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Coreskills Episode 1: A Warm Up for Design Sketching 

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"A man who can't communicate his ideas is on the same plane as one who has no ideas." - Pericles

How do you start sketching when your strength doesn't lie in visual communication? Spencer Nugent from Sketch-a-Day kicks off Coreskills, a new sketch series for Core77, with some awesome tips for designers at all levels. 

Train yourself like the elite design athlete that you are with these warm up exercises in Coreskills Episode 1. Spencer is squeezing seven years of leading workshops and sharing sketching tutorials at Sketch-a-Day into some great tips for upping your design sketching skills—from warmups to practice exercises—to get you into prime shape for visually communicating your ideas.


Purple: A Necklace That Modernizes the Traditional Locket

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Elegant and simple, Purple is a modern take on the locket. It's a wearable device that connects wirelessly to your social networks and receives images and messages from friends and family. Purple invites you to take a peek at what’s inside, pause from your hectic daily life and smile at a moment you share with the people who matter most.

View the full content here

Tools & Craft #11: Using the Right Tool for the Job Starts With Choosing the Right Material for the Tool

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In Japan, bench chisels and other chisels for striking are always "hooped," meaning there's a metal ring encircling the butt-end of the chisel handle. See below:

This is a good idea since they traditionally use steel hammers to hit their tools, and absent the hoop, the butt end of the chisel would quickly deform and split. 

In the West, most chisels are usually not hooped. So a good rule of thumb is to always use a mallet that is softer than the chisel handle.

The reason is very simple. It is cheaper to replace an English joiner's mallet every few years, than it is to rehandle a chisel. Look at the photo below:

The mallet in the foreground is my old one, which I used heavily for at least five years. The mallet in the background has been in action for a few months and only has a few dents. Mallets seem to stabilize with a few dents, and it's typically years before the big cracks start. 

Some of you may have observed that Western carvers will occasionally use mallets made out of lignum vitae, the densest wood on Earth, to hit un-hooped chisels. So what gives, doesn't that contradict what I just wrote? Well, it's to do with the nature of the striking: 

If you're using bench chisels, and especially mortise chisels, you're looking to whack with power. In order to get that power using a soft mallet, you take a longer stroke with the mallet. What you give up there is precision and feedback, since the face of the softer wood mallet distorts slightly on impact.

But if you're carving, precision is everything. A shorter stoke with a heavier, smaller mallet gives you more control. Even if you are removing lots of material you want to do it in a series of controlled strokes, so you don't split away the wrong wood. So a denser, harder, mallet gives you more feedback, you can use a shorter, more controlled stroke, and overall you use less power per-stroke. The tool handle is in much less danger from a carver than a joiner.

So, some of you may be wondering: Which is "better," using a metal hammer and a hooped chisel, like the Japanese, or using an un-hooped chisel and a softer mallet, in the Western tradition? I'll tackle this topic in a future entry, so if you've got specific questions about this, please let me know in the comments below.

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This "Tools & Craft" section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.


An Honest Product Review of Those "Wrapping" Sneakers

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I don't see a lot of innovation in the footwear design space, outside of shoes targeted at athletes that boast some interesting-looking, but probably cockamamie, performance-boosting feature. So I was excited when Vibram came out with their Furoshikis, which borrowed the idea of a Japanese wrapping cloth (Westerners: Think of the bundle on the end of a cartoon hobo's stick) and applied it to footwear.

It seemed intriguing, an outsole bonded to flexible wings that you wrap comfortably around your feet. I'd meant to pick up a pair, particularly for long airplane flights, where my feet swell and I ocould use shoes that can be made looser. But now, while researching another story, I came across one of those rare and perfect product reviews, where an objective party demonstrates the product and answers every single question I had:

Maybe this is why true footwear design innovation is so difficult. It seems that aside from some minor gripes I've got with ingress and egress, we've largely perfected the form factor, no?


How Designing an Interactive Race Car Could Help Revive Motorsport

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On the back of recent news of a redesigned Roborace driverless electric race car concept from their chief design officer Daniel Simon (the same man who brought you those light cycles in Tron: Legacy)

Source: Instagram

...we look at an alternative motorsport vision that targets an experiential and immersive racing experience.

Combining hydrogen power in a downhill-racing series, Michael Mills' Concept XY aims to take eco-racing to another level. In an interview with Core77, Mills, a recent Coventry University grad in the Auto and Transport department who is currently a designer at Envisage UK, explains the process behind designing his concept.

