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Core77 Design Awards 2013 Honorees: Furniture & Lighting, Part One

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Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year's Core77 Design Awards 2013. We will be featuring these projects by category, so stay tuned for your favorite categories of design! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com.


Student Runner-Up

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  • Project Name: Rocking Lump
  • Designers: Michael Neville
  • Cranbrook Academy of Art

The Rocking Lump is no ordinary cardboard chair. This project is my largest experiment with cardboard pulp to date. My goal was to create a chair that had a small ecological footprint and could double as both a rocking chair and an adult-sized rocking horse. This object is designed for enjoyment and play. Rocking Lump is designed for two primary sitting positions. In one, the user can lounge on the form, using the "handle" as a backrest. In the other position, the user rides the form as a rocking horse. Most importantly, this object showcases handmade construction.


- How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?

Honestly, I was alerted when my phone started vibrating. It woke me up! A few close friends were congratulating me about the award via text and Facebook. I really didn't believe it until I logged into my email to find the official announcement. It was a huge surprise! It was even more pleasant to learn that Ryan Pieper, a classmate of mine, had also been awarded in the same category!

- What's the latest news or development with your project?

I am continuing to work with paper pulp as a construction material for furniture making. However, the Rocking Lump is still the only adult-sized project with this material to date. I have been primarily producing child-sized rockers with the paper pulp. Conceptually, the link between the recyclable/biodegradable nature of the material and the short life span of a child's toy is much stronger to me. I am essentially producing toys that can be conscientiously disposed of. I am continuing to experiment with the qualities of the paper pulp itself. I am currently researching and producing natural dyes to color and pattern the surface of the pieces. I am also researching paper "recipes" to realize greater tensile strength and aesthetic variation. Concerns over the paper pulp's durability have led me to investigate natural finishes as well.

- What is one quick anecdote about your project?

The debut of the Rocking Lump was for my first-year review in February. This involves the Artists-In-Residence (AIRs) at Cranbrook visiting a curated space of yours to review and critique your work. It is a tense day, concluding weeks and weeks of work and anticipation. One of the AIRs silently walked about the room before sitting down in the Rocking Lump and commenced her critique of my work, all the while gently rocking back and forth and caressing its sides. At one point, the Academic Dean strolled though my review space and asked if he could ride it... times when you wish you had a camera!

- What was an "a-ha" moment from this project?

My "aha" moment came shortly after I saw the paper pulp crumble apart during construction. I begrudgingly began to rebuild the form, questioning my motives and worrying over the value of my time here in graduate school. Was the time this piece demanded worth it? What was this piece even intended to do? As I said in my original Q & A, the Rocking Lump was essentially a scaled up version of a smaller rocker I had previously produced. Beyond stretching the material limits of the paper pulp to achieve an adult-sized form, I was pretty clueless as to what my other goals for making it were. The "aha" came at this moment, when I fully realized the absurdity of what I was making and decided to embrace it. I remember it distinctly. I was making another batch of pulp (super labor-intensive) when it dawned on me that this project was about play to its core. The making was free play, formless and with little direction or aims. The outcome had little importance to me, its function various and loose. I went to sleep that night with a big smile on my face.

View the full project here.

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Unintended Consequences: Solar Panels are Good for the Environment--and Bad for Firefighters

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In "How Furniture Design Affects Firefighting, we looked at how the spec'ing out of particular materials can cause headaches for firefighters. Now comes news of another unforeseen troublemaker in the battle to extinguish blazes: Solar panels.

Solar panels of course generate electricity, and are located on roofs. The problem is that roofs are where firefighters will typically "vent" a burning building, to release some air pressure on the fire. But smashing or cutting the holes required for venting presents an issue as firefighters can suddenly be exposed to live electricity, even at nighttime or in the absence of sunlight, from a cut solar panel. If the roof in question is metal, you've now got a live roof covered in human beings now exposed to double jeopardy.

Last week, firefighters in New Jersey arrived at the scene of a burning warehouse. Stymied by the solar panels on the roof, the building continued to burn for 29 hours while firefighters were forced to improvise. According to an article on that blaze in Reuters,

Even when systems are equipped with shutoffs, any light can keep panels and their wires energized, [Consumer Safety Director for Underwriters Laboratories, John] Drengenberg said.
...Experiments, funded by the Department of Homeland Security, have shown that the light emitted by fire equipment can generate enough electricity in the panels that a firefighter who inadvertently touches an energized wire might not be able to let go, a phenomenon known as "lock on."

