And so it begins: The second annual NYCxDesign creative culture extravaganza has officially kicked off with a theremin fanfare (no joke) and we are pleased to present the event guide—in print—for the ongoings from now until May 20 (a.k.a. sleep day). We picked them up bright and early orange yesterday morning, fresh off the prodigious presses at Linco Printing, and have distributed them at various art and design venues throughout the city, with more locations to come.

Those of you who are in town this weekend can find the guide at Industry City, Frieze New York, Collective 2, BKLYN Designs and the Rapha Cycle Club (who will kindly host an official C77DD Reading Room next weekend); watch this space for updates as our distribution network expands leading up to ICFF, WantedDesign, Sight Unseen OFFSITE, etc. next weekend.

All photos by Studio Been

The Berlin-based designer Elisa Strozyk has the ability to transform commonplace materials and age-old techniques into anomalies of design that challenge our perceptions. The designer is best known for her wooden textiles, and her latest endeavor shows a similarly disruptive approach. For a series of ceramic tables, Strozyk quite literally breathe new life into glazing, one of the oldest decorative techniques.

The ceramic tables debuted at Objects and the Factory, an exhibition that took place in Cologne, Germany, earlier this year. Strozyk was invited to explore a specific production technique. "I had wanted to work with ceramics for a long time," she says. "It was a good reason to visit some ceramic workshops, and I was very inspired by the different possibilities of using ceramic glazes."

After touring a few local workshops, Strozyk begin to experiment on her own. "The first challenge was to develop large flat surfaces that can be used as tabletops," explains Strozyk. "With traditional ceramic techniques it's not easy, as the material could break or bend during the firing process. I found a way to use an artificial ceramic material for the tabletops." That material is cordierite, the same mineral used to create pizza stones, perfect for its ability to retain and distribute heat without cracking.

Auto designers and Milan-friendly furniture folks are the rockstars of industrial design, but designers who work on camping cookware deserve more credit than they get. To take cookware, a line of objects with clearly-defined form factors, and completely re-think them to make them compact, minimalist and lightweight is a challenge many of us would (and did) fail at in design school; but look at some of the leading camping goods companies and you'll see all manner of clever design solutions and a real understanding of materials.

Sometimes the innovations are small, as with GSI Outdoors' Halulite Pot. For example, a built-in strainer is something you've seen in conventional cookware, as with these:

But the moderate design flaw with those designs is that they require hand protection from the heat of the lid. GSI's designers got around this with two simple pieces of silicone to protect your mitts while you pour and hold the lid in place.

Images via Sandcastle Matt

Forget your fancy sandcastle building tools. Your molded buckets may ensure a perfectly formed turret, but where's the fun in that? The artist behind these abstract sand designs, who goes by sandcastlematt on Flickr, uses the traditional drip method known and used by castle builders of all ages. By using a simple 1:1 mixture of sand and water, he's able to create sculptures that stick without any help from adhesives. Obviously—or maybe not so obviously—it's not all sand. He uses debris found on beaches (driftwood, fishing line, vines, plywood and some biodegradable twine) to create a base structure to build off of and give them that "leaning tower of sand" look.

Sand Castle Matt works with the beach's elements to play up his designs by using shadows, reflections and even beach-goers in the photographs of his work. His sig other put together a video following the creation of one of the castles. Check it out:

Time for adorable learning? It sure is!* Like most sane people, I think the Earth is a pretty amazing place. The solar system too. If you don't agree, you're probably part of the reason our incredible life-sustaining planet is going through some uncertain times and you should reconsider quickly. Perhaps if you'd had more approachable and intriguing science education, we'd have more in common today.

To that end, I offer the adorable and informative videos of Kurzgesagt. Kurzgesagt is a science-obsessed video series, run (in their own words) by a team of underpaid birds who figured out some computers and video stuff. A very impressive origin story, but even more so when you look at their scope and aesthetics. Kurz gesagt means "to make a long story short" in German, and they deliver on it. Their subjects range from evolution, to fracking, to how our moon stacks up against the many other moons nearby (hint: we bagged a big one).

