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. Silva—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)

As CNET reports, Apple users including iFixit's CEO are up in arms about Apple's tamper-resistant "pentalobe" screws, which have been popping up in their MacBooks and now iPhones. The non-standard screws were obviously chosen to keep users from opening the machines.

What people may not realize is that this practice is far from new. I'm currently refurbishing a pair of 1937 and '38 Singer sewing machines and having a hell of a time getting parts of it undone. Reason being that Singer, which was wildly successful in its heyday and had buckets of cash, invested in their own machining facilities and not only produced their own hardware, but purposely made it in odd custom sizes. What seem like typical flathead screws holding their products together have threads that do not correspond with any metric or standard dimension. If a screw falls out of the machine, you cannot run down to the hardware store to replace it. If you try to jam a similar-sized screw into a Singer threaded hole, you'll strip it.

Even worse, the heads of Singer screws feature slots of odd widths, heights, and depths, but their familiar slot shape leads you to believe you can unscrew it with a regular flathead. As you can guess, this often leads to stripped screws, particularly with standard-shaped wedge-tip screwdrivers, which is a poor design that has a tendency to "back out" under pressure.

Apple, like Singer, did this for obvious reasons: If the product breaks, they want you to bring it to them.

My solution to the Singer problem was to pick up a set of gunsmithing screwdriver bits at a nearby gun store for cops. Gunsmiths use what are called hollow-ground screwdriver bits, as opposed to the wedge shape. The hollow-grounds are squared-off when seen in cross-section and are designed to fill a screw's entire slot, increasing friction and reducing the chance of slippage. These drivers are also good for working on a variety of vintage products or old woodworking projects where you cannot afford to strip a screw.

Some places where you can order hollow-ground drivers: Forster Products makes them, as does Brownell's and Wheeler Engineering.

As for the solution to Apple's screws, iFixit's selling corresponding drivers.

We think corporations have the right to build things any way they want, and if a user doesn't like it they should vote with their dollars. And with the recent arrival of consumer-affordable titanium RP, nowadays we can pretty much make any tool we want if we're willing to put in the time and bread.

We know the Tibetans as a peaceful, Buddhist peoples, which is why the title of this current exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art caught me off-guard: "Tibetan Arms and Armor." What, they had weapons?

Armor and weapons are certainly not among the images usually called to mind when considering the art or culture of Tibet, which is closely identified with the pacifism and deep spirituality of the Dalai Lama and with the compassionate nature of Tibetan Buddhism. However, this seeming paradox resolves itself when seen in the context of Tibetan history, which includes regular and extended periods of intense military activity from the seventh to the mid-twentieth century.

For those who can't make it to the Met there's a slideshow of the exhibit here, and I have to say, some of this stuff looks pretty bad-ass.

In case you missed it, Tokujin Yoshioka was honored as Designer of the Year 2011 by German design and interiors magazineA&W Architektur & Wohnen. He was honored at this year's imm cologne fair which included a survey of his work over the past decade exhibited at the Kölnische Kunstverein until January 23rd. In the designer's own words, "The exhibition is a retrospective of the past ten years, which displays the products from collaborations with furniture companies. The space is designed based on the image of the past installation CLOUDS, presented in 2003 at Salone del Mobile.The products from the past appear one after the other as the viewers passed through the fog as if memories are recalled."

Asked about the use of white and transparency in his work, Tokujin replies, "I am drawn to simple and iconic formless elements that evoke people's emotion. For example, diamonds and crystals obtain their appearance when the light shines on them. I am not intending to design only with white, nor transparent, yet all those elements of beauty, which has been resonant with my own sensation and cultivated inside me, might be appearing on my work as these colors."

Check out the video of Tokujin's work here!

Compostmodern 2011 has just begun. The Herbst Theatre in San Francisco is now packed with designers and design thinkers eager for inspiration in the realms of systems design, collaboration and the future of sustainable design.