What is the solution? Solar panels are only increasing in popularity and are arguably a very important key to sustainable living. And if we could figure out how to universally prevent fires, it would already be on the table. In the meantime, designers and engineers are going to have to work out some safety factors, and more importantly, begin a comprehensive education program with emergency personnel for how to safely destroy their product.

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An Introduction To Wood Species, Part 9: Ebony

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This Wood Species series of entries comes to us from guest writer Rob Wilkey, an Atlanta-based woodworker and industrial designer whose expertise is in small home goods, furniture, and large installations.


Over the next few articles, we'll be analyzing a number of common imported wood species. This week's featured species:

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The name "ebony" is given to a number of species in the Diospyros genus that exhibit an extremely high density and distinct black coloration within the wood. The trees in this category, which grow mainly in the tropical regions of West Africa and Southeast Asia, grow very slowly and don't reach a very large size at maturity. These factors, combined with a high global demand for the lumber, have resulted in many species being overharvested. A number of ebonies are under CITES restrictions, and even those that aren't demand a high price.

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Ebony is extremely dense and ranges from 2400lbf to 3200lbf on the Janka scale, making it some of the hardest wood in the world. Grain properties vary slightly from species to species, but the wood generally has small, diffuse pores and occasionally interlocked grain. Every species in the ebony family is highly durable and rot resistant, but most suffer from significant shrinkage and seasonal movement. These factors make ebony very difficult to work, and the wood is known to quickly dull tools. Thus, ebony is usually reserved for small and intricate projects such as carvings, musical instruments, and lathe-turned items. A high natural oil content makes the wood difficult to glue, but it responds beautifully to finishes and can be sanded to a very high natural shine.

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The New iPhone Design Elements That Catch Our Eye

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While the tech geeks endlessly dissect the new technological advances in the just-announced iPhone 5C and 5S, it is the new design elements—some subtle, some not—that have our attention. There are a few we think are telling of Apple's philosophy and direction (and just one design holdover that leaves us cause to gripe).

First off, what we like:

Embracing the Material

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In the video (embedded at bottom) for the iPhone 5C, Apple's lower-cost model, Jonathan Ive describes it as being "beautifully, unapologetically plastic." And the end result reveals Apple's laser focus on manufacturing techniques and on what a material is capable of being. Plastic products can often look like crap because of how manufacturers view plastic's utility: You set up a mold, maybe you cam some parts that interfere with the draft angle, then they start flying off of the production line. Most manufacturers are willing to live with sprue marks, nit lines and mold seams; and the generation of consumers raised on those "manufacturing tells" have come to associate plastic with them.

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In contrast, Apple cuts no such corners. The ports are CNC-machined into the case, for chrissakes, rather than being molded in. The interior undercut appears to be machined out, though I can't say for certain. What is certain is that there are no seams, no manufacturing tells. If we didn't see the production method shots in the video it would not be immediately obvious to us how it was made.

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Redneck Engineering, British-Style: Hands-Free Lawnmower Hack

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Until iRobot invents a grass-cutting drone, there's this guy. An anonymous Brit has hacked up, using nothing more than a rope, a pole and of course his lawnmower, a semi-autonomous way to cut his lawn (at least, a large circular portion of it):

The genius of it is that the rope of course shortens slightly with each circumnavigation of the pole, bringing the lawnmower slightly closer to the center with each pass. "The perimeter of the pole is 8 inches or roughly 1/3rd the mower blade width," writes the mystery inventor. "It does three passes per patch of grass."

By "perimeter," do you reckon he means circumference? In any case, commenter response has been mostly positive, and some have pointed out that a pole with a larger diameter would cause the mower to spiral in quicker, reducing the overall time; another pointing out that using two poles could also be used to reduce the mowing overlap, though I think that would present its own set of challenges; at least one reader dubbed the inventor a "genius," but our favorite comment has got to be: "Nice to know England has redneck engineers too."

