Useful Image for Web Design Screen Sizing

This image shows the different screen sizes you can design for and what percentage of people have them.

from methodologie

Design to Improve Life (INDEX Peoples' Choice Awards)

Browse the really cool projects (including Kiva.org!) and vote on your favorite designs

Yay Denmark for hosting this cool award!

(photo: the 700$ house)

(thanks to Aaron Sklar for the link)

Art VS Design

This looks like a fun opportunity:

http://www.artistswanted.org
Deadline May 31st @ 11:59 PM.

An international Open Call for Unique Talent
Details & Submissions >

Images are power. In this dynamic era compelling design can move millions and transcendent art can inspire a generation. From cave paintings of early man to today's industrial designers, art & design has uniquely shaped the world around us, each in its own distinct way. This contest is designed to answer the age old question: What shapes our world more, art or design?

Join thousands of creative people in this visual dialogue.

Mark Mothersbaugh, acclaimed artist and lead singer of art-rock band DEVO leads a panel of judges including Jarrett Gregory (curator at NYC's New Museum) and Donwan Harrell (founder and creative director of Akademiks clothing) in selecting the top artist or designer to be featured at a gala reception at the New Museum in June. The public also plays judge - determining the most powerful medium of the moment - in an online face-off that pits art submissions against design submissions.

Opportunities will be created for everyone who participates and we are awarding over $11,000 in prizes.

Grand Prize & Student winner will be awarded with:

* A gala reception at the New Museum in New York City
* $2009 cash grant
* International Publicity, including a feature in Filter Magazine and work shown through Gawker Artists exposing the winners art or design to hundreds of thousands of visitors across 190+ website galleries
* $500 in gear from Akademiks
* Plus the Red Bull Prize: Offering a choice of: A vintage Vespa OR a trip to London to visit the Tate Museum and the Design Museum OR a fully loaded Mac Book Pro


Every participant gets:

* An online portfolio and international exposure
* A $70 "Thank You" package with gear and discounts to help further your work


Registration is open now and continues through Midnight May 31st.
Details: http://www.artistswanted.org/

Art VS Design was put together by a handful of Brooklyn based artists and designers who have experienced first-hand the difficulties of achieving national attention. We believe both Art & Design hold a powerful place in our society and it is our intention to break-out new talent through a process that is dynamic and open-ended.

Deadline: May 31st @11:59 PM

Fantastic Review of Different Footer Ideas

tons of examples and inspirations for well-designed and dynamic footers.

check it out >
(from webair.it)

Cities in the Sea

I've been revisiting the work of Jacque Fresco lately. I'm amazed at how forward-thinking it is. Photos are from thevenusproject.com - please check there for credits.

From their site:

Off Shore Living

Offshore apartment buildings of concrete, steel, glass, titanium, and a wide variety of new synthetic materials could be built to relieve the population pressure in areas like Hong Kong, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and New York. The materials used in such projects would be engineered to withstand the corrosive effects of the harsh ocean environment.

A global system of these structures can easily accommodate many millions of people and relieve the land based population pressures. They can provide the inhabitants with information and serve as natural sea aquariums without artificially enclosing marine life.

Many of these cities may serve as oceanographic universities that maintain the ecological balance of marine systems. Other ocean cities will maintain sea farms that will cultivate many forms of marine life. They could also be used as a new resource for mining the relatively untapped resources of the oceans without disturbing its ecology. Still others may monitor and maintain environmental equilibrium and reclaim dangerous radioactive and other pollutant materials that have been dumped into the sea.

After construction, these structures can be towed to various locations where they would be most beneficial, then anchored to the ocean floor. Some structures will be towed in prefabricated segments and then joined together at selected locations. Their internal construction will include floatation chambers which will render them practically unsinkable. They can be self maintained and fully automated
Check out the Venus Project for more info.

Thoughts on Preciousness and Simplicity

The term "precious" has some negative connotations, but I've been thinking about it in the context of Japanese design (prompted by surfing this site: http://www.jetro.org/trends/food.php)

You see it in food, design, and other almost ritualistic aspects of culture in Japan. I do think you appreciate things more when there are fewer of them -- the perceived value of small packages and so forth.

The same is true for product design, and products in general: having fewer products in your house, but having them be better ones, is a simple pleasure and almost an art.

Enjoying minimalism is a simple pleasure in this consumerist age-- and simplicity is a worthy pursuit whether you are working on a website, product, or...just life.

However, it's something that ironically takes a lot of work-- and isn't always simple!

IDEO "Thoughtless Acts" Flickr group

Great photo group about things being used for an unintended purpose-- and accidentally uncovering a clever solution to a problem.