"I asked myself the question: how could motorsport be beneficial to everyone, not just the fans and spectators at the race?"
"We're in an era where traditional motorsport is on the decline, with falling viewing figures for F1 and Nascar for example, so I explored how the sport can be more involving for the fans through elements like a fitness program, AR/VR, and social media as a way of connecting to your team or favorite driver."
"The idea is to combine the fun of a traditional circuit with the principle of 'descent' to save power and make regen easier, (regenerative braking system that converts kinetic energy into energy that can be used for acceleration) with potentially more excitement from the danger of downhill racing." 
"So one element of XY race is 'get fit for motorsport'—the idea that you can generate power for your team or your favorite driver that they then use as energy in the race. The driver and team could be responsible for encouraging and motivating people to recharge their car to get to 100% power for the next race."
"Another feature to make the racing more of an immersive experience, is the AR/VR element for the spectators: an app, Project Descent, is the hub where fans can track and monitor their team's power-levels, lap-times, g-levels etc. Fans could also access special team cameras throughout the race: driver's-eye and pit-crew viewpoints, and augmented reality would give them live info-graphics on each car."

What was the thinking behind the layered surfacing? As Mills told Core77:

"The layered surfacing was a way to make the vehicle visually lightweight, so by having this three-layer architecture, it shows the separation between the driver pod and interlocking layers above it which make up the XY graphic. The layered design also helped manipulate the airflow around the driver pod, so bettering the aerodynamic potential of the car."

Anything you'd do differently? "Design wise, I wish I could have nailed the package of the vehicle sooner because not knowing the packaging of the components hindered the design process immensely. Once the package came together, the design came together very quickly too."

"With this project I definitely developed as a designer, because I had half a year developing the design with 2D and 3D tools - so by the end of it I really understood the car in perspective and proportion."


This Toothpick Dispenser Has Darth Vader Pull One Out and Hand It to You

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Oh, to be a designer for Bandai. Can you imagine being handed this assignment, or coming up with it and having it approved? The Japanese toymaker has designed a toothpick dispenser shaped like Darth Vader, complete with billowing cape. When you pull the lever on the back, he reaches into his cape, pulls out a freaking toothpick and hands it to you:

Fine, yeah, it's probably not going to make it into the MoMA's permanent collection. But I bet the thing will still sell like hotcakes, $60 price tag aside. I mean it's way classier than, say, an R2-D2 Pez dispenser.


Sweden's Smart Speed Bumps

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If you think about it, it's strange that cars are sold that vastly exceed speed limits. The highest speed limit anywhere in America is 85 m.p.h., yet we can freely purchase cars capable of doing double that amount. While governments could mandate that all cars come with speed governors, none are willing to take such a draconian step.

Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. Top speed: 199 m.p.h.

Instead societies devise primitive, external methods to prevent people from speeding. Perhaps the most inefficient is the pursuit-ready policeman who must sit in an idling cruiser, manning a radar gun; that's a waste of both manpower and resources, even if tickets bring in revenue. It would be better if people were simply motivated to not speed in the first place, rather than wasting everyone's time and money with your average pull-over situation.

A Swedish company called Edeva has designed a better anti-speeding system. They designed the Actibump, a sort of smart speed bump:

The first Actibump was installed in Sweden in 2010 in Linköping, and they've since spread to Uppsala, Malmo and even the bridge linking Sweden with Denmark. I don't doubt that it takes quite a bit of resources to install and maintain one of these, but on balance it's got to be better than having the local police department throw a body and a cruiser at the problem.

As for how it is installed and maintained, the following video explains both, and allows us to see that the design is quite clever. The developers have carefully considered how to make it both easy and safe to maintain, and we see that the (horizontal) lowering/raising mechanism is accomplished by cams on a crankshaft, which can of course be rotated by a simple motor:

So why is this better than a far-cheaper "dumb" speed bump? In my mind, it's because the Actibump leaves law-abiding drivers unmolested while only inconveniencing speeders. And if you think about where sets of "dumb" speed bumps are typically installed—say, school zones—it makes little sense that every vehicle that approaches between 9am and 2pm, when all of the students are safely inside the school grounds, must hit their brakes, accelerate, then hit their brakes for the next bump, et cetera. The Actibump collectively decreases wear and tear.

