By now, you might've already looked over the five winning entries in the Fast Track to the Mobile App design competition, and seen the list of the 95 finalists who impressed judges with their combination of practical, creative and fun concepts. Over the next month, we'll follow the winners as they pair up with developers to turn those designs into workable apps.

Three winners (Black Belt, Bridge, and car pal+) will be paired with well-known Windows Phone developers or MVPs (Most Valuable Professional) who expressed an affinity to work on a specific winning app. Two of the winners (Social Mints and Rhythmatic) will be doing their own development. Winners and finalists will be connected to a Microsoft Mobile Phone Champ—Windows Phone mavens who are developers in the winners' regions with intimate knowledge of the ins-and-outs of app building, to help them along. Then, it's on to making a to-do list of necessary steps to ready their designs for launch in the Windows Phone Marketplace by February 15th. We want to encourage everyone who entered the contest to go through as much of the app development process as they can to bring their proposals to life. In this special series, we'll be exploring that process as the winners prepare their apps for entry into the Windows Phone Marketplace.

The first step of app development for designers and newbie developers alike is registering in the App Hub and downloading development tools for the Windows Phone. Designers can access a thorough resource repository of all they need to develop for the Phone or Xbox, a checklist for preparing that app for certification, and perhaps most importantly, access to a community of like-minded developers.

Minnesota-based craftsman Charlie Kocourek wanted an adjustable-height workbench, but found exising versions to be poorly designed—requiring great physical strength to lift or lower—or just too expensive, in the case of motorized ones.

Kocourek then invented his own, the Jack Bench, which ingeniously uses scissor jacks culled from junkyard cars. To operate them, he needed something that would provide rotational force, and turned to something every builder has handy: a power drill.

Check it out:

A student recently asked me how I got my first professional job as a designer. It reminded me of a particularly difficult journey I hadn't thought of in years. Looking at my resume my path seems almost predestined. It was easy for me to almost forget how difficult it was to transition from student to professional. It almost didn't happen at all.

My last year in design school, I was doing sponsored projects for both Nike and Nissan. The Nike project was going extremely well and resulted in Nike flying me out to their headquarters outside of Portland, Oregon a couple of times to meet with the team and David Schenone, then the head of footwear design. A few months out from graduation, Dave made me an offer to come out to Nike full-time. Arrogantly, I asked if I could defer my decision until after graduation so I could weigh all of my options. I wanted to finish up my project for Nissan and I was hoping it also might turn into an offer.

Little did I know that many companies were having a difficult year. In fact it was one of the worst sales quarters Nike had ever seen. I wrapped up the program with Nissan and they expressed interest in me coming there, but they wanted me to get a couple years of experience first. Nike informed me that I was at the top of their list, but they had a 6-12 month hiring freeze. Interest from other companies like Seadoo and Bombardier also cooled when they readjusted their budgets.

This left me with one full-time offer to work on the design staff for a small company that manufactured electric assisted chairs for seniors. While this was a great opportunity, it just didn't feel like the right fit for the 21 year old me. To the surprise of my friends and family, I turned the offer down, ate a healthy serving of humble pie and moved back in with my parents that June.

Above: Sketch from the basement studio days. Hydrogen fuel cell steam train. Charcoal, prisma pencil, and marker on large format newsprint.

For those of you thinking about applying, the new MFA Products of Design priority application deadline is coming up on January 15th. The progressive new program, launched at SVA and chaired by Core77's Allan Chochinov, is casting a wide net:

We are looking for all kinds of applicants for the MFA program: the highly-skilled, seeking more meaningful applications; the deeply-knowledgeable, looking for greater scale and impact; the passionate, looking for more rigor and process; and of course the iconoclastic, looking for a home.

And scraped from their Q&A page:

Q: Who should apply to this program?

A: We've had great interest from working designers, a few years out of school and looking for more meaning in what they do with their acquired skills. Designers at this stage are often disillusioned by pumping out toxic garbage, but they haven't given up on their belief in the power of design. These kinds of people are precious, because they've got the skills in place, and they've got the passion to put them to more meaningful use. They just need a nurturing, challenging place to discover new opportunities in the world of design, and to really dig deep into what they uniquely have to contribute. Here I'd say, "We want you back."

We are also looking for extraordinarily creative individuals who actually should be in design. The skill sets and vocabularies required of a design person are rapidly changing, and there are now many many places for creative people to contribute to the enterprise of design. We are looking for people with deep, comprehensive skills in a couple particular areas, and who hunger for ways to integrate those skills into something bigger. That's the thing--we're in the business of training people to become great designers--sure. But we're also in the business of empowering creative, strategic, and fearless people to do great things in the world of design. Designers crave influence from the edges, so we welcome people with excellent chops in something vital, who are intensely curious about making a difference and who are enamored of the fact that design deals in scale; that a single action can multiply out to great effect.

