Wind-Powered Knitting Machine

Being an avid knitter i find the subject of this post to be very interesting. Young Dutch designer Merel Karhof of the Royal College of Arts in the UK developed the machine in order to find a way to harness wind energy and put it to use. She created the Wind Knitting Factory which makes scarves by the use of wind energy. "With the power of wind, a knitting machine knits from the outside towards the inside of a building. The knitted material is harvested from time to time and rounded-off in individually packaged scarves. Each scarf has its own label which tells you in how much time it has been knitted and on which date." From the looks of the video it seems like it can knit a pretty long scarf in under 20 minutes.

(See core77 post here.)

See Better to Learn Better Program

Designer Yves Behar of FuseProject has teamed up with the Mexican government to make a new program for the schoolchildren of Mexico called "See Better to Learn Better". The program gives free glasses to students who need them in order to learn in school. These children's bad vision is a very big problem in the Mexican school system. "11% of kids in Mexico don't learn because they can't see, and the problem is compounded by the stigma of glasses as a handicap." Each child can pick out which design combination they want to customize their pair of glasses. There are 5 different frame shapes and 7 different colors to choose from. The frames are a two-part design which makes it easy for the lenses to be put into place. They are made form a special kind of plastic called Grilamid which is virtually unbreakable so the glasses are very durable. The program plans to give out about 300,000 glasses each year.

(See original core77 post here.)

Nike Music Shoe

Sound artist Daito Manabe has turned Nike's Free Run+ running shoes into musical instruments. How, you may ask? Manabe, with the help form technical programmer Tomoaki Yanagisawa, outfitted the shoes with flex sensors and accelerometers. Then "processed the control signal and converted it to sound using the modular visual programming environment Max/MSP and Ableton's Max for Live". Each shoe actually gets plugged in and switched on and when bent and twisted each shoe creates a different digital noise. When watching the video it almost looks fake but each shoe is actually controlling live digital sound. The project is pretty cool but pales in comparison to some of Manabe's other amazing projects. Be sure to check them out here.

(See original article here. See Core77 post here.)

Fox & Freeze ff1 Chair

Belgium design duo James Van Vossel and Tom De Vrieze aka Fox & Freeze just released their first project. Its called the ff1 and it a lounge chair made out of a single sheet of synthetic felt. The design utilizes the whole piece of felt without any scrap pieces, except for the drilled out wholes for the flax ropes. The structure is self supporting and the rope keeps the chair together rather strongly, as illustrated in their video. The duo writes, "Starting from a square surface, the felt sheet is twisted and twisted again, jut like a scarf, ending in a symmetric and but also an asymmetric object, this is literally forms follows function." The felt is twisted in a very interesting way that is defiantly aesthetically pleasing from all angles. The chair is available for sale online for 275 euros.

Designing a Better Boarding Pass

Fed up with the horrible layout and design of his Delta boarding pas and with a whole flight time to spare, Squarespace's creative director Tyler Thompson found himself sketching a new design for his boarding pass. The main reason for his impulse to redesign was the bad organization of information on the ticket. The layout made it hard for him and other passengers to find their gate number and other important information. On his blog he writes from the perspective of Delta saying, "You're confused, lost, and just want to get on your flight, it's cool, we don't really care, and we sure as hell don't want to make this process easy and enjoyable for you. Instead we hired a small, blind, parakeet to layout your boarding pass, you know, just to keep you guessing." He created his layout in a logistical manner: flight number first, then gate number (because they tend to change often), then seat number, and then boarding zone number, all in a large easy-to-read font. For the flight times he integrated a simple color-coding system: white text in a black box for P.M. flights and black text in a white box for A.M. flights. Tyler's post sparked a lot of interest in others to come up with their own designs. Check out Tyler's original post and other's designs here.

(See original core77 post here.)

