visiting DNP headquarters in gotanda (tokyo) this past week i was reminded of the japanese corporate custom of maintaining a prominent exhibit about the company’s history, its roots, regardless of how far they’ve come. at 130 years old the company is commonplace in japan, where there are over 50,000 corporations older than 100 years. beyond […]
Category Archives: product design
font building blocks
yesterday i stopped by the bruno munari show in shiodome-italia and among all of the design classics one design stood out for me: alfabeto e fantasia, a set of tiles for children to write, but instead of using already-made letters, it relies on geometric primitives from which to compose – and invent – characters. of […]
Also posted in 2d, children, fabrication, futurecraft, open objects, tangible
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dinner demons
do you ever feel like things are out of control? the virtual reality laboratory at tokyo institute of technology (no acronym) have discovered one reason: tiny ‘brownies’ called kobito are pushing stuff around. you can finally see them at work through the newly developed “kobito window,” a screen that shows them pushing your tea around […]
Also posted in evil robots, furniture, livingbreathing, possessed products, tangible
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cuff-webs
tsitsi gora and ryan murphy made this ‘political prosthetic’ in futurecraft – a giant chinese finger trap made to transform handshakes into a touching experience. the elegant extension of shirtsleeves into this grasping cuff helps to make the perfunctory gesture mean something, for real.
Also posted in fashion, futurecraft, materials, soft/glowing
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consumers and the machine
alex rosenberg makes blown glass objects the old-fashioned way, and he made a video comparing his slow, hand-crafted process to industrial mass-production. whereas his objects are hand-crafted and locally made, retailers sell cheap, machine-made glassware at a fraction of the cost of real blown glass. the machines are faster, but not necessarily better. blow-molding leaves […]
Also posted in conviviality, customization, fabrication, futurecraft, marketing, materials, open objects, possessed products
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free wheels
the whirlwind project is designing and freely licensing an open-source wheelchair design that was designed by and can be manufactured locally by individuals in wheelchairs. the chair has significant advantages over traditional models, most notably because it can be used to go up and down stairs, can handle rough terrain and allows a parent to […]
Also posted in conviviality, customization, fabrication, futurecraft, human2.0, open objects
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future shop
etsy is a revolutionary on-line store where individual makers can sell their goods. unlike existing shopping portals etsy relies on novel means of promoting individual sellers and motivating a social network. for example, there is a ‘buy local’ button that shows you only designers within your neighborhood, a ‘time machine’ that reveals what is being […]
Also posted in blogogracy, conviviality, customization, fabrication, futurecraft, marketing, open objects, visualization
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3D sharing
we have flickr for sharing pictures and youtube for sharing videos, but how can we share three-dimensional work on-line? aerospace pioneer dassault has released a beta website that combines a free 3D modeling software with a social platform to upload and download free 3d models and a browser plug-in that allows you to browse the […]
Also posted in 3d, blogogracy, futurecraft, marketing, visualization
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