Face Mask Designs will Improve as a result of Covid-19

From homemade to big brands everyone recognizes the opportunity to offer solutions to protect people from airborne containments.

The best solutions are conscious of style and function this category will eventually be dominated by the large athletic wear corporations like Adidas and Nike but until then there are lots of ideas being offered by  homegrown creatives.

Article: Things to Know About Mask in the Time of Covid-19

Article: How Face went from Necessity to...

Article: Reeboks Fitness Mask

Design Thinking for Africa's future I Bosun Tijani

The creator of one of Africa earliest technology innovation spaces to seed and assist societal and economic development on the continent by leveraging the tools of the 21st century spoke of the tremendous opportunity for doing things differently and with more equitable outcomes through design.

Co-Creation Hub Website

100 Great Designs of Modern Times 2020 - Fortune Magazine and Institute of Design

Article: The greatest designs of modern times 2020

Article: 100 Best Designs 1959

Redesign of Fast Company Magazine

What does a successful redesign of a magazine look like?

Article: Fast Company Magazine Redesign

Designs for Africa - Are They Really Designed for Africans?

The Yomma's solar refrigerator is not a bad idea, but the unit does not appear designed for the African users of conditions. My guess is that the standard products have been brought together to address the lack of current refrigation options. I get it, but the opportunity is to truly consider the needs of population.

To this end mobility not to mention the aesthetics do not account for any form of decoration to communicate the the users.

Article: Solar Refrigerator

Article: Who Gets Investment Moneys?

What is Design Thinking?

The video describes the process of Design Thinking focusing of five steps:

1) Empathize/Research
2) Define the Problem
3) Ideate/ Explore Solutions
4) Prototype/ Create Models
5) Test with Users

Design Indaba 2020

Once again I had the wonderful opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by the power of design being used to change the world.

Information Design in Communicating Covid-19 Impact on the Economy

The power of a single graphic to communicate the impact of events was demonstrated in a recent NY Times front page which depicted the number of workers who filed unemployment claims in the past week.

The scale of the families who will dealing with making ends meet for the months ahead and the weakness of our economy is immediately understood.

The Impact of the Covid-19 on the American Psyche

The need to shelter in place, the official response and directive to the worldwide pandemic has raised for many new issues and revealed limitations of the spaces they call home.

Article: Homes Need to be Practical Now

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The Gutenberg Printing Press

The first overtures towards printing that began around roughly 800 AD, in China, where early printing techniques involving chiseling an entire page of text into a wood block backwards, applying ink, and printing pages by pressing them against the block. Around 971 AD, printers in Zhejiang, China, produced a print of a vast Buddhist canon called the Tripitaka with these carved woodblocks, using 130,000 blocks (one for each page).

In 1436 Johaness Gutenberg, a German goldsmith, began designing a machine capable of producing pages of text at an incredible speed. By 1440 Gutenberg had established the basics of his printing press including the use of a mobile, reusable set of type. In 1454 Gutenberg put his press to commercial use. The following year he printed his famous 42-line Bible.

Furniture: No. 14 Broke with Tradition

New production techniques and new distribution channels led to the rethinking of the chair resulting in Thornet No. 14. A revolution in its simplicity: number of parts and unadorned appearance.

Article: The Sleek Curves That Reshape Furniture Design

History: How the U.S. Government Influence 20th Century Design

THE OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES was the first centralized foreign intelligence agency in the United States, the O.S.S. (or the Coordinator of Information, as it was originally called) was established “to collect, analyze, and correlate information and data bearing on national security.

Article: U.S. Government Influence on 20th-Century Design

The 14 most important design ideas of the decade...

Some the ideas list in the link below are not surprising but others are revealing.

Article: The 14 Important Design Ideas for the Decade

Googles Design System: Material Design

Google responded to the need to better present solutions for portable device's interfaces. The move from the desktop and laptops to mobile device led to what Google calls material design. The philosophy and way of organizing and designing user interface experiences.

