"THIS toothbrush": Twig tooth-cleanser by Leen Sadder

January 29, 2011, 10:39 am

≫ Next: Poor Man's 911: Full Size Pedal-Powered Porsche Model

≪ Previous: European Commission's design secretariat to locate in Helsinki

$

0

0

At the School of Visual Arts, Core77's own Allan Chochinov challenged students on his 3D Design course to redesign the first thing they threw out after class. Finding herself chucking an empty tube of toothpaste, Lebonese design student Leen Sadder sprang into action, busily researching the history of toothpaste and its relationship to the toothbrush.

Leen soon stumbled upon the "Miswak"; a cleansing twig of the Salvadora persica tree, used for the purposes of teeth cleaning throughout the Middle-East and Asia for millennia. Recognising the sustainability-potential of eliminating both the toothbrush and paste, Leen's intriguing "THIS" concept aims to package and promote the Miswak as an organic and biodegradable alternative to the Western teeth cleansing routine.

(more...)

---

Poor Man's 911: Full Size Pedal-Powered Porsche Model

January 29, 2011, 11:40 am

≫ Next: DIY Panton Chair by Peter Jakubik

≪ Previous: "THIS toothbrush": Twig tooth-cleanser by Leen Sadder

$

0

0

Its safe to say that few of us could afford the $150,000+ price tag of a Porsche 911 GT3 RS—but equally this would inspire yet fewer into actually fashioning one ourselves. Remarkably a group of absolutely fanatical, and tremendously handy, Porsche lovers (as yet unnamed) have been determined enough to do just that, to quite jaw-dropping results. Using a toy model for reference, these nuts crafted the bodywork of balsa and tape around a custom-made steel bike frame—giving their masterpiece a rendering of gold foil before taking it out for a spin. Who'd have thought a sports car could be so low-emission! Incredible.

(more...)

DIY Panton Chair by Peter Jakubik

January 30, 2011, 2:41 am

≫ Next: Teague is Seeking an Account Manager in Seattle

≪ Previous: Poor Man's 911: Full Size Pedal-Powered Porsche Model

$

0

0

If you've been inspired by yesterday's Poor Man's Porsche, but are feeling that recreating it might be a bit of stretch of your skills and/or patience, then you might like to consider the simple delights of bootlegging a design classic or two to while away a Sunday afternoon.

Slovak designer Peter Jakubik has hewn an impressively convincing Panton from a rather rugged looking log and—baring any awkward copyright disputes—intends to sell his sculptures for country cottages and gardens.

(more...)

Teague is Seeking an Account Manager in Seattle

January 31, 2011, 6:00 am

≫ Next: Bent plywood chess table that can do a "save game"

≪ Previous: DIY Panton Chair by Peter Jakubik

$

0

0

Account Manager
Teague
Seattle, WA

The Account Manager ultimately owns the account/client relationship and is responsible for the overall budget and revenue for the account. The Account Manager has prime responsibility for promoting services to our client and delivering those services to the client in such a way to meet or exceed their expectations.

The Account Manager will facilitate relationships with clients to discover their needs and provide Teague inspired solutions. Account Managers are key leaders within the organization and are expected to provide insightful feedback to Senior Management to grow Teague's strategic and tactical product offering. Account Managers will be responsible for multiple clients and are expected to oversee multiple large, complex projects in a collaborative, team environment.

» view

The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

(more...)

Bent plywood chess table that can do a "save game"

January 31, 2011, 6:59 am

≫ Next: Braun turns 90, keeps it pretty darn quiet

≪ Previous: Teague is Seeking an Account Manager in Seattle

$

0

0

In this day and age, who's actually got time to locate an opponent and sit down to play a physical chess match? And even if you make it happen, how many moves can you get in before you're interrupted by a phone call, text, e-mail, or a compelling need to tweet "My pawn just p0wned?"

Carnegie Mellon design student SJ Lee's Flip-board Chesstable takes checkmatus interruptus into account, featuring a magnetized board on hinges that can be flipped 180, turning it back into a coffee table while inverting and saving your game. So now when you're losing you can kick your opponent out, citing work, and spread out that copy of Grandmaster Techniques.

(more...)

Braun turns 90, keeps it pretty darn quiet

January 31, 2011, 7:28 am

≫ Next: Got an ID question? Check out our discussion boards

≪ Previous: Bent plywood chess table that can do a "save game"

$

0

0

Tomorrow is the 90th anniversary of Braun, the Ramsian powerhouse of clean design that, yes, has been around since 1921 and was founded by Max Braun.