Via Digg

Design Job: News Flash! U.S. News & World Report is Seeking a Front End Developer in Washington, DC

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U.S. News & World Report is looking for a front-end developer with significant client side scripting skills to join our growing developer team building data-driven products for one of the globe’s most trusted brands. For 80 years, U.S. News & World Report has built a strong and profitable business

View the full design job here

7 Social Enterprises That Are Investing in the Future

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While traditional for-profit enterprise is rewarded for investing in visions of the future, social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders are only rewarded for reacting to problems that already exist. While it is crucial that the social sector continues to react to the problems of today, we must also advocate for an integration of strategic foresight in social enterprise and nonprofit management. These are the topics explored in our new book, Toward a Preemptive Social Enterprise.

Toward a Preemptive Social Enterprise is a manifesto and collection of essays inspiring a new generation of social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders to move from a founding principle that is informed by reaction to one that is driven by strategic foresight.

"Social entrepreneurship is almost always too late. As practitioners of social enterprise, we hold the assumption that our responsibility is to exclusively act post-crisis in order to gradually chip away at a persistent problem, or to maintain a state of peace. The art of reaction is necessary, but the expectation of post-traumatic innovation as the singular starting point for an entire industry is limiting. What if social enterprise was also responsible for preemption? What if social entrepreneurs were also futurists?"

The good news? There are exciting social enterprises and impact-driven businesses that are challenging the norm by investing in the future. These organizations are thinking big, leveraging emerging technologies, and are blazing new trails to change the world! Here, we highlight 7 of those preemptive social enterprises.

The Hydrous is empowering local stakeholders by leveraging design thinking and exponential technologies to co-create sustainable communities and massive social impact. Coral reefs are an incredible resource – they produce 50% of all oxygen in our atmosphere, and house 25% of all marine biodiversity. The problem? Coral reefs are at severe risk due to climate change, and traditional methods of monitoring are limited. To combat this, The Hydrous uses new media to capture corals in 3D. In doing so, they are uncovering incredible insight into these resources.

M-Kopa is a Kenyan startup that is set to deliver solar power to more than a million homes at an incredibly affordable rate. According to a recent feature in Quartz, with a setup fee of $35, and a daily payment of 50 cents, the company is currently offering its technology to over 275,000 homes. From Quartz: "About the size of an iPad mini (but a few inches thicker) M-Kopa's home solar energy system provides three lights, five USB connections for phone charging, and a portable radio. Only one third of Kenyans are connected to the national grid, and more than half of Kenyans still rely on kerosene, batteries, and candles for light and power, according to the company." 

Singularity University provides startups with a path toward accelerating their understanding of, and innovation in, cutting-edge technologies. The organization accomplishes this by developing innovative partnerships and education programs. At the center of the University's teachings is an expectation that the products and services their students make must be capable of impacting one billion lives. With over 100 startups now out on the market, initially incubated by SU, it is certain that exciting breakthroughs are in our near future.

Ava is a mobile platform that aims to break down the barriers of communication between the deaf and hearing worlds. They do this by deploying innovative products that combine audio and visual accessibility in an affordable manner. From their manifesto: "If you can compensate for [a] loss of visual cues, you [can] dramatically increase accessibility. Captioning, subtitles in movies, or even sign language are great examples of adding the visual layer. And it kicks ass."

Andela "identifies and integrates the top 1% of global tech talent to help accelerate your product roadmap." Recently funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Andela invites developers in Kenya and Nigeria to apply for a four-year leadership program. The program is designed to help them master the professional and technical skills they need to succeed in technology by working on projects with real-world companies. 

GiveDirectly is a bold campaign that aims to engage Internet users around the world in the crowdfunding of a Universal Basic Income. "We plan to scientifically test the idea of a universal basic income by providing regular cash payments to thousands of extremely poor households in East Africa for more than ten years. " As a study, this fundraising campaign aims to understand if a Universal Basic Income is truly the best approach to ending global poverty. The best part? Anyone can get involved, and just $1/day is all it takes to provide a basic income for an individual in the communities GiveDirectly works in.

TerraCycle is a revolutionary recycling company that offers free recycling programs, funded by brands, manufacturers, and retailers around the world. The programs, leveraged by over 60 Million people, have a special emphasis on making hard-to-recycle waste more simple to collect and recycle. Their programs include recycling rallies that take place at various schools, zero waste boxes that allow you to recycle almost anything, and more! As if that isn't enough, the programs also benefit local charities, with over $15,000,000 dollars donated thus far.

Here's the thing. Not all of the world's problems are solved. The notion of preemptive social enterprise is not trying to claim that, and it is not trying to dismiss all of the necessary work of traditional social enterprise and nonprofit management. Instead, it is arguing that we need even more work to be done. We need a new wave of social entrepreneurs who balance reaction to existing problems with taking the time to consider that which has yet to happen. No one has a crystal ball, but there are some amazing methodologies that exist in the strategic foresight field that make this easier. Welcome, the new social entrepreneur. We need you. We're glad you're here!