Portrait of the artists as young birds

Discussing climate change or astrophysical relationships in quick and understandable jargon is a rare and beautiful thing, and I love them for it. The accompanying animation drives even complex information home in clean, compelling bursts of color. They provide moving infographics that don't get bogged down in too much data visualization, and do a great job stimulating the imagination. It may seem unfathomably distant from our immediate lives, but I believe that keeping an eye on developments in astrophysics and trying to think in terms of geologic timeframes gives me better perspective and stimulates creative and ecologically aware design. Are you a little uncomfortable thinking about human existence as a tiny fragile blip on the cosmic radar? Hold on to that feeling and I bet you'll be more likely to do work that matters. Check out Kurzgesagt on YouTube and some of my favorites here, starting with winning ways of killing the universe:

Well this is kind of nice: Seeing as Mother's Day falls in the middle of Frieze New York, Chelsea-based Galerie Lelong has taken the occasion to exhibit Yoko Ono's "My Mommy Is Beautiful," a kind of 'crowdsourced' piece that dates back to 2004. Comprised (according to the wall text) of "Artist's instructions, paper, pens, tape, table, chairs," the piece has apparently been realized in various forms, from writing directly on the wall and pasted photos; the current incarnation caught my eye for its passing resemblance to the charrette trope of Post-Its on the wall.

Happy Mother's Day!

Frieze New York is open through Monday, May 12; details here

DwellStudio, a premier design company founded by Christiane Lemieux and now a division of Wayfair LLC, is seeking a talented, smart, driven, and entrepreneurial Product Developer to help them continue growing their assortment of trend forward baby, kids, and home textiles.

In this role, you will assist in all aspects of the textile product development cycle to support the growth of DwellStudio's core offerings including managing projects related to licensed partners and their products. You will contribute in all phases of the product development cycle including design development, fabric quality/construction development, sample reviews, and assisting with production management. This requires a 4 year degree with a preferred focus on textile. If you are creative, self-starting and have a few years experience in a comparable position, Apply Now.

Have you seen the Sada folding bike yet? Nearing the size of an umbrella when folded, this concept bike combines an intriguing and slightly mysterious mechanism with a couple design features that would give a mechanic an automatic migraine. The look is Erector Set meets Bianchi Pista, very distinctive and a little like other angular ideas we've covered. The Sada incorporates full-sized road wheels rather than the fidgety-feeling little ones usually found on folding bikes. It also avoids many of the moving parts needed when trying to fold a drivetrain. The fold is remarkably small, though the "umbrella-size" claim is a little unfair. Most comparative photos have the handlebars removed, which most riders probably won't do every time they stop for coffee.

Perhaps most noteworthy is the use of removable hubless wheels. The frame shape is dramatically influenced by reducing the wheels to little more than rims and having them pop off (that process isn't pictured so who knows how much work it takes). The fold owes its cylindrical tightness to that feature, but it opens a lot of questions too. As with most hubless designs, its durability and usability aren't easy to predict. Normally, if by eliminating the hub you are adding friction or resistance, complex proprietary parts, great expense or weight... you're probably not striking gold. Without the distributed load allowed by spokes, you're either dealing with a rigid mag-wheel (yeah, remember those? Comfy, huh?) or, as in the case of the Sada, a super vulnerable rubberized metal hoop. Hit a pothole with your proprietary rim and then come tell me about its efficiency. In this case, hublessness directly benefits the main selling point of the frame design—its compact fold—and might warrant playing fast and loose with practicality. For more views check out their minimally informative video:

I'm not sure what the highest praise for a book might be, but I must say I hope that Alice Rawsthorn's Hello World (Overlook Press, 2014) becomes a canonical text that is revised and expanded every few years or so, true to its nature as a survey of design today. As the longtime design critic for the International New York Times (f.k.a. the International Herald Tribune), Rawsthorn is perhaps one of the few writers up to the task of authoring a definitive account of the 'state of design' in 2014. By presenting the subject as a kind of patchwork quilt composed of somewhat disparate elements, stitched together to make a cohesive whole, she largely succeeds in the endeavor, extracting specific threads of historical significance even as she weaves the bigger picture.

Rawsthorn wisely refrains from drawing grand conclusions; rather, she circumscribes the subject matter through presenting a series of edifying examples in chapters with titles such as "Why design is not—and should never be confused with—art" and "Why form no longer follows function." By citing examples from Google doodles to AK-47s (the former has 'integrity' while the latter do not), or from Aimee Mullins's prosthetic legs to One Laptop Per Child, she elegantly crafts a compelling argument for the value of design, both objective and subjective, without resorting to clichés. It's a straightforward way to preserve the distinctive look and feel of design in its various manifestations and mediums as opposed to attempting to reduce them to a lowest common denominator; at risk of mixing the metaphor, the breadth and depth of the text represent the warp and weft of the composition.

The results may vary in density and texture, but this only enhances the readability and flow of Hello World. Where early chapters trace long arcs dating back to Qin Shihuangdi (the first emperor of China), Blackbeard and Josiah Wedgwood as designers avant la lettre, later ones focus on narrower, increasingly niche or otherwise more contemporary areas of design. It's not by any means an encyclopedia account, but by cherrypicking memorable examples—some widely known, others less so—Rawsthorn covers a lot of territory in an engaging and economical fashion.

