What would happen if design projects and initiatives with the potential to change the world were given the opportunity to tell their story? The good folks at ICSID are announcing the launch of the World Design Impact Prize as their answer to this question. This biennial award was created, "to be a great vehicle for social, cultural, economic and environmental progress throughout the world," as ICSID President Mark Breitenberg explained. The organization created a unique selection process with a public review accessible online followed by 160 ICSID member organizations voting to determine the Prize winner.

Beginning Februrary 22nd, ICSID will be accepting nominations from member organizations. The winner will be announced at the ICSID General Assembly taking place in Taipei, Taiwan in October. Check out their site, www.icsid.org for more info about the Prize and the organization.

Feiyue The Flying Project from Feiyue on Vimeo.

Who doesnt want your own DIY hover shoe kit? First appearing in Shanghai in the 1920s, the Feiyue sneaker has been consistently popular amongst martial arts enthusiasts the world over because of their lightweight design and unique soles. A French company bought distribution rights to the brand in 2006 and have been slowly retooling the shoes for casual everyday wear. The words "Fei Yue" mean Flying Forward and this ad is a great concept piece.

Call us weak, but we can't help but want everything that comes out of the Madrid based Kawamura-Ganjavian studio.

Having swooned over their fold-up felt "Oyster" chairs late last year, we're now hurriedly rearranging our studios to make way for their newest concept "Giraffe"— a wonderfully distinctive space divider, with a definite look of their "Caterpillar" trestles, and clearly continuing something of a zoological theme in their portfolio.

"Giraffe" is intended to strike the balance between privacy and open-plan and, on top of its dashing good looks, also acts as power and ethernet hub. It even looks like its got a lamp in it!

Whether any of the design duo's creations will ever be available for purchase is another question entirely. For the time being you can window shop on the kg-studio site.

The International Home and Housewares Show hosted a preview highlighting some of the trends and products we can look forward to seeing this year in Chicago. Besides the usual mix of ergonomic kitchen gadgets, new technologies in home appliances, and green solutions for everyday tasks, we saw some interesting trends in the area of product design and usability. In the kitchen storage category, stackability and space saving design were keys to improving everything from Microplane graters to collapsible nesting bowls and stackable water bottles. My favorite lunchbox product, the Glasslock line of airtight, leakproof and stackable food storage containers now comes in an ovenproof version from Snapware. Ceramic knives continue to be on trend with companies like Cuisinart throwing their hat into the ring at a friendly price point with a break resistant technology that's new to the market.

Check out some more interesting products from this year's IHHS 2011 preview and stay tuned for some fun coverage at the upcoming March show.

Web Designer
Fuse
Burlington, VT

Fuse is looking for a creative, fresh-thinking Web Designer to add as a key member of the Creative Team. As Web Designer, you will concept and create digital work for a variety of clients, as well as design for digital platforms including web, mobile and social media. You will coordinate with internal and external developers and will be responsible for providing expertise on teen and young adult web design trends and emerging technologies.

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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

How cool would it be to take an abandoned farm silo and convert it into your shop?

Casey and Patrick are former engineers who have "migrated towards greater creative freedom" and now operate under the name Salvaging Creativity. Since putting together their first shop in the silo above, the duo have been breathing new life into found objects for architectural and interiors work: A 1934 Otis Elevator gear becomes a door handle; the hydraulic cylinder from a road grader becomes a sink support; salvaged beams and antique glass become a conference table.

Their mission statement:

There is something beautiful in the decay of man's most symbolic industrial material as it returns to its original organic form. Steel's beauty is amplified in combination with other materials not too far derived from nature....

Growing up, through college and beyond the marine/civil engineering worlds, we've hung onto a dream of doing what we love and doing something to better the environment we inhabit. We're good with the line between life, leisure, and work being as blurry as possible.

The pair have outgrown the silo and are now moving into a sprawling 26,000-square-foot repurposed factory in Pennsylvania (below, how sick is that), which they intend to convert into a collaborative workshop with additional craftspeople. For now their website is still bare-bones, but they've got a Picasa gallery well-populated with projects here.

Will oenophiles flinch? The U.K.-based Cornish Mead Company has taken on a radical (for the wine industry, anyway) package redesign featuring wraparound graphics inspired by, of all things, tattoos.

"The Cornish Mead Company won't be contending with the standard wine market, as these products tend to strive for a refined image, whereas mead is usually sold on its strength and character," explains Jason Salisbury, design director of Gendall, the company contracted to do the new look.

It would be nice if the design across their product line mirrored real life, with the tattoo concepts becoming more ill-advised as the alcohol content went up.

Via the drum

We're jealous of Bill Moggridge's social network...which is a rather meta way of expressing that his new book "Designing Media", about the divide between traditional and virtual media, includes interviews with an amazingly diverse range of fascinating, talented and powerful people. True to the occasionally awkward mashup that is print media in the digital age, Moggridge's book includes an additional DVD of the actual interviews themselves. We confess that after reading every word of the rather gargantuan book, we only accessed the accompanying DVD to watch the physicality and body language of the most interesting interviewees (e.g. Zuckerberg pre-Fincher). That said, we suppose that the pick and choose hypertext way of gathering information from the feed is something Moggridge (and most of the interviewees) would find perfectly appropriate. Indeed, the interviews are available here. I've linked to Chris Anderson's video in particular, given that his last book advocated giving content away for free.

