Ebike Studio - Summer 2010 from James Sloss on Vimeo.
How do you show a semester's worth of work? In a 2 minute time lapse of course. Check out the above video of a small team of 3rd year students from UC posted by James Sloss. The video focusses mainly on the prototyping phase of the project, but you can see a bunch more detail on the "Borough Bicycles One" >> HERE
You can also check out other classmates final models >> HERE
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Here's a neat Quirky project that has gotten the green light and is now in production: The Switch.
It's a Swiss-Army-style multi-tool that lets you swap parts in and out from a kit. The user can also swap out axles, providing a minimum of two and maximum of six tools, a minimum of four and a maximum of ten tools, or minimum of seven with a max of 13 for serious MacGyvers.
The Switch took input from 379 people, will run you $79 bucks, and comes with 17 tools (hit the jump to see the full list). What would be really cool and RP-ish is if we could design our own tools....
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Ten years ago, with a design competition you'd see the brief, and a few months later you'd see the results; the selection process was largely opaque. But nowadays it's a much more transparent process with YouTube videos and websites presenting entrants' pitches.
As an example check out this update to Sony's Open Planet Ideas Challenge, the design competition seeking sustainable applications for technology. They've winnowed down hundreds of entries and come up with a top three:
Dutch designer Carolien Laro has been on the blog rounds lately for her Restless Legs stool, seen above; but the rest of her book is also well worth a gander.
Laro's Memo-clip-bord stays with the idea of placing cuts in wood to give it a springiness:
Using similar techniques, her Boekenverzamelaar gets demonstrably fatter (but stays stable) as a bibliophile fills it up:
And we dig her personal toolbox, which doesn't use the wood-spring technique but has cool pivoting compartments to add some functional panache to the standard storage-rectangle.
My biggest pet peeve about cleaning up the photo studio I run is picking other people's trash out of the recycling bin. Yes, it's a waste pail just like the garbage pail, but is it not clear that this one's for bottles and that one is for your half-finished pizza, you freaking Philistine?
So I'm digging Qualy Design's recycling bin, which is not only recycleable itself but also has the recycling logo cleverly worked into its lid.
But who am I fooling, this probably isn't going to stop careless rubbish-tossers. What I need is for the lid to be modified into a mechanical aperture that closes shut on a recycling offender's arm, pinning it with the arrow's points.
Cheryl Heller posted a fantastic point of view on the Design Thinking movement. One which aligns with my personal take but instead of posting my interpretation, I'll just let her tell it:
..."Instead of making design a more integral, universal and respected part of business, it creates another silo, another separation. Another category of specialists that builds one more barrier to the kind of real systems thinking we need to survive.
It lulls people into thinking they are being creative when they are not. It harbors procrastination and stereotypical thinking, substitutes process for real invention. It robs design of dimension by placing it solely in the world of the brain when design is much more than rational thinking - it is emotion and intuition and sensing and gut. When does a process become dogma? And why is our culture so afraid of the feminine energy? (Don't answer that, I already know.)
It becomes another bit of ideology that makes it even harder for business to embrace a truly original thinker."...
See her full post >>> HERE
This connects with a discussion about intuition or "gut" that has been going on in the discussion forums: read some of the discussion and contribute >>> HERE
Thanks Amina Horozic for the tip.
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Cadiz-based artist Maximo Riera has thirty years of experience in photography, painting and sculpture, and that diverse background served him well for his recent and ambitious undertaking: The Animal Chair collection, a series of furniture based on mammals, reptiles, and insects.
Each creation retains the animal's natural vitality whilst being totally biologically accurate in their appearance. This collection is an homage to these animals and the whole animal kingdom which inhabits our planet, as an attempt to reflect and capture the beauty of nature in each living thing.
The recently completed project took Riera some three years, and most of the chairs have not yet been publicly unveiled on his website except his Octopus Chair, seen here. "This piece has required the highest technology and engineering in order to manufacture and develop it," explains Riera. "More than thirty professionals from four different companies have been involved in the process which has been developed entirely in the United Kingdom."
Other animals in the furniture line-up include the Rhino, Lion, Beetle, Whale and Walrus; we'll keep you posted as they go public.
