Readymade News

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 23 February 2010

The Design Indaba 2010 conference kicks off tomorrow, this years speakers include Michael Beirut, Bill Drenttel, Bruce Nussbaum, the Bouroullec Brothers, Tord Boontjie and even Martha Stewart amongst others. The conference lasts until the end of the 26th so  that there is an overlap with the Design Indaba Expo, which cover a wide variety of advertising, architecture, craft, décor, film, fashion, graphic design, interior design, jewelry, new media, publishing, product design and visual media. Image; rfataar.

 

‘Each of the over 260 exhibitors is evaluated and endorsed by an advisory panel of top South African designers, stylists, critics and industry experts. Setting a high curatorial standard, all products are original, contemporary and innovative, not to mention conceived and manufactured in South Africa.’ Design Indaba Expo. The Design Indaba conference is sold out, but you can still book tickets for the three-day simulcast. Image via Tyred.

 

Fast Company reports on the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2010, the number one spot this year goes to Facebook with Amazon in second place and Apple in third. In the design list, BMW Group Designworks-USA, which is a newcomer, tops IDEO.

 

The 2010 Automotive Executive of the Year Innovator Award will presented to Elon Musk, Chairman, Product and CEO of Tesla Motors, in recognition of his technology leadership and innovation, as well as his enlightened vision for the automotive industry’s future. Tesla Motors is the only automaker selling electric vehicles that are both highway-capable cars and in serial production. One of Tesla's largest markets (on a per capita basis) is Switzerland, where the company will be hosting an event at the Geneva Motor Show.

 

New iPad rumors have started already, this time the news that the pre-sale of the device could start as early as this week in the US. If you still think the iPad is not really your cup of tea, there are 140 000 reasons to make you think again.   

    

To end off, yet another fantastic LEGO creation, Crawler Town, created by Dave DeGobbi. ‘Crawler town roams the barren wastes of a post steam-punk world after cataclysmic climate change do to excessive coal use. Several such cities exist but Crawler town is the most popular due to the Aero 500 hydrogen fuel cell Air races that are held. Many people travel the wastes to Crawler town for vacation and to enjoy rare luxuries like Pizza, fresh vegetables and Beer. Traveling the wastes in search of minerals and aquifers (vital for survival) the mobility of the city keeps it away from the vicious sand storms of the wastes.’ Sounds very sci-fi inspired.

Please update your rss to terrestrial news, we will no longer be publishing here at Readymade. Thank you. 

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 16 February 2010

Porsche is seriously looking into hybrid drives, announcing its new AG 911 GT3 R Hybrid, featuring innovative hybrid technology developed especially for racing. The all-wheel-drive car will be unveiled at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show and will be tested in long-distance races at Nurburgring, depending on the amount of fuel needed at pit stops, the hybrid could have a huge advantage. Read more on the innovative hybrid layout and design here. 

For more news on electric cars, Treehugger has a great video from Peter Sinclair that explains the history, challenges, and potential future of plug-in electric cars, all in 10 minutes. Or if you like electric roadsters ripping up a Louis XIV period salon, have a look at the MOFO from James Piatt Design. Core77 reports that the MOFO team is aiming to deliver 300 units by 2012, and are in the midst of securing production facilities in South Africa.

 “I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.” Jamie Oliver is the TED 2010 prize winner, a $100,000 award and an opportunity to realize a wish to change the world. Jamie Oliver has launched campaigns such as School Dinners, Ministry of Food and Food Revolution USA combining culinary tools, cookbooks and television with more standard activism and community organizing to create change on both the individual and governmental level. 

 

For a summary of the event visit the TED blog or see mindmaps of the event from Young and Brilliant. 

 

One of the TED 2010 fellows, Hugo van Vuuren is a co-founder of Lebone  which uses microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology to provide direct current power for standard high efficiency LEDs and equipment like cell phone chargers. Hugo is from South Africa and says “Africa is a land of constraints. Constraints inspire creativity. Creative design that solves Africa’s problems will also solve problems around the world.” Lebone was recently named one of the 10 Most Brilliant Innovations of 2009 by Popular Mechanics.

 

The finalists for the Most Beautiful Object have been announced by design Indaba. The 12 finalists will be exhibiting their entries at Design Indaba Expo 2010 from 24 to 26 February. The Ostrich Barstool from Tsai Design Studio is supposed to emulate the sensation of sitting on the back of an ostrich. Tsai design Studio won the award in 2008 for their Nestled Bunk Beds. 

The Fifa 2010 World Cup is less than 4 months away and the event promises to deliver a unique African experience and shows off the African inspired designs of the new or revamped stadiums. Soccer City is one  of the revamped stadiums, and should benefit the surrounding community of Soweto through infrastructure upgrades and increased business opportunities. The World Cup is also a good opportunity for organizations to be involved in social campaigns.

Be sure to update your reader to get our Terrestrial News RSS feed.

 

 

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 02 February 2010

 

Peugeot’s new design team just released these images of a concept bicycle dubbed the B1K.  Sculpted as a race bike, it features a chainless drive train, carbon fiber construction and scant few details on the rest of the design. The rear rim is hubless, gaining an aerodynamic advantage. Both wheels forgo the traditional tire and tube in place of a rubber sleeve stretched over the rim. Pretty nice looking bike. Via psfk. 

 

Phillipe Starck is at it again, even though he vowed never to design again. He went off and did a reality TV show; Design for Life and his latest venture is wind turbines, working with Pramac. Starck introduced “Revolutionair”; 2 wind turbines aimed at home-owners. With price tags of between 2500 and 3500 Euros, they might not be part of every budget, but perhaps design can play a role in introducing wind power to more people. "I have always wanted to design an invisible turbine with the goal of making something everyone would want," Starck, said in a statement.

