Design Sojourn | Strategic Industrial Design Blog

Donn, a former student of mine, and an Intern at Gro Design recently sent me notice of a very cool foosball (link to what is foosball?) project he was part of. Finally someone is sitting up an taking notice!

As an object, the football table has lacked serious design attention in recent years. While new football stadiums built in recent years have a strong
architectural and sculptural beauty, football tables remain less desirable objects as their cost-driven appearance no longer fits in with the designed
landscape of modern interiors.

‘11’ breaks with this tradition by creating atmosphere through form, colour, material and subtle use of light, bringing a heightened sense of drama
and excitement to the game.

This design was a collaboration between Gro Design and Tim modelmakers and will be exhibited during the Milan Design Week 2008, 16th - 21st April, Via Forcella 8, Milan, Italy.

Great stuff guys and Donn, thanks for the heads up.

For more information, photos and video of the model, check out the official site: 11thegame.com

In the same spirit as Visions of the Future Project, Philips generously shares with us their research findings of what our possible lifestyles could be in the era post 2020. Called Design Probes it is:

…a dedicated ‘far-future’ research initiative to track trends and developments that may ultimately evolve into mainstream issues that have a significant impact on business.

The Probes generate insights from research in five main areas; politics, economic, culture, environments and technology futures.

The end result are a range of “narratives”, industrial design concepts and scenarios that are not predictions but instead are meant to stimulate discussion and debate. There are quite a number of projects on display, but the two most recent ones are:

SKIN: Dresses

One of this year’s Probe project areas is SKIN, which examines the future integration of sensitive materials in the area of emotional sensing – the shift from ‘ intelligent’ to ‘sensitive’ products and technologies.

As part of SKIN, we have developed two ‘Soft Technology’ outfits to identify the future for high tech materials and Electronic Textile Development in the area’s of skin and emotional sensing.

The dresses show emotive technology and how the body and the near environment can use pattern and color change to interact and predict the emotional state.

SKINTILE: Electronic Sensing Jewelry

Electronic Sensing Jewelry has been conceived alongside a European project, STELLA, (www.stella-project.de) developing stretchable, flexible electronic substrates that integrate energy supply, sensors, actuators, and display.

Skintile the Electronic Sensing Jewelry further explores emotional and physiological sensing. It is a new genre of product; a generation of wireless, stick-on body sensors that re-define traditional body adornment.

It explores a range of functionalities in new product forms that are playful, sensual, mood affected, bio activity stimulated, and arousal enhancing. It is a semi disposable, bio compatible, non-allergenic, breathable, mass customizable, self contained body worn accessory.

I am glad that a company like Philips understands that sharing their research and ideas is much better as it actually encourages the “seeds” to grow. Sometimes it is better to share than to protect. I find this it makes the design world a much better place to work in. Check out the rest of their ever evolving and growing project list at Philips Design Probes.

Image source: SMIT

It is really Biomimicry at its best!

Samuel Cabot Cochran, as part of his final year thesis, and SMIT or Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology, has developed an awesome Green energy generation device. Obviously inspired by leaves, and aptly named Grow, the product can generate power from sunlight (photovoltaics) and the wind (flexible piezo generator).

Also it’s not a concept, as they have figured it out how to make it:

Each brick has 5 solar leaves which have a very flexible piezo generator at their stem. The manufacturing of these bricks could happen in a roll to roll printing process where PV, conductive ink, and piezo generators can be layered quickly and efficiently. The rolls can then be stamped and formed to create leaves and connection points. Each brick is designed so that at the end of their life cycle the valuable components, i.e. photovoltaic and piezo, can be stamped out and up cycled while the reusable material, i.e plastic, can be up recycled back into the production stream.

This leaf like design also fixes the problems we have with traditional solar cell slabs. It is just not as efficient, and the reason why you don’t see trees in nature that have only one big leaf. Now if we could some how turn the entire shape into that of a real tree…anyway in it’s current incarnation, it is a happy blend of practicality and inspiration from nature.

The other great thing about this design is that it is modular in nature (no pun intended). This means you can create a “wall” of generators as big or as small or in any shape you want! How clever is that? We have finally moved from “Green is Boring” to “Green is Damn Cool!”.

Via: CIID

Yesterday, at the height of the Singapore Fashion Festival, I was invited to view a wonderful fashion show that was unlike any other. Called Blueprint 2008, the conceptual show was a result of a cross-pollination of ideas between fashion and industrial designers. What I liked about it was that the work was part sharing and part collaboration of ideas between fashion and product designers, with both inspiring each other to greater heights.

