Core77/BusinessWeek Design Firm Directory

NY Design Week Coverage: All posts in one place!

Check out this list of Core77's event coverage of New York Design Week in one easy-to-browse place.

VIDEOS:

NY Design Week 2008: Video Drive-by: ICFF Surprse!

NY Design Week 2008: Video Drive-by: Industrial sludge in the Meatpacking

NY Design Week 2008: Video Drive-by: Koncept Lamp

NY Design Week 2008: Video Drive-by: SCAD Safe bed

NY Design Week 2008: Video Drive-by: Bocci wall plugs

NY Design Week 2008: Video Drive-by: Knoend Ecodesign

NY Design Week 2008: Video Drive-by: Salt and Pepper in one, then two

NY Design Week 2008: Video Drive-by: Umbra U+ Collection

NY Design Week 2008: Video Drive-by: Stakit at Danish Crafts

NY Design Week 2008: Video Drive-by: Molo Cloud-Somethings

NY Design Week 2008: Video Drive-by: Yale University of Architecture

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Bandini's different take on the bathroom

They're definitely not for everyone, but we're liking Italian company Bandini's take on the bathroom vanity; their pop-y designs are a marked departure from the current crop of sharp-angled offerings out there. Lots of great pics up on their site.

via trenddir

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1 Hour Design Challenge: 2 Days Left

Listen-up!
It's time to design some kick-ass speakers!

Brief:
We bet you have a set of computer speakers on your desk that resemble some form of a gray blob that cost you about $10 USD. Kurt Solland, VP of Design for, Harman Consumer Group has been doing everything he can to make that bet a long shot. For this challenge, Core77 invited Kurt to join the 1HDC as a guest moderator. (Did ya' hear that?!) So we ask you to crank up the tunes and crank out your best spin on a computer speaker design with whatever means you can scratch together in an hour.

Doors open:
Thursday, May 22, 2008
10 AM PST (5 GMT)

Doors close:
Thursday, May 29, 2008
9 AM PST (4 GMT)

Criteria:
Judging will be based on quality of presentation and whether or not your work could have realistically been done in 1 Hour (this is an honor system).

Prize:
Publicity in Core77 May Newsletter, publicity on Core77 Blog and bragging rights that Kurt Solland chose your design (neener neener neener!), plus a secret prize hand-picked by the speaker-guru himself!

Jury:
Winner will be selected by the Kurt Solland and Core77 Admin. Community discussion is encouraged to help ensure the best design wins.

>>>Click here to enter your submission<<<

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Book Review: Decoding Design, by Maggie Macnab

Possibly as soon as in the next few months, the large hadron collider nearing completion at CERN outside of Geneva will be smashing little tiny particles at obscene speeds into one another in the hopes of finding the elusive Higgs bosun, the "god particle" that may provide teleological hope to the Standard model of physics, or might just destroy the universe as we know it. No joke. Admittedly the unleashing of antimatter and the subsequent rendering of all of us into non-existence is highly unlikely, but even the scientists behind this enormous underground atomic racetrack acknowledge that the total obliteration of matter (and maybe even space!) can't be ruled out entirely.

I bring up this hypothetical of impending doom in part because it's emblematic of pattern recognition. While we don't yet know what the physicists will find, that doesn't mean we don't have guesses. In fact, several theories already exist, including multidimensional vibrating strings and branes that form the constituent particles of our universe, even though we only exist in three dimensions, plus time. So while there really isn't any empirical data about multidimensional N-space and our puny brains can't even conceive it, we've got brilliant physicists postulating its existence. Even scientists see patterns everywhere. The human condition makes us see giraffes in the clouds, Jesus burnt into our toast, and buy into malarkey like astrology and numerology. I like to think of myself as scientific, but I don't really know much about physics, so I know better than to postulate about whether the large hadron collider will kill us all. I'm simply not qualified, and a large part of science is an awareness of when to suspend judgment.

Maggie Macnab's Decoding Design applies the science of mathematics to design elements of typography and graphics, so it should totally be up my alley. As an occasionally aesthetically-impaired former mathematician who happens to work in design, I love that the restrictive rules of the grid let me manufacture an appealing layout without exercising any artistic judgement. The grid, that end-all-be-all of layout, is modular arithmetic. Decoding Design addresses shape and form numerically, but it also does a lot more, and that's why, as someone who does know something about number theory (as opposed to numerology), Maggie Macnab's book is both wonderfully fascinating and endlessly frustrating.

>> read on

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A plastics future

The European association of plastics manufacturers, Plastics Europe, commissioned UK futurist Ray Hammond to write a book about the world in 2030, with a special focus on the challenges for plastics.