This Tiny Tape Dispenser Is Sharper Than It Looks

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Minimalism is a great design framework but it often streamlines out important niceties like comfort [Weigh in about your own thoughts on design minimalism through our recent Forum Frenzy]. With simple day to day tools like tape dispensers we take small design flaws in stride, since the irritation of picking at the end of a roll of tape isn't the end of the world but it's certainly worse than the crappy plastic dispensers we're all familiar with. Zyp-Zyp is an admirably simple tool with surprisingly user-friendly functionality, designed by Pascal Heiler. 

Crucially, the Zyp-Zyp does away with the ubiquitous dispenser without losing ease of use, grip or cutting quality. The description gets a little deep, "It always starts with the search for the end – the end of the tape," which while dramatic is fair to both my design process and tape scrounging. There are several minimalist/roll-hugging designs out there, but the Zyp-Zyp's unique trick is in its pivot. 

To use it you thread* the start of your roll through the guide hole sticky side up, rip a piece off, then fold the tape backwards, over the back of the dispenser and onto the roll. When you're ready to go again, press down on the cutting half to free the end of the tape. This secures the tool, avoids having to pick for the end, and keeps the tape from getting gunky between uses. 

The traditional tape dispenser is pretty damn user friendly but desk dwellers and designers with a lot of sticking to do know how quickly that crappy plastic lip gets gunked up and worn down. Plus when I'm prototyping I burn through tape rolls like a bachelorette party goes through toilet paper: after a certain point it's not eco conscious to keep tossing plastic stuff.

My ideal aesthetic is as uncluttered as possible, but as a tool user I tend unabashedly towards the ergonomic and pragmatic. This thing gets around the chic-yet-slippery side of simplicity with a stout cast body and molded-in grip lines. The curve of the tool looks easy on the hands. Though I wonder at how easy it is to avoid the toothy side while leveraging it I have managed to cut myself on a roll of tape outside of a dispenser, so YMMV. 

All in all the Zyp-Zyp seems like a stylish and pragmatic addition to the ranks of minimalist desk tools. Given its portability it stacks up well in comparison with other slick designs like the popular ClickTape, or the weird and beautiful MSDS tape holder. I'm not about to give up my prized Claustrum, but at 24 Euros each I'd toss a Zyp-Zyp in a tool kit or take one to work.

What do you think, does this design stick to the wall?

*Double the end over if you aren't starting fresh! You'd be appalled at how many smart people try threading a sticky thing through a tight space and expect success. It's like the Purge out there.

Not Enough Closet Space? Clothes Racks to the Rescue

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Older homes often lack closet space (as do some other small apartments, condos and houses), which can leave the occupants searching for ways to store their clothes. Freestanding wardrobes may be too bulky, but a clothes rack might work. Some offices and other workspaces might find a clothes rack handy, too. While there are plenty of utilitarian options, some designs are especially noteworthy.

Back in 2008, we wrote about the DINO clothes rack from designer Lincoln Kayiwa. Now Kayiwa has collaborated with Materialise to create the cool-looking DINO Module, with its 3D printed hangers. The varying hanger lengths ensure that the DINO will accommodate both long and short clothing pieces. (But this also means the DINO won't work for an end user with all long items.) The spacers help ensure that there's enough room for bulky items such as winter coats. 

Having the shelf above the rod provides additional storage. And the rack is on locking casters, so it can be moved around reasonably easily. 

The Tati coatrack from Asplund was designed by Johan Ridderstråle and Mats Broberg. It has an optional hat knob as well as optional hooks to use in addition to whatever hangers the end user chooses. The base is either Carrara marble or black granite, so it's not going to tip over easily. 

The Tris, from Mox, was designed by Gerhard Gerber.

It consists of three solid chrome-plated steel tube frames, connected with four synthetic joints.

With this design, the Tris can be configured in various ways, providing some flexibility for the end user.

Photo: Amanda Hestehave

Some clothes racks provide enclosed storage, too. As a member of the Holdbar design group, Annika Göransson created the Alfred for the group's exhibition during Paris Design Week 2015.

This is another design which can be rearranged a bit to meet the end user's needs: a compact design vs. one which allows for more long items to be hung, and stacked vs. non-stacked drawers.

The 7-Day Closet was designed by Golf Jakkapun Charinrattana, one of the designers at Studio248, for MilliMatter.