Stay tuned for updates throughout the day. This morning's schedule includes Yves Behar, Christopher Simmons, Janine James, Nathan Waterhouse and Dara O'Rourke all moderated by the great Alissa Walker.

Jessica Watson is completing her second semester of the innovative MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts' where she is focusing on sustainability and social entrepreneurship. This is her first Compostmodern conference, but she is sure it will not be her last.

As Alissa Walker so eloquently put it, conversations this morning at Compostmodern started with compostable underwear and ended with pee pots. As elementary as that sounds, maybe that's the point. A running theme heard again and again is that there is a place for all of us in this conversation, no matter how large or small, complex or simple, high-tech or lo-fi, vulgar or politically correct.

Yves Behar, Founder of fuseproject, reminded the audience of some key tenants in sustainable design: don't apologize, deliver more not less, design for good. As designers, we are in a unique position to change this conversation, but we must do so with products and innovations that create lasting, substantive experiences for consumers and meaningful, sustainable impacts on the people and planet around us.

Christopher Simmons, Creative Director at MINE, and Nathan Waterhouse of OpenIDEO, discussed how we all need to take a seat at the table. Christopher mentioned that as designers, we may be showing up a bit unprepared lacking appropriate business knowledge. That being said, for some of us the few small actions we can take (even if it is just "designing pretty things") are the best way we can influence change. As exemplified through OpenIDEO, Nathan showed how that celebration of diversity, participation and collaboration can generate solutions to some of our biggest problems.

Some of us may choose to contribute simply through the choices we make on a daily basis. Janine James, President of The Moderns, explained how an office flood became a tsunami of change allowing the organization the opportunity to make conscious choices about the daily experiences within the four walls of their office. Dara O'Rourke, Co-Founder of GoodGuide, is giving us all the tools necessary to learn more about products that we consume every day.

While the morning was somewhat overwhelming, running the gamut of the sustainability conversation before 11am, it left us with a real task. If you haven't already, it's time to find your individual place in this conversation. Because, as Nathan Waterhouse says, "No one person's is right or wrong."

Jessica Watson is completing her second semester of the innovative MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts' where she is focusing on sustainability and social entrepreneurship. This is her first Compostmodern conference, but she is sure it will not be her last.

"The job of the designer is to annoy the rigid."
Yves Behar of fuseproject.

"I don't have slides. I don't have an accent. So, sorry for both of those."
Christopher Simmons of MINE on following Yves Behar.

"Specialization precludes comprehensive thinking."
Buckminster Fuller as quoted by Nathan Waterhouse, OpenIDEO.

"Creating change requires a little more work and little more bravery."
Scott Thomas of SimpleScott.

"I knew almost nothing about the products that I was consuming everyday."
Dara O'Rourke on why he created GoodGuide.

"We decided we were better off working 4 days for our clients."
Janine James of The Moderns on the creation of "Imagine the Next" Fridays.

Jessica Watson is completing her second semester of the innovative MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts' where she is focusing on sustainability and social entrepreneurship. This is her first Compostmodern conference, but she is sure it will not be her last.

Daniel PInk's A Whole New Mind states that one of the six essential aptitudes necessary to differentiate one's business (or presentation!) is that of story. Having to deal with a post-lunch audience full from food and sun, this afternoon's first round of speakers were up to the challenge as they inspired us with their stories, but also reminded us of the importance of story in the realm of sustainability.

Julie Cordua, Director of Communications for (RED), shared with us the path taken by one of the most successful cause marketing campaigns in history. Started as a way to fulfill the private commitment in the public/private partnership of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, (RED) quickly decided to focus their story on the greatest point of need - AIDS in Africa. Through the leveraging of partnerships with global brands, (RED) has been able to not only send $166 million to Africa, but also share the story of those whose lives have been dramatically improved due to ARV medication. Still, the organization's story continues to evolve. By 2015, they hope to eradicate mother to child transmissions of AIDS. Using a sustainable business model, (RED) is looking to deliver the world's first AIDS free generation in 30 years. Now, that's a story worth telling.

