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AIAIAI & KiBiSi's New Capital Headphones

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Copenhagen-based audio design company AIAIAI is releasing a new pair of headphones called Capital, designed by KiBiSi. While the two entities previously collaborated on the lightweight Tracks headphones, the can-style Capital is a beefier effort made to be both flexible and, more importantly to those of us who use the hell out of things, rugged:

Made out of nylon reinforced with fibreglass with a lightweight rubber-brace, the headphones are built to withstand heavy, everyday use in urban environments. It's also tested to withstand the rapidly changing environments of the city while delivering clear and crisp sound from the protected 40mm driver. The materials have been handpicked for durability, and the design lets you adjust to your own perfect, comfortable fit.

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The adjustment system, as KiBiSi points out, "is reminiscent of snowboard bindings, in tune with the generally sturdy and eclectic solutions implemented." Those of us not attending today's Agenda streewear & action sports tradeshow in Los Angeles, where the wraps officially come off, will have to wait a bit longer to see those solutions in person.

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Win a Core77 Scholarship to the Pensole PS2 Footwear Design School

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Are you the FUTURE of the FOOTWEAR industry?

PENSOLE Footwear Design Academy is pleased to introduce: Saturday School. Register today for your chance to win a Core77 scholarship!

PENSOLE Saturday School (PS2) is an innovative 11-week footwear design class that teaches students the knowledge needed to become a professional footwear designer.

At PS2, students will experience our rigorous "learn by doing" curriculum, where students are assigned projects to develop from idea, to final concept while working in a team environment.

2012 Winter PS2 class theme is the SOLE of Oregon. During this class, each student will be assigned a different Oregon footwear brand to design a new concept for, with the goal of showcasing why you are the future of footwear.

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Kanye West Calling for Creatives to Change the World

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Hip-hop megastar Kanye West is wasting no time in garnering headlines in 2012, as he spent last night publicly sketching out a New Business Plan—140 characters at a time, no less—to take up the mantle of none other than Steve Jobs himself:

DONDA is a design company which will galvanize amazing thinkers and put them in a creative space to bounce there [sic] dreams and ideas...

I am assembling a team of architects, graphic designers, directors musicians, producers, AnRs [sic], writers, publicist, social media experts, app guys, managers, car designers, clothing designers, DJs, video game designers, publishers, tech guys, lawyers, bankers, nutritionist, doctors, scientist, teachers...

Thus, DONDA, named after West's late mother, will be founded on a simple premise: "to put creatives in a room together with like minds," in order to "simplify and aesthetically improve everything we see, hear, touch, taste and feel."

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Over the course of nearly 100 Tweets, West shared a discursive series of thoughts on the trappings of celebrity, his fashion pedigree, the launch of his label last year, a "new 7 screen experience" for the 2016 Olympics (above), and his interest in reforming education.

As for the attention-grabbing reference to the late Mr. Jobs, West asserted that "We can collectively effect the world trough [sic] design. We need to pick up where steve jobs left off." (West also draws a comparison between Jobs, Michael Jackson and Alexander McQueen as a veritable pantheon of visionaries who passed before their time.)

Kanye expressed his abiding desire to make a difference in the world: "What good is fame and prestige if you can't use it to help people... I want to help by doing what I know how to do best .. create."

Speculation and bombast aside, we're waiting for the other shoe to drop (in a manner of speaking, of course; the Air Yeezy 2 is set to launch in March). For now, interested parties can reach out to contactDONDA@gmail.com.

via PSFK

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Google Maps: Designing the Modern Atlas

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It is often the case in interaction design that the best solutions simply get out of the way, allowing the user to achieve their goal and get on with their life. With Google Maps, this is certainly the desired outcome. Geographic navigation and search should be smooth, efficient, and ultimately straightforward. When this is successful and the product works as it should, the nuances and details behind these experiences can often go unnoticed, written off as algorithmically derived and invisible.

Since its launch in 2004, Google Maps has come a long way from its relatively simple beginnings as a simple pannable and zoomable road map of the United States and United Kingdom. Today we display business and transit networks, three dimensional cities, natural terrain, and much more. It is a map that serves pedestrians, motorists, tourists, and locals alike. Soon it was not only used it as a "clean" map for wayfinding and browsing but also as a base for overlays, search results, directions, and personal customization—with sources from all over the web. In the same vein as Google's mission, we are organizing the world's information in a geographic context.