(Some nice special effects: The Design Research class will be taught at IDEO; the Material Futures class at Material ConneXion; total pro faculty with deep industry connections; heart of NYC.) Apply Page is here.

Usually when it comes to talking about graffiti art, it's a moral discussion about property rights or freedom of expression. In the case of the Little Lotus Project, it's definitely a moral cause, but of a different nature entirely: bringing creativity to impoverished children a world away. The Project sends street artists to paint murals on schools in the Thai/Burma border region where Burmese refugee and migrant families have made a new life.

In 2010, four artists from New Zealand traveled to the region to paint murals. Through SpinningTop, a charity that "gives balance to vulnerable children," seven international street artists traveled to the region this month to continue the artistic endeavor and to engage the children in fun and educational art projects. Read more about the most recent project and trip here.

You'd never guess, by looking at Luke Lamp Co.'s Etsy offerings, that the incandescent bulb is going extinct. The Mamaroneck, New-York-based company produces a range of Edison-bulb lighting fixtures like the mason-jar-and-rope lamp shown above, made by "painstakingly [running] 6’ of standard rated lamp cord through a 40” length of 3/4” manila rope."

Luke Lamp Co. is actually a one-man operation. Writes founder Luke Kelly,

I am the owner, lamp builder, label maker, supplies buyer, customer service representative, call center operator, lamp repairer, light finder, and delivery man of Luke Lamp Co., a company I started during the summer of 2011, when—through my extensive thrift shopping and tag sale scavenging I undertook as part of my family's yearly New Hampshire trip—I decided there is way too much cool old lighting out there left lonely and nonfunctional in cardboard boxes and street corners and so I must take it upon myself to give new life to what I can.

The two-headed form factor of this Talstar Professional Insecticide bottle is almost disturbingly ugly, yet the physical design is meant to convey its specific manner of use:

The bottle contains a potent concentrate of bug-killing juice. The user is meant to squeeze the base of the bottle, causing a measured amount of product to be drawn up into the heart-shaped chamber, which is graduated. In order for the drawing action to work, air needs to come in from somewhere, and the other cap on the tower-like portion of the bottle serves as a valve. That side of the bottle is shaped like a handle while the other side curves like a spout, hopefully making it obvious that you're meant to pour one way but not the other.

And yes, I recognize that since I worked as a structural package designer (fancy-talk for bottle designer), I may be the only one geeking out over this thing.

We've already covered Star Wars cross-sections back in Part 1, so it's only fair we cover the Star Trek cross-sections of Christopher and Matt Cushman. Christopher Cushman's story begins with the opening of the first Star Trek movie and the release of a cross-section poster of the Enterprise-A drawn by another master of the cutaway, David Kimble. Fast-forward a few years and Cushman is working as an automotive illustrator at GM in Detroit, when in walks Kimble.

The two quickly struck up a friendship, but when Cushman asked about doing a Star Trek poster with Paramount, the parent company, Kimble complained that he had been screwed out of profits. Undaunted, Cushman found a company to become a Star Trek licensee and began work on an epic 77-inch-wide poster of the new Enterprise-D. Mike Okuda, who pretty much invented all of the graphic design in Star Trek, contributed technical details that helped to fill the Enterprise with a startling amount of detail. Click here to see the largest version of the poster I could find on the web.

The poster was a huge success and a copy was even included in the Smithsonian's permanent Star Trek collection. Unfortunately, as per David Kimble's legacy of being screwed, Christopher Cushman was screwed out of his royalties on the poster. He took the case to court and was even awarded damages by a jury that was apparently big fans of Star Trek! Even more unfortunately, the company ended up filing for bankruptcy and Cushman never received any payment.

Christopher's brother, Matt, followed in his footsteps and was soon working on a poster of the original Enterprise. Christopher again contacted Paramount and worked hard to make sure his brother would not end up in a similar legal situation. The poster ended up being an even bigger success that Christopher's and helped to create some Star Trek canon along the way.

Last week, an engineer mentioned his Harmony remote to me. He really loved it and was one of those passionate early adopters. I remembered that they had more humble beginnings, so I went back and did some quick research. Use this for a great case study of the power of design.

Harmony began as Easy Zapper in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, Ontario around 2000-2001. In 2002, they were selling the remote pictured, the Harmony Easy Zapper, for $200. It featured all of the technical features that today's users rave about: activity-centered control, easy programming of the remote via a PC and constantly updated software. However, the one big thing it lacks is style: it looks like a Radio Shack bought electronic project box from the 1980s.