Changing demographics, extreme weather conditions, peak-oil, resource-conflicts, surveillance society, hyperreal leisure time, robots, sustainable globalisation, healthcare revolution, virtual companions, biodigital interfaces, the global brain, new retailing, ...

A summary of the book including a first response of the plastics industry on the challenges ahead, can be found here.

via a thousand tomorrows

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Nanotubes may pose a health risk

Every time a new material comes out, people get excited, and manufacturers assume it's safe; it's only years later that we discover that the plastic we drink out of or make baby pacifiers from actually releases endocrine disrupters, and that asbestos is not something you should breathe in.

Now research is coming to light showing that carbon nanotubes can have the same effect as asbestos and eventually lead to cancer.

Within days of being injected into mice, the nanotubes -- which are increasingly used in electronic components, sporting goods and dozens of other products -- triggered a kind of cellular reaction that over a period of years typically leads to mesothelioma, a fatal form of cancer, researchers said.
...the preliminary evidence of cancer risk is strong enough to justify urgent follow-up tests and government guidance for nano factory workers, who are most likely to be exposed, experts said. Others called for labels to guide consumers or recyclers, who might encounter the material when incinerating or otherwise destroying discarded nano products.

via washington post

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Hard, clear plastic and epoxy resins: watch out for BPA

In more "materials that are bad for you" news, BPA, a chemical found in hard, clear plastics like baby and sports bottles as well as epoxy resin, is apparently something you should avoid.

In studies of laboratory animals...BPA changes play behavior, weakens gender differences, decreases sperm count, stimulates prostate cancer and causes ADHD symptoms.

As a designer, what do you need to know about this? With papers on the ills of BPA "being published at the rate of about one a day," manufacturers are getting hip to its dangers and are coming up with alternatives; if you're in a position to spec out materials, you may want to have a look at these.

These [safer alternatives] include glass baby bottles instead of polycarbonate ones -- the Glass Packaging Institute recently reported a surge in demand for these -- and natural resin for lining cans instead of epoxy. Japanese manufacturers started using natural resin in 1997, and two years later a study found that BPA levels had gone down significantly.

As a consumer, what do you need to know? Don't put polycarbonate plastics in the nuke or the dishwasher; heat makes the BPA leach out of the plastic, and into you, faster. Read all about it here.

via la times

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Future scenarios - coming to terms with the end of the era of growth

Australian David Holmgren, the cofounder of the permaculture concept has just launched a new global scenario planning website - Future Scenarios.org A snippet from the Energy Bulletin elucidates,

Holmgren says his future scenarios will help both policy makers and activists come to terms with the end of the era of growth.[...] uses a scenario planning framework to bring to life the likely cultural, political, agricultural and economic implications of peak oil and climate change.

"Scenario planning allows us to use stories about the future as a reference point for imagining how particular strategies and structures might thrive, fail or be transformed," says Holmgren

Future Scenarios depicts four very different futures. Each is a permutation of mild or destructive climate change, combined with either slow or severe energy declines. Scenarios range from the relatively benign Green Tech to the near catastrophic Lifeboats scenario..

Here's a link to Holmgren's 12 design principles of permaculture.

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Merger between Danish Design Center and Index:

The Danish Design Center (DDC) and Index: announced that they are now joined within one organization, with Index: being a subsidiary company of DDC, 100% owned by the latter.

Index: is a global non-profit network organisation based in Copenhagen that sponsors awards every second year, the famous Index: Award, for design to improve life.

The merger will allow for a stronger international branding of Denmark as one of the world's leading design nations. With more integrated resources, the new structure is also better positioned to be a key player in carrying out the Danish Government's design policy.

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High tech underpants by Philips

According to The Register, Philips is taking wearable computing one step further with underpants ("pants", "briefs" or "smalls" in British English) that monitor the wearer's blood pressure.

The hi-tech undies have sensors sewn into the waistband that measure the wearer's pulse wave velocity - the rate at which pulses of blood stream through a person's circulatory system. By measuring the time it takes for one pulse to pass between two sensors, the smalls will be able to calculate the wearer's blood pressure.

(The photo is from the Philips patent application.)

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Herman Miller's award-winning Lifework

During the dotcom boom, a friend who worked at one of the big dogs complained to me about the office-wide Aeron chair policy. "After sitting in one for ten hours, you can't go home and sit in a regular chair," she said (leading me to bring to her attention a Russian geographical feature, the "Crimea River").

That point was echoed in an M-Live article describing the Body of Work award given to Herman Miller's Lifework collection, which seeks to make the home office as cush and chic as the office office. With designs by Blu Dot, Industrial Facility, Kaiju Studios and Korb + Korb, Lifework goes on the market in August.

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Fake TV: the continuing appearance of useless products

We sincerely hope this is a gag: the Fake TV "uses an array of colored, flashing LEDs to create the illusion of the stroboscopic effect of a television," apparently so thieves walking by will see the flickering in your window and move on to greener pastures.