The work and evolution behind this ambitious undertaking is a combination of design vision, product strategy, engineering prowess, and ethnographic and usability research. Our User Experience team comprises a small group of designers, researchers, and prototypers in offices around the globe. The research and experience gained in these diverse locations give us insights into real-world usage and help us better serve the needs of our users.

The breadth of our collective work, whether it's anything from helping a local business connect more meaningfully with their customers to helping you find your gate at the airport on time, is harmonized by our common goal to deliver a more complete picture of the Earth. From its roadways and cities to weather patterns and natural wonders, our team is attempting to capture the complexity and variance of these multiple systems in a product that just about anyone can use.

To accomplish this vision, we work in our studios flipping between sketchbooks and whiteboards, Photoshop and Fireworks, visualizing user scenarios and creating new design concepts quickly and in high-fidelity. We complement this process by hacking rendering specs and tweaking Javascript to produce interactive demos. Occasionally, we will even turn to programs like Apple Keynote and Adobe After Effects to quickly demonstrate interactive transitions and animations. These lightweight models give us the ability to test and experiment with highly interactive designs without demanding the resources of a full engineering team. As the design process continues, these prototypes (and static design mocks) are crucial in our early "cafe" usability studies where we often walk a user through a single-outcome user "journey" (e.g. getting directions or finding a hotel).

1.jpegA snapshot of Google Maps' design evolution 2009 (top) - 2011 (bottom). click for more information.

Synthesizing all of this information in an approachable and aesthetically pleasing way carried obvious challenges. As the product grew and evolved, the map varied widely from one country to another, and the universal familiarity and usability that made Google Maps a success was being undermined by complexity and "feature creep." To better understand which of these variances were useful, we audited the map styles, colors, and iconography of maps all over the world with the help of local users. We examined the leading online and offline mapping providers in each country, in addition to researching local physical signage and wayfinding. This undertaking provided us with a look at mapping as a local exercise—with cultural, ethnic, and region-specific quirks and nuances.

2.jpegOur global cartography audit in progress.

With this research in mind, we came to the realization that there was little consistency between this collection of maps and no real indication of a common "correct" palette for color and style rendering. By unifying and simplifying our own Google color palette down from hundreds to a small handful of colors, we were able to produce an experience that provided familiarity and uniformity as you browse the world.

3.jpegA sampling of our color palette studies and refinement.

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Yelp Inc. is seeking a UI Designer in San Francisco, California

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UI Designer
Yelp Inc.

San Francisco, California

Think you've got the UI design skills to wow over 61 million users each month? Then Yelp wants to hear from you. They're looking for a senior designer that can create world class user interfaces that visually amaze but are simple to use.

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Supergrau's Kitchen Knife Storage

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Here are two different takes on knife storage by Supergrau, a furniture and housewares company with a Made in Germany product lineup. The Saddle (above) is a magnetic, leather-covered "roof" that provides a place to tuck a cutting board while keeping your knives stuck to the outside. The leather will get scratched up over time, but that's intended to add to the aesthetic.

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The Wrench is a nice twist on the standard knife block, replacing those dull slots with perfect geometry. Concentric, hexagonal-cross-section pieces of wood, nested and fixed in place by compressing an O-ring between each section, can store up to 12 knives in a variety of widths (though the cleaver will probably need to ride the Saddle).

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Storage Furniture with a Twist: Jakob Joergensen's Fjarill Drawers

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The Fjarill bureau renders typical pull-out drawers boring in comparison. Created by Danish designer Jakob Joergensen, the Fjarill has a diagonal slot channeled beneath each drawer, and while a specific explanation does not exist, we imagine there's a single peg located in the bottom corner of each drawer that allows them to pivot outwards and slide back inwards. (It's also possible, judging by some of these configurations, that the slot follows a zigzag track, or that Joergensen has simply devised a craft mechanism too clever for this blogger to guess at.)

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Whatever the mechanism, the end effect is undeniably cool, and offers a more interesting way than full-extension drawer slides to get at those items relegated to the furthest corners of the drawers.

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CoreToon: How Design Can Save the World


Does Culture Matter for Product Design?