After Max died in the '50s, sons Artur and Erwin Braun developed Braun Design, the dedicated design branch, in 1955. And then apparently some guy named Dieter came along and sort of, like, changed the face of industrial design as we know it, ushered in a German design renaissance and planted influences that we still see in products today.

With typical German restraint, Braun has no splashy banners all over their homepage announcing the anniversary. They do, however, have a sexy slideshow of their design hits posted here.

(more...)

Got an ID question? Check out our discussion boards

January 31, 2011, 9:08 am

≫ Next: Active seating from Aeris: Sit without sitting

≪ Previous: Braun turns 90, keeps it pretty darn quiet

$

0

0

Have you checked out the Core77 discussion boards lately? Undoubtedly some of you don't even know it exists, but you should, and here's why: Post a question, boom, get an answer. People love showing what they know, and the Core77 readership has a collectively deep expertise in matters across the broad spectrum of industrial design.

As an example let's take a look at some recent questions/answers (paraphrased) from the Materials & Processes board:

Question 1: I found some velcro stuff that audibly clicks shut, is it new?

Answer: It ain't. That's 3M's Dual Lock Reclosable Fastener, and if you want the stuff you can get it here.

Question 2: I can't find this stuff anywhere, it looks like textured rubber with a cloth backing, 0.5mm thick. What is it?

Answer: I'm a mechanical engineer and we had to use that stuff on an upholstery project. It's a non-slip fabric called Tough Tek.

Question 3: I'm setting up Carnegie Mellon's first materials library.
1. What's the best way to organize the materials?
2. What's a good spectrum of materials to have?
3. What are some good resources for samples?
4. Any other tips, advice, caveats?

[photo is representative, not actual]

Answer: I believe the classical way is good for organization, i.e. Metals/Polymers/Ceramics/Composites
Then Metals - Ferrous/Non-Ferrous
Polymers - Thermoset/Thermoplastic
Ceramic - Conventional/Engineering Ceramics
Composites - MMC/PMC/CMC

The last one is new and only has a few answers, so please click over and give the guy your thoughts.

(more...)

Active seating from Aeris: Sit without sitting

January 31, 2011, 10:48 am

≫ Next: Announcing the 2011 Futuristic Car Design Competition

≪ Previous: Got an ID question? Check out our discussion boards

$

0

0

The Muvman (below) is a very different seating device by Aeris, the German manufacturer of active seating that brought you the Swopper (above). The idea behind the height-adjustable Muvman stool/chair/leaning device is that it positions you somewhere between standing and sitting; this keeps your legs active and reportedly encourages you not to hunch your back, which I've found can be a problem with even the best office chairs.

It's difficult to convey the range of motion this chair has by looking at still shots, so click over and check out their animated GIF.

(more...)

---

Announcing the 2011 Futuristic Car Design Competition

January 31, 2011, 12:04 pm

≫ Next: PhillyCHI 5th Annual DesignSlam Winners

≪ Previous: Active seating from Aeris: Sit without sitting

$

0

0

Attention student designers: The Korea Institute of Design Promotion presents a global competition seeking your visions of the cars of tomorrow.

Deadline: March 9, 2011 The Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP) and the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association (KAMA) present the 2011 Futuristic Car Design Contest. With the goal of discovering and cultivating tomorrow's leading auto market designers, the competition's theme addresses future cars and is open to all current undergraduate and graduate students. The Grand Prize winner (one individual/team) will be awarded with a certificate of award (The Minister of Knowledge Economy Prize) and prize money of KRW 3,000,000 (Apprx $2.6K USD) and all selected works including prize winners will be exhibited at Seoul Motor Show to be held in April 2011.

Now's your chance. Read the complete details for entry timeline and requirements.

(more...)

PhillyCHI 5th Annual DesignSlam Winners

January 31, 2011, 1:03 pm

≫ Next: Design Loves Art at the Pacific Design Center

≪ Previous: Announcing the 2011 Futuristic Car Design Competition

$

0

0

Design firm Bresslergroup hosted PhillyCHI's 5th annual Design Slam Friday evening, partnering for the first time with the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA). PhillyCHI's Design Slam is an annual event that allows designers to work collaboratively in teams to tackle real-world issues and present their solutions at the end of the evening. The facilitator for this year's design challenge was Bresslergroup's Director of Research, Rob Tannen, who was particularly interested in bringing together interface and industrial designers to see not what they ended up with, but how they got there, since these groups of designers rarely get to work together at the same time.

(more...)

