[Apologies for the delay on the newsletter; now it's extra special!]
SPR Pressurized Rover
Designing for Space: Core77 visits NASA's Industrial Design Team, by Glen Jackson Taylor
Evan Twyford and Carl Conlee are two of three industrial designers working in NASA's Habitability Design Center (HDC), and in just over 2 years they have transitioned the department from one that dealt only with small isolated ergonomic projects to working on arguably the most exciting project at NASA today—a next generation pressurized lunar rover. Since working at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) they have had robots walk past their office door during meetings, experienced zero-gravity flight, had their bodies 3D scanned, and worked alongside some of the most talented engineers and scientists in the country. The thing is, NASA doesn't actually have an industrial design department. They don't even have a design department. Not technically, anyway.
Pictured left to right: Richard Szabo, Travis Baldwin, Carl Conlee and Evan Twyford
Meeting the team
"Things have changed so much since we started, people here don't really understand what Industrial Design is or how it fits into the bigger picture. But once they work with us and see the services we provide—visualizing information, realizing concepts—they see the value of what we do," explains Evan.
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Tokyo Designer's Week 2008: Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry doesn't typically do one-off pieces but after much convincing, he agreed to design the visitors bench for the World Company building in Tokyo, Japan's largest fashion house with over 90 labels and 3000+ retail outlets. It was just installed a few weeks ago and we were able to sneak in for a closer look last night while they were hanging a banner in the front for design week.
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>> View all Tokyo Design Festival posts here.
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1 Hour Design Challenge: Voting Booth Winners!
The results are in and we are proud to announce the winners of the latest Core77 1 Hour Design Challenge: Voting Booth! There was a wonderful selection of entries in this round, and the lead up to November 4th provided some nice design fuel. Thanks to everyone who participated, and make sure to check out all the entries in the forum.
Our esteemed judges on this this challenge were William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand of Winterhouse, creators of The Polling Place Photo Project (now a New York Times project) and founding editors of Design Observer. Here are their overall impressions:
Voting is a serious civic activity--perhaps the most important citizen engagement in a democracy. The challenge of one-hour solutions for voting booths might seem to run contrary to the scope and complexity of the enterprise, but we are nonetheless impressed with the range of solutions offered here. Some are serious, some are playful, and some are politically ironic. A carnival ride where you see the future implications of your vote? A monkey with a tamborine superimposed between the candidates? Throwing rocks at the portraits of the candidates you least like? We are amused. We are going to (generally) error, though, on the side of serious proposals, these being serious times. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all who took the time to participate.
And now for the winners...
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Core77 Photo Gallery : DesignPhiladelphia 2008
Our DesignPhiladelphia 2008 gallery is now online with images covering a full week of events in the city of brotherly love. Highlights include Philly Heart Design local designer exhibition, A Clean Break: Pop-up Neighborhood, Make:Philly Art Cart Derby, and many lectures and exhibitions. Enjoy!
>> View Gallery
View all DesignPhiladelphia 2008 posts:
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: SOS Stool by Josh Owen
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: Matthias Pliessnig
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: The Hacktory
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: Two Days Left
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: A Clean Break
>> DesignPhiladelphia 2008: Student Work at 222 Gallery
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New JBL Eon's designed by RKS
JBL has just dropped the latest set of EON portable loud speakers, designed by RKS, and band-types at the Core77 office say, "we want these," citing the triple handles as a very desirable selling point. Seeing as we don't have a practice pair though, let's go to the press release. Read to the end for the best part:
The full, foam-backed, perforated metal grill provides an added measure of protection to internal components, while offering a clean, uncluttered look to the entire line. The speaker's shape, like the EON's power, projects from the rear of the speaker where the amp is housed. "The design flows from the back of the speaker in a single, accelerating curve," explained Lance Hussey, RKS Vice President of Design. The bold port vents provide a visual accent and evoke fond memories of the original EON.
