Tuesday 29 September 2009

Temporary Printing Machine

By Random-International

Sunday 27 September 2009

Sonogram Cufflinks



"Sonogram Cufflinks ~ could this be the creepiest way to break the news to a unsuspecting dad to be?"

Wear Your Dream Home On Your Finger






By Jeweller Philippe Tournaire

Saturday 26 September 2009

How To Make A Scanner Camera



I really want to do this at somepoint to see what sort of effects and results it can produce.

Fortnightly Polaroid

A polaroid photo taken every 2 weeks for 12 years

Polaroid's "The Swinger"

Wednesday 23 September 2009

92 Must See Creative Photographs





Obviously most of them, if not all, have been Photoshoped.

More discussions on photography

Digital Memories and Meaning:
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=165361

Instant vs Digital Photography: http://www.flickr.com/groups/polaroid_/discuss/72157622270562229/

What Does Photography mean To You?

With so many different ways to take photos these days and so many people taking photos, from the amateur to the professional, from the young to the elderly, what does taking a photograph mean to you?

Join in the discussion at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/10millionphotos/discuss/72157622439205996/

Or at: http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=1911761#post1911761

100th Post

Just because!

Scanner Camera, Bus Ride Animation

Bus Ride (Scanner Camera) from Michael Golembewski on Vimeo.

Monday 21 September 2009

Pop Up Cardboard Furniture


"Cardboard furniture offering flexibility as well as sustainability to the manufacturers and users has emerged as a popular material of late. Designed by Liddy Scheffknecht and Armin B. Wagner, the “Pop Up” is a unique furniture unit that folds flat for easy storage and transportation. Measuring 94 x 275 x 200 cm, the furniture when unfolded pops out of the flat cardboard sheet. Though I’m not too sure about its workability, still the Pop Up gives a new dimension to portability and sustainability of the home furniture."

Sappy Polaroid Ad 1989

Thursday 17 September 2009

Ansel Adams







"At one with the power of the American landscape, and renowned for the patient skill and timeless beauty of his work, photographer Ansel Adams has been a visionary in his efforts to preserve this country's wild and scenic areas, both on film and on Earth. Drawn to the beauty of nature's monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a monument himself, and by photographers as a national institution. It is through his foresight and fortitude that so much of America has been saved for future Americans."

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Steel Velcro

"Totally wicked: The Metaklett strips you see above are essentially steel Velcro, developed by German engineers at the Technical University of Munich and intended, like the regular stuff, to be fastened and unfastened without the use of tools.
The steel strips, "one kind bristling with springy steel brushes and the other sporting jagged spikes," are only 0.2 millimeters thick, but a square meter of the stuff can hold "a perpendicular load of 7 tonnes." Developer Josef Mair foresees the stuff being used for building facades or automobile assembly. And it will withstand temperatures of up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit, so you could even use it in Arizona in July."


Via core77

Microsoft's Digital Shoebox

"Most current digital storage is provided by hard disks hidden away in PCs and laptops, its content arranged in a complex hierarchy of folders. Pictures stored in these hidden devices are rarely seen around the home unless they are printed out. Shoebox aims to challenge both the visibility of typical storage devices in the home, and the ease with which users can surround themselves with their digital memories, by providing a container that is intended to be on display, and that is also intended to be used to hold images from specific events or people, rather then all the users images."

Saturday 12 September 2009

What Is Design?

Also from John Heskett's 'Toothpicks & Logos'

'Design' has so many levels of meaning that it is itself a source of confusion.

The End Of Design!!!

"These changes are part of a repetitive historical pattern. As described earlier, the evolution of a new stage in design does not entirely replace what has gone before, but, instead, is layered over the old. This had been a recurrent pattern throughout the history of design. It not only helps explain why there is such a diversity of concepts and practices about what constitutes design in contemporary society, but also raises a question about what extent to which similar changes will confront us in the future. Exactly what will transpire is uncertain, but the signs are unmistakable - new technologies, new markets, new forms of business organization are fundamentally altering our world, and, without doubt, new design ideas and practices will be required to meet new circumstances. The greatest degree of uncertainty, however, revolves around the question: whose interests will they serve?"

p34 Toothpicks And Logos: John Heskett

After attending 'The End Of Design', a lecture held on thursday night at uni, by Tom Inns and Mike Press, I felt that this quote sums up what some of the lecture was about.

We are not coming to the end of design, we are coming to the end of a design era and a new one is about to begin. From the book by Heskett, he refers to the history of design ass being layers and when we come to a new age of design it is just added to the previous layers of design. (for a better understanding you might be better reading the book.)

And the last question in this quote emphasises what Mike Press said about how the new design direction is 'social design,' which is where the major priority will be designing for the publics needs and not for company profits.