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Bring Your Ninja Senior UX Skills to Moz and Help Them Make the Web a Better Place

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Work for Moz!


wants a Senior UX Designer
in Seattle, Washington

Moz is looking for a crazy talented senior UX designer to join their family and help build their design culture. More specifically, they are looking for a super collaborative, easygoing self-starter who shall be anointed ROCK STAR if they walk in the door with experience in SEO, inbound marketing and CSS3/HTML 5.

Working at Moz isn't just about ping pong games and company parties (though they have those too!) Apply Now to show off your skills and learn what the TAGFEE tenants are.

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Design Gatekeepers: Derek Chen

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This is the fourth post in our interview series with ten influential I.D. curators, retailers and creative directors. Yesterday, we talked to MoMA's merchandising director, Emmanuel Plat.

Derek Chen credits his Midwestern upbringing with instilling a grounded design perspective. Favoring practicality over flash, Chen cares deeply about the heritage of American design. He founded Council in 2006, both as a creative outlet and a space to explore what defines modern American design. Growing from a loose cadre of designers into a respected manufacturer of contemporary furniture, Council's collections continue to evolve under Chen's careful direction. The San Francisco-based company boasts a strong roster of designers, including Arik Levy, Monica Förster, Nendo, Karim Rashid, Mike and Maaike, and One & Co.

How do you find out about new designers?

I do what everybody does: I read the blogs, I walk shows and I talk to people. It's a pretty small industry. I think that everybody knows somebody who knows everybody, and there really aren't that many degrees of separation.

To be honest, I don't read that many blogs. I do read Core77, Dezeen. I also like to look outside of furniture. I think architecture is interesting. The more you look exactly at your target, which in my case would be furniture design, the narrower your view gets. So I've trained myself to look outside. I can't say I've found a fashion designer who's designing furniture for us, but I'm always interested to see what's happening elsewhere. There's a certain cultural space that design, music, cars, furniture and all these things inhabit that crosses over.

The people aspect of it is pretty important to me. It's one of those industries where the nice people generally float to the top. I don't know if people realize it, but they're building their resume by interacting with other people in the industry. Word gets around, in a good way. Just being friendly and nice is pretty productive. So the people I meet are generally people who know somebody; there always has to be some sort of a personal connection. I find design that I like and I want to see somebody is committed to design, but I also just want to know that they'll be good to work with. Generally speaking, it's not a matter of us getting a design and then making it. There's quite a lot of back-and-forth. And some people are fun to work with and some people aren't.

What kinds of design are you looking for at the moment?

I think that as a collection, Council is evolving. It started out pretty tightly curated. A lot of the things we ended up producing were things I feel like I might have designed at some point. What I'm looking for now is stuff that would open my eyes a bit more—specifically, that I wouldn't do. At the very beginning we had what I've called a "new American" curatorial look, and I think that's still important. It's important for us as Americans to feel some sort of design identity. We're still in the stage of development where introducing this country to good design serves all of us. That doesn't necessarily mean we work with only American designers. It's time to cast the net a little wider.

There are a lot of designers who design things that I would never design myself. I would put Jamie Hayon in that category. I don't know quite how to describe it. He uses form and color in a way that I don't. I tend to be very reductive; I try to design everything down as close as possible to a very simple cube. He doesn't fear a little ornament; he doesn't fear form. He's got a completely different look, and I love that work. We don't work with him, I don't know him, I've never met him. But I've admired him from afar and his work is very different than stuff we've done. So I'm looking for the next different thing. I look for design that stretches me a little bit.

Design-Gatekeepers-DerekChen-2.jpgLast spring, Council introduced Pila, a line of storage by the Salvadoran designers Claudia & Harry Washington

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Core77 Design Awards 2013 Honorees: Furniture & Lighting, Part Two

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Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year's Core77 Design Awards 2013. We will be featuring these projects by category, so stay tuned for your favorite categories of design! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com.


Professional Winner

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  • Project Name: M Lamp
  • Designers: David Irwin

The M lamp is a wireless task light that can be transported anywhere within the home, office and in between.

