Ron Kovach is a designer, educator and blogger. He's a past president of both The Art Institute of Chicago's Architecture & Design Society and the AIGA Chicago Chapter as well as a past chairman, 27 Chicago Designers. He's an adjunct professor at Columbia College Chicago and co-founder / editor of DesignApplause and Chicago Design Archive. Contact Ron via Contact/Help on this site.
above> mca chicago’s virgil abloh 2019 retrospective “figures of speech”
social media best informs us of visibility and reach and virgil abloh‘s passing gave us a pretty clear picture of who he touched. he reached dizzying levels of cultural success in a dizzying short timespan. with engineering and architectural degrees, within a decade he created two fashion brands, pyrex vision and off-white, whose market was youth, hip-hop, “the street”, and grew to interning at luxury fashion pillars fendi to becoming the artistic director of louis vuitton.
in july 2021, lvmh, vuitton’s parent company, announced its acquisition of the off-white trademark in a landmark deal that gave abloh an unprecedented new role working across lvmh’s vast portfolio. though he started creating fashion he also dabbled with graphics with jay-z and kanye west and products via ikea, nike, mercedes-benz, and rimowa. but without question his biggest statement was the runway.
he also liked “words”, “isms”, a lot of quotation marks. he liked the word “readymade,” a term coined in 1915 by marcel duchamp, the french-american artist best known for taking found objects (most famously, a standard-issue urinal) and re-contextualizing them as art, which abloh interprets as a way to birth new ideas with recognizable parts.
his approach juxtaposes hip-hop and the omnesiac culture of the internet, where the past is impossible to forget; always just a few clicks away and open to constant referencing. “it’s called hip-hop, it’s called sampling. you take a record and you make this new format of music from these adjacencies,” he explains. “we don’t exist devoid of the artists and thinkers that came before us: mies van der rohe, rem koolhaas, kanye west, pharell, caravaggio. they give us soil,” he continues. “it’s dangerous when you start naming yourself as the oracle.”
this approach is illustrated by what he calls the “3 percent approach,” the notion that you only need to edit something three percent to make it seem at once familiar and completely new, a winning proposition for abloh. “you notice a lot in my work the referencing or taking a thought and adding a component,” he explains. “duchamp is my favorite. duchamp is my lawyer.”
he is described as a visionary, trailblazer, cross-generationist, rule breaker, and genre-bender. he gets compared to karl lagerfield.
abloh was often quoted saying that everything that he did was for the “17-year-old version of myself.” “i would sort of agree i’m not a designer; that term seems like it’s for traditionalists,” he says. “tbd the new title.”
on tuesday, 30 november 2021, he was expected to present a louis vuitton runway show in miami ahead of art basel to mark the opening of a dedicated men’s store. vuitton will present the show in his honor.
above> photography by delfino sisto
above/below> 2019 mca chicago – “figures of speech” offers an unprecedented survey of abloh’s creative work over nearly two decades and pulls back the curtain on his process. in the exhibition, prototypes are presented alongside finished artworks, product designs, and fashion to reveal his myriad inspirations – from centuries-old painting to commonplace signage at construction sites. running throughout the exhibition is an emphasis on dialogue, which abloh creates through his inventive use of language and quotation marks, turning the objects he designs and the people who wear his clothing into “figures of speech.” editor’s note: the takeaway from this installation – this guy is indeed special.
above/below> louis vuitton chicago flagship showroom during george floyd 2020 summer protests // million dollar glasses
above/below> 2021 mercedes-benz project gelandewagen unveiled – artistic, track-spec g-wagen with full race car cabin. the project that bears the name ‘geländewagen’ was supported by gorden wagener, the brand’s design director, in which despite being a conceptual creation that simulates a racing version, all the details of the suv were carefully thought out. abloh, in a statement to mercedes-benz, sees his contribution as a sculpture that meets the profile and habits of those who consume the brand and that is ready to hit the art market.
above> 2018 / off – white little black dress
above> 2018 / abloh’s first louis vuitton mens’s spring-summer 2019 collection
above> his final louis vuitton collection // editor’s video note: hip-hop befits vuitton indeed
last monday hertz made a mega announcement that they’re purchasing 100,000 teslas. in response the wall street journal‘s editorial board opines below what this means.
