MIT SENSEable City Lab's "Copenhagen Wheel" takes top US prize in Dyson Awards

August 12, 2010, 10:08 am

≫ Next: Materials: What exactly can Apple's new Liquidmetal do?

≪ Previous: Trunz Water Systems' eco-powered magic box for disaster relief

$

0

0

At press time their website had not yet been updated with this news, but the 2010 James Dyson Award has announced their US National Winner, along with the US Shortlist.

Top prize goes to MIT's SENSEable City Lab for their Copenhagen Wheel design, a sort of smart wheel that attaches to existing bicycles and transforms them into "hybrid electric-bikes with regeneration and real-time sensing capabilities."

Its sleek red hub not only contains a motor, batteries and an internal gear system - helping cyclists overcome hilly terrains and long distances - but also includes environmental and location sensors that provide data for cycling-related mobile applications. Cyclists can use this data to plan healthier bike routes, to achieve their exercise goals or to create new connections with other cyclists. Through sharing their data with friends or their city, they are also contributing to a larger pool of information from which the whole community can benefit.

Check out the full Shortlist here.

(more...)

---

Materials: What exactly can Apple's new Liquidmetal do?

August 12, 2010, 12:20 pm

≫ Next: "If you lie, you die." Richard Seymour on the new order.

≪ Previous: MIT SENSEable City Lab's "Copenhagen Wheel" takes top US prize in Dyson Awards

$

0

0

The web is abuzz with news of Apple's acquisition of a company called Liquidmetal Technologies Inc., a onetime NASA collaborator whose namesake material is a fast-cooling alloy mix twice as strong as titanium.

We can expect tons of speculation on what Apple might do with such a metal, design-wise, and 99% of the rumors will of course be nonsense. But for an example of what can actually, and has been, done with this material, check out this manufacturing vid from watchmaker Omega:

via cult of mac

(more...)

"If you lie, you die." Richard Seymour on the new order.

August 12, 2010, 12:27 pm

≫ Next: Crazy FLIP ship designed to change its orientation--from horizontal to vertical

≪ Previous: Materials: What exactly can Apple's new Liquidmetal do?

$

0

0

As part of Eastman Innovation Lab's ongoing series, Richard Seymour speaks about communication, push media, and transparency. Very short. And very powerful.

(more...)

Crazy FLIP ship designed to change its orientation--from horizontal to vertical

August 12, 2010, 2:10 pm

≫ Next: UncommonGoods Looks for Inventors and Designers

≪ Previous: "If you lie, you die." Richard Seymour on the new order.

$

0

0

This has got to be the weirdest oceangoing vessel I've ever seen: The FLIP (Floating Instrument Platform) was a ship apparently built in 1962 as a research platform. After being towed to its target site in a horizontal, normal ship position, ballast tanks begin taking on water--and the ship pivots 90 degrees, sending the bow some 300 feet below the surface, while the tail end rides above the waves, bristling with cranes presumably used to lower equipment.

Why the pivot? In rough seas that would toss normal ships about, the FLIP's unique alignment allows it to "anchor" itself in the calm waters below the surface, making for an exceptionally stable (and portable) platform.

(more...)

UncommonGoods Looks for Inventors and Designers

August 13, 2010, 8:51 am

≫ Next: Price drops on Modernist house from "Ferris Bueller"

≪ Previous: Crazy FLIP ship designed to change its orientation--from horizontal to vertical

$

0

0

UncommonGoods, in honor of National Inventors Month, is looking for the next "Uncommon Inventor or Designer." Here's the pitch:

The third of our YouGoods product design challenges, this contest is looking for a product with a spark of inventive genius, a flash of innovation and something that makes us say, "Aha! Why didn't we think of that?" Oh, and did we mention there's a $1,500 prize and a chance to showcase your design at World Maker Faire in NYC?

Guidelines for submitting an entry:
Must have a clear idea of the end product. Entrant may provide photos, design specs or videos to share a full concept of their idea.

Tell a good story. Judges want to know: How did you choose materials? What design options did you consider before you developed your final submission? What did you learn in the process of designing your product? Who is this product for and why? What need or problem does it address?

Judges will give more points to products that are unique, eco-friendly, and economical to produce. Judges may give more points to designs that have taken production and manufacturing into account.

The winning design will be picked by a team of judges along with the help and input of our online community. UncommonGoods Facebook fans will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite designs, so make sure you join us on Facebook! Download the entry form at www.uncommongoods.com/yougoods, and send us your product idea before August 23.

Good luck inventors! (and designers:)

(more...)

Price drops on Modernist house from "Ferris Bueller"

August 13, 2010, 8:55 am

≫ Next: Beautiful bikes from the past by O. Ray Courtney

≪ Previous: UncommonGoods Looks for Inventors and Designers

$

0

0

Who could forget the Mies-van-der-Rohe-esque house Cameron lived in in Ferris Bueller, the one with the glass garage where he sent his dad's 1961 Ferrari 250GT plummeting to its doom?