Do we need this, do the numbers bear this one out? Are our lands so roaming with robbers that somewhere they had to set up a factory to crank these things out? D'you reckon this is what the inventor of LED's had in mind? Sure, the Fake TV burns less juice than leaving the regular TV on, but where are we supposed to put this thing, in a fake entertainment console?

Hell in a handbasket, folks.

via technabob

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Ethiopia brands its coffees

A small design firm here was recently hired by an unusual client with an unconventional request: The Ethiopian government commissioned Brandhouse to come up with a logo that will make consumers feel like they are drinking a luxury when they have Ethiopian coffee. This month, the Ethiopian government is releasing the logos for three varieties of Ethiopian coffee beans that it hopes will eventually appear from the burlap sacks that are used to transport coffee beans to coffee cups in cafes. It is the first time the country has introduced a brand for its major export.

The logos are the culmination of years of sometimes-bitter wrangling between Ethiopia, British charity Oxfam, Starbucks and the National Coffee Association, a trade association for U.S. coffee importers, wholesalers, retailers and roasters. The Ethiopian government has argued that companies such as Starbucks should sign licensing agreements for its coffee. Oxfam supported its cause and last year, the Seattle coffee chain reached a deal with Ethiopia to license, market and promote Harar, Yirgacheffe, and Sidamo coffee.

Full story courtesy the Wall Street Journal

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Stalk and predict Apple moves thru job openings

Not only can you stalk your ex via the internet, you can stalk companies, too. We love how Apple fanatics relentlessly forecast the company's future offerings by tracking their job openings.

The latest in the iPhone category: an open slot for Lead Camera Design Engineer, meaning iPhone shutterbugs will eventually have a better camera, and two other positions--Senior RF System Engineer and Product Design Engineer--than apparently mean the device is receiving some sort of wireless upgrade. (We didn't link the latter position because, interestingly enough, it's been removed and presumably filled between the time we first read the post and now.) More detailed analysis available here.

Ideally your ex would apply for one of these jobs, so you could do one-stop stalking.

via iphone world

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Design Directions '08 winners just announced

Edward Austin took top prize in the 2008 Design Directions competition's "Ceramic Futures" category, sponsored by the UK's Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). While Royal College of Art student Austin is undoubtedly a young buck, the contest itself is the oldest we can think of--it's been around since 1924! (Previous winners: Leonardo da Vinci, "Rock Drawing Slate;" Unknown Caveman, "Wheel.")

Austin's winning design is for a vegetable peeler and cheese slicer made from zirconia (the stuff that, in crystalline form, cheapskates can use to propose marriage). We like that Austin's design not only considers the end product, but also thinks heavily about the manufacturing process:

[Austin's designs] include sections that can be sacrificed in the [manufacturing] process, specifically to hold the fine blade edges in place during firing. This enables the pieces to be fired upside down, which minimises warping and keeps the blades straight. These sections are removed in the sharpening process, using progressively finer grinding media on a wheel.... The pieces are also only fired once, saving fuel costs and adding environmental credibility.

The RSA Design Directions winners site has just gone live today, and while it's no fun to navigate, you can check out the winners and runners-up in the fifteen other categorieshere.

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Glenn Ross: design is man's best friend

"I really like the design process and doing custom work, but it's very difficult to make a living at it," says Vancouver-based designer Glenn Ross, who's got a rather unusual career arc. After he found a wood-bending vacuum press and some woodoworking tools at an auction, he began using them to produce furniture in earnest; but it was his dog that led him to success.

"It was one of those epiphanies, staring at that ugly pet feeder," Ross now says, referring to Oliver's food dish and all the crusty grossness and mucky floor gunk left behind when a big dog sticks his snout into a pile of Alpo in the corner of the kitchen.
Sensing there might be a market for a pet food dish not quite so hard to look at, he designed and built a stylish raised feeder fashioned out of bamboo, maple, cherry and wenge veneer, as well as hammered aluminum. The feeders come in a variety of sizes, with stainless steel bowls.

Ross' creations were good enough for Architectural Digest's "Great Design Issue," and his eye-catching WoWo collection is, if you'll pardon the expression, the cat's meow. Check out his full line here, and read the full article here.

via vancouver sun

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Social networking for the elderly

And finally when design students, like Ben Arent, engage in extensive user research, we take notice.

Jive is a proof of concept for a new communication device - a range of 3 products designed to get elderly technophobes connected to their friends and family.

Unfortunately, Ben doesn't give information on whether the concept was iterated further based on contextual user testing. This would definitely be necessary to make sure the product would actually be used by the elderly.

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Special thanks to Mark Vanderbeeken and Niti Bhan for their contributions to this weeks 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.

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