Here Autodesk's Adam Perry demonstrates the iPad version of their free AutoCAD WS software, a mobile application that allows users to view, edit and share CAD drawings on-the-go. While the web-based version is more full-featured, the iPad app allows viewing, annotation, editing, and even some primitive CAD moves; perhaps most importantly, it does "real" DWG, eliminating open-source DWG's translation problems.
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There are eight days left in our Cardboard Christmas Community Challenge. Jump in and post your craftiest holiday decoration idea and win one of 5 $100 gift certificates from Hand Eye Supply. Shown above is the Merry Cups set of decorative paper cup candleholders submitted by Jimena Sanclemente (a.k.a. Papermoona). She's provided a detailed set of instructions on how to make your own.
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There's some great stuff coming out of the design week debut of the ancient city of Jerusalem—now in its second week.
The "Time 02" exhibition, currently on show in a decommisioned leprosy hospital, is intended as a platform for young Isreali design talent to explore the historic legacy and present realities of the city.
The "Jerusalem Clock", pictured above—by designers Atar Brosh, Merav Schnaps and Ohad Banit— is a stylish yet strange concept that displays important local times—prayer times and the like—instead of simply displaying the hour of the day.
Just in time for the holiday season we've installed a little shrine to our favorite type of portable gear storage: Klein Bags - check the link for the online version, or drop by our PDX location to get your hands on them.
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This post is part of the Inspiration series, made possible by Veer.com.
This article is the last in the Veer series and it's appropriate to wrap up our series of rather wordy articles with a counterpoint. So far the Veer series has engaged the verbal parts of the brain by talking about concepts accompanied by visual images. The neuroanatomy of visual processing, however, is far more complex. Simplifying somewhat, in most people the right hemisphere processes visuals, the left hemisphere uses words and hunts for reason. Even when your visual field feasts on the bounty of changing stimuli the world offers, the left hemisphere constantly tries to rationalize and verbalize what it sees. For creatives, rationalization is the enemy of inspiration, so perhaps some tools can be found in the world of science to aid in the process.
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Sadly, folks, the most mind-blowing thing I saw at AU cannot be adequately conveyed through words or video (though I get paid to try). A company called Infinite Z was demonstrating their Z-Space display platform, a 24-inch monitor laid nearly flat on a table. You put on a special pair of glasses--no bulky headset, they're like a super-light pair of spectacles--and the display turns into a freaking holodeck.
3D objects appear to be perched on top of the screen. Using a light pen, you can grab objects, pick them up, flip them over with millimeter precision--it's like you have the object skewered on a long laser beam, and as quick as your hand turns over, the object turns over at the same speed. You can't see any rendering happening, it's like you're holding the real thing.
During my demo I was presented with a complicated piece of machinery, and using the light pen I was able to pull different parts off of it, flip them around and examine them from all angles. The detail was insane. For small or convoluted parts that don't lend themselves well to manipulation, they have a solution too: You use the light pen to pick up a tiny camera, the size of a Matchbox car, and you can then manipulate the free-floating camera inside, around or under your object. A screen pops up and shows you what the camera is seeing.
Infinite Z has doctored up a demo video (which we've intercut below) with the 3D elements faked in, but it is a poor substitute for seeing the real thing in action and does not at all do a good job of conveying the experience. Seen in person, this thing will absolutely blow your mind. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long--the guys at IZ are forecasting a release for 2011.
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Mount Angel Abbey Alvar Aalto Designed Library from Matthew DiTullo on Vimeo.
My brother Matthew and I are both slight nerds when it comes to Modern architecture, with the capital M. Our most recent excursion was to the Mount Angel Abbey Library, designed by Alvar Aalto. About an hour outside of Portland, The Mount Angel Abbey is nestled in the bucolic rolling farmland of Oregon. Surrounded by more expected neo-gothic structures of the monastery, the almost unassuming library gives little away from its elegantly simple one story entry. The interior sharply contrasts with a soaring 3 story vaulted interior. It was completed in 1970, and Aalto and his wife also designed all of the furniture.
If you go, be sure to make another stop at the nearby Oregon Gardens to see the Gordon House, the only home in Oregon designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Gordon House is the largest Usonian home built by Wright. At just over 2000 sq ft, it is quite small compared to many of his other residences, but his use of space makes it seem much larger. Originally designed for a farmer and his family, the original owners lived in the home for over 30 years.
