design

“Because clean dishes remain in the washer, the table becomes an ersatz cupboard between meals.” The new York Times lists the ‘self cleaning dinner table’ as one of the ideas of the year. – What year would that be, 1958? I have a big problem with dish washers – I hate unloading them – it seems pointless to move dishes from what is essentially one storage place to the next. The solution for slackers like me is to have two small dishwashers – pull clean dishes out of one and put dirty ones into the other. No unnecessary unloading exercise for me. Ho hum, now I guess I’ll drive three miles to the gym and walk for half an hour on the treadmill. NYT: Self-Cleaning Dinner Table – login required

The iPod is a work of art and it brings back the utility of the original walkman, without the hiss. The promotional material for the Walkman 2 showed it hidden behind a compact cassette box. The iPod does the same thing – but contains 400 cassettes. Cassette tape Walkmans have always been more ergonomic than CD Walkmans, which can’t fit the into most pockets. In fact, clothing dictates one of the most successful form factors: ‘pocket size’. Regardless of any other issues, MP3 players don’t have the problem that CD players have, and the iPod is almost exactly the same size at that other design classic Sony’s 1983 WM-20, cassette tape sized Walkman. The CD was never a successful portable form factor. Walkman History

Ikea, who are usually known for bringing modernism to the masses are threatening to demolish a building by Marcel Breuer, best know for his classic modernist furniture. ArchitectureWeek – News – IKEA Threatens Breuer Icon – 2002.1204

Creative projects that people take on after the dot com crash – photographs of the entire California coastline: California Coastal Records Project — Aerial Photographs of the California Coastline

Lets face it – most software and computer hardware is crap. In most tech. organizations, design doesn’t exist or is part of marketing or engineering, something that would have managers from other product-based industries slapping their thighs and crying with laughter. In “the ten reasons ease of use doesn’t happen on engineering projects”, Scott Berkun outlines some reasons why the most basic of design requirements, ‘ease of use’, is willfully ignored in software development. Over the next month or so, in an attempt to justify my ranting, I’ll elaborate on the future of design in the Computer Industry. via Tomalak The ten reasons why ease of use doesn’t happen on engineering projects – UIWEB.COM

Armed with a digital camera and inkjet printer, San Francisco artist Michael Koller is in the process of producing a unique photographic study. He has taken thousands of sequential photographs of building elevantions along a 30 mile continuous route through San Francisco. By editing these images to join up seamlessly he is producing one single continuous image. Like many innovative art projects, this takes advantage of techniques that were previously unavailable. This is a project that would be almost impossible without digital cameras and imaging software. seamless city – San Francisco – m.koller

“The day before the first bombing run on Bhagdad during the 1991 Gulf War, Iraqi TV showed a mass of Iraqi soldiers marching beneath the huge crossed swords of the Victory Arch, to the theme music from ‘Star Wars’.”” Samir Al-Khalil’s book, The Monument, deals with the subject of monuments built by Saddam in modern day Baghdad. Some of the details of these monuments are a perfect study in monstrosity. Take, for example, the above mentioned celebratory arch constructed in honour of the victory in the war with Iran. “The triumphal arch is shaped as two pairs of crossed swords, made from the guns of dead Iraqi soldiers that were melted and recast as the 24-ton blades of the swords. Captured Iranian helmets are in a net held between the swords. And surrounding the base of the arms are another 5,000 Iranian helmets taken from the battle field. The fists…

The new Hummer is an object that personifies the skeuomorph – something which appears to be functional but is in fact decorative. The underlying decorative nature is what in fact makes the Hummer the ultimate example of the SUV as pure kitsch. The original Hummer was designed to traverse mud fields, ford rapids and scale mountainous terrain and as such was perhaps overkill for doing groceries in suburbia. It looked rugged and cool and in fact was very rugged, too rugged – i.e. bloody uncomfortable. The new Hummer sought to correct that – to create the oxymoron of comfortable and utilitarian, military chic for comfortable civilians, something as obviously stupid as the civilian comfort, white leather interior 4 wheel drive Lamborghini

Scion is Toyota’s new brand aimed at generation Y – you know – the ones who laugh at you ‘cos the crotch of your pants isn’t six inches from the floor. Well apparently these guys now have buying power and a whole boat load of lurid tricked out gear that would make Vin Diesel whimper is about to hit the consumer market.