One nice addition to this design is the pole which can hold ties, slacks, etc. The drawers are intended for clothes which can be folded; with at least one of them, the end user can glance inside to remember what's stored there. The drawers are sized differently than those in the Alfred; each sizing choice will work best for some subset of end users.

Noodles Noodles & Noodles has clothing racks with shelves, crates or both; each of the four side shelves in this model can be fitted with a crate. Casters and hooks are optional, too. All of this gives the end user some nice options. Those crates are billed as a way to store smaller items, but they seem quite large; I'd think little items would get lost inside them.

Some clothes racks take the form of screens or room dividers. Apparel from Opinion Ciatti, designed by Vera & Kyte, is made of lacquered steel. It has 10 coat hooks, and clothes can also be draped over the bars or (for scarves and such) passed through one of the diamond-shaped openings. 

Hooks are easier to use than hangers, so this design could appeal to those who want a super-simple way to hang up some clothes. However, given the placement of those hooks, some items may be hard to see.

Photos: James Champion

Loris&Livia's screen was part of a series of prototypes presented during the London Design Festival 2008. For those end users who would could use a screen, the flexibility here is nice, allowing one item to serve as a coat rack, a screen or both at any given time—and also allowing for the four sections to be folded into different arrangements.

Natalia Géci's Nomadic Linko System is a system of metal frames, wooden hinges and accessories that can be combined into a wide range of configurations. Flexibility galore!

The system provides numerous storage options (hooks, hangers, shelves, pockets, etc.) as well as things like mirrors. My concern here (as with many screen-type racks) would be stability; would a large rambunctious dog easily knock it over?

Reader Submitted: Fingerprint Strips That Spark a Conversation Around Identity Theft

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Identity is a fingerprint substitute that acts similarly to a band-aid for fingerprints. Contrary to the biological fingerprints you already have, Identity strips are fully replaceable and disposable. Identity allows you to have a new fingerprint everyday, either as a replacement for stolen fingerprints or to prevent future theft. Each strip is unique, and they are even harder to copy than real fingerprints.

View the full project here

Extrapolation Factory Wants Us to Pay More Attention to Our Future

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Throughout life, we are constantly asked to think about the future, yet we're given very few methods, models or tools for doing so in constructive ways. According to Jim Dator, Director of the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, our visions for the future are often colonized by mainstream imagery. We're bombarded with flying cars in Hollywood films and reductive red/blue political rhetoric, but only meager forums for constructing alternative visions. Despite the growing number of academic and expert visioning approaches, the general population is working toward collective futures with few tools at hand.

In an effort to open-source future research models through design, The Extrapolation Factory has been organizing experimental events that streamline expert futures research tools for use by everyone from government employees to public school students. Extrapolation Factory Operator's Manual, a new book written by The Extrapolation Factory co-founders Elliott P. Montgomery and Chris Woebken, captures the studio's democratized futures work and elucidates strategies culled from think tanks and futurists, as well as models and techniques the duo has developed for organizing collaborative futures explorations.

99¢ Futures "Time Warp Opening."
99¢ Currency Converter—one of the objects offered at the "Time Warp Opening."

The Operator's Manual unveils specific techniques and anecdotes from several years of experiments by The Extrapolation Factory, starting with the studio's original project,99¢ Futures. At a workshop in February of 2013, Montgomery and Woebken asked a group of about 40 participants to imagine the products one might find in a 99¢ store of the future. The group was introduced to a database of emerging signals and expert projections, as well as a mental framework for organizing future scenarios. After the group conceived over 30 futures, built representative objects, and packaged them to share the respective backstories, the artifacts were reproduced and transported to an existing 99¢ store in downtown Brooklyn for a "Time Warp Opening". Neighborhood regulars mixed with invited guests, inspecting Home Transplant Kits, Instant University Degrees, and Space Suit Lining Replacements that were nestled among the standard shop inventory. The result was an experience in which observers momentarily stepped into a proposed future—just long enough to picture a new alternative—and then returned to reality. 

99¢ Futures participants.

The chapters in the Extrapolation Factory Operator's Manual follow the sequence of the studio's process. The manual starts with a look into the past, including a shortlist of futurists and designers who inspired the launch of the studio. Next, a series of frameworks for conceiving, organizing and analyzing future visions are introduced. Following the frameworks are chapters on making stories about futures, fabricating evidence from said stories, and contextualizing these bits of evidence in the world around us. The book concludes with a series of reflections—interviews with partners and colleagues addressing the value of democratized futures projects. Found within the book's final section are conversations with BLDG BLOG's Geoff Manaugh, Gastropod's Nicola Twilley, Autodesk futurist Andrew Hessel, Roy Campbell of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Microsoft designer, David Benque, a former PS 147 student named Treasure, and Jim Dator.

