japanese furniture company maruni wood industry has added new pieces to their hiroshima series
for their 2010 collection.

‘hiroshima chair’
all images by yoneo kawabe

one of the new pieces is the ‘hiroshima chair’, a small chair which follows the same look as the
‘hiroshima arm chair’. the design keeps in mind the texture of the wood used to finish the legs,
back frame and top rail of the seat which look as if they are seamlessly one piece. the thin upholstered
seat can be removed for easy maintenance.

up close

‘hiroshima ottoman’ with ‘hiroshima lounge chair’

a new ottoman has been introduced to the collection and has been designed to be used as
a set with the classic hiroshima lounge chair designed by naoto fukasawa.

‘hiroshima ottoman’

‘hiroshima ottoman’ (detail)

‘hiroshima lounge chair’ in brown

a new color has also been added to the finishing choices, brown for oakwood,
along with the introduction of leather seat covers exclusively for this color finish.

‘hiroshima lounge chair’ in brown

‘hiroshima lounge chair’ in brown

‘hiroshima lounge chair and dining table’ in brown

‘hiroshima lounge chair and dining table’ in brown

‘hiroshima lounge chair and dining table’ in brown (detail)

A hoodie is not just a hoodie. In a world full of stuff, smart items should be transformable, editable. They should engage the possibility to be transformed into something else. We do not need a new object, a new thing. Rather we need to get rid of some of them, to reduce the complex network of things around us.

Just undo it is a collection of reversible objects that could be made from a hoodie at no cost, no particular knowledge nor tools. See how to videos here.

Instructions about how to make a computer sleeve were published in the last issue of WIRED Italia.

(Thank you Antonio)

Erosie & Graphic Surgery at Alley from Geert on Vimeo.

The video above was created for the exhibition Random Order in the Alley Gallery in Hasselt, Belgium.

Erosie can be found here.
Graphic Surgery can be found here.

Fluke is a diving robot designed for the deep abyss. The data collected serves to deepen our understanding of the ocean as an ecosystem. The research probes are equipped with flexible, pressure-resistant carriers suitable for holding various sensors in order to prepare for the respective missions. Extremely effective and featuring reduced energy consumption, the low-complexity drive system concept is based on the movements of a fish and can be manufactured affordably.

Designers: Ralf Kittmann & Annalisa Koch

I just picked this up from my Twitter stream. It’s quite an amazing event. Edward Tufte helping the American public see where their $787 billion in economic stimulus tax money is going to help revive the US economy. Turning to Tufte is a brilliant move by Obama and a big win for innovation.

Here is what Tufte says:

“I will be serving on the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel. This Panel advises The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, whose job is to track and explain $787 billion in recovery stimulus funds:

“The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board was created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 with two goals:
To provide transparency in relation to the use of Recovery-related funds.
To prevent and detect fraud, waste, and mismanagement.
Earl E. Devaney was appointed by President Obama to serve as chairman of the Recovery Board. Twelve Inspectors General from various federal agencies serve with Chairman Devaney. The Board issues quarterly and annual reports to the President and Congress and, if necessary, “flash reports” on matters that require immediate attention. In addition, the Board maintains the Recovery.gov website so the American people can see how Recovery money is being distributed by federal agencies and how the funds are being used by the recipients.

Mission statement: To promote accountability by coordinating and conducting oversight of Recovery funds to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse and to foster transparency on Recovery spending by providing the public with accurate, user-friendly information.”

I’m doing this because I like accountability and transparency, and I believe in public service. And it is the complete opposite of everything else I do. Maybe I’ll learn something. The practical consequence is that I will probably go to Washington several days each month, in addition to whatever homework and phone meetings are necessary.”

We need more designers and design thinkers like Tufte in government.

Recently largest toy maker Mattel recalled 8.8 million Mattel’s China toys after discovering considerable amount of lead in the toy paint. Most of the toys manufacturing from outside are outsourced to China due to cheap labour and expenses where China makes 70% of the world’s toys.

These photos are an interesting look at a Chinese toy factory to see the living conditions and assembly of toys with 24 more pics after the jump.

Source: Mazm

You may have heard about or used some of most advanced smartphone applications, but here is a revolutionary iPhone app concept, the World Cleanest Graffiti, which lets you virtually draw and paste pictures on a real wall with your iPhone, so you could share them with others. You can share the pictures with people either on an online map or only with friends that you choose. With “local share,” you may ask the friends to go to the place and see the picture physically. Cool! In case you wanna convey your feelings to someone special, it can also be used like an old bulletin board. Moreover, you can see images in 3D mode, like normal graffiti, through your iPhone, allowing a better view from different angles.