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the more you look behind corporate and government press releases these days, the more you learn about their mutual benefit society. we wrote tuesday about the many subsidies for tesla’s electric cars, but it turns out there’s also a pot of subsidy gold behind the hertz decision to buy 100,000 teslas for its car-rental fleet.
tesla ceo elon musk says he isn’t giving hertz a discount on the reported $4.2 billion order. but he doesn’t need to because the house reconciliation spending bill includes a 30% tax credit for “qualified commercial electric vehicles.”
the text doesn’t clearly define what is a “qualified commercial electric” vehicle, but our sources say hertz’s teslas would likely make the cut. the credit could save hertz $1.26 billion and make a tesla almost as cheap for hertz to buy as a toyota camry.
hertz plans to install thousands of electric-vehicle chargers, which could also be eligible for taxpayers subsidies. the house spending bill extends a 30% tax credit for the installation of ev charging stations through 2031, which is on top of the $7.5 billion appropriation for stations in the separate senate infrastructure bill.
hertz’s interim ceo mark fields is casting the company’s tesla order as a strategic business decision and evidence that evs are going mainstream. maybe, and there’s no doubt that the tesla order is winning progressive accolades for the rental-car company. electric vehicles are also less expensive to maintain than gas-powered cars, so they could reduce hertz’s operating costs.
but if evs make business sense, why must the government subsidize them? democrats complain that corporations aren’t paying their fair share in taxes, but then they give them generous tax breaks for promoting progressive policies that reduce their tax payments.
enjoy that hertz tesla ride. you’ll have paid more for it than the rental contract says.
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well ok, politics aside, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. it’s still a very green deal. a simple rental agreement equates to your ev training wheels which will lead to an ev purchase for many and more much needed charging stations. it’s one giant step in the right direction.
above> the chicago riverwalk / courtesy ross barney architects
DesignApplause always looks forward to meeting the winners of this prestigious award. this happening never disappoints. let’s take the opportunity for a special nod to fellow-chicagoan carol ross barney and ross barney architects
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cheryl d. miller is a graphic designer, author, and theologian who is best known for her advocacy on racial, cultural, and gender equity, diversity, and inclusion. an accomplished, award-winning designer and businesswoman, miller established one of the first black women-owned design firms in new york city in 1984. cheryl d. miller design, inc. serviced corporate communications to a fortune 500 clientele, including bet, chase, philip morris usa, time inc., and sports illustrated, as well as nonprofit african american organizations that grew out of the civil rights movement. miller’s seminal 1987 article for print magazine, “black designers missing in action,” laid the groundwork for her advocacy, followed by “embracing cultural diversity in design” in 1990, “black designers: still missing in action?” in 2016, and “black designers forward in action” in 2020. miller lectures widely. her work and archives were acquired by stanford university libraries in 2018. miller is the aiga medalist 2021, “expanding access.”
above> black designers missing in action / courtesy cheryl d. miller
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[ climate action ]
designed by doris sung, the invert™ self-shading window uses smart thermobimetal pieces inside the cavity of a standard double-glazed window to shade a building in a magical way—with a kaleidoscope of fluttering butterfly-like pieces. by responding to the sun, it dynamically blocks solar radiation from heating the building and thereby reduces air-conditioning usage by 25 percent, using zero energy and no controls. given that 40 percent of all energy used is in buildings, far more than transportation or other industries, and 12 percent of that energy is spent on cooling interiors, any amount of reduction has a tremendous impact on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. through her work, sung seeks ways to make building skins sensitive and responsive to the changing environments. she is the founder of los angeles-based dosu studio architecture, the director of undergraduate programs at usc, and the recipient of fellowships including from google’s r+d for the built environment, united states artists and the rockefeller foundation at bellagio.
