending and stretching the oak into what he found to be the most appropriate functional and simple form for each object. He also experimented with methods for bending and shaping the steel blades, along with their forms. His aesthetic is serious but subtle, with a nice contrast between the get-down-to-business blades and the approachability of the wood handles and red twine. You've gotta have quite the garden (and maybe some pent-up aggression...or just a farm and some Amish pep) to warrant some of these.
The New York International Gift Fair happens twice a year at the Javits Center in New York City. It's a massive, 4-day long show with all the gifts you could ever think of. In our gallery, we pass up the snow-globes, decals, and candlesticks and focus on the special section Accent on Design, where companies like Areaware, DBA, Artecnica, and Joseph Joseph share the latest they have to offer.;
Voting closes at 12 midnight tonight, EST, so check out the entries below and vote for your favorites!
The Grocery'minder by Francene Pisano Dudziec. With a wet-erase front, this bag is perfect for making your grocery list, checking it twice, and heading off to the market. . Judges thought the concept solved a basic problem; sure, everyone tries to be a good person and bring their reusable bag to the grocery store. But it's hard to remember every time. With your grocery list stuck right on the front of your bag, the grocery'minder tote makes it hard to forget.
But the judges did have some questions.
1. Would you be more likely to use the grocery list if the bag were easily attachable to your refrigerator?
2. Are there enough blank spaces for you to fill in your personal shopping list?
Bicycles are some of the most treasured, crafted and functional objects in production, and yet most bicycle computers look like left over off-the-shelf displays from ten years ago with a pipe clamp hanging off the back, and those are the good ones. In response to this grave discrepancy, Estonia based Redfish Creative produced this concept bicycle speedometer. It is beautiful, functional, and aesthetically appropriate. Lets hope they find a manufacturing partner!
The Art Center Summer Show is typically a nice way to get the pulse on what upcoming, West Coast, American designers are doing. One project that struck me in particular, and prompted a healthy respose on the core77 discussion forums, is Daniel Yorba's Cycletron One electric moped. It immediately reminded me of the very different BEND concept by RISD graduates Erik Askin, Eric Peloquin, and Brian Mitchell. I love how the results of these two projects so perfectly reflect the different approaches of the East Coast RISD and West Coast Art Center. Both get to a relevant solution, and both also show the value of a high fidelity full scale model in the design process. Our digital tools are powerful, but there is still no substitute for seeing something in physical space to see if it is truly lust worthy.
Check out Daniel's and Erik's portfolio sites to see more on each project.
Currently, The Atlantic seeks a bright, motivated current college student or recent graduate to join our dynamic marketing and sales team as part of The Atlantic's fall design paid internship program.
Internship Summary:
The Design Intern will enjoy the opportunity to participate in the workings of the business side of an award-winning magazine: help to conceive of and design marketing materials, create in-book comps, participate in client proposal brainstorms and sales meetings, and assist the Associate Art Director and Marketing Director in day-to-day office duties.
We've fallen in love with this simple but ingenious project from Portuguese designer Gonçalo Campos: Dedo is a writeboard made from artificial fur, "a much more comfortable message board, with no need for erasers or pens." Leave a note by running your fingers over it, erase it by smoothing the faux fur all the same direction. So fun.
Available for purchase from Campos's own website, or from Arcademi.
No one cared about fuel economy in the '80s. I drove a used six-cylinder Datsun that got terrible mileage, especially as driven by a high-school boy, where you needed to see if you could hit 85 m.p.h. on the way to the grocery store. But I was easily able to fill the tank on busboy wages, as gas was 99 cents per gallon, cheaper than soda.
Nevertheless, in 1984 inventors Craig Henderson and Bill Green developed the Avion, a hand-built car that hit an astonishing high of 113 miles per gallon in test runs. It wasn't intended to be a "green" car; the duo set out to build a high-performance sports car, but by using manufacturing techniques "more closely related to small airplane construction than steel stamped automobiles"--composite materials are used widely throughout--the Avion achieved absurdly low mileage even though it used a standard Chrysler four-cylinder engine. Henderson drove it from Mexico to Canada while averaging 103 miles per gallon.
We just came across images of Leon Ransmeier's Bubble Bank, produced earlier this year with glassblower Andrew Hughes, and now on sale at Matter. The banks come in three sizes, are hand blown, and have to be broken to access the change.
Real designers wear blue! Whether you're carving foam, pulling splines, or molding the next big idea, show the world where you stand in our cool baby blue Core77 t-shirt. Printed on 100% cotton American Apparel t-shirts, get this instant classic now from our brand new Hand-Eye Supply store.
"Sorry but I won't be making these to sell," writes Celis, who makes a living as a stock photographer. "It's just a one-off for personal use." Celis my man, you are leaving money on the table! I hope I haven't inadvertently flooded your e-mail in-box by posting this.
Chicago weekly Newcityreports on an exciting proposal by Chicago to create a new district for the creative industries in what's called the Spice Barrel District on the Near South Side. Four buildings, old factories and warehouses, have been selected for conversion into not only studios and galleries, but especially office spaces, workshops, and a small-business incubator group to stir up and support creative entrepreneurship, from design houses to comedy troupes.
Last week I covetously posted on Bulthaup's "tool cabinet" for kitchens (above), which I'm in love with. Well, turns out the thoroughly modern piece of furniture has a rather antiquated antecedent: The Hoosier Cabinet (below), a kitchen workstation from the early 1900s.
In those early days of the last millenia, when more people starting moving into cities, apartments and especially tenements didn't come with built-in counters and cabinets. The Hoosier Cabinet--named for its original producer, the Hoosier Manufacturing Co. of Indiana--was the thing you needed. Cleverly thought out, Hoosiers were an impressive piece of industrial design from an era that arguably predated the term "industrial design."
I have to recaulk my bathroom sink, an infuriatingly small-bowled object that splashes water everywhere yet is astonishingly heavy. It's a solid chunk of porcelain that doesn't deliver good functionality for the amount of matter it consists of, and I dread having to pull it off the wall cleat so I can scrape off the bad original caulking job, which was apparently done while the contractor was having a seizure.
If you're one to fantasize about having control over large-scale robots in a public space (to do good, not evil, of course), Kram/Weisshaar has teamed up with Audi to make your dreams come true during the 2010 London Design Festival.
As this year's Trafalgar Square Installation, Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram designed Outrace, an interactive installation in which the public - both those in Trafalgar Square and a remote global web audience - send instructions to eight large-scale industrial robots, on loan from Audi's manufacturing line. Through the Outrace website during the Festival, participants can send text messages from phones and computers, which are then transcribed as 3D light messages by the installation.
Here's a rather strange, ill-conceived product design from Sony: Their SRS-V500IP is an iPod dock holding a cylindrical speaker equipped with a "diffuser panel" that spreads the sound in 360 degrees. So far so good. Here's the weird part: The detachable speaker is touted as being able to fit in your car's cup holder, so you can use it while driving.
Um...don't most cars these days already have stereos, often with iPod hookups? A detachable speaker would make sense if it had its own rechargeable power source, yet this one apparently needs to be plugged into either its home dock or a car's cigarette lighter to get juice. Doesn't make much sense to me, but perhaps the Japanese-market-only product loses something in translation.
