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They’re still “seeking”:
- an oceanographer
- a chemist
- a marine engineer
- and at least one expert on the problem
(yeah, might need at least one of each of these…)
but a group of Dutch architects and engineers has started up a research project to explore the idea of creating a sustainable island nation out of the trash floating in the Pacific. The project has been heralded “Recycled Island,” and the goal is a livable and scalable habitation the size of Hawaii’s big island.
The early mock-ups bring Venice, Dubai, and science fiction to mind, but the project is still very much in the early R&D stages and far from a reality. People love Dutch design for architecture and urban planning, not to mention their credibility in environmental solutions, so despite the distance from the potential island, this idea has sparked in the Netherlands. And why not beckon the world’s greatest minds through online publishing and networking? The project has been spreading across magazine websites, blogs, and press releases this week (I saw it here), and the group networks through Facebook to various other sustainable design groups.
Some virtual ships, machines, and robots and things building Recycled Island in Waterworld, er, the Pacific
We’ve laid off the “Infographic of the Day” posts for awhile, as so many other blogs feature similar content. This one demanded attention though. The information itself is important and interesting, but I found the interactive functions of this home energy use tool to be so well-designed that I couldn’t pass up the chance to pass it along. This infographic works in three dimensions: question asked (there are 4 options); appliances selected and their individual data; and the running total usage at the bottom. If only there was a way for the user to indicate when they own multiples of these products…
Click through and around to assess your home’s energy usage:
The Art of Game Design is a primer for anyone interested in designing video games, but also an invaluable resource for anyone who spends a lot of time thinking about how people interact with the world around them, whether it is environments, products, advertising, or interfaces.
Experiences without feedback are frustrating and confusing. At many crosswalks in the United States, pedestrians can push a button that will make the DON’T WALK sign change to a WALK sign so they can cross the street safely. But it can’t change right away, since that would cause traffic accidents. So the poor pedestrian often has to wait up to a minute to see whether pressing the button had any effect. As a result, you see all kinds of strange button-pressing behavior: some people push the button and hold it for several seconds, others push it several times in a row, just to be safe. And the whole experience is accompanied by a sense of uncertainty — pedestrians can often be seen nervously studying the lights and DON’T WALK sign to see if it is going to change, because they might not have pushed the button correctly.
What a delight it was to visit the United Kingdom, and find that in some areas the crosswalk buttons give immediate feedback in the form of an illuminated WAIT sign that comes on when the button has been pushed, and turns off when the WALK period has ended! The addition of some simple feedback turned an experience where a pedestrian feels frustrated into one where they can feel confident and in control.
Most people don’t have a clue what goes into designing a logo, let alone a complex identity system. Pentagram’s Paula Scher has written this little essay that takes on the common gripes and misunderstandings about identity design, specifically, What They Don’t Teach You About Identity Design in Design Schools.
For what it’s worth, this is my favorite passage…
I never knew a designer that got hundreds of thousands of dollars to design a logo. Mostly, designers get paid to negotiate the difficult terrain of individual egos, expectations, tastes, and aspirations of various individuals in an organization or corporation, against business needs, and constraints of the marketplace. This is a process that can take a year or more. Getting a large, diverse group of people to agree on a single new methodology for all of their corporate communications means the designer has to be a strategist, psychiatrist, diplomat, showman, and even a Svengali. The complicated process is worth money. That’s what clients pay for. The process, usually a series of endless presentations and refinements, persuasions and proofs, results, hopefully, in an accepted identity design.
I’m not going to wax philosophical about Diesel’s new “Be Stupid” campaign. I’ll let you all decide for yourselves.
I’l just say that once you get past the initial, well, stupidity of it all, it’s actually kind of refreshing. Isn’t the proposition being made here essentially what every trendy “lifestyle brand” asks of its consumer – to eschew rational thinking and do what they feel. I mean, there’s no purely logical, rational reason to buy $150 jeans. You buy they because you just want them.
For a second opinion, here’s Ken Carbone’s take from Fast Company.
Get ready! Any time soon you’ll be able to create “ODO’s'”, or more formally known as “originally designed objects”, based off of initial product prototypes developed by professional designers. These are essentially custom one-off accessories you personalize for you and your home.
Using 3-D modeling software soon to be made available on their website, UCODO.com allows the user to customize products initially created by acclaimed industrial designers. They call the process ”digital forming.”
Rapid prototyping machines develop your design via a few mouse clicks in real time, literally on demand. You can alter in form, shape, material, and/or color then either store your creation in their online library or purchase then and there.
And prices start as low as $25. Crazy…
There’s a great documentary film out that you should view. It’s titled “Objectified” (www.ObjectifiedFilm.com), by Gary Hustwit, that explores the man-made products that we use, and that surround us, in our environment.
What I like about the film is that it’s presented to us from the perspective of designers who develop products and their creative processes, the front-end of the product spectrum; not a worn a’la cultural anthropoligical or consumer behaviorist critique of the end-process of people and all their stuff, and how bad all that is. Nice work, very well done.
An interactive infographic worth the click to the link: Fast Company’s Consumer Electronics Evolutionary Tree.