These photos are great:



join this group at http://flickr.com/groups/thoughtlessacts/

Cute & Elegant Pictograms

Pictograms are the new language..

Show, don’t tell. A pictogram designers portfolio showing some different iconwork. Making things simple can be complicated. Simplicated!

http://www.iconwerk.de/ (I REALLY like how it's all on one page too!)

thanks to dzialifornia on NewsToday

Cute stuff on Etsy

Etsy.com is just the best for finding cute stuff!

check out Tara Hogan of Ink & Wit (link to her Etsy shop) and Rachael Hetzel of Pistachio Press (link to her Etsy store)

How to WikiHow: Make a Sock Monkey and other useful How-Tos

WikiHow will teach you how to make or do anything you want. It's user-edited like any other wiki. Unless you already know how to do everything, you may want to...check it out >

(if you know how to do something, pretty much anything, you should share it with the world so others can learn too!)

(especially if you have any good recipes...)

Build 3D models out of virtual LEGOs!

LEGO has a tool called Digital Designer that lets you create 3D models that look really amazing. you can move them around in space and take screenshots of them, upload them and save them on the web if you have a LEGO account.

You can even order them and have the real product shipped to you!

check it out >

Metropolis Magazine Call for Entries!

Metropolis just sent out their call for entries for their 2008 Next Generation Design Contest.

This year's theme is WATER. Here's what they say on their site:

"The 2008 Next Generation® Design Competition focuses on WATER. In a world of killer floods and rising tides, potable water is a finite resource.

Water is everywhere—in nature, industry, home, our bodies, products, interiors, buildings, landscapes, systems (just to name a few).

With up to one third of the global population living without reliable access to clean water, we need better design solutions that account for potable water, gray water, black water—its uses, re-uses, controls, management, efficiency, and conservation.

We call on your innovative design solutions at all scales and sizes—products, interiors, buildings, landscapes, communication systems, or anything else you’ve dreamed up—for handling this most precious and most threatened natural resource. The time for new thinking on water is now.

WHAT’S YOUR SOLUTION?"

Check out the contest entry details >

17 year old makes millions on MySpace Designs

This teenage girl is a multi-millionaire because she designs MySpace Pages!!! Wow, wish I'd thought of that first...What an inspiring story!

Whateverlife.com is her site, and her name is Ashley Qualls. Check out the video on CNN >

Her site's kind of down right now (probably all the media traffic!) but here's a good article from doshdosh that explains how she did it.

Mostly, she got a ton of traffic and then sold ad space! With that, she makes (according to the media) $70K a month. You go, girl!

Design Meltdown: a great resource for designers!

My site was featured a while ago on DesignMeltdown.com and I just wanted to say that it has turned out to be a site that I go to often for inspiration because it has a ton of resources and ideas for web design. If I feel like I'm getting stuck making the same kinds of layouts over and over again, or I'm looking for interface design solutions to things I haven't tackled before, it's always a great place to go.

here's the link to where my portfolio site is featured. the article talks about using a grid in web design.

Sustainable Design: A Conversation with Design Publishers

a short video interview about what's important in sustainability, with Metropolis Magazine's Susan Szenazy, Treehugger.com, and Core77.com:

Droog Design calls for design ideas around 'climate' theme

Ranging from ideas about food, heating, music, literature, fashion,
architecture...anything you like in any form you wish.

Who can participate
The competition is open to everyone with interesting and challenging ideas regarding the climate.
The process
Out of all the entries, Droog Design will select ten design proposals which they think most suitable.

The selected proposals will be presented to the public through our website.
They will have the final say in who will be the overall winner; the idea that gets voted for most, will win the competition.

Droog Design will investigate if the proposals can be realized.

It also obtains the right to exhibit the proposals in our gallery droog-at-home and other possible venues.

Timelines
Deadline for entries: June 30th 2007
Pre selection Droog Design: September 1st 2007
Final selection winning design: October 1st 2007

How to send in your proposals
Send in via e-mail to: studio@droogdesign.nl:
􀂃 Your proposal *
􀂃 Your contact details
* in digital form; use the following formats: .gif, .jpeg, (72 dpi - max 500 kb each file) .wmv, .mp3, .wma, .doc. (no more than 500 words)

check out the site >

Recycled Cardboard "Log" Cabin

My friend Stephan von Muehlen built this rad little log cabin out of recyclable materials from Build It Green NYC -- a nice and cosy bedroom, no?

He was inspired by a 2005 show at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan featuring refugee housing...