Known for The SHIFT Report as well as her role as a Principal at Ci, Kierstin DeWest emphasized the importance of context. While most sustainability stories include the four pillars of society, environment, financial viability and spirituality, Kierstin says that we will be unable to effectively communicate the need for change unless we frame it in a way that recognizes relationships and values of each individual. Add specificity, credibility and a local story, and we then have the potential to inspire others to "[meet] our current needs without screwing the potential for the future to meet theirs."

As a perfect closer to a trio of storytellers, Jonah Sachs, Founder of Free Range Studios and the mind behind The Meatrix, educated us on the importance of myth. In an age where many of us are trying to move the cultural conversation, stories must now be powerful enough to change the core stories people carry with them and survive in an age of information overload. For those of you who have doubts that it's possible, just look to The Story of Stuff and its 15 million views. Jonah further explained that these myths not only include explanation, meaning and story, but also freaks, cheats and familiars (also known as those who break our expectations, those who break the rules and things with which we can immediately relate). Jonah recommends looking to ad campaigns to see how they leverage these elements. I would also strongly suggest reading Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth.

The afternoon's first round of speakers have faith that we all have the power to tell our sustainability story in a compelling way, whether it be through the written word, presentations or visual metaphors. Still, it is our job to find the appropriate context and meaning for our audience to drive them to action.

Jessica Watson is completing her second semester of the innovative MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts' where she is focusing on sustainability and social entrepreneurship. This is her first Compostmodern conference, but she is sure it will not be her last.

"It's not about the world of design. It's about the design of the world."
Bruce Mau, Bruce Mau Design

"We need to transcend the stuff and move on to systems."
Alissa Walker, Compostmodern Moderator

"Technology is getting more efficient, but our behavior is getting less sustainable."
Nitzan Waisberg, Stanford's d.school

"To be a sustainable society, we have to think beyond the borders of the United States."
Heather Fleming, Catapult Design

"If you dive down into those primal sources and you reconnect with who you really are, that's thrilling and deep."
Dan Phillips, The Phoenix Commotion

"To know a society's stories is to know where it intends to go."
Jonah Sachs, Free Range Studios

"The most shocking idea I heard today is that Yves Behar speaks French."
Bruce Mau, Bruce Mau Design

"We need to not design sustainable products so much as sustainable interactions."
Nitzan Waisberg, Stanford's d.school

"Everyone in this room has a skill, has a network to fight some of these big scary problems in a tangible way."
Heather Fleming, Catapult Design

"The future will be beautiful."
Bruce Mau, Bruce Mau Design

"I'd like to welcome you onto the ride."
Lisa Gansky, author of The Mesh

Jessica Watson is completing her second semester of the innovative MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts' where she is focusing on sustainability and social entrepreneurship. This is her first Compostmodern conference, but she is sure it will not be her last.

Designers Nien Lam and Susan Ngo have collaborated to warn us of the risks of our pollution-heavy urban lifestyles on our bodily organs through fashion. In the presence of carbon monoxide, the "Warning Signs" wearables subtly change colour from a healthy pink to a slightly worrying grey.

Although presumably little more than an evocative concept, we're suitably impressed by the pairs production prowess. Take the jump for a couple of vids from their making phase —including the intriguing effects of a laser cutter on thermochromatic textile.

Interesting update form Studio Bas van der Veer; the charming rainwater harvester and plant watering concept (on Core77 here) has now gone into production in miniature—on sale in garden stores across Europe according to the young man's website. The mini version is clearly intended to suit the balconies and more modest gardens of urban dwellers.

Senior Designer
adidas AG
Germany

adidas is seeking a functional senior designer for the adidas innovation team in Germany.

Purpose:
Develop creative concepts, design market leading products and appropriate high value innovations, which improve brand competitiveness through design and product leadership, and enables adidas to deliver added value to consumers and athletes.