Monday 7 September 2009

Sunday 6 September 2009

Ronan And Erwan Bouroullec









http://www.bouroullec.com/

Thomas Hawk






"Sometimes I like to think of myself as a photography factory. I see my photographs mostly as raw material for projects that might be worked on at some point later on in life. " Thomas Hawk

"British Design Is Not Dead – It Is Overlooked"

"Things ain't what they used to be, and no mistake. This, more or less, is what Alice Rawsthorn, a well-known champion of modern design and ex-director of London's Design Museum, told New York Times readers on Sunday. Modern British design is often not very good, she says. Whether she turns her eye to telephone kiosks, London buses or the "achingly embarrassing" 2012 London Olympics logo, Rawsthorn sees change and decay all around.

She needn't have stopped there. She might have mentioned such things as Norwich Union's potty decision to change its tried-and-tested name and logo to the meaningless and forgettable – sorry, I'm going to have to look it up – Aviva. Or she might have turned her unforgiving gaze on contemporary "street furniture", from bus stops to benches, which are as ugly as they are banal.

Her American audience will no doubt lap up this act of British self-loathing. Yet Rawsthorn is right, at least in terms of public design. When she talks about such brilliant erstwhile design patrons as
Frank Pick, chief executive of the pre-second world war London Passenger Transport Board – the man who gave Londoners, and visitors to the city, the very best in Tube trains, double-decker buses, maps, posters, station architecture and so much else – she is taking us into a past that has truly disappeared.

Why? Because in Pick's day, public design was what mattered. Consumerism was in its infancy; marketing a toddler. Most British people neither owned cars, nor had much to spend their money on on beyond the basics of everyday life. Over the past quarter of a century, the public sector in Britain has declined while the private sector has boomed. And, as investment in public sector design has dropped, so retail design has enjoyed a field day.

Today, there are inspired British designers working in all sorts of areas. Many people will enjoy the quality of their work in contemporary furniture, book jackets, graphics and much more. Think of the success Jonathan Ive has had as the designer of Apple's sleek iMac, iPod and iPhone. Look at the evergreen inventions of Tom Dixon, a prolific designer who began as a punky metal worker in the mid-80s and produces a wide range of his own lively furniture and lighting today. Or enjoy the intriguing fabrics and wallpapers designed by the Scottish duo Alistair McAuley and Paul Simmons, trading as Timorous Beasties, in which startling scenes of contemporary life are woven or printed into traditional patterns and materials.

There's no doubt that at the hi-tech end of design engineering, Britain can still take on the world. The Rolls-Royce engine design team, led by Geoff Kirk at Derby, is one of the world's very best. I can well imagine a designer like Jasper Morrison, with his cool, pared-down approach, working for a public sector client like Frank Pick; but, at the moment, there is little such work available.

Equally, much of what we buy as consumers in Britain is made overseas (mostly in China), so there is less and less of what we traditionally regard as British design, even in the private sector. I had a look at the
Design Museum's website a moment ago: in their illustrated list of recommended new chairs designed in the 2000s, Morrison is the only British representative, while the companies he designs for are not British.

So, it's not a lack of homegrown design talent that's the problem, but the way that the economy and our ways of life have changed since London Transport, the Post Office and other public corporations led the way in public design. British design is often very good; for better or worse, we have to shop around for it."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/aug/26/british-design-public

Top Tips From Core 77 To Bag Yourself a Design Job

"As an employer we have been frustrated with the poor applications that we have received recently. Here are some of the most major errors we're seeing:

1.Poor grammar, lack of capitalization, typos, poor spelling, and no indication of which job they are applying to. Even if English is your second language, use spell check and grammar check! Ask friends to look things over. Craftsmanship is key.

2.Individual jpgs sent as samples. There is no way we are opening 10 attachments, period. Sorry. You've been rejected. Next!

3.Calling when the ad says no calls - this is a variation of the less common but more annoying version of the, "I'm just stopping by, can you see me now?"

4.No sketches or background material in your portfolio.

5.Not following pretty basic instructions in job wanted ad on how to apply

Here are the ingredients to a great application: Cover letter, Resume, and Samples Cover Letter - research the company and write a personalized letter. This can be the email that you attach your resume and samples to. Please tell me in this letter which job you are applying to - DUH! I don't care why you want to move to my city (I don't care that your girlfriend live here) but I do care about why you think you are right for my company.

Resume: Please keep this to one page unless you have tons of experience. Sponsored studios don't count as experience, sorry. Include a graduation date. My last post was for a true junior designer. I had juniors trying to appear as if they had 3 or more years of experience. I disqualified those people. Too bad. Be honest.
Samples could be a teaser or a complete portfolio:

Teaser: 1 project with support work or 3-4 projects in final form

Complete portfolio: Should consist of 3-4 projects (minimum 3) from start to finish. You should document your thinking and decision making process from start to finish. We are looking for how much exploration and research you did, mechanical ability, aesthetics, and sensitivity to the user. We want to see the bad ideas you rejected as well as the really crazy ideas your instructor thought were too blue sky. We also want to see your mock ups. We are looking for your visual communication skills - this means sketching. If you can't sketch, it's still better to include your thinking than to not include it."

Mobile Rings




"The color rings by BCK design team, including Javier Bertani, Ezequiel Castro and Vera Kade" (Via The Design Blog) More at http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/the-color-rings-is-wireless-est-way-in-cellphone-communication/