Design Excursion: Marin County

November 13, 2010, 6:02 pm

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Kristina and I have always taken design excursions to meccas like the Philip Johnson Glass House , The Walter Gropius House, and Palm Springs. This weekend we took a long overdue trip outside of San Francisco to Marin County. We started our day at Frank Lloyd Wright's Marin County Civic Center. This 1957 masterpiece was almost demolished in the 1970s. It went on to be featured in such classic films as Lucas's THX 1138 and Gattaca. You can still grab lunch in the cafe on week days, and docent tours are offered on Wednesdays.

Next we popped up to Terra Linda Valley to sample some Eichler Homes. Marin County has the largest concentration of Eichler's. None are open to the public, but frequently there are some great examples for sale, and they have open houses on Sunday. Don't worry, they are used to design gawkers. Check out Marin Modern for listings.

Popping over to San Anselmo to grab a coffee on the way home, we stumbled into The Modern I, which happens to be the first shop specializing in the resale of mid century modern. In operation for more than 30 years, I saw pieces here I've never seen in person. Make sure you chat with the owner, Steve, who is a design historian. Steve owns The Dondo House, a 1935 concrete home destined to be torn down that he saved, restored, and now holds retreats for design firms and architects. There he gives tours of his collection and will show an example or two of his vintage Eames films.

see more images:

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"Klhip" nail clippers: Redesigning the mundane

November 14, 2010, 8:18 am

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Objects can often become so ubiquitous that we no longer question their form. The testimony of time shields such relics from the scrutiny and skepticism that we subject new products to.

Nail clippers, for example, have barely changed since the Industrial Revolution—which is bizarre considering the mess they can often leave your nails in and the fact that they spray their cuttings everywhere.

"Klhip" is out to change this with what they're calling "the ultimate clipper". The idea is simple. Re-engineer the cutter so that the pressure is applied directly on the nail and catch the cuttings as you go. The matt surgical steel finish and clever brand identity also give an added touch of class to the nail cutting experience.

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Design Museum Boston's "Creative Capital" Exhibit

November 14, 2010, 11:45 am

≫ Next: High Chairs getting high design

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We've been following Design Museum Boston's progress since their first kick off fund raiser earlier this year and through their open source branding process with Design Continuum. The group's first installation is "Creative Capital", done in partnership with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, AIR Graphics and VDA Productions. The exhibit displays publicly recognizable work done by Boston designers across a variety of disciplines like the work done by ELEVEN for OXO and Korn Design's rebranding of the Boston Ballet. Utilizing QR code technology, the exhibit will continually deliver new content throughout the year.

Stop by and take a look. The exhibition is free and open to the public, and can be viewed on the 9th floor of Boston City Hall weekdays between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm.

Check out Design Museum Boston.org for more info.

more pics

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High Chairs getting high design

November 15, 2010, 7:17 am

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HighChairStation is an e-tailer that scours France, Germany, Switzerland, and Scandinavia to find the most designey chairs and booster seats a baby could ask for, some of them well-considered, others excessive. Examples:

The Bloom Fresco Loft has dual chair/crib functionality;

The Svan gives your child an early taste for the possibilities of bent plywood;

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The Zip Bed

November 15, 2010, 7:57 am

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Remember the movie The Patriot, where Heath Ledger's character climbs into a bed that is promptly sewed shut to avoid improprieties with a female house resident? That's what Florida Smart Italian Design's Letto Zip Bed reminds me of.

Of course the purpose of it isn't chastity, but aesthetics; zipping it shut seems a quick and easy way to make the bed. Had zippers been invented back in colonial times, I'm sure this bed would've been all the rage (with padlocks added, of course).

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How to do a "flip-book animation" using a fast car and drawings printed on a track wall

November 15, 2010, 8:21 am

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When approached to do a commercial for Subaru's powerful WRX STI rally car, creative agency DDB Canada had an unusual idea: Do a flip-book animation--by adhering 760 individual and precisely-spaced frames to a one-kilometer-long wall on a test track. Then mount the camera to the car, which whips along the wall, and once the driver hits a certain speed, the frames blend. Check it out:

Needless to say this took tons of preparation, as you can see in the making-of vid below. Kudos to DDB C's team for insisting it could be done, and doing it, in the face of detractors claiming it would be impossible to pull off without a green-screen.