The interviews in "Designing Media" are organized in sections under headings like: the enduring nature of the printed word, crowdsourcing, social media, the media isn't the message, the value of content, and how digital media encourages the proliferation of the truth. Powerful stuff. Moggridge, a founder of IDEO, now manages the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and is, in his own words, "a spokesperson for design." Moggridge provides thoughtful editorial oversight between each of the interviews. When you bounce from an interview with DJ Spooky to Jimmy Wales, a little context is profoundly helpful, and Moggridge provides seamless segues. Under Moggridge's watch, "Designing Media" becomes more than a set of interviews. By the final comments in the last interview, the thrust of its underlying thesis that "the printed word will not disappear" simply serves as a valedictory to a thesis that the reader has already discovered for themselves. Moggrdige assures us that, "while digital media is directly responsible for falling revenues in music, film and the printed word, individuals and companies will find ways to carve niches in the new digital domain."

It would never occur to me that you could mount a camper-trailer to a Volkswagen Bug, nor have I ever thought about how you'd actually enable the junction. But somebody thought about it back in the '70s, as you'll see below. It seems crazy on some levels and practical on others:

The fact that I've never seen one of these on the road--have you?--indicates it was probably not successful, but c'mon, whoever built this thing gets an A for effort.

This is pretty killer, especially for those of us with inconveniently-placed light switches: Three guys in France (Nicolas Triboulot, Laurent Grapin and Thibault Thomas) have patented a system of paint and an unspecified electronic mechanism that can be used to turn an entire wall into a light switch.

No need to pull any electric wires, the switch can cover a large surface. The switch disappears visually and the electronic mechanism remains hidden. It is accessible almost anywhere, whether in zig zag corridors or in large rooms; the switch is everywhere without being seen. The contact area location and dimension can be chosen easily, whether a strip, a whole wall or an isolated area.

Arms full of groceries? Don't feel like getting out of bed? This sounds like a good solution to either of these things. Unless you have a smart dog who figures out he can kill the lights anytime he wants with his nose.

via psfk

This is the second of a series of Q+As contributor Tamara Warren conducted with designers from the NAIAS 2011 show.

Dirk van Braeckel heads up design and concept for Bentley Motors, responsible for preserving the lustrous cars worthy of the Bentley B. Bentleys are largely built by hand at the company headquarters in Crewe, England, which makes the design process unique from other car makers. The latest automobile worthy of the B badge is the stalwart, new 2011 Bentley GT, which graced the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The GT is a blend of muscular surfaces with sumptuous materials, which are soft to the touch. Van Braeckel took a few minutes to talk about designing for Bentley. The attention to detail that he mentions is evident in the architecture of the new Bentley GT due in showrooms in late 2011.

C77: What's the process for redesigning a Bentley?
Dirk van Braeckel: We usually start with character sketches. These ideas are narrowed down to scaled models. After that you have to prove that the sketches hold up.

Clay models are sculpted by hand and then computer is used to [hone in on] surfaces. We start this process at an early stage to increase luxurious refinement. We decide quickly on the style and we spend a number of years refining it. We go through the same process of refinement with our interiors.

Bentleys are typically created from the best of the best, what do you look to for design influences?
For us, heritage is important for every car we do. It's not retro design. As a designer you're always interested in everything and in technology. The world of art and fashion have an influence, both consciously and subconsciously.

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.

The Jury Winner for our Sustainable Refrainables poster competition will be announced this weekend at Compostmodern, live and on stage during the "Unconference" on Sunday. Lea Hickman, a judge for the challenge and Senior Director of Product Management for Adobe's Design and Web Creative Solutions Business Jane Brady Senior Marketing Manager of Creative Suite and Michelle Mann Executive Director, Adobe Foundation and Director, Corporate Social Responsibility will join our own Allan Chochinov on stage to announce the Jury Winner who will receive $500 and a copy of Adobe's Creative Suite 5 Master Collection.

Core77 was excited to work with Adobe on this challenge to shine a light on their comprehensive commitment to sustainability. Not only does Adobe actively implement sustainability measures in areas such as office building operations and waste management programs, but the Adobe headquarters also ranks among the most environmentally sound in the world. The building has achieved LEED Platinum certification matching the highest score ever given by the U.S. Green Building Council. And, although it's hard to think about software from a sustainability perspective, Adobe wants to encourage designers to use their tools as they employ sustainable design practices. Their overall goal is to make their products as effective as possible so that designers can make informed, sustainable decisions in their own work and for their clients.

Thanks for their support and if you're at Compostmodern, say hello as we reveal the winner on Sunday!