The buildings are both stunning, but the amazing part are the staff at both who are passionate about the structures and their stories. If you find yourself in Portland, this is a worthy day trip.
Video by Matthew DiTullo, Music by Aphex Twin.
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Calling all NYC designers...
Spend your Wednesday evening with Information Architecture's godfather, Richard Saul Wurman. The IDSA NYC chapter hosts this exciting event at the offices of Smart Design from 6-9pm. We enjoyed Richard's keynote at The Cooper Hewitt's Why Design Now conference this past October, and couldn't give this any more a greater recommendation to everyone. Moderated by Smart Design's Carla Diana, this event is sure to sell out, so do yourself a favor and register today. Free to IDSA members, $20 otherwise.
Industrial Design Associate Director
Smart Design
New York, NY
As an Industrial Design Associate Director, not only will you deliver the highest quality design solutions while respecting a project budget, you will guide a multi-disciplinary team to help realize a project's goals. You will work with some of the world's best known brands in categories such as housewares, consumer electronics, healthcare, and packaging - shaping their future strategy and implementing tactile solutions.
And if you are care about sustainability, responsible design, or gender and age issues, Smart Design can be your chance to leverage your passions into meaningful design solutions.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
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The Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt's recent Why Design Now conference held this past October brought together an optimistic collective of bright and ambitious designers whose efforts are shaping how we solve some of today's most challenging human and social problems. The dominant conference theme which openly questions design's relevance in a time of expanding global crisis, gave speakers and panelists the opportunity to share attempts and discoveries where design has made impacting difference through innovative approaches.
Check out these two featured videos from GE which summarize some of the inspiring work of those conference participants currently engaged in problems of health care and global energy. If you missed the event, they're definitely worth your time.
Solving Energy Challenges
Solving Health Challenges
Designer Tjeerd Veenhoven took a cue from his native Holland to create the iFan, an iPhone case with a built-in fan for charging. Pop the phone into the case for your bicycle commute to work and let the juice flow. The design is still in the beta phase:
[It takes] 6 hours to charge my phone, rather long I think...but it works. I can shave off many charging hours by redesigning the fan blades, making it more efficient in catching the wind while sun bathing at the beach, doing walking trips in the mountains or just holding it outside your car window while driving along....
While Veenhoven's been getting plenty of blog love highlighting the device, we looked into his blog and found plenty of other ID projects worth a gander. Check out the Operating Room of the Future project he mentored on and his Carbon Bike--made not from carbon fiber, but carbon wire drenched in epoxy resin--for starters.
Designer Neil Poulton is at it again: Yesterday LaCie announced his latest external hard drive design, the Tank.
The treads, of course, are more than metaphorical:
A hard, rugged shell made of rubber and polypropylene snaps securely around your device, keeping out dust and rain. This robust exterior is also shock-resistant and tested against military-grade drop requirements, protecting your data from catastrophic drops...Additionally, the LaCie Tank's padded interior can be customised to fit any shape and size, guaranteeing your hard drive is cushioned and snug for any type of transportation. Simply remove foam cubes to fit your device precisely.
All it's missing is a remote control. If I worked in an office with shared desk space where we all had these, I'd constantly drive mine over to my co-worker's side of the desk and use it to knock his hard drive over the edge.
What a dream gig--after being hired to do the designs for Tron: Legacy, concept artist David Levy had his inspiration delivered to him: A stack of original sketches by Syd Mead and French comics artist Jean Giraud, a/k/a Moebius, from the first Tron flick.
Den of Geek's posted an interview with Levy, and another thing we found interesting besides inheriting the Mead/Moebius stack is Levy's design process. We're now spoiled for choice in the amount of ways we can blend technology and analog media for creative projects, so Levy likes to mix it up:
Q: How do you work? Do you use traditional techniques, or work straight onto a computer?A: It's a very strange process. Because very often, when we do the same thing on the time, we always repeat the same shapes, so it's good to vary. On many occasions on Tron, I'd switch back to pencils, just so I could break away from the habits I have with a computer. But honestly, it's whatever works.
So one day I can just sketch on paper with a pencil, and then I can scan that image and turn it into a 3D model, maybe, and sometimes the opposite - I'll create a 3D model, make a print of it, and have Joe sketch on it directly, or sometimes Darren Gilford, the production designer, would just sketch on it directly. It's very organic.