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Once upon a time, when I visited other countries, I would head to the department stores so I could experience the wide cultural variations in such things as cookware, cutlery and tools for crafts and gardening. Today, I seldom do this anymore because all the stores look the same. Rice cookers and woks may have originated in Japan and China, but today they can be found in kitchen appliance stores all over the world. Italian, German and American appliances are for sale in Asia. Asian appliances are for sale in Italy, Germany and America. The country of design and manufacture no longer matters much. A television set, automobile, mobile phone, camera or refrigerator looks the same whether made in Asia, North America or Europe.

I have a collection of photos taken around the world of stores, restaurants and street scenes. I sometimes use them in my lectures, asking the audience to state where the picture was taken. People respond with great confidence, but they are invariably wrong. Why? In what city—or country—was the photograph in Figure 1 taken? It could be anywhere. I can find store displays similar to that shown in Figure 1 in Asia, Europe or the United States. Even the language visible in my photographs provides surprisingly little information: Signs in Chinese, English, French, Korean or German are displayed throughout the world. One street scene from Hong Kong shows less Chinese characters than pictures I have taken in San Francisco, New York or London: most people judge the photos to be from Western Europe. Where did Figure 1 come from? A department store in Daejeon, South Korea.

The same lack of diversity extends to the training of designers. When I visit the top design schools across the world, I find that their curricula and methods are similar. I find more differences in the curricula of schools within a country than between the United States, Hong Kong, Korea, England and the Netherlands.

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Ron Paulk's Mobile Super Workshop, Part 3: Building the Modular Cabinets and Starting on the Truck Installation

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In these next two videos, builder Ron Paulk begins kitting out his box truck with the intention of making it into a seriously bad-ass mobile workshop.

Depending on how nuts-and-bolts you are, you may or may not want to sit through all nine minutes of this first video. (I fall into the former category, obviously.) For the first half it's basically Ron explaining the design of his modular cabinet system, which forgoes drawer slides in favor of simple dadoes, and the jig he rigged up to execute it; the second half is narration-free footage of him cranking out a finished cabinet.

Whether you're nuts-and-bolts or not, you'll want to watch this next vid for sure. It's Ron inside the now-partially-kitted-out truck, explaining the components starting to take shape primarily on the right side.

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Case Study: miniMe and the Future of Integrated Health Care, by Ergonomidesign

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After over 40 years of pioneering work in the Life Science industry, a multidisciplinary design team at Ergonomidesign put together their take on the future for the Health Care industry. Their challenge was to envision the future and develop possible solutions for the world to test, use and reflect on. The outcome has generated many discussions, both in the Design and Life Science industries as well as with politicians and policymakers in the European Union.

This article describes how Ergonomidesign developed a vision of the future for Life Sciences and how this served as a guide as their designers prototyped how we might manage our own health and interact with doctors, family and other medical professionals and services in the year 2015.

An Integrated Future of Health Care in the Year 2015

In 2009 Ergonomidesign's strategists and futuring experts set out to analyze macro, life science, social and technology trends set ten to twenty years out. We knew that health care was changing and that we could be a part of shaping the future. We also knew that people were seamlessly integrating technologies into their day-to-day activities, social lives and health care management. What we needed was a clear vision about how different the future should or could be.

Trends suggested that by the year 2015, desktop computers as we know them today, will be relics of the past. Rapid advances in screen technology and the diminishing size of microprocessors will make it possible to invent new archetypes for the computer, coupled with new gestural and semantic languages. In an age of ubiquitous computing, our walls, tables and other elements in our environment will become platforms for us to interact on. It will involve access to information, and exchange and generation of data. Most importantly, these interactions will involve people connecting with people in the most serendipitous ways, through a system that is constantly aware and always connected, if desired.

Our research suggested that as we move towards the future of health care, people will increasingly need to feel involved and in control of their own health. People will also need tools to help them collaborate closely with health care providers, doctors and other people they trust to help them manage their health.

1-eco_system-468px.jpgOur strategic work resulted in an eco-system that described the Integrated Future of Health Care in the year 2015 with the patient at the center of all activities, services, devices and products.

Our strategic work resulted in an eco-system that described the Integrated Future of Health Care in the year 2015 with the patient at the center of all activities, services, devices and products.

Bringing the Vision to Life

The vision needed to be grounded in the experiences of real patients. We introduced two characters that were assigned lifestyles and diseases as we tried to highlight potential real life scenarios. Throughout the entire design process, we leveraged the real world needs as we developed a service solution that would be as seamless, natural and effective as possible.

2-User-Profiles-468px.jpgThe two characters Hanna and Bernhard.