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The Embrace Infant Warmer

November 15, 2010, 8:27 am

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Humans do not have kangaroo pouches, and it's a fact that society laments when babies are premature, especially in developing countries, where over 450 low-birthweight and premature infants die each hour from hypothermia, with modern incubators out of reach, at a cost of around $20,000. There is a strong need for a low-cost method of keeping babies warm and alive.

Enter the Infant Warmer from the social enterprise Embrace Global, an innvoative miniature sleeping bag (or replacement marsupial pouch) that will cost less than $200. Made from a wax-filled heating pad ensheathed in nylon, the product can keep the baby warm for four to six hours, then reheated in either an electric warmer or, if electricity is unavailable, in a water warmer for 20 minutes.

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California College of the Arts' forthcoming Interaction Design program makes good use of their geography

November 15, 2010, 10:08 am

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The California College of the Arts' forthcoming ID program doesn't stand for Industrial Design, but Interaction Design. Writes Dr. Mark Breitenberg, CCA's Provost, "We're leveraging our Bay Area location as the founding center of this discipline, and designing the program in concert with SF-based designers like Ideo's Tim Brown and Charles Warren from Google. It's a rare example of developing a program from the 'back-end' professional design needs."

Starts next fall, and we can't wait to see what they come up with!

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Tiger Stone brick printer lays roads like carpet

November 15, 2010, 11:33 am

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The humble brick road might be set for a come back. This impressive bit of kit by Dutch manufacturer Tiger Stone could make this paving technique of days gone by a viable option for even the most cash strapped of city authorities.

Tiger Stone can pump out a remarkable 400 metres of road a day and can span breadths of up to six metres. The bricks are loaded from above in the desired pattern, compacted by the effects of gravity and layed out as the machine trundles along.

As well making our streets a whole lot prettier, the ancient technique of brick laying could also offer a more sustainable solution to road surfacing than asphalt or concrete.

(via Inhabitiat)

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Applied Minds is Seeking a Graphic Designer in Glendale, CA

November 15, 2010, 12:38 pm

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Graphic Designer (Temporary/Contractor Position)
Applied Minds
Glendale, CA

Applied Minds is looking for a Graphic Designer with 2+ years of experience creating graphics, illustrations and presentations. Your work should demonstrate core competencies as a graphic artist.

You will be working with a diverse design team on a variety of projects which include graphic design, interior design, product design and interface design.

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Core77 Gallery: Bangkok International Gift Fair 2010

November 15, 2010, 12:40 pm

≫ Next: USB Battleship: A Visual Weight for Chaotic USB Cables

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Subtitling itself as "Soul and Style of the Orient", the annual Bangkok International Gift Fair (BIG) and Houseware Fair (BIH) presented a total of 600 exhibitors, mainly from Southeast Asia. Core77 correspondent Brit Leissler stopped by on her travels in Thailand to capture the best of the show.

>> view gallery

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USB Battleship: A Visual Weight for Chaotic USB Cables

November 15, 2010, 1:28 pm

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The USB Battleship is a new 5-port USB hub by design duo giffin'termeer. Not just a pretty hub, the device was designed to visually anchor the cable chaos surrounding most of our workspaces, with a toy-like, miniature ship. The piece was introduced during ICFF, and is now available for purchase from Kikkerland.

According to giffin'termeer, the symbol of the boat is especially significant to computer-based deskspaces. Below, they explain the parallel:

Boats are interesting because for the most part, the bottom half is simple and sleek. The top half, however, is usually covered with radar equipments, guns, lifeboats, and other necessary structures—in other words, chaos, and like the physical area around our workspaces, chaos. The thought was that maybe a boat shape could be an "organizing image" to visually manage the tangle that emanates from my notebook.