In their reflections, all of these folks have championed the democratization of futures studies through design. As social movements form in a flash, government leadership perches on shaky pillars, and technology whizzes a mile a minute, it seems that public access to futures-research is all but imperative. While there is great need for competent expert futurists, these visionaries should not be the only ones responsible for rigorously imagining future possibilities. All of us should actively envision the scenarios we want to live and work to identify paths toward those worlds. Ideally, the manual will serve many cultures and communities, not as a constrictive blueprint, but as a launchpad for envisioning more thoughtful, desirable alternatives for our collective futures.

Join The Extrapolation Factory tonight in NYC from 7PM-10PM for a celebratory launch of the Extrapolation Factory Operator's Manual

Thanks to You, Here's 5 More Reasons to Attend the 2016 Core77 Conference

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As if you needed more reasons to attend the 2016 Core77 Designing Here/Now Conference

Besides a full-day symposium of speaker presentations and roundtable discussions on Thursday, September 29th, this year's Core77 conference features a second day of programming focused on practical knowledge for designers—Friday will begin with morning workshop sessions and finally afternoon insider tours around downtown Los Angeles. 

Last month we drew on the deep well of knowledge from our larger Core77 community with a call for workshop ideas to add to our pre-programmed sessions led by KeyShot, solidThinking, Core77 contributors sketching guru Spencer Nugent and product licensing sensei Stephen Key

We're excited to announce five community-led workshops that came out of our call for ideas—led by YOU! 

Anticipatory Design and the Future of Smart Products and Services

For the past two decades Byron Phillipson has been championing the application of disruptive design for some of the world's biggest brands. He is now the Group Creative Director of Huge Los Angeles, the company's second principal office in the United States, opening in 2006. Working with some of Huge's biggest clients in media, entertainment and technology, the office is home to more than 70 visual, interactive and product designers, creatives, technologists, researchers, strategists and digital program managers.

Presented by: Byron Phillipson, Group Creative Director, Huge

The Future of Work: Thriving in an Era of Workplace Automation

In the spring of 2016, Forum for the Future brought together members of its network—including representatives from Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurs, and NGOs—in a collaborative innovation session to discuss the future of work and to think through how we might create more sustainable workplaces in the face of trends like automation, climate change and aging populations. In this interactive session, Rodrigo will share five trends affecting how we work and some of the more interesting concepts that emerged from the innovation session, challenging designers to imagine new ways of working together in the near future.

Presented by: Rodrigo Bautista, Principal Sustainability Advisor - Innovation, Forum for the Future

How to Future Proof Your Next Idea

The frequency of new ideas, trends and technology in today's world can leave many designers feeling unsure where to focus their attention. To create positive change in this world, we must create a clearer vision of the unarticulated needs of future users. This workshop shows designers how to apply future-forecasting tools to their daily work to inspire more influential and long-lasting innovations.

Presented by: Michael Roller, Trends Director, LPK

More Than a Logo: Crafting a Brand Vision

The first step in building an authentic and cut-through brand is to establish a strong vision to guide its growth. Catering to both designers and those communicating with designers, this workshop will outline quick and iterative design strategy exercises that work to set the foundation for a holistic brand identity. Learn best practice techniques and tools for crafting a positioning strategy, roll-out plan and design direction tailored to your offer, timeline and goals.

Presented by: Ada Mayer, Senior Designer, Wolff Olins

Narrative Without User Journeys

When people think of narrative and storytelling they often default to the linear narrative techniques we encounter most often in our daily lives. However, today's products and services are often too complicated to be captured in a single user-journey-esque story. In this workshop we'll focus on a different narrative technique, theme, and how developing strong themes can help focus your path to envisioning more coherent products and services.

Presented by: Daniel Orbach and Steven Bennett, Senior Designers, Moment

Join us for more strategies on co-creation at this September's Core77 Conference in Los Angeles. Buy your tickets today to get in on our Friday Workshop + Tour program!

Couture Craft and Technology Meld at The Met's "Manus x Machina" Exhibition  

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The Costume Institute's exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology explores how fashion designers are finding innovative ways of reconciling the dichotomy between hand (manus) and machine (machine). Rather than posit the two poles against each other, the show presents compelling examples in which traditional craft techniques and cutting-edge technologies are deployed as equal partners to stimulate the future of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear.