Sarah Cox from Dwell Magazine blogged about it here :
"He constructed the cabin in five days by building a deck with storage underneath and attaching vertical plywood fasteners to hold the tubes at each corner. The cabin features a corrugated plastic ceiling and, like any good winter enclosure, the walls are insulated–in this case with a layer of felt window gasketing between each tube."

Origami Tesselations

wow. I luuuuuuv this blog: http://www.origamitessellations.com/
It's full of amazing things made of paper, like these origami star formations:



and these crazy things called sliceforms:




someone made those with their actual hands, with actual paper, people!

Kids' Tetris Furniture

Play+Soft 3-D Forms:







from their site:
"
PLAY+SOFT is a line of sort furnishings for children, consisting of 250 new products, developed from an idea by Maurizio Fontanilli, with the pedagogical consultancy of Reggio Children, a team of twenty-eight innovative international designers, and the art direction of ZPZ Partners.

The products are the result of a four-year research project and are manufactured in Italy by PLAY+

The dialogue between pedagogy and design and the theoretical reflections that were developed have created a unique range of soft play furnishings and play equipment that is open to interpretations, but is founded in a celebration of imaginative play and the idea that furnishings can be a protagonist in the construction of identity and ideas. PLAY+SOFT provides a foundation for creative environments that are multisensory, enjoyable and beautiful.

The PLAY+SOFT furnishings comprise a wide range of product types including soft three-dimenional "landscapes", micro-places, transformable seating, play structures, mats, modular forms, burrows and shelters. They are made of eco-friendly materials, fire-resistant but soft to the touch, in a broad range of colors and textures. They are designed for use in any place inhabited by children, not only infant-toddler centers and preschools but also shopping centres, restaurants, airports, waiting areas, and other public places.
"

Play+Soft is distributed by studiouk.net

here's a link to designer Harri Koskinen

found on daddytypes.com
go there for a ton of more info and photos

Cute Products

http://stores.ebay.com/Zakkabox

oldie but goodie: nice interface reminder: NID GALLERY

i keep forgetting the url for this site, and since del.icio.us makes it so hard to find anything (see previous post). I will post it here instead!

lalala i have a blog lalala!

here is the link: http://www.nagaoka-id.ac.jp/gallery/gallery.html

PLEASE NO FORGET ME

Report: Design Life Now exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt

WOW. The Design Triennial, which opened yesterday, features the best design of the last 3 years, including product design, architecture, animation, industrial design, new media, fashion, print, technology...If you see one exhibit this year, this should be it!

The themes were remixing new and old, getting inspiration from nature and biology, and using technology to revisit old mediums.

Some of the highlights:


One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen...made of double woven fiber optics and monofilament, these graceful hanging panels were such an interesting "remix" of traditional and modern ideas...She also had some wall coverings of woven vinyl velvet (try saying that quickly 20 times in a row) that reflected light in a really interesting way. (click image for larger view)

Suzanne Tick Inc., New York, NY
Crossform light, 2004
Photo: Carter LeBlanc




White wedding kimono from Madama Butterfly was an incredible combination of traditional and modern, and the Red Butterfly Coat and Backless Black Dress along with the White Flower Wrap were simply stunning. I wasn't surprised when my favorite cantaloupe melon bowls were also by Han Feng. The bowls in particular made me drool (and they're on sale at the museum store as well!!)
In this photo:
Han Feng, Costume from Madama Butterfly, 2005
Produced by English National Opera, Lithuanian National Opera, and New York Metropolitan Opera
Photo: Johan Pearsson






At the show they had a GIANT DUNNY made of BLACKBOARD and they had multicolored chalk for everybody to write (and draw!!) whatever they wanted on it. Who doesn't love a Dunny when they see one?

Kidrobot, New York, NY
Big Mouth Dunny, 2005
Designers: Paul Budnitz and Tristan Easton
Paint design: DEPH
Vinyl







This honeycomb-like structure is made from 80% recycled post-consumer content-- they had wall panels and a workbench at the show-- when light is going through it, it manages to look at once organic and futuristic.

Panelite Workstation 2.0, 2003
Principals: Emmanuelle Bourlier and Christian B. Mitman






I couldn't stop looking at these objects. Design genius Lynn designs for Alessi...There were some amazing organic-looking cutlery items too (not pictured) that looked like something Elves would eat with when they went to dinner on the Starship Enterprise. These pieces were not of this world. Ancient and futuristic at the same time.