B-Cycle

The great idea of an urban bike sharing system is now in the works for the US. Similar systems have successfully been put into place around Europe, Velib in France and the Dublin Bicycle Program in Ireland (which i wrote about in an earlier post). This new program called B-Cycle has been created by an odd collaboration between the healthcare company Humana, bike manufacture Trek, and advertisement agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. This Plan B (hence the name B-Cycle) to automobiles is the beginning to a "new American philosophy of going". The plan is very simple: B-Stations which offer B-Cycles available for anyone to use, at a small fee, are set up around a city. The user can take their B-Cycles wherever they want: to work, to the store, to the park, and then they can return their bike to any B-Station. The first program is in the works around the city of Denver, Colorado. The B-Cycle website offers a program that they call the B-Effect, which shows how the B-Cycle system can effect your community. Their website is also hosting a sort of contest where you can vote for your town or city to have a B-Cycle system set up there. The following video explains the plan and the easy to use system.

(See original core77 post here)

Winscape

This crazy concoction of electronics called Winscape,is used to create virtual views that look like live scenes with video and sound. The complex set-up consists of a combination of two 46-in Panasonic TC-P4610 plasma screens, a Macbook, a Wii remote, a custom-built IR-emitting necklace, and an iPhone app. The setup tracks the movement of the necklace, worn by the viewer, to completely remake the exact seen from your point of view. With all the pieces it is about a $3000 project in total. Instructions on how to create your own setup are available on Winscape's RationalCraft webpage. Its pretty fascinating and I could definitely see it being utilized in the future if it were to be developed further into a neatly packaged product available for a more cost efficient price.

Here is a similar project using the same "head tracking" technology.

(See original core77 post here.)

Class Notes: Evan Roth

Evan Roth: Bad Ass Mother Fucker

- design, art, street art, popular culture

- background in architecture

"bored at work network": browse online and waste time- good audience

- appeal to curator and friends/people bored at work

- activism

- The Pirate Bay: use popular culture to spread information/internet/free culture

- open source and free culture- 5th element of hip-hop

Parsons (grad school): information visualization

- interest in curse words

- Straight Out of Compton: edit of only curse words (reduction, not remix)

- interested in creating a discussion about copyrighting, censorship, ect.

Graffiti and Technology
- free (as in free beer)

- free (as in free speech)

- peer systems in which individual players alter large and established systems.
- property: physical v.s. intellectual

project: editing postage labels

- quick weekend project

- hacking: small interventions that alter large systems

"Lazy like a fox"- how little work you can do to communicate your idea

Graffiti Taxonomy

- Tufti- eye is drawn to small differences

- lower east side- photos of tags- isolate characters in photoshop

- study on motion- computer application

- projections- reinserting motion into city

Eyebeam- technology non-profit

- award fellowships to do research, have to release work in open source.

- teamed up with James Powderly- LED throwies (rare-earth magnets)

- graffiti embedded with technology

How To Guide: Contagious Media + Source Code = Win!

Graffiti Research Lab- design tolls for graffiti artists and activists and make graffiti open source

- L.A.S.E.R. Tag- motion tracking

Eyewriter- for people with paralysis- eye motions create art

- Tempt- A.L.S. patient

Graffiti Analysis 2.0

- in 3-d space (z-axis is time)

- can download software and source code- open database

- 3-d modeling system- leads to 3-d printing

Jay-Z: Brooklyn We Go Hard

- released source code

Google Car (Fuck Google)- free art and technology organization (F.A.T.)

- Berlin, transmediale

- fuck google- 20 projects published on blog

- google street view- duplicated google car

- made it seem real with 1 tweet and webpage with map. then it was released after that it was a hoax.

- Turn the power structure inside out.

- learned flash in spare time while working in architecture- Joshua Davie

- meme- web media news

- advertising= lies, all about authenticity

- instructables. com

Viral Media For Artists: 11 Rules For Getting Famous on the Internet

-woostercollective

-boingboing- suggest a link

Class Guest Presentation: Evan Roth

Last Thursday afternoon me and my classmates were graced by the presence of Google's #1 Bad Ass Mother Fucker, Evan Roth. Although Evan calls himself an artist he is the exact opposite of what we think to be a traditional artist. He uses street art and popular culture to create his "weekend projects" such as his DIY project: USA/USB, and his more in-depth projects: Graffiti Analysis. Beyond the comical tones of his work is a more serious goal, to create and teach about open source media, activism, and free culture. Evan seemed to be a very down-to-earth, somewhat nerdy guy with a good sense of humor who is passionate about his work. I throughly enjoyed his talk and seeing his work with him explaining it right in front of us. I could go on for pages about everything that he talked about and showed us but my favorite project was probably L.A.S.E.R. Tag. Not only did he and his team at Eyebeam create and use this technology and show it to others but people around the world are using his instructions to create their own laser tags. I find it so fascinating that he can effect that many people with a simple form of creative technology.