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Polyprop designer Robin Day passes away, leaves behind huge-selling legacy

November 23, 2010, 11:16 am

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Humble, simple, lasting, ubiquitous, flying out of the factories, and a monster seller: That's the Polyprop stacking chair designed by Robin Day, who passed away earlier this month. Inspired by the Eameses, in 1963 UK-based Day designed one of the first chairs to really take advantage of injection molding for mass markets--a single mold could crank out 4000 Polyprop seats a week, and since its inception over 14 million have been sold in 23 countries. (When licensed copies are tallied, the sales figures are estimated at between 20 and 50 million.)

Cooper-Hewitt Director Bill Moggridge wrote, about first regarding the chair, "I was immediately fascinated by the simplicity of the form combined with the deep understanding of the behavior of the material;" London Design Museum director Deyan Sudjic called it "one of those exceptional objects that can genuinely carry the burden of being labeled a humble masterpiece;" and Design Technology has termed it "one of the most democratic modern designs of the 20th century."

Now, ten years into the 21st century, the chair is still being produced; manufacturer Hille cranks out some 500,000 per year. Quite an impressive feat for an almost fifty-year-old design.

via ny times

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R2B2 - Christoph Thetard's Human Powered Kitchen Appliances

November 23, 2010, 1:01 pm

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With an interest in sustainable energy solutions, Berlin-based designer Christoph Thetard shares his latest graduate thesis project for the kitchen titled R2B2. Presenting it's mechanical beauty and operation with a large crank-able fly-wheel, R2B2 transforms muscle power into usable energy, whipping food and biceps into shape.

Able to drive a series of hand and base supported tools for about 1 minute at a time, the machine has multiple gearing for variable speeds and utilizies familiar flex shaft engineering to bring power to just about any kitchen task at hand. Christoph determined the most in-demand cooking prep processes we deal with every day and fully realized a food mill, coffee grinder, and hand blender to demonstrate the power and practicality of choosing human power to cut, whip, blend, and grind.

Check out additional photos and a URL to Christoph's portfolio site where you can see mockups and drawings that brought this beautiful work of cabinetry and product to life.

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Bo Reudler Studio contemporary bathroom restoration

November 23, 2010, 1:43 pm

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Dutch designer Bo Reudler and company were recently invited to take part in a restoration project in a 19th century house near Amsterdam. The designers were challenged to bring a touch of contemporary design flair to the antique bathroom interior whilst retaining some of the character and features of the original.

Most modern bathrooms are shrines to function and sterility. This design sought to bring the space alive. Drawing heavily on natural forms, the copper pipes are left exposed and unfinished, to green with time and use—along with the copper sink and floral tile details. The ceiling's cornicing, playing with classical interior features, gives the impression of water dripping upwards as you kick back in the antique bathtub.

Check out the tap details and plenty more pics on the Bo Reudler site.

One more view after the jump

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Evolving European design policy

November 24, 2010, 3:04 am

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SEE, a network of eleven European partners exploring how to integrate design into regional and national innovation policies, has just released the fourth of six project bulletins, exploring matters related to design policies and programmes for design support.

"More and more, we are seeing that design approaches are not only being applied to product development, manufacturing and technology, but to a growing array of other domains such as the public sector, social innovation and sustainability projects.

This edition delves a bit deeper into how design techniques are being applied to specialist scenarios.

The research article presents a ground-breaking peace and security project that employed design in a collaborative effort between the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research and the Saïd Business School at Oxford University.

SEE also presents a research article on National Design Systems that illustrates how our understanding about the environment in which design operates is becoming more complex.

The Design Policy and Promotion Map reveals how design is becoming central to the innovation and economic development agendas in Chile, Croatia, India, and South Africa.

The Bulletin also includes a special report on a number of initiatives that SEE partners are undertaking to provide input for design policy-making."

> Download SEE bulletin 4

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As design catches up to robotics computing, mechanical arms get cooler

November 24, 2010, 6:31 am

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If I asked you to sketch the archetypal industrial robotic arm, you'd probably draw something like a swing-arm lamp: Straight members connected by elbow-like joints, perhaps on a rotating base like a shoulder. The finite, easily-calculable axes of motion of such an arrangement lent themselves well to the early days of robot design and the primitive computer systems that had to manage their motion.