Introducing the 2011 Mediocrity, which of course comes only in beige:
No, it's not a real car; it's an amusing commentary by Subaru on the current state of mass-market auto design. The website of the viral campaign features silly and de rigueur touches like mock social networking features, a "build your own" section and the ever-important Designer Interviews, where they discuss their "inspiration" for the car's design:
Dig it? There's more videos here.
Creative Director
frog design
San Francisco, CA
frog design, a global innovation firm is seeking a Creative Director. The position requires a deep understanding of the user experience around all consumer products (physical, web, environmental). They are looking for a profoundly engaged and experienced leader to spearhead new creative and strategic thinking for projects with interactive and haptic elements.
The Creative Director should have deep experience and practical expertise in both Product User Interface and Website design programs. The Creative Director will help set the direction, style, and methodology of the collective frog design group. They will also help set bar for quality and innovation in the office. For individual projects, the Creative Director will integrate clients' business requirements into design strategies, interaction, and visual solutions. A balanced understanding of strategy, usability, interaction, and visual design is a must. Business development experience is necessary, and experience lecturing and writing about design is preferred.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
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Our favorite swiss-miss, Tina Eisenberg, launched a new website today to help event organizers break the ice at their next mix and mingle. Similar to a nametag, Icebreakertags allow users to create their own conversation-starting question, customize with a logo, and generate a printout with 10 tags. The idea came to Eisenberg while organizing her monthly lecture series CreativeMornings. Check out our coverage of last week's CreativeMorning with Milton Glaser. I (more...)
Another piece of animal-inspired design, this one based on an anteater: The Pangolin line of bags uses recycled inner tubes to recreate an armadillo-like shell, which hinges open via chrome pivots and latches shut with magnets.
It's manufactured by Colombia-based Cyclus, a company pushing the eco-design philosophy on several fronts. In addition to using inner tubes as their chief raw material, Cyclus also takes in used clothing and plastic bottles and employs low-income families to process those materials into useable fabric. You can check out their product line-up here, and learn more about their process here.
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This is the first of a series of Q+As contributor Tamara Warren conducted with designers from the NAIAS 2011 show.
The Porsche 918 RSR was the talk of the North American International Auto Show. Porsche Design Director Michael Mauer is responsible for the 767 horsepower sexy plug-in hybrid racecar that's due to be a motor sports contender. It's the racier version of the 918 Spyder hybrid introduced in fall 2010 and due for showrooms.
C77: What do you feel you achieved with the 918 RSR?
Michael Mauer: There is such an intense appreciation for this car and there is the responsibility to the pleasure of driving. We had to visually capture this in the car. For design purposes we develop the design language and surfaces around it. If you look at the 918 there are subtle lines. We still stick to Porsche's background.
How do you balance the love for past Porsches with new cutting edge design?
Maybe you need to be more careful, but we're not doing retro design. The 918 Porsche has a strong history. It is always a balance between history and visionary, but still respecting our identity. There's no need to do radical design changes. The shape is the same, we try to envision brand value.
What's your process like?
I personally sketch by hand, because the little sketches are reminders when I try to visualize the cars. The younger designers like to do this on the computer.
What are your influences outside of cars?
Inspiration is everywhere. As a designer you are more sensitive and open to visual things. If you talk about interiors and materials from the furniture industry, there are a lot of possibilities there.
Tamara Warren, a Motor City native, is co-founder/editor of the car and culture blog Gotryke.com. Her articles have appeared in over 80 publications covering culture, music, the arts, automobiles and design. She has written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Delta Sky, Nylon, Vibe, Automobile and Forbes Autos. Check out her work and Gotryke.com and her clips on Tamarawarren.com.
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Sure this will seem ridiculous to current youth, but when we witnessed the original airings of Sony's Super Walkman commercial, it seemed miraculous:
Industrious mix-tapers could forego the standard 60-minute cassettes and buy mind-blowing 120-minute blanks. That's like, at least 35 songs in your pocket! And it would only take you three, four hours to put it all together.
I'm disappointed they cropped her pants out.
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Miami-based furniture and design showroom, Luminaire, is celebrating their 37th anniversary with a special lecture from renowned designer/architect Patricia Urquiola. The Spanish designer is one of the most recognized visionaires in contemporary design and has played a critical part in Luminaire's "Love" fundraising series for cancer research. The lecture, co-sponsored by B&B Italia, will also be an occasion to introduce Urquiola's Bend sofa for B&B, a new work that has received critical acclaim for its technical features.
