Readymade News

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 22 December 2009

 

Our good friends and collaborators at Mutopo together with Toby Daniels, have launched Betacup. The goal of Betacup is to reduce paper cup consumption through the Social Product Development to find a more convenient alternative to the reusable coffee mug. Americans currently use 58 billion paper coffee cups a year, most of which are not recycled and end up in landfills. The challenge will launch in 2010, currently Betacup is looking to raise $20,000 before the 31st of December in prize money to attract designers to participate in the project through Kickstarter. Image via Brynn Marie Evans.

The media landscape has changed dramatically this year, the latest print magazine casualty is ID Magazine, a veteran of design publications. But to fill the gap there is a new device category emerging; dedicated digital magazine readers. Wired and Sports Illustrated have shown concepts before, the latest is Mag+, a concept from Bonnier R&D the research unit of Bonnier publisher of Popular Science. Bonnier invited the designers from BERG London on a corporate collaborative research project into the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices. “The purpose of publishing this concept video is first and foremost to spark a discussion around the digital reading experience in general, and digital reading platforms in particular” Bonnier R&D. Images via Engadget.  

 

December the 15th marked Oscar Niemeyer’s 102nd birthday, for Brazils most famous architect it was just another day at the office. See more examples of the architects work here. 

 

 

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 01 December 2009

 

The Bloodhound SSC (Super Sonic Car) aims to break the 1000mph land speed record, that is just over 1600 kilometers per hour! The primary objective of the Project is to inspire the next generation to pursue careers in science, engineering, technology and maths - by demonstrating how they can be harnessed to achieve the seemingly impossible. Hakskeen Pan, in the Northern Cape of South Africa, a flat, hard surface over 20km (12 miles) long and 5km (3 miles) wide has been selected for the site of the world's fastest race track. See more images of the project here.

Konstantin Grcic has curated a great industrial design exhibition entitled ‘Real Design’ at  the Serpentine Gallery in London. The 43 objects were all designed in the past ten years and range from toys to transporting water. If you can’t make it to the exhibition before the 7th of February, be sure to visit the very interesting website. Image via DesignBoom.

 

Jonathan Ive has been named ‘Inventor of the Decade’ by The Guardian. Ive is responsible for developing the design language of Apples products which has contributed to the overall success of Apple, he works closely with Steve Jobs, but few other company employees are allowed to see what he's doing behind the tinted windows of his studio, which just increases the hype we suppose. 

If you are a fan of Roger Martin, there is a good article in The Globe and Mail discussing  amongst other things, hamburgers and "heuristics"; a concept that narrows down the business mystery to a manageable size, offering a solution. The article is a review of Prof. Martin’s ‘The Design Of Business: Why Design Thinking Is The Next Competitive Advantage’.

 

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 24 November 2009

Fabrication Africa creates beautiful objects with a social conscience and a technological heritage. Inspired by Readymade’s collaboration with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology ) Professor, Neil Gershenfeld. Gershenfeld explains in his book, FAB , that instead of sending megatons of products around the world from factory to consumer, we could be sending electronic data around the world in seconds and making the products we need in our basements using personal fabricators. See Gershenfelds 2007 TED talk here.

The NEST range is Fabrication Africa’s way of bringing this vision to life. Working with the FABlab in Soshanguve, South Africa, Fabrication Africa created the NEST as the start of a range of distinctive new products which embrace social conscience. Economically empowering people like William Maseng is one of the objectives of Fabrication Africa. Read the story here at Design Altruism.

Continuing with the FAB theme, this article from Ponoko; MUJI and LEGO have teamed up to develop 4 sets of paper and LEGO brick sets, MUGO perhaps? 

Design Thinking is being used to improve business, health care and social enterprise, but can it improve peoples personal lives? Warren Berger thinks so, and with the help of several designers and Bruce Mau in particular he wrote Glimmer exploring ten groundbreaking principles of design in action—addressing business, social, and personal challenges, and improving the way we think, work, and live. Berger says the book's title expresses that moment when a new solution to an old problem comes into view. "The designer's job is to solve problems every day and create alternative solutions," Berger says. "What can the rest of us learn from that?" Via Fast Company. If you are into manifestos, here is Glimmers and Bruce Maus’. Core77 has a good review of the book here.

