Out with the old and in with the new?

Forget the most obvious and by now quite frankly the most boring fact about this house that is generated in my head - the fact i adore it. Scrap it, bin it, burn it.

What is important with this is that the design isn't out of place. What Anton Žižek and Marjan Poboljšaj have done here is genius in terms of the setting. They have taken an old building which represents the somewhat distinctive style of the location and run with it. As for the left half of the building, (on the top photo) I think one could have adopted a more subtle approach, but then again that might be a reason why these guys are doing what they are and I am here, drooling over their creation. Drooling because it is brilliant.

It is divided and yet uniform, it's modern yet traditional, it's radical yet... well radical. Someone find the owner and shoot him, I want this house.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

Today I'm going to do a piece on something most of you who read this (if anyone does) have realized is one of my favourite things in the whole wide world - ANIMALS. And this is mainly just because of the shear stunning-ness of these photographs. (make sure you check the others out as well)

But also I want to express my genuine amazement at how well designed these creatures are. Animals are perfectly designed to do what they do: you don't ever see a penguin cough because water went down the wrong way. A spider creates the strongest natural fiber in the world and yes, here is where you are supposed to interrupt me and claim that "man can do better!" Well, no, we can't! We can make stuff that is stronger and "better" but my question is - at what cost? All the chemicals and raw materials and energy used to make something so small and so strong are just a ode to nature in the form of pure disturbing noise. A tiny spider does the same thing without leaving a single trace, let alone a footprint on momma-earth.

Oh my, we have a lot to learn!

Stroke my screen

It is good to see people innovate and try to make things better, easier and simpler for people to use. Well, maybe not simpler in this case. Bare in mind, that I have not had a fiddle with this thing, so I am clearly inadequate to criticize it, but I just think I would have a tough time using the thing. Having been blessed with fingers slightly on the fatter side of things and which also lack coordination as much as a drunken pelican, I fear I would slide across letters that have no relevance to the word I'm trying to spell. Just like the weird-word example in the video.

Furthermore, the tracing sensors and the dictionary have to be rather clever to figure out when you are passing by a letter or when you want to include a letter, but it just happens to be en route to the next one.

That is all I am worried about, apart from that, knock yourself out, Symbian. I in the meantime will chuck this phone in the "not sure" box. Let it gather some dust in there.

Thinking inside the box

I found this and it kind of smacked me in the face like a truck hits an unsuspecting pigeon. We go on and on about packaging. It's like we are obsessed with the damn thing. Bubblewrap here, cardboard there, foam on top of it all. What is the point? Why do we spend so much time on designing something and then decide to put it in an ugly box which will be in the landfill quicker than it takes for a hungry lion to devour an antelope in a wheelchair. I like this design because its fresh and the user is less likely to be so disgusted with the box that she will set it on fire. I'd much rather scrap the box altogether, but I guess this is better than nothing.

Help me, I am a whore!

This image really forces the issue, I think. Are we happy to buy into an image? You looking at the screen, reading this, do you really lack so much in you that there is need for brands to express who you are? Would we not prefer letting our fashion and products tell others who we are, rather than telling us who we are?

I have strong preferences in certain designs and certain brands so you can easily tell me that I am a brand whore. But In my mind, I prefer them because I see how they reflect me, my mind, my line of thought, my ideas on designs for that particular product. However, at the end of the day, when I brush aside all that is thrown at my head from TV, internet on the walls around me when I walk in town, I see that the things I enjoy most are the ones that I can make most like myself.

Apparently, by default a person's image of beauty is incredibly similar to their own looks. According to that logic, shouldn't the best product for anyone be the one that is most like them? Thus, should we not design for an audience of one?

I often say consistency is key, but isn't customization really what should be at the heart of a brilliant design?

Days With My Dad

Once again I was on thecoolhunter.com and I found this. What really touched me was the simplicity of the things that Phillip Toledano said and how much they actually described his feelings for his dad.

The quality of the photographs is simply outstanding but not because they are visually overwhelming. It was the simplicity that took me. The photos of the smallest things he finds around the house - an empty chair, a notepad, scribbles. Its all about the huge amount of emotion that the plainest of photos convey.

At this point, you would expect me to say something along the lines of "i think we should try to integrate this idea in our designs". The truth is, I will say nothing because anything and everything I have already said ruins everything that the photos and words stood for. And for that I am truly sorry.

God bless you, Phillip and your parents in Paris.

Excuse me, you are in my FACE!

Having had several hundred people in my face at a club last night I started thinking about personal space and remembered I found this on thecoolhunter.com about a month ago. Its the Blue Frog Lounge in Mumbai. And yes, you guessed it - I love it.

Why is a different matter altogether because it is weird, awkward and quite frankly looks like what can be best described as burst bubblewrap that forms a tramp's shoe. But what it really does is create a social landscape of buzzing and exciting atmosphere. I have always been a fan of integrating light into interior design and this design does this perfectly.

Now, going back to my original aspect of personal space - for what in my mind a "lounge" is supposed to be... this is the most brilliant solution of all. The isolated "holes" provide people with a certain degree of privacy and yet not alienating us from the rest of the room.

To me, this is a perfect of designing for the user and designing for the purpose of the architectural space, which I think is rare. How often do we see architects trying to create some sort of a monument to themselves, rather that thinking about the people who will actually have to use the rooms. Chris Lee and Kapil Gupta, I salute thee.

