Feast your eyes on Jet Blue's future food court
New York Mag's got a sneak peek of the spaces where Jet Blue passengers at JFK can soon grab some munchies and pass the time during those inescapable delays. These culinary destinations look, oh, just a tad snappier than most other airport eateries, but it would be an injustice to Saarinen's resurrected Terminal 5 to have anything less. You can even scan the menus which, of course, are devoid of price listings as of now.
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Design for Social Impact Workshop by Continuum
[from left, Dave Franchino of Design Concepts, Larry Keeley of Doblin, Dave Tait of Emerging Futures Lab and Maria Blair of the Rockefeller Foundation]
Continuum have just completed their report on the recent Design for Social Impact Workshop hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation at their Bellagio Conference Center and have it available for download from their website. Here's the intro,
How can we unleash and leverage the power of the global design community on some of the world's most intractable problems? How can we increase the collaboration between the design industry and the the social sector? And do so in a systematic and sustainable way? The Rockefeller Foundation engaged Continuum to lead a conversation with some of the world's top designers to explore questions like these - questions with big implications for the industry as a whole. Call it Design for Social Impact.
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1 Hour Design Challenge : Back to School Bag!
THEME:
Back to School Bag!
DOORS OPEN:
Wednesday August 20, 2008
12 PM PST (7 PM GMT)
DOORS CLOSE:
Monday, Sept 1, 2008
9 PM PST (4 AM GMT)
BRIEF:
It's back-to-school time...back to lugging books, art supplies, sports gear, and kegs around campus. Core77 is firing up this month's 1HDC just in time for the daily grind of school. We want to see what kind of over-the-shoulder carrying mechanism you can come up with. Knapsack? Shoulder bag? Book bag? Messenger bag? Hybrid? You tell us! We've enlisted the talents of the Timbuk2 design team to guest judge this month's gig. So pull that Rocko Ruler and Prismacolors out of your ratty backpack and take an hour to put your work up in front of the Timbuk2 crew and all your peers for the chance at this month's bragging rights and a sweet custom Timbuk2 bag!
CRITERIA:
Judging will be based on quality of presentation, strength of concept. (You need to execute your design in only 1 hour--on an honor system.)
PRIZE:
1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be featured in the Core77 October Newsletter, on the Core77 Blog, and bragging rights. 1st prize will receive a Custom Timbuk2 bag, with custom fabrics and trim!
Jury:
Winners will be selected by the Timbuk2 Crew and Core77 Admin. From Timuk2: Bopanna Ulliyada, Senior Designer; Chris Chung, Head Developer; and Ryan Henbest, Marketing. Community discussion is encouraged to help ensure that the best designs win.
>>> Click Here to Enter Your Submission <<<
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Chrysler to distract kids and drivers with Wi-Fi
In addition to flip-down or back-o-the-headrest screens, PSPs, and DS Lites, Chrysler customers now have the option of distracting their little ones with Wi-Fi connectivity in new 2009 models. It's impossible to picture every driver resisting the urge to surf 'n drive, but Chrysler claims these particular internets are specifically tailored for children in the backseat and even provides "instructions" for proper use. Criticisms are a-plenty including this snappy comment by J. R. Peter Kissinger, president of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in Washington, in the NYT article:
"I can picture two teenagers in the front and the passenger pulls up a YouTube video. I can't imagine the driver saying, 'I'm going to pull over and stop so I can safely watch what you're laughing at."
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The rise and rise of 'anti-design'
Martyn Perks, a UK design consultant, and a writer and speaker on design, IT and business, is going after the current design and sustainability trend, which he calls "anti-design", arguing that "designers who focus on producing only meek and sustainable things are denying their own creativity and impact on the world."
