I’m off for the week to TED2009 for this years theme “The Great Unveiling”, but this round I’ll be in the satilite space in the new Palm Springs location. I won’t be blogging too much, but you can follow me on twitter, or if your there, let me know and we’ll meet up. Check out the full TED schedule here or my previous TED adventures.
“Hit it” is a series of furniture, consisting of a table and chairs. They resemble Saloon furniture from western movies, but the difference lies in the material. Hit It allows everyone to feel like a strong cowboy. Saloon fighting will now not only be fun, but safe.”
We’ve all played with stress balls, but I’d love to get my hands on a stress table or chair and smack it around like a cowboy in a movie set! Awesome, I want, I want!
(more pics after jump)
Mihoko Ouchi and Sherwood Forlee of “Think of The” have created a very pop art like laptop speaker in the form of a quotation bubble. Very simple and rather amusing! Personally, I’d prefer a black rimmed, white speaker to match Ji Lees Bubble Project Stickers, but black works just as well
Available this soon in 2009 for $120.
(more pics after jump)
I’m not sure what the deal with sharks is this week, but after finding the fun “There’s a Shark in my Soup Bowl” design, I’ve come across another whimsical use of a shark fin for a tea bag holder from designer Pablo Matteoda . Sharky holds your tea leaves in a floating metal fin container while slowly dispersing tea leaf colors into the water creating a shark attack like scene. Fun, but also somewhat terrifying.
There’s a “Shark in my Soup” Bowl ($70) by designer Apostolos Porsanidis! I can already hear a miniature version of the Jaws soundtrack in my head!
What happens when you bring the whole freakin’ internet into a room to talk, drink, get happy, and call it an internet culture conference? We’ll, in truth, I’m not sure, but I’m headed down to NYC to find out at this years ROFLThing gathering!
Founded by Tim Hwang (Harvard Berkman, Creative Commons,The U.S. Bureau of Fabulous Bitches) and his rock star team of coders, shakers, and makers, RoflCon (Rolling on the Floor Laughing) kicks off this Saturday in NYC at Santos Party house. The event seems to be sold out, but throw them a note and get on the list or tip the bouncer a few bucks.
A few speakers/attendees to note:
– ObamaGirl
– Phillip Torrone at MAKE
– Bre Petits of MAKE, NYCResistor
– Jim Louderback of Revision3
– Ji Lee of Bubble Project
– Jason Bitner co-founder of FOUND Magazine
– Matt Bledsoe and Troy Hitch of You Suck At Photoshop.
– Vincent Connare, creator of Comic Sans Font
– Ian Spector of Chuck Norris Fact Generator
– Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere
– Alexis Ohanian co-founder of Reddit
– and anything else internet!
– The rest of the NYC RoflThing speakers+schedule here.
Okay, it’s late, I’m a bit tired, but this grabbed my attention. GetPeek, the thin simple mobile device that let’s you email and text message (through email) that usually cost $100 with a $20 monthly service fee is going all out and offering a 1 day lifetime service purchase for $300! Yes, I said Lifetime!
I’m not sure what to think, besides this is tempting… but then again, do I need it, do they need it, why are they doing this. Anyhow, it’s a 1 day deal, so I’ll let your mind make up a decision. As far as I know, if it’s a lifetime purchase and I can change the email several times, then I might just get it and pop it in the car, or hand down many generations, or, just use for some bizarre project.
Kudos to GetPeek for doing something first… or at least this is a first I think…is it? Buy it here.
Air Bear by Joshua Allen Harris. Another cool making of video here. via core77
Gary Hustwit, creator of the incredible documentary Helvetica, brings to us his journey in discovering the world of Industrial Designer in Objectified, premiering in March 2009.
“Objectified is a feature-length independent documentary about industrial design. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. It’s about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them.
Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?”
Some appearing in the film are Paola Antonelli (MoMa), Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Naoto Fukasawa, IDEO, Jonathan Ive (apple), Marc Newson, Karim Rashid, Smart Design, and more…
This line up already tells a tale of what to expect from the film (more of a euro flavor about objects, furniture, materials, service, space, and the simple obsession with emotional design.), but I’m sure it’ll be just as good as Helvetica, and if so, bravo! I cant wait to watch it! Watch the trailer above or here.
As I return from this years holiday break I’m reminded of the everlasting question “What do you do in design?” Fields such as transportation, furniture, shoes, toys, and electronics are a bit easier to describe in a few sentences, but for those like myself that do a bit of everything both tangible, emotional, interaction, print, marketing, biz, branding, spacial, manufacturing, packaging, art, the future, the past, research, etc it’s an adventure to describe the simple question “What do you do.”
Core77 has an interesting article describing the everyday hurdle industrial designers have had defining the evolving Industrial Design discipline. Simply put, “Design is a mess”. This isn’t bad, it’s just that the term Industrial Design is still fairly new constantly defining itself, hence, we as designers today, are defining what industrial design means.
Check out the full Core77 article here, or after the jump. The Book project is by Stephanie M. Tharp and Dr. Bruce M. Tharp at DiscursiveDesign.com.
Fun Fun with teabags…
via thedieline.com
I’m off to Monterey CA for TED conference founder Richard Saul Wurman’s newer “Entertainment Gathering” Conference!
The speaker list is quite impressive with a seemingly circus like theme this year based on this cool pdf program floating around.
Some highlight speakers I’m craving to meet:
– Violin guru Joshua Bell
– X Prize founder Peter Diamandis
– Applied Minds inventor Bran Ferren
– Viral Global Dancing Matt Harding
– Egypt’s Indiana Jones Zahi Hawass
– HEROES writer Tim Kring
– Illustrator David Macaulay
– MIT MediaLab founder Nicolas Negroponte
– Technologists David Pogue
– Dirty Job’s dirty man Mike Rowe
– Mythbuster’s Adam Savage
– PIXAR co-founder Alvy Ray Smith
– Magician Jamy Ian Swiss
– Penn&Tellers Teller
– A floating Zepplin, idea makers, shakers, and creators everywhere! Plenty of surprises…