Not surprisingly, the Apple iPhone was selected Best of Category 2008, Consumer Products, in ID magazine’s recent Annual Design Review. The iPhone combines three products in one — a phone, a widescreen iPod, and a unique Internet device with rich HTML email and a web browser. MORE…
I Frammenti (The Fragments) by Brix is a porcelain micro-mosaic (or cube-tile) created by architect Claudio Silvestrin. Each mosaic is made of 5mm cubes with the space between equally proportioned. The mosaics are available in eight non-glazed colors, six intense glazed colors and four mixes.
The concept “bedre billigere boliger” – literally “better cheaper housing” – was developed through a number of architectural competitions. The aim – in Kvistgård, Elsinore, Denmark, was to offer significantly reduced rent-levels without sacrificing architectural quality. MORE…
Key is a new highly modular storage system designed and produced by Housefish that ships flat and assembles easily – the only tool you need is a hammer. The parts are cleverly joined into an exceptionally strong structure by machined aluminum tenon keys. The wood used is sustainably harvested, FSC certified maple plywood, finished with a zero VOC finish. Available with optional sliding powdercoated metal doors in a variety of colors. MORE…
“EMERGENT TRANSPARENCY VIA EXPERIENCE”, OCT 23-24, LJUBLJANA
Enrique Limon, LimonLab Design USA
LimonLab Design, New York, is a newly-established (2005) urban laboratory dedicated to the advancement of architectural, urban and interior design. Rick Limon has also taught at the Pratt lnstitute School of Architecture, Brooklyn, NY as visiting assistant professor of architecture in comprehensive design studio on Housing. He’s currently teaching second year architectural design with an emphasis on the design of a Kindergarten and an urban library.
Current LimonLab projects include: Prototype for a Soccer park which could be implemented in 200 locations throughout the U.S., a glass beach-house on Fire lsland, NY, a night club in central Philadelphia, a theater renovation for the New School in NYC, two apartments in Miami Florida, a guesthouse in Waialua, Hawaii, and an auditorium building for the Sereclipi School in Kenya.
Emergent Transparency departs from the modernists’ argument of Robert Slusky and Colin Rowe’s Literal and Phenomenal transparency as pictorial in terms of invoking a two-dimensional phenomenology that fixed the observer in a position on axis with the plane of the façade as if viewing a painting and in line with but in contrast to Sigfried Giedion and Lazlo Maholy Nagy’s idea of transparency based on a phenomenology of spatial perceptions.
For Maholy Nagy and Giedion this was a four-dimensional transparency in which the boundaries between inside and outside, subject and object, were dissolved for an observer assumed to be moving freely in space and time. Enrique Limon argues that Emergent Transparency can be defined three dimensionally through “experience”. Limon suggests that the body experiences real time three-dimensional architectural space through the transverse of spatial entities no longer through perspective and or pictorial suggestions.
This rather complex argument is applied and worked through in various projects from Limon’s architectural Laboratory in New York City, which include a master plan for Seoul, Korea, a competition entry for Bodo, Norway, an auditorium building for a school in Kenya, both a loft and a retail component in NYC, and a chandelier.
More: www.limonlab.cam
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The main exhibition of the 2008 International Biennial of Graphic Design in Brno, Czech Republic, designed by Radim Babak and Ondrej Tobola of Hippos design, consists of 600 works by 162 designers, arranged using chairs so that visitors can browse the magazines and books on show. MORE…
German designers neongrau.id have created Veloheld, a pared-down bicycle for cycling in the city. With narrow handlebars and one gear, the bicycles come in black or white.
A limited edition of 100 bikes will be produced this year. The company also supplies the Veloheld frames for those who want to build their own bike. MORE…
Japanese designers Jamo Associates have completed a boutique in Tokyo for New York fashion designer Phillip Lim. The store, Lim’s first outside New York, is in Tokyo’s Aoyama district.
While an underwater story could easily play out through familiar and obvious design tropes, Jamo interprets ‘in the water’ subtly through both structural elements and decorative details. MORE…
Architect Frank Gehry has designed new door handles for Italian manufacturers Valli & Valli. The new designs are additions to Gehry’s Arrowheads and FOG collection, created for the brand last year.