Over a year ago we started seeing blog posts indicating the Highland Park house was on the market, going for $2.3 mil. We checked the listing yesterday and not only has the house not sold, but the price has dropped to $1.65 mil. This is your chance, lucky Core77 reader, to swoop in and save yourself $650,000! You better invite us over after you buy it.

Officially called the Ben Rose Home, the steel and glass structures are located at 370 Beech Street in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago. They were designed by 20th-century architects A. James Speyer and David Haid.

As Chicago-area '80s movies houses go, this one's a better look than that Colonial rat-trap Macaulay Culkin got locked up in.

Rebellious teenager not included

(more...)

Beautiful bikes from the past by O. Ray Courtney

August 13, 2010, 9:19 am

≫ Next: Merkury Innovations is seeking a Full Time Package Designer in New York City

≪ Previous: Price drops on Modernist house from "Ferris Bueller"

$

0

0

Henderson is a defunct brand of U.S.-made motorcycle that went bust around the time of the Great Depression. In 1936 designer O. Ray Courtney took a 1930 Henderson and modified it into the streamlined style you see here:

[photo credit: knucklebusterinc.com]

Little is known about Courtney, though his name does pop up again in a 1953 Popular Science article, along with photos of another motorcycle he modded in 1950--with a style evolving along with the times:

The 1936 bike is now owned (and was restored) by one Frank Westfall of Syracuse, New York. The 1950 bike, sadly, is MIA.

via knucklebuster and finkbuilt

(more...)

Merkury Innovations is seeking a Full Time Package Designer in New York City

August 13, 2010, 9:31 am

≫ Next: Dogs on Design: Debbie Millman Knows Her Shih Tzus

≪ Previous: Beautiful bikes from the past by O. Ray Courtney

$

0

0

Merkury Innovations
Package Designer
New York, NY

YOU are a package designer/graphic artist with a solid background in consumer products. Recent grads okay if you are INCREDIBLE but retail packaging experience is a 100% MUST. You are a creative genius who will rock our world visually and play a critical role in the conception and implementation of the packaging for our products, website, catalog, etc.

» view

The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

(more...)

---

Dogs on Design: Debbie Millman Knows Her Shih Tzus

August 13, 2010, 9:37 am

≫ Next: Because We Can does up the Stanford Institute of Design

≪ Previous: Merkury Innovations is seeking a Full Time Package Designer in New York City

$

0

0

In this fourth post in our series, Dogs on Design, Raleigh Pop blogger Sarah F. Cox went for a dog walk with Debbie Millman to talk about brands and breeds. While they were out, they ran into theater director Neil Pepe and his dog.

Is loyalty to a dog breed like loyalty to a brand? Debbie Millman may not think of her two dogs, Scruffy and Duff, like she thinks of her clients, but there is evidence of some cross over. Scruffy, the older male, is a shih tzu while Duff, the female, is a mix of that and a spaniel. The two resemble a set of salt and pepper shakers that came packaged together, but it was Debbie's design that united them when a poster for her dog walker led to an accidental adoption.

(more...)

Because We Can does up the Stanford Institute of Design

August 13, 2010, 10:00 am

≫ Next: The ballsiest Nike installation you've ever seen

≪ Previous: Dogs on Design: Debbie Millman Knows Her Shih Tzus

$

0

0

When the Stanford Institute of Design needed a couple of interior elements for their facilities, they turned to Because We Can, the awesome husband-and-wife design team we wrote about earlier this year.

BWC made this killer built-in lounge made from cedar slats. We love how the frame, which looks to be CNC'd, makes for complete idiot-proof installation of the slats:

We also dig the portable-but-enormous TVs that BWC made. They're essentially huge screens of projection material mounted to a rolling frame that holds a projector:

Check out more of Because We Can's stuff here.

(more...)

The ballsiest Nike installation you've ever seen

August 13, 2010, 10:54 am

≫ Next: Liya Mairson's Pop-Up Cardboard Playhouse

≪ Previous: Because We Can does up the Stanford Institute of Design

$

0

0

Last month I was so caught up with the World Cup games, I never caught wind of the subsidiary events happening around South Africa. Like this killer Nike installation by Ratcliffe Fowler Design, erected in a Jo'burg shopping mall: The 20-meter high figure is modeled after Carlos Tevez, and the 5,500 "pixels" are actual balls that were subsequently donated to football programs around South Africa.

Check out the video of it going up:

via the coolhunter

(more...)