In the process, he lambastes the new UK Design Council three-year national strategy, the Designers' Accord and Core77's very own Allan Chochinov:
"What underpins the general shift towards green design is a widespread sense of guilt and self-doubt felt by many designers about blighting the world with too much stuff. The paradox is that the big idea they turn to for salvation - environmentalism - means that rather than endeavouring to produce something new to solve the problem, one that makes use of the best possible processes, ideas and resources, designers will attempt to regain a sense of purpose and credibility by preaching to the rest of us to lower our horizons." [...]"Isn't design always about making an impact? Not according to the green-design movement, or the 'design deniers' who argue for placing limits on human ingenuity and creativity. Put bluntly, they want less of it, not more. Of course, there is no ignoring climate change. While the science, causes and effects are by no means given (as discussed many times on spiked), placing limits on ingenuity will itself deny us imaginative and mature solutions. The greening of design will only contribute to more climate change panic if our hands are tied in finding the best means to deal with a warming world." [...]
"And amongst all the debate about limits, there is something else under attack, something distinctively human that is tied up with the idea of the designer: the degradation of objectivity." [...]
"Every so often, moments do arise which push the boundaries a bit further, or if you are lucky, by a long way. That's called innovation. And when it occurs, it must be seized upon. However, the greening of design 'thinking' only seeks the opposite effect: the deliberate curtailment of that freedom to think. The designer makes a virtue out of doing less and thinking small. This is 'anti-design'. Holding back ideas inevitably means crap solutions. And that affects us all."
>> read article
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UnsTable: A table that looks, um, unstable
Rafael Morgan's "UnsTable" gives the illusion that this piece of furniture may fall down, but in reality--and this isn't exactly giving away the recipe for making the Statue of Liberty disappear--each of the legs conceals a fixed metal bar, covered by movable cubes.
We've covered Rafael's work here a couple times before--The Hope Table, and the Light Drop. Some nice touches of wit and delight.
Check out an animated gif of the table in action here!
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What defies defining, but exists everywhere?
Alice Rawsthorn, design critic of the International Herald Tribune, has written a nice short essay where she tries to define the very concept of contemporary design practice, and brings in some interesting examples in the process.
She structures her argument in four sections:
- Design and things ("the process of conceiving and creating things in the hope of making life easier and more enjoyable")
- Design and formulas ("designers are now also working more flexibly by developing formulas to produce things that can be interpreted differently by different people, rather than finished objects")
- Design and behavior ("design's potential to regulate our behavior" which also covers social design or service design)
- Meaningless design ("the use of the word 'design' as a marketing ploy")
>> read article
Photo: a low-cost Ceramic Water Purifier from Potters for Peace, a U.S. nonprofit network, republished in the International Herald Tribune
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Sam Buxton knits interior for Bordello Bar
Commissioned by owner Young J Song, product designer Sam Buxton, in collaboration with textile designer Emily Hiller, has knitted a new-look interior for the Bordello Bar in London's Soho.
Buxton's designs run through the bar's two main rooms, entrance area and stairs, the walls of which are covered with red curtains of hand-tied netting. According to the designer, the seating and lighting were integrated to make it appear as though the interior is constructed from a single surface. Together, the wall hangings and a sculptural installation in the bar's main room contain 2.5km of knitted, hand-knotted and woven cord.
>> see more
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A lovely piece to start this week from Armin at SpeakUp. Here's a taste:
Armin Vit's short short on experience
And, as we all know, experience is everything. Hiring a recent graduate with no experience is always a conundrum for employers: Will it work out? How much time will be spent on training? How much money spent on fixing mistakes? And on, and on, and on. What many employers forget is that, once, someone had to give them the opportunity. And that's where the following phrase resonated: "Young designers don't lack experience, they just lack opportunity [...]." --Bob Aufuldish
Read the rest here.
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Coalesse: Live/Work Office Furniture
Taking your work home is nothing new, but taking your home to work? A new furniture company is trying to do just that. Coalesse, part of the Steelcase family, is launching a new lifestyle of work -- one where offices are places of life, community and nuances. Partnering with the likes of Carl Hansen & Son (Denmark), Walter Knoll AG & Co. (Germany), Viccarbe (Spain), and PP Mobler (Denmark), as well as drawing on Steelcase's brands (Brayton, Metro and Vecta), the Coalesse collection offers beautifully executed alternatives - albeit at luxury price points - for the cubically challenged.