Via: Petit Invention

Swedish company LampGustaf’s amusing Stitch Lamp demands a bit of DIY: It comes with a darning needle and yarn in eight colors, so you can add your own pattern to the mesh shade.

It even sort of comes in portrait or landscape modes:

The creatively meek need not worry–when the lamp launches in May, LampGustaf will also be posting downloadable patterns online, as well as providing a space for user-uploaded photos of their creations.

(more…)

It’s a sad state of affairs: your lawn is better at converting the sun into energy than that $23k solar array your neighbors just threw on their roof. Sun Catalytix wants to show that grass what’s what with a new process for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen — artificial photosynthesis. In a presentation at the ARPA-E conference (the Advanced Research Projects Agency — basically DARPA minus the military bent) Sun Catalytix founder Dan Nocera indicates that the process his company is developing could, with a photovoltaic array, four hours of sunlight, and a bottle of water, generate 30 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That’s enough to power an average home for a day — though hardcore gamers will probably need a bit more. The hope is that this will ultimately lead to cheap power for self-sufficient homes in the not-too distant future, but we’re still left wondering when that future’s going to come.

[Thanks, Jaden]

Continue reading Artificial photosynthesis could power your house, even if it’s not green (video)

Artificial photosynthesis could power your house, even if it’s not green (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A rather sweet video describes how Toyota didn’t seem to want to help the design company and when they did they did the criticism was overwhelming.

Simple yet effective. Any questions? [via 9gag | Thanks, Barry]

This Pebble Mat made me look. Not sure how I would feel about having one in my apartment though. Must feel odd to step on it, no?

Penguin, the fabled English publisher, is plunging head first into the world of iPad content. Not iPad books, exactly, as these things are not recognizable as books in the normal sense - they are closer to games and full-fledged apps. Even in the case where they are adapting existing print books, there is enough new stuff going on where it diverges significantly from what we normally think of as "book". A Kindle ebook these are not. Check out the video above for an intriguing peep into what they have planned.

Dan Nosowitz at Fast Company observes:

[P]enguin doesn't even think these things are books. I know that because Penguin intends to sell this digital content in the app store, as individual apps, not in the iBooks bookstore. There's nothing wrong with that–these apps look great, and the prospect of enriching the definition of "book" is exciting–but as companies take advantage of the iPad, the publishing industry is going to have to expand in ways we don't quite understand yet.

This is actually not the first time that Penguin has taken such a radical view of books. In fact, the company was founded 75 years ago on an innovative approach to book publishing and distribution. I talk about it in my own book, as it is a terrific early example of disruptive innovation.

Penguin Books came into existence because of a realization on a train platform. Penguin’s founder, Allen Lane, was returning from a weekend with the famous mystery writer Agatha Christie, and looked in the train station’s book stall for something to read on his journey back to London. Finding only popular magazines and poor-quality, luridly written novels, he wondered why there was not anything for the reader who wanted some good-quality fiction at a low price.

Penguin Books began with a range of biography, crime-writing, and novels, all by contemporary authors and selling for a fifteenth of what hardback books usually sold for. Within a year, Penguin sold three million paperbacks by satisfying a need that traditional book publishers saw as off-limits. They were focused on a more upscale category, and assumed readers were warmly ensconced in a drawing room with plenty of time to spare.

Penguin even experimented with a purpose-built dispensing machine for train stations, wonderfully named the Penguincubator (since penguins lay eggs), which, sadly, seems lost to the mists of time.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Alfa Romeo, Italian automobile company Bertone has launched a concept car at the Geneva Motor Show that touts as described by Mike Robinson, Bertone’s new Design and Brand Director, an “Algorithmic Design.” Called, the “Pandion,” the car concept features a metallic body with long doors that open toward the skies to give access to the driver and passenger. Presenting an interior inspired by mathematical principles and organic forms, with forest floor of tangled carbon fiber vines, the futuristic vehicle “seem to have grown spontaneously, without ever having been either designed or constructed.” Powered by a 4.7-liter Alfa V8 engine, the Pandion integrates a Maserati Gran Turismo chassis for a smooth drive, while the form-fitting chaise rests the driver and passenger in comfort for a luxury ride.

