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Category

Design

• Apr 04 2008
  Christian Dell by David Goligorsky
  Aesthetics, Architecture, Art, Design, History of Design, Materials, Politics, Product Design, history

  Christian Dell was a German silversmith who is probably best known for his lamp designs through Gebr. Kaiser & Co. They represent the use of bakelite and plastics in products as early as 1929. According to the Wikipedia page, Walter Gropius invited him to America after Dell was forced from the Frankfurt art school by the Nazis, but Dell stayed in Germany. Now... Walter Gropius was the founder of the Bauhaus school at Weimar before it was shut down by the Nazis. Gropius eventually found himself in America and became the director of the Harvard Graduate School of ...
  
  
• Apr 04 2008
  I think we all believe in change by Christian Eager
  Associative Thought, Design, Graphic Design

  I saw a new five-dollar bill the other day, and I can't help but agree with the implicit judgment from Jonathan Hoefler's juxtaposition: it sucks. I'm reading The Wisdom of Crowds right now and couldn't help but think about how it illustrated what seems so obvious from Surowiecki's crystal prose: aggregating diverse ideas generally produces the best results. Sure, there sometimes needs to be a mechanism for picking the best, but that works pretty well for Linux, the Iowa Electronic Market, and, evidently, the Royal Mint. Related: Get Helvetica Off Our Money
  
  
• Mar 19 2008
  Schnell! by David Goligorsky
  Aesthetics, Design, Engineering, Film, History of Design, Product Design, video

  I really like the Trabant 601. I think the body styling is perfect for a utilitarian vehicle but easily crosses over into a sports car (these vehicles have a long history of modification for rally racing). This phenomenon is also apparent in my friend, the Volvo 240. It is at once unassuming and enticing. I came upon a commercial (shown below) for the Trabant from the 60's which shows just how schnell and robust the car is. My favorite part is the scene where luggage is teleported from the street into the trunk. Every ...
  
  
• Mar 18 2008
  Oscar Diaz Conceptual Product Design by David Goligorsky
  Art, Associative Thought, Data Presentation, Design, Experience Design, Iconoclasm, Interaction Design, Perceived Value, Pragmatism, Product Design, Remix, Visualization

  I appreciate the counter-re-purposing of this object by Oscar Diaz. He made the candles to fit a standard E27 bulb fitting. I also like his calendar (concept?), which uses the controlled spread of an ink blot to depict the date. In the project statement, he describes how this calendar does not "signal" the passing of time, but gives a true sense of elapsed time by taking advantage of a slow physical process.
  
  
• Mar 10 2008
  Oobject by Christian Eager
  Design, Inspiration

  Reminiscent of Ffffound and the MoOM, albeit with more buzzwords and ads, is Oobject. It's a user-generated, but editorially-curated, superlative-object directory. If you can get over the gratuitously hyperbolic list titles, there's some good stuff for perusal. A few of my favorite lists after poking around include Amazing Analog Computers, Cool Aircraft Interiors, and Post Modern Cuckoo Clocks. REAC 600 Series Computer Interior of the Concorde Mini Cooper Cuckoo It seems to be updated daily, more or less, with a new or newly updated list of 10-20 objects.
  
  
• Mar 09 2008
  Nendo by Christian Eager
  Architecture, Design, Product Design

  Giving people a small " ! " moment. There are so many small " ! " moments hidden in our everyday. nendo concept I saw nendo's chocolate pencils on pica + pixel the other day. Candy collaborations, however, are the tiniest sliver of the work they do: furniture, product, architecture, graphic; they design it all. I particularly like Time, Yori (below), & the Book House.
  
  
• Feb 27 2008
  Hard to Pin Down by David Goligorsky
  Aesthetics, Design, Perceived Value, Product Design, Remix, wood

  There was an exhibit in 2006 that offered viewers a look at a relatively large collection of clothes pins. They are very simple objects, but as a product, there are countless offerings. In a product with one simple (intended) use and hardly any parts, it is interesting to think about how much variation is possible. I like the way the exhibitors described this: a lesson in the evolution of products, a lesson in change as inherent human need, as well as the need to interpret, to innovate, to say the same thing differently. (via UPPERCASE)
  
  
• Feb 13 2008
  Woody Allen by David Goligorsky
  Art, Design, Film, Graphic Design, Typography

  I came across these images of Woody Allen by Rosita Estevez on the Behance Network. They're based on his film "Zelig," in which Woody Allen is the star of a false documentary about a person who has social chameleon effects. e.g. In the company of British ladies, he will become a British lady. For those Woody Allen fans out there, I also just found out (via NotCot) that the typeface used in all his film credits is EF Windsor Elongated.
  
  
• Jan 18 2008
  A brief history of the drinking straw, part 1: From Sumer to Stone by Christian Eager
  Design, History of Design, history, patents

  Drinking straws have a history. A long one. Natural straws were used by beer-drinking Sumerians 5000-700 years ago as filters for solid particulate byproducts of fermentation. The grass-stem straw reigned until 120 years ago this month, when Marvin Stone patented a process for manufacturing spiral-wound tubes. Marvin C. Stone, US Patent No. 375692 The material was paper, with a small amount of adhesive at one end that secured the straw around the mold, initially a pencil. The straw was then removed from the mold and dipped in paraffin; this hermetically sealed and further strengthened the straw. Stone didn't rest with one advancement in ...
  
  
• Jan 17 2008
  About Time by David Goligorsky
  Aesthetics, Design, Engineering, Product Design

  I was reading the Wall Street Journal (the paper that my company subscribes to) and I came across several full-page color ads for hyper-expensive luxury wrist watches. I thought they looked tacky. They probably cost 10 times the worth of my car. I'm currently sporting a Mondaine M-Watch, which I purchased for $27 on eBay. It was new old stock from 1983 and shipped from Belgium and I love it. If you're in the market for a $20,000 wristwatch, let me dissuade you with some medium-high-end alternatives. First, there's the infinitely elegant Junghans "Max Bill" watch. It ...
  
  

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