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Book Review: Desire: The Shape of Things to Come, by the editors of Gestalten
Desire: The Shape of Things to Come, by Gestalten Press is visually interesting on every page. The oddly framed and somewhat flat front cover's picture of simple wooden furniture and gaudy gold tableware is by no means representative of the elegant furniture designs contained within. The introduction by Andrej Kupetz sets the tone by explaining the context of 21st Century design as a natural successor to the functionalism of Louis Sullivan's edicts and the visual expression of the Memphis movement. I still find the description of eras from the last fifty years as "modern" and "postmodern" somewhat confusing, but since it has become common usage I understand the authors need to use the terms. More interestingly, however, the remainder of the book does provide some new and useful (though not likely to become common usage) categories for recent design movements.
After the introduction, the book is structured in four parts: The Modernists, The Inventors, The Taletellers, and The Entertainers. Each section has a short introduction detailing the movements and their major players. The layout includes a mix of full bleed photographs, silhouettes and nicely gridded pictures with descriptive text. For some work, short background essays on the designers accompanies the photos. A lot of the furniture included in Desire transcends the neat categorization that the author provides, but is equally effective at provoking the emotion to which the title aspires. Though much of the work profiled here is more exhibition piece than industrial production, any reader is likely to discover something to lust after. For me, it was Kjellgren and Kaminsky's "Pompous Fat Armchair" which looks like set design from the Matrix met an 80's couch and a folding umbrella in an S&M club. Since that may not quite be your thing (and both the designers and myself admit that it isn't normally ours either), I encourage readers to find their own wish list inside.
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Ben Fry on the intersection of art and technology
On this Business Week podcast, Ben Fry, co-developer of the Processing open-source programming environment and recent winner of the prestigious Muriel Cooper Award for interactive digital communication, discusses the ever-increasing crossover between art, design, and technology.
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Network Citizens
Social networks are providing tremendous opportunities for people to collaborate. But until now, thinking has focused only on how organisations can respond to and capitalise on networks. This report by the UK think tank Demos argues that we have to look equally at how networks use organisations for their own ends. That is where the new contours of inequality and power lie that will shape the network world. We have to face networks' dark side, as well as their very real potential.
Bringing together in-depth case studies of six organisations, Network Citizens maps the key fault-lines that people and organisations will have to address in the future world of work. Not doing so puts at risk the very qualities we had invested in them: openness, innovation, collaboration and meritocracy. Since networks can act for good or ill, incubating the talents and ideas of the many, or promoting the interests of the few, the need for a new set of responsibilities is growing. If we are network members, we must be network citizens, too.
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TechShop previews its new Portland location, by Molly Purnell
TechShop, the membership-based machine shop for DIY gearheads, has been a favorite of us here at Core for a while, getting glowing mentions here and here. The biggest criticism we've always had of the place is that there's only one of them, and it's in Menlo Park, CA, which is great if you're a Silicon Valley tool nerd but annoying if you're a tool nerd anywhere else.
Thankfully, that's starting to change: after more than a year of anticipation, several of the planned expansion locations are starting to see some action, first at the Durham, NC Techshop, whose building was previewed in July, and just last week in Portland, OR, where Core contributer Molly Purnell hopped on a bus to the industrial section of nearby Beaverton to check out the new space, and talk to some other excited makers. Here's what she found:
On the bus I get to know Dave, a self-proclaimed inventor and maker who's excited about TechShop's CNC router. Dave builds Fretted Dulcimers which are apparently coming back into fashion in the Japanese hand-made instrument market, and he needs access to the shop in order to build prototypes.Dave seems to be the typical clientelle of TechShop; a maker with big dreams, little space, and no equipment. TechShop's goal is to remedy this situation for the 300 or so potential members that came to the opening event. TechShop plans to have milling machines, lathes, welders, a laser cutter, an electronics shop, blacksmithing tools, a finishing room, workstations, a 3D printer, and of course the coveted CNC router. Along with all of this equipment there will be a tool and materials shop, a small library and a communal kitchen.
The greatest benefit of Techshop will be the probable development of community. The owner of TechShop, Jim Newton and the Portland shop manager, Denney Cole, claim that the community is one of the greatest drawing powers for continued membership. Most builders know that another's experience and knowledge is the best tool available.