above> the invert™ self-shading window / courtesy of doris sung
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[ emerging designer ]
founded in 2017, colloqate design is a multidisciplinary nonprofit design justice practice based in new orleans with a focus on expanding community access to, and building power through, the design of social, civic, and cultural spaces. its mission is to intentionally organize, advocate, and design spaces of racial, social, and cultural justice throughout the built environment. through programming, planning, and design projects, colloqate seeks to dismantle the privilege and power structures that use the design professions to maintain systems of injustice. colloqate organizes to build knowledge, power, and access in the communities it serves through ongoing community gatherings and workshops to share and build collective knowledge around the process of city-building. its work speaks to the potential for equitable spaces and attempts to visually and physically represent its collective aspirations for the future.
storia: defrag/ courtesy of colloquate design
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[ architecture and interior design ]
founded in chicago in 1981, ross barney architects’ mission is to create well-designed spaces for everyone. the studio is dedicated to the design of “noble” projects, without the most generous budgets or the most sought-after commissions, but those that are important to daily life and require innovative interventions. ross barney architects’ best work is often for unexpected, compelling projects that go beyond architecture, and exist on the edges or in the margins where design thought and consideration might not conventionally come into play. notable projects include the chicago riverwalk, mcdonalds’ flagship restaurants, cta cermak-mccormick place and morgan street stations, and the oklahoma city federal building. the studio has adopted a holistic approach, engaging the client, user, and community to allow a project to grow out of its place, history, and function.
above> the chicago riverwalk / courtesy ross barney architects
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[ communication design ]
founded in 1996 in los angeles, imaginary forces is an award-winning studio specializing in design-based visual storytelling. led by peter frankfurt, chip houghton, karin fong, tosh kodama, alan williams, ronnie koff, anthony gibbs, and grant lau, imaginary forces takes its name from the prologue of shakespeare’s henry v, where the narrator summons us to imagine the humble stage as a grand battlefield. for 25 years, the studio has created work that dares audiences to conjure up entirely new worlds. known for designing iconic title sequences including for marvel, mad men, boardwalk empire, and stranger things, imaginary forces has brought motion design into the worlds of advertising, architecture, gaming, and documentary film production. the studio is proud to have launched the careers of countless colleagues in the motion design industry. imaginary forces’ work has won numerous emmys and appeared in moma, walker center, wexner, sxsw, and the venice architecture biennale.
above> mad men / courtesy imaginary forces
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[ digital design ]
based in los angeles, behnaz farahi is an award-winning designer whose work is situated at the intersection of digital design, architecture, fashion, and interactive design, ranging from the scale of wearables to architectural installations. farahi explores how materials in the environment can be imbued with artificial intelligence and life-like behaviors, incorporating techniques such as eeg brain imaging, facial and gaze tracking, 3d printing, as well as novel actuator systems, such as smart materials and pneumatics systems. she engages with the latest developments in neuroscience, cognitive philosophy, computational design, artificial intelligence, and feminism, in order to spark imagination and foster conversations about the future of design. she is assistant professor of design at csulb and co-editor of 3d-printed body architecture (2017) and interactive futures (forthcoming). her work is in the permanent collection of the museum of science and industry, chicago, and clients include adidas, autodesk, fuksas studio, and 3dsystems / will-i-am.