Designed by renowned architect and designer Frank Gehry, the Arrowhead series is characterized by a dynamic twisting design created by planes that seem to spiral around a central axis. The Arrowhead door lever (H 5021 – second image) was introduced in 2007 and won that year’s Interior Design magazine Best of Year award in the hardware category. MORE…
Spanish/Mexican architects Cadaval & Solà-Morales have designed an exhibition of works by artist Susana Solano at Fundación ICO in Madrid, made almost entirely of recycled materials. The exhibition, displaying models of Solano’s public artworks, ran from October last year until January this year. MORE…
Swiss architects Stemmle Architekten have completed the reconstruction of the Catholic Church in Geroldswil near Zürich. The church, originally built in 1972 by architect Walter Moser, has been given a new glass roof and interior lighting scheme as part of the refurbishment. MORE…
An exhibition entitled Wouldn’t it be nice… exploring the common ground between art and design, including work by Jurgen Bey, Dunne & Raby, Martino Gamper and Martí Guixé, opens at the Embankment Galleries at Somerset House in London this September.
The exhibition will feature new and recent work from ten practitioners and will be accompanied by performances, installations and talks. MORE…
A new primary school canteen by architect José Cadilhe of Cadilhe & Fontoura has been completed in Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal. The Primary School nº1 in Póvoa de Varzim is a renovated example of Plano dos Centenários (Plan of the Centenaries) developed in 1941, whose typology (Douro) was designed by Rogério de Azevedo, a renowned architect from Oporto. This plan was a response to the increasing necessity and need to obtain a wide coverage of elementary schools throughout the country. MORE…
Designer Kathryn Hinton displayed her tableware at the Royal College of Art Show One in London early in June this year. Pieces include lettering on the prongs of forks that correspond with words imprinted in bowls and the Exhausted range (below), where cutlery follows the shape of objects it appears to collapse onto.
“The tableware I make is inspired by components and interconnecting units. My research currently looks at the role of cutlery in different table settings with emphasis on their function as connecting elements. MORE…
Designer Judith van den Boom created a collection of stools with ceramic seats called Qing Zuo! in collaboration with local crafts workers during a three-month visit to China. She showed the stools at at the Royal College of Art Show One in London earlier this month. MORE…
“THE SPEED OF INNOVATION: IMPACTING THE CREATIVE PROCESSES”, OCT 23-24, LJUBLJANA
Frederik Andersen (Denmark), Story Worldwide (London), UK
Frederik Andersen recently moved to work as a creative in London, implementing the Story Worldwide post-advertising mantra in some of the most interesting businesses and brands across Europe.
He came to Story Worldwide from the Copenhagen-based Goodmorning Technology, a creative agency specialising in identity programmes, product design, packaging design and digital interaction, and helping companies achieve success through design.
When not working for their cross-sector and extensive list of clients that included Bang and Olufson, Aztra Zeneca, Fritz Hansen, Widex and Louis Poulsen, Andersen worked with solving design-strategic issues.
He won the Danish Design Prize in the category of Future Products with a software project that digitises architecture processes, and has also pioneered digital photo and online entertainment services as a designer and information architect.
In his ongoing work with solving design-strategic issues, Andersen asks how it is that innovation and speed are often perceived as barriers when creating new value for businesses. Further, he examines how they can be used to our best advantage, and how timely, strategic design can help unfold an organisation’s identity.
“All around us, we see cutting edge products that change our mindset just by using them,” says the 34 year old Danish designer now working as a creative director in London. “It appears that these products came out of nowhere, seemingly overnight, and took the market by storm. In reality, many of these products have a history of 10 – 15 years of development from invention to the final-product stage. If you can synthesise part of this relatively slow process, you can create something extremely valuable.”
In one instance, Andersen demonstrated this conviction with work at the Goodmorning Technology design company, where his work saved a business an eight figure sum by changing their packaging design; he also increased sales by 30% for another client by revitalising a physical product design.
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“A GREEN WORLD IS OUR GOAL AND DREAM
“, 0CT 23 – 24, LJUBLJANA
Valerie Nomain, Chocolate Agency, China
“Our methodology is based on a holistic approach, as we want to control all the interactions between the brand, the product and the marketing tools. We combine marketing and design because we are convinced this is the most efficient way to create emotion and answer people’s needs. User experience and emotion are our main target to reach people needs and give value to the brand.”
Chocolate was awarded 2 prestigious Red Dot Awards, including one best of the Best award in 2007 with sustainable design concepts. Green is our goal for every design and marketing messages. A green world is our goal and dream.
But how to create a new strong concept? How to intuit the trends, understand the insight, the needs? How to analyse the markets (usage, technologies, business)? Follow the trends or break the rules? And how to make a successful product launch? “Design is not art”. Production, marketing & communication tools. Energy.
