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The Industrial Designers of Edmonton Association recently held their annual THAW design exhibition. We spoke with IDEA president Shoko Cesar and he gave us an illustrated tour of the show in the audio+images podcast below. The theme this year was sustainable design. Some of the designs featured; a coat rack with paper tube "hooks" that double as storage, a picture frame/measure for kids to track their growth with images and centimeters, candle shaped electrical lights made of candy and a table with drawers with a peeled wood handle (you have to see it). More images after the jump.
+ MP4 Quicktime Stream
+ idea_thaw_show_2006_2.m4a (5.52Mb audio iPod file, right click and "Save link as")
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Can design help cure social ills? It's a tall order, but there is no doubt that design can help. Architecture for Humanity and eco design are familiar and comfortable places where design can make a difference. Less comfortable, but no less important or worthy, is homelessness in our own backyards, and now, the Aphrodite Project's Platforms which use design and technology to bring sex workers on par with other public workers. "6-inch, silver leather sandals with built-in video and GPS technology that link the wearer to emergency services and an online community network. These design elements combine the rich mythology of Aphrodite with the concerns of sex workers on the streets: safety, advertising/promotion, and community.". Via blog.elektra.
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New media designer Sebastian Campion, who is interview-worthy in his own right, recently did an interview with Hulger CEO Nicolas Roope of retro-cel-phone-handset fame and offered it to MoCo Loco. Herewith is the interview with Nicolas, that's him in the photo below (taken by Violetta Boxill-Roope, his wife and creative director at icon):
The Unbearable Lightness of Consumer Electronics:
an interview with Nicolas Roope
Ever since the birth of the mobile phone, its evolution has been all about one thing: size. On one hand, the phones get smaller and smaller, on the other hand they contain ever more features, functionalities, pixels and megabytes. But why is smaller more desirable? Why is new always better? Why must technology always look forwards, never backwards? It was questions like these that inspired Nicolas Roope to come up with the concept for Hulger, which in all its simplicity consists of retro landline receivers that can be used with a mobile phone or a PC. After its launch a few years ago, it soon turned out that Nicolas Roope was not the only one longing for a little anarchy in the streamlined landscape of high-tech mobile products and his first models sold as hot cakes on eBay. The buzz surrounding these new, strangely familiar, objects spread via the web to international lifestyle magazines and news media and today, Hulger is sold in stores throughout the world.
It all began as an artistic statement but within a few years Hulger has turned into a normal - well, almost normal - design product.
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+ Let your fingers do the painting with DNA11's new FingerPrints. From the makers of DNA art, comes more art based on your identity. You send life-sized fingerprints (via a kit), they send you back a Giclee print with your prints enlarged 4000% on canvas.
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Launch Pad, a non-profit program that promotes emerging Australasian designers, has chosen 20 entries (from a field of 100 submissions) to be exhibited at the Melbourne Museum in a two-week exhibition which begins tomorrow. Weâve chosen three, from left; Lilypad Seat by Bilardospencer, âa low circular fibreglass moulded form, suitable for indoor, outdoor and water useâ, Unwined by Ted Smyth, âa new concept in mood lighting for interior spaces. The major component of the light is provided by a recycled wine bottle.â and Brody Sofa by Arthur Koutoulas, âa marriage of furniture and architecture. Based on the idea of seamlessly fusing a sofa with a wallâ. See all 20 here.
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If MoCo Loco was a book, this would be it. 1000 New Designs is a sourcebook of more than a thousand contemporary designs, all of them recent (none older than the turn of this century) with more than half from the last 12 months alone. Organized by category; furniture, storage, lighting, textiles, rugs, bathrooms, kitchenware, and electronic products, each object is presented with a caption providing details such as manufacturer web site and designer info. The book also has commentaries on the objects presented as well as trends and includes interviews with 33 designers. Practically every page of this 352 page book has several color images of objects. Softcover, $18.87 at Amazon.
+ 1000 New Designs at Amazon
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+ Elmanco sent us this new radiator design from Adhoc called Random designed by Giovanni Casali. Thanks Stefano!
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Designed by Shoko Cesar, our own Greg Ball, and Darryl Barton, Cholesterol is a lamp made with reused clear plastic egg cartons. The designers explain; "North America's rich and over-indulgent culture generates millions of tons of waste that flow into the landfill every year. Cholesterol lighting helps to block the flow of waste by adding beauty to our devalued waste products. By reusing material that is on its way to the landfill, Cholesterol adds aesthetic value to a disposable material and asks the user to reconsider: what materials are disposable, and what materials can be reused for their aesthetic value.". Cholesterol is a project designed for the THAW 2006 show.
+ theideagroup.ca
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Polish industrial designer and street artist 'truth' tags buildings and structures not with paint, but with his own 3D industrial design/architecture. Says he; "I play with surroundings, architecture and passers-by... ".
+ truthtag.com
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