above> iridescence / courtesy behnaz farahi
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[ fashion design ]
becca mccharen-tran is a fashion designer, cultural worker, and the founder of future-forward bodywear line chromat. in her design practice, mccharen-tran interrogates the cultural hegemony around representation and inclusion. a forbes 30 under 30 pick for “people who are reinventing the world,” mccharen-tran is creating a world that empowers women, femmes, and nonbinary people in fashion and beyond. mccharen-tran delivered a ted talk on the urgency of racial, gender, and disability justice in fashion and has lectured at sxsw, parsons, mit, cfda, pratt, fit, and mica. she also staged the “queer joy” exhibition at moma ps1, a series of performances and installations celebrating the lgbtq community. chromat has been profiled in major publications such as vogue, the new york times, and the wall street journal, and has collaborated with intel, disney, reebok, mac cosmetics, mit design lab, and equinox.
aw 14 bionic bodies / courtesy of becca mccharen-tran
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[ landscape architecture ]
studio-mla integrates landscape architecture, urban design, and planning to create places that inspire human connection, unite communities, and restore environmental balance. “advocacy by design” is a foundation of the practice. for more than 25 years, founder and president mia lehrer, fasla, has sparked the team’s inventive thinking to address complex relationships within urban and natural environments. from the master planning of rivers to the design of intimate plazas and gardens, the studio is recognized for creativity, pragmatism, and responsibility across a range of scales and geographies. with offices in los angeles and san francisco, its 45-person team includes landscape architects, planners, botanists, and ecologists from around the world. diversity and multiple perspectives add meaning to collaborations and value to outcomes. together, the firm believes in the transformative power of design to recalibrate its shared surroundings for a resilient future.
biolite is on a mission to empower people and protect the planet through access to renewable energy. a social enterprise that develops, manufactures, and markets advanced energy products for off-grid communities around the world, the company creates novel cooking, charging, and lighting solutions that serve both outdoor enthusiasts and rural communities without access to the grid. headquartered in brooklyn, new york and nairobi, kenya, the company was founded in 2009 by jonathan cedar and alec drummond. biolite is proudly a carbon neutral company and a founding member of climate neutral, an independent nonprofit dedicated to helping companies measure, reduce, and offset their carbon footprint. to date, biolite has impacted over 1.7 million people across africa and asia and avoided over 400,000 tonnes of co2e through its clean energy solutions—equivalent to taking 100,000 cars off the road for a year. the company is the recipient of numerous recognitions, including the red dot design award, fast company’s innovation by design award, core77 design award, and businessweek’s most promising social enterprise.
above> grid in the sky / courtesy biolite
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[ jury ] kofi boone
billy fleming
joe gebbia
kristine johnson
grace jun
patricia saldaña natke
[ what are the national design awards? ]
the national design awards program was launched in 2000 as an official project of the white house millennium council, with the goal of increasing awareness and understanding of how design improves everyday life. presented each year by cooper hewitt, smithsonian design museum, the awards recognize innovation and impact in design. nominations are made by the general public, and winners are selected by a diverse jury of design leaders and educators.
top> eames lounge chair / charles and ray eames / herman miller — bottom > barcelona chair / mies van der rohe / knoll
between them, herman miller and knoll have 19 brands and a presence in more than 100 countries. how they market themselves going forward is a case-study-worthy event in the making.
herman miller has acquired knoll. both iconic office furniture companies have more similarities than differences and it’s fair to say the roots to their present-day success is architecture and design. herman miller started with wood, knoll started with the bauhaus. great starts to mark the beginning of this very interesting story.
above > back to the future photo of the j miller house (no relation to herman miller) in columbus indiana. in 1953 the miller’s select architect eliel saarinen and by now herman miller’s head of textiles, alexander girard to create their home. in the foreground is knoll’s saarinen furnishings on a girard rug – below > girard’s touch in foreground and middle ground a seating area of both herman miller and knoll furnishing. today girard is listed as co-architect
herman miller was founded in 1905 and initially the company produced wood furniture, especially bedroom suites, in historic revival styles until 1930. with the coming of the great depression the company was forced to explore new products to survive and debuted a line of modern furniture at the 1933-34 century of progress exposition in chicago. in 1942, with the introduction of the “modular executive office” group (eog), the company was primed to lead the industry during the 70s open plan workplace.
