Author Archives: David

Celebrity Caricatures

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celebrity-caricature

Stumbled across some rather well-done caricatures of famous people – usually caricatures are limited to pencil sketches or maybe paintings…but these have a much more 3D feel to them! Not sure who’s the artist behind them though…[Edit: The artist is David O’Keefe – I have modified the link above to point to his site; Thanks Joe]

No prizes for guessing who are the celebrities – though I must say the second one looked rather more like Michael Moore than the supposed Elton John.

[Nicole Kidman, Elton John, Hillary Clinton]

 

Vinyl Dance Floor

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vinyl-dance-floor

A pretty cool concept – the music plays as you walk or run on the projected vinyl (it also responds to the direction you’re walking – you can play the music either forward or backwards). My immediate thought was, this would make a really interactive piece if people started “scratching” and synchronizing their dance moves to the music – and it turns out this is indeed in the works, and would be released in the next edition.

Stay tuned here!

 

Sustainable Dance Club?

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This really smells like greenwashing to me, but for what it’s worth here’s the story: the movements of the clubbers and dancers on the floor are harnessed as electricity by the floor (loaded with springs and such?) – the electricity garnered are used to power itself (the music, the lights, etc).

I am deeply skeptical about this – given the exorbitant amounts of energy that these hundred-decibel, bass-thumping, strobe-flicking, juice-guzzling contraptions uses in any typical day, versus the actual amount of electricity that can be harnessed: it just doesn’t seem logical at all.

And yet it seems that these are some of the most visible or publicized ways to achieve the green agenda – massive undertakings (think of the installations and how much extra energy/resources are required to produce them) with questionable actual effect: my take is, everyone just want to feel good that they’re doing something. Whether it’s really green, well – that may not be so important after all.

[The Dance Club]

Suicide Awareness Ads

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suicide-awareness-ads

The visual impact of these Suicide Awareness posters are already very high – but what I really liked about them are also perhaps the depth behind. The core message on the posters read: “Help yourself”- and it’s so cool that the falling men/women were rescued by the outline that they were cut from – the concept here isn’t simply a superficial visual trick to grab attention, but gels really well with the message itself.

 

IDSA 2007 Gallery

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idsa-gallery

The winners of the IDSA 2007 are out – here’s the link to a gallery of goodness in product design – see if you get inspired by some (hopefully many) of them!

[Some winners shown above in the picture: The HomeHero Fire Extinguisher – the stylish and yet functionally expressive design encourages home owners to display rather than hide them, ensuring its reachability when seconds matter; The Aliph Bluetooth Headset packaging, which highlights the product instead of hiding it in layers of packaging; The Universal Toilet, a student design concept that aims to remove the excessive maneuvering a wheelchair user has to go through even in current toilet designs].

 

Nose Pouch

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nosepouch

The superlative description on its homepage (seems it is already defunct) – “Newest functional innovation in the handkerchief since the Dark Ages! Dont call it a handkerchief, call it a NosePouch!” amused me. At the same time it also makes me want to dismiss it as yet another entry  in “one-of-those-inventions”. But, (perhaps influenced by my current runny nose), I reconsidered and questioned myself – why was my first reaction to dismiss it? What was the gap between this and those which I’d exclaim “why didn’t I think of that”?

Does it not solve a problem? Well I think it does – the pouch-design would help to contain the goo from a case of bad flu. Even while many have converted to tissue papers, there are still the steadfast handkerchief group – so marketing may not be an issue either. Could it be simply down to the unpolished presentation and web design? Probably.

It really matters how you package it.

 

Great Color Legends

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color-legends4

If you’re the kind of person who notices little things and likes to know why are things a certain way – this might be a neat gem. The Color+Design blog has compiled a list (actually, now two) of some of the trivia behind why specific colors are attributed to a certain item or notion: why is the envy monster green? Why does the leader of the Tour de France wear a yellow jersey (and why does the Italian one wear pink)? Why is the US dollar the greenback?

If these questions-and-answers fascinate you (as they are for me), be glad that there are over 20 of them right here!