It stands at 9", projects up to 3,000 lux of warm light from its movable head. This is approximately equivalent to a 40W incandescent bulb. In its standard mode the Lamp's dimmable LED will emit 1,000 lux of light for more than 18 hours on a single charge. And in the case of a power outage, the M Lamp will automatically illuminate with enough power to light up a small room, making it a useful companion in times of need.


- How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?

It was a Friday afternoon in the studio with the announcement streaming live in the background. Needless to say not much work was done after hearing the verdict...

- What's the latest news or development with your project?

The lamp is currently in the final stages of production and will be available from Juniper in October.

- What is one quick anecdote about your project?

Nothing really of note, apart from blowing a few fuses and taking a few electric shocks when I was making the first prototype.

- What was an "a-ha" moment from this project?

There hasn't really been one defining moment, more a series of small ones. Discovering a new material or component that has solved a problem during the development process. It's been a hard slog in terms of development but we know the hard work and patience will be worth it come October and receiving this award has really helped to keep the momentum going.

View the full project here.

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Tonight in LA: de LaB and Hand-Eye Supply present Designer Open Mic

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Come out and join Core77 and Hand-Eye Supply tonight in Los Angeles!
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Thursday, September 12, 2013
7:00pm - 9:00pm
DE LAB AND HAND-EYE SUPPLY PRESENT DESIGNER OPEN MIC

Joinde LaB and Hand-Eye Supply for an evening of open-mic style creative proliferation. Sign up on arrival for 3 minutes of designer fame and your opportunity to share what you're working on with your design community.

Have some new material you'd like to test out? Perhaps you've hit the wall on the latest project in the studio or workshop and need some feedback. Maybe you've just made a groundbreaking new discovery, or unearthed new technology you'd like to share? Or, maybe you're just damn proud of the quality and commitment you put into your latest round of work. Whatever lights your fire, we wanna hear about it! Pitch us your ideas then sit back and soak in your peers' sweet creativity.

Hardcopy sketches, prototypes and thoughtful feedback are encouraged. This is Show and Tell with a critical eye!

Refreshments provided.

Designer Open Mic is hosted by design east of La Brea, and Hand-Eye Supply's Pop-Up Institute for Craft and Ingenuity at Space 15 Twenty. Please RSVP here.

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The Hand-Eye Supply Pop-Up at Space 15 Twenty
1520 N. Cahuenga Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028

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Top Ten Greatest Hits of Material Science, Part 1

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Innovation often means greatly improving on something that already exists. This is best described by the famous quote (often) attributed to Newton, "If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of giants."

So who and what are the giants in materials science?

Well, for your learning pleasure we've dug up the top ten greatest moments in material science's history, according to the voting members of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. We'll count down backwards, Letterman-style, starting with numbers 10 through six.

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10) The Bessemer process. A process for melting iron marks the beginning of that thing called industrialization. In 1856 inventor Henry Bessemer patented what he referred to as, "The Manufacture of Iron Without Fuel." The process essentially involves oxygen blown through pig iron to get rid of impurities, and in the end you wind up with steel. At the time bridges and rail tracks relied on iron, and were at high risk of collapsing. Steel was much stronger and far more reliable.

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9) X-ray crystallography. A fundamental technique that allowed us to see what stuff was made of. Discovered in 1912, it determined the size of atoms and their chemical bonds. As one example, it allowed us to understand the function and structure of DNA. And on a lighter, but no less amazing, note: x-ray crystallography allows us to see the hexagonal symmetry of a snowflake. Today it is still the number one way we study the atomic structure of new materials.

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New Technology from Disney Research: Touch the Ear, Then They Can Hear

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Here's a bizarre technological development just waiting for the right application to come along: The Disney Research outpost in Pittsburgh, co-located at Carnegie Mellon, has developed a way to transmit sound from one human body to another. The kicker is that no one else can hear it, and the two bodies must be physically touching. More specifically, the "speaker" person must use their finger to touch the "listener" person's earlobe. It's like a more communicative version of the Wet Willy.