in 1945 architect george nelson joined the firm as director. over the next four decades nelson influenced herman miller through both his personal designs and the designers that he recruited including; isamu noguchi, charles and ray eames, robert propst, and in textile designer alexander girard. beginning in the late 1940s, the period under nelson’s guidance saw herman miller produce some of the company’s most recognizable pieces of furniture, including the noguchi table, eames lounge chair, marshmallow sofa,
above > homage to alexander girard in a herman miller pop-up during icff 2014 – below > cosm / studio 7.5
above> living office/placemaking – below > healthcare
[ herman miller designers ]
edward barber and jay osgerby
ayse birsel
todd bracher
charles and ray eames
naoto fukasawa
alexander girard
jasper morrison
george nelson
robert propst
bill stumpf others…
hans knoll was born in germany in 1914. his father was a modern furniture manufacturer, who supported the national socialist regime. perhaps because of his father’s views, or perhaps because he wanted to follow many other german modernists who had emigrated, knoll left germany in 1936 and moved to england. in 1938, he moved to new york city to found a furniture manufacturing company of his own.
in 1943, knoll was approached by florence schust, an architect who had studied under ludwig mies van der rohe and eliel saarinen. schust convinced knoll that she could help bring in business to his company even in america’s wartime economy by expanding into interior design and working with architects. hans and florence married and changed the name of the company to knoll associates. today knoll has over 40 of its designs–such as breuer’s wassily and cesca chairs and the barcelona chair by ludwig mies van der rohe–are in the permanent collection at moma.
above > classic southern california mid-century modern cool – imagining catching the view while listening to brubeck on vinyl / photos knoll
[ knoll designers ]
gae aulenti
neils diffrient
frank gehry
hans and florence knoll
isamu noguchi
jens risom
eliel saarinen
ettore sottsass
mies van der rohe
lella and massimo vignelli others…
their recognition marks the first time a french female architect has won the prize, with lacaton becoming the sixth woman to receive the award since it was established in 1979.
“good architecture is open—open to life, open to enhance the freedom of anyone, where anyone can do what they need to do,” says lacaton. “it should not be demonstrative or imposing, but it must be something familiar, useful and beautiful, with the ability to quietly support the life that will take place within it.”
“our work is about solving constraints and problems, and finding spaces that can create uses, emotions and feelings. at the end of this process and all of this effort, there must be lightness and simplicity, when all that has been before was so complex,” explains vassal.
above > anne lacaton and jean-philippe vassal. photography: laurent chalet
above / below > residential and office building, photo courtesy of philippe ruault
above > site for contemporary creation, phase 2, palais de tokyo, photo courtesy of philippe ruault
above >129 units, ourcq-juarès student and social housing. photography: philippe ruault
above > école nationale supérieure d’architecture de nantes
above > 53 units, low-rise apartments, social housing. photography: philippe ruault
above / below > latapie house. photography: philippe ruault
above / below > frac nord-pas de calais | image courtesy of philippe ruault
above > house in bordeaux. photography: philippe ruault
[ jury citation ]
“not only have they defined an architectural approach that renews the legacy of modernism, but they have also proposed an adjusted definition of the very profession of architecture. the modernist hopes and dreams to improve the lives of many are reinvigorated through their work that responds to the climatic and ecological emergencies of our time, as well as social urgencies, particularly in the realm of urban housing. they accomplish this through a powerful sense of space and materials that creates architecture as strong in its forms as in its convictions, as transparent in its aesthetic as in its ethics,” states the 2021 jury citation, in part.
[ 2021 jury ]
alejandro aravena, chair , barry bergdoll, deborah berke, stephen breyer , andré aranha corrêa do lago, kazuyo sejima, wang shu, benedetta tagliabue, martha thorne, executive director, manuela lucá-dazio, advisor
[ purpose ]
to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision, and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture. awarded each year, the international prize is often referred to as the profession’s highest honor.