2010 Dieline Awards

The world's number 1 package design website: The Dieline, has just announced the winners of the Dieline Awards, a worldwide design competition recognizing the world's best package design. The competition is broken up into a series of categories: 1) Food A 2) Food B 3) Food C 4) Non-Alcoholic Beverage 5) Wine, Beer, Malt Beverages, and Tobacco 6) Bath, Beauty, Health, Personal 7) Home Care, Garden and Pets 8) Book, Office and Art Supplies, Toys, Clothes/Accessories 9) Electronics, Technology, Movies, CDs 10) Spirits. For each category there is a first, second, and third place prize and there is an overall best of show winner. This year best of show went to Help Remedies by ChappsMalina. The design looks at over-the-counter drugs in a new, very approachable way. Little color-coated packages saying "help. I have a headache" and "help. I can't sleep" contain the correct dosage of an over-the-counter drug to help you with your health problem. It is definitely a award worthy design with its beautiful and clean packaging and approachable simplicity. ChappsMalina's approach "to communicate content trough the soft topography of the packaging material, that is reminiscent of a soft white pillow" is very successful. Some of my other favorite winners: Kleenex Perfect Slice of Summer, Coca-Cola Summer Identity, Waitrose High Fruit Jams, Mr Singhs Bangras, Organic Pet Superfood, and JAQK Cellars.

Reflectius Clock by Art Lebedev

Moscow base industrial, graphic and web design studio Art Lebedev has come up with a very interesting digital clock design. The Reflectius Clock concept was released on their website on the 9th of this month. The design consists of sixty tiny rotating mirrors that reflect a single laser beam into the angles that make up the numbers of the clock face. The clock itself is a complex triangulated shape reminiscent of the laser beams trajectory. The flash video on the Art Lebedev website shows the mirrors in action, changing angles in order to reflect the laser beam into different numbers. The website and amount of products, both concept and for sale, is quite impressive. The company is pretty well established after 15 years with a staff of over 200 with 2 studio locations (Moscow, and Kiev). Their design motto: "We work to find the most simple. elegant, and convenient solution to any problem without losing the purport."

(See original core77 post here.)

Medea Vodka Packaging Design

An LCD screen on a vodka bottle? Holland company Medea Vodka has come up with a bottle design that incorporates a programmable ticker tape LCD screen around the top of the bottle. Their tagline for the product is: Break The Silence! Unleash Your Inner Poet, Your Inner Philosopher, Your Inner Flirt. The video explains how to program and change the text pretty well. It can hold up to 255 characters at a time. After you are finished typing in all the words you reset it and the words read out in a scrolling motion, like a ticker. A bottle (750 mL) retails for around $40. The whole idea seems a little crazy and excessive but it actually is quite entertaining to watch in the video.

(See original core77 post here.)

Grand Central "Pop-Up" Table

Swedish designers Sanna Lindstrom and Sigrid Stromgren have teamed up to make this table design called Grand Central. The design and the name were inspired by the pop-up NYC maps. The table expands from a space-saving occasional table into a large round table. The legs open from a L to and X shape, both of which are very beautiful. The advanced construction is made up of 22 pieces that fold in and out in a very interesting pop-up way. The design is not just a CG-rendered concept, it will be on display in Milan this upcoming weekend. I love the design and think it is both functional and beautiful in a very innovative way. I would love to see this find of constructional transform into other types of furniture. Be sure to check out the designers other work. (I personally really enjoy Sigrid Stomgren's Hide and Seek table)

(See original core77 post here.)