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Emily Pilloton and Project H in the LimeLight
An existence as "makers of stuff" has long been accepted but, more recently, it's been thrown out many a proverbial window by designers worldwide. To set things on track to where they always should have been, Emily Pilloton founded Project H, a non-profit organization that puts design to work for humanity, habitats, health, and happiness. Its latest project is Design for Education, an initiative to design tools to improve teaching and learning in both the US and developing markets.
Learn extensively about what Project H is up to now and Pilloton's P.O.V. on the future of design over at Ecolect LimeLight.
I'd love for communities, both in the US and in India, Africa, Asia, and beyond, to begin to view design as something we rely on to solve our problems- one of the first lines of defense in ameliorating social ills. Design can be a form of capital, a form of public health, and a vehicle for social and political progress. I hope that Project H becomes proof of that.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
image credit: Curventa Bloodhound SSC
She gets lousy mileage, but man is she fast
We're conflicted about putting these images up because yes, we're supposed to be designing green vehicles to save the planet, not land-rockets that go over 1,000 miles per hour; but darn if this thing doesn't look cool.
You read that right: Curventa's Bloodhound SSC is a car (well, a land-based vehicle, anyway) designed to hit 1,050 m.p.h., which would make it faster than a bullet fired from a .357 Magnum. The three-year mission is still in progress, and if an actual production model ever sees the light of day, we can tell you they needn't include a seatbelt and airbag; slam into anything at those speeds and you will probably disintegrate entirely.
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New human-centric innovation university in Finland
During a recent speech Professor Yrjo Sotamaa, former Rector of the University of Art and Design Helsinki (TaiK), described Finland's educational strategy to remain at the forefront of innovation:
The new strategy aims at strengthening the core competencies of Finland through a radical university reform. And it is turning innovation thinking 180 degrees around to human-centric thinking. It does not lessen the importance of technology and business know-how, but in the future the innovation drivers are stronger tied to the needs of users and the opportunities on the market. The shift to user-driven innovation highlights the importance of design. Design has a huge and very new potential for innovation."Aalto University, scheduled to officially open its doors in Autumn 2009, is a new university being created through a merge between the Helsinki School of Economics, the University or Art and Design Helsinki and the Helsinki University of Technology. The merge between the three universities will create a new science and art community from the three universities of technology, business studies and art and design and provide possibilities for multidisciplinary and strong education and research.
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Johnny Lee, YouTube, and the future of prototyping
Is Prototyping finally entering the pop-cultural lexicon?
Where it was once an opaque techno-fabulous term used by Q in James Bond flicks, or forming the dubious core of a Star Trek episode, we've now got a word that actually has meaning for the average TV viewer. "Prototyping" arouses interest and fascination, but lately it's also started feeling accessible, like a sexier version of building a birdhouse in the garage with your dad.
Case in point: in addition to reality TV phenomena like Project Runway, Mythbusters and Junkyard Wars, all of which feature on-the-fly construction as part of the drama, we can now count Discovery Channel's Prototype This, which not only uses the term in its name, but invites viewers to submit ideas of their own. This is a marked break from the established depictions of hi-tech: people pay attention when Apple rolls out a new product, but Steve Jobs never asks viewers to suggest what they ought to be working on next.
Now it looks like Prototyping may have its greatest advocate yet, in the form of recent Carnegie Mellon grad Johnny Chung Lee, whose YouTube video explaining how to hack a Wiimote into a VR display has earned him a TED talk, a pile of job offers, and over six million views. If you haven't seen it yet, you pretty much have to stop whatever you're doing and watch it right now:
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Attack of the Human Vending Machines!
And finally, Japan loves vending machines (jidoohanbaiki, I think). Food, books, clothes -- get it all by pushing a button. And remember this? They're so ubiquitous you can wear a vending machine suit and blend right in (kind of).
Taking this obsession to its illogical extreme, on November 18th, Uniqlo invades Times Square with an army of Human-Powered Vending Machines. Provocative commentary on the depersonalization of retail space design, or bizarro publicity stunt?
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Special thanks to Mark Vanderbeeken and Molly Purnell for their contributions to this week's newsletter!
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