Ideas to Inspire – Think outside the building!
via pan-dan
city plates by notNeutral, (above is the New York design). Personally i’m not a fan of the design but would make for a great geeky gift!
via Moco Loco
Wow! This exhibition was truly fantastic, both content and media/exhibition design were brilliant. The focus was on how do we use our city and how could our use of it be more efficient and fun? Blurring the boundaries between landscape architecture, planning and architecture . . . just as it should be.
A combination of existing and future, looking at sites within their context not just focusing on flagship buildings. However it was the media used to present the work that made the exhibition stand out from many others.
The seductive graphics of individual projects were sat in a consistent cohesive whole. Using everything from animation, reflection, entire walls, in fact entire rooms, films projected onto circular tables and also creating spaces within spaces by constructing wooden huts even the floor was carefully considered. Creating a series of perfectly controlled and designed spaces.
Surviving the Suburb: The Climate Machine
‘description taken from RIBA website Tom Matton describes his practice as situated ’somewhere between object-design, society-shape, ecological city planning and artist-activism’ exploring ‘the small Utopias and interruptions of daily life’ and ‘connections between traditional countryside living and contemporary mega-city lifestyle.’ ‘
This installation left me somewhat underwhelmed; possibly due to a combination of insufficient information and location (the exhibit made me feel out of place almost an intruder and with half the info and explaination at floor level it was . . . ackward). However, there was a very likeable playful element to the designs.
Recognize this intriguing globular cluster of stars? It’s actually the constellation of city lights surrounding London (recorded by the International Space Station, February 2003). The fuzziness around the peripheries is caused by either thin, low clouds or perhaps fog.
The lights seen in this image especially the energy supplied to them is causing untold environmental damage to our planet . . . but its so pretty!
After posting this I went to Open City at Somerset House, and what should be the image used on one of the leaflets . . .
Definitely worth a look; fantastic concepts (if slightly bizarre) and graphically very appealing
. . . made me smile anyway
New Toy!! This week I finally got round to buying a tablet. This should be a very useful tool for drawing in photoshop and illustrator . . so far so good!
The union bench by i do design via core77
The design on the bench allows flexible seating patterns; whether the user wishes to sit alone or interact with others, contempory and functional.
Where we source our energy is a current and high priority issue; it is a topic I am fascinated by. All sources have pros and cons, how do we achieve a balance?
Im not saying this video is correct, I dont know enough to have an opinion but I do like the way it presents the information. Its apparant simplicity and inoffence graphics could easily sway your thoughts . . .
‘A Battles collaboration with celebrated light artists UVA (United Visual Artists), produced by Warp Films (This Is England, Rubber Johnny, Dead Mans Shoes etc).’
UVA previously featured here (volume, installation at the Vand A)
Just some books I picked up this week; page layouts to london’s dead and all the ‘isms’ of the avant garde
A retrospective look at his achievements and life.
Great exhibition, visually stimulating and well laid out everything from furniture to architecture, an excellent insight into the life and work of one of the 20th century’s most influential designers.
‘The radical, functional and inspiring work of the French designer and engineer Jean Prouvé (1901 –1984) is shown in this first comprehensive overview of his work in the UK. With examples of his unique furniture design, architecture, drawings, film and photographs, the exhibition will present the enormous influence of Prouvé within the history of 20th Century design’
its a small world – air travel simplified (via strange maps)
Damian O’Sullivan’s prototype for a ’solar lampion’
Inspired by organic structures such as pine cones and Chinese paper lampions.
Touch – RFID as material in design, something i found quite interesting
This is a graphic I produced for the Landscape Institute conference student exhibition. The exhibition promoted the work from various accredited courses across the country.
I wanted the presentation of Kingston work to be a bit different!
Instead of using the work of just one or two people to represent the course I chose to use many different students work. Also including photos from various field trips to convey the experience as well as final product . . .
The collage of work was then dropped under a mask, a girls profile in silhouette, representing the Kingston students as a collective and next generation of designers.
(software: adobe indesign and illustrator)
Reading the present to predict the future. . .in the age of the individual I find it slightly depressing when we are grouped into statistics, labelled and analysed (which happens more often than I breath, I know, I’m not being naive just optimistic) However, Tuesdays talk by future labs was intense and for the most part fascinating.
What was great was that he was showing designs I was already aware of . . .so I must be doing something right, and honestly its all down to the very thing I am writing now . . blogs. I love printed journals but on a day to day basis trawling through the plethora of design blogs out there is the fastest way to get up to the minute information from across the globe and across the disciplines.
One of my favourite designs (above) ‘divided’ by swedish designers Front
VIEWPOINT (journal, the Oct 07 issue)
‘ . . . the new rules of retailing . . .’
‘. . . the LATTE factor . . .’
Essential read – looking at current and future trends , seductive graphics make it accessible even for those with a short concentration span. Food for the creative mind.
Touch disappointing as tickets to just about everything had been snatched up by 7pm, will be getting there early next time. However, the atmosphere as always was buzzing the entrance hall packed with people and filled with music from bizarre but fabulous djs! Something which looked really cool was being being photographed dead but i’m far too impatient to wait an hour or so in line.
One of my favourite topics – colour
Article by Steven Heller (via swissmiss)
A gift from Emma and Sara: light, stylish and functional (except mine is pretty in pink!). Interested check out light my fire
If we stopped designing stuff what would happen to life as we know it? Cheesey question i know but can we stop or are we now programmed to live in a designed environment with rules and synthetic systems to the point where we could not live without them. We are dependant on it. Look around you and name one thing which hasn’t been designed; look at the health and safety measures that surround you. The reason for excess red tape, is it that because everything is designed therefore having a human designer who by default is not infalable but is made responsible for minor or major incidents that may occur as a result of their design. Designers are not God (although many like to consider themselves as not far off) has the world forgotten this? We have evolved and developed through experimentation not by bubble wrapping people.
via designer’s block
just an adorable scrap i found on a blog (or flickr) of a girl with a passion for documenting Japanese graffiti.