Braun, What the Future Holds

Design at Braun carries on the legacy of Deiter Rams. Oliver Grabes, Design Director at Braun, shares his thoughts about the future of design.

Auto Design: The Radical Shape to Telsa's Cyber Truck

Telsa's strategy to enter the mature segment of pick up dominated by the likes of the Ford F-150 for decades required a bold but practical statement, in this case commitment to break way from the form which has define pick ups since the beginning.

Future: The Fourth Industrial Revolutiion

The 21st is upon us, but its potential has yet to been fully understood or planned for by our institutions broadly.

The opportunity is to seize the moment now, before events forces reactions that are
short sighted and ineffectual.

The 4th Industrial Revolutions (by Christoph Roser at AllAboutLean.com)

Fashion: The Hoodie

The power of a singular garment like the hoodie is held in the perceptions of the beholder.

Article: The Politics of Streetwear

Article:How the Hoodie became one of our last truly political garments

A collection of the best design books in 2019

These titles prepare you for a successful career as a designer by teaching you business, branding, marketing, and design fundamentals. 

Article:A collection of the best design books in 2019

The First African Tech Company to be Sold on Wall St. - Jumia, Online Retailer

The opportunity to provide design solutions for business and quality of life concerns across the continent of Africa is enormous, but how to execute will be the question many will be seeking to answer over the next decade.

Are Iron's loosing Relevance?

The once required tools for homemakers and families for decades, seems to be declining among the millennials.


Article: There is a Wrinkle for Iron Makers

What Does Apple's New Credit Card Mean for The Financial Industry?

If history is an indication of how Apple's new credit card will impact the industry, then it will be shifting in ways beneficial to the user's experience.

Why should we have to find an ATM and pull out cash just to pay our share of last night’s dinner? Your camera is an app, your music is an app, your news is an app. Why shouldn’t your wallet be an app, too




Review: Apple Credit Card

Apple Designer: Wyatt Mitchell Shocks with His Fashion Choice

Wyatt Mitchell was an Art Director at the New Yorker, now he is at Apple, Inc.

Article: Interview with Wyatt Mitchell

History: Oscar for Costume Design Goes to Ruth E Carter

Article: Ruth Carter Wins Oscar

Drones will Changes Cities

Article: Drones Potentially Disruptive

Article: Japan is Betting on Flying Cars

DC Black Creatives Gather for Lunch 2019

Deign Competition: Finding a Housing Solution for Odd Sized Vacant Lots

The results of this design competition will provide some great ideas, not only for NYC, but other larger urban cities struggling to provide affordable housing.



Article: NYC Competition for Odds Lots and Affordable Housing

Product Design: A Counter Top Dishwasher

A cleaver new product, fit for small spaces, a dishwasher which saves water usage using an interesting technology called Ohmic Array Technology.

Using graphite electrodes and electronic controls, we increase the energy state of the water molecules, so they move faster. The faster they move, the more kinetic energy they have. This causes the molecules to begin to bounce off each other; that kinetic energy turns into heat. Through direct energy transfer, your water is heated instantly, within (+/-) 1 degree Fahrenheit of the temperature setpoint.

Heatworks - Reinventing the way the world heats water

Design in 2020 Campaigns Signs

Kamala Harris’s campaign design as strong–last week the former California attorney general unveiled a logo based on Shirley Chisholm’s 1972 presidential campaign, connecting Harris to Chisholm’s history as the first black woman to run for president.
Article: Political Branding

Digital Africa

The potential for creating solutions is tremendous and is taking root in Africa. The video shows multiple examples of the innovative spirit flow across the continent.

Video: How Digital Technologies are Connecting Africa to the 21 Century

Design Exchange: Design as a Cultural Experience

Invision has launched Design Exchange, which takes groups of professional designers on week-long, design-focused tours of cities all over the world. 

To qualify, you have to be a senior designer with six to eight years in the field. Read more and apply here.

Design Exchange

Tips on Kick Starting a Design Career

I wonder how these tips apply to a mid-career move into Design careers. Some at definitely applicable...