Via: Wired/Jalopnik

mini multifunctional emergency vehicle

the mini multifunction vehicle designed by sincere tone design and consulting co., ltd.
effectively functions in various instances of emergency such as short distance transport
fire fighting, distribution of resources, security and patrolling, breaking ice and cleaning snow.

mini multifunctional emergency vehicle

unlike larger emergency vehicles, its compact size allows for greater expedience in crowded
places such as community centres, residential areas, temporary battalions, the interior of larger
venues, exhibition centers and stadiums.

mini multifunctional emergency vehicle

the mini multifunctional emergency vehicle won the best of the gold prize,
2009 china red star design award. this is the only chinese national design award
that aims to encourage independent innovation amongst domestic enterprises.
it seeks to help participants create their own branding and improve their
products’ competitiveness in the international market.

in the china red star design award, shanghai, oct 2009

augmented sculpture is an art installation that combines three-dimensional sculpture and 2-D projections
by lichtfront and grosse8. the project was recently presented at imm cologne 2010 where viewers could
see the piece in action. the project consists of an abstract geometric form that is spiky and jagged all over.
the sculpture itself is white making it the perfect canvas for colourful light projections. an array of digital
projectors is beamed onto the form in accordance to the specific shape of the sculpture. the projection can
illuminate each facet of the form individually making the sculpture appear to be illuminating from within.

http://www.lichtfront.com

http://www.grosse8.de

55 Awesome Photos Manipulations by LSD s.r.l. on TutorArt

If you’re in Toronto Friday March 5th, be sure to check out the opening night of 1000Strangers Art Show, a collaborative art project combining the photographic talents of Larry Yuan and the illustration of Hilary Leung. The have created some some unique narratives about people and places around the great city of Toronto.

The show is at the Quaff Café, 668 Queen Street West.  The gallery opening starts at 6:00pm Friday March 5th, and the show runs until Friday April 2nd.

Posted by Patricia Storms on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog |
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Tostitos Salsa goes fullscreen on Vimeo

Posted on Motionographer

Filed under: Audio, iPhone

I’m not shy about my love of Grooveshark. No one pays me to say it, it’s just the best streaming music app I’ve used — and it’s fully functional in Canada unlike some of its geotarded cousins in the audio game.

They caused a bit of a ruckus recently when they decided to push their iPhone app — which had been roundly denied by Apple — via Cydia, doing an end run around Jobs and Co.

There are two things to know about the app. First, it’s awesome. It’s quite possibly the greatest thing I’ve ever installed on my jailbroken iPod touch. Second, there’s just no way Apple would ever have approved Grooveshark the way it was released. As much as I enjoy the ability to make single songs and entire playlists available offline with the push of a button, it’s not the kind of functionality Apple wants on its devices.

ed: as pointed out by commenters, Spotify — which was approved — does offline music as well. I’ve reached out to Grooveshark Josh Bonnain for some clarification about what went down. It’s also worth noting that both Palm and Blackberry approved Grooveshark.

That said, if you’re using a jailbroken device, find Grooveshark and install it. The app is pure mobile music goodness, and the missing piece in Grooveshark’s all-around awesomeness puzzle.

Apart from providing fast access to your playlists and favorite songs, you’ve also got Grooveshark’s entire library at your disposal via the search screen. You can also favorite, like, and dislike tunes while you listen.

Have a look at the screenshots after the break, and see what you’re missing if you don’t have a jailbroken iPhone or iPod!

Now if they could just put an end to those nasty record label lawsuits… I’m not shy about my love of Grooveshark. No one pays me to say it, it’s just the best streaming music app I’ve used — and it’s fully functional in Canada unlike some of its geotarded cousins in the audio game.

They caused a bit of a ruckus recently when they decided to push their iPhone app — which had been roundly denied by Apple — via Cydia, doing an end run around Jobs and Co.

There are two things to know about the app. First, it’s awesome. It’s quite possibly the greatest thing I’ve ever installed on my jailbroken iPod touch. Second, there’s just no way Apple would ever have approved Grooveshark the way it was released. As much as I enjoy the ability to make single songs and entire playlists available offline with the push of a button, it’s not the kind of functionality Apple wants on its devices.

ed: as pointed out by commenters, Spotify — which was approved — does offline music as well. I’ve reached out to Grooveshark Josh Bonnain for some clarification about what went down. It’s also worth noting that both Palm and Blackberry approved Grooveshark.

That said, if you’re using a jailbroken device, find Grooveshark and install it. The app is pure mobile music goodness, and the missing piece in Grooveshark’s all-around awesomeness puzzle.

Apart from providing fast access to your playlists and favorite songs, you’ve also got Grooveshark’s entire library at your disposal via the search screen. You can also favorite, like, and dislike tunes while you listen.

Have a look at the screenshots after the break, and see what you’re missing if you don’t have a jailbroken iPhone or iPod!

Now if they could just put an end to those nasty record label lawsuits…

Grooveshark’s iPhone app is unbelievably awesome, but totally unapprovable originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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