In a rare personal post, I would like to make this holiday statement into a memorial for my grandfather Rene Schneider (1910-2003) who was born in Lorraine and twice invaded during his life time. The second time, he was invited to a POW camp in Austria and documented the experience in these whimsical cartoons drawn […]
Author Archives: leo
design for durability
The OLPC has driven important innovations in open software, hardware, universal design and environmental sustainability in order to be cheap and durable enough for widespread use in developing countries. At this week’s unveiling of new designs for second-generation laptops, I spotted this interesting exhibit on the design touches that make the OLPC stand out in […]
Posted in children, conviviality, customization, environment, fabrication, free & open, futurecraft, open objects, product design, supply chain, universal design, upcycling
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open threads 3
Burdastyle is an open-source sewing resource where members upload patterns and visitors can consult instructional references (below) or download pdf patterns (above). By providing instructions for how to sew at the same time as open source ‘code’ for what to sew the site is a real open source free fashion resource. As with free software, […]
Posted in blogogracy, customization, fabrication, fashion, free & open, futurecraft, materials, open objects, product design, soft/glowing, universal design
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open threads 2
The concept of making source code Open Source typically refers to opaque products whose construction cannot be discerned from their appearance – but even seemingly transparent products, such as buildings or clothes, hide a code of their own. The project Hacking Couture seeks out the hidden aesthetic code and its history in order to liberate […]
Posted in customization, fabrication, fashion, free & open, futurecraft, open objects, product design, soft/glowing, upcycling
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public objects
‘Products of Service‘ are an alternative to cradle-to-grave life cycles where consumers only temporarily rent goods from manufacturers so that their valuable components can be directly re-used. In lieu of such enlightened manufacturing practices, a social network has been introduced where anyone can rent out their own possessions to reduce waste: Zilok is a Zipcar […]
Posted in conviviality, energy, environment, futurecraft, marketing, open objects, product design, retail, supply chain, traceability
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touch map 2
Another beautiful bronze map in Braille – this time in my favorite city (Firenze), in the middle of Piazza Repubblica, a large cast map of the city center with tactile labels on monuments and ridges on the river to indicate the direction of the current. More on Flickr.
Posted in 3d, architecture, perception, tangible, universal design, visualization
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phone-maker
The brilliant Schulze & Webb have done it again with the Metal Phone, a completely recyclable cell phone enclosure developed for Nokia. The project is a complete cradle-to-cradle life cycle process: a cell phone encased in a lead alloy (ok, solder) can be disassembled and melted down to be re-cast into a new cell phone […]
Posted in customization, energy, environment, fabrication, futurecraft, materials, open objects, product design, supply chain, upcycling
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open wide
As Mako Hill argued in his presentation at CHI 2008, the best software is made by users and not by designers. The best examples are targeted applications made for niche applications, such as odontolinux, a free and open dental office management software based on Debian. Together with Open Dental (pictured), another open-source (but not free) […]
Posted in free & open, open objects, universal design
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