Design and Architecture
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Photoessay: Megablocks Make Up China’s Gilded Age
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Recently developed areas of Beijing surrounding its former imperial core are riddled with megablocks, where huge swaths of land are handed over to developers and fashioned into towering apartment high-rises interwoven with malls and public spaces. Once built, they form distinct urban islands, bounded by grand avenues and further hemmed in by large highways that…
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Dieter Rams: Ten Principles for Good Design and World Receiver T 1000
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While helping unpack boxes in my parent’s new house today, I noticed they own a Braun coffee maker. Although I’ve probably drank coffee from this maker for years, I never noticed that it was a Braun product – and I love that. The design is so simple and useful, it blends right in. I’ve been…
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Interactive Mapping: Trulia’s Local Commuter Map
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I love this new mapping tool from Trulia. Based on your current location, it calculates the average commute time to your destination, based on multiple traffic factors. The use of the Google Maps API is great!. Thanks for the heads up, Mark Wilson. In addition to commute times, Trulia’s maps also feature lots of other…
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The New Twitter Bird Logo Explainer Is A Nod to the Pepsi Logo PDF
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Is the explainer video illustrating the new Twitter bird logo a nod in the direction of the imfamous Pepsi logo design PDF? Seems like it. The new Twitter logo is a slight departure from the original – and I love their explanation of how the lines were derived. Our new bird grows out of love…
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The Art of Crafting a Leica Camera
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Great video from Leica highlighting the meticulous craftsmanship that goes into each Leica Camera: Watch the making of the Leica M9-P »Edition Hermès« — Série Limitée Jean-Louis Dumas, introduced in Berlin at the “LEICA – DAS WESENTLICHE” on May 10, 2012. This limited edition is a celebration of the friendship and collaboration between Jean-Louis Dumas,…
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A Vertical Forest in Milan is Actually Being Built!
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I’ll take three, please. Construction has already started on a pair pf buildings in Milan, Italy that incorporate massive planters on the outside of the building which will give homes to about 900 trees and shrubs. This vertical forrest is supposed to help air quality in Milan. Interesting to see such a lofty, concepty project…
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Interface of the Day: Levitating Orbs Make Tactile UI
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This takes the cake for user interface of the day.. week… Just a concept, but by levitating orbs, Jinha Lee allows users to intuitively manipulate a hybrid physical/virtual interface: Jinha Lee, from the Tangible Media Group of the MIT Media Lab, in collaboration with Rehmi Post, has been playing with the idea of manipulating real…
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The Descriptive Camera Uses Human Intelligence Tasks to “Develop” Photos
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Does a higher HIT bit get you better camera “resolution”? The Descriptive Camera works a lot like a regular camera—point it at subject and press the shutter button to capture the scene. However, instead of producing an image, this prototype outputs a text description of the scene. Modern digital cameras capture gobs of parsable metadata…
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gokey: keeping your keys safe on the go
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An interesting concept, but I’m not totally convinced. I already run with my large-ish Garmin Forerunner 310XT GPS watch on one wrist, and try to keep the stuff I run with to a minimum. If you must run with a metal key on you, this could be a workable solution – however, how about just…
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Innovative Transparent Bubble Tents – My Modern Metropolis
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I’d love to stay in one of these for a bit.. French designer Pierre-Stéphane Dumas has put a new spin on camping outdoors with his series of tent-like chambers shaped like igloos, under the name Bubbletree. Each bubble suite is fit to be fully furnished with enough space for a bed and resting chairs. They…
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Composer Creates Artificial Engine Sounds For New Audi Hybrid @PSFK
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Interesting concept from Audi – custom vehicle noises for otherwise silent electric cars. audi e-sound for e-tron electric vehicles from designboom on Vimeo. Composer Creates Artificial Engine Sounds For New Audi Hybrid [Video] @PSFK.
