ideas

I’ve seen clouds, real clouds, and web clouds, but I’ve never see cardboard clouds, created by Fantastic Norway,  which give a pixelated environment of brown clouds which looks pretty awesome in a huge warehouse space. If you have a huge space to do something, go make cardboard clouds! Reminds me a bit of the styrofoam robots!

More pics after he jump!
via core77

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I think I’m going to require any cool space to have Super Sized Stuffed Animal Dolls by Florentijn Hofman from now on, which is on exhibit at Galerie West in The Hague (The Netherlands).

About the show:
Dushi: A solo show inspired by the toys and (cuddle)sculptures of children, where the change of scale completely changes their function and feeling.

Whenever I see a large room with space to fill, I’m going to think it needs a super sized stuffed animal to jump onto.

via todayandtomorrow
source: florentijnhofman

more pics after the jump!
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A convenient  wall of outlet plugs. I’d prefer an inductive wall with magnetic plugs! Anyhow, this beats finding the darn outlet each time hidden beind everything… though I’d fear a flare up.

“Instead of hiding your outlets behind furniture and worrying about the mess of wires tangled behind your entertainment center, consider making an entire wall that’s nothing but outlets. Then you can artfully plug in your appliances wherever the cords look pleasing to you.”

via ironicsans


Some wise words from our favorite marketing guru of all sorts Seth Godin about a rather amusing video:

“Paul just sent over this video of a dance tribe forming spontaneously at a music festival.

My favorite part happens just before the first minute mark. That’s when guy #3 joins the group. Before him, it was just a crazy dancing guy and then maybe one other crazy guy. But it’s guy #3 who made it a movement.

Initiators are rare indeed, but it’s scary to be the leader. Guy #3 is rare too, but it’s a lot less scary and just as important. Guy #49 is irrelevant. No bravery points for being part of the mob.

We need more guy #3s.”


YawnLog
(beta) simply lets you log your sleep time. Once you start using YawnLog you’ll understand your sleep time a bit more, how much sleep you get a day, week, month, or even how your sleeping patterns compare to friends, families, schools, cities, etc. Eventually these logs will be broadcast via twitter, facebook, etc, but what I’d really like is someone to figure out a smart way to auto log these sleeping patterns.. maybe connecting some sensor to your bed or pillow, alarm clock, lights, or something to automate this log.

I’ve only tested Yawnlog for a week, but it’s pretty obvious I don’t get much sleep on the weekedays, and hibernate on weekends. I do have this thought that students at art schools get much less sleep than other schools but who knows.

I’m one of those crafty types that fold the paper sleeve you get with chopsticks in a restaurant to make a neat little stand to rest the sticks on, though usually I’ll get lazy and just fold the sleeve a few times. We’ll, if your one that likes disposable chopsticks, but want something a bit more clever, simple, and fun, check out these Bambu SnapStix which add an extra cut on the back end of the chopsticks which snap off to become a stand. sweet!

You can get them for about $2 each.


Moq7 introduces the world to some pretty clever projects such as the Brush and Rinse fountain toothbrush before they become real. The idea is to expose great ideas to the world and let them decide if it’ll ever make it out to the real market by reaching an MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity). An MOQ is needed before a manufacture will actually produce that specific product for a given cost. The more (thousands) orders, the lower the cost.

The benefit to Moq7 is that early purchasers act like supporters, where an early order will get you the real product for a great price, but also help reach the MOQ minimum allowing them to hopefully manufacture many more to retailers around the world.

Give Moq7 a look, check out some cool concepts, and submit any ideas you have. It’s very similar to Threadless in the sense that people submit ideas, people place orders, and once a certain order amount is made by the thousands of other people in the world, it becomes real, and people are happy.

Moq7 is the world’s first discount pre-seller of next generation products.

We help manufacturers meet their concept product MOQ’s by offering consumers the opportunity to pre-order next generation goods at closeout prices in a concerted effort to boost innovation and create jobs.

MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) is the number of units that must be manufactured in order for a product to be produced and sold at a reasonable price – high volume / low cost.  We pre-sell items prior to production to help manufacturers raise the start-up capital they need to produce the item.   The sale price is further reduced for our buyers to reward them for placing orders prior to production.


All money is refunded should we fail to meet the manufacturer’s MOQ.  The numbers of units sold and the respective MOQ’s are listed with each concept product on this website
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If you’re not familiar with Ideablob, it’s a pretty simple, but brilliant, concept. Participants (or blobbers, as they’re called) post an idea, and the ideablob community votes for what they think is the best. Winners receive, in addition to the prestige of being a champion blobber, 10,000 seed capital towards the development of their idea, and there’s a new winner every month. Simple, but brilliant.

This month, we’re proud to announce our friend Sami Nerenberg is a finalist with her idea, Room by Room! Room by Room is an eco-home redecorating reality show for low-income housing where ten inner-city high school students will participate in six weeks of eco-design bootcamp for a chance to win a health home make-over. Sami is brilliantly talented and incredibly motivated, serving as the youngest adjunct faculty at RISD (where she’s also an alumn), a member of Grain Design, a Timberland Earthkeeper Hero, and an all around awesome person. She’s got tough competition (including Paul Polak, who we also love), but with the Brown University’s Community Environmental College behind them, the Majora Carter Group as their media consultant, Timberland as their publicity outlet, RISD as their cohorts,we think they’re in good shape.

You can vote for Sami and see the Room by Room preview here!


A classic foundation project that occurs at RISD during one’s freshmen year is making a chair with no glue or cuts with only folds using 1 large sheet of corrugated cardboard, and bonus points for including a table of some sort.

The above video is a result of Danny Kim’s quick exploration on this project. There are a few more online if you dig around, but I’ve always wondered why such great projects like his never make it to market even if using a different material? Cost, manufacturing, longevity, uniqueness, business, too creative, market.  Maybe I’ll just make a few for my house.

Thought of the week: Exploring new environments pushes for progression, but don’t always go in with the knowledge you carry from your past. Go in with experience, not necessarily your knowledge.

Compact Kitchen : an immersible kitchen table set.
Economy Vending Machine: It dispenses when the economy stumbles.
Objectified Documentary: it’s playing in Boston next week.
Diesel Side Watch: Putting time on the edge, not face.
Potato Portraits: face prints on potatoes…neat.


I was introduced to VerTerra’s intriguing dinnerware products during this years GEL conference. At first sight these unique plates seemed like raw sheets of veneer pressed into structural shapes, but then the founder gave a quick overview of the project. Simply put:

Our environmentally-friendly plates, bowls and serving dishes are made only from two products: fallen leaves and water. They’re non-toxic, biodegradable, compostable, durable, lightweight, convenient and downright stylish.

I love it! Collect fallen leaves, steam press them to shape,  then deliver it. The plates will run you about a dollar for a pair, but once they get into Wholefoods later this month, I’m hoping Verterra will be affordable enough to be a abundant in everyday gatherings.

I wished I grabbed a few samples when I had the chance, but I’ll just have to wait for the next gathering to get some…unles someone from Verterra can send me some for my next party 😉
If your seeking an alternative, check out Wasura paper plates, which will cost you a bit more, but just as cool looking.

Some pictures from VerTerra’s website after the jump.

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