Motorola celebrates 25 years of mobile phones with 12 concepts that look nothing like mobile phones
Motorola's struggles with product design over the past few years tell a well-documented cautionary tale. The close observer can practically watch the monthly tides of design strategy ebb and flow, washing an occasional, gem-like RAZR or PEBL up on the beach, along with the more frequent seaweed-pile of a phone, too tangled up in its own confused strands to draw covetous eyes away from shinier competitors' offerings. These variances of design success have been an ongoing topic on Core77 for years, swinging between high praise and scornful rebuke, and sparking some impassioned discussions on the boards as well. The upshot: Motorola's clearly shown that they can do good design, so why don't they do it more often?
Part of the reason for this unevenness, compared with Nokia, LG and others, may well be the vision thing: Motorola was first to the dance with its Star-Tac 25 years ago, but has spent most of its time since then with little coherent sense of what its devices, and by extension its brand, ought to be like.
In conversation last week with Dickon Isaac, Motorola's North American design manager, the possible explanation of a "design mythology" came up: the idea that a set of universal aspirations are crucial for an organization to develop the drive and coherence necessary for real innovation and a unified identity, much as engineers in the 50s and 60s looked to the gee-whiz sci-fi of their youth for inspiration in developing the space program.
Iwasaki Design Studio's elegant G9
Speaking of mobile phones, it's hard not to like the "Global Use" G9 phone, which breaks out of the typical iPhone-ocity with louvered keys on the slide-out deck, a chunky dock, and minimalist, elegant on-screen graphic design.
The G9 was designed by Ichiro Iwasaki, the man behind iida, a/k/a Iwasaki Design Studio.
(As for the "Global Use" moniker, the product copy mentions that the phone can be used worldwide, though it seems that depends on which model you buy.)
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Vote for your favorites! Wave Sport Kayak Hull Graphics Competition
Don't for get to vote on your favorites in our Wave Sport Kayak Hull Trip-Tych Competition! The Grand Prize winner receives $2500, and the Top 5 designs will be displayed at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market Show in Salt Lake City in July 2009, in addition to getting a kayak with their own design.
>>CHECK OUT THE GALLERY NOW to vote on the Finalists and view the Semi-Finalists and Notables.
Steven Heller on trophy designs (and the generation that consumes them)
I will never forget visiting a friend down south and remarking upon how many trophies one of his kids had in his room. "Good at sports, huh?" "Waddaya mean?" "I mean, look at all these trophies." "I don't understand, every kid has this many trophies." "Huh?" "You get a trophy for completing the season; you don't have to win." "You cannot be serious?" "Yup. Every kid has this many."
And then a week later was the first time I heard the term "trophy generation," so that was quite the timing on the meme-o-meter.
Anyway, Steven heller takes on the topic of the easy win, and of the designers who fulfill their desires in this all-too-brief piece for the Times' Moment entitled "Graphic Content | And the Trophy for the Most Generic Trophy Goes To . . ." Here's a shining facet:
While industrial designers (and design students) spend their days thinking up more beautiful and efficient ways of making almost everything, I have yet to meet a single one who cares about the state of the common trophy. (Of course there are some uncommon trophies around). Are mass-produced trophies such a lost cause that, like fast-food menus and laundry tickets, designers cannot be bothered to improve them?
Book Review: Rethinking Sitting, by Peter Opsvik
Our collective backs hurt. Between text messages and mouse movements, repetitive injuries are on the rise and people spend increasing portions of their days on their (increasingly large) behinds staring into a CRT tube. If the behaviors of our primate relatives are any indication of our pasts, sitting in static positions with our fingers in a blur is simply not a task for which the human body was built.
Peter Opsvik, a Norwegian designer, has been working on improving the human working posture for over forty years, with a single-mindedness that makes his whole career look like one extended project. Rethinking Sitting showcases Opsvik's career with a variety of chairs that make Bill Stumpf's Aeron seem downright anachronistic. While the Aeron looks like it could have been inspired by H.R. Giger's Alien and sports levers that promise comfort, the sparse Scandinavian design of Opsvik's chairs belies their versatility. Most chairs are composed of simple bent birch and cotton padded supports, with nary a lever to be found, but once a human being sits on it, the chairs deform, flex and rock into a variety of positions. While sitting in one of his chairs for an extended period of time remains the most visceral way to understand his designs, Rethinking Sitting does an admirable job of presenting ergonomics to those of us in less comfortable postures.