Indeed, the text is interspersed with tidbits of cocktail trivia—from Verner Panton's color-coded interiors to the fact that Dieter Rams was originally hired as an architect—at least for those of us who have not read proper biographies of the myriad designers whose names turn up. Meanwhile, I happened to read Hello World in fits and starts over the course of several weeks, during which time I had firsthand experience of several of Rawsthorn's examples: A layover in Zurich was an opportunity to appreciate Ruedi Ruegg's crisp signage, and I found myself regarding Harry Beck's Underground map with newfound awe during a trip to London. Given the ecumenical scope of the book, every reader will discover examples that resonate with his or her personal experience within its 225 pages.

Reported by Ben Valentine

To kickoff the new design discussion series, Designing Innovation, put on by Ford and IDSASF, Yves Béhar, Freeman Thomas and Jordan Brandt sat down in San Francisco for a livestreamed conversation exploring contemporary design. The panel, moderated by Nathan Shedroff, explored sustainability, new technology and the role of the designer in an increasingly complex and machine-driven world.

Shedroff, Chair of MBA Strategy and Design at California College of the Arts, started the discussion by asking about the role of sustainability in design and strategic operations today. Sustainability is a criteria for research and development, design, materials and even production at every step. Yet, although it is fundamentally important to successful design, both Béhar, CEO and founder at Fuseproject, and Thomas, Director of Strategic Design at Ford Motor Company, emphasized that sustainability is no longer so prominently featured—it's become one theme of all the questions.

Freeman Thomas addresses the crowd

So what should designers be thinking about now? This is where Brandt, the Technology Futurist at Autodesk, was most in his element—he believes that we're going to experience a renaissance in design over the next decade. Brandt suggested that big data and the industrial internet will drastically shift how designers solve the problems of yesteryear. While designers are experts at finding questions, Brandt claims that the "solution is only going to be as good as the questions asked." Rapid, iterative and algorithmically processed questions and simulations will improve design as well as allow more people to get involved along the way.

This New Yorker, like countless others, hasn't needed to use a payphone since Hurricane Sandy. But that will shortly change due an initiative by the City of New York, set in motion by former Mayor Bloomberg and now being pushed forward by our current Mayor DiBlasio. Payphone WiFi is expected to bring those magic waves of connectivity to some 7,300 payphones throughout New York City.

Thus far, a little over 20 of the otherwise useless silver boxes have been wired up with WiFi—locations at the link above—which is provided free-of-charge and has a reported radius of 100 to 200 feet (though I'll believe that when I see it). Mass conversion is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2015, or at least, that's the plan—the city is currently seeking bids to install, operate and maintain the network.

"This administration has committed to making New York City work better for every community, and this RFP (request for proposals) for free outdoor Wi-Fi is a down payment on that promise," said Mayor Bill de Blasio. "For years, the question was, 'What to do with payphones?' and now we have an answer. By using a historic part of New York's street fabric, we can significantly enhance public availability of increasingly-vital broadband access, invite new and innovative digital services, and increase revenue to the city—all at absolutely no cost to taxpayers."

Photos by Patric Dreier

If there's one thing that'll ruin meal-making—no matter how many glasses of wine you've had to counteract any frustration or how loud you've got the cooking tunes playing—it's an disorganized prep space. Well, a lack of space might be worse, but there are ways to deal with that if you've got the cash (Häfele's transformable kitchen/dining areas are a good example). The ChopChop Kitchen from Berlin-based industrial designer Dirk Biotto has given me a major case of kitchen envy. ChopChop might doesn't come off as simple as the minimalistic kitchen islands of late, but this might be why I'm so drawn to it. The complete dedication to functionality is honorable—and its got a workbench vibe going that leaves little to dislike.

Cooking even the simplest of things can be a challenge when you really think about all of the tools, ingredients and steps that go into preparing a meal. Specifically, Biotto took elderly and disabled chefs into consideration when designing ChopChop, which focuses on keeping everything in sight and easily grabbed.

With NYCxDesign underway and ICFF and WantedDesign just around the corner, some of our readers are probably dealing with the delicate matter of transporting products and prototypes this week. Transferring the artwork/installation/exhibition from Point A to Point B is one thing, but making sure that nothing is damaged in the process is perhaps the concern. When it comes to a showcase featuring 120 works of origami, you've got yourself a whole new meaning for "precious cargo." Beginning on June 19, the Cooper Union will host Surface to Structure: Folded Forms—an exhibition featuring 120 pieces of origami from 80 contemporary origami artists that's looking to get a little crowdsourced love to help offset travel expenses.