They're calling the technology Ishin-Denshin, named for the Japanese concept of tacit, unspoken understanding between two people. The way it works is that the speaker records something into a special microphone. The microphone itself then transmits that recording directly into the body of the speaker, through the very hand they're using to hold the microphone. When they then touch their other hand to the listener's earlobe, the sound travels into the listener's ear. And you can even daisy-chain the sound through multiple bodies, as you'll see here:

Any ideas for apps? Perhaps this will take its place, alongside "trust falls," at those corporate icebreaker or team-building events? Will press conferences be interrupted by a harried aide rushing in and pressing their finger against the speaker's ear with an urgent message? Or will Ishin-Denshin eat into those cool hand signals that soldiers use when they're sneaking up on people?

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SIMPLE Mobile Wants to Know How You're Changing Your Game

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Advertorial content sponsored by SIMPLE Mobile.
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Travel to most countries around the world, and when you arrive at the airport and step into a convenience store, it's pretty safe to assume that you'll be able to pick up a SIM card and data plan for a reasonable price. By contrast, the most common business model in the United States is to offer a phone at low or no cost but lock customers into a contract for two years. Customers are often left paying a bill of over 50 dollars a month for the most straightforward data plan. If they're lucky, they won't get any surprise charges on their credit card bill. For those who travel internationally, it's often necessary to purchase a new phone or a pricey world band phone, because the more common wireless technology network in North America, CDMA, is rarely recognized abroad.

SIMPLE Mobile is trying to shake things up. Offering a SIM card and easy-to-understand talk, text and data plans, the company aims to make the process of owning a phone and mobile plan a little more straightforward. A 40 dollar per month prepaid plan gets you 1GB of data at 4G speeds, with unlimited talk, text and even international text. Unless you're watching a lot of YouTube videos and plan to upload large documents with your phone, that's probably more than enough for basic use. Expecting a heavier month for calls? Just shift the plan for the next month. It's easy and flexible, as it should be.

Although SIMPLE Mobile isn't offered everywhere in the US, it runs on the TracFone Wireless network and is available in most of the country, especially in urban areas. If you have an unlocked phone with a SIM card slot, it will probably work. Even a tablet like a 3G iPad should work on the network, though you might need to purchase a micro SIM instead of a regular SIM. This means you can browse the web on a much larger screen and not have to worry about hunting for wifi all the time. And since phones that support SIMPLE Mobile run on the world-friendly GSM band, you won't need a new phone abroad; you could even just turn on their international plan for the month you travel.

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Credit Where Credit is Due: Creator of These Amazing Sushi Roll "Drawings" is a Female Illustrator, Not a Male Sushi Chef

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Munch on these

As someone whose sexually ambiguous first name has led to me being mistaken for a woman online, I feel compelled to set the record straight with this story now making the blog rounds: Takayo Kiyota, the creator of the artistic makizushi (cooked rice, vegetables and/or seafood rolled into a seaweed wrap) you see here, is being incorrectly described by other sites as a male sushi chef. In fact she is a female illustrator. (Aspiring Japanophiles can click to the bottom of this entry to see the cultural giveaways that revealed the erroneous reporting.)

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Tokyo-based Kiyota, a/k/a Tama-chan, calls her creations Nikkori-zushi, or "smile sushi." She currently gives workshops in Tokyo where she teaches others how to make, or attempt to make, their own makizushi creations.

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It is, of course, fiendishly difficult--though we'd like to think that industrial designers trained to think in 3D might have a leg up. Making a Nikkori-zushi brings to mind extrusions, 3D printing and cross-sections.

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Work for the Company That Invented the Laptop Case in Anaheim California

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Work for Targus!




wants a Design Manager - Soft Goods
in Anaheim, California

Targus is the leading global supplier of carrying cases and accessories for the mobile lifestyle. take pride in creating a diverse working environment that encourages creativity, innovation, teamwork and respect for the individual.

With you Bachelor's Degree in industrial design, 8-12 years design experience in the consumer goods industry, and 3+ years experience in soft goods, you are the exact Design Manager they are looking for to lead the creation of relevant seasonal design concepts.

Apply Now

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Design Gatekeepers: Ambra Medda

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This is the fifth post in our interview series with ten influential I.D. curators, retailers and creative directors. Yesterday, we talked to Council's Derek Chen.