Dublin Bicycle Program

Dublin is becoming a greener city, because of a rising number of cyclists. The Dublin City Council has set up 450 specially-made bikes at 40 stations around the city. The bicycles can be obtaining using a credit card. The first hour of riding is free but it costs half a euro ($0.67) for the first full hour and 6.50 euros for four hours. I think its quite a reasonable price, especially compared to other forms of public transportation. Despite the Council's worries of theft, since September '09 when the program as set up only 2 bikes have been pilfered in the first six months. Council spokesman Paul Finan says, "The scheme has exceeded all expectation. Since its launch in '09 we are heading for over 500,000 trips with a population of 1.2 million people in the Dublin region." Also, last year the government set up a bike-to-work tax incentive program. It allows employers to buy bikes for up to maximum of 1,000 euros and sell them to their workers tax-free at a reduced price of 40%. This has also greatly increased the number of bikes on the road and helped to reduce carbon emissions. These bikes however have been reported stolen, by about 1/3 in the first nine months of last year. The police have also switched over to patrolling on mountain bikes. Not to worry about the speed limits though, those have been reduced to 20 miles an hour in the city center. Lastly Dublin is not as rainy as we think it is, making biking to work a very suitable option for workers. I think the program is a really great idea and it seems to working, so i say expand it and make the bikes even more readily available.

(See article here. See core77 post here.)

logo- project #3- base images

green pepper- vegetable garden
onion- vegetable garden
sailing cleat- sail with my dad
wooden spoon- learn to cook
USA- travel to every state
birdcage- Andrew Bird or raising/teaching children
bonsai tree- teaching/raising children

logo: project #3- aspirational goals

some things i want to do in my life:

- teach kids art and let them explore their creative imaginations

- travel to every country in Europe

- go back to Chile and explore other places in South America

- travel to every state in the US (and actually SEE each state)

- raise a puppy

- learn how to play acoustic guitar

- build a vegetable garden in my own backyard

- meet and chat with one of my favorite musicians, Andrew Bird

- knit an entire sweater (so far I've done a dog sweater but it was horrible and doesn't count)

- have my mom and grandmother teach me how to cook

- spend a week or two hiking in the Adirondacks (my longest hike there was only 3 days and I wish it was longer)

- drive a really nice, really fast car accompanied by Jeremy Clarke, James May, or Richard Hammond

- sail to Montauk from my house with my dad

Marjan van Aubel's "Foam China"

Dutch design group Tuttobene (located in Italy) has shown some impressive new designs at this year's Milan Design Week. The overlying theme behind all the work is sustainability: from outdoor lamps made out of bird food to a series of tableware made out of plastic that look like ceramics. My favorite out of all the work is Marjan van Aubel's "Foam China". This new material is an open-cell porcelain that behaves like a foam. It resembles foam and is lightweight and easy to use. It appears to be lumpy and gooey but when cut open it is full of small air pockets. It has all the same properties as porcelain and can even be glazed. Van Aubel has made cups, bowls, small plates, and saucers out of this porcelain-like foam which she calls "Foam China". The designer has also made a full China closet to house the tableware. Tuttobene has also released a magazine called Connecting the Dots which shows all the Dutch designers and firms presenting at Milan Design Week 2010. The magazine is defiantly worth taking a look at.

(Original core77 post here.)

New Concept Cell Phone From Mobiado

Luxury cell phone company Mobiado has just released their new phone concept, the CPT001. The deign is totally modern yet made from materials used during the height of the Renaissance. Each phone is made out of a single piece of marble with gold-filled engraved letters. On the bottom middle there is a clock fit with roman numerals. The touchscreen will be made form one solid piece of sapphire. The phone sure is over the top and luxurious! The technology used inside will also be up-to-date. I personally think it is quiet ridiculous, frivolous, and unnecessary, but i guess that i what makes it a luxury phone. I would be scared to death to drop the thing considering that it is made out of marble and sapphire! Wonder if it will make it into production or not. I'm guessing that if it does that it will retail for well over $700.

(Original core77 post here. Another blog post on ubergizmo here.)

Curious Sound Objects

FINE COLLECTION OF CURIOUS SOUND OBJECTS from Georg Reil on Vimeo.