The exhibition's organizers are working on an Indiegogo campaign to raise the necessary roundtrip transportation funds to get the work safely from and back to the artists—who are located in 16 different countries worldwide—post-show. (This campaign brought me back to Sipho Mabona's successful attempt at Kickstarting a life-size origami elephant fold with one piece of giant paper.) The last time the Cooper Union housed an exhibit of this kind was back in 1959 for the Plane Geometry and Fancy Figures showcase—which turned out to be the first origami show in the United States.

Check out the campaign video:

Join the global family of the LEGO Group in Shanghai, China as a Concept Designer in their boys aged 5-11 brand segment. This is a wonderful opportunity to make a difference in the world of toys by innovating and conceptualizing new play experiences. Applying your passion for toys and design, you'll create and develop exciting new Play themes to enhance the LEGO Brand. How cool is that?

This role embraces management of the entire product development cycle that strives to create, develop and deliver the best play experience for boys aged 5-11, rooted in the LEGO Group's core values. The LEGO Bricks and Mini-figures will be the core of these new experiences. If you have 1-3 years of work experience within product development and prototyping, with solid knowledge of research and concept development, Apply Now.

With two days left in our Kickstarter campaign, we've still got a lot of ground to cover to make our $27,000 goal. We can't begin to tell you how appreciative we are for all of your support and word-spreading when it comes to our debut in the print world. For those of you who haven't heard, we'll be producing, printing and distributing 4,000 copies of a 16-page tabloid newspaper for each of four days, starting this Friday, May 16, through Monday, May 19. The C77 Design Daily will feature LIVE reporting from this year's events, exhibitions, designer and parties—listed in our handy print event guide at a venue near year—as well as features, recommendations, cartoons, games and much more!

Printing is an expensive process, so to offset production costs, we've also launched our first Kickstarter project. With two days to go on the campaign, there's still plenty of time to get in on the action. We're offering plenty of the usual swag—snarky bumper stickers, custom tote bags, T-shirts, limited-edition inflatable benches, etc.—but as with any crowdfunding campaign that's worth its salt, the real reward is the satisfaction of supporting a worthwhile cause. Check out the video for more details:

Our resident service design columnist Tennyson Pinheiro first mentioned that he was putting the finishing touches on his new book a couple of months ago, and lo and behold, The Service Startup: Design Gets Lean is available now. Read our exclusive interview with Tenny below—and don't miss the exclusive offer at the end!—then check out the new book for more on how to build service design into the very foundation of your startup.

Let's start with some background&mdashhow did you arrive at your calling in Service Design?

I'm a designer and serial entrepreneur. I started my first business when I was 13 years old— lady punctured my soccer ball and I decided to get back on her by entering the same market she was in and take it over. She was an ice cream maker, so my friend and I started to do experiments on how to make an ice cream that was twice as delicious and that we could sell at half her pricepoint. My grandma unknowingly played the role of a seed investor, as we were secretly using her account at the grocery store to buy ingredients for our endless prototypes. Eventually we developed a delicious and cheap formula and completely stole the lady's market. Not long after, the lady played an unfair move and went to my grandma to ask her to force me out of business claiming she needed it more than me. Without our investor, we were obliged to shut down the business.

I learned some lessons with this fast-to-success and even faster-to-closure business and moved on to pursuit other ventures over the next years (for better reasons). As a designer, I started with interaction design, a journey that led me also to learn how to code. Later I moved from the digital world to the design of entire service ecosystems a decade ago, while I was doing projects in Africa, where I lived and worked during two years.

Currently I'm the founder and CEO of the Brazilian office of Livework, the pioneer global service design agency. And in 2013, I founded EISE, the School for Service Innovation, an entrepreneurship acceleration program through service design. I'm also a columnist here at Core77, where I pen the Design @ Your Service column, and the author of two books on the subject, most recently The Service Startup: Design Gets Lean.

Why did you write this new book on startups?

The book was designed to help small teams running on tight budgets implement service design into their development routines. Anyone in this position will find it a good read. Startups have the advantage of being conceived without the legacy toxins brought by the industrial revolution. As such, I believe they are in the ideal position to take service design to a whole new level. The inspiration to the book came two years ago, after I founded EISE, a program that is a mix of a school and startup accelerator through service design. Since then, I have been mentoring startups in implementing service design into their very foundation.

Over the past several weeks I've been watching a guy in my Facebook feed build his business out. No hipster restaurant, this; designer/architect Bryan Boyer, together with partner and creative strategist Rena Tom, has been slaving away to get their Brooklyn outpost of Makeshift Society shipshape.

