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.

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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.

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An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 09 February 2010

Optimal Energy has launched an online campaign called ‘Don’t be a Passenger’, you can follow the blog, twitter feed, facebook page and win a trip for two to the Arctic. From the site: “How we live today will continue to have an impact on our future and the future of our environment. In the 4 minutes that you will watch this video many things will change. It's up to you to make that change for the better.” Spread the (green) word. 

Michael Young has been very busy lately: developing the Avalon swivel chair for Swedese and a great looking ‘Lancaster collection’ chairs an tables for Emeco which has cast aluminum seats and backs with ash legs. Young has also been appointed as the Creative Director of 100% Design Shanghai / IHDD 2010. See Dezeen’s feature on Young.

ARM has posted a video showing a Nokia N95, coupled with LEGO Mindstorm NXT kit and LEGO Technic pieces, solving a 4x4x4 Rubik's cube. The N95's camera is used to identify the layout of the color squares and work out the moves necessary to solve the puzzle. The N95 then instructs the LEGO model on the moves to make. A 4x4x4 Rubik’s cube is much tougher to solve than the classic 3x3x3 cube, which has been done before, but not using a mobile phone. 

 

For those serious LEGO fans, check out LDraw™ “an open standard for LEGO CAD programs that allow the user to create virtual LEGO models and scenes. You can use it to document models you have physically built, create building instructions just like LEGO, render 3D photo realistic images of your virtual models and even make animations. The possibilities are endless. Unlike real LEGO bricks where you are limited by the number of parts and colors, in LDraw nothing is impossible.”

Here is a cool video explaining the concept and design about the Nexus One. ‘Nexus One The Story’ is a series of short films documenting the making of Nexus One. 

 

South Africa’s Kulula airlines recently received the rebranding treatment from their in house creative team when they applied this 101 guide to the various parts of the airplane. Now you know that the captain is the ‘big cheese’, see more airplane paint jobs here. Originally from CherryFlava.

 

Who says design is rubbish? Louis Vuitton has launched a new handbag, that you can fit all you stuff in, it waterproof, has a nice strap and it looks like.......a garbage bag. Designed by Marc Jacobs, the $2000 bag should be a hit with those with more taste than sense.  

Ending off, we have started a topic of discussion on our Facebook page; “Do you think the iPad will become a an essential tool in design offices for sketching”, what do you think? Image; Michael DiTullo.

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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, 19 January 2010

LEGO CL!CK is the latest platform from LEGO using social networking to connect people through tweets, videos, photos and blogs. The idea is that there is an existing tribe of LEGO fans of all ages who will contribute great ideas and share them with each other. We know that we mention LEGO a lot, but its because you play with it on the carpet at home or use it as a prototyping tool or even make cool things like this and it’s really good fun. Via Fast Company, image; John Bergmann.

Seems like celebrity endorsed products and brands are all the rage right now, the latest news is the appointment of Lady Gaga as creative director to Polaroid. The pop star and her Warhol inspired Haus of Gaga is part of the creative force behind her elaborate costumes, set designs and products, such asHeartbeats in-ear headphones in collaboration with Monster Cable and Ammunition. Lady Gaga says of her new job;  "The Haus of Gaga has been developing prototypes in the vein of fashion/technology/photography innovation--blending the iconic history of Polaroid and instant film with the digital era--and we are excited to collaborate on these ventures with the Polaroid brand. Lifestyle, music, art, fashion: I am so excited to extend myself behind the scenes as a designer, and to as my father puts it--finally, have a real job." Polaroid.

One of the more interesting launches from the 2010 Detroit Auto show was the Toyota FT-CH, a more affordable hybrid vehicle than the Prius, inspired by classic video games that should appeal to a younger target market. The car was designed at Toyota's European Design and Development Centre in Nice, France. Via DesignBoom.

 

Google Streetview could soon feature ads mapped onto real world posters, billboards and buildings if Google implements a recently granted patent. The patent, granted on January 7, “Claiming Real Estate in Panoramic or 3D Mapping Environments for Advertising” reveals a plan to identify posters, billboards and other advertising space in Google Streetview, it then proposes to replace those ads with real-time digital adverts. 