Organized by the Design Singapore Council the objective was as Director Dr Milton Tan said:

“We believe designs are appreciated by their experience in totality. If we can get designers to work more closely together, the experience from the users point of view will be more holistic.”

The exhibition is currently on display at the fashion festival’s Tent@Orchard outside Ngee Ann City until April 6. From April 10 to 28 it will move to the Samsung Flagship store at VivoCity from. For our friends from the rest of the world, the work will be presented at the Milan International Furniture Fair from April 16 to 21, so check it out there!

Meanwhile here were some of the more interesting products on show. Enjoy!

You can find the rest of the fashion outfits and products at my flickr set. However I have to apologize as the images are not the best! I’ve also taken some videos as well to give you an idea of the atmosphere during the show and will get them up here when YouTube fixes its uploading problems.

For more information on this event check out the official press release here.

Image Source: SMH. Photo by Andrew Meares.

Damien Savio, an Australian Industrial Design student, designed for his final year project, a window panel that can absorb sunlight during the day, and at night become a light. Apparently his design is able to convert 4 hours of direct sunlight to a 60W light source for 6 hours. Very clever.

The design is a finalist for Australian Design Awards-Dyson Student Award which will be announced in May. I’m rooting for you mate!

With this product you now don’t really have to switch off for tomorrow’s Earth Hour. You have heard of the Earth Hour happening tomorrow 29 March at 8pm right?

Via: Sydney Morning Herald

Guy Kawasaki, has a poignant picture of the realities of using the MacBook Air. Heck, this IS the reality of using all electronic products, not just the MacBook. Good design should include wire management, unfortunately it rarely does.

Via: How to Change the World

In other news, check out this interesting article on how a bunch of engineers from Nikkei Electronics Teardown Squad took the Mac Book Air apart and analysed it. Their conclusion was the MacBook Air was “No Waste Outside, Nothing but Waste Inside.” Very interesting, especially the follow up commentary and explanation on why they used term “Waste”.

Via: Nikkei Blog

Edit: oneSaint from Digg has pointed out that “Some are more equal than others”. Thanks oneSaint!

Image collage from Modu

Recently we covered Bug Lab’s modular mobile phone, where it was essentially a CPU “brain” that you can attach modules that you would purchased as you require it. Modu’s modular mobile phones takes this same concept but looks at it from another point of view. They start with a fully functional “brain” unit, and you then buy sleeves or what Modu calls “Jackets” which you slide the modular phone brain into it.

These “Jackets” allow frequent changes when ever you need it, and no doubt will be styled and sold as fashion accessories. Therefore with a flick of your wrist, you can have increased and customised functionality based on your requirements. These “Mated” devices could be digital content players, digital cameras, gaming consoles, business machines, Teen chat boxes and even desktop radios probably with News or Blog RSS feeds.

Honestly I am undecided on which strategy and approach is better, though I am leaning towards Bug Lab’s approach. The Bug Lab’s product strategy is more on a Lego building block level which is more efficient but could be slightly more technical and difficult to use. On the other hand, Modu’s feels higher up the food chain and is more like a Hub that can jump in-between products. My guess is Modu would be easier to use, though the product cost would be significantly higher (eg. doubling up of displays on both the “Brain” and “Jacket”). Regardless it looks pretty promising, even though the Modu seems to be in the concept phase. I look forward to the product launch, which is expected to be in Q4 2008.

Image by: KAREN TAPIA-ANDERSEN / Los Angeles Times

With, over 35 Million sold with just as many copies I’m sure, this Sugar Shaker is, according to Bill Stern an Art Historian, “the very essence of modernism, a perfect meld of function and form.”

Stern, the guiding force behind the development of the Museum of California Design, extols the comfortable swell of the shaker’s glass belly, which is shaped to be cradled in the palm. And the clean gleam of its smooth, slightly canted metal top, which cues a user’s eye to tilt in the right direction. And the placement of the pouring flap, ingeniously engineered “so that when you tip the shaker,” Stern says, “the whole weight of the contents is concentrated at the precise point where it has to come out.”

Previous models were inferior, he says. They didn’t pour easily, and they collected dirt. But this design? “There’s not a whit of unnecessary decoration,” he says. “It’s made inexpensively but responsibly, so it won’t prematurely break or wear out. Viewed at a distance, it is an extremely elegant object.”

And those are just some of the reasons it’s still around.