Now, as those computer systems become capable of far more complex calculations, it's only natural that design would follow suit. Thus German engineering company Festo has designed a robotic arm based not on the human arm, but on an elephant trunk--or actually, what resembles three elephant trunks bound together.

The elegant, biomimetic design of Festo's Bionic Handling Assistant is capable of "more degrees of freedom and an unparalleled mass/payload ratio." What's even cooler is how the trunk expands, contracts and turns by alternately inflating or deflating air sacs within each vertebrae-like selection, which you can see in the animation below. A more aesthetically-pleasing performance is not a prerequisite of industrial efficiency, but it sure is a neat by-product.

via tg daily

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Dyson is Seeking a Design Engineer in Wiltshire, UK

November 24, 2010, 7:55 am

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Design Engineer, Industrial Design
Dyson
Wiltshire, UK

Dyson offers a unique opportunity for talented and passionate individuals who wish to invent, design and develop exceptional products for the global market. We offer a dynamic working environment where designers have the freedom to be creative and push the boundaries of design. As a part of our unique design process, you'll be encouraged to be thoroughly hands on when developing products from initial inception through to manufacture. You will also have the opportunity to develop as a leading specialist in your area or progress into management as a Senior Engineer and as a Design Manager.

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The Mack Truck Syndrome: How replaceable are designers?

November 24, 2010, 7:57 am

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I stopped pursuing corporate design work years ago, because the lowly rungs I occupied allowed little individual creativity. "If I got hit by a bus tomorrow," I told friends, "and they replaced me with another designer, the work would come out exactly the same."

I've used and heard the "If I got hit by a bus" metaphor for things all of my life, only recently realizing the phrase was an urbanism; outside New York's ample opportunities for M16 Crosstown crosswalk calamity, apparently the rest of the U.S. says "If I got hit by a Mack truck." (For you non-Americans, that's a brand-name tractor-trailer that crawls our highways, hauling our goods and mowing down unwary pedestrians.)

The Mack truck, like Stockholm, even has its own syndrome. InformationWeek talked to Product Design Manager Christian Feldhake (of Torelli Bicycle) about the "Mack Truck Syndrome," whereby a small firm can be crippled by the sudden loss of a single member. The solution, as Feldhake sees it, is a system called ERP, or Enterprise Resource Planning. It entails a computer-based "dashboard" filled with relevant data points that anyone, theoretically, can use to step in and resume someone else's role. It sounds more applicable to business than design. At least that's what we designers, with our individual creative urges, hope.

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Design That Matters' NeoNurture turns auto junk into human life

November 24, 2010, 8:17 am

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Two years ago we read a report on Treehugger about the Massachusetts-based nonprofit Design That Matters' endeavors to create an infant incubator out of recycled car parts. The thought that dead Toyotas could bring life to some of the nearly 4 million infants that will die of post-birth complications each year was heartening; for remote villages without hospitals, a local dead-car hulk could provide critically useful.

Well, now they've done it. The NeoNurture incubator is featured in the Cooper-Hewitt's National Design Triennial and has received coverage in Time Magazine, and Design That Matters is working towards full production with the assistance of the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology. There are still some hurdles to be overcome, as you can imagine for a machine designed to be cobbled together from whatever auto parts are on hand:

The project traces its roots to a heaping pile of dead Toyota 4Runners. "In the summer of 2007, a few guys just tore one apart," [DTM CEO Timothy] Prestero said. "They discarded thousands of pieces until they had things that are plentiful in rural areas: headlight assemblies to provide heat, air-intake filters and such, which could be repurposed without much fuss."

The greatest design challenge for the group has been resisting standardization. "As soon as you say, 'You can only use a 4Runner's headlight,' the value goes out the window," Mr. Prestero said. This problem might ultimately determine what aspects of NeoNurture's approach will translate to mass production.

Read all about it in this Times article.

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