For words of advice for designers, read  Michael Bierut’s 7 steps to success (the lazy designer's guide to success):

1. Keep it simple.
2. Don’t reinvent the wheel (part 1).
3. Don’t reinvent the wheel (part 2): Rotate the tires instead.
4. Do as you’re told.
5. Steal.
6. Once you come up with something, never let it go.
7. Make other people do the work.

From Azure Magazine. Excerpted from a lecture by Michael Bierut at Toronto's Designthinkers conference, November 3 2009. Image courtesy Pentagram    .

           
Good news for young designers from Dexinger, “Red Dot is giving away up to 50 free registrations for the "red dot award: product design 2010" to up-and-coming designers. Designers can submit industrially manufactured products that were brought to market after 1 January 2008 and went into series production prior to 1 July 2010. On 11 December 2009, participants will have a chance to apply for the free product registrations for a period of 24 hours.” Good luck!

   

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 17 November 2009

 
Dev Patnaik interviews Roger Martin of the Rotman School of Management in Fast Company discussing integrative thinking. The article is titled 'Reinventing the MBA, 4 Reasons to Mix Business with Design Thinking', the 4 reasons are; Strategy is an act of design, Balancing the analytical and the intuitive is key to great leadership, Roger's take on design thinking isn't rooted in design and Templates and not management theory, are the enemies of innovation. Bottom line: "We don't necessarily need more design-minded businesspeople or more business-minded design people. We just need more people ready to take on mysteries."

Held over two days from the 18th-19th November, the inaugural Design Thinking Symposium is a rare opportunity to catch respected speakers such as the likes of Bruce Nussbaum, John Rehm from IDEO and as well as others from Parsons The New School for Design and Standford school. Keynote talks will touch on how Design Thinking and Education will be a timely force for innovation across industries and how it can innovate change within organizations.

 

The Design Thinking Symposium is part of the 2009 Singapore Design Festival taking place from 20 to 30 November 2009. Highlights of the 2009 Festival include Icsid World Design Congress and the INDEX: 'Design to Improve Life' exhibition. The Arivi Stove from Readymade pictured above was one of the finalists of the 2009 INDEX: Award.

Nokia has an interesting conceptual video that explores smart ecosystems at the centre of peoples mobile life five years from now. The video was part of The Way We Live Next 3.0, a unique two-day event at Nokia’s global headquarters in Espoo, Finland. The event featured presentations and demonstrations showing how Nokia is connecting and building the communities of the future.

If you are in London do yourself a favor and go see 'Less and More - the Design Ethos of Dieter Rams' at the Design Museum from November 18th, 2009 to March 7th, 2010. Via DesignBoom.

In case you don't know Dieter Rams' Ten Principles of good design, here they are:

1. Good design is innovative.
2. Good design makes a product useful.
3. Good design is aesthetic.
4. Good design makes a product understandable.
5. Good design is unobtrusive.
6. Good design is honest.
7. Good design is long-lasting.
8. Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
9. Good design is environmentally friendly.
10. Good design is as little design as possible.

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 10 November 2009

It looks like Michael Young is on a roll after moving from Iceland to Hong Kong. DesignBoom has an article on the i24r3 portable wireless waterproof digital speaker and Dezeen covers his Chair-4A, a dining chair made of recycled aluminum.

Design Sojourn has posted a great video of Michael Bierut of Pentagram and Design Observer, summarizing 5 design secrets:

1) Listen first, then design
2) Don’t avoid the obvious
3) The problem contains the solution
4) Indulge your obsessions
5) Love is the answer

Beirut also says he is more "like a 'doctor' waiting for 'patients' to come to him with design problems to solve".    

The T.27 is the brainchild of McLaren F1 designer Gordon Murray and Zytek Automotive Technology. The car has been designed in a way that minimizes the use of materials and keeps the embedded carbon of the vehicle as low as possible. The firm claims the innovative manufacturing system will use 20 per cent less space and 80 per cent less capital investment than a conventional factory A spokesman for Gordon Murray Design said the body panels, for example, would be made from material originating from PET bottles. Via BBC.

Yesterday Tasos gave a talk at the SABS Design Institute which marked the opening  an exhibition tour of the 40 years of South African design excellence, celebrating original designs (innovations) from South Africa. Tasos presented selected Readymade projects including strategic consulting for Optimal Energy, the company behind the Joule and the Arivi Non-Pressure paraffin stove. See the presentation here. 

