in today’s homogeneous product landscape it seems that nothing off-the-shelf can compete with a hand-made gift. but few of us have the time or skill to craft presents for each other, so we leave the personal touches to cards and packaging. instead of useless wrappings, why not design products to be unfinished so that the […]
Category Archives: product design
re-furnish
the best kind of recycling is up-cycling, and there’s nothing better than transforming trash into something more valuable while conserving resources. in the spirit of william good, project 99 takes old chair frames and re-upholsters them with rubber, cow hide, wallpaper(above) or vintage clothes (below). the junk furniture can then be re-sold for 99 euros. […]
Also posted in fabrication, fashion, furniture, open objects, upcycling
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squishy robots
in the late 1990’s cynthia brezeal pioneered (wrote the book on) ‘sociable robots,’ based on her work with kismet. in reality, robotics was (and remains) far behind special effects houses and toy designers, who for years have been making expressive, emotive puppets specifically for engendering social bonds with animate machines. so it’s no surprise that […]
Also posted in evil robots, fabrication, livingbreathing, perception, soft/glowing
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sloppy craft
maarten baas has issued a line of mass-produced furnishings based on sloppy clay designs. the industrial clay is hand-molded around a metal frame to reveal the craft behind the product. in exchange for seeing the artist’s hand in the work you can pay $2,000-$8,000 for these pieces.
Also posted in fabrication, futurecraft, materials, soft/glowing
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robot love
jodi forlizzi conducted an ethnographic study about vacuum cleaners called a ‘product ecology,’ essentially an object-centered analysis of how people adapt to new types of things, in this case robotic vacuum cleaners as compared to conventional ones. she gave some families roombas and others regular stick-type vacuum cleaners, and she observed significant differences in how […]
Also posted in evil robots, livingbreathing, marketing
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re-style
william good is a new line of fashions designed by nick graham (founder of joe boxer) sold on-line and in partnership with goodwill stores in the san francisco area. an interesting take on up-cycling, these clothes are made from donated garments at the store to which some design elements are added and then re-sold at […]
Also posted in blogogracy, conviviality, environment, fashion, open objects, upcycling
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growing chair
children grow so fast that it’s a challenge to fit their bodies and their interests for more than a few months at a time. as a result a lot of toys and furniture are cheaply made and readily disposed of – all because of bad design. charlotte friis design studio conceived of this easel with […]
Also posted in art, children, customization
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paint it white
in today’s new york times magazine rob walker talks about the new fire extinguisher on sale at the home depot – the home hero – which replaces our old extinguishers with something more ‘designer.’ presumably the aesthetic appeals to design-conscious consumers who will be more likely to keep it at hand – although there is […]
Also posted in marketing
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