Curated by the Head Curator of the Costume Institute Andrew Bolton, the show features more than 170 ensembles dating from the early 20th century to the present, organized around the traditional métiers (trades) of dressmaking as outlined in Diderot's encyclopedia of 1751: embroidery, featherwork, artificial flowers, lacework, leatherwork, pleating, tailoring, and dressmaking. 

From Karl Lagerfeld's show-stopping embroidered wedding dress, Iris van Herbert's magnet-formed iron filigree ensemble, Hussain Chalayan's remote-controlled dresses on wheels and Issey Miyake's elaborate pleated structures—each example is shown on simple dress forms (like those you would find in a working atelier) which highlights the exquisite craftsmanship of each piece. 

The case study pieces are set against an ethereal installation by OMA's Shohei Shigematsu, a transparent scaffold that wraps around the circular Robert Lehman galleries creating the experience of a "translucent ghost cathedral"—a transcendental experience which is further augmented by a looping Brian Eno soundtrack. 

"Manus x Machina" is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through September 5, 2016.

Installation View
The exhibition design by OMA New York cloaks the Met's circular Robert Lehman wing in scaffolding wrapped with a white perforated PVC fabric to create the effect of being in a "translucent ghost cathedral," as lead architect Shohei Shigematsu describes.
Photo credit: Core77
House of Dior "Juno" Dresses (left), 1949-50, and Alexander McQueen evening dress (right), 2012-13
Elaborate embroidery work (including featherwork and artificial flowers) is a hallmark of haute couture created by a specialized group of "paruriers" (adornment makers). The process has remained largely the same for more than a century—still largely based on the mid-1860s Luneville embroidery (or tambour beading) technique developed by Louis Ferry-Bonnechaux.
Photo credit: Core77
Detail of Alexander McQueen Evening Dress
This piece combines hand-embroidered silver silk and metallic hand-shredded petals with silver beads, clear crystals and silver plastic feather-shaped paillettes on top of a machine-sewn silk organza base.
Photo credit: Core77
House of Givenchy Evening Dress (left) 1963 and Alexander McQueen dress (right) 2012
These colorful pieces both incorporate embroidery with pieces of coral, shells and glass beads.
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A classic Chanel dress (left) and a set of Louis Vuitton dresses (right), 2016
The Louis Vuitton dresses are hand-embroidered with clear and white sequins and then screen-printed with black pigment to create a layered effect. Lead designer Nicolas Ghesquiére explains: "Whether to use the hand or the machine is never completely apparent...Your decision has to be informed...I think it's an exciting part of the process, actually, not knowing how you will execute a garment until it says, 'This is right for now. This is what fashion feels like at the moment.'"
Photo credit: Core77
Louis Vuitton dresses, 2016
"These pieces were very complex in terms of the processes involved. The celluloid sequins were cut into strips by laser, then machine glued onto tulle...As I began to fold and drape the fabric, bubbles began to form, and the sequins took on the shape of a croissant...Because the sequins were too shiny, we had them spray-painted—by hand—to create shadows and to make them look more dimensional...I wanted everything to look imperfect, even the metal eyelets," says Ghesquiére.
Photo credit: Core77
Proenza Schouler dress (left) 2015-16 and Iris van Herpen (right) 2013-14
van Herpen's crustacean-like piece is sculpted with the aid of magnets. A soft rubber is mixed with metal powder and placed on top of a cotton base. "When you mix everything together, the rubber has a few minutes when it is still wet and soft. We pour the rubber onto the cotton fabric. Then we place magnets above and below, and you see the metal powder grow piece by piece...before it sets... While the rubber is still wet and soft we add a very thin enamel powder that has iridescent qualities."
Photo credit: Core77
Gareth Pugh, 2015-16
The British designer has developed a trademark material approach using drinking straws. Each straw is cut by hand and attached individually with a small piece of metal jewelry hardware. The ethereal pieces emit a soft sound as the wearer moves, "like feathers caught in a gust of wind."
Photo credit: Core77
Iris van Herpen dress (right) 2013-14
This dress doesn't just look bird-like, it actually incorporates a real bird-head skeleton in the shoulder structure. The complex process includes making strips of laser-cut silicone feathers and hand-applying them to a cage-like base structure.
Photo credit: Core77
Detail showing the internal structure of van Herpen's dress
Photo credit: Core77
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Super High-Res Timelapse of Rio de Janeiro