We've got some choice snaps from our recent tour of the showroom in the Chicago Merchandise Mart after the jump and must admit the detailing and craftsmanship are to die for, but we're still unsure of how the corporate world will respond to all this. Sure, design-y types get it -- beautiful, well made (and locally made! more on that soon) furniture deserves to be part of all our work-spaces, but with price points well beyond the reach of "normal" budgets, this collection seems to demand big corporate clients to succeed.
>> Check out more pictures and read on here.
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Stanford, German institute in research alliance on design thinking
Stanford University and the Hasso-Plattner-Institute (Potsdam, Germany) on Tuesday announced a $16 million research partnership in which they will investigate "design thinking," a methodology that melds an end-user focus with multidisciplinary collaboration and iterative improvement to produce products, services or experiences.
Science patron Professor Hasso Plattner, 64, is co-founder and chairman of the supervisory board of the global software company SAP.
>> article | German press release
via Design Observer
photo: Hasso-Plattner-Institute
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Duracell's new Daylite LED flashlights
It looks like Duracell wants to take on MagLite with their new superbright LED Daylite flashlight.
Besides a sturdy all-weather design, the Daylites feature TrueBeam technology that uses "both a lens and a reflector to capture and project up to 100 percent of the light," which they claim significantly enhances brightness. Plus, a 3:1 zoom eliminates the annoying dark spot typical of most flashlights.
After a quick scan of CNET's hands-on review, it seems the product is solid enough but the price point on the Chinese made Daylite will have to drop significantly to compete with the U.S. made MagLite. Thoughts?
via gizmodo
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Design vs. Innovation or Crowd-sourcing vs. Post-Industrial Design?
Like a somnambulist under hypnosis, I anxiously nodded in agreement in my sleep yesterday morning as WNYC ran a story close to top of the hour. I was sure that the male broadcaster was talking about how design practices were being superseded by "innovation" practices in the business world in a re-hash of Rick Poyner's article in the April issue of ID, Down with Innovation. But when I went to their website upon waking, the only thing I found was this feature (presented by a female narrator) about "crowd-sourcing" (what business speak) or community-based design.
Using the business models of RYZwear and Threadless T-Shirts, the feature goes on to explain how community based design is the next step in the post-industrial revolution.
>> read on
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Innovation on the rocks
This is by far the neatest, most clever take on the ice cube tray we've ever seen. The IceOrb, comprised of an outer mold and an inner bucket, uses the "Eureka" water displacement method: Fill the mold with water, then insert the inner bucket to squeeze the water up into the mold. After it freezes, you can empty the ice into the inner bucket and keep making more. You can also stick entire bottles into the whole kit 'n caboodle to keep them frosty.
Check out their site for a demo video.
via cool hunting
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The great outdoors, invaded by geometric shapes
And finally, occasionally you'll see, in any part of the world that has a system of government-funded public works and subcontractors, some structure that seems to use wayyyy more construction materials than were necessary. Locals will tell you the story--"Oh, the Councilman's brother runs a concrete company," hence there's a new public square slathered in concrete, while said Councilman's brother is driving around in a new SUV.
Japan's "tetrapod beaches" are a good example of this kinda thing:
Hit the beach anywhere in Japan, and you are likely to see endless piles of tetrapods - enormous four-legged concrete structures intended to prevent coastal erosion. By some estimates, more than 50% of Japan's 35,000-kilometer (22,000-mi) coastline has been altered with tetrapods and other forms of concrete. Critics, who blame the tetrapod invasion on decades of excessive government spending designed to bolster the construction industry, argue that in addition to posing a danger to swimmers, surfers and boaters, tetrapods actually accelerate beach erosion by disrupting the natural processes that shape the coastal environment.
Pink Tentacle has amassed all of the Flickrites who've captured the tetrapod beaches on film/pixel.
[Second photo: seotaro]
[Last photo: toru aihara]
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Special thanks to toolgirl, Niti Bhan and Mark Vanderbeeken for their contributions to this week's 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
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