i just picked up this balinesian sea salt packaged in a coconut at whole foods because i couldn’t resist the packaging design (or lack thereof). never mind the idea of shipping salt, let alone from bali. the coconut packaging has three distinct advantages over the plastic, metal foil and paper that the other foods are […]
Author Archives: leo
renewable packaging
Posted in energy, environment, fabrication, livingbreathing, marketing, materials, open objects, product design, traceability, upcycling
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audio players of the future
looking at old consumer electronics can make you realize just how far we haven’t come – i just discovered transistor.org, sarah lowrey’s website dedicated to her transistor radio collection. flipping through these vintage audio players you can find a lot of the trends that seem so pervasive today, as well as design ideas we still […]
Posted in customization, energy, environment, fabrication, materials, product design
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breastware
there is an urban legend that the champagne ‘coupe’ (above right) was modeled on marie antoinette‘s breast, however the idea of breast-shaped dishware is not without support: in the queen’s dairy at rambouillet was a ceramic tea service which included four milk cups (of course) rumored to be modeled on her breasts (above left). unfortunately […]
Posted in customization, marketing, possessed products, product design, soft/glowing
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virtual UN
the global vote is a web2.0 site dedicated to providing an alternate means of measuring global opinion with regard to UN resolutions. structured like a blog, each resolution is a timed post with room for comments and a vote. the votes are tallied by country and displayed as they will stand in the UN, as […]
Posted in blogogracy, conviviality
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super-traceability
in its pursuit of lightning-fast food delivery domino’s has introduced a web-based pizza tracking tool that details the progress of your pie on its half-hour journey to your house. as we continue to expect the ever-finer granularity of traceability for products, is this the direction to push it? maybe instead of this relatively useless innovation […]
Posted in food, marketing, possessed products, traceability
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material maps
wikipedia is a great resource for finding out about materials in detail, and one of the best reasons are these world maps showing world production based on the british geological survey’s 2005 world mineral production (available as a free pdf). at a glance you can see the major producers for almost any mineral. here are […]
Posted in environment, fabrication, materials
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design for the (tech-savvy) masses
design democracy is a yearly competition based on the belief that mass customization is a viable alternative to mass production. unlike ponoko, this competition is based on free trade in design patterns that you can then make yourself at your local highly computerized wood shop. but given that finding and manufacturing this kind of product […]
Posted in 2d, 3d, conviviality, customization, fabrication, furniture, futurecraft, marketing, open objects, product design
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vending bits
at logan on my way to tokyo i spotted this sony-branded vending machine selling cameras, memory cards and ebook readers. it is a strange experience to see these expensive electronics being commodified and it points out the worrisome disposable nature of these increasingly commonplace material- and resource-intensive products. maybe a more sustainable solution would be […]
Posted in energy, fabrication, marketing, materials
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