Thomas Raschke brings to us his wonderful series of “wire frame” artwork pieces ranging from full sized rooms, teddy bears, radios, power tools, and various other objects made from wire steel…yup I said wire steel (the above image is not from a computer). Most 3D designers are use to seeing wireframe on the computer screen, but having a wireframe table, house, or space would actually be pretty cool. I’ll post a few of his images after the jump.
Here’s a simple DIY guide in making your very own Chalkboard Wall Calendar to add a bit of personailty and jazz to your space. As messy as it might be and as unoften as you might actually use it, a chalkboard will always add that nostalgic spunk into any space. In fact, go get a few cans and go crazy with it. I’ve seen some great chalkboard tables (or here), vases, globes, shirts, wine bottles, and now this wall.
The DIY guide and other chalk product pics after the jump.
via marthastewart
Happy new years to ya’ll! If you’re jotting down a resolution list, I’d highly recommend going out and buying compact fluorescent bulbs for your house. My housemates and I did it last year, and our bills have gone down dramatically. The new bulbs use %75 less energy, are more environmentally friendly, last 10 times longer, and don’t cost that much more. I know the chart above says they cost 2-4 bucks, but my roommate bought a handful of them for a buck each. The great news is that Wal-Mart is pushing to get these bulbs into over 100 million households which should help drive the cost down. Go buy the bulbs, get your friends to buy them, save money, and be feel great doing good for your environment. Full story via nytimes.
or Full story after the jump.
nytimes video report
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I just treated myself to a refreshing glass of POM Juice Tea (Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea to be exact). Besides the zesty taste I’d like to point out the simple and sustainable container, which is shaped like a glass cup! Yup, it’s that simple. You pop off the top, and enjoy it like a fresh glass of juice. Better yet is that you can add it to your shelf for reuse. It’s a good thickness glass which I like more than most of the glass cups I have anyways. If your more of a herbs person, the cap pops back on airtight. Extra points for POM, their wonderful juices, and now their sweet sustainable glass containers!
How crazy cool, scary, mysterious, and inspirational is this! I love it when people take ordinary objects and make them extraordinary. In this case, lots of old newspaper transformed into an alien like monster that’s somewhat cute, yet scary to guard your entrance. I’m making one over the holiday break!
via MyHumanComputer
More pics after the jump.
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Popular Mechanics has a great list of tech materials or concepts that are rather inspiring. Pictured above is bendable concrete:
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The nickname for Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) is self-explanatory: bendable concrete. Specially coated microscopic polymer fibers slide past each other instead of snapping under stress, so ECC bends without breaking. The material has been used to create stretchable expansion joints for a Michigan bridge, and to allow the coupling beams in a 41-story tower in Yokohama to flex during Japan’s frequent earthquakes.
SHORT-TERM IMPACT: LOWIt could take years for ECC to be commonly used in construction, unless a major earthquake puts it in the spotlight.
This MUST SEE video of a spinning expanding table by DBFletcher seems like something from a sci-fi movie! It reminds me of the incredibly fun Hoberman Spheres that we have all played with. Watch their videos on their site, youtube, or above!
Wow! What an amazing story, idea, and kick-butt revolutionary company. Terracycle delivers the most eco-friendly consumer product in big box retail shelves made entirely by garbage, yet with a higher quality than most competitors and at a lower price! So, how they they do it? They use garbage!!! Founder Tom Szaky(23 yrs old when he founded TerraCycle and a freshmen Princeton dropout), explains, they get paid to take garbage away and they get paid to sell their new products. Their main product is a liquid worm poop fertilizer which is created by feeding red worms organic waste in return for their castings which get mixed with water to create a rich organic fertilizer that’s proven to be better than MiricleGro or various other competitors which are chemically driven rather than organic.(or as they claim, “The proof is in the poop!”)
Now with a great product came the task of packaging it. When they first started up, they had no money to purchase fresh bottles, hence another innovation…they ran around town collecting used soda bottles, cleaned them, added labels, and used that! They saved tons of money this way and also did something new in the product world; every single bottle was different, be it an old Pepsi bottle, Coke, Water, Sprite, etc. Their spray tops are even extras that have been dumped by manufacturers of other spray-on products and even the boxes that the plant-food is shipped in are misprinted rejects from major companies. Yup, it’s garbage made into huge profits at its best!
TerraCycle is a definite company to watch out for in our sustainably driven world. I’ve seen many companies re-use recycled goods, but I’ve never seen one come out with a product that can be used again, cost less, and is better than competiing products. They also have a pretty cool name tag concept to get kids pumped about recycling. Watch that video here.
For a deep read into TerraCycles company dig into their websites video and stories, this detailed article at Inc.com, or for a quick view, watch the YouTube video above.
More pics after the jump.
Do you go to art school, or sit through tons of crits(critiques)? Perhaps your in a space with tons of stools with missing or worn out foam pads. Well, if so, your butts probably craving one of these soft “crit buns” to sit on! “Crit Buns” were created by designers from my school RISD. I first spotted these colorful and graphically packaged buns during the RISD alumni sale and thought, duh…we all need one…then again, I just sat on my hands back when I was there even though the dirty pants from the charcoaled up floors were somewhat proud war marks for the RISD-oids.(mainly freshmen students since they have drawing studios which are famous for using bricks of charcoal a day which most kids end up sneezing out towards the end of the day…ooo, those were the days.) Go get a crit bun and make your buns smile!!!
Artist Pete Goldlust creates these delicate and inspiring carvings from colorful crayons!!! I’d bet his halloween pumpkin carvings are jaw-dropping!
via boingboing
Does your environment persuade the way that you think, act, and create? Absolutely yes! Watch this video of mind control magician Derren Brown manipulate some advertising creatives in a little test. Believe the video or not, I’m a huge believer that everything affects who you are; what you eat, read, watch, listen to, and especially the people and environments that surround you. After watching the video, watch the other great videos, books, and observations then question how everything around you influences and creates who you are.
I’m constantly coming up with definitions for a designer, but I never thought I’d say a magician, but I’m adding this to the list since magicians are masters of human observations and directions. As a designer, we have to understand how people perceive products, graphics, materials, instructions, sounds, time, spaces, etc. We create stories to consumers, viewers, and observers. As designers we are psychologists of human behaviors, marketers, advertisers, creators of direction and communications, and a bit of everything else.
Dig deep into Derrens websites here and here and get inspired, educated, and entertained about the human mind and more about ourselves.
The geniuses over at Hulger have created the first ever handmade wooden Pip Phone fashioned from the grained African hardwood Ziricote(Blackwood). This one of a kind phone (available for £2000) comes along with a wooden box and a container of wax for treatment to gradually make the natural wood an amazing texture and color that we all crave. As Hulger states, the phone is “designed to wear in, not wear out.”(I love it!)
I’ve mentioned previously (nostalgic technology) how tech products are not lasting, and currently only look their best until you open the package, hence millions end up in landfills yearly. I questioned how electronics can become more nostalgic or wear in to become better, much like leather jackets, teddy bears, old jeans, baseball gloves, leather wallets, handmade furniture, etc. I personally want to see soft materials injected into electronics, much like the recent Asus leather notebooks, or expensive Vertu Cell phones!
This is a first step at a handheld electronic device that will hopefully break in like Birkenstock cork sandals. I love wood, and have a weak side for beautiful items such as this. I understand the need in electronics to be thin and light weight, but if there was a way to make them age better, then there would be no need to have 1000 new phones designs each year that overfill our landfills.