In a short introduction, Opsvik explains that the basic structure and design of chairs has remained unchanged since ancient Egypt, before quickly turning to theory and biomechanics. Speaking of chair design with a near philosophical reverence, he notes that it's harder to watch a parade than to be in one, and then ponders why "Prussian discipline" of the 1800s is still central to the design of our working places. The human body wants to move. All of his chairs stand (rock?) as testament to this single insight. Through vibrant sketches, prototypes and photos, he illustrates this concept over and over again: the body moves and the chair conforms.
Portland Creative Confab preview: 2 Questions for Beth Sasseen of Nike
For a high-profile, design-driven company like Nike, populating the studios with the best designers on the planet is more than just an aspiration, it's a matter of brand survival. And while much can be said for the company's famously pro-designer culture as a tool for attracting top talent, picking the right applicants out of an enormous pool can be a daunting task.
Beth Sasseen has been doing creative hiring since the early 90s, first for Lucasfilm in California and Singapore, then for Nike starting in 2007. This long experience finding great designers from across the globe who are also great fits, and getting them to stick around, is what draws us to put her on the stage for next week's Creative Confab in Portland, Oregon, a few miles from the Nike World Campus in Beaverton.
1. Given the highly specialized nature of many design disciplines, and the difficulty of identifying a truly great portfolio, is it crucial (or even helpful) that a recruiter of creative professionals have some design training herself?Learning a list of job requirements is easily done, but if the role for which one is recruiting is more specialized, deeper training is a good idea. For design recruiting, having an inherent interest in things that are more creative than analytical is helpful, if not necessary. I am a visual person, so I sympathize greatly with the creative process designers go through. I've tried recruiting for finance and accounting roles before and that just didn't come as naturally.
2.You've mentioned that a good recruiter has to serve as a career counselor for misguided applicants sometimes -- under what circumstances does this level of engagement become necessary, even with a designer who's not getting the job?
The opportunity occurs most often with students and professionals in transition, two circumstances in which everyone, not just designers, probably feel most vulnerable. The career counselor in me comes out when I sense defeat in a candidate's voice. The hiring process is full of hurdles, so the last thing a candidate should feel is failure if they haven't gotten the job.
Sasseen will be sharing the stage with recruiters and designers from Ziba, Intel, and Cinco Design, as we talk about creative hiring from both sides of the process. The event also offers the chance to meet and trade notes with some of the best design firms and creative professionals in the Pacific Northwest. See the Confab page over on Coroflot for more details, and registration information.
Coroflot's Creative Employment Confab
Thursday, June 11th, 2:30-6pm
University of Oregon, Portland - White Stag Block
70 NW Couch St. @ NW 1st Ave, Portland, OR
That Is Architecture.
Just sent in by Cameron Sinclair, this is the definition of short and sweet. (In addition to being the definition of, well, you get the idea.) Watch the video here.
Mapping Power: Using design to get where we want to go
Chart used by the Friends of the High Line to excite the public and win its support. This projected timeline shows plantings and bird species they will attract to the High Line during the first four years. Image © 2004. Field Operations with Diller Scofidio Renfro. Courtesy the City of New York.
John Emerson writes about the power of visually mapping power as a tactic to effect positive social change. In the article published in Communication Arts, he uses a variety of different examples such as how Friends of the High Line used visuals to raise the funds to save the elevated rail line in Manhattan and transform it into a unique, elevated public park; the effectiveness of Al Gore's message as designed by Duarte Design; a chart providing the power relationships contained within the civil strife in the Congo or even the process of domestic violence in households. As he says,
What is power? It's an abstract dynamic, an engine behind the visible world. Power can be found in relationships, in the flow of resources or information, in signs, symbols and ideas or built into the environment. There's no doubt that visual media has the power to influence an audience, but visual media can also be used to visualize power itself. Visualizing power is a way of interpreting and understanding it. And this understanding can become a basis for challenging it. Design can be used to describe and locate power, to pressure those who hold power, and ultimately to facilitate and generate power by bringing people together.
Core-toon: Dream Product - Lego Remote!