Greg Lynn FORM, Venice, CA
Grill prototype for Alessi, 2005




Processing, Cambridge, MA, and Los Angeles, CA
Articulate digital drawing generated in Processing, 2005
Designer: Casey Reas
see more Processign projects at processing.org







I thought it was interesting that they had this product as part of the show. The last time i was at Cooper Hewitt was for a show of appliances and furniture from the 50's and it was interesting to see a modern object that made people rethink something like the vacuum cleaner just as back then something like the automatic dishwasher was considered revolutionary. We probably have a long way to go still...
iRobot, Burlington, MA
iRobot Roomba® Scheduler Vacuuming Robot, 2002





Everybody loves to Make!
Make: Premiere Issue, 2005
check out their site














Pixar, Emeryville, CA
Edna Mode (aka "E"), The Incredibles, 2004
Designer: Teddy Newton
Collage
Photo: Pixar







Does anyone know what this is for? Well, it's pretty, anyway.

Moorhead & Moorhead, New York, NY
Tape Wound Borne, 2004





Famous prescription bottle system, where this SVA student really thougth about how people like her grandmother used medicine bottles -- and decided the small type, hard-to open, all-looking-the-same aspects of them were so familiar that no one had thought of doing something about it before.


Deborah Adler, Minneapolis, MN
Target ClearRxSM prescription system, 2004




Enchanting, from up close or afar.

Alison Berger, West Hollywood, CA
Glass Slide Chandelier, 2005
Bronze frame, 96 glass slides






I have to say I was transfixed with this tapestry...like nothing I've ever seen before. You have to see it up close, because in this small photo it looks unremarkable -- and it's not about the photo, it's more about how it's something that was never visually nor technically possible until now.
Lia Cook, Berkeley, CA
Binary Traces: Kay, 2005
Woven cotton







In the time I worked for Nike, i had 2 favorite products: Nike FREE shoes and the Presto watch...The shoe is by Hatfield, the watch is by Scott Wilson/ Studio Mod/OOBA
Nike FREE 5.0, 2004
Designer: Tobie Hatfield







Amazing video of images transforming into themselves. The fact that they're vector graphics gives them that nice plasticky smoothness that you don't get with most computer-generated line drawings somehow.
Joshua Davis, Mineola, NY
022 - Coast of Kanagawa, 2005
Program-generated vector graphic











I wasn't surprised that Natalie Jeremijenko was represented at this show; however, I sometimes feel like i love the concept of her work but not so much the implementation. I loved the NPR show she featured in last year-- And this project is definitely fun -- feral robotic dogs!!
here's a link to more about it
Photo: Emily Nathan






CAO | Perrot Studio
Nantucket Rose Wedding installation was a gorgeous piece they showed in a video that was a walkway woven with roses, with roses planed all along it and rose petals all over the groud, that they must have done for someone's wedding -- it was magical to see and I loved how they wove the flowers into the existing canopy so that you couldn't tell what was natural and what was not.

They've also made some green bubble tiles made of fused industrial marbles-- when they showed a whole wall of the tiles, it looked like a wall of transparent seaweed.

They use recycled medicine bottles as a material and try, in their own words, to "use familiar and overlooked materials"


I am amazed at the breadth of Chip Kidd's work -- designing book covers is not easy. What a master he is to keep things feeling so fresh and unique, after 20 years of doing it!
Chip Kidd, New York, NY
Dry book cover, 2003
Author: Augusten Burroughs
Publisher: Picador
Photo: Geoff Spear









Another amazing textile piece that really underlines the new and evolving visual language that comes out of ever-improving technology (best seen up close)
Hitoshi Ujiie Design, Philadelphia, PA
Branch, 2006
Digital inkjet printing with acid dye ink on silk


Not pictured but should be:
Ralph Rucci's extraordinary "Black Duchesse Satin Suspension Infanta With Olive Embroidered Insets" not only won the "longest title in the show" award but was the only piece of clothing in the show that I was dying to wear. The "DO NOT TOUCH" sign was torture-- this piece was crying out for me to grab it, put it on, and of course, star in the next Matthew Barney video like I know I'm meant to (no one reads my blog anyway so i can say stuff like that, right?).

Will Wright's Spore. It's not out yet, but they showed the Sims instead-- Spore is so much more intriguing visually that it was really missed in this show.

Rapidly Deployable Structure by Hoberman Associates: Part of a device was shown that unfolds mechanically to create a large tent -- good for emergency situations and harsh weather conditions.

When you go upstairs in the exhibit, a light sculpture that lines the entire wall sort of follows you up the stairs and plays discreet sounds-- does anybody know who it's by?

Oh, and don't forget to go see the show!!
Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006 @ the Cooper Hewitt Museum