time to start your gift list.
here’s a gift suggestion for under $25.00 US. the creator-director, gary hustwit hopes Objectified will get non-designers curious about why objects take a particular shape. it’s an informative and educational movie shot in documentary style. also the kind that gets played over and over again if you have a jones for product design / designers. google it—many reviews out there.
Running time: 75 minutes. Extra footage: 60 minutes.
more objectified information here
Artist: gary hustwit
Producer: swiss dots
good design is as little design as possible
Dieter Rams (born May 20, 1932 in Wiesbaden) is a German industrial designer closely associated with the consumer products company Braun and the Functionalist school of industrial design.
In 1993 I asked Dieter to speak to the Architecture & Design Society at the Art Institute of Chicago. The society recently had a name change: “design” had been added. We joked ( ahem ) at the time that the real estate economy was so bad that the Architecture Society needed new members. We needed a credible and passionate design icon to speak to this group. Dieter became the first designer to speak under the society’s new name.
What I remember that night and again recently while watching the Objectified movie was Dieter’s 10 design principles. Honestly, I can’t tell you for sure that these are the same principles. Hoping Dieter will set the story straight.
I think I like the earlier stuff better. Maybe it was the materials or maybe it was so different than the pack at the time. The first Braun product I remember making a design connect to me was an electric razor. Much of Dieter’s work has long seemed more connected to brutalism than minimalism. Let’s say beautifully, brutally, minimal.
* Good design is innovative
* Good design makes a product useful
* Good design is aesthetic
* Good design helps us to understand a product
* Good design is unobtrusive
* Good design is honest
* Good design is durable
* Good design is consequent to the last detail
* Good design is concerned with the environment
* Good design is as little design as possible
resources:
vitsoe
designmuseum
gizmodo
victoria and albert museum
dieter rams flickr
braun flickr
37 signals
tendesignprinciples
new: a bit late
V-color line of bathroom faucets.
pretty innovative concept in a world of polished chrome and brushed nickel.
Producer: savil
After the Apple’s Magic Mouse mouse, here’s a blow of heart for this design made entirely of titanium and high quality resin, with laser optics.
Good to go on Windows and Mac OS X.
This is a hand-crafted device that is anything but humble (or cheap) or as smart as MM, but lays down challenge on the design front.
The ID mouse is Bluetooth enabled and is constructed from hand-formed grade one titanium and high quality plastic resin. It features a neodymium scroll wheel and is suitable for both left and right-handed users. Powered by two AAA batteries it is available in black or white and has a three-button layout.
Stunning design comes at a price – $1,200 USD
Designer: intelligent design
Apple introduces world’s first wireless multi-touch “Magic Mouse”.
Apple delivers minimalist design with no buttons, scroll wheels or “nipples” on display. Instead, the entire top of the aluminum-based mouse is a seamless hard acrylic multi-touch surface that lets users navigate using the finger gestures made popular on other Apple devices, such as the iPod touch, iPhone and Macbook trackpads.
Touch-sensitive surface enables familiar mouse controls: left and right mouse buttons, full 360 degree scrolling. Bottomline, the whole surface is, in fact, a clickable button like the original clear Apple mouse.
However, does not pinch zoom – instead, a screen zoom is accomplished by holding the Control key on the keyboard down while scrolling with one finger. Swiping across the touch surface with two fingers lets users flip through web pages in Safari or photos in iPhoto. You can also add custom touch controls.
The new Magic Mouse will be included with every new iMac and is available separately for $69 USD.
Producer: Apple
above: arrival at alice springs. recharging after arrival at Alice Springs (we came in with more than 120 km’s of range left, which made the recharge a quick one).
above: hackett and prelgauskas are driving hackett’s red 2008 roadster as part of the 10th annual global green challenge, one of the most high-profile rallies worldwide for production, prototype and experimental cars. Hackett is providing updates in real time on his blog.
The pair drove from alice springs, in the australian northern territory, to the finish marker at a point 183 km north of coober pedy, in south australia.
above: motor sport manager from the south australian motor sport board, jeffmattner,
applies a seal to the Roadster’s “fuel tank”.
above: simon hackett, as he sets off to break the world distance record for a production electric vehicle
above: simon and emilis making history with 313 (501 KM) miles on single charge
above: internode’s favorite road marker on the entire stuart highway
Producer: tesla motors
source: treehugger
it’s halloween. it’s candy. it’s mad science.
above: gummy bear periodic table.
above: gummy worm chromosomes.
Artist: kevin van aelst
