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Weekend Links

Posted by _tango! on November 26, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, food, fun, information, inspiration, me, style, tech, thoughts, weekendlinks. Leave a Comment
weekend links

What an exhausting fun filled thanksgiving week/end! I was out in the Vegas area with family and friends pounding out hours of non-stop eating, mahjong, wii-ing, casino visits, shows, shopping, and many goofy hours with my many cousins in arcades (punch the duck game above) and everything else. Good times!

I’ve only returned to find out that a parking ticket I appealed 3 months ago got declined for no reason. I had pictures etc supporting the wrongful ticket, yet they will only let me dispute it in court, meaning take a day off from work, or pay the crummy $50. I really don’t understand why they don’t fix their system. Sure this system makes people pay more tickets, but when a wrongful ticket is given, the only choice is to pay rather than take a day off.

Design Note: Making money can be a sign of a great business, but sneaky tricks will lower the brand trust and the longevity in a business. Users come first in my world… always! Don’t you love those brands that just fix things without asking questions, then hate the ones that do ask!
Now for the links:
– Pancaking a truck video!
– Amazon.com launches “kindle”, their e-book/ink reader.
– Cool Torn graffiti work by Alexandre Farto
– Creative IKEA ads… I wonder if these layouts would be good?
– Swims: Rubber slip-on booties for your nice shoes.
– Popcorn Fork!
– Cool origami folds using bills!
– What hundreds of thin paint layers look like stacked!
– An Interview with Jim Gromen on the rebirth of MadBalls!
– Another Eco Friendly Powerstrip!
– Google Android (G-phone) emerges!

Pop!Tech 2007 Recap

Posted by _tango! on November 13, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, me, Poptech, style, tech, thoughts. 1 comment
Poptech 2007 Camden Maine Jonathan Harris Dan Gilbert, Carl Honere

I’ve returned from the mind-numbing inspiring PopTech Conference still a bit jittery from the collective curious minds at this year’s awesome gathering. This year’s theme “The Human Impact” was way more than I expected covering everything from politics, waste, medicine, minds, communities, art, science, music, and everything else in between. The speakers filled the opera house with passion, greatness, huge questions, and ideas that sparked the hundreds attending and thousands watching online.

PopTech also launched a new extension to their conference called the “Pop!Tech Accelerator” facilitating world changing projects starting off with “Masiluleke“which is a groundbreaking software tool for HIV/AIDS patients throughout Africa. The idea of “Accelerator” is to leverage the community of PopTech attendees with their network to create world changing projects.

As usual, I’ll point my fingers to ninja blogger Ethan Zukerman who sat in the dungeon simulcast room next to me zipping his feisty fingers onto his furious laptop for the complete detailed recap, but I’™ll post more on my experience, a bit on the speakers, lots of pictures, and my journey up to beautiful Camden Maine. I’m not sure when all the footage will be archived and available for viewing, but they’ll eventually appear on their PopCasts Streams which I’d suggest catching up to.

My recap after the jump, otherwise, Poptech 2008, a definite must go to!

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Vilayanur Ramachandran: A journey to the center of your mind

Posted by _tango! on November 11, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, me, thoughts. Leave a Comment

Here’s another great TEDtalk by Vilayanur Ramachandran on the brain, phantom limbs, synestesia, and how vision plays a critical role in all our minds.

“In a wide-ranging talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran explores how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. He talks about phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the Capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and family have been replaced with imposters.”

Many friends ask me why am I so scientific about design, or why do I dissect every element possible before concluding to a final design direction (interaction, experience, and industrial design). Usually I just say there is no other choice, but such videos as the above explain it all. There is reason for everything and that’s the exciting part. I can stop and say I just like a design, but to figure out why someone likes, hates, or experiences a design differently is the good stuff. Everyone has a different experience growing up hence in my world there is no such thing as an exact definition but only dynamic definitions. This goes for words, colors, emotions, scents, ideas, cultures, objects, people, etc.

Anyways, I won’t dive into this argument too long because there is no wrong or right… just an opinion. I’ll admit I wasn’t always like this, but I’ll list a few videos over the years that have that made me dive deeper into the “design thinking” world. Hearing from non-designers is key in our future. We are a hybrid society of designers. If you inspire only from designers, you’ll just become the same… so diversify and become the hybrid that we all are.

Seth Godin (video)(gel video)- Marketing, Purple Cow, Marketers are Liars.
Malcolm Gladwell (video)- Sociology, Blink, Tipping point
Steven Levitt (video)- Economics, Freakonomics
Steven Pinker (video)- Psychologist
Dan Gilbert (video)- Psychologist, Stumbling Happiness
Juan Enriquez (video)- Economics
Barry Schwartz (video)- Psychologist, Paradox of Choice
Erin Mckean (video)- Lexicographer
William McDonough (video) – Architect/sustainability, Cradle to Cradle
Al Gore (video)- Climate Crisis
Hans Rosling (video)(blog)- International Health
Chris Anderson (video)- The Long Tail
Chris Jordan– (video)(treehugger post) Photography/Consumerism

So many to name, but this is a good list to start some disrupting.

Heineken World Bottle: Beer to Bricks!

Posted by _tango! on November 10, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, food, green, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, style, thoughts. 27 comments
Heineken wobo glass bottle to brick sustainable concept

Sweet goodness! What a great idea. Manufacturing Beer bottles to convert to brick structures for later use. This reminds me of the POM bottles that can be used as regular glass cups for home use. Why can’t this come back to reality! The amount of bottles tossed each year is absurd. Makes me want to ask photographer Chris Jordan to make a visual map of it for his “Running Numbers” series! (Did ya know in the USA alone we go through 106,000 aluminum cans every 30 seconds! It’s absurd!) There’s also the “66 Beer Bottle= a cheap solar water heater” direction.