Makeshift Society first opened their doors in San Francisco two years ago, offering Bay Area creative freelancers a 1,000-square-foot space to share. The Brooklyn expansion is some four times the size, occupying 4,000 square feet split over two floors of a former pencil factory in Billyburg. Currently open weekdays from 9am to 7pm, the space is meant to resemble a clubhouse more than an office; in addition to desks and communal tables there are reading nooks, one-person "quiet booths," both book and tool libraries, a kitchen, a brainstorming room and a conference room that can be converted into a photo studio. On the infrastructure side there's phone chargers, a projector, a color printer and "business-class" WiFi.

Membership rates currently run from $50 to $500 a month, with day-pass trials available for $30 a pop. And for those of you bicoastal, the San Francisco and Brooklyn outposts offer "reciprocal privileges." Learn more here.

The Hand-Eye Supply Curiosity Club is digging into the narrative with Jelly Helm of Studio Jelly. In-store only tonight, the talk starts at 6pm so get here early to explore the stories and get epic.

Jelly Helm: A Beginner's Intro to Joseph Campbell, Story, and the Human Adventure
Hand-Eye Supply
23 NW 4th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97209
Tuesday, May 13, 6pm PST

Who am I? Where did I come from? What happens when I die? How do I spend my life? What do the things that happen to me mean? For 45,000 years, humans have used story to wrestle with these questions.

In this informal and personal presentation, award-winning communicator and story-enthusiast Jelly Helm will share maps and charts from Joseph Campbell, Ken WIlber and others to help explain the basics of story and how it informs our lives and our culture. It ought to be fun, and perhaps encouragement to re-connect with your own deep story.

Jelly Helm is the principal and creative director of a strategy and brand communication studio in Portland, Oregon. He helps people and companies connect with and powerfully express their purpose.

Prior to opening his studio in 2008, Jelly Helm was Executive Creative Director of Wieden+Kennedy, Group Creative Director at The Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia, and Creative Director of Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam. He was a founding faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University Adcenter, adjunct professor at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, and Founder and Director of Wieden+Kennedy 12, W+K's experimental in-house school.

This is the latest installment of our Core77 Questionnaire. Previously, we talked to Satyendra Pakhalé.

Name:Leon Ransmeier

Occupation: Industrial designer

Location: New York, NY

Current projects: I just launched the Chiaro chair for Mattiazzi. We are currently exploring new projects for Herman Miller, as well as for HAY.

Mission: It's a moving target.

Ransmeier's newest product is Chiaro, a wooden chair for the Italian manufacturer Mattiazzi.

Chiaro comes with or without armrests; both versions stack.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a designer? I was 18 when I first encountered the radical, poetic design of the 1980s. This was 1997—I was paying a lot of attention to the work coming out of the Netherlands but simultaneously intrigued by early modernists like Aalto, Breuer and Prouvé. I remember I was reading Robert Venturi the day I saw the Robert Irwin installation at DIA in 1999, which blew me away. It was the tension between all of these approaches and languages that drew me in, and I still find inspiration in all of it.

Education: I graduated from the furniture design program at RISD in 2001.

First design job: Drawing 1:1 wooden chairs with a Mayline. We would spend up to two months on one drawing, send blueprints to India to be built, and receive the prototype in a crate eight weeks later. It seemed slow at the time, but in retrospect my projects are much slower now.

Who is your design hero? I am uncomfortable with the word "hero". There are too many interesting people to list. I often find inspiration in art and architecture.

The AGL Table Group for Herman Miller is intended to function equally well as an executive desk, a conference-room table or a dining table in a residential setting.

Becky showing off the NeoPixel Punk Collar

The Core77 Conference is just over a month away. Don't you want to know who will be presenting and what they'll be talking about? If so, this profile series is just what you need. We want to introduce you to the sharp folks that will be sharing their insights on everything from creating future scenarios to demonstrating the value of design. Get your tickets today for this one-day event. You won't be disappointed.

Becky Stern, Director of Wearable Electronics, Adafruit
Presentation: Panel – Integrated Technology

How much does technology determine your day to day? Through this panel, "Integrated Technology," we'll look into how designers are integrating technology into our daily lives, at two scales.

Along with Google UX Manager, Ricardo Prada, Becky Stern will talk about the individual/personal aspects of putting tech on and around your body including identity, expression & fashion, enhancing our natural abilities/senses, privacy and technological literacy/engineering education. Ricardo will bring to the table his broader, community/society experience working on things like self-driving cars. This is sure to be a lively discussion!