» view

The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

Day 1 of Compostmodern ended with a whirlwind of thought-provoking presentations. The day started by affirming that we all have a role in sustainability and then offering us the tools necessary to tell that story. The afternoon then provided us with a glimpse into the world of those doing the big work and it whetted our appetites for Sunday's Unconference, an opportunity to put ideas into action.

As someone who is democratizing sustainable design through her work in impoverished countries, Heather Fleming, Founder and CEO of Catapult Design, profoundly stated that, "We are not the powerless people in this equation," especially as the majority of the world is simply striving for modernity. By taking the skills that each of us has, we can increase the reach of our sustainable design capacity.

Lisa Gansky, author of The Mesh, is hoping to create a fundamental shift in our relationship with stuff by pursuing "better things easily shared." Much like the economic principle of excessive capacity, Lisa points to phenomena like Zipcar and pop-up shops to exemplify how simply having access to "stuff" (without the need of owning it) can build more lasting experiences.

A self-proclaimed Dionysian thinker, Dan Phillips of The Phoenix Commotion stressed us that the constant pursuit of perfection can drive waste. He has built a community, literally, out of organic processes that allow each of his apprentices to reconnect with their primal sources of humanness.

Nitzan Weisberg, professor at Stanford's d.school, pointed to her process of doing laundry to show that identities are cultural constructs that are subjective. What is profound about this is that means they can be changed. She encourages us to bring sustainable design back to a human centered process. By reframing the sustainability problem, we open the floodgates to different solutions that move from sustainable products to "sustainable interactions."

If you want to see where this is happening, just head to the Pratt Design Incubator at the Center for Sustainable Design Studies. The Incubator's Founder, Deberah Johnson, compared cowboys to entrepreneurs where both are "setting on ready" with the "want to", but entrepreneurs need the "how to." By manufacturing both chaos and structure in the incubator, entrepreneurs are given the resources needed to find their how to.

Marc Mathieu, Founder of Bedo and the former head of Global Brand Marketing at Coca-Cola, provided us with a provocative five minute presentation on the "wonderful world of consumption." Marc argued that consumption is essentially the embodiment of the American dream so our challenge is to rethink consumer goods so that they embrace some of the very issues that to which they contribute. If you are a corporation that uses large amounts of water in your processing, it's time to start dealing with water issues.

The final speaker of the day did not need any introduction. A prolific author, designer, innovator and educator, Bruce reminded us that 99% percent of the world does not receive a college education. He then asked us to ponder the possibility and potential that would be unleashed if we simply doubled the number receiving that education to 2%. Using his massive change framework, Bruce is seeking to massive change education so that it becomes inclusive rather than exclusive. As designers, but more importantly as citizens, we have the opportunity to release into the world "the energy and expertise of a whole generation."

Jessica Watson is completing her second semester of the innovative MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts' where she is focusing on sustainability and social entrepreneurship. This is her first Compostmodern conference, but she is sure it will not be her last.

A lot of tool catalogs cross my desk, and there's none I enjoy reading more than that of the Duluth Trading Co., a Wisconsin-based work-gear company that epitomizes the notion of "Yankee ingenuity." DTC started in 1989 with two tradesman brothers noticing a common jobsite phenomenon: Workers hauling empty 5-gallon buckets, of the sort that paint and joint compound comes in, to haul tools. Workers would "hack" these buckets to conform to their hauling needs, kitting them out with wire and bungee cord to hold a variety of tools.

Soon the brothers had developed the Bucket Boss, a canvas tool organizer that fit a standard 5-gallon bucket.

Shortly thereafter they released an eight-page catalog of tool storage and organizing products they'd developed, and by 1991 they turned a refurbished dredging barge on Lake Superior into their floating headquarters.

In 2002 Duluth developed their breakout hit, a simple innovation that essentially added three inches to the back of a T-shirt. Their Longtail T was advertised as "the cure for Plumber's Butt:"

Now guys who bend over when they work have new respectability with clients and no longer frighten unsuspecting passersby.

The pop-up ass-crack was a prevalent problem that other companies perhaps thought too scatological to address, but Duluth took it on and was rewarded.

