perusing the suppliers of the laptop i write these posts on, i came across a supplier to lenovo (as well as acer, dell, fujitsu, motorola, nec, samsung, and siemens) that was investigated by the hong kong students and scholars against corporate misbehavior for labor violations. their report on factories in shenzhen single out one taiwanese-owned […]
Author Archives: leo
loopy design
in the aftermath of the birth of environmentalism in the US and the beginning of earth day in 1970, paper recycler ‘the container corporation of america’ sponsored a student design competition for a symbol that represents the recycling process. in september 1970 then-college senior gary anderson won the $2,500 prize with his now-infamous ‘mobius loop.’ […]
Posted in 2d, conviviality, visualization
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user-generated art
rudolf stingel makes installations out by covering the walls of a gallery with panels of celotex tuff-R, an insulated foil-covered foam that invited visitors to scratch, gouge, rip and insert objects like a giant graffiti wall. it’s a very moving experience because there is a chaotic overlay of multi-scaled art unique and predictable. these installations […]
Posted in art, blogogracy, customization, guerilla, materials, open objects, soft/glowing
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carpenter shelter
at the cooper hewitt’s lackluster ‘design for the other 90%‘ exhibit i was puzzled by the ‘day labor station:’ a well-intentioned shelter for immigrant day laborers who – at least in california – seek day labor by standing around home supply stores waiting for an unscrupulous contractor to pick them up. the solution – for […]
Posted in architecture, conviviality, fabrication, marketing, possessed products
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costly disposables
greenpeace is at it again, after successfully bullying apple for its environmental carelessness by ranking it as the worst PC manufacturer in terms of environmental impact (march ’07) and motivating job’s new recycling program, a new greenpeace study reveals the presence of (banned) brominated fire retardants in the iphone – which is leading the state […]
Posted in energy, marketing, possessed products, product design
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rainbow builders
colour lovers is social network built around color palettes, where you can upload, browse and vote on user-generated color schemes. and the color palette generator automatically matches any image on-line. it’s nice to see user-generated content and web-based tools that can really start to be useful in designing things. it would be even better if […]
Posted in blogogracy, open objects, perception, visualization
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stop&chop
i’ve been posting for a long time about open design, or the free dissemination of design knowledge. ponoko is a site that allows you to share designs for furniture cut out of sheet material like the plywood pepe baby’s chair (above). on the one hand, paying $120 for a tiny plywood chair seems expensive, on […]
Posted in customization, fabrication, futurecraft, open objects, possessed products, product design
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watching paint dry
finally someone has posted the entirety of ‘le mystere de picasso’ (the mystery of picasso) in 13 parts on youtube. the incredible film shows picasso’s painting process by filming a series of paintings as they are made. this clip shows how they are made: by filming through a sheet of glass onto which the master […]
Posted in 2d, animation, art, visualization
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