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A rectangular motorcyle; cutlery that sacrifices utility for aesthetics; a phone with holes for buttons; a phone that's all buttons. These are objects dreamed up by Branko Lukic, the ex-Ideo designer and principal of design firm Nonobject in his conceptual design book of the same name. We posted a capsule review of the book in our Best Innovation and Design Books of 2010 roundup, and Icon Magazine's William Wiles has an in-depth review up here.
Writes Wiles in his unflinching review:
Nonobject does play a valuable role in critical design, even if that role is somewhat oversold in the introductions. Industrial designers produce little in the way of "paper architecture." Unlike architects, who are regularly happy to put aside material or practical constraints and doodle away at megastructures and walking cities, moving professional theory forward as they do, industrial designers are in the vice of the cult of use.......Nonobject is at its best - both funniest and cleverest - when it is at its most critical. One of its highlights is the CUiN5 mobile phone, every surface of which is covered in buttons. No matter which way up it is, it's the right way up. Of course there's no screen or anything else - the point is that there are limits to ease of use, it's not an evolutionary track that stretches forever into the distance....
Here's the CUiN5 phone in question, which looks even better in video than it does in stills. Practical joke, thought-provoker, the anti-touchscreen phone? You decide.
CUin5 from NONOBJECT on Vimeo.
Senior Industrial Designer
Numark Industries
Cumberland, Rhode Island
Numark Industries, the world's leading manufacturer of DJ and Pro Audio equipment is looking for a Senior Industrial Designer. This is an opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the product development process--from concept inception to product launch. Their industrial designers work side-by-side with engineering, marketing and graphic design to choreograph all elements of the product experience. You should be detail oriented and willing to take on any task required by an agile company that's moving fast and learning as we go. Because Numark supports a growing number of independent brands, this design environment provides the project variety you'd find at a consultancy with the control over manufacturing that is only possible on a corporate design team.
The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.
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I love when we are able to find seemingly simple solutions to everyday problems. Product Tank did just that with "New Rule", a ruler for the visually impaired. Adding to the large, high contrast numbers you would expect, "New Rule" has a slider with a geared wheel that displays the measurement mechanically without the need for the cost and complication of electronics. I love how it goes one step further with a slide out caliper arm.
Check out more about it >>> HERE
Exciting news from the rapid prototyping world: For those of you put off by the plastic-like consistency of most RP'd parts, the i.materialise shop has just announced the ability to crank out custom titanium parts.
Their process uses Direct Metal Laser Sintering, which...
...has hereto only really been used by high end research organizations and multinationals making tooling, aerospace components, medical tools, surgical implants or for pure research. We're skipping the "trickle down" affect in technology and now making this revolutionary technology available worldwide. Titanium opens jewelry, high end engineering and high tech applications to this growing segment of people that produce online. Titanium is by far the hardest and strongest 3D printing material. It is also extremely accurate and biocompatible. We are very curious to see which of the host of possible applications that are open to designers will be used by them We think that titanium 3D printing is a powerful production technology that really adds to a designer's arsenal.(more...)
We have an example of good designer-brand cohesion in the DP 01 telephone, designed for Punkt by Jasper Morrison. The former strives to produce consumer products that use technology to simplify life; the latter, for his part, says "I thought about the old telephone, lying face down on its cradle, and asked myself if it wouldn't be better the other way round, so you could see the screen and dial the number without picking it up."
The simple Muji-meets-Olivetti aesthetic of the phone belies an innovative technical capability: If you have more than one of these, you can "slave" up to seven of them together to scatter them about your house, while only one needs to be plugged into an actual phone line. And the form is designed so that it can be either placed on a horizontal surface or wall-mounted.
I've sat through a lot of "How-To" videos, and I wish all of them were edited like this one: Fast-moving, absent any filler, adequately lit and focused, accompanied by intelligent and helpful graphic aids, and with articulate voice instructions provided in a British accent.
Oh yeah, and the object of the video is pretty cool too: an old-school box that looks like tin, but is in fact made from an aluminum drinks can.
via atomic fish