 

Lastly Wired.co.uk examines IDEO's design thinking approach and how they use lessons learned from product design to solving bigger challenges. Bill Moggridge one of the co-founders of IDEO says "if you don't get out there and see what it's like, then you couldn't really design it right."

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 03 November 2009

Tasos has written an article for the November issue of Management Today; South Africa’s leading management Journal describing Design Thinking. The title is Design for future business: thinking like a designer to solve problems and create new solutions. Here is an excerpt: "Organizations everywhere are recognizing the need to change radically in a rapidly changing world. Unfortunately many of these attempts fail because traditional management systems lack the tools to innovate in complex environments and much less so when faced with wicked problems. However, some businesses have solved this dilemma and are able to consistently innovate and grow over the long term, despite temporary setbacks during economic downcycles. These include Apple, Dell, GE, P&G, Infosys. Tata, Toyota, Amazon and ebay. What these organizations all have in common is that they have used design thinking to help guide their traditional business processes. This has allowed them to concentrate on the factors that improve competitiveness rather than doing the wrong things very well.

Design thinking can radically change organizations by embracing complexity and constraints, working collaboratively and iteratively and using expanded logic to achieve this. Inherent in this approach is the ability to see issues as part of a system, with all of its components, relationships and maintaining a view of the overall context. Design thinking also is adept at cultivating a deep understanding of customers and using this together with the factors above to create synthesis, or resolution rather than compromise. Design implies something creative but this is not some sort of art school freeform wackiness, this is creativity in its true meaning as the act of creation. In that sense, design can be thought of as the careful conception of a plan and the disciplined execution of that plan to create something new. 

In fact, design has a process as structured and rigorous as anything in business. It is a process aimed at solving problems by using our ability to create new solutions. This design process consists of several phases. Firstly, creating common understanding by analyzing data and research. Secondly, creation, where the data and insights drawn from research guide the creation of new options. Thirdly, filtering, using critical thinking to select the most promising options. Fourthly, validation, where fieldwork is done to test assumptions. Fifthly, synthesis, where options are drawn into a business model and assembled into the strategic plan. Sixthly, engineering, which develops the idea technically. And finally, implementation where the chosen solution is built in totality."

For more on design thinking and what it means for business read The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage by Roger Martin, review here and if you happen to be in New York on the 11th of November catch Bruce Nussbaum talking to Roger Martin and Tim Brown of IDEO.

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 27 October 2009

 
Apple has re-invented the mouse, literally. The Magic Mouse uses the same multi touch technology that iPhones, iPods and MacBooks use. People can do a lot more than simple point and click. It's been a long time since there has been any real innovation in one of the most commonly used pieces of hardware.

"It began with iPhone. Then came iPod touch. Then MacBook Pro. Intuitive, smart, dynamic. Multi-Touch technology introduced a remarkably better way to interact with your portable devices — all using gestures. Now we’ve reached another milestone by bringing gestures to the desktop with a mouse that’s unlike anything ever before. It's called Magic Mouse. It's the world's first Multi-Touch mouse." Apple. Earlier this month BusinessWeek reported that Apple's revenues grew 25% over the same quarter a year ago and profits that grew 46%. Brian Ling argues that Design is their key strategic competitive advantage.

D.light Design has developed a solar powered lamp that they hope will replace millions of kersosene lanterns used by household in developing countries. The Kiran can be charged using the integrated solar panels or be AC-charged with a standard 0.5mm Nokia phone adapter. The Kiran can last up to 8 hours on a full charge and should retail for $10. "The Kiran is designed to be extremely user-friendly and flexible. It has no detachable parts, including an integrated solar panel that makes recharging simple and easy. The product shape, portability, and a handle with 9 different settings give the customer many options for use. The Kiran can be carried, hung from the wall or ceiling, or placed on any surface to effectively illuminate the surrounding area." D.light Design.

Great review of Herman Miller's new Setu chairs and the design studio behind it on Core77. Studio 7.5 designed a chair that works for just about everybody and it only requires adjusting the height. The chair has a seemingly simple wave contour that was developed using several prototypes to develop the "kinematic spine" that flexes when a person sits in the chair, obviating the need for a metal hinge and springs.