TankBot, debuting at this month's New York International Gift Fair, is a desktop toy that can be controlled by just a tilt of your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The toy's three modes allow it to navigate mazes using IR sensors, roam and race in multi-player challenges. And best of all, its priced under $20 for some mid-afternoon office fun.

Whether you use QR codes or not, its undeniable that mobile tagging has become an integrated part of the marketing landscape. Popping up in print advertising and corporate-sponsored event/experiences, there still seems to be a lot of confusion about the application and usage of mobile tagging in delivering a more comprehensive marketing and retail message. PSFK just released a great "Future Of" report exploring some key trends in the field and interviews with experts an innovators in the field. Worth a look for those who work in development.

Mayor Bloomberg is not one to shy away from new ideas. The 8 million citizens of New York City are famously opinionated -- for every problem, there are at least 8 million ideas on how to fix it. Give a Minute is a new model for urban participation, a 311 for new ideas that, "seeks to reinvent the public process for the 21st century." The program engages the entire city with a single question, soliciting ideas and then connecting participants together in Action Groups. Groups are organized around specific solutions, and sponsored by anyone from a city-wide nonprofit to a neighborhood group or individual. Mobilizing resources like fund-raising efforts and city programs will help to actualizes some of these solutions. As Mayor Bloomberg stated in his announcement, "This kind of open call for ideas -- or 'crowdsourcing,' as it's called -- has helped cutting-edge companies improve services and save money. And with more than 8.4 million people in our crowd, imagine what we can come up with." The program launches in April of 2011 in NYC but cities like Chicago and Memphis are already rolling out similar programs.

desigNYC, a group founded to connect NYC nonprofits serving the public good with probono designers, announced their 2011 list of collaborators today. 2010's inaugural year projects were a huge success and included a match between New York City's Housing Authority and the Rooster Design Group. The NYCHA x Rooster Design project created a communication tool for NYCHA's 650,000+ residents to learn how to reduce their environmental impact and outline City resources for greening resident's lives. Rooster Design transformed a 50-page single-spaced document detailing activities to live a low-carbon lifestyle into a concise guide called, "The Power Is In Your Hands." The guide (optioned in English and Spanish) used colorful iconography and clear, direct language to help residents understand their options to reduce their environmental impact and energy consumption. Learn more about 2010's projects at the desigNYC website here!

The new 2011 project collaborations include:

Making the blog rounds is video of the Line Phone, a concept design that reportedly won first prize in a Chinese design competition (one that's apparently Google-proof, at least in English). The interface design features some neat ideas, like using the edges of the all-screen phone as slider buttons and the capability to place multiple phones adjacent to one another to make a communal screen. That last feature in particular is one we've not seen before and one that could truly promote the kind of contagious, small-scale community interaction that marketers dream of.

First 30 seconds of the video is filler, so skip it and get to the phone:

via tnw

Industrial Designer
Tovolo
Seattle, WA

Tovolo is looking for a super creative industrial designer to join the design team and be a part of creating their future. They're looking for a creative thinker who can visualize and support their ideas throughout the entire process of product creation, from problem/opportunity identification to 3D model creation and beyond. Creating a new product or solution is about much more than being able to render a 3D part. The ideal candidate understands this process and wants to be involved in nearly every aspect of bringing a product to life.

Tovolo is looking for smart and creative people who want to be part of a small and growing company. Their product categories are primarily in the housewares industry, and they are looking for people that are ready to change the way consumers interact with the tools they use in the kitchen.

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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

Looks like Ralph Lauren's not the only one with a secret stash of rare cars. In the Associated Press video below, we get a rare glimpse inside a "secret Smithsonian storage warehouse," where 217 rare automobiles dating back to 1899 lay covered in blankets.

Each model was acquired for historical importance and posterity--a "doomsday thinking/Noah's Ark" mentality, in the words of the National Museum of American History's Roger White--and currently just two of them are being prepared for exhibition: A 1929 Miller race car and a 1948 Tucker. We suppose the Miller's interesting because it's supercharged, but what really gets our juices going is that '48 Tucker, the radically-designed failure made famous by the 1988 Coppola movie.

Two interesting historical footnotes: Preston Tucker, before working on the original U.S. military jeep, conceived of a high-speed armored combat car way back in 1937. The Tucker Tiger had a V12 engine and could hit 115 miles per hour, yet was designed to navigate through muddy off-road conditions, and it also featured a machine gun turret. The Nazis invaded Holland, the intended car's buyer, before it hit production and the project was shelved.

Secondly, industrial designer Read Viemeister, one of the original creators of ID Magazine, was on Preston Tucker's design team. His son, designer Tucker Viemeister, was named after Preston.

Stripping products down to bare essentials can become something of an obsession for modern day designers. Only last month we saw legendary product reinterpreter Daniel Weil's "Clock for an Architect," a tribute to deconstruction and inner-workings.

Flying the flag for minimalist rearrangments this year is a designer going by the name of R.D. Silver—taking aim this time at the record player. Although arguably not as minimal as Charles Pyott's "Linos" concept, the skeletal copper "Turnstyle" certainly has some charm. Top marks for actually managing to make the thing too.

(Via Zeutch)