renewable packaging

By leo | Published: February 26, 2008

cocosalt.jpg

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 packaged in:

1. it’s made from a renewable resource, likely a by-product of the coconut industry
2. it’s made from a local resource, so no materials need to be imported to make it
3. it has inherent traceability, in a very tangible way

the coconut is also something beautiful and useful, so even though it could be composted it will probably serve for much longer than a comparable package as a sugar bowl or some other such thing. the only thing better than growing packaging would be to have none at all…


Posted in energy, environment, fabrication, livingbreathing, marketing, materials, open objects, product design, traceability, upcycling | Comments closed

audio players of the future

By leo | Published: February 25, 2008

transistor-lace.jpgtransistor-solar.jpg

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 haven’t gotten to in today’s devices. there is a very small radio, a simple white box radio, radios available in multiple colors, radios with soft protective sleeves and luxury-branded radios. on the other hand, there is a handful of new ideas we haven’t yet seen in audio players of today: a solar radio, and my favorite, a lace-encased radio where the cloth was impregnated with acrylic to make a subtly delicate piece of hardware.

transistor-nano.jpgtransistor-white.jpgtransistor-colors.jpgtransistor-case.jpgtransistor-bulova.jpg


Posted in customization, energy, environment, fabrication, materials, product design | Comments closed

breastware

By leo | Published: February 22, 2008

marieantoinette.jpg

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 the bowls outlived their molds and we cannot be certain of whose breasts they were modeled after. nevertheless the nipple hanging down – which requires the support of three goat-headed struts – makes reference to the traditional greek mastos cup (from mastos = breast, udder) itself modeled on a breast (bottom left). while modeling a milk jug on a mammary may seem overly literal, you would drink from it in an utterly abstract fashion – unlike the prosthetic verisimilitude of a modern mastos cup, the rubber-nipple baby bottle (bottom right).

mastos-nipple.jpg

Posted in customization, marketing, possessed products, product design, soft/glowing | Comments closed

virtual UN

By leo | Published: February 21, 2008

globalvote.jpg

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 well as how they would be represented by a one country, one vote scenario or by democratic representation (based on popular vote). the site suffers from poor design and arguably biased toward global citizens with internet access, nevertheless it proposes an interesting model by mirroring an elected body of world representatives. with the right dissemination this ‘mirror’ stands to be fairer than the delegate model, or at least provides a needed balance to the often unjust UN hierarchy of nations.

Posted in blogogracy, conviviality | Comments closed

super-traceability

By leo | Published: February 20, 2008

pizzatracker.jpg

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 domino’s and the national restaurant association should stop blocking legislation that would make nutrition information available at the point-of-sale.

via

Posted in food, marketing, possessed products, traceability | Comments closed

material maps

By leo | Published: February 19, 2008

steelmap.jpg

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 some of the metals most essential to consumer electronics:

goldmap.PNGWorld Gold Production in 2005

platinummap.PNGWorld Platinum Production in 2005

aluminummap.PNGWorld Aluminum Production in 2005

coppermap.PNGWorld Copper Production in 2005

cadmiummap.PNGWorld Cadmium Production in 2005

tinmap.PNG World Tin Production in 2005

Posted in environment, fabrication, materials | Comments closed

design for the (tech-savvy) masses

By leo | Published: February 18, 2008

designdemocracy.jpg


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 probably requires a design education, we are probably not replacing the tradition designer-manufacturer relationship, but instead empowering designers to benefit from the open and free sharing of design templates.
pictured is the rocker by hollerdesign

Posted in 2d, 3d, conviviality, customization, fabrication, furniture, futurecraft, marketing, open objects, product design | Comments closed

vending bits

By leo | Published: February 15, 2008

vendingbits1.jpg

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 a trade-in machine: you can leave your slightly outdated camera or memory card and receive a new one with a little more pixels, and the manufacturer could be incentivized to use modular construction and re-usable materials so that they can extract something of value out of the used device.

vendingbits2.jpg

Posted in energy, fabrication, marketing, materials | Comments closed