Someone else saw the same glaring problem: Logitech. Logitech bought the company in 2004 for the small sum of $29 million. According to their 2005 annual report, "The first Harmony remote to leverage Logitech's renowned design expertise, [the Harmony 880] features a large color screen and comfortable sculpted buttons." That focus on design is what has lead to the 2005 Logitech Harmony 880 pictured here. It retailed for $250.

Here's the kicker: In 2011, Harmony contributed $164 million in revenue and a profit of $57 million to Logitech's empire.

To those who are not familiar with the product, I have a later version, the 550, which retails for around $100. The quality design is evident just picking it up. It has a substantial weight, tight tolerances, no sharp flash around the plastic parts. Moreover, the higher quality (i.e. more expensive) manufacturing is clear: metallic painted plastic and soft-touch painted shell with an acrylic window separated by a line of vacuum-plated trim running through it. That's a lot of operations and assembly by the standards of a remote control that is normally squeezed out of an injection molding machine, stamped with a logo and screwed together over a PCB and some silicone buttons.

This is what happens when you rip The Clash off on eBay

As product designers we're supposed to play a role in keeping objects out of the wastestream. Consumers play their part too, with sites like Craigslist and eBay providing a vast network for vintage and antique object reallocation among enthusiasts. And while Craigslist runs on sneakernets and cash, eBay's financial engine is PayPal.

In a rather sad story currently making the blog rounds, PayPal has a mechanism in place to deal with counterfeit objects and refund issuance. After a recently disputed transaction involving a $2,500 antique violin—the seller claimed it was real, the buyer said it was fake—PayPal told the buyer they'd issue a refund, upon providing evidence that they destroyed the object in question. The buyer complied.

Hit the jump to read the tale, as told by the seller.

The suburbanites and rural dwellers among you probably realize that your home-maintenance problems are foreign to us city dwellers. You have raccoons going through your garbage, we have winos and identity thieves going through ours. Also, you guys have yards to maintain; our version of yardwork is plucking scattered take-out menus off the floors of our building vestibules.

One problem that's news to me: Apparently, those of you with yards ringed by oak trees need to undertake acorn and pine cone removal. I'd never heard of this before until I saw the tools pictured up above, designed by a charmingly-named company called Garden Weasel. Their functions aren't obvious from looking at still shots of them, so check this out:

I don't quite know what to make of these since I've never had to perform those tasks. Still, I'd like Garden Weasel to set up an urban subsidiary—Apartment Building Weasel?—that adapts these for picking up take-out menus.

One of the comments on Part 2 of this series suggested I check out the work of Rudolf and Robbert Das, twin Dutch futurists. The Das brothers were born in 1929 and originally wanted to become pilots, but Robbert was rejected due to his eyesight, so they started a technical illustration agency in 1952. Rudolf and Robbert made headlines when they published a cross-section of a top secret British jet fighter, but the technical details were culled from existing aircraft.

Over the decades, the Das brothers have published a number of books on concepts for future architecture and infrastructure. See close-ups of their work here.

As businesses in Asia in various domains look to how they can mature, differentiate and compete globally in their respective products and services, User Experience (UX) is gaining significant momentum. Management are curious as to what UX means and how it can be applied to not just improve experiences but towards real customer delight. They are looking for people and professional communities to help them understand. This is being helped some by Asian companies like Samsung, Huawei, Baidu, Lenovo and HTC (to name a few) investing in design. There has also been an increase in design studios and research & development opening up locally as companies from outside Asia also want to get a deeper understanding of the "Asian consumer mindset"—especially in growth markets like mainland China—towards designing more effectively for their needs. The media has also helped with continued coverage of the importance of design in the business success of Apple and the continued integration of technology into all aspects of our lives.

When we started pitching the importance of related disciplines like usability and user centered design 10+ years ago in Hong Kong and in mainland China, there was little interest or understanding of what the terms meant, how they could be applied in product design and development, or how it could help the business make better products and services. Fast forward to 2011 and we are seeing encouraging trends and indicators in the Asian market to show that User Experience is healthy, growing and will continue to do well for many years to come.

Here are a few recent observations:

Local and Regional Communities of Practice
Whether it be smaller meet ups or professional association conferences, practitioners including researchers, designers, usability, product managers and marketing are keen to get together, learn from each other and take UX into their organisations. For example, the Usability Professionals' Association China has been running a conference called User Friendly since 2003 and has been getting a steady and increasing attendance every year. The China Interaction Design enjoyed their first conference in 2010 and newer events are growing including User Experience Taiwan in 2011, User Experience Hong Kong in 2011 (repeating in 2012), the USID Foundation India and User Experience Singapore in 2010 and 2011 that all point to a need for local professionals wanting to get together but also a regional need to better understand the state of UX in each market and how each market help get a better global UX understanding.

