spectacular lighting ideas

just browsing through dornob's blog again and stumbled across this new modular lighting system that is really eyecatching and steps away from that regular office fluorescence that is so painful to deal with you just block it out.

this entry led me to some other related articles with respect to lighting and i fell inlove with this idea of peel away lighting panels that provide ambient light in a room. such a brilliant idea for an intimate space. take a look at the pictures below to see what i mean.

some other design spots of interest...

two other blogs/design mags that i find insteresting to check out daily.

there are always some great ideas

boing boing

and

design boom

the persistence of memory

for assignment one i chose to work on salvador dali's the persistence of memory

i did a poster mash up replacing the melting analog clocks with digital ones.

i call it the persistence of digital memory

product family tree

my chosen product was the gaming console and i can honestly say this was one of the most enjoyable projects i've done yet.

i hope you all find it interesting

City of Sydney going 100% green in 20 years?

according to this radio interview i just listened to, the City of Sydney has big plans ahead. They intend on producing 100% of their energy locally in the next 20 years. with energy being transferred in from as far away as the Hunter region right now i find this very hard to believe.

i sure hope its doable as the price of energy is about to go up again in a month or two.

have a listen here and see what you think

Core77: design magazine

for those curious to learn a little more about what industrial designers worldwide are putting their minds to, and whats out there to read worth reading, maybe you're interested in some new emerging technologies, I definitely recommend core77 as a top notch design magazine that really covers it all. it also has plenty of job listings around the world for those looking for some work or just to see where you might end up working when all the hard work at uni is over.

i suggest you check it out here...

Dornob Designs - Double Your Pleasure: Two-Headed Handheld Rain Shower

From a Former Industrial Design student at UNSW, I happened to stumble across Tom Baker's Dual headed shower design. This is a sleek and elegant design that allows the user to remove the detachable head to wet localised areas of the body whilst still remaining under a nice warm flow of water the whole time.

TED talk - The shape-shifting future of the mobile phone

I watched Fabian Hemmert, a Phd student from Berlin discuss how to make something like digital technology, something that is intangible, a tangible product. We have things like touch screens and motion sensing technology like Wii and Xbox Kinect but what is the next step to making things feel more human?

Fabian talks about 3 ways of potentially doing such a thing. There are 3 main ways he proposes this should be done.

Through weight shifting the centre of gravity of the mobile phone. This is particularly good for navigation purposes and allows the user to feel the directions and not have to see of hear them.

Through shape changing so the phone expands when larger data is being looked at and shrinks when in sleep mode in your pocket or transforms to become a beside stand for watching movies or being a displayed alarm clock device.

Lastly, the phone becomes a living organism through it's movements and actions for example having a heart beat and getting excited and being able to be calmed down through human affection.

It shows a different perspective to digital technology and teaches you to 'think outside the box' with respect to design. Human beings can become emotionally attached to products like they do living things and are more inclined to do so when the object is responsive and appears to have a soul.

Watch the TED talk here...

Design Ideas Daily - Dornob Designs

Dornob Designs is a design blog I subscribe to and get emailed daily with new and innovative designs being released.

Here is an example of a simple but smart product that solves a problem that we have all had to deal with.

No more problems having to juggle several coffee cups at a time when its your turn to do the coffee run and spilling half the drinks on the way back to the office as holding a few cups is too hard to manoeuvre. No more piles of cardboard coffee trays piling up at the office. Check out this awesome solution.....

Powerhouse Museum - Success & Innovation Exhibition and Australian International Design Awards

For my Passport, I was required to visit a Museum and aspecific exhibition and I chose to go the Powerhouse Museum located in Ultimo as I have always loved it and feel that it's exhibits are more relevant to the area of Design and Technology.

The exhibit I chose to see on this occasion was the Success and Innovation exhibit which contained the Australian International Design Awards.

The Success and Innovation Exhibit splits itself in to 3 main categories:

- Reviewing the best

- Engineering Excellence Awards (which I skipped past and didn't see)

- Australian International Design Awards 2010

'Reviewing the best' splits itself into 3 main categories also. They are:

- Bright Ideas

- Well Made

- Sold Well

Bright Ideas featured some of the best in terms of originality of ideas, for example a segmented tyre

Well Made featured some of the best in terms of quality of manufacture for example the cardiac pacemaker

Sold Well featured some of the best in terms of effectiveness of sales for example the 'Dolphin mk3' Eveready Torch.

Following that, I moved onto the Australian International Design Awards 2010 exhibit which featured a selection of finalists from the AIDA that showcased excellence in design as well as the innovative use of technology of materials to provide significant benefits to the user.

The student category (James Dyson Awards) included work from a UNSW Industrial Design student, Samuel Adeloju, for his design of a man-portable system that allows for the rapid conveyance of temporary water-activated buoyancy devices to a drowning victim.

The Industry Category included such designs as a pocket-sized ultrasound system which is the World's smallest and received the Powerhouse Museum Design Award and a gaming headset that reads brain signals and facial expressions.

Overall, I found the exhibition to be inspiration and made me aware of the industry standard being released into the marketplace and made me aware of my obligations to contribute similarly innovative and revolutionary designs to the marketplace.

the 11th hour

This video was a real wake up call I must admit. The information from dozens of professionals and activists in different fields of expertise talking about the worlds end and how its exponentially growing with human lifestyle really scares the poop out of you!

The reality is that we've already done too much damage to go back and are sustaining too many people to allow the Earth to recover from what it is experiencing right now. The concept of "ancient sunshine" in fossil fuels and how thats encouraged massive population growth really explains the position we're in very well. As I understand it, the Earth's yearly sunlight might be able to support the lives of a billion humans at best and with the discovery of ancient, hidden "sunshine" or energy, we're creating more lives for the planet to support. Once this secondary supply of energy is lost, we have only the Sunshine to sustain our species and we will have most of the population wiped off the face of the earth due to this..

Further to that is the issue of the Earth being in a sickly state and trying to correct itself. We are constantly adding to the infection and it only makes sense that in order for the planet to survive, it has to conquer us. And it will. In all honesty, we aren't fighting to save the Earth but to save ourselves, Oren Lyons says at the end of the video.

I also valued the part where they delve into the concept of becoming a part of nature to survive and how in modern society it's considered unusual or abnormal to be that way minded. The truth is that we have to live harmoniously with nature, we don't have a choice in the matter, so it only makes sense to pay attention to its needs instead of construing it as a "hippie" like perspective on life.

With issues today like the BP oil spill and the efforts to not just minimise but STOP the leakage is devastatingly important and it almost puts chills down your spine watching this video but I will add, it kind of makes you feel useless in the big scheme of things. How will I as an individual change the irreparable damage already done?