Artist: fueledbycoffee
More: View all Core-toons
ID students envision Freescale's forthcoming "smartbook" category of devices
"Bigger than a smart phone, smaller than a notebook and different than a netbook." Technology companies Freescale and Qualcomm are working on a new category of mobile computing devices called smartbooks, with the former having tapped industrial design students at the Savannah College of Art & Design to mock up some concepts now on display at Taipei's Computex show.
"As the smartbook market emerges, new form factors and product categories will evolve to support and better align with user needs, and our engagement with SCAD demonstrates Freescale's intention to lead this evolution," said Glen Burchers, Consumer Segment marketing director for Freescale. "This initiative has given Freescale valuable insight into how end-users prefer to interact with smartbooks...."Tasked with creating new models and paradigms that improve on the designs and user interfaces common to most first-generation netbook products, the participants developed a range of highly innovative, yet practical, designs optimal for leveraging the small, fanless dimensions and low-power operation of Freescale's i.MX515 processor.
Adds SCAD professor David Malouf:
I wanted to point anyone interested in the full story of this work to check out the student process book, final presentation to Freescale and concept videos all posted here.Feel free to tell the students what you think.
And be aware that the students were tasked with a lot more than coming up with "mock ups". The work is based on substantial contextual design research and the output of design work included total eco-system design including 2 new visions for market specific operating system UIs.
Peek inside those gadgets: iFixit launches a user-driven teardown site
As we first mentioned in March, iFixit's been showing panicked people all over the world how to repair their abused and overused electronics by themselves. Occasionally, the iFixit team takes apart a new piece of hardware (like the Kindle 2 and Pleo pictured above), documents it, and posts it as a teardown, letting thousands of people take a look at what's inside and disassemble it themselves.
Today, they've seriously extended this part of the site by launching a user-driven teardown platform. The new creation tools allow anyone to author guides, and, with so many people contributing, who knows what we'll see disassembled? Kyle Wiens, the CEO of iFixit, is explicit about the variation they hope to see: "The deviation from writing Mac teardowns foreshadowed today's epic announcement. We hope that people use our flexible teardown platform to create teardowns of devices of all kinds, not just Apple products."
To introduce the teardown creation tool, iFixit has posted several user-authored cell phone teardowns and a step-by-step guide of exactly what's involved in publishing. It's all laid out for you, so show the world some gadget guts!
Forbes' 10 Hot ID'ers
Forbes has released their list of "Ten Trendsetters in Industrial Design," as they point out that ID seems to be making gains in the downturn:
At a time of economic belt-tightening, the products that offer both beauty and function are rising in popularity. Furniture, autos, computers, even light bulbs are all subject to reinvention by the world's most talented creators of utilitarian products.Says Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum London and a design and architecture critic: "Consumers are looking for things that reflect longevity, rather than quick disposal."
So who made the cut? Click here to read (and see).
Boston Designers Accord Town Hall: Reflections
On May 14th, the good folks at Continuum hosted the fourth Designers Accord Town Hall, rallying Beantown's sustainable design community for a candid discussion on their design practices. Here's the recap from the discussion, which ranged from fired up to down-to-earth.
Dave Laituri, founder and partner of Sprout Creation, kicked off the evening by sharing his company's journey to create the Vers iPod sound system--real wood, hand-crafted audio systems. At the helm of Sprout, Dave is trying to make a "dent in this sustainable thing" with every aspect of his product--from material sourcing and supply chain influencing to packaging and take back programs.
Guided by the belief that "ideas enacted are more important than ideas," Dave shared with us lessons from the frontlines of trying to infuse "better" into his product: better sound, better design with minimized environmental impact. It's here that he introduced us to Less Brown. This isn't a partner, investor or key stakeholder; but rather, it's the idea that in this pursuit of sustainability we shouldn't talk about the destination of being green--because like the holy grail, you'll never get there. There's always something better you can do. Green is never a final destination.
Core77's Dutch Master Bicycle: Sneak Peek
And finally, we're putting the final touches on our limited-edition Dutch Master bicycle, the ultimate blend of street and cruiser riding. Designed and hand-built in New York, It will hit the pavement later this month so we can't give too much away yet - but rest assured, this will be one super smooth summer ride!
Special thanks to Emily Pilloton, Xanthe Matychak, Niti Bhan and fueledbycoffee for their contributions to this week's newsletter.
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