“the kaplan institute at iit is an academic building that combines functionality and sustainability into an elegant design solution, all while working within rigorous financial constraints in a setting with tremendous architectural standards.” – jury comment: 2020 aia national honor award in architecture
DesignApplause asks notable chicago architect john ronan for a project steeped in sustainability and we are pointed to the ed kaplan family institute for innovation and tech entrepreneurship. a 2020 winner of the prestigious aia national honor award in architecture. the 2020 architecture program celebrates the best contemporary architecture regardless of budget, size, style, or type. these stunning projects show the world the range of outstanding work architects create and highlight the many ways buildings and spaces can improve our lives.
[ tremendous architectural standards ] to his credit, ronan has won very competitive commissions but this one was extra special if you consider who the client was: illinois institute of technology in chicago, a campus largely designed by ludwig mies van der rohe, the greatest concentration of mies-designed buildings in the world. subsequent buildings decades later by helmut jahn, faia, and rem koolhaas, hon. faia. the school asks one of its professors who’s been at iit since 1992, just a year after is graduation from harvard. tremendous indeed.
[ architect project statement ] the ed kaplan family institute for innovation and tech entrepreneurship at the illinois institute of technology is devoted to fostering collaboration, innovation, and entrepreneurship between iit’s students, faculty, alumni and partners. conceived as a hybrid of campus space and building, the building is organized around two open-air courtyards through which visitors enter the building; circulation inside the building is indirect and dispersed, designed to promote collaboration and interaction. the building provides flexibly adaptive space which can be reconfigured easily and support a wide variety of uses.
the design of the innovation center is forward-thinking in its approach to sustainability. the second floor of the building, which cantilevers over the ground floor to provide sun shading, is enclosed in a dynamic façade of etfe foil cushions which can vary the amount of solar energy entering the building through sophisticated pneumatics. the etfe foil is 1% the weight of glass and gives the building a light, cloud-like appearance.
[ images: john ronan architects ]
[ storm water detention ] the building’s two exterior courtyards double as storm-water detention tanks. rain water is directed from the roof surface to gutters at the perimeter of each courtyard from which it enters the gravel floor of the courtyard via rain chains. several feet of crushed rock below the courtyard serve as large rainwater storage cisterns, where water is held before being released slowly to the municipal sewer system; a portion of the rain water is retained onsite.
[ dynamic etfe facade ] the façade is comprised of four layers of etfe foil which create three air chambers within the façade assembly. the two outer layers of etfe are fritted with a staggered dot patterns which are offset from each other; the inner layer can be moved back and forth pneumatically, bringing it together and apart with the outer fritted layer to modulate the amount of incoming solar energy. this movement is achieved by introducing air into one chamber and removing it from the adjacent chamber, which relocates the fritted inner layer. when the inner layer is pressed together against the fritted outer layer, the dot patterns overlap to reduce light transmittance. when the inner layer is moved away from the outer layer, it increases light transmittance. controlled via automated building system controls or overridden manually, the dynamic façade can adapt throughout the day to changing weather and daylight conditions in real time to minimize energy usage and maximize daylighting potential.
the dynamic etfe facade varies the amount of solar energy entering the building through sophisticated pneumatics.
“when zverse asked me to help them rethink the face shield i jumped at the opportunity. there’s no better time than now for designers to apply their unique skills and knowledge, and the face shield is one of those products that hasn’t seen that much holistic innovation” ~~ scott henderson
the surgical face mask, invented in the late 1800s, and the welder’s helmet, invented in the 1930s, up till now during covid-19, have been doing admirably well outside the confines of the operating room, the icu, a metal shop, for which they were designed. four months into covid-19 we’ve had the occasion to observe the limitations of these specialized items in the more diverse service industry.
the face shield in particular, has proven to have a higher functional diversity ceiling. for example, to talk you don’t have to take a face shield off. however, putting on or removing a face shield can be a to-do and some service positions require a hat.
new york designer scott henderson, with his client john carrington, ceo of zverse, hit a brilliantly conceived and executed bases-loaded home run with their zshield flex.
the zshield flex is designed primarily as a business-to-business solution mainly for service industry workers—such as the food service industry, selective medical, the education sector, beauty and hair salons, and regular consumers as well.
