materials

Michael Graves + [yellowtail] Wine Glass Collaboration Interview

Posted by _tango! on August 6, 2009
Posted in: brand, design, green, information, inspiration, materials, me, style. Leave a Comment

Last week, I had a brief interview with architect and product designer Michael Graves about his recent collaboration with [yellowtail] wines in creating a limited edition set of glasses which will be auctioned off this month on Ebay with profits going to the American Association of Museums.

I’ve always had an interest between the blurry design intersections in space and objects. Graves is one of few successful architects to bridge the object world most notably known for his Universal designs along with a line up of products sold at Target.

The brief interview with Graves and a video explaining the project more after the jump along with images of the 3 glasses his team created.

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Alicia Martin: Streaming Books Installations

Posted by _tango! on August 5, 2009
Posted in: art, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, inspiration, materials, style, wacky. 6 comments

Installation artist Alicia Martin sure has a thing for Streaming Books. This would have been a great PR piece for the Amazon Kindle!  a little kindle at the end of the book rainbow…

Reminds me a ton of the always fun zippy wooden Tunnel House here.

A few more pictures of her work after the jump including a video.

via urbanprankster

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Cheeming Boey: Styrofoam Cup Drawings

Posted by _tango! on August 2, 2009
Posted in: art, design, food, fun, ideas, inspiration, materials, style, thoughts. 2 comments


Artist Boey has a fun collection of drawings on Styrofoam Cups using one of our favorite pens the mighty Sharpie.  Boey’s cup collection is an endless diversity in curiosity and whim that will hopefully end up in a major brands series soon.  Make sure to see his Process and video of him making one of the pieces which I’ll add after the jump. I think he does commissions too if you want…

I know plenty of people willing to pay a small premium to have these  disposable cups any day! Or maybe just provide pens with every cup making it a DIY disposible cup.

I’ve had my share in using sharpies on everyday objects including Styrofoam cups, though my favorite is still the backside of a paper plate for some reason. I’ve always mentioned to students about drawing on more than just paper. Draw what you visualize after reading a page in a book… right on top of the page, sketch on a sphere, a cylinder, clothing, walls, shoes, chairs, wallets, pencils, CD’s, your desk, etc. Just because an object isn’t made to b drawn on, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.

I’ll post a few of my favorite cups from Boey’s collection after the jump.
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Weekday Brief

Posted by _tango! on July 31, 2009
Posted in: art, brand, conference, design, entertainment, experience, fun, information, inspiration, materials, me, misc, music, style, tech, TED, thoughts, wacky. Leave a Comment

Hello world! Thank you for all your messages over the weeks since I have not had time to post anything lately.

I’ve been incredibly busy at the awesome start-up I’m at (We’re hiring creatives/designers..contact me), glued late at night watching the incredible Tour De France or just Lance Armstrong, laughing several times at the video of Buzz Aldrin punching a news reporter claiming the moon landing was fake, seeing very simple fun addictive websites such as this one, comparing the positions of people doing yoga or being drunk, viewing an awesome video of bike pro Danny Macaskill doing some great tricks, attending TEDxBoston, watching the Incredible Youth Symphony of America(YOA) conducted by Ben Zanders, trying to figure out how to help with the inspirational foundation El Sistema USA (a TED2009 wish), and most recently having a great time watching a recent wedding dance ceremony introduction go viral posted above!

Besides the crazy busy month in work and odd distractions, I’ll be catching up to many of the suggestions sent in and posting again soon.  Or as I’d like to think, I leaned back briefly, just like President Obama did in this awesome picture in the White House.

Vadim Kibardin: Concept Clock

Posted by _tango! on July 10, 2009
Posted in: art, design, ideas, inspiration, materials, style, tech, thoughts. Leave a Comment


Designer Vadim Kibardin’s very neat OLED Clock concept. When it’s dark, the digits light up. When it’s dark, they are black. I’m not exactly sure how they turn black, or what the material would be, but I can see a version using e-ink to make the white surface black (same stuff that’s on a Kindle). Maybe I’ll just go get some phospher watches and mash into my wall so the clock seems embedded into the paint! buhyah!

via core77

Weekend Links

Posted by _tango! on July 3, 2009
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, fun, green, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, style, tech, wacky, weekendlinks. Leave a Comment

Art: Spiral of Michael Jackson
Work: 10 basic productivity tricks
Web: Etherpad, real time sharable writing board
Green: almost waterless washer…or 90% less water
Read: How industries Fail by Michael Nielson
Architecture: really cool large cube space.
Art+Design: Space Jello mold competition
Fun: Airplane toilet trick video
Odd: Fish with human like teeth
Style: Neat floors

Dushi: Super Sized Stuffed Animals by

Posted by _tango! on June 18, 2009
Posted in: art, design, fun, ideas, inspiration, materials, style, wacky. Leave a Comment


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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Bambu SnapStix

Posted by _tango! on May 29, 2009
Posted in: brand, design, food, green, ideas, materials, style. 2 comments

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: Pre Seller to Next Generation Products

Posted by _tango! on May 27, 2009
Posted in: brand, design, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, style, tech. 1 comment

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.”

1 Sheet Desk + Chair

Posted by _tango! on May 23, 2009
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, green, ideas, inspiration, materials, thoughts. 5 comments


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.