The California College of the Arts' forthcoming ID program doesn't stand for Industrial Design, but Interaction Design. Writes Dr. Mark Breitenberg, CCA's Provost, "We're leveraging our Bay Area location as the founding center of this discipline, and designing the program in concert with SF-based designers like Ideo's Tim Brown and Charles Warren from Google. It's a rare example of developing a program from the 'back-end' professional design needs."
Starts next fall, and we can't wait to see what they come up with!
Humans do not have kangaroo pouches, and it's a fact that society laments when babies are premature, especially in developing countries, where over 450 low-birthweight and premature infants die each hour from hypothermia, with modern incubators out of reach, at a cost of around $20,000. There is a strong need for a low-cost method of keeping babies warm and alive.
Enter the Infant Warmer from the social enterprise Embrace Global, an innvoative miniature sleeping bag (or replacement marsupial pouch) that will cost less than $200. Made from a wax-filled heating pad ensheathed in nylon, the product can keep the baby warm for four to six hours, then reheated in either an electric warmer or, if electricity is unavailable, in a water warmer for 20 minutes.
When approached to do a commercial for Subaru's powerful WRX STI rally car, creative agency DDB Canada had an unusual idea: Do a flip-book animation--by adhering 760 individual and precisely-spaced frames to a one-kilometer-long wall on a test track. Then mount the camera to the car, which whips along the wall, and once the driver hits a certain speed, the frames blend. Check it out:
Needless to say this took tons of preparation, as you can see in the making-of vid below. Kudos to DDB C's team for insisting it could be done, and doing it, in the face of detractors claiming it would be impossible to pull off without a green-screen.
Remember the movie The Patriot, where Heath Ledger's character climbs into a bed that is promptly sewed shut to avoid improprieties with a female house resident? That's what Florida Smart Italian Design's Letto Zip Bed reminds me of.
Of course the purpose of it isn't chastity, but aesthetics; zipping it shut seems a quick and easy way to make the bed. Had zippers been invented back in colonial times, I'm sure this bed would've been all the rage (with padlocks added, of course).
HighChairStation is an e-tailer that scours France, Germany, Switzerland, and Scandinavia to find the most designey chairs and booster seats a baby could ask for, some of them well-considered, others excessive. Examples:
We've been following Design Museum Boston's progress since their first kick off fund raiser earlier this year and through their open source branding process with Design Continuum. The group's first installation is "Creative Capital", done in partnership with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, AIR Graphics and VDA Productions. The exhibit displays publicly recognizable work done by Boston designers across a variety of disciplines like the work done by ELEVEN for OXO and Korn Design's rebranding of the Boston Ballet. Utilizing QR code technology, the exhibit will continually deliver new content throughout the year.
Stop by and take a look. The exhibition is free and open to the public, and can be viewed on the 9th floor of Boston City Hall weekdays between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm.
Objects can often become so ubiquitous that we no longer question their form. The testimony of time shields such relics from the scrutiny and skepticism that we subject new products to.
Nail clippers, for example, have barely changed since the Industrial Revolution—which is bizarre considering the mess they can often leave your nails in and the fact that they spray their cuttings everywhere.
"Klhip" is out to change this with what they're calling "the ultimate clipper". The idea is simple. Re-engineer the cutter so that the pressure is applied directly on the nail and catch the cuttings as you go. The matt surgical steel finish and clever brand identity also give an added touch of class to the nail cutting experience.
Kristina and I have always taken design excursions to meccas like the Philip Johnson Glass House , The Walter Gropius House, and Palm Springs. This weekend we took a long overdue trip outside of San Francisco to Marin County. We started our day at Frank Lloyd Wright's Marin County Civic Center. This 1957 masterpiece was almost demolished in the 1970s. It went on to be featured in such classic films as Lucas's THX 1138 and Gattaca. You can still grab lunch in the cafe on week days, and docent tours are offered on Wednesdays.
Next we popped up to Terra Linda Valley to sample some Eichler Homes. Marin County has the largest concentration of Eichler's. None are open to the public, but frequently there are some great examples for sale, and they have open houses on Sunday. Don't worry, they are used to design gawkers. Check out Marin Modern for listings.
Popping over to San Anselmo to grab a coffee on the way home, we stumbled into The Modern I, which happens to be the first shop specializing in the resale of mid century modern. In operation for more than 30 years, I saw pieces here I've never seen in person. Make sure you chat with the owner, Steve, who is a design historian. Steve owns The Dondo House, a 1935 concrete home destined to be torn down that he saved, restored, and now holds retreats for design firms and architects. There he gives tours of his collection and will show an example or two of his vintage Eames films.
You might have come across Madrid based studio Kawamura Ganjavian before with their weird and wonderful experiments with objects to amplify the sense (on Core77 here) or their recent "Binpan".
Studio KG's newest creation is a lovely foldable felted seat that is intended to bring a touch of cosiness to sleek, contemporary furniture. When folded up the Oyster acts as neat little cushion only to tranform into a very snug "private shelter" when unfurled.
If you're in San Francisco next Wednesday (Nov 17th), be sure to drop by acclaimed strategy and design firm Cooper, as they host an open studio event with Jennifer Aaker, co-author of The Dragonfly Effect, and social media innovator Robert Chatwani. Join them as they discuss the values of leveraging social media to effect social change, and find out how as designers we can stop missing these opportunities in our work.
Behind the Scenes
CraftedSystems 
Dutch Design Week 2010 
Valencia Disseny Week 2010 
Influx: Meet the Makers 
Life Edited 
Book Review: Exploring Materials 
Book Review: Design is 
The Designers Accord Educational Toolkit 
The Designmatters Concentration at Art Center College of Design 
Coroflot's 10th Annual Designer Salary Survey
Starting Out
Sustainable Retrainables 
Powers of Ten 
Ars Electronica
London Design Festival
Maker Faire NYC
1HDC: Play-Doh Kicks
If you're in San Francisco next Wednesday (Nov 17th), be sure to drop by acclaimed strategy and design firm Cooper, as they host an 
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DUTCH DESIGN WEEK
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK
VALENCIA DISSENY WEEK 2010
MAKER FAIRE NYC
My Concorde Thing
The Challenges of Teaching Sustainability: The RCA's Approach 
Politics Please, We're Social Designers 
The Design Response to a Wash of Green: Whole Systems and Life Cycle Thinking 
The Strategic Arc of Interaction Design: Moving Towards Holistic System Design 
2009 Design Salary Survey
Exploring Materials, by Inna Alesina and Ellen Lupton
Design is How it Works, by Jay Greene
Plastic Dreams, by Charlotte & Peter Fiell
Inventors and Innovations, by William Poundstone
77 RIGHTEOUS Gifts Under $77
Essential Tips for the Design Professional
Read our back-to-school guide for design students. A must!