I think it's bad to always have the same habit, because you tend to re-do the same things, so it's very important to change mediums.
It's both wicked and simple, the kind of thing you can't believe no one's thought of before. Check out the Manifold Clock, by designers Shay Carmon and Ben Klinger (collectively known as Studio Ve). The two hands are connected by a piece of Tyvek, drawing a random-but-not-random 3D form that literally changes by the minute. It's best seen in video:
Manifold Clock from Studio Ve on Vimeo.
Dig it? They're for sale.
For the first time in World Cup history, a Middle Eastern nation has been selected for the games; Qatar's won the bid for 2022. Here's the thing--during summertime, when the World Cup is always held, Qatar can get up to 46 degrees Celsius (that's 115 Fahrenheit in Yankee terms). If the players don't wilt, the fans surely will.
To combat this, the wealthy nation is constructing twelve stadiums that are not only super-designey, but will reportedly feature solar-powered air conditioning tuned to produce zero carbon. Needless to say this has never been done on structures of this size, so it will be interesting to see if/how it works. If they can pull it off, the implications will obviously go farther than a mis-kicked Jabulani.
You can check out all of the designs here, and below is a beautifully-produced vid presenting the first five of the stadium designs:
For those who don't have the time or chutzpah to pull on a full utility kilt, Pointer Brand's Denim Apron offers 4 sturdy and capacious pockets to keep everything you need in easy reach and still looking sassy. Pointer Brand's been around since 1913 and is dedicated to producing quality, American made work clothes, and in the unlikely chance you run into an issue with their products, feel free to give them a call directly at their factory in Tennessee.
Check out more great gift ideas in Core77's Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide 2010.
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Taking a lot of inspiration from those funny three wheeled scooters and high-speed tilting trains, design graduate Berk Asal came up with the "Triblean" retrofit kit as part of his thesis work.
Berk's addition to the bicycle retrofitting world transforms an ordinary road bike into a rather peculiar 3-wheeler that, on top of being a comfortably stable ride, allows the cyclist to lean into corners for maximum speed and exhilaration.
There's some great stuff coming in for Core77's Powers of Ten video response challenge. One of the most interesting entries so far is Brian Morton's concept for "Income Levels by Powers of 10" which breaks down people and organizations grouped by their yearly income level in ascending factors of 10.
The Community Challenge platform is collaborative and we encourage you to share your ideas early—story boards, sketches, rough comps—even if you're not submitting we're sure you have some good feedback, so please comment on the work of others and help evolve everyone's ideas right up until the deadline.
If you've been distracted by end of year deadlines, shopping and holiday parties don't sweat, there's still time to get your submission in—not to mention a really good chance at scoring yourself one of the prizes packs from Herman Miller and Eames Office.
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It can't be easy to condense ten years' worth of design into a single series of awards, but that's what the IDSA and Teague have collaborated to do. The duo have just announced their Design of the Decade award winners, honoring ID'ers across a variety of categories stretching from 2001 to today.
Above is the Gold winner in the Consumer category, Target's ClearRx medicine bottle from 2005, designed to make it easier for the elderly to identify and access their pills. And while the expected categories of "[Best] Solution to a Consumer Problem" and "Most Profitable Solution to a Business Problem" feature prominently in the DoD Awards, there's plenty of weightier categories like "[Best] Solution to a Developing World Social Problem," "Best Sustainable Design Solution" and "Most Responsible Design Solution." Check 'em all out here.
Join us for a special New York edition of the Hand-Eye Curiosity Club speaker series featuring Zach Lieberman tomorrow night, 7pm at the Dunderdon + Nau store in Soho.
Zach Lieberman is a Brooklyn-based interactive artist, hacker and researcher. His extensive body of work includes the EyeWriter project, a low-cost, open source eye-tracking system originally made for legendary LA graffiti writer Tony Quan, aka TEMPTONE who was diagnosed with ALS in 2003, and the hugely successful iQ Font campaign for Toyota. Zach collaborated with typographers Pierre & Damiena and pro racer Stef van Campenhoudt to generate a typeface from tracking the movements of a car. For those of you unable to make it, we will be streaming a live webcast of the presentation here on Core77.
Thursday, December 9th, 7-10pm
Presentation: 7:30pm
Dunderdon + Nau
25 Howard St
New York NY 10013
RSVP: curiosityclub.eventbrite.com
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