Nine years later Duluth has expanded into women's gear, opened a 140,000 square foot distribution center, and developed a line of innovative products we'll look at next.

Happy Monday! We have a special treat to help you jumpstart your week. Even with the arctic temperatures outside, this exclusive download guarantees to heat things up. Smart Design took some time at the end of 2010 to produce a calendar featuring their hot designers and even hotter designs. Thankfully, these pictures are too good not to be shared, and we got a chance to chat with the ladies of Smart to get the scoop. Clear some space on your wall and check out Mr. January...you can thank us (and Smart) later! Download the 10x10inch calendar here!

In the years since being founded, Duluth Trading Co. has continued to release irreverent and innovative products that workers have a need for. DTC looks at simple but overlooked ergonomic needs, like the fact that when you're building, installing or fixing something you often need to crouch down or brace one leg up on something, which automatically tightens your pants in the crotch. In an effort to provide "Crouch without the ouch" and "man room," they released a line of jeans with a hidden crotch gusset. The not-so-subtle name: Ballroom Jeans.

DTC also recognized that there's a huge and largely unaddressed market of women doing manual labor, farming and fix-it work, hence their line of women's clothes and a dedicated area on their website called "Real Women" featuring a test panel, true stories and product testimonials. They've refused to use photographs of female models and instead use only actual working women who use Duluth's stuff.

In addition to the stuff they manufacture, I like the variety of unusual but useful gear they seek out and distribute, like wire benders for repurposing coat hangers, a dental tools kit filled with a variety of picks and tweezers (that I'll shortly be ordering to clean old grease out of machine gears), and military-developed "X-Treme" silicone-based repair tape that's stretchable, watertight, and acid- and melt-resistant.

Lastly, I like that heavy product testing is a big part of Duluth's philosophy, and in addition to soliciting customer input they regularly work with Habitat for Humanity, building houses while putting their gear to the test.

Next I'll take a look at their "killer app" material.

Jack Johnson has become the latest celebrity to endorse the PlasticPollutionCoalition cause, offering up a charming little jingle to remind us all to "REFUSE disposable plastics".

The PlasticPollutionCoalition is a growing campaign aiming to stop plastic pollution and its toxic impacts on humans, animals and the environment—most notably by suggesting the word "REFUSE" as a prefix to the age-old "REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE" mantra.

The thing on Duluth's website/catalog that draws the most attention from me is their copious use of fire hose canvas. Recognizing that this is a particularly tough yet pliable material, DTC makes pants, jackets, vests, parkas, bibs, coveralls, wallets, hats, bags, and even stretch pants out of the stuff. It's stain-resistant, tougher than duck canvas and their customer testimonial section has insane things to say about the material, from withstanding a wild boar attack (WTF?) to a marine construction worker who wears it over his wetsuit as an anti-chafing measure while doing underwater welding.

Check it out here.

What ever happened to the innocent delights of circus? Colourful Big-Top tents do, of course, still manage to pop up every now and again, but the thrill of fire-breathers and tight-rope walkers has lost a large amount of its lustre and relevance in an age of Wii's and cable TV.

"Sensational Circus Spectacular" is branding concept by one Nathan Godding, a talented senior at Academy of Art in San Francisco, that attempts to update the image of this aging artform. Nathan has combined antiquated typography with an overtly contemporary graphic treatment and colour palette to fantastic results—proving the brilliance of his work by visualising the brand across a full array of media.

Check out The Dieline for more of Nathan's mockups.

In the heart of the city's Belgian Quarter, Magazin launches its 2011 collection at its usual venue on Venloer Strasse. The amazing old music hall is furnished with only a few key products (Feldmark tables, Koerfgen benches and Container cabinets).

Instead of walking around a showroom of products, visitors are welcomed to take a seat at a long communal table and enjoy Magazin's famous 'Kartoffel' (hot potatoes with lots of butter and sour cream) with a typical Cologne beer (Kolsh) and have a relaxed flick through their latest catalogue.