ABOUT VALERY NOMAIN
Chocolate Agency is a French marketing and design agency in Shenzhen, China, offering a complete range of services including concept creation, product design, graphic design, and marketing tools. As Chocolate’s General Manager & Design Director, Valerie Nomain works in industrial product design, from innovative concepts to development; graphic design from logo, website design, brand identity to advertising; marketing, brand and design strategy; French and Chinese talents for global and international approach; accross various domains such as consumer electronics, bags, interior design, space concept and design, home devices and lifestyle products.
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“HUMAN NATURE”, OCT 23-24, LJUBLJANA
Victor Gerardo Martinez, Vgmdesign, Mexico
Victor Martinez started his professional experience collaborating in transportation design. He has worked in the USA, Mexico and Italy working on projects for companies like Ford, Audi, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Italdesign Giugiaro and Ferrari among others.
In 2004 he founded Vgmdesign. He is also a teacher at the Tecnologico de Monterrey College at the Industrial Design School, in Mexico, where he runs the laboratory of research on new biodegradable materials based in natural fibers. Among other awards he won a Red Dot in 2007 and participated with LED in the Salone Satellite 2008, Milan, Italy and the International Furniture Fair of Valencia, Spain in 2007.
Vgmdesign is an innovation consultancy, that believes that design does not describe exactly what nowadays we do for work. They analyze, imagine, search, and discuss new ways of creating progress within societies where products are just one part of a bigger concept.
Today, claims Martinez, our own “human nature” restricts us from achieving great things; our greed, our short-term vision and inattention to the consequences of our simplest actions are our greatest challenges.
Industrial designers have a big role in this process, in the products that are made and the services created. Most of the these don’t really contribute to a better quality of life, social equity or increased knowledge, values we ought to be pursuing. Instead it’s about raising false expectations and cultivating needs and feelings that can’t or shouldn’t be satisfied by objects. Private property and consumerism are transforming people into buying machines, instead of subjects pursuing happiness and well-being.
Designers can offer far more than just solutions in the form of products: in the future we will see how using “experience” as a holistic concept that integrates, science, technology, economics, raw materials, cultural habits, manufacturers, and disposal can transform our presently unsustainable consumerist structure.
The first basic step we can use as an approach is the feeling created when using an object; or looking backward, the feelings we want to create and propose a product or service to which you can apply it.
One simple example is the footrest designed together with his colleagues at G-LED. Among a long list of feelings and sensations they drew up was the special feeling of grass beneath bare feet – outdoors, holidays, peace and relaxation. Later they developed a second position for this same smart office footrest which would warm one’s feet in winter.
Similarly, the car’s steering wheel has remained roughly the same for 100 years, yet few have ever considered whether the interface is actually correct for basic human physiology. After some time thinking he came up with the Noloos, a steering wheel that in fact is not a wheel, which offers a comfort and practicality conventional, “unthinking” wheels simply can’t.
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Sunny Day by Stockholm-based lighting artist Aleksandra Stratimirovic is an installation made of over four thousand glass medical phials filled with coloured liquids, which combine to produce the image of a girl beside a lake. MORE…
“WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE, WHEN CHANGE IS THE ONLY THING THAT IS CONSTANT”, OCT 23-24, LJUBLJANA
Christoph Boeninger, Founder/Designer, brains4design, Germany
Early in his career, Christoph Boeninger put together a design department for Siemens USA. Later he managed several Siemens design organisations until 2006, when he left Siemens to co-found brains4design in Munich. Today Boeninger works in furniture design. Various of his designs are in the permanent collections of museums in Europe and the USA, like the Aluminium Soest stool, the patented SAX-table for ClassiCon, and the A-bowl and table #28, both of which can be seen at MoMA in New York. He also lectures at various universities and serves as curator of the Haniel Foundation.
One of the major changes over the coming decades, Boeninger asserts, will be the facing of ever-scarcer resources and rising energy prices. Fundamental changes will affect people as individuals and as a society as a whole. And experience shows that the sooner we react to them, the more alternatives we might have, says Boeninger.
He offers that designers could help in creating these alternatives, first as scenarios to help people understand how these changes will affect them and what options they have. This, he says, will require experience and bold new thinking at the same time to create these scenarios.
But perhaps the biggest task is to overcome our experiences, he suggests, to “leave them behind and to reinvent ourselves, stepping into new territory? In this context design has to become political again. Designers must position themselves in the political discussion and address relevant topics.”
A fictive computer game should be designed to eliminate our mental roadblocks, he offers. The game, called “melt!” (image #1), is about controlling a nuclear power plant, similar to gaming software like autopilot (image #2). He maintains a flight simulator is not so different from controlling a power plant – the control engineering of both systems depends solely on physical parameters and interactive communication through a logical and intuitive MMI (image #3).