To tangibly visualize our characters and a glimpse of the future, the team developed the eco-system described in the Integrated Future of Health Care into an application for the Microsoft Surface platform (Surface application). This technology was chosen for its unique ability to invite people into interactions and conversations around the display. Representing a future smart surface, it also provided our team with the opportunity to explore natural user interfaces (NUI) and at the same time challenged the team to design for a full 360-degree interaction and multi-input, multi-user collaboration.

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3-early-sketches-surface-app-468px.jpgAn early sketch of the application for Microsoft Surface.

Our aim was to illustrate the body as a container of biometric data. The simple act of placing your hand on 'a table' or any other type of smart surface, triggered an enlightened experience, e.g. you will be able to share and compare your biometric data with people you trust, subscribe to personalized treatment software and also have easy and constant access to your health care professionals.

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If You Knead to Tenderize Meat

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To a person with a hammer everything looks like a nail, so it's no surprise that kitchenware company Microplane is finding more uses for the sharp blades they're pros at producing. When tenderizing meat most of us break out the tenderizing mallet, cover the target with Saran Wrap to avoid splatters, and pound away; but Microplane's Easy Prep Meat Tenderizer proposes you can do this more easily and gently. By rocking this vicious ninja-looking tool across the surface of the meat, you cause the sharp stainless steel blades to sever meat on the fiber level.

A plastic handle covers the blades when not in use, then snaps onto the handle when you need to expose the blades. The whole contraption looks a lot cooler than a mallet-style tenderizer, but I wouldn't look forward to having to clean one of these.

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Geekhouse Bikes Invites Beantown Creative Community to Headquarters Boston, a New 25,000 sf Co-Working Space

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After some four years in his Allston shop, our friend Marty Walsh of Geekhouse Bikes is pleased to announce that he's outgrown the 1,000 square-foot space and moving into a massive raw space in downtown Boston and he's hoping to make some new friends in the process. Like his (and our) friends at Fringe, a co-working space in Somerville, Marty and his partners at Headquarters Boston hope to unite creatives of all stripes in his new stomping grounds.

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Makers, manufacturers, artists, photographers, graphic designers, programmers, if you are the kind of person who is making something we are looking for you. HQ Boston is the premiere location in Boston for small to medium scale manufacturing. We have tens of thousands of square feet of space ready to be turned into your next workshop, studio, or work space. Space is able to be ordered in increments of 500ft, 1000ft and 2000ft, we can accept anyone from small hand crafted shops, to medium scale semi-industrial facilities.

This is flex space, you will be able to get more as your business grows HQ Boston also boasts two working freight elevators, a shared gallery and conference room, fun community setting, and best of all reasonable rent (for real!). We are also in the heart of the Boston innovation district one of the fastest growing areas in Massachusetts. HQ Boston will be for people who want to make things, people who value being green and bicycle friendly, who know the value of solid quality built products.

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Found Object Photos by Linda Lindroth

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Nothing super groundbreaking here, just gorgeous 44”×55” archival pigment prints by Linda Lindroth.

Each image is of a found object; many are boxes or containers that have deteriorated over time. Some of the subjects are strange objects that I collect. The work continues along lines of investigation begun with the Polaroid 20x24 camera in the 1980's which you can see on my website along with other work from the 1970's. There is also a section on installations which I did in concert with the photographic work.

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VW debuts E-Bugster Concept Car

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VW is determined to become the number one car company in the US, and with sales up by a staggering 26% since last year and a slew of new products, German ingenuity seems poised to conquer stateside. Their new line-up includes the Jetta hybrid and the E-Bugster, a concept car, both of which VW debuted at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Even though the Jetta is a real, ready to drive car, as it so often happens the E-Bugster concept got all the buzz. It's easy to see why. First, the Bug has always been the most popular sibling in a family of over achievers, and this new version is like the original Bug, only stretched out. But the similarities end there.

The E-Bugster is an all-electric coupe, a sporty little thing with a low, streamlined roof, 19" alloy wheels, zero emissions, a 100-mile range and 114 horsepower, which isn't too shabby, given that the average coupe or sedan gets about 100-150hp. Compared to other EVs it falls right in the middle. The Toyota Prius gets a combined 99hp while the electric drive unit of the Chevrolet Volt boasts 149hp.