To Ambra Medda, design is a wild and wonderful subject matter. After co-founding Design Miami in 2005 and directing that hugely influential international fair for for six years, Medda stepped down and shifted her focus to a different kind of programming. Originally imagined as a physical location with events, gallery space and a concept store, L'ArcoBaleno ("The Rainbow" in Italian) evolved instead into an online marketplace where editorial stories comingle with collectible design objects for sale. Unfazed by putting NASA, Zaha Hadid and Botswanan weavers in the same sentence, Medda curates a refreshingly inclusive view of design.

How do you find out about new designers?

A lot of it comes from word of mouth. I have a healthy network of designers, gallerists and other people that I've worked with. Designers are very hard-working and competitive, but they're also very generous and supportive. The community is quite giving. If I do a studio visit with a designer who's relatively established, they'll very openly say, "Please meet these young designers that are working for me." It's a whole circuit.

Also end-of-year shows. A lot of talent I pick up directly from design schools like the Royal College of Art, ECAL in Switzerland and the Design Academy Eindhoven. And then just walking around and poking your nose in places—it could be a corner store here in New York, or it could be some guy making traditional ceramics in Southern Italy. It doesn't have to be that far away. There's some pretty exotic stuff around the corner if you're prepared to open your eyes.

My main intent now is really to open up the discourse. Because I feel like we keep talking about the same designers. The magazines, the fairs, the system tends to highlight the safer choice. I don't know one designer from New Zealand, but I'm sure there's incredible craftsmanship happening there. Same thing with the Philippines. I'm excited to go and find out. Not just focus on Paris, Milan, and London—all cities that are compelling and that I will continue to visit—but go and discover new territories and completely unknown talent.

What kinds of design are you looking for at the moment?

I'm always looking for quality. Quality meaning care and dedication to the way this thing is made. It could be super high-tech, or it could be very low-fi and very crafty. Fresh. It has to come with that feeling of, "Wow, I've never seen this before." Not because it's out of this world or something that's completely unrecognizable—but you have to feel a sense of novelty, for sure.

Then I think the designer has to be interesting as a person. I'm interested in the whole story, from the city to the studio to the way that person lives or works, or the process behind the pieces that they make. The things that inspire them, the ideas that they represent. All of that stuff produces the reason why I'm there. I'm very motivated by people and the things that they make. If they're made well and I feel like they're promising, that's compelling.

DesignGatekeepers-AmbraMedda-3.jpgMedda on a studio visit with the Dutch designer Maarten Baas

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Core77 Design Awards 2013 Honorees: Packaging

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Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year's Core77 Design Awards 2013. We will be featuring these projects by category, so stay tuned for your favorite categories of design! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com.


Student Winner

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  • Project Name: Diageo Guinness Keg
  • Designers: Jonathan Doyle & Rebecca Mooney
  • National University of Ireland Maynooth

Diageo has used the same problematic system for storing draught beer for several decades. Our design project was to address the problems they are having with costs, maintenance and staff safety. We designed a one-trip keg that can be shipped from its filling point and then are recycled after the beer is consumed. The new Guinness Keg allows for injection moulding making it lighter and cheaper. Maintenance is no longer a factor as the keg is destroyed after use. The reduced capacity of 20 litres means that kegs will be changed faster reducing the chance of a bad pint.


- How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?

We watched the live feed but unfortunately had to switch it off for a class midway through so we had thought we had not won. During a quick break we went back to the video and saw our project in the thumbnails under the video. We were all excited to see that the project had been chosen as winner of the Student Packaging Design category as we are a new course with only two years graduated so far.

- What's the latest news or development with your project?

We completed the project for college and now have continued to make boards and graphics for our college design show which was sadly cancelled. We are hoping to possibly hold our own event to showcase our work as well as our fellow classmates in Dublin soon.

- What is one quick anecdote about your project?

The project brief itself came from Diageo as they wanted a fresh student perspective on the problem of the current keg design. We went out to St. James Gate and pubs to discover and identify these problems. Through our design process we came up with our Diageo Guinness Keg. It is fully recyclable and addresses the problems of staff safety, beer quality, brand identity, ecology and much more.

- What was an "a-ha" moment from this project?

Our entire design process was built on an Oscar Wilde quote from the Ballad of Reading Gaol:

"Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!"

The existing keg design and our concepts were what we had to kill. We developed some concepts far into the process before leaving them and going back to another. So it is quite difficult to say where our "a-ha" moment was. It was a far more gradual and slow process to get to our final design.