Playing “melt!” should create awareness for the complexity of nuclear technology without playing down any risks. Thus “melt!” should start a non-political discussion about how technological innovation and design can improve the transparency and security of nuclear power in order to regain trust. “melt!” should also create awareness among designers that design is not just a discipline, castrated by industry and solely adding hollow aesthetics along its marketing-mix strategy.
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“TRIBAL ASPECTS OF THE BRAND”, OCT 23-24, LJUBLJANA
Nicolas Minvielle, Design consulting group, France
Nicolas Minvielle served as Philippe Starck’s brand manager for seven years. He then created the Design consulting group, a multibrand company specialised in all aspects of design management. He holds a PhD and is now professor at Audencia School of management, and also teaches at the French national school of design. He has published two books on design management and numerous research articles on the subject.
Nicolas Minvielle examines strategies used by some designers in order to create and develop their brands. Some aspects of these strategies deal with licensing and co-operation strategies, tribal aspects of the brands and IP protection of their assets.
For numerous years, says Minvielle, designers have been hired because of their design capacities. Charles and Ray Eames, he points out, are now historical figures of the profession, but at their time, they were purely recognized as state of the art professionals.
But things have changed – quite a lot. Design is everywhere and one sometimes wonders, he offers, if this practice or this product is really “design” or “designed”. The press and media reconnaissance around designers and the importance of their names can be seen in a slow but important transformation of the legal relationships with their clients. More and more deals, Minvielle points out, are now made on a “brand license” rather than on a “drawing license” basis. “The difference is extremely important and underlines the fact that designers are now becoming brands, companies hiring them on their name and communication as well as on their designing capacities”, says Minvielle.
The different techniques that have been and are currently used by designers in order to create is of particular interest for Minvielle. “Most of them are linked with the subtle choice of partners and licensees in order to create a sufficient buzz. In order to be able to capitalize on this however, designers need to communicate clear values in the same sense as other brands do. This differentiation process will allow them to set up a notoriety management system.”
All the components in the system must of course be protected in order not to allow other possible concurrents enter the market. This can be done, offers Minvielle, by taking advantage of aggressive IP strategies – naturally – but also by developing informal links with additional partners and, from time to time, by shifting and changing partners.
more: www.design-consulting-group.com
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“EXPERIENCE OF THE FUTURE “, OCT 23-24, LJUBLJANA
Anthony LoGrande, FITCH, New York, USA
The world has become a global community, and each person a global citizen. As the pace of communication accelerates, and new ideas are shared across populations and social groups, the future races toward the design world faster than ever before. What experiences might people want a few years from now? Who or what is influencing the way we choose, use, shop and consume? What should we be doing now to prepare?
Discussions around crude oil, volatility in financial markets, and unstable relationships between countries have challenged our assumptions in the Western world around consumers and consumption. Where capricious acquisition is booming in countries like China and the U.A.E., there is a rise in counterconsumerism in other areas like the United States. Global climate change, overextended households, and too much choice are but a few of the many triggers that are shifting consumer attitudes in the United States back toward self-assessment and awareness of others.
Fitch looks at three areas of consumerism: work life, home life, and retail experiences. The possibilities are surprising: medicine as retailing, the elimination of the traditional work space, and the return of centers of worship, libraries, and outdoor spaces as community centers. Consumers are demanding that the lines between media, marketing and sales channels continue to blur. This will require greater coordination between retailers, brands, and consumers themselves for the benefit of all.
Fitch will use examples from our work with companies such as Mattel, Dell, Humana, Microsoft, Target, Macy’s, Calvin Klein, Hon, Nintendo and others to provide support and contrast to our observations.
ABOUT ANTHONY LOGRANDE
As Managing Director, New York for FITCH, Anthony LoGrande runs the environmental design and consulting studio. With more than 30 years of design, architecture, retail consulting, brand consulting and management experience, Anthony regularly serves as a keynote speaker at industry events that focus on brand marketing, its impact on the retail environment and the importance of consumer-centric experiences.
Prior to FITCH, he held several executive positions both client-side and agency including the VP of Visual Merchandising for Victoria’s Secret Beauty, VP of Global Store Design & Merchandising for Aveda, VP of Architecture, Store Design, Visual Merchandising & Events for Calvin Klein, Global VP Visual Merchandising for Estee Lauder and Partner for several years at WalkerGroup.