Of course the E-Bugster, if and when it ever gets made, wouldn't be weighed down with the gas engine of current hybrid models. The 85-kilowatt electric motor is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack and, similar to the original Beetle, it's mounted under the rear bench. Instead of a tachometer, the dashboard displays energy consumption, intensity of battery regeneration, a driving range indicator and the battery charge status. And with an 80% recharge in just 30 minutes, charging the battery of the E-Bugster is easier than any other EV I've seen to date. One of the biggest gripes I've heard from garage-less city dwellers is that they have no way to charge EVs overnight, but with a 30-minute charge time even street parkers can pull up to a public charging station before heading home (and therein lies the next challenge for cities: more public EV chargers).

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Flight Cases, Part 2: DIY Instructions

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There's a 20-chapter DVD on the market instructing DIYers on how to build a flight case. Luckily, thanks to the internet you probably don't have to buy it—there's an excellent DIY flight case online tutorial by Dutch multicreative Joris van den Heuvel right here.

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Heuvel goes over the specific tools (jigsaw, pop rivet wrench, drill bits) and specific components (plywood, extrusions, corners, latches, hinges, handles, etc.) you need to devise a flight case, then launches into a clear ten-step guide for getting it done. Obviously you just alter your dimensions to suit whatever it is you're trying to box.

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New Housewares from Nendo at Maison & Objet

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Japanese design heavyweight Nendo—renowned for their minimalist, distinctly lightweight approach to objects and interiors—is set to debut several new collections at Maison & Objet. Those of you who are lucky enough to be in Paris later this month are encouraged to see the new work at the "Static Bubbles" exhibition at Carpenters Workshop Gallery and the "Object Dependencies" collection for Specimen Editions at Pierre Alain Chalier Gallery.

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The former show, "Static Bubbles," actually consists of three collections: "Innerblow," "Overflow" and "Farming-Net." The first is "inspired by the way professional glassblowers draw a lump of molten glass onto the tip of a metal pipe and create form by expanding the glass with their breath, blown down the metal."

After expanding the glass in a square metal form, we left the glass in place rather than removing it and flipped over the form to create a table. The metal form becomes the table's legs and the glass, flattened through pressure against the floor, its flat top. Each of the five tables is different. We raised one metal form during blowing to create an edge that swells over like a loaf of bread. Another table was created by several glassblowers blowing into one form simultaneously.

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The "Overflow" collection consists of 12 tables that were created by melting sheets of plate glass in three-sided square frames, "progressively heating it so that the molten glass would run from the missing section. By hardening the glass again at just that moment, the edge responds to surface tension, creating a table like a pool of water."

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Rianne Koens' Stackable Drawer-Stools

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Designer Rianne Koens is a recent Eindhoven grad who seeks to create objects that are "simple and clear with a poetic touch." A good example of this is her Oturakast drawers, made of tulip wood and skinned in Nubuck and suede. Simple folding legs on the bottom make each drawer capable of dual duty:

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Inspired by the hospitality of my Turkish in-laws, I came up with this cabinet, which is an elegant replacement for the stackable stools in western households. Oturakast consist of separate drawers. Each drawer has its own foldable legs. Therefore they are easily transformed into lovely stools for the guest.

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Smells Like Entrepreneurial Spirit: Kickstart Foundry's "Olly"

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The Interaction gurus at the Foundry research group of London's Mint Digital are pleased to announce that their brainchild—or nosechild, as it were—"Olly" is now available through a Kickstarter campaign.

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We made a big stink (and yes, a lot of puns) about it last fall, when they first unveiled the device, which is programmed to emit a scent as a cue for a web notification. The USB-connected object, which consists of an Arduino hooked up to a 12V fan within a simple white injection-molded enclosure, starts at $50.

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If only there was a way to add a compelling olfactory element to the pitch (after the jump)...

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The Museum of Sex is seeking a Director of Retail Operations in New York, New York

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Director of Retail Operations
The Museum of Sex

New York, New York

The Museum of Sex is seeking a design-oriented, motivated, senior-level retail store manager for the operations of their flagship store on 5th Avenue. This is a chance to develop a thoughtful, high-quality sexually-related retail concept that is informed by scholarship and intellectual leadership. The right candidate will have an opportunity to redesign and implement the retail offering of one of New York City's most unique cultural institutions. A refined aesthetic sensibility and ability to create high quality, provocative retail experiences across the categories of food, design, fashion, art and literature across luxury and mass market products is a must.

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