View the full project here.

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Tonight in LA: LA FORUM FOR ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN AWESOME DESIGN BASH

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Come out and join Core77 and Hand-Eye Supply tonight in Los Angeles!
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Friday, September 13, 2013
6:30pm - 9:00pm
LA FORUM FOR ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN AWESOME DESIGN BASH

On the evening of Friday the 13th, the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design will host a real-time design bash and pin-up featuring the emerging architects recognized in this year's "Out There Doing It" series. Participants include ALLTHATISSOLID, Anna Neimark, Bryony Roberts, and Design, Bitches.

The evening will feature the OTDI 2013 teams and participatory drawing, installations, action painting, and casting. The 2013 OTDI participants represent emerging designers and architects based in Los Angeles. Their practices are as diverse as they are interdisciplinary. Challenging conventional practice, these designers actively question how architecture is represented, conceptualized, materialized, and publicized.


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The Hand-Eye Supply Pop-Up at Space 15 Twenty
1520 N. Cahuenga Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028

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Beijing Design Week 2013 to Kick Off on September 26, See You There!

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We've set our sights on Beijing since its first design week was announced back in 2010, and once again, we're pleased to announce that we will be on the scene at the arts and commercial districts throughout the city. Now in its third year, the capital city's annual celebration of design promises to be bigger and better than ever, and we're looking forward to bringing you the very best of Beijing Design Week.

Under the new creative direction of Beijing-based curator Beatrice Leanza, the overall program of BJDW 2013 looks at creating a meaningful narrative across its various outlets, by aggregating perspectives from current design discourse and practice into an experiential storytelling taking Beijing as its theater of action.

Check out our coverage from last year and stay tuned for more of the good stuff.

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The Story of How Ron Paulk Discovered He Had Inadvertently Created a Product Design Hit

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As industrial designers, a lot of us dream of having product design hits, where we design something so popular that those royalty checks start piling up. But the obstacles are manifold. To sell units in the thousands you've got to find a deep-pocketed manufacturer to sign on, unless you're able to front the tooling costs yourself, you've got to hope that the raw materials supply, marketing and distribution all work out, and of course you've got to design something that thousands of people really want or need in the first place.

Ron Paulk not only has a bona fide design hit on his hands with the Paulk Workbench, but has also neatly sidestepped all of those obstacles we just mentioned. The factory is actually the end-user, and by all accounts they're happy to build the product themselves. Perhaps the most amazing part is that the marketing of it has all happened completely by accident. It is an absolute best-case product design scenario: Ron designed and built the workbench for his own personal use, then discovered there was demand—mass demand—for his design, and figured out a way to distribute it. Ron tells us the story below.

As he mentions towards the end of the video, in addition to selling plans for the Paulk Workbench, Ron is also selling plans for his Miter Stand (a standalone item) and his Cross-Cut Jig (which attaches to the Paulk Workbench).

Selling blueprints to a DIY project is nothing new; hobbyist magazines have had little ads in the back of them for decades. But with YouTube taking care of the marketing, the internet taking care of the distribution, the end-users themselves taking care of the materials supply and fabrication, and with Ron himself handling the most important element, the clever design, Paulk has pointed the way towards a potential product design future—one that's much more hands-on than 3D printing—that I could not have imagined when I was back in design school.

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From the Holy Cow Department: An Insect Has Evolved With Mechanical Gears In Its Legs!

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This will either creep you out, fascinate you, or frighten you. The mechanical gear that propelled the Industrial Revolution and, indirectly, our very profession of industrial design, is one of mankind's more profoundly impactful inventions. But two biologists from the University of Cambridge have just discovered that the mechanical gear exists in nature.

Scientists Malcolm Burrows and Gregory Sutton discovered tiny, toothed, interlocking gears atop the hind legs of a three-millimeter-long bug known as Issus coleoptratus. Colloquially known as a "planthopper," the jumping, flea-like bug cocks its hind legs into a "loaded" position; as it "unloads," the legs swiftly rotate backwards, enabling the bug to get some NBA-like air. The gears connecting the top of the legs—which even have filleted teeth—ensure perfect synchronicity of the leg extensions, enabling accurate and predictable jumping.

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