Design Loves Art at the Pacific Design Center

January 31, 2011, 3:45 pm

≫ Next: A POV on the future of the Automobile

≪ Previous: PhillyCHI 5th Annual DesignSlam Winners

$

0

0

Running through March, the Design Loves Art show, hosted by the Pacific Design Center, is an emerging arts program inviting galleries, local artists, curators and filmmakers who, "reflect particularly on design as an extension of artistic practice, spanning a variety of disciplines and mediums" to utilize currently unused space in the Blue Building of the PDC.

As a lover of both art and design I respect the idea that an artists' process can be an extension of design practice. As I see it, in a family of three children, engineering may be the oldest, design the middle child, and art the youngest who, as any one in a large family can tell you, gets away with everything. The Design Loves Art show is a Los Angeles party thrown by this youngest sibling, possibly making use of its older brother's popular name as promotional material. Once you've arrived, artists had a good time, designers too (possibly left wanting a little something more) and engineers are still wondering if they've been adopted into this modern family. The below projects represent some of the highlights from this year's family get together.

(more...)

A POV on the future of the Automobile

January 31, 2011, 4:56 pm

≫ Next: Breville is Seeking an Industrial Designer in Sydney

≪ Previous: Design Loves Art at the Pacific Design Center

$

0

0

A few of us in creative leadership at frog design got talking about the future of the automobile. As an industry going though massive change, a category we work in and an object designers love to obsess over, there is a lot to talk about. What began as a conversation turned into a POV we shared out on designmind this week. Words by Chief Creative Officer, Mark Rolston, sketch by me, based on Mark's insanely modded 240z... click to see the full POV.

The car is 125 years old. Today, automakers are busy imagining what the next generation of cars will be. What's different this time is the sheer number of technical, ecological, and social changes at play. It's not hard to imagine that future cars may be very different than anything we've seen before. But our roads will be populated not only by these new vehicles, but also by an increasingly deep history of older cars. In other words, the car of the future will also be the car of the past.

The premise is simple: Today's car manufacturers are working hard to build more ecologically sound cars, but despite their best intentions, the reality is that every new car made has a negative ecological impact far greater from its manufacturing process than from its use and eventual destruction. People are already keeping their cars longer, not merely for economical reasons, but because modern cars are made to last longer, and the aftermarket has become incredibly sophisticated. And like architecture, older cars can be more beautiful, unique, and personal than a new, mass-manufactured example.

(more...)

Breville is Seeking an Industrial Designer in Sydney

February 1, 2011, 6:00 am

≫ Next: Ikea's new look?

≪ Previous: A POV on the future of the Automobile

$

0

0

Industrial Designer
Breville
Sydney, Australia

Designers, are you a Food Thinker?

Do you like to challenge current thinking, find new ways, leave no stone unturned, re-think the obvious, push the bounds and solve complex problems? Do you want to design products that are sold around the world? Products that are 'best of class'. Products with integrity. Products that people use everyday. Premium appliances for the home chef.

Breville's on a mission. We've no time for 'me-too' or second best. We believe it's all about the consumer and their experience. We believe in performance, in beautiful highly resolved products that are a pleasure to own. Products that allow people to do things they couldn't before.

» view

The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

(more...)

Ikea's new look?

February 1, 2011, 7:40 am

≫ Next: Core77 circa 1997

≪ Previous: Breville is Seeking an Industrial Designer in Sydney

$

0

0

For years Ikea showrooms have had a certain modern aesthetic, and if I had to nail it down to two colors I'd say blonde-wood and silver. But their recent booth at Toronto's 2011 Interior Design Show, which won the Gold Booth Award, has unveiled a different aesthetic. "This year, we have featured a sexy new black modern country door style," explains Madeleine Lowenborg-Frick, IKEA Canada's PR Manager. "This is a departure from the ultra-modern high gloss look we have shown in previous years and most competitors are still showing."

While the booth is clearly not representative of an actual kitchen we could reasonably inhabit--it's nearly 1,000 square feet, which no one who lives in Manhattan will comprehend--the design touches do signify a clear aesthetic shift, even if we do block out the cool but impractical touches like that pretty storm cloud of hanging lamps. And if Ikea decides to move the needle, it will have an effect: Globally, some 626 million shoppers traipse through Ikea stores each year.

(more...)

Core77 circa 1997

February 1, 2011, 7:47 am

≫ Next: The Big Buzz...Beepods

≪ Previous: Ikea's new look?

$

0

0

Instagram is the name of a photo-sharing app, and a user known only as "Jon" has used it to post a photo of Core77's homepage circa 1997. Jon, where on Earth did you dig up this fossil? As you can see, the browser is Netscape (those of you under 25, never mind, you don't need to know what that was) and back then it was just Core, no 77.