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Find Out What’s New with Startup Videos
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Love having complicated new products explained to you with nifty animations and videos? Startup Videos is here for you. This gallery site collects some of the best explainer and product intro videos out there. A few of the more interesting ones I found: Dollar Shave Club MixScan MixSCAN Explainer Video from Fueled on Vimeo. Float]…
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Explainer: Mom This is How Twitter Works
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Hah, this is great. Next time your luddite mother asks your in confusion what all this “twittering” is about, just send her over to this site. Jessica Hische lays it out nice and clear. Jessica’s Conclusion: Twitter is awesome, but while it seems like a relatively simple service, it is quite nuanced. I hope this…
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Tiny Living: My Top 5 Super Small Japanese Living Arrangements
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After living in NYC for about 7 years, I thought I was fairly well accustomed to living in small quarters – studio apartment, storage everywhere, continuously optimizing my use of space. But of course, the Japanese have us New Yorkers beat when it comes to efficiently using space. After a bit of digging around on the…
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Occupy Wall Street, and Look Good Doing It: Occupy Design
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In order for any project, campaign, or protest to be effective, it needs people to support it. And that means appealing to people in an interesting, engaging way, through marketing. One of the most powerful ways of connecting people in an effective marketing campaign is through visuals. Recently at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and…
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Ikea overload!
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5 hours and $1600 worth of furniture from Ikea in Centennial, Colorado. Too much or not enough? In any case, completely furnishing three whole rooms for $1600 is pretty good. The trick now is to maintain the furniture – I’m pretty sure that there’s a significant amount of work that goes into maintaining the “room…
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I Can’t Wait For The Future: Airbus Unveils Transparent Plane
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Through The Daily Beast and written up on The Daily Mail: Airbus is planning on making airplanes with windows everywhere, giving flyers panoramic views of the sky. Imaging flying on one of these on a cloudless night, or in the northern latitudes for the northern lights? Just a future dream for now, but I’m sure…
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Launching JH2 One Tree Home at ICFF
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This weekend, after many months of orginization, and a few weeks of my time creating the website, the JH2 One Tree Home furniture collection was launched at the ICFF International Contemporary Furniture Fair. We were lucky enough to get a double-sized spot, and set up the booth in two parts. A few pics..
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Designs at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair
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This week had the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) at the Javits Center in NYC. In addition to working at the JH2 One Tree Home booth, I also had the opportunity to wanter the entire show floor. A few pics…
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Audi Urban Future Initative, NYC
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Today I stopped by the Audi Urban Future Initiative, down in nolita, Manhattan. In addition to being an interesting exhibit, the central, folded model of NYC was quite amazing. It reminded me of “Inception”… Audi is blogging from New York for the entire time they’re here, so be sure to check it out…
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Building a Reciprocal Roof Structure
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I remember building little reciprocal structures like this as a kid – out of popsicle sticks! Looks like Brian Liloia of “The Year of Mud” blog has scaled it up a bit, detailing the construction process of an entire circular shaped roof held up on its own. Cool. How to build a reciprocal roof frame
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Postagram: Real Mailed Postcards from your iPhone: $0.99
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Postagram is a new iOS app and associated service iwhich allows users to send real life postcards, custom printed with any photo from an associated Instagram photo pool. Post cards are just $0.99 to send. The service was announced today by new company Sincerely on their blog: Introducing Postagram – Instagrams by mail. At the…
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Lecture: How Spatial Arrangement Creates Movement, and Implications for Consumer Shopping Behavior at Ikea
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Here’s a great talk by Professor Alan Penn of the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture, discussing How Spatial Arrangement Creates Movement, and Implications for Consumer Shopping Behavior at Ikea. It’s long, but a great analysis of the topic, with easy foundations of key concepts explained. “Professor Alan Penn describes the way that architects use space…
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Infographic: SXSW By The Numbers
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I suppose this week I’m becoming one of these numbers. Here’s an interesting infographic from Get Satisfaction on the numbers for SXSW.