Archive for October, 2007|Monthly archive page
Intel UMPC Scenario
Comments (1)Came upon this video of how Intel envisions the day of ubiquitous and mobile computing – any thoughts?
Troika Tape Dispenser
Can tape dispensers be functional and beautiful?
The Troika tape dispenser attempts to break away from the norm – we typically see either the big-bulky desk-bound types, or the disposable light ones that comes with the tape itself. Seemingly alluding to the musical tuning fork, the design is extremely neat and delightful, while shattering the previous stereotypes of tape dispensers. It has even won quite a series of design awards, including the Good Design Award from Japan in 2006.
But how well would it work?ROGER LiVE has a not-so-concise but certainly impassioned plea for its thoughtlessness:
Well, until you actually try and use this beautiful thingamajig: Firmly grip the handle with one hand, stick the roll of tape onto the rubber core with the other hand, place the poster with your company’s goals (or whatever) on the wall with your free hand, try and get it level, hold it firmly in place, realise you have no hand left to pull off a strip of tape, try and hold the poster with your little finger and your ring finger while pulling off the tape with the other fingers, drop the poster on the floor, swear a little bit, pick the poster up, place it on the wall and get it level again, hold it in place with your elbow, notice the poster slipping away, swear a bit more, decide to rip off four strips of tape first, stick them onto the cupboard next to you, put the adrollding aside, get the poster level AGAIN, pull the strips off the cupboard, remove half of the varnish while doing so, try and fix the poster with the bits that aren’t full of varnish, swear at the abrollding and decide to give it to some poor colleague when it’s time for Secret Santa.
What’s your verdict? Is it a good design (perhaps for shattering conventions with a fresh new form in return), or would you crucify it for its not-so-usable design? Or maybe you can actually do a better one! (This is probably another JuicySalif-like discussion).
Very Clever Hearing-Aid Packaging
This is simply brilliant. While the technique is not new – bands of print on a transparent sleeve can look animated when paired with appropriate underlaying box graphic – the aptness absolutely shines through in this packaging design by Goodmorning (a design consultancy from Denmark) for Widex, known for their high definition hearing aid .
As the user pulls out the case for the hearing aid, the graphics dance and animate, mimicking the delightful motions of a sound wave. In fact, the graphics for this raster effect isn’t random either – it spells out Widex’s slogan “High Definition Hearing” (or how someone pronouncing it would look like anyway). Video here:
Clever! Very Clever!
[via NOTCOT]
Template Change (Again)
Yup, I’ve changed it again – sorry for the capriciousness – I think this template works better and is a lot easier on the eyes. 
What if Google.com is search-optimized?
What if the Google homepage itself was optimized to Google’s own search algorithms? This site finds out to humorous effect what Google.com would turn into if it was Extreme SEO-ed (search engine optimization).
Another interesting thing to note – if you search for “search engine” in Google, Google only comes up in the second page of results – and that is also only through Google UK sandwiched right smack in the middle.
Studio Manzano – Phone Tablet
That’s Studio Manzano’s Phone Tablet – from the looks of it, it’s probably a powder-coated bent-metal piece – a shelf for your mobiles or electronic gadgets.
The detail that really stands out is the cut-out in the center, which are slots for the wires and adaptors to pass through. This is also the part of the design that I really liked – while it serves its functional purpose, it’s also very neatly and poetically integrated into the shelf. I especially prefer the this version below:
The color of the finishing feels a tad more sophisticated than the white one, and the cut also looks very elegant – is that a tree blossoming, or could it be a subtle reference to coat hangers, or even a subtle hint at circuit board connections?
If you look at the front view, you’d also discover that there are hooks formed out of the sheet metal for you to hang your bags. This, however, didn’t appeal to me: the angular cut felt a bit too brutal – almost like a CAD model with too low polygon count – that I thought did not fit well with the rest of the aesthetics.
Details of this product (and more of others) can be found here – in French though.
[via Design Milk]
Blog Template Facelift
For long time visitors who thought that you’ve clicked into a wrong website, rest assured this is still Gems Sty. I’ve just got bored of the previous template and updated to this new one instead. Everything’s still pretty much the same – I’m not quite completely satisfied – but this is what I could get while being too cheap/lazy to pay and do some customized CSS instead.
The blog’s been up for more than a year now – and it’d continue to (hopefully) delight you with design and other interesting tidbits scavenged across the web, served perhaps with a dash of (I wish) insightful/witty remarks and commentaries from yours truly.
Let me know if you love/loathe it!
40th Tokyo Show – Concept Cars
You’ve probably have seen bits and pieces about some of these cars floating about online over the past weeks or so – they are all participants for the 40th Tokyo Motor Show that will be held from Oct 26 to Nov 11. From the very expressive Mazda Taiki (first picture) with all its 3d-twisting-and-flowing lines, to the Pacman-monster lookalike Honda PUYO (that is actually my favorite) that explores a soft body rather than the typical metallic panels, this is how car makers get creative and hopefully some elements from these explorations would make it to mass-production.
Most of these concepts fall within the small or mini-car segment. Japanese have a tradition for small cars, as they mostly use cars within cities (what with its narrow streets and very limited parking space), preferring to take the high-speed trains for longer journeys.
Fun-On has more descriptions for each concept (as well as some others that I didn’t feature here).
Nissan All-Round Camera Monitor
As the rear-sensors that beeps to alert drivers to obstacles become standard, Nissan has gone one-up to offer a full Around-View that gives drivers a bird’s eye view of their vehicle. Four cameras – mounted on the front, sides and the rear – captures images in real time and sends them to a central processor, which synthesizes the images and process them into easier-to-understand infographics.
Drivers who find parking difficult – rejoice!
Tre di Una – Hunn Wai
What if the most important structural parts of a chair are replaced by plastic clay? And how would the same chair look by simply altering the proportions of these connecting parts, while retaining the basic surfaces (hence the name Tre di Una, meaning “three from one”). This family of chairs are formed from a generic beech chair that is taken apart, and then pieced together again by colorful, plasticine-like clay connections, giving it a new and fresh character.
Hailing from Singapore, Hunn Wai studied in NUS before completing a Masters in Design Academy Eindhoven under the tutelage of Droog co-founder Gijs Bakker. You can find more of his craft-leaning designs over at his website.