[design criteria ] > the zshield flex does not strap on the head, impacting a person’s outward presentation. > the zshield flex is a friendlier, more calming presentation than the shields meant for front-line healthcare workers. > front-line healthcare workers need ppe to protect themselves, because the environment they operate in is high-risk. the zshield flex will be used in lower risk environments, and is meant to protect the people around the wearer from direct exposure from forward-projected droplets that we all expel through normal talking, sneezing or coughing. > the unique and unprecedented come-from-the-bottom format of zshield flex does not limit head movement or visibility > the zshield flex is practically invisible when worn. > the zshield flex offers different sizes—small and large neck mounts, visors that curves around the face all the way to the ears, and a kid’s size for returning school children.
[ zverse ], the manufacturer of the zshield, also offers a standard face shield for front-line healthcare workers.
[ scott henderson ] is among the top industrial designers working in america today. scott’s product designs for his global fortune 500 client base have become best selling industry disruptors.
scott’s point of view is that design should achieve “clever-freshness”. “clever” is ingenuity combined with a sense of wit. “freshness”, in turn, evokes feelings of health and happiness – lightness as opposed to burden – a feeling of rebirth and an inspiration to move forward.
aside from his world-renown and award-winning work in industrial design, scott is a consistent generator of unique intellectual property, as evidenced by his portfolio of over 50 patents in the u.s. and europe for novel innovations in fields as diverse as housewares and home accessories to consumer medical products and electronics.
scott’s work is included in the permanent collection of the brooklyn museum, the cooper hewitt smithsonian national design museum and the alessi museum, and many of scott’s products have been sold at the moma design store. scott is a sought after presenter on the topic of design, both nationally and internationally.
over 90% of scott’s projects have been mass-produced, a track record few designers can claim. more to the point, products scott has designed have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues for his clients. indeed, many of scott henderson’s products have become industry best sellers.
some experts predict the next two years could look like the last two months. through the summer and possibly into 2021 face masks will be required to get on a plane, walk into a grocery store, or move about within urban spaces. it’s for the public good. it’s also now bad mask etiquette without one.
yes, a mask offers protection in that it stops the spread. but the mask sometimes feels suffocating, fogs opticals, and makes us mumblers or screamers. i find myself storing my mask in a ziploc bag and then taking it in and out of my back pocket 5-6 times on an afternoon errand. what could be more inconvenient. a reusable shield is a game changer. i can put it on and leave it on until i reach the safety of my home.
right now there are probably 30 face shields being created by car manufacturers, engineering companies, architects and designers. this is all good but the shields look very much like ones that already exist. there are just now more of them. why can’t we make something better while at the same time more fashionable so more people will want to wear it ?
may we remind you that raymond loewy said that between two products equal in price, function and quality, the one with the most attractive exterior will win.
the face shield presented here is almost perfect. however, here are some ideas for consideration: incorporate a transitional lens for low light activities; shave the top to accommodate a hat for all-season wearability while also shedding weight; include a fashionable carry-case.
look, fashion is really quiet during these stay-at-home days. fashion producers are making medical gowns while fragrance houses are making hand sanitizer. in two months our creative community has gone only practical. it’s time to think about fun and fashion as well.
fashion is trendy, because the very nature of trends is to come and go. fashion can be practical too. from dresses to pants for ease of movement. from briefcases to backpacks for carrying things. from business attire to leggings and sweatpants for comfort. sweatpants! from sun glasses to face shields for protection.