Tasos was a panelist at the Da Vinci Institute’s “Making Innovation Work” conference last week. The conference was run together with Breakthrough Management Group International (BMGI) and the Technology Top 100. “Dr Phil Samuel of BMGI  was with me on the panel. We discussed the need for organizations to design their own future rather than allowing circumstances to dictate their future. The conversation encompassed robust innovation processes and the link to Design Thinking though considering the human element. Creating the future requires collaboration, optimism, empathy, experimentalism, integrative thinking and storytelling. These are natural for most people; it’s the way we solve problems in our personal lives but organizational structures frequently don’t allow for them. This stifles innovation and positive change. The panel then placed this in the context of Systems Thinking.  It’s clear that solving problems in a holistic way is much more effective than dealing with symptoms.  The conclusion was that innovation processes, Design Thinking and Systems Thinking combine in very useful ways to solve the most pressing organizational issues.” Tasos Calantzis. 

Lastly we would like to mention Chic Cheat, a fashion blog, which shows people how to alter inexpensive clothing into their own versions of expensive fashion clothing. Nice bit of upcycling happening in the fashion design world. Charley Helfet is the daughter of Keith Helfet, the renowned automotive designer who spent most of his career at Jaguar, the company admired for its elegant design. At Jaguar, Keith designed cars such as the legendary XJ220 supercar, the show-stopping F-Type and many others. Most recently Keith has been involved with the design of the Joule.

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 20 October 2009

The Dyson Air Multiplier™ Fan is the latest from James Dyson, the British inventor famous for making ordinary household appliances like vacuum cleaners better through technology and engineering. The Air Multiplier™ technology was discovered almost by accident. When working on the Airblade the team noticed  that the device was dragging a large amount of the surrounding air along with it, something that fluid dynamics people call "inducement."

The Air Multiplyer draws air in through the bottom of the unit and "is accelerated through an annular aperture. This creates a jet of air that passes over a 16° airfoil-shaped ramp, channeling its direction. Using an airfoil-shaped ramp (like a cross-section through an airplane wing), airflow is amplified 15 times." There are no blades, so there is no danger of children hurting themselves by accident. The Air Multiplyer is not cheap, but Dyson believes the technology could be put to use in other appliances. 

More British design news, Andrew Ritchie, designer of the Brompton folding bicycle, has won the 2009 Prince Philip Designers Prize. Brompton, which first developed its folding bicycle design has remained fundamentally unchanged for more than 20 years but compared to other types of folding bicycles, the Brompton is frequently held up as the winner. 22 000 bicycles are made in London annually with 70% being exported.

Ritchie spends more time on designing the manufacturing process than the bike itself. "It’s all very well designing the product, but it has to be makeable."

The Wikireader is one of those devices that does on thing really well, it is a simple device that has the whole of Wikipedia loaded. The small, durable and very energy efficient product is the latest from Openmoko with design from Thomas Meyerhoffer. Wikipedia is stored on an 8 gig SD card, which can be updated for a fee, the reader will retail for $99. Via DesignBoom.

It seems that Gizmodo has the lowdown on the Barnes and Noble Athena or ebook. Nice looking design that has an e-ink display and a touch sensitive color screen for navigation and input. Rumors are that it will have a direct link to 1 million Google Books. The product was designed by Ammunition Partners, a San Francisco firm headed by former Apple design chief Robert Brunner although there is no confirmation from any parties regarding the product.

Last week Tasos was a speaker at the University of Johannesburg’s two-day colloquium on Practice-Led Research in creative production. Tasos talked on Readymade's approach to design thinking. And yesterday he talked some more when the SABS Design Institute filmed at Readymade HQ for a new video featuring some of South Africa’s successful designers of the last 40 years.

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 06 October 2009

       

BusinessWeek compiled a comprehensive list of the world's best design programs as "companies in every industry have adopted design thinking to offer fresh insight in functions from strategy to finance. BusinessWeek selected 39 master's and MBA programs from North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia that significantly integrate design thinking and business. Students in these programs take classes in art, management and science, for example, and create projects in multi-disciplinary teams with students from other schools. They aim to use design for strategy rather than merely for aesthetics and may find jobs as design managers, researchers or business consultants. These 30 programs have formally established hybrid curricula." 

Venessa Wong states in the article that there are different approaches between schools that teach design thinking and that the fruits of this approach are yet to become apparent but that these graduates might just redefine the way the world does business.

William Kamkwamba has been having a great week in the US promoting his book 'The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind' which he co-authored with Bryan Mealer. When he was just 14 years old, William Kamkwamba built his family an electricity-generating windmill from spare parts, working from rough plans he found in a library book.

