Soap Opera is a conceptual product by sovrappensiero meant to act as a painting for the blind. A picture frame made of perfumed soap is touched with hands moistened by a sponge under the upturned corner of the frame. While offering different colors to the sighted viewer, they provide a far richer experience to the […]
Author Archives: leo
cartoon software
Google’s new browser is a nice design, but I was far more impressed with the design of the cartoon explaining the motivations, design and implementation of yet another new browser. It’s worth a browse if you’re interested in how to illustrate complex design decisions, especially in graphical user interface and human-computer interaction design in general.
re-mapping history
I just finished Gavin Menzies‘ page-turner ‘1434,’ a book that proposes that a Chinese fleet visited Italy in that year and brought along with it world maps that paved the way for the European ‘Age of Exploration’ and technical documents that laid the groundwork for many Renaissance ‘inventions.’ The controversial book is largely an amateur […]
alter doodles
No Robots Please! is an elementary school workshop by bioengineer Alan Outten where he introduced children to alternate design concepts and prompted them to invent their own. He began by introducing images mind-altering works such as the Eames’ Powers of Ten, Auger + Loizeau’s Audio Tooth, Raby + Evans’ Meat-eating products and Vacanti’s Human ear […]
Posted in children, evil robots, product design
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city bits
Born out of the Rome Reborn project, CityEngine is a powerful tool for modeling entire cities in perfect detail. Because of its roots in art history the aims of the project are to render every building, not just the most important landmarks. Their digital model contains 200 monuments painstakingly modeled by art historians, and over […]
Posted in architecture, visualization
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digital luck
In Taiwan last week I bought this tiny, tiny USB key fashioned as a cell phone charm with a diminutive fabric sleeve meant to make it look like a good luck charm. Aside from its ridiculously small size for a 1GB memory stick (less than 1 gram, 27 x 12 x 2mm), it has a […]
Posted in marketing, product design
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construction costs
Gavin Lee‘s workshop group at Nightmarket ’08 produced a Flash game highlighting the social costs of destruction. Using a Wii remote, users can drive a bulldozer through a landscape, knocking down trees and houses amid satisfying sounds of demolition. After the frenzied destruction, you are awarded points based on the number of displaced people and […]
Posted in art, conviviality, environment, marketing
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