the timing is ripe for a life-saving fashion accessory. kickstarter calling…
we’re in an unexpected natural experiment. the opportunity in the crisis. a real reckoning moment. a picture is worth a thousand whatevers.
the before and after images on this post leave little room for debate: covid-19 successfully took us off the roads. add a little fortuitous rain plus the amping down of our fossil fuel use gave us clean air. and the world noticed.
this timely vivid graphic of clear skies perfectly aligned with the recent vivid graphic of a climate-induced world with catastrophic weather, fire, agriculture, and health problems.
the importance of this accidental moment can’t be understated or wasted. covid-19 has quickly put us in an ugly mood, a fighting mood, a uniting mood. many get the feeling that now is also the time to implore our leaders to ponder america’s long-term big picture handling of pandemics and climate initiatives.
it’s ironic, the covid-19 country lockdown should keep our skies blue but it also mutes our most vocal activists because they can’t congregate to protest. and if our leaders miss this opportunity and the economy cranks up, along with our return to our dirty ways, the blue skies will be just a memory.
above/below > new delhi 1 november 2019 / 20 april 2020 | photo manish swarup / ap
above top/bottom > india gate war memorial new delhi 17 october 2019 / 8 april 2020
above/below > nitrogen dioxide (red) levels prior to and during stay at home lockdown. the los angeles graphic is a vivid glimpse of what an electrified world would look like.
above > a nearly empty interstate 280 in san francisco 22 march 2020
below > notice the nitrogen dioxide readings at height of chinese lockdown in mid-january and march when stay-at-home was relaxed.
a dystopia is a community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is translated as bad place and is an antonym of utopia,
apple and google. masters of privacy. how is it even possible. here’s the concept.
apple and google just announced an unprecedented collaboration to leverage their smartphone technology to help trace and contain the spread of covid-19.
the collaboration will open up their mobile operating systems (!) to allow for the creation of advanced contact-tracing apps, which will run on iphones and android phones alike.
the apps would work by using bluetooth technology in mobile phones to keep track of every other phone a person comes into close contact with over the course of a day; if that person later finds out they have covid-19, they can use the same system to alert all those people, dating back to before they would have become infectious.
the idea is to help national governments roll out these contact-tracing apps to allow lockdowns to be lifted earlier, by letting authorities much more readily identify new clusters of infection. the technology would also help those who have been exposed to a person with covid-19 self-isolate before they themselves become infectious.
of course there are concerns. privacy for one. opting to use bluetooth rather than location services which are very secure.
“no contact-tracing app can be fully effective until there is widespread, free and quick testing and equitable access to healthcare,” jennifer granick, the surveillance and cybersecurity counsel at the aclu said. “people will only trust these systems if they protect privacy, remain voluntary, and store data on an individual’s device, not a centralized repository.”
privacy and civil liberties activists have warned that such apps need to be designed so governments cannot abuse them to track their citizens. apple and google said in a joint announcement that user privacy and security are baked into the design of their plan.
pam dixon, executive director of the world privacy forum, said she will be looking closely at the companies’ privacy assurances and for evidence that any health data they collect will be deleted once the emergency is over.
“people are dying. we have to save lives. everyone understands that,” she said. “but at some point, we’re going to have to understand the privacy consequences of this.”
security experts also note that technology alone cannot effectively track down and identify people who may have been infected by covid-19 carriers. such efforts will require other tools and teams of public healthcare workers to track people in the physical world, they say. in south korea and china, such efforts have included the use of credit card and public transit records.
given the great need for effective contact tracing, the companies will roll out their changes in two phases. in the first, they will release software in may that lets public health authorities release apps for both android and ios phones. in the coming months, they will also build this functionality directly into the underlying operating systems.
recently the companies released preliminary technical specifications for the effort, which they called privacy-preserving contact tracing.
we are grateful that this collaboration is being attempted to help subdue the coronavirus.
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