William is currently studying at  the African Leadership Academy and has started the Doers Club. He plans to develop a solar powered steam engine that can be used to power a water pump or windmill and a hand operated borehole drill based on a tobacco press. Support Williams work at Moving Windmills.

Helix Wind announced that they will begin testing their products in Nigeria and USA to power cell phone towers; "wind turbines are ideal ways to lower the costs of operating expenses associated with cell phone towers in remote locations. These solutions are ideal for telecom infrastructure providers worldwide dealing with cell towers that are remote or off-grid and utilize unreliable or expensive energy sources. Depending on the configuration, Helix turbines can produce enough power to pay for themselves in as little as six months." Via DesignBoom.

Lastly, Readymade is happy to announce that we are working with USA chain Anthropologie to create a new addition to our Nest decor range. Pictured above is a current product, our take on the traditional fruit bowl. This range is developed under our Fabrication Africa brand. For information on stockists have a look at www.fabaf.com.

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 29 September 2009

IDEO is exploring the use of design thinking to tackle a very large problem, that of climate change. Living Climate Change "is a place where the most defining challenge of our time is explored through design thinking. It's also a place to show, discuss, and share compelling and provocative thoughts and ideas about the future." 

Nathan Lorenz and Tim Bauer of Envirofit have been hailed as one of Time magazines Heroes of the Environment 2009. "In 2003, the two founded Envirofit, a nonprofit that uses their research into clean two-stroke-engine technology to create greener auto-rickshaws for Southeast Asia and India. Their expertise, they realized, could be applied to stoves. "When you visit these countries, you know that people should not be dying just because they're cooking breakfast," says Lorenz."

Compared to traditional cooking fires, Envirofit cookstoves reduce emissions by as much as 80%, use up to 60% less fuel and reduce cooking cycle time by up to 50%. Built and engineered to address the unique cooking habits of our customers, Envirofit clean cookstoves are a result of over five years of market research, engineering R & D. Envirofit International’s goal is to develop affordable, aesthetic, well-engineered technology solutions that have significant global health and environmental impacts and economic payback incentives for users.

Luke Wroblewski has picked up an interesting article about Taiwanese handset maker, HTC's unique design relationship with the San Francisco-based firm One & Co in Forbes; "The relationship is an unusual one. After hiring One & Co for a consulting project in 2006, HTC acquired the firm in December 2008. Though now a wholly owned subsidiary, One & Co continues to operate as an independent consultancy. To keep their ideas fresh, One & Co designers rotate between HTC projects and jobs for other companies, including Microsoft, Kodak, Nike, and European furniture makers. "Phones are about capturing what's coming tomorrow, while furniture is about longevity," says Zellweger. "It's good to have that balance in your head." Some materials migrate between projects, such as a plastic mesh that found use as a lamp cover, a bracelet and the speaker cover in the Hero."

Seems like there is a trend lately for well known British designers to open shops, a while back it was Jasper Morrison converting part of his studio into a retail space. Now Tom Dixon has followed suit and employed Studio Toogood to kit out a space in the Wharf Building at Portobello Dock in West London.

The shop consists of a number of set like areas that showcase Dixons products with aged walls contrasting against chromed lights for example. "The design is in the form of a stage set which is a representation of Tom Dixon's industrial aesthetic. The set divides the space into rooms, and visitors are able to explore aspects of the shop by peering through various windows and doors which contain the individual room sets whose overall themes are derived from materials such as copper, cast iron and wood. The new 1800 sqft space showcases a series of products from Dixon's new 2009 collection 'utility' and is part of Tom Dixon's new office complex." DesignBoom.

Bell is a new alarm clock that has been designed by Industrial Facility for IDEA Japan. The alarm clock is a less is more design approach and the result is a much louder alarm clock, because the back ‘housing’ is the actual bell component. It is louder than a mobile phone, desk clock or watch and has simple controls, it may only tell the time and wake you up, but it does it very well. Via Dezeen.

There has been several good ideas for creatives to get started or to realize their projects, but it looks like Kickstarter is really working. Kickstarter is a funding platform for artists, filmmakers, journalists, designers amongst others, it works on the premise that a good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide and a large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement. Some projects are so popular that  they are up to 1500% funded. Interesting projects on the site include The Wonder City a graphic novel that reimagines New York’s entire history and MakerBeam, an open source building kit. If a project is successfully funded, Kickstarter will apply a 5% charge to the funds raised. If funding isn't successful, there are no charges.