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Olympics-viewers among us are all seeing Rio these days, but aside from the occasional cutaway shots, the cameras are all pointed at the athletes inside of the venues. To get a far better sense of what Rio looks like from a more zoomed-out perspective, feast your eyes on these crazy-high-res time-lapses shot by photographer Joe Capra, who put together a 10K (10,328 x 7,760) video timelapse from various vantage points around the city (fullscreen this for best effect):

Capra shot this with the PhaseOne IQ180 digital back, a pricey creation from Denmark. "I wanted to show a couple things with this demo video. First, the extreme resolution of this camera (and medium format in general)," Capra writes. "Second, the amazing amount of flexibility this resolution allows for in post production. You can literally get about 8-10 solid 1920x1080 shots out of a single shot. You can also get about 5-6 solid 4K shots out of a single shot." That explains why the IQ180 runs USD ~$50,000!


Design Job: Your Future is Looking Bright! New Balance is Seeking a Footwear Color Designer in Lawrence, MA

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New Balance has a history of 100 years of enduring performance and is still running strong today. Part of what makes New Balance so unique is our commitment to making products that not only provide performance, but also superior fit and comfort. The same attention that is placed on our

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Serving the Poor Before the Rich: Zipline's Wonderful Life-Saving Drones

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Mobile phone usage was first implemented in developed nations, and after the kinks were worked out, trickled down to developing nations. Citizens of the latter went from shouting across a valley to speaking into a Nokia, and they were able to bypass the landline step entirely. What was once exclusively the domain of the rich came to serve the poor.

A company called Zipline is taking the opposite development route. They're running trials of their new technology, Zip, in a developing nation first and will bring it to us one-percenters afterwards. Zip is a small, autonomous aircraft with a cargo bay, and the company has been using it to deliver blood, vaccines and medicine to folks in remote regions of Rwanda. (Which is to say, Rwanda. The country is notoriously difficult to travel through by surface.) Zip circles the target, drops its parachute-equipped payload, then whips back around to head for home.

Unlike DHL's Osprey-like Parcelcopter, Zip is fixed-wing, and they launch the thing like a slingshot and off of a ramp.

It's also freaking fast; it can do 60 miles per hour, cutting a winding four-hour journey down to a 15-minute straight shot. Take a look at the drone itself and what kind of impact it makes:

Interestingly enough, the project is partially funded by UPS. It's just a matter of time before we have drone-based package deliveries in the developed world; whether it's Amazon, DHL or UPS that gets there first, it won't be long before our Cottonelle toilet paper and Bose headphones fall out of the sky and onto our front lawns. But it's heartening to see that, whether out of the developers' philanthropy or being stymied by current FAA regulations, it is the poor who will benefit from the technology first.


London's Summertime Supercar Show-Offs

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Touring in London this month, Bill Burr noticed something unusual: The capital's streets were awash in a preternatural amount of supercars. 

At one stoplight a Ferrari driver who couldn't restrain himself kept goosing the throttle—RA RA RA, RA RA RA—leading a female passersby to stop, glare and deliver the quintessential British expression of disgust: "Oh, stop it."

Comedian Burr, who recounted the story on his podcast, inquired among the locals: Why all these exotics? 

As it turns out, each summer wealthy oil barons, a good chunk of them billionaires in their 20s, vacation in London to escape the scorching heat of their native Middle East. With money no obstacle, these men have their supercars packed onto airplanes and flown to London like expensive luggage.

But that's not all. Among men of such wealth, it's not enough to drive a $2 million Bugatti Veyron that can do 253 miles per hour, when 20 of your friends can all afford to buy the same car. In order to stand out from the crowd, the owners are driven to customize their cars with some rather garish aesthetic modifications. 

The drivers then cruise the streets of London's Knightsbridge neighborhood, visiting one luxury store after another.

Apparently they occasionally race each other at night, and local residents are not pleased. "I am not angry. I am just exhausted," a local told The Daily Mail. "They are again racing down Sloane Street from late afternoons until 3 or 4 in the morning…it seems as though local residents are in for another sleepless August."

Local car design lovers, however, descend upon the region with glee, eager to shoot photos and videos of the informal parades. For years now, some of these "Carparazzis" even post YouTube videos of the proceedings, with titles like "The Great London-Arabic Supercar Motorshow" or "The Great Arab Supercar Invasion of London:"


AquaBoom Allows Anyone to Train Like an Olympian

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Regardless of your age or fitness level, the AquaBoom pushes you to your cardiac threshold while fluidly moving you from one exercise to the next. Aqua Boom utilizes the laws of physics and buoyancy to automatically start you at the activity level your body can safely withstand.

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