ABOUT FITCH
FITCH is an international, multi-disciplinary design and consulting firm with more than 550 associates in 18 studios and 10 countries around the world. FITCH is a member of WPP, the world’s largest marketing services company. FITCH designs consumer experiences that enhance people’s lives at multiple points of interaction through 7 practice areas including: Insights & Strategy, Brand Communications, Interactive, Live, Product Development, Environments and Architecture & Implementation services. Over the past 35 years, FITCH has worked with more than 2,200 of the world’s leading brands in over 100 countries. For more information,
please visit www.fitch.com.
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“STREMAS “, OCT 23-24, LJUBLJANA
Ignacio Germade, Consumer Experience Design, Motorola, UK/India
Germade talks about how design is changing and becoming more abstract and complex but also definitely more interesting. Different fields are converging, like fashion and technology but also the design playground is growing expanding the physical into the digital the spaces into services. What does it mean to design today?
ABOUT IGNACIO GERMADE
Ignacio Germade has been working as a designer and creative director for the last 20 years creating a wide range of products and services; from fashion magazines to some of the worlds’ best selling mobile phones. He currently heads Motorola’s UK, Singapore and Bangalore Design Centers and is responsible for industrial and interface design for the EMEA and India regions. Prior to joining Motorola, he ran design groups in a number of multinational firms including Sapient and IDEO creating global solutions for companies like Xerox, Polaroid, Fila and IBM.
His work has been reviewed in magazines including i-D Magazine, Domus, Wallpaper and Design Week as well as books such as IDEO; Masters of Innovation and ON-OFF; New Appliance Design, and has received design awards such as the IDSA Design Excellence Award, ID Interactive Media Award and i-D Magazine Award.
He studied design in Spain and the UK, and has lectured at leading design schools including the Rhode Island School of Design, the Massachusetts Art Institute and the Art Institute of Boston.
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JOIN & EXPERIENCE MONTH OF DESIGN 2008
Best known for its collection of traditional prefabricated houses, the Finnish Kannustalo company’s modern model Touch will be displayed at an exhibition of prefabricated homes opening on 20 July at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
The Finland-based Kannustalo’s prefabricated house Touch was designed by the renowned Finnish architects Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Komonen. MORE…
Swedish designer Jonas Lindvall designed the Bernard chair as a tribute to traditional skills. The chair is produced by hand and is available in walnut, oak and ash. MORE…
“OBJECTS AND USERS: DEMANDING INTERACTION,” OCT 23-24, LJUBLJANA
Paul Cocksedge, designer, Paul Cocksedge Studio, UK
Paul Cocksedge Studio is the well-known design practice of partners designer Paul Cocksedge and manager Joana Pinho. Based in London, it undertakes in-house design, accepts commissions and occasional consultancy work for an array of clients and sectors. Production ranges from bespoke manufacturing to licensing technologies. The Studio continues to build a strong portfolio of pieces and projects, united by the studio’s individual approach to design.
Studying under Ron Arad at the Royal College of Art, Cocksedge was introduced to Issey Miyake and Ingo Maurer, both of whom staged early exhibitions of his work. With his own show at Milan Design Week 2003 together with his ‘NeON’ lamp winning the Bombay Sapphire Prize, he founded the Studio near London Fields.
Cocksedge now lectures in turn and has exhibited around the world, and is a member of the 100% Design event (London) advisory panel. The studio’s client roster includes London Design Museum, Droog Design, Museum of Arts and Design, Swarovski, The Bombay Sapphire Foundation, Trussardi Spa, and the Victoria & Albert Museum (permanent collection).
The relationship between objects and their users is present in many of Paul Cocksedge’s pieces, playing a central part from the inspiration stage through to the final design and execution outcome, paying particular attention to the materials, form and technologies employed.
As regards function, Paul was initially drawn to light, where he experienced a feeling of emancipation from the constraints of gravity. These suspended works include ‘Styrene’, ‘NeON’, ‘Crystalized’, ‘Sapphire Light’, ‘Veil’, ad even ‘Light as Air’, where light is visible in the lower setting yet its focus is upward.
He also employs a certain sense of tension, favouring work that simultaneously is what it is and yet ought not to be. His “logically constructed illogical constructs” might be ‘Watt?’, illuminated by the stroke of a pencil; the ‘Bulb’, activated with a fresh flower; ‘NeON’ fired by single-core cabling; ‘Pole’, with its bright light without heat; and both ‘Private View’ and ‘Veil’, where everything is invisible to the eye, naked or direct respectively.
His ‘The Wellcome Trust Window’ on the Euston Road, ‘Private View’ and ‘Veil’ are among recent installations both lasting and fleeting; for the German Financial Times he recently produced festive wrapping paper. His aesthetically compelling designs continue to instil a sense of wonder, quietly demanding interaction and a place somewhere in our thoughts.
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