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.
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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.
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.
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