“Upcycling is a 21st century term, coined by Cradle to Cradle authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart, but the idea of turning waste into useful products came to life brilliantly in 1963 with the Heineken WOBO (world bottle). Envisioned by beer brewer Alfred Heineken and designed by Dutch architect John Habraken, the “brick that holds beer” was ahead of its ecodesign time, letting beer lovers and builders alike drink and design all in one sitting.

Mr. Heineken’s idea came after a visit to the Caribbean where he saw two problems: beaches littered with bottles and a lack of affordable building materials. The WOBO became his vision to solve both the recycling and housing challenges that he had witnessed on the islands.”

I want I want!!! It’s like buying Lego’s with your beer bottle as an adult! or you can just reuse what you have laying around much like the students at Western Washington University.(their show is in Seattle today, Nov 10th, 5-7pm)

via inhabitat

Aarrow Advertising

Posted by _tango! on November 6, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, inspiration, style, wacky. 3 comments

Check this out. Some students get summer jobs holding up signs on street corners, they get bored, so they start competing against each other, flipping their signs like bartenders with bottles or pizza dough spinners. They start up their own advertising company, their acrobatic signage goes viral , and now they have a multi million dollar company with sign spinners across the country! via The Big Idea

Seriously, you can freshen up any dead business and make millions… very cool!
Watch the video above, their website, story, or other videos.

Weekend Links

Posted by _tango! on November 4, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, experience, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, style, tech, wacky, weekendlinks. Leave a Comment
Pixels games sketches

Note of week: “Mystery is more important than knowledge.” JJ Abrahms. This might apply to all shakes in life but sometimes it’s just better not to know, in life or in TV shows.

– Smart Strips, Power strips that actually stop using power when appliances are turned off.
– A new Plug In hybrid designed by BMW and Aston-Martin Designers. Will this compete with the Tesla and Aptera?.
– Houses with a view! Breathtaking!
– Sketches for games. Very cool! via NotCot.
– A visual interface comparison over time: Google vs Yahoo.
– FOUND magazine. A magazine made up if things found… usually odd notes. good stuff.
– Device Charger Holder. A cute useful stand for your phone and plug.
– Targets NYC Grand Central Holographic Fall Fashion Show (Nov 6,7)

Airtight Interactive: TiltViewer

Posted by _tango! on October 26, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, ideas, inspiration, style, tech. Leave a Comment
airtight interactive simple viewere tilt viewer

Airtight Interactive bring to us Tilt Viewer, a new way to browse Flickr photos in a 3D space (instructions here). Also check out their other product SimpleViewer which I use for my photos (has not been updated lately).

I’m all for cool interfaces, but sometimes fun interfaces overwhelm the users experience being too complex and taking too much time hence not getting the user adoption needed. The thing I really like about Airtight Interactive is that they put just enough freshness into their products without over doing. Keep it rocking!

Silhouette Wine Glasses

Posted by _tango! on October 26, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, experience, food, ideas, me, style. Leave a Comment
silhouette wine glass

I swear, this ideas been sitting in my sketchbook for the last 6 years, but again, someone beats me to the market (my design is still a bit slicker I think). Anyhoots, yeah, check out these Silhouette Wine glasses with a voided space allowing ya to drink wine without the need to tilt your head all the way back. The voided space also lets ya dig your sniffling nose right down to the wine as well as creates a keyed position for the wine head to sit on when poured. I’m not sure if I’d cough up the $54 price tag for each glass, but it’s cool to see this idea in the market.

via Gizmodo
Source: GreatWineGlass.com (with semi cheesy sales video, but cool manufacturing video)

TEDTalks Master List

Posted by _tango! on October 15, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, food, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, me, misc, style, tech, TED, thoughts, wacky. Leave a Comment
Ted Talks Poster List

“Two weeks ago, TED.com hit a milestone: posting our 150th TEDTalk. To help you keep track of all the TEDTalks you’ve watched and want to watch, here’s a simple, low-tech tool: a list of all the TEDTalks posted to TED.com so far, in the order they were posted.”

Nice, a master list! via TED

Other inspirational conference video sources:
– GEL videos
– POP!TECH PopCasts
– GadgetOff
– All Things Digital 

Pop!Tech 2007

Posted by _tango! on October 14, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, me, Poptech. 3 comments
poptech pop!tech 2007

I’m off to the mind-numbing idea-gathering  Pop!Tech Conference focusing on “The Human Impact” this week in beautiful Camden Maine October 17-20. If your not one of the lucky ones to attend, be sure to tune into their interactive LIVE STREAMS . Yes, I said Live and free! Otherwise, if you want some catching up to do, go through their Pop!Casts videos from previous years, go through their blog, or check out my post from lasts years fun trip

As usual, I’ll be back with goodies to post about.

GM Test Drive Experience: Detroit Proving Grounds

Posted by _tango! on October 12, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, me, style, tech, thoughts. 9 comments

GM test drive detroit driving

A few weeks back I was invited by GM to fly out to their Proving Grounds in (Milford) Detroit to test drive their new 2008 cars, take a “Drivers Skill Enhancement Course” (stunt school), interview some VP’s in Design and Energy, and have some fun. I’ve grown up driving Japanese cars but took this opportunity to dive into GM’s world with an open designers mind and to scope out all of their brands; Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, Cadillac, Saturn, Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC.

I’d like to thank GM for funding this gathering and would welcome this adventure again though I’d suggest a few changes which I’ll address throughout.

If ya don’t like to read, check out the video I composed from hundreds of pictures taken during the journey above.The entire journey and story after the jump.

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