Author Archives: David

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.

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 wasa 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).

The Opus Design Award is held annually to invite concept design entries related to eyewear. This year, the theme for the competition was “Eyewear are tools to enhance faces”:

Today, roles of eyewear have come far beyond the original eyesight correction or optic protection.Particularly, possibilities as fashion items have great expectations.Opus Design Award this year dares to define that “eyewear are tools to enhance faces”,and invite designs in accordance with the definition. We look forward to innovative exciting designs that would open up new spheres of eyewear.

The winner was announced, and Singaporean industrial designer Joe Tan‘s entry “blur” beat the pack to win the Gold Prize and a cool 1 million yen! Obviously inspired by one of the tools of our trade – Photoshop – his entry plays a pun in bringing the techniques used in ‘Photoshopping’ to real life:

blur is inspired by the photoshop “blur” tool often used to erase wrinkles in photos. We can find similar blur texture effects on glass or plastic products in our everyday life. Applying such textures to specific area on the eyewear blurs wrinkles and seemingly reverse the effects of aging. blur is specially designed for women who want to look younger in a blink of an eye!