Nice graphics, huh? And I think that entire page was about 4k to load.

(more...)

---

The Big Buzz...Beepods

February 1, 2011, 9:00 am

≫ Next: Awesome Autodesk Puzzle Game App

≪ Previous: Core77 circa 1997

$

0

0

Urban Beekeeping has been experiencing a true revival over the last couple of years, with alarming news about declining bee populations and the catastrophic consequences of this trend. The Beepod, a collaboration between the head beekeeper from Milwaukee's Growing Power Urban Farm and the Industrial Designer behind a computerized milling machine for a family business that produced beautiful wooden quilt-making machines. Instead of typical stacking beehives (Langstroth hives) that are designed to maximize honey production, the beepod is a modified top-bar hive design, a beekeeping technique that has been used for thousands of years. Benefits of top-bar design include higher quality honey and easy inspection and maintenance of the hives. This means pest control and inspection can be targeted. When checking honey combs in a top-bar configuration, the hive itself is not compromised because only parts of the hives are exposed at a single time making for more docile and happy bees.

(more...)

Awesome Autodesk Puzzle Game App

February 1, 2011, 9:45 am

≫ Next: Inventables materials for lighting designers

≪ Previous: The Big Buzz...Beepods

$

0

0

You might rock at Tetris, Bejeweled or Angry Birds, but let's face it, you've developed skills that are largely worthless in the real world. Wouldn't it be cool if a puzzle game you've burned countless hours on actually taught you something useful?

It would be, and that's why we're psyched about Autodesk's new, and free, TinkerBox app. You're presented with a series of Rube-Golbergian challenges that you solve by using simple mechanical devices and physics. There's also an "invent" mode where you can create contraptions of your own.

TinkerBox was designed with high school students in mind, but that won't stop us from playing it; Tetris, after all, is played by everyone ranging from 5-year-olds to those with PhD's.

(more...)

Inventables materials for lighting designers

February 1, 2011, 10:40 am

≫ Next: Book Review: Living with Complexity, by Donald Norman

≪ Previous: Awesome Autodesk Puzzle Game App

$

0

0

A couple of cool LED-light-related materials over at Inventables, "the innovator's hardware store:" Reflective Light Pipes and LED Light Diffusing Plastic Compounds.

The Light Pipes are like gasless neon tubes, but rather than using fragile glass they're made from virtually unbreakable acrylic with a co-extruded reflective layer. It makes me think of the umbrella handles in Blade Runner.

The Light Diffusing Plastic Compounds are simple-looking sheets that break hotspots up, giving you a nice, even glow. They're paintable, printable, and even laser-etchable.

(more...)

Book Review: Living with Complexity, by Donald Norman

February 1, 2011, 12:20 pm

≫ Next: Google Art Project: Best Art Project Ever?

≪ Previous: Inventables materials for lighting designers

$

0

0

A photograph of Al Gore's messy office opens Donald Norman's new book Living with Complexity. At first this reviewer looked at the office and the piles of paper in judgment and then began to realize that the very man campaigning against messing up the environment had a rather messy desk. Donald Norman might differ. Living with Complexity takes the theses offered in his earlier books The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design and extrapolates them from the world of goods into the world of service providers.

In Norman's view, Gore's desk is the cluttered extension of an organized mind. Indeed, Norman interviewed many seemingly organized owners of messy workspaces and heard them repeatedly request, "Please don't clean my desk." The apparent disorder of the office was being carefully tracked in their minds. Norman explains that all of our desire for "simplicity" is a false hope because life is complex. Complexity, however, does not need to be confusing. Those designers who can manage to produce devices (and systems) that corral the complexity of the world into intuitively grouped and well-designed systems will garner success in our digital world.

(more...)

Google Art Project: Best Art Project Ever?

February 1, 2011, 2:01 pm

≫ Next: NYIGF 2011 :: Menu A/S

≪ Previous: Book Review: Living with Complexity, by Donald Norman

$

0

0

I've always wanted to see Botticelli's Birth of Venus in person at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and now, thanks to Google, I can. Launched today, Google Art Project is like a google maps tour of the inside of 17 of the world's most respected museums including the Tate Britain (London), State Hermitage (St. Petersburg), Palace of Versailles and hometown favorites the Metropolitan Musuem and the Museum of Modern Art. Each museum allows navigation through specific galleries through interactive floorplans. There is even a piece of work available as a 1GB download for each museum. In the example below, the detail view of Chris Ofili's No Woman No Cry is accompanied by the backstory about working with the artist.

(more...)