Technology Artist
“Sphery chair lounge”: Multy sphere chair lounge reminds us of the classic traditional button tufted chair but rethought in the modern way with using recyclable soft poly materials. It has metal understructure. Large palette of colours and personalisation are available.
“Litl is an innovative new web computer, or webbook, that marries the communication functions of a laptop and TV. Small, portable, and equally at home on a kitchen countertop or a living-room coffee table, the webbook is designed for families with multiple users who like to keep in touch and socialize. Litl is always connected to the web (with access to Wi-Fi) and flips upright like an easel for TV-like viewing of photos and video. It has no hard drive, files or applications of its own, but instead runs on the “cloud,” using web-based applications like webmail, Google, Flickr and Facebook.”
On their website, UK industrial design firm Tinker. it! promotes the arduino, a credit-card-sized circuit board laden with sockets and sold by Tinker Tools. What does this little thing do? Well, that depends on you, really–the arduino is aimed at the physical hacker/tinkerer set.
[The arduino] comes with a series of sockets into which tinkerers can plug light or motion sensors and a similar set for plugging whatever gadget they want to control into. Using a laptop, the arduino can be told what to do when a particular event happens – for example, when a motion sensor is triggered, it powers up a motor.
Look at any recent electronic art installation and the chances are that behind the scenes there’s an arduino. In fact, [Tinker. it! co-founder Alexandra] Deschamps-Sonsino believes more than 100,000 arduino boards have now been sold around the world, although it is difficult to give an exact figure – in keeping with the open ethos of the movement, plans are available that allow people to make their own.
“Each day we are required to maneuver a heavy object through complex traffic and pedestrians, all the while trying to obey hundreds of obscure traffic laws in constant fear of sudden brake lights ahead, of making a wrong turn, of unpredictable drivers and police.”
What if we redesigned the car, focusing on todays needs rather than just styling and performance? What if we thought of cars more as architecture than vehicle. How might that turn out?
Ahh, the problem for the poor westerner when presented with Asian food. To use chopsticks, or to lose face and use the fork? It has been estimated that about 1.5 billion people worldwide use chopsticks every day. If you have been brought up to use chopsticks, it seems entirely natural. We in the west unfortunately often have trouble coordinating hands, mouth and food together to a successful conclusion. I actually pride myself on my chopstick dexterity, but for some people it can be a problem, so anything that can make the authentic method easier is always welcomed.
Inspired by the shape of a toucan’s beak, Finnish designer Lincoln Kayiwa has produced TUKANNI. TUKAANI is Finnish for the toucan bird species. The sterling silver TUKAANI is a hand made eating device for Asian food consumers in the West. It may be held as traditional chopsticks. But unlike the disposable wooden chopsticks, TUKAANI is both machine and hand washable and much easier to set on – and use at table. The matt surface and taut movement allow steady grip in the hand. The curl at the end of the TUKAANI provides eased food picking and delivery to the mouth. The loop also allows easier hanging, storage and display.
Kayiwa is a designer who graduated as a Master of Arts from the University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH in 2007. Upon graduating, he started his own brand product design company KAYIWA – an epitome of novelty, aesthetics, functionality and environmental friendliness. For examples of his design, please refer to his website at http://www.kayiwa.fi
Shipping Container Homes by Container City
A few months ago I wrote a small article about Swiss company Freitag and their marvellous bags. Since then that has been the second most requested article on this site. If you don’t know about Freitag, they make bags and other cool stuff out of old truck tarpaulins, you know, the brightly coloured curtains you see on the sides of lorries, as well as used car seat belts and bicycle inner tubes. It’s recycling in a very creative way, and because the materials they are recycling are tough, so are the products that they make. Each piece is made from an original tarpaulin, so every single product has an individual design. If Freitag didn’t use these materials, they would probably end up in landfill.
The company was started by Markus and Daniel Freitag, both brothers and graphic designers. They both rode bikes, and being designers carried their designs around with them. They needed something to keep the designs dry whilst on the bike. So, inspired by the designs on the sides of the trucks they saw around them, they took an old truck tarpaulin, a car seat belt and an old bicycle inner tube and sewed them together to make a waterproof messenger bag. They had stumbled on a hit, and now Freitag bags are sold (and copied) all over the world.
Now produced in a factory in downtown Zurich with jobs for 60 people, Freitag take the tarpaulins, wash them and then cut them into the required shapes using a
clear stencil, so the cutter can get the best design. You can even design your own bag online, so you can decide how the finished bag will appear. Once the pieces have been cut, they go off to be assembled and sewn. Each bag is then individually photographed and then finally sold.
These days Freitag have broadened their range, to iPod cases, wallets, Mac sleeves and many different types of bags. Their latest range includes the F17 Joe and F18 Rex (pictured above and below). Both are high capacity messenger bags and have been thoroughly tested by bike messengers to make sure the design is right. They can be bought from the Freitag online shop. Or use the store finder to find a shop near you.
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The Real Google Phone « HighContrast
This is reputedly the new Google phone, or a late prototype anyway. Apparently Google has about 100 people working on this device. This photo was allegedly leaked to Engadget and then on the HighContrast blog. It is said that it will be available from multiple carriers.
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