Liya Mairson's Pop-Up Cardboard Playhouse

August 13, 2010, 11:02 am

≫ Next: Everyday Growing by Juliette Warmenhoven

≪ Previous: The ballsiest Nike installation you've ever seen

$

0

0

Liya Mairson, a graduate of the Shenkar College of Engneering and Design, has created a children's play house that takes cues from pop up books, except this on is life size. As the pages are unfolded, so too do imaginary domestic spaces for children to play in. According to Mairson, the project was specifically targeted to small urban apartments which lack the space of a play room, and can be tucked behind a door when no tin use. The only thing we wish were different about this project is the name; it's called My Space.

Whether intentional or not, it reminds of Joe Colombo's Total Furnishing Unit, circa 1971-72, which is awesome. See for yourself, it's pictured below.

A few more shots of My Space after the jump.

(more...)

Everyday Growing by Juliette Warmenhoven

August 13, 2010, 11:31 am

≫ Next: Transcendental Tunes: Connecting Alzheimer's Patients with their Care Partners through Music

≪ Previous: Liya Mairson's Pop-Up Cardboard Playhouse

$

0

0

Sight Unseen has a nice feature up this week about Juliette Warmenhovem who makes odd contraptions and vessesls from plastic, paper and fiberglass to celebrate the growth and nurturing of plant life in domestic space. Pictured top are a bonsai incubator, left and germination vessels on the right, including a plant cuttings holding tank and a water supply device that helps seedlings sprout. Below, a music box that twirls a potato around on a pedestal, "highlighting the hidden beauty of a potato."

Here's an excerpt:

Her father is a flower farmer. If it all sounds very quaint, it might have been 20 years ago -- but then tulip production went the way of the meat industry thanks to globalization, and farming became a race to create the maximum amount of homogenous bulbs in the shortest amount of time. "My father feels farming is like working in a factory now," says the Arnhem-based designer. Just as shrink-wrapped steak has been divorced from the killing of the cow, plants are more about the perfection of the end product than the actual growing process. "I believe that when you explain that process to people, they get more feeling out of it," she says. For Everyday Growing, her graduation project at Arnhem's ArtEZ school this January, she built a series of small monuments to plants' humble -- and often imperfect -- origins.

Read the rest here.

(more...)

Transcendental Tunes: Connecting Alzheimer's Patients with their Care Partners through Music

August 13, 2010, 2:10 pm

≫ Next: 128 Vintage, old school calculators

≪ Previous: Everyday Growing by Juliette Warmenhoven

$

0

0

Transcendental Tunes, by José de la O is a project that combines RFID with old school stereo equipment and digital tunes to serves as a memory trigger and emotional aid for Alzheimer's patients, improving communication with their care partners. Under the premise that those affected by Alzheimer's don't lose their memories, but just their capacity to reach them, the project takes advantage of the observation that the Medial Prefrontal Cortex, the part of the brain responsible for familiar music, memories and emotion, is one of the last areas to atrophy over the course of the disease. This system uses music as a means of accessing those memories and making new, meaningful connections.

Jose explains how the project works, also illustrated in the video above:

After the care partner chooses a song that connects him with the patient living with Alzheimer's, he stores the meaningful song on a digital jewelry piece. A metallic icon who works as an RFID antenna, housed by an translucent gem, triggers the song when placed on top of an vintage-looking audio devise. This digital jewel becomes not only the carrier of an auditory stimulus, but the physicality of the jewel also carries a meaningful connection for the care partner.

The old-looking wooden audio artifact, with no knobs, buttons or displays, has been designed with the Alzheimer patient in mind. A patient living with Alzheimer's cannot recognize new objects as musical-providing devises, that is why the designer has to look to the past to design for them. The readability of the object has to be subtle and quiet.

(more...)

128 Vintage, old school calculators

August 14, 2010, 4:27 pm

≫ Next: Behind the scenes on the BMW and NielPryde collaboration

≪ Previous: Transcendental Tunes: Connecting Alzheimer's Patients with their Care Partners through Music

$

0

0

There is a simple paradox I've noticed in product design; the objects with the most direct functions have a greater amount of accepted options in the marketplace. Two excellent examples of this are the chair and the watch. It would be difficult to think of two simpler functions and you would be hard pressed to find products with more choice in form, execution, and price.

In the 1970s, the simple calculator was one such item, as ubiquitous as they were varied. Vintage Technology has 128 examples on display with detailed specs and reviews. Worth it just for fantastic names like The Adman 830 and the Intercord Electronic 101! Some of my faves are above, but be sure to check out the full selection here.

Thanks to Jeremy Savage on the discussion boards for the tip.

(more...)

---

Behind the scenes on the BMW and NielPryde collaboration

August 14, 2010, 5:30 pm

≫ Next: Hand-Eye Supply: LaCie IamaKey, CooKey and WhisKey USB flash drives

≪ Previous: 128 Vintage, old school calculators

$

0

0

Last week we told you about BMW's collaboration with NielPryde. It's no surprise that designer Sonny Lim was involved with this effort. Sonny is a senior designer at BMW Group Designworks and has been responsible for some amazing product there. Prior to Designworks, Lim was a designer at Adidas and Sony Ericsson. You can see more on the Alize road bike as well as Sonny's other work for Sennheiser, Sony, and Adidas in his portfolio.