 

 

 

 

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 12 January 2010

 

January saw the annual CES event take place in Las Vegas where thousands of exhibitors show off the latest technology and gadgets. Seems like this year it 3D TV, slates and e-readers that got the most attention. Catch all the action at Engadget. Image via Crunchgear  

 

The biggest mobile news was the launch of Googles Nexus One phone, looks like the technical specs of the phone are almost up there with netbooks with a Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz processor. The Nexus One was designed by HTC, which has a close relationship with Google. 

 

Continuing with new technology launched at CES, Ford and IDEO showed the latest in driver interface design; MyFord Touch the newest rendition of the Ford Sync, Ford's dashboard-integrated, voice-controlled car connectivity system.In the initial planning stages of redesigning the interior experience, Ford and IDEO identified four key attributes of successful interfaces:

1. Be attentive: Use controls, screens and other interfaces with which most users already are comfortable and familiar.

2. Be approachable: Create an attractive environment with rich graphics, vibrant colors and buttons/screens that are appealing to the eye and the touch, and consistent with what consumers expect from certain functions.

3. Be clear: Rather than an imposing cluster of buttons, switches and dials, create a clean-looking interface, with controls that fall readily to hand and displays that are exactly where users expect to find them. Provide maximum control without the driver’s hands ever leaving the steering wheel.

4. Be connected:  For technophiles? Let drivers display all the information they want in the way they want it. For technophobes? Make sure basic controls, like radio and HVAC settings, still are accessible via familiar stack-mounted controls, so users don’t have to learn a host of new commands to operate the vehicle.

Image via FastCompany

An Illustrated Weekly of World Design, 05 January 2010

One of the biggest (literally) events in the new year has been the opening of the worlds tallest building; the Burj Khalifa formally known as the Burj Dubai. The Burj beats the second tallest building, Taipei 101 by 320 meters, which is the same height as the Eiffel tower. Residents will start moving in as early as February.

 

DesignBoom has some great images of the T.25 from Gordon Murray Design, which uses models to show size, low part count and shipping volume. See more of the images here.

2010 sees the end of the noughties, and if you re into lists, then check out Engadget’s ‘TEN GADGETS THAT DEFINED THE DECADE' which includes the first iPod in 2001, the Motorola RAZR and the Asus Eee PC. For a broader design view, Alissa Walker has a good summary; ‘The Decade in Design’. From the article, “The design field redesigned itself during this decade, transforming from an industry that created better objects to one that created better experiences—and endeavored to deliver them to everyone, not just the people who could afford them. Design was the place for big thinkers to cultivate new technology, and it's where the sustainability movement found its most trusted partners.” 

 

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, 15 December 2009

Seth Godin has organized a new ebook called What Matters Now, the ebook has contributions from “more than seventy big thinkers, each sharing an idea for you to think about as we head into the new year. From bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert to brilliant tech thinker Kevin Kelly, from publisher Tim O'Reilly to radio host Dave Ramsey, there are some important people riffing about important ideas here. The ebook includes Tom Peters, Jackie Huba and Jason Fried, along with Gina Trapani, Bill Taylor and Alan Webber.” The ebook is free and the big idea is to get 5 million people reading it, so pass it along. Image; Thomas Hawk.

 

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec will be attending Design Indaba 2010, the brothers have designed for top product manufacturers including Vitra, Issey Miyake, Kvadrat, Cappellini, Ligne Roset and Habitat. The Design Indaba Conference is from 24 to 26 February 2010.

Earlier this year we wrote about prosthetic designs, so this article from DesignBoom about Prodigits, which are bionic fingers for people with missing digits is very interesting. Touch Bionics is a company who produce ProDigits™, short for Prosthetic Digits, self-contained fingers that are individually powered and controlled to provide new fingers for partial hand patients, a modular system that can be adapted to suit any patient.

 

Bruce Nussbaum posted a speech he gave earlier this month at  the Design Korea 2009 International Conference, his speech “Designomics: How Design Navigates A World In Change And Creates Global Economic Growth And Prosperity” can be found here. Image via Design Thinking Blog.