I find this student project by George Rail and Kathy Scheuring from the University of Applied Sciences in Wurzburg-Schweinfurt to be really awesome, interesting, and impressive! It is called A Fine Collection of Curious Sound Objects and it consists of six black everyday objects, a matchbox, a detergent bottle, a coffee mill, a messenger bag, a shoe, and a bucket that create crazy sound noises. These objects turn into magical instruments by the use of Arduion and Processing technology. In the video each object has a cute little story behind it that explains how they got their "magical capabilities". After the narrator tells a story, each object is put to use showing what it can do with the help of a man and his voice. Reil explains the intrigue of the objects by saying, "They are enjoying to use, they are suppressing and one wants to explore and investigate them." I know that after watching this video that I want to see these things in real life and experiments with them for myself!

(See original core77 post here.)

Stefan Sagmeister Essay- Draft

Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister was born in the quaint town of Bregenz, Austria in 1962. While growing up, his parents worked in the fashion retail business. After high school Stefan went on to study engineering but soon after switched to graphic design. He started his design career at the age of 15 when he designed layouts and illustrations for the Austrian youth magazine Alphorn.

When he turned 19 Sagmeister moved to the city of Vienna, Austria in hopes of being accepted to the University of Applied Arts. His first application was rejected and he enrolled in a nearby art school to build up his talents. His second application was accepted and he went on to earn an M.B.A. from the university. While studying, he was introduced to musician Alexander Goebel, who was dating Stefan’s sister at the time. After seeing his talent, Goebel introduced him to the Schausipelhaus theatre group. Stefan designed a few posters for the group by way of the Gruppe Gut collective. The posters designs made fun of traditional theatrical images by paring them with rough, grungy, punk typefaces.

In 1987 Stefan was granted the prestigious Fulbright scholarship to study at Pratt University in New York. The work the he produced at Pratt had great wit and humor embedded into design. This theme of humor was prevalent in many of Sagmeister’s designs and can be seen in his current works as well. In 1990, he returned to Austria to perform community service in a refugee camp outside of Vienna in order to fulfill his military conscription.

The following year Stagmeister moved to Hong Kong to work with Leo Burnett. The advertising agency wanted Stefan to become a typographer for them. One of Stefan’s more memorable projects for the company was his poster design for the 1992 4As Advertising Awards Ceremony. The design consisted of an image of four nude Cantonese male’s backsides. The poster design was very controversial and some advertisement agencies boycotted the awards ceremony in protest of the poster. Stefan left Hong Kong in 1993 and spent a couple of months working in Sri Lanka before he returned to New York.

Back in New York, Sagmeister began to design for Tibor Kalman’s graphics studio M&Co. One of Stefan’s most memorable projects of M&Co was his first project for the studio. He was in charge of creating an invitation to the Gay and Lesbian Taskforce Gala. His design consisted of a small, neatly packaged box of fresh fruit, which to say the least became a bit of a nightmare to keep from rotting in the summer heat. Only a few months after Stefan joined the team, Tibor Kalman decided to close the studio in order to move to Rome. Stagmeister had made a name for himself in the design industry and decided that it was time for him to start up his own studio.

Stefan started his New York-based design studio Stagmeister Inc. in 1994. Following one of his design philosophies and the advice of Kalman, Stagmeister keeps his company very small. His team only consists of himself, one other designer who compliments his work, and an intern. One of the studios very first commissions was from Martin Sagmeister, Stefan’s brother, for his new chain of jeans stores in Austria called Blue. Stefan created a brand identity for Blue, which consisted of black lettering of the store’s name on an orange background.

When Stefan created his own studio his dream was to create music graphics and design album covers for some of musicians that he liked. His dream came true when H.P. Zinker asked him to create the CD Cover for his album entitled Mountains of Madness. The design consists of a CD case with a red plastic sleeve over it. The image seen when the sleeve is on is of a calm and peaceful looking face of an aging man. When the sleeve is taken off the images changes to the complete opposite and the man’s expression is livid and dangerous looking. This CD cover design got Sagmeister his first Grammy nomination.

Stefan received more commissions for album designs by other famous musicians including Lou Reed, David Bryne, The Rolling Stones, and Talking Heads. One of his more difficult jobs was his design for The Rolling Stones’s album Bridge of Babylon in 1997. Stefan had to do a lot of convincing to have his original design accepted by the band’s management. He was inspired by an Assyrian sculpture of a lion which became the main image in the cover’s design. The lion also symbolized Mick Jagger whose astrological sign is the Leo. Stefan believed that the image of the lion could be easily reproduced for the album’s tour merchandise. After it passed through management, the design was very well received by the band and their fans.