Designed by Henry Keck this product was a result of very in depth product ergonomic studies, market audits and environmental of use research. The most important part of the brief was that it had to be easy to keep clean of which they found:

“We looked at what was around; most were ugly and had design flaws. They had thin metal tops with up-curled edges, where sugar and dirt would accumulate. The threads where you screwed on the top were exposed — another grime collecting spot. The metal pouring flaps were thin and poorly positioned; steam from the coffee caused sugar to clump at the spout.

The glass bodies had vertical ridges and bases that protruded, which increased cleaning time.”

With this in mind they designed a shaker that had a smooth body and a heavy top that hid the screw threads and was able to knock the sugar back into the container. Extremely clever. Overall this is a fantastic and inspirational read on how, designers can gain a unique perspective and insight from studying consumer needs, and translate them into a fantastic product that has seen the test of time by being around for more than 50 years. Something to consider and think about if you happen to be stuck in a world of fast pace quick and dirty design work.

Via: The Press Democrat

Image collage from Ecoble

Check out this amazing and inspirational feat of engineering called The HumanCar. A human powered car that is, I am sure, inspired by the famous foot powered Flintstone mobiles.

It apparently can reach speeds of 80 miles per hour (128.75 Km/h) and is designed to make driving a participatory experience. The four riders need to work together to get it going as well as steering by leaning into a turn. A rechargeable battery and motor, jumps in when you feel like taking a break.

Though it is safer than a bicycle, due to its road safe impact resistant skeleton, I do wonder about its ability to be handled by one person, its lack of seat belts (80mph come on!), and weather protection. Regardless, it is a marvel of engineering especially with the way the rowing movement is converted and transmitted to the car’s forward motion.

Check out the images from the official press release:

The HumanCar Inventor Charles Greenwood and his prototype

Where the magic happens, the transmission box.

The drive shaft that transmits the energy to the wheels.

The HumanCar’s exoskeleton prototype.

Check out the very cool video on how it works.

It can be yours for $15,000 and they are taking pre-orders at the official HumanCar website. Looks like good clean environmentally friendly but sweaty fun!

Via: Ecoble

Motus Games, a subsidiary of Motus Corporation, has developed the Darwin Controller of which they tout is the future of Motion Based Entertainment, and the natural evolution of the Wii Controller. Using their R&D experience in developing motion sensing gear used in Golf and Medial applications, the Darwin Controller is apparently a lot more refined in the sensing of your motion thus giving you true 6 degrees of freedom. CEO Mahajan describes the technology:

The Darwin, which was designed to resemble a samurai sword, has its roots in specialized golfing hardware called iClub, also made by Motus. Mahajan says the iClub was designed to help serious golfers improve their swings by sensing and analyzing minute details of the motion. Mahajan hopes to continue this verisimilitude with the Darwin. Where players often operate the Wii Remote one-handed in sports games, Mahajan wants the Darwin to feel more realistic, allowing players of a golf game, for example, to put two hands on the remote and swing it like a real golf club. “The Wii is a great device,” he says. “But they’re going from very simple applications, and trying to become more complex and capture more complex motion. We’ve gone from this very complex [process of] capturing very precise motions of the human body to something that’s actually less complex.”

The Darwin uses gyroscopes and accelerometers that measures absolute location with respect to the earth’s magnetic north. This makes the Darwin a lot more independent to the location of screen, unlike the Wii controller which has, in addition to its motion sensors, to reference that infra-red horizontal strip located on the top or bottom of your screen.

Looking a lot more like a handle of a “light sabre” or sword, the Darwin probably feels a lot more comfortable to hold that the Wii’s squarish profile. Logically this makes holding your simulated tennis racquet or, in my case, the golf club a lot more natural. Best of all it can be used on non-Nintendo game systems including the PC. Unfortunately though the typology of the Darwin’s buttons looks very similar to that of the Wii remote. Both the “A” action button and the cross bar control look very familiar. I think in terms of the Industrial Design detailing there is a lot of opportunity to do something more interesting and perhaps more haptic. Perhaps they are using the Wii controller as a reference, but by doing this, this product might be perceived as an accessory instead of a superior replacement.

This is also an example of a great product that can be used as part of a “challenger” marketing strategy which is meant to beat the current leader, Nintendo, by making a superior product. By leveraging on the market leader’s success (i.e. Nintendo Wii), the “challenger” strategy aims not to do it all, but to focus instead on one or two weak elements and create a better product targeted to specialist players who need a “…realistic controller so that it helps, rather than harms, real-life game play…”

Success of this product has to do with how well it integrates with the new or existing software library, but if this remote can accurately measure a position in space, I think they have got it quite a good head start compared to say Sony’s PS3 Sixaxis controller. They are looking for it to be launched in Q3 2008 just in time for Christmas.

Via: Technology Review