Star Wars & Dune meet Nevada

"If you think Sietch Nevada sounds like a city taken straight out of the novel Dune then you’re right – a Sietch is actually a cave system that served as a village for the Fremen tribal community."

Matsys Designs designed this underground city to be built into the Nevada desert for the future to create an oasis for the drought-stricken world of the future. Now, if you think I'm going to have another rant about everything that is wrong with this idea, you are absolutely... wrong.

All I'm saying is that if we decide to start interfering with what momma nature has designed, we must be 100% sure that the designs will not contradict. That's all.

Apart from that, this is brilliant. Now I don't know about you but I'm not all that big on the whole "we are going to destroy everything around us in a matter of a few milliseconds through global warming unless we stop breathing, commuting and showering right now!" guilt campaign. The temperature on the fat lump of rock in space we call home has risen and dropped since "The BOOM." However, as from the perspective of independent thought, people as a community have next to nothing that distinguishes them from sheep, so it is our solemn duty as designers to make saving the planet as natural for them as... well, breathing. So I am glad to see that there are people out there who are thinking ahead to times when we may have to work hard in order to fulfill our most basic needs. When we may have to create such environments to protect things we now take for granted... like water.

Full article here

Shouldn't this be obvious to us?

I found this video on http://abduzeedo.com/best-week-91 this morning and I must say I am very impressed with innovativeness of this. So often in life we take what is around us for granted, we accept things for what they are, even when they aren't working properly. I think we should challenge things more and discover things out for ourselves.

The three-pin plug solution was the best for stability when it came out and still is. But we mustn't simply look at things from a single perspective. It may be the most stabile, but the least compact.

For me, diversity is key. Such a multi-positional design, in my eyes, belongs to the "brilliant" box because it functions to max under both of the conditions - whether stability or small size is required.

Please, PLEASE put this into production!

I'm alone?

I found this photo by Joe Holmes today and it made me think of the way we design things. It almost seems to me that as a community we take every possibility to isolate people. We design things in a way to cut the user off from the rest of the world. Here's just a few ideas so that you wouldn't think I'm having another of my rants without backing up any of my trash-talk: A car - isn't it just a metal box that creates a small environment that cuts us off from the rest of our community? IPods do the same - we listen to music and through that get completely drawn away from whatever is going on around us. Mobile phones, products that are made in order for people to communicate, to be in touch - how many times have we seen people in groups with nearly everyone texting away not talking to the person next to them. Do we really prefer black-and-white dots on a screen to another human being? Is there no more room for gestures, emotions or facial expressions in modern communication? What happened to a good old-fashioned face-to-face chat?

I think it is our duty as designers to make products more social, because in a world that moves along at such pace, who else can we count on that a friend?

Remember... Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet!

RENOKIM.COM

I found this on thecoolhunter.co.uk a couple a weeks ago now and it immediately caught my eye. Why you ask? Well, let me explain a few things about what we humans are. We love coming across something that that we recognise, somehow we feel less alone and less insecure this way. But then again...this? We recognise the woman gazing and then get overwhelmed by the graphics. They suggests her feelings, her intentions, her aspirations.

And why in the world should we not look at product design, or any other field of design for that matter, in the same way. Why shouldn't we make something that we instantly recognise for its function, but straight after that realise how different from the standard and special it is?

Are you serious?

Now, I saw this the other day and anyone who knows me knows that I'm all about pushing the boundaries with your design and innovating because let's be honest, what's the worst that can happen? You fail, the product goes to the crash-and-burn pile and in a month its forgotten, but other people may find inspiration from your work and once the boundaries have been pushed by such pioneer-ish products... Well, I guess it's a free ride for all! But come on, are you kidding me? THIS? The chair-butt-dress-balloon-thingy is just an innovative abortion. I do appreciate the thought of allowing natural action such as walking power other applications like the guy who designed the water carrier on wheels for third world countries. (When people in some african countries go to the river to bring drinking water that to be honest more resembles something from the sewer, the wheels on the bucket start a purifying function that provides fresh, clean water by the time the person gets back to the village) I think that is just a brilliant idea, but this... I mean, come on!

Do You know what?

I have realised over the years that I have a lot to say about a lot of things that I come across around myself. I tend to doubt or cherish their value in terms of design and choose to place them in boxes like "Doesn't deserve to exist" or "Want one, need one, couldn't live without one".

But enough of chit-chat. I want to start with this: the iPod shuffle.

Instantly a question arises in my mind - who in their right mind would buy one? If you haven't lost it within the first week, you will soon realise that the battery lasts about half a minute and trying to find a song that you want to listen to at that precise moment is more difficult than getting a penguin elected as the Prime Minister. Unless you memorise your entire iTunes library, you will never know what is playing, which may not be such a bad idea, but in my mind definitely proves a problem when listening to a brand new album.

And yet I put it the "Got one, because I adore it" box. It is brilliant when you go for a jog, this generation still looks like an iPod (which makes me smile inside) and it just feels like having a theme song to your day. I remember the adverts that told you to "wear music" and that's exactly what this is, its like a transparent product that in itself can only be described using words that should never see daylight and yet what it delivers is so much more. And thus I think its a brilliant little addition to the iPod range. It will leave people who are properly into their music hungry for more memory space and a screen to browse around with, but for someone who enjoys a little random music going round the place attending to their daily business, this is brilliant.