During this time Stagmeister Inc. also took on many commercial commissions, most notably the AIGA lecture poster created between 1996 and 1999. He thought up three different poster designs for three different lectures in New York, New Orleans, and Detroit. The design for the New York Fresh Dialogue series consists of texts overlaid with two elongated, wiggling tongues coming from both sides. The New Orleans’s poster is an image of a headless chicken running across a field with prominent red lettering in the top right corner stating “Hurry!”. The text on both of the posters seems like it is handwritten and is not evenly spaced or straight. The last and most unsettling poster is the Detroit poster created in 1999. The image consists of a photograph of Stagmeister’s torso. Stefan had his intern carve the text for the poster into his skin using an x-acto knife. The photograph has a grotesque and depressing feeling to it that defiantly caught the eye of many viewers.

In the summer of 2000 Stefan decided that it was time for him to take a break from his studio work. About every seven years or so Stefan takes one of these yearlong sabbaticals to focus on more experimental work and to look back at what he has done. Stefan believes that if his work is too much then it becomes a job and he starts to not enjoy it anymore. These breaks allow him to not let this happen. In 2000 Stefan looked back on all the work that he had accomplished since he started the studio and compiled a book entitled Made You Look: Another Self-Indulgent Design Monograph. The book recounts all of Stefan’s past projects, even the ones that he is not proud of. In 2001 he returned to the studio and published his new book.

Over the course of the next few years Stefan created a couple more album designs, most notably the Once in a Lifetime box set design for Talking Heads in 2003. Stefan received a Grammy for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package in 2005 for this album design. He also received a second Grammy in 2010 for Best Recording Package for his design for David Bryne and Brian Eno’s album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.

Stefan’s latest project is one that he has been working on since 2004. It is a series of typographic billboards captured in print images, moving media, installation work and on film called Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far. In 2008 he gave a lecture for TED.com on this series of work. In the lecture he lists his small philosophies which include the following statements: “Having guts always works for me.” “Keeping a diary supports personal development.” “Trying to look good limits my life.” “Worrying solves nothing.” “Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.” and “Everybody always thinks they are right.” Sagmeister originally wrote this list down in his own personal journal. He was able to make them into a very compelling design series with the support of his faithful clients. Stefan has published a book of images from the series entitled Things I Have Leanred. He also has asked his fans and followers to submit their own philosophies via his website thingsihavelearnedinmylife.com.

Currently, Sagmeister is on another one of his breaks from the studio. He is working on some personal projects while living in Bali, Indonesia. While on break he has turned down many tempting offers including a poster design for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Sources

Artist Series: Sagmeister 08. Hillmancurtis: Film |Video | Design for the Web. 2008. Web. 04 Apr. 2010. .

“Stefan Sagmeister/ Design Museum Collection: Design/Designer Information.” Design Museum London. Web. 03 Apr. 2010. .

“Stefan Sagmeister.” Interview. Designboom. 23 May 2006. Web. 04 Apr. 2010. .

Sagmeister, Inc. Web. 03 Apr. 2010. .

Sagmesiter, Stefan. “He Will Make You Look, an Interview with Stefan Sagmeister.” Interview by Brandon Luhring. Scene 360 - The Online Film and Arts Magazine. 29 Nov. 2002. Web. 04 Apr. 2010. .

Stefan Sagmeister On What He Has Learned | Video on TED.com. By Stefan Sagmeister.

TED: Ideas Worth Spreading. Sept 2008. Web. 04 Apr. 2010.

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Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far. Ed. Stefan Sagmeister. Web. 04 Apr. 2010.

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Examples of Work

Bridge to Babylon: The Rolling Stones. Stefan Sagmeister. 1997. CD Cover and Sleeve.

AIGA Detroit. Stefan Sagmeister. 1999. Lithograph, 39 x 27 1/2"

Keeping a Diary Supports Personal Development. Stefan Sagmeister. 2008. Video of Installation.