Archive for Design Inspiration
December 12, 2006 at 11:55 am · Filed under Design Inspiration
Got a designer you need to get a gift for? Core77 has published a great microsite of 77 Design Gifts Under $77.
Some of the more interesting items listed include:
Guido Oooms Memory Sticks
I think I'll get one of these and send it to Brendan Dawes. I immediately thought about the chapter in his book where he speaks to all of the material objects in our lives becoming digital. To help him cope with this, he took an old Atari cartridge, cut out the inside and installed a USB flash drive. Now his flash drive looks like a classic Atari game. Sweet.
Clogo Tissue Holder
Really, why can't the bathroom have its share of good design?
Make: Magazine Subscription
Geek's paradise. Check out the Make Controller for even more geeky fun.
Just for Kicks: A Documentary
I own it, and give it two thumbs up. Being in Portland (home of Nike, Adidas USA and others), I think this movie is a must-own. Not to mention I love documentaries.
Designer Emulation Kit
AWESOME. Anyone who knows me knows I have a thing for cool, modern, designer lighting. Mmmm... LUX.
Moleskin Notebooks
"Creative types can never get enough of these...". Yeah, I'm a bit behind on this one. But, it has been on my to-do list for... months.
Films of Charles and Ray Eames
No, they didn't only build amazing furniture (which you can pretty much only find at Design Within Reach). They also made cool experimental films. Hooray design inspiration.
Miniature Designer Chairs
This one also gets an AWESOME rating. I've always eyed the Vitras ones ($125-575/each), but these are actually affordable.
November 20, 2006 at 1:58 pm · Filed under Design Inspiration
"Wieden + Kennedy 12, an experimental advertising school run by Portland ad agency W+K, is responsible for buying out all available clear push pins on the west coast of the US. Over 100,000 thumbtacks were used over 351 hours to create a wall mural that spells out Fail Harder, a message that underlines the importance of failure during the creative process."
Since moving to Portland I've been to the W+K offices a few times, and every time I notice something new. I can't wait to check this out on my next visit.
If you are unfamiliar with Wieden+Kennedy, just think about every cool Nike ad you've seen on TV. They were involved. And the WK12? It's their highly selective internship program where you pay them for the right to work on their projects. I'm told it's like having 5-8 years of industry experience by the time you leave the 2 year program.
November 8, 2006 at 1:02 pm · Filed under Design Inspiration
Kudos to Ikea for being willing to put out a television ad without any real moving images. It is certainly different... and brilliant. Everyone knows Ikea doesn't always make the most sturdy furniture, but they do usually have good style at great prices. And that is the exact message they get across -- the low prices.
November 7, 2006 at 10:31 pm · Filed under Design Inspiration, Experience Design
Not too long ago I received some monitor stands and upon opening the boxes I was surprised at what I found on the back of the assembly instructions:
Rolodex, you made my day. You created an "experience" for me, and it left a very positive impression about your brand. In addition, you found a way to bring some fun to the mundane task of screwing monitor stands together.
After going around the office and sharing my discovery with everyone (who, I should say, were all equally impressed), I quickly took on the task of folding my paper crane.
I only got half way done, however, because once I folded to a certain point I couldn't read the instructions anymore. Luckily others in my office knew what they were doing and were able to finish my crane for me :)
October 24, 2006 at 11:37 am · Filed under Business, Design Inspiration, Flash, FlashForward Conference, Tech
Finally, Jobs was asked if he was worried about Microsoft's upcoming media player (Zune) and its "community" features:
In a word, no. I've seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you've gone through all that, the girl's got up and left! You're much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you're connected with about two feet of headphone cable.
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In a time when most corporations are effectively reducing the memorable experiences in our lives, Apple and Steve Jobs are thinking about enhancing those experiences. Brendan Dawes gave a great talk about this at FlashForward 06 in Austin, and ever since then I have been thinking more and more about where all of those daily experiences in my life have gone.
For instance, I am in the process of ripping all of my CDs to MP3 and storing them on a large external hard drive. For almost every CD I pickup I am reminded of an event that took place while I was listening to it, such as a warming up for a particular basketball game in college. Once I rip them into iTunes as a digital format, I'm not reminded of that experience nearly as often.
This idea goes even further because not only is this having an effect on me, but it is spreading to the population on a fairly grand scale. Keeping with the music theme, think about iPods and how many people now walk around with their ear buds in listening to music and thereby creating this lack of interpersonal interaction.
Kudos to Steve Jobs and Brendan Dawes for their efforts to bring the experiences back to our daily lives.
October 19, 2006 at 12:34 pm · Filed under Design Inspiration
"Our latest TV ad - featuring massive paint explosions - took 10 days and 250 people to film. Huge quantities of paint were needed to accomplish this, which had to be delivered in 1 tonne trucks and mixed on-site by 20 people."
This is such a great concept and ad. At first I was sure most of it was done with visual effects, but if you look closely you can see the paint stained buildings in the background.
Sometimes the creative ideas require big productions and big budgets. In this case, I think it was worth it.
http://www.bravia-advert.com/paint/thead/
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