From tools based learning to UX Leadership
There will always be a place for improving our understanding and implementation of UX tools we use on projects but we have also seen a steady increase of practitioners in Asia wanting to know more about forming, growing and managing UX teams, hiring UX team members, gaining a better understanding of the skill sets to look out for when hiring, better managing communications between the UX team and other teams organisationally, better understanding how to communicate the UX results to management clearly towards cultural change in organisations. This suggests the market in Asia is maturing.

Join the London design community for the second UK Designers Accord Town Hall in London on Thursday, January 19, hosted by Engage by Design and in partnership with the Design Council in London.

Systems innovation is driving the sustainability agenda; come and discuss how we can create social innovation that generates meaningful change.

6.00-6.15 - Intro
6.15-7.15 - Presentations
7.15-7.30 - Food, wine & break out group workshops
7.30-8.15 - Feedback & future action framework

Design Council
34 Bow Street
London WC2E 7DL
United Kingdom

The event is free, but you need a ticket. Reserve yours now!

Rome's Chiostro del Bramante Museum was erected during the Renaissance, when even Leonardo da Vinci could not have predicted a vehicle like Lamborghini's Aventador supercar. Unsurprisingly then, the Museum lacks doors that would accommodate such an object. So when Lamborghini decided to display one there last year as part of the "La Forza Del Toro" exhibit, they carried the car in chunk by chunk and assembled it on site.

The following briskly-edited video gets the process down to two minutes and change, and makes you realize Lambo technicians are the last people you'd complain to about having to assemble complicated Ikea furniture.

Next month we'll be heading over to Dublin, Ireland for the Interaction12 Conference, the annual gathering organized by our friends at the IxDA. This will be our first trip to the Emerald Isle, so if anyone has suggestions for can't-miss experiences definitely let us know in the comments.

We're happy to be sponsors of the conference, and also super excited to be hosting the second installment of Coroflot Connects, a whirlwind night of shmoozing, recruiting and networking. What better way to land your next dream job than with a pint of Guinness in your hand!

Coroflot Connects
at Interaction12 Conference
Thursday, February 2, 2012
5PM - 7PM
Banking Hall at the Westin Dublin Hotel
Dublin, Ireland

For those of you attending the conference, make sure to stop by and say, "Hi!" on Thursday night. For those not yet registered—get on it! Time and space are running short.

So you've made it through eight posts on the masters of cutaways. If you're like me, you've been wondering, "How the hell do I draw my own cross-sections??" That's where Kevin Hulsey comes in. Hulsey is a cross-section illustrator-extraordinaire and he has a fantastic series of tutorials on his website.

Although Hulsey uses a lot of "ghosting" in his illustrations, where a bottom Photoshop layer of technical components is seen through a top layer of a car's exterior, the tutorial we're featuring is about the construction of line art for a cruise ship.

First, Hulsey creates a master perspective grid that shows the "maximum amount of important features on the ship." Next, he creates an grid of the deck elevations. Using the blueprints as a guide, Hulsey redraws the floorplans onto each appropriate elevation.

Ron Paulk might be a carpenter/builder, I'd argue that in terms of storage he's also an artist. (See his Mobile Tool Trailer from Part 1 if you've any doubt.) And below is this artist's latest blank canvas:

That's a 1,000-cubic-foot box truck Paulk recently acquired, with the goal of transforming it into something above and beyond the 500-cubic-foot Tool Trailer; this new truck will not only transport tools and materials, but will also be kitted out to do proper work inside of.

You won't mistake this first video for a Michael Bay production—it's just vid-capture of a CAD screen with voiceover by Paulk—but it's interesting in that we get to see and hear about some of his design process (as seen in the photo up top). The Tool Trailer from Part 1 incorporated store-bought tool drawers, but here Paulk is designing a modular and adjustable system of storage that will replace expensive drawer glides with simple dadoes. We also get to see the evolution of his clever solution (which will later be modified) to keep the drawers locked into the frame.

The first Flotspotting of the New Year picks up where the last one left off: Vil Tsimenzin's shiny vehicle renderings are as sweet as eye candy gets. Whereas Jon Pope's renderings were somewhat cartoon-y (in a good way) to belie the clever mechanisms behind them, Vil's are perhaps cartoonishly slick, each and everyone like, say, a concept Batmobile.

The crisp, unnaturally pure hues amplify the visual effect—a superficial similarity between Tsimenzin and Pope, perhaps—but the level of detail is remarkable in itself. If the renderings lack a bit of real-world grime or a hard-earned patina, the vehicles' pristine appearance is precisely the intention of a digital drawing.

As for "Super Duty":

And to answer Bruce Wayne's inquiry: yes, it does come in black.

For the first GoPro video of 2012, heavy-duty padding purveyors G-Form have put their Extreme Edge iPad case to the test by documenting a 100,000-ft. (to the edge of the troposphere, if you must know) drop.

Still, some are questioning the authenticity of the video: