Core77 Broadcasts: MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind - Live! Alex Terzich attends the press preview and opening, where he interviews Chuck Hoberman and Peter Hall, and sits with Paola Antonelli for a longer interview the following day.

LISTEN NOW (36 min.) | iTunes | More Broadcasts

And now for some pics. MoMA's 'Design and the Elastic Mind' opened last week with over 200 objects on display exploring the relationship between design, science and innovation. The exhibition focuses on the role of the designer to help the general public adapt and understand rapid technological advancement and the changing human condition in the contemporary world. (Whew!) Here's the pitch:

In the past few decades, individuals have experienced dramatic changes in some of the most established dimensions of human life: time, space, matter, and individuality. Working across several time zones, traveling with relative ease between satellite maps and nanoscale images, gleefully drowning in information, acting fast in order to preserve some slow downtime, people cope daily with dozens of changes in scale. Minds adapt and acquire enough elasticity to be able to synthesize such abundance. One of design's most fundamental tasks is to stand between revolutions and life, and to help people deal with change.

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Measuring "design innovation." People love trying to measure and quantify things, because then the incomprehensible seems like it makes sense. Psychologists try to measure anger; dating websites try to boil ethereal qualities into "match" numbers; and now Roberto Verganti and Claudio Dell'Era, researchers at Italy's Politecnico di Milano, are trying to measure "design innovation."

For their study, Verganti and Dell'Era focused on the Italian furniture industry, using a database (Webmobili.com) to classify 2,000 objects by shape, color, surface, and material. They also divided the corresponding sample of 100 manufacturers into innovators and imitators, identifying a company as an innovator if it had been selected for or received the coveted Compasso d'Oro, a prestigious international prize awarded to groundbreaking design products.

So what did they find? Firstly, they broke companies into three different philosophies in terms of releasing new products: Launch and See ("They're gonna love this"), See and Launch ("Our research says they're gonna love this"), and Wait and See ("Let's take some time to figure out what they're gonna love").

You would suspect that innovative companies would be in the first category, while the uninnovative would be damned within the third category. And you'd be wrong. Why? Read the whole thing here.

via harvard business school

Vote for your favorite Microsoft Next-Gen PC Design Competition finalist. Microsoft's 2007-08 Next-Gen PC Design Competition is nearing the finish line, now with a narrowed-down list of finalists for the people to choose from. Public's Choice Voting is open February 15th - March 15th 2008. The winning designer, chosen by you, will be awarded a $2,500 cash prize.

Digital Polaroid concept. With Polaroid's instant film to peace out permanently in 2009, we're loving David Friedman's attempt to preserve the whole shebang with this digital Polaroid picture frame concept.

thanks bryman!

Questioning the cult of the sketch. In a brand new article over at Coroflot's Creative Seeds blog, Carl Alviani takes on the assumed primacy of sketching ability, what it signals for potential employers, and what it says about the nature of design practice itself. Here's a taste:

In light of this culture, it's surprising to look back on the work of great designers of the early and mid 20th century and realize that what's usually depicted is the product itself: Russel Wright's teapot, the Eames' chaise lounge, Dieter Rams' phonograph. With few exceptions, when a book or exhibit highlights great product design, for example, the sketches associated with them are brought out only sparingly. This is partly because the design has passed into the realm of general public awareness, and plenty of non-designers are looking at them. It's also because a lot of them aren't that good.

and another tidbit:

The applicability of the statement, "Designers must draw," becomes a little problematic in this light. Must they? The answer depends a lot on what comes to mind when you imagine a designer doing her job. Someone sitting at a table with a pile of markers and pencils, making marks on paper, constitutes an important but small fraction of the design process. The rest of it involves research, reviewing prototypes, writing briefs, driving CAD, talking to clients, and a hundred other things. There are plenty of designers--good ones--who haven't picked up a marker in years.

Read the full article
More Creative Seeds

Convergence: does everything have to be in one device--how about two? Two heads are better than one; does the same go for handsets?

UK industrial design consultancy Alloy hasn't given up on convergence, but they are drawing the line at two separate units for one mobile communications product, rather than trying to cram everything into a singular device.

Couple-IT, as the product is known, is a mobile phone paired with a separate device that's like a cross between a laptop and a smartphone. The idea is that on-the-go you can access everything on the handset, but when you've got the time and room to sit down and spread out, you can pop open the smartlapphonetop and work with a manageable-sized interface. Synching software and twin SIM cards ensure what's on one device stays on the other.

So does it work? Scary thing is, the press release heralding the device abruptly ends mid-paragraph. Perhaps they were writing it using the product, and lost one of the devices?

Yo! C77 Board Alert : Corporate In-house vs. Conultancies. What's a corporate in-houser to do when marketing brings in outside help, leaving you feeling undermined, disgruntled, and ultimately helpless?

UU, who originally sparked this discussion, is sooo in the zone--the feeling undermined, disgruntled, and helpless zone, that is. It's one thing when consultants really bring it, but what's that in-houser gonna say when things just go in circles? When marketing wastes buckets of money on lame ideas? When good in-house work gets upturned noses and cold shoulders instead of praise?

What do you think? Add to the already buzzing board, In-House Design vs. Consultancies? What Corporations Should Do...

New descriptive eco-shopping site, Matteria. Check out Matteria, a brand new Barcelona-based eco-commerce site focused on sustainability and design, aiming to educate the consumer about what makes any particular object for sale "green." We like the Bloom day-light, a plant pot-like object that soaks up solar energy when upside down, and a solar-powered LED table lamp when right-side up. It's good for use indoors and outdoors and has an average fully-charged burn time of 8 - 10 hours.

And finally, the thrill of the (book and stair) case. A small residential nest was blessed with this innovative and efficient interior treatment. London-based Levitate Architects dreamed up a staggered stair case cozily inhabited by the renters' impressive book collection--a magically literate ascension to the lofted sleeping area above.

Please share the Monday Morning Must Read with colleagues, clients and collaborators. Many email programs do not forward messages in their original format, so please use this link: http://www.designdirectory.com/blog/newsletter

Email us your feedback and comments. We are looking for stories, case studies and global news on where and how design can make the difference.

Core77 Broadcasts: Hector Serrano from London. London-based Hector Serrano was recently hailed as "Britain's finest young designer" by Space magazine, although he is originally from Spain. Much of the work coming out of Hector's studio demonstrates a playful curiosity about our emotional relationships with the objects we encounter and possess. This is skilfully blended with an imaginative take on sustainability and the future of product design. Here he tells Andy Polaine about the challenges facing designers, tourist souvenirs of the future and giant clouds off plastic floating off the coast of Hawaii.

LISTEN NOW (29 min.) | iTunes | More Broadcasts

Good For Nothing? Why Nonprofits, Designers, and Techies Can't Talk to Each Other, by Ayca Akin. In this provocative article, Ayca Akin explores the the intersection between the three groups, offering 15 insights into character, priorities, and world views that are sure to bridge the gaps. Here's the start:

Anyone who has worked with nonprofits can attest to the fact that a low budget and a lack of tech-savvy staff can hinder a group's ability to communicate its mission and affect change. But as a designer researching the use of technology to help nonprofits, I've come to understand that differences in how designers, technologists, and nonprofits see each other (and themselves) is at the heart of the problem.

There are a lot of designers and tech-savvy people out there who want to put their skills to good use and help nonprofits serve larger communities and interests. Indeed, working exclusively with clients who can afford them often pigeonholes designers into serving smaller and smaller segments of the population.

But venturing into the nonprofit world can be a dangerous prospect for those who live in a world where technology and innovation are essential ingredients to solving problems and creating change. As one designer who volunteers his skills recently remarked, "the challenge is that volunteers often have to work with nonprofits that don't understand the value of employing design technologies."

Read entire article...

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Greener Gadgets Q & A session with Allan Chochinov @ Businessweek. In a recent Businessweek report, 'Greener Gadgets' Isn't an Oxymoron, our own Allan Chochinov elaborates on the many fine points made at the recently held Greener Gadgets conference. Along with a Greener Gadgets competition roundup slideshow, Innovation & Design editor Helen Walters tossed Allan a few queries on the who, what, and why's of greener gadgeteering.

Manila envelope laptop sleeve. Looks like those Macbook Air ad-makers inspired more than one designer's quest to create the perfect Air laptop sleeve. Michael Leung's Mac bag lightly touches upon the classic manila envelope, retaining a simple, modern bag-like feel. Wonder Threads, on the other hand, took the campy, photorealistic route with the appropriately-named Macbook Air Laptop Sleeve, made of poly-microfiber with a fuzzy neoprene lining.

via mocoloco

- - -

Hey now...there's also Airmail by Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans:

thanks Kyle!

Yo! C77 Board Alert : X-TREME power tools. Mr-914 saw these crazy extreeeeme Hitachi power tools at the hardware store and sparked this power-discussion with a few pictures--they really do say a 1,000 words. How they work and feel are way more important than how they look, but who can help but point out these things look high on Mountain Dew?? Extreme Power Tools...Thoughts? Comments?

TV Easel by Axel Bjurström. The amount of time we tend to spend staring at the television is reason enough to treat it like a prized art piece. Swedish designer Axel Bjurström debuted this clean and simple TV Easel solution for Panasonic at this month's Stockholm Furniture Fair.

(Stay tuned for our soon-to-come Stockholm Furniture Fair gallery.)

via dezeen

frog's cross-healing Aura future health concept. frog's new health-focused issue of frog design mind introduces Aura, a future health concept that puts both traditional healing and cutting-edge technology to work. It monitors a patient's health, provides alternative treatment, and displays visual signals and warnings. Therapeutic elements like light, sound, and aroma are fused with high-tech diagnostics within the device, "focusing the mind while examining the body to promote a holistic model of individual health."

New Gallery up at Core77: North American Handmade Bicycle Show 2008. The North American Handmade Bicycle Show rolled into Portland Oregon last weekend sending the already fanatic bike town into a frenzy! By coincidence C77 reps were on the ground and managed to throw together this small gallery of pics documenting the amazing array of craftsmanship, style and design on display at the show. - Even if you've forgotten how to ride a bike you'll want to peruse this collection of photos for inspiration.

>> View the Gallery Here <<

Videos of Interaction 08 presentations now online. Last week Core77 reported extensively on the Interaction 08 conference in Savannah, Georgia. Nearly two thirds of the presentations of the conference are now online.

Design Democracy: Mass Customization for the rest of us. For those of you turned on by mass-customization, there's a new initiative called Design Democracy '08 - Power to the People. It's not tied to the election, but rather, is an "educational and interactive mass customization manufacturing website." Designers submit designs, and selected pieces will be prototyped and displayed at this year's International Contemporary Furniture Fair in NYC.

The website offers curriculum for "DD08 citizens" to learn about mass customization processes, philosophies, materials, design elements and software/hardware applications. A panel of industry professionals will choose the designs that best exemplify mass customization principles for the showcase. Here's the pitch:

Design Democracy '08 is looking for citizens who believe in industrial evolution, and that object design and fabrication can have a positive impact on society and the environment. Kerry Moore, the co-founder of DD08 says, "This website and ICFF event is primarily about addressing how the world interacts with the goods it creates." Design professionals, students and enthusiasts alike can participate within seven design districts: 3D Designers, 2D Designers, Educators, Students, Trades, Media and Constituents."

Core-fave Scott Klinker, who advised on the project, puts it perfectly: "This grass-roots effort should demonstrate what's possible with the powerful new digital tools that have leveled the old hierarchies of mass production. Mass customization through digital fabrication is a valid and growing format for young designers to build a voice."

Deadline for submissions is March 21st 2008, but the DD08 website will continue beyond the ICFF by continuing to offer mass customization content and to serve as a networking hub for consumers, designers and fabricators.

SMIT @ MoMA's Design and the Elastic Mind. Keep your eyes peeled for GROW at the upcoming MoMA exhibit, Design and the Elastic Mind. The exhibit features examples of "disruptive innovation" and SMIT (Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology) has accomplished just that with GROW, an ivy-like hybrid energy delivery device that provides power via the sun and wind.

Design and the Elastic Mind
February 24 - May 12, 2008

The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art Exhibition Gallery, 6th floor
Museum of Modern Art
New York, NY

Littlebig Chair by Jeff Miller. Jeff Miller's Littlebig Chair made its debut at Cologne, but after some wrinkle-smoothing, tweaking, and refinement, it's now one of Baleria Italia's newest additions. A molded plywood seat nests seamlessly onto the cantilevered base, creating a fluid silhouette that harks back to mid-century, but fully embraces modern.

And finally, 2008 Plagiarius Award winners announced. Every year, the Plagiarius Award committee announces top prizewinners who, instead of holding heads up high, must admit to the title of ripper-offer. For example, we would never had known that Phoebus Medizintechnik GmbH's shameless knock-off of KARL STORZ GmbH & Co. original resectoscope for urology design wasn't the real deal if it were not for the trumpeting of Plagiarius. All 2008 Plagiarius Award winners here.

Thanks to Mark Vanderbeeken for his contributions to this newsletter.

Please share the Monday Morning Must Read with colleagues, clients and collaborators. Many email programs do not forward messages in their original format, so please use this link: http://www.designdirectory.com/blog/newsletter

Email us your feedback and comments. We are looking for stories, case studies and global news on where and how design can make the difference.

Greener Gadgets Design Competition Winners on line! We are proud to publish the entire gallery of Greener Gadgets winners and notables. Check out the site, featuring over 70 entries from around the world, all offering innovative solutions, gestures, and provocations toward positive change.

Thank you to everyone who entered, congratulations to the winners and notables, and say goodbye to the next hour of your life. There's some serious good design in here.

>>Enter the Greener Gadgets Results Site<<

How it went down: There were two rounds of pre-judging prior to the Greener Gadgets Conference in NYC, and concluding a marathon day at the conference, Allan Chochinov of Core77 took to the stage along with panelist/judges Ryan Block from Engadget, Valerie Casey of The Designers Accord and IDEO, and Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabit (and Greener Gadgets). Following a whirlwind tour of dozens of notable entries, the panel discussed their top ten, then turned the final vote over the audience in true clap-o-meter style, who's first place choice might have signaled a slight backlash against gadgets--after a whole day of 'em. (You can check out the proceedings in this video.)

And here are the winners!:

First Prize
EnerJar, designed by Matt Meshulam and Zach Dwiel

Second Prize
Gravia, designed by Clay Moulton

Third Prize
Green Cell, designed by Theo Richardson

And a special bonus forth place (prize will be a Voltaic Systems solar charging backpack):

RollOn, designed by Christian Karlsson

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Interaction '08 Conference converage! Core was on the floor of this past weekend's IxDA conference in Savannah, Georgia, with stand-out presentations and a sell-out crowd. Check out all our coverage right here.

Design firm culture: how to foster innovation? "Hire naive misfits who argue with you; encourage failure; avoid letting client input limit your vision; and fully commit to risky ventures." It sounds like crappy advice for someone running a design firm, but these are tactics proposed by Robert I. Sutton, Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford, in an article titled "Creating a firm culture that supports innovative design."

Cultivating an environment in which there is a swift and easy exchange of ideas is an important part of the design process in many firms, both large and small. What may not be so obvious are strategies to foster optimal functioning and creative thinking in such an environment.

(Incidentally Sutton's also got a great article/blog entry, co-written with Guy Kawasaki, called "Is Your Future Boss an Asshole?")

via architectural record

Interaction Design and ID: You're already doing it...don't you want to know what it's all about? By David Malouf. Fresh off the IxDA Conference in Savannah, David Malouf offers an analysis of the differences and similarities between Industrial Designers and Interaction Designers, how they can learn from each other, and how IDers can bolster their knowledge--and know how--in a world of increasingly complex products. Here's the start:

Today, more and more industrial designers are being asked to design products and systems that incorporate interactive components. And since the level of complexity increases exponentially as a product gains more digital intelligence, a new kind of expertise is needed.

Further, if we look at the classical foundational elements of industrial design, there is almost no reference to anything dealing with behavior--color, texture, shape, volume, space, and line remain the primary "building blocks" of a formal industrial design education. Beyond this foundation, ID as a historical design discipline has until very recently concentrated more on the balance of function and form only as they relate to visceral, visual aesthetics. But lately, "product design" education has steered industrial design programs to consider "context of use" as a core data set in guiding function and form. Even these programs tend to concentrate more on research methodologies for gaining further insights into user contexts, however, than in teaching the unique design foundations associated with interaction.

Read entire article...

You're damned if you do (paper) and damned if you don't (plastic). How do you answer that age old question, "Paper or Plastic?" It's not an easy one to conclude upon, but the Washington Post's got some fun factoids on production, pollution, recycling and biodegradability to help you decide.

Anyhoos, how about neither?

via swissmiss

How Bauhaus was shaped into greatness. Alice Rawthorn tells a short version of the story of the Bauhaus in the International Herald Tribune. Well worth the read, here's a snippet:

There have been other great design schools, but none that matched the Bauhaus. Many of the most influential designers of the 20th century taught or studied there. Gropius and Mies van der Rohe in architecture. Marcel Breuer in furniture. Bayer in graphics. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy in film. Oskar Schlemmer in theater design. Anni Albers and Gunta Stolzl in textiles. Marianne Brandt and Wilhelm Wagenfeld in product design. The list goes on. Working alongside them were great artists like Paul Klee, Josef Albers and Wassily Kandinsky. Even today, some 75 years after the Bauhaus closed, our lives wouldn't be the same without it.

The story of the Bauhaus, from 1919 when Gropius became director, to 1933, when Mies reluctantly disbanded it, is told in an exhibition at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art in England. How did one design school become so influential? Like most success stories, it was (almost) as much about luck as judgment, but behind its minimally elegant facade, the Bauhaus was a turbulent place, and very vulnerable to the political pressures of Nazi Germany. For much of the time, it was, as Anni Albers put it when she arrived in 1922, "a great muddle."

We've found the 8th continent...and it isn't pretty. It's not exactly a Leif-Ericson-class discovery in terms of positivity, but it's important nonetheless. Oceanographer Charles Moore was on the high seas between Hawaii and the US mainland when he drifted into the "'North Pacific gyre'--a vortex where the ocean circulates slowly because of little wind and extreme high pressure systems. Usually sailors avoid it. What he found was revolting:

He was astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of miles from land. "Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by," he said in an interview. "How could we have fouled such a huge area? How could this go on for a week?"

This "garbage continent" is apparently twice the size of the US landmass, and was formed from garbage both shipborne and dumped from land. Even worse, it's more malevolent than just a bunch of floating rubbish--it's decomposing into a kind of toxic soup, and it's due to double in size over the next decade. Read the unbelievable tale here.

via the independent

Tech logos from past to present. Check out the evolutions of the biggest tech companies' logos from decorative to retro to too 2.0.

thanks bryman!

Post-It typeface. The Post-It is the message. This Post-It typeface is by Sanda Zahirovic, a student Kingston University in London.

via swissmiss

And finally, The Smoking Gun. Kablam! Literally. The Smoking Gun. Ain't it the truth...new from Design Glut.

Please share the Monday Morning Must Read with colleagues, clients and collaborators. Many email programs do not forward messages in their original format, so please use this link: http://www.designdirectory.com/blog/newsletter

Email us your feedback and comments. We are looking for stories, case studies and global news on where and how design can make the difference.

Earth, Water, and Fire join MacBook Air. Yes someone went there. DViCE, to be exact, decided to dream up MacBook Air's fellow element-themed cousins: Earth (recyclable), Water (pours out of a bottle), and Fire ("blazing" fast). "No word on prices or release dates" as of yet.

via notcot

Four speakers debate the future of design. Find out what Alice Rawsthorn, the design critic of the International Herald Tribune and a former director of the Design Museum in London; Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; Hilary Cottam, who develops design solutions to problems in education, health care and other public services as co-founder of the London-based agency Participle; and John Maeda, the digital design star and newly appointed president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), have to say about the future of design.

The debate took place at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

(The picture is from ActiveMobs, a DesignCouncil project, led by Hilary Cottam and part of Paola Antonelli's show "Design and the Elastic Mind").

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MX: Managing Experience Through Creative Leadership is for VPs, directors, or managers involved in product strategy or development, service design, or design management. Join us for two days of inspiration, education, and networking. Space is limited. Register now and get 10% off registration.

Re-invent the wheel? No, fold it. The problem with folding bicycles is that no matter how clever the design, the wheels tend to muck it up. Large wheels ride better but are bulky to incorporate, whereas smaller wheels hide away better but provide a crappy ride.

Freelance industrial designer and avid bicyclist Duncan Fitzsimmons may have solved the problem, by designing a wheel that can itself fold. Made of carbon fiber with hinges, the unusual design is currently being looked at by unnamed "major manufacturers," and Fitzsimmons hopes to have the wheel, and a better folding bicycle, on the market soon.

via bike radar

ID History: Marcel Breuer, chair man of the bored. Dissatisfied with the previous generation's seating, Bauhaus designer and architect Marcel Breuer created the B5 chair in 1926 as "a dramatic antidote to the overstuffed seating of the Edwardian era." Though not as well-known as his B3 chair (the "Wassily"), the B5 was recently inducted into the Cooper-Hewitt's National Design Museum.

"This chair is an iconic design that has been on our furniture wish list for a long time," says Sarah Coffin, curator of decorative arts at the museum. "We like to tell the history of design by showing things as part of a continuum, and Breuer's work relates to bentwood furniture and industrial design."

Read about the chair and Breuer's then-radical work here.

via smithsonian magazine

I Love My Electric Appliance!! image pool. The I Love My Electric Appliance!! Flickr pool has a ton of whimsical vintage appliance imagery--lots of overjoyed women leaning on stuff, as expected.

via coudal

A good read: Horning's design-oriented consumerism essay. Pop Matters' editor Rob Horning has an excellent essay up on design-oriented consumerism, referencing everything from Virginia Postrel's The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness to Renaissance concepts of self-styling to Rich Gold's "Plenitude" ideology.

...once mundane products like toilet brushes, spatulas, and ice cube trays are now complemented by design so flamboyant that it's unmistakable even to the untrained consumer's eye... No longer a prole with a dirty toilet, one becomes a fledgling design critic and a curator of the tastefully appointed museum that used to be a one-bedroom apartment.

If the superficiality of today's design has been bugging you, Horning hits the nail on the head for you here.

via pop matters / marginal utility

2007 Good Design Awards winners announced. The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies have announced the 2007 Good Design Awards winners.

Luckily, "web design" isn't a category.

Yo! C77 Board Alert : How Should Designers Dress? On a more fashion-conscious thread, Stewie asked how everyone dresses for work and how we should dress for work. And the people, they replied:

"I'm pretty sure were supposed to wear those thick black square eyeglasses."

"If your an older designer, I think your supposed to wear the jeans and jean jacket with a big bushy white beard and fishermans sandals."

"You can't make a second first impression."

"Best thing i've always found about being a designer is that people expect you to be a little different so you can get away with more (without being over the top- sorry Karim)!"

"Dress for the position you want to be in, not the position you are in."

What do you think? How Should Designers Dress?

As bottle lightweighting reaches its limits, the handle must go. What does the handle of a milk bottle have in common with a low-rent booking agent? They both take ten percent. UK recycling org WRAP estimates getting rid of the handles on plastic milk bottles will shave 10% off the materials, which means not just cheaper manufacturing costs, but less landfill.

Peter Skelton from WRAP's retail team said: "Plastic milk bottles are probably the most common plastic item found in household waste and manufacturers and brand owners have taken the current handled designs as far as they can go in terms of lightweighting. The vital next step is perfecting a handle-free design which works for the consumer."

Bottle producer Nampak is tackling the project in association with Dairy Crest, which puts out roughly a billion liters of milk in a year. Estimated savings gained by losing their bottle's handle? 1,250 tonnes of HDPE plastic. Designing a better grip feature seems like a small price to pay.

via food production daily

"Nuage Vert" - Artists Are Growing a Green Cloud in Helsinki. It might sound French but it's going to happen in Finland. Every night from the 22 to the 29 of February 2008 the vapour emissions of he Salmisaari power plant in Helsinki will be illuminated to show the current levels of electricity consumption by local residents. A laser ray will trace the cloud during the night time and turn it into a city scale neon sign.

Nuage Vert is a part of Pollstream series, an artistic intervention in environmental ethics by HeHe (Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen). This terrible beauty is presented by the Pixelache Festival of Electronic Art and Subcultures.

And finally, tpod, if tea floats your boat. tpod is a teabag design concept by Soos that plays MP3s adds fun to the tea steeping process. Well, on second thought, unless you think the paper tag falling into scalding hot tea and you burning your finger while fishing it out is amusing, we'd say tpod makes steeping tea fun. After removing a tpod tea bag from the box, you unfold the tag which then becomes a boat that floats cheerily atop your soon-to-be-ready cup of tasty tea.

via swissmiss

Please share the Monday Morning Must Read with colleagues, clients and collaborators. Many email programs do not forward messages in their original format, so please use this link: http://www.designdirectory.com/blog/newsletter

Email us your feedback and comments. We are looking for stories, case studies and global news on where and how design can make the difference.