(more...)

Hand-Eye Supply: LaCie IamaKey, CooKey and WhisKey USB flash drives

August 15, 2010, 12:49 pm

≫ Next: Gensler is seeking a Senior Communications Designer in San Francisco

≪ Previous: Behind the scenes on the BMW and NielPryde collaboration

$

0

0

We know USB flash drives have been around forever, in fact USB 2.0 technology debuted over a decade ago (April 2000), and in that time we've seen endless iterations on the form but this key-shaped flash drive by 5.5 designers for LaCie nailed it. We're not the only fans either — they recently picked up a Gold IDEA Award — and the IamaKey, CooKey and WhisKey are now one of LaCie's most popular products.

So until you have complete faith in the cloud, can get a connection everywhere, and effortlessly jump on your clients network to transfer files, USB flash drives are not going to be made obsolete anytime soon!

Features:
- 4GB and 8GB available
- Sturdy metal ultra-thin design; fits on a keyring
- Universal Hi-Speed USB 2.0 interface (PC and Mac)
- Fast transfer rates (up to 30 MB/s)
- Gold SIP technology, water- and scratch-resistant

IamaKey, CooKey and WhisKey:
4GB - $19.99
8GB - $29.99

Buy Here

--

More from 5.5 Designers:
Milan Design Week 2010
Tab Stool, 2009
Milan Design Week 2008
Designer Tattoos, Design Miami 2007

(more...)

Gensler is seeking a Senior Communications Designer in San Francisco

August 16, 2010, 7:20 am

≫ Next: For XJ75 anniversary car, Jag designers get to loosen their ties a bit

≪ Previous: Hand-Eye Supply: LaCie IamaKey, CooKey and WhisKey USB flash drives

$

0

0

Gensler
Senior Communications Designer
San Francisco, CA

The senior communications designer will work closely with the creative director and editorial director to design and develop multiple projects including brand programs, print collateral, and promotional, editorial, and interactive assignments. Within a collaborative studio, the senior communications designer will direct the design, development, and execution of projects, and lead and mentor the other designers on the team. Thriving and ensuring that others thrive is a conscious goal for the position and for the group's leadership as a whole.

» view

The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

(more...)

For XJ75 anniversary car, Jag designers get to loosen their ties a bit

August 16, 2010, 7:42 am

≫ Next: Yaniv Berg's unusual DSLR concept form factor

≪ Previous: Gensler is seeking a Senior Communications Designer in San Francisco

$

0

0

To celebrate the company's 75th anniversary, the Jaguar design team has produced a special one-off concept car, the XJ75 Platinum Concept. The uncharacteristically stark white-on-black machine was on display over the weekend at the Pebble Beach Concours D'Elegance.

"From a pure design perspective, the XJ75 Platinum Concept is foremost about emphasising the striking proportion and presence of the new XJ, with a distilled black and white theme, which conjures up the sense of precious platinum," said Jaguar XJ Chief Designer Giles Taylor. "At the same time, the pure sporting character of XJ is brought to the fore by keeping the car's clean graphic approach and further lowering its stance.

"On the inside, we played up the XJ's combination of high-end materials and British flair to really have some fun. The XJ75 Platinum Concept is a design exercise that shows our vision of customization as an inspiration for those enthusiasts who have a taste for strong individuality and visual confidence in their luxury automobiles."

(more...)

Yaniv Berg's unusual DSLR concept form factor

August 16, 2010, 8:02 am

≫ Next: David Benqué's Acoustic Botany

≪ Previous: For XJ75 anniversary car, Jag designers get to loosen their ties a bit

$

0

0

I was recently able to view some street photography of people walking around the city from the private collection of fashion/beauty photographer Michael Brandt. (Though his professional work is available at the link above, the street shots are unfortunately not available for us to print here.) I was struck by how well-composed the shots are, and how close they are to subjects that seem completely natural and unaware of the camera. When I asked him how he consistently manages to get such shots, he said he shoots literally from the hip, having precalculated the focusing distance and discreetly pulling the trigger when his moving targets step into the field of focus.

Shooting from the hip is a tricky proposition for most of us non-professionals, who can probably pull it off only with the help of a flip-out LCD on an angle that allows us to see what we're capturing. Designer Yaniv Berg's DSLR camera concept is designed specifically for the purpose, with a periscope-like form factor that forgoes the usual brick-and-cylinder body. We doubt it will take as the design seems to preclude eye-level photography, but we are interested to see younger designers rejecting a body shape that Cartier-Bresson was toting around in the '30s.

via cnet

(more...)