 

Dutch design collective Droog have launched a collection of clothes that are glued together rather than stitched, designed by denim brand Gluejeans. Called Juxtapose, the new collection consists of a denim coat for women, a denim jacket for men and some new designs for jeans. The glue comes in several colors and has been tested for over 2 years, Gluejeans technique radiates a simple, rough and direct quality, while at the same time being very durable. Handmade in the Netherlands, each piece has a unique and individual character. 

 

For those of you who always wanted a tree house but couldn’t quite figure it out, two Dutch designers Rogier Martens and Sam van Veluw have designed a 'build it yourself tree house'.

 

Aandeboom, which literally means ‘on the tree’ is made of water resistant panels, with straps and lashings, which can be fixed to any tree. The Ikea like structure looks sturdy enough to carry the weight of even the biggest kids. 

 

Whether you like or hate the iPad, the Apple induced hype that follows the launch of a product is more than before the launch. There are already applications and reviews and whatever else you can think of for the device. It will be a game changer in the way people use computers, and will hopefully make the experience easier. 

 

And ending off, Business Week has a special report; The Value of Design, good read, be sure to see the World’s Most influential Designers slideshow too. 

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 26 January 2010

After more than a decade of designing products and services in the USA, Europe, Asia and South Africa, we wanted to reflect our global perspective in design, in a new name. We are happy to announce that Readymade has become Terrestrial. Our new site is here and you can also follow us on twitter or facebook.

Whether or not you believe in the latest hype surrounding the rumors of Apple’s tablet launch, Apple has almost always delivered new breakthrough devices and services that changed the landscape forever. Be it mp3 players, digital content delivery, computers or phones, things will never be the same again after Steve Job’s ‘one more thing’ announcement. On the 27th of January Apple has invited people to “Come see our latest creation”; a tablet device that has been developed over 25 years. The device, which could be called the MacBook Touch, iPad, iSlate, or iTablet or several other speculative names and designs, will be a ten inch touch screen that combines computer and phone operating systems that is not just aimed at the usual Mac user.

 

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Steve Jobs. The tablet will hopefully incorporate design features from unibody MacBooks, touchscreen technology and a multi-touch user interface system that uses the back of the device for additional controls, expect to see a combination of materials on the back that is just as exciting as the user experience on the front.

Who is the Macbook Touch aimed at? It will be media driven, with indications that newspapers and magazines are looking to strike partnerships plus it could build on education platforms as Apple already has a few success stories. Apple has a huge stake-hold in music, but will now also push into gaming more aggressively. If Apple launches a tablet that combines the functionality of a netbook, the user experience of an iPhone , the stability of Mac OS and that competes with e-books and is well priced we could see a lot more younger Mac fans, we could see something like this. 

 

Steve Jobs has said, in reference to the forthcoming Tablet, "This will be the most important thing I've ever done" and “the new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.” Apple. 

 

Aliph has launched a new Jawbone bluetooth headset range called Icon, the six designs are small and very elegant and Wired.co.uk calls them the best thought-out product they saw at CES. See Engadget’s review here.

The Stanford d.school has shared, the basics of design thinking,as taught in their introductory class called the "design thinking bootcamp". The ‘Bootcamp Bootleg’ is a pdf file that contains a bunch of great methodologies for observation, data collection, brainstorming, prototyping, and concept generation. Design thinking is gaining more credibility in business as more IDEO alumni are starting to make their way into the CEO suites of prominent U.S. organizations. 

Sugru is a pretty amazing product that looks like modeling clay, but cures at room temperature, is self adhesive, waterproof, flexible and is even dish-washer proof, that can be used to fix or hack products. The silicone based Sugru was developed by designer Jane ní Dhulchaointigh with the help of material scientists over a period of six years. See some of the hacking on Sugru’s blog. Via DesignBoom.

Tasos recently wrote an article for DESIGN>; ‘The Power of Industrial Design in Africa’ which explains the process of design and should inspire future designers. You can also read it here.   

 

  

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 09 December 2009

SpaceShipTwo was unveiled on Monday in the Mojave Desert by Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan. SpaceShipTwo will begin short flights into space with passengers in 2011. Book your tickets here. Image; Ned RocknRoll

 

Indian innovation is in the news again with Tata announcing a hybrid Nano and the Tata Swach; a new low-cost water purifier, aimed at lower-income households in rural areas.The Tata purifier is less than one metre tall, and does not need running water or electricity to work. Plans are to roll out in India first then Africa. 

 

For all you trainspotters out there who also have a thing for exotic subway architecture, DesignBoom has a great article with images from Stockholm’s Tunnelbana, Munich’s U-Bahn and others. Have a look at the the Carmelit too, an uphill subway system in HaifImage. Image; flickr. 

 

In other news: for those of you interested in attending the 2010 Design Indaba in Cape Town South Africa, this Friday is the last day to get your early bird tickets. Next year sees the the inaugural B2B trade exhibition, which “gives companies servicing the design, advertising and marketing industries the unique opportunity to interact directly with their target audience in an environment designed to inspire. Creative industry suppliers and collaborators will not want to miss this opportunity to personally connect and network with such a high-potential customer base.” 

Lastly, we are looking forward to collaborating on exciting projects with Brianna Sylver, President at Sylver Consulting.  Tasos met Brianna in Chicago last week, where Brianna is a specialist in market research, a leader in innovation strategy and teaches at the Institute of Design, IIT.

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, 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.