Article: 5 Tips on Starting Your Career

Tribute: Charles (Chuck) Harrison 1931-2018

To a mentor and friend, I say so long and thank you for your generosity of time, wisdom and passion for design you shared so free with so many. I will hold on to the memories of your humor, gentle spoken but strong opinions and unfailing availability to mentor others who shared your interest in design.

NYTimes Article: Designer Who Reshaped the View-Master

IDSA Article: Charles Harrison

“I came from a family that taught me to see beyond circumstance, find value and create usefulness out of need. The legacy I inherited required that I make myself useful ' as a son, man, husband, father and artist. If I were to share one thought with the design community of today and tomorrow it would be to remember that your purpose ' your gift to the world ' is to provide straightforward solutions to real problems for living, breathing human beings."

Fashion: Sneaker Culture

The influence of athletic wear on the fashion industry is now undeniable
and the explosion of footwear is producing revenues for Nike and Adidas that are surpassing the large luxury brands of Europe.

Article: How Sneaker Culture Conquered the World

Article: From Converse to Kanye-The Rise of Sneaker Culture

Frank Gehry: The Architect

The most innovative architect of second half of the 20th century, Frank Gehry, story is told in the documentary below.

Day in the Life: Graphic Designer

Design Consultancy: Pentagram

One of the largest and influential design consultancies is Pentagram, a partnership of talent design professionals. The structure of how the organization works is described in the video below.

Object Lessons: Essays on Objects

Faxing really took off in the ’80s, in offices around the world. It caused major changes in the speed of business transactions, allowing individuals and companies to disseminate materials quickly and broadly—someone in an office building in Japan could fire off a document to the United States instantly.

Website: Object Lessons

Article: The Fax Is Not Yet Obsolete

What is the Study of Architecture?

This short documentary looks a the practice of architecture training.

The Bauhaus Story 100 Years History

Article: 100 Years of Bauhaus

Design training was given life at this historical institution, merging art and industry into professional discipline.

Transporation: The 21st Century City Bike

Mobility is going through significant change, where more options are being introduced specifically in city like Washington DC. Experimental projects of dockless bikes, electric scooters of various types are competing for adoption by city commuters.



Article: Electric Bike

Design Innovator: Neri Oxman

Dr. Oxman, a 42-year-old Israeli-born architect, computational designer and artist who is the recipient of this year’s Cooper Hewitt Design award for interaction design. 

Article: Who is Neri Oxman

A new frontier marrying the technological advances of computational design, synthetic biology and digital fabrication (otherwise known as 3-D printing) to produce compostable structures, glass objects that vary their optical and structural properties, and garments made from a single piece of silk fabric.

Material ecology marries the technological advances of computational design, synthetic biology and 3-D printing to produce startling-looking, multifunctional structures, like these sheaves of chitin, a compostable material derived from shrimp shells. In the foreground, silk worms are spinning on tiny platforms. 

Video: Paris The Luminous Years

The Biggest Fashion Brand in the World: Nike

Design has come to fashion in a way that adds substance to the phrase Fashion Design.

Article: How Nike Became the Biggest Fashion Brand in the World

An Influential Object: The OXO Swivel Potato Peeler

Sometimes revolutions are quiet but no less impactful. So is the innovation of Oxo's Good Grips product line.

Article: SMART Design's Potato Peeler

The Technological Innovations of the Bronze Age

Panel Discussion on Nike's Air 1 with Virgil Alboh

The power of objects in adding meaning to our lives. Michael Jordan's brand Air 1 sneaker has been an object of desire for a generation.

Video Link: In Conversation: "FLIGHT" & The Air Jordan I

The 2018 Innovation by Design Awards - Fast Company

Check out who and how design solutions are creating opportunities to improve life, work and play.

2018 Innovation by Design Awards

The Uncertain Future: Artificial Intelligence

Yuval Noah Harari explored the past and future of humanity in his books "Sapiens" and "Homo Deus."

In his new book, "21 Lessons for the 21st Century," Harari focuses on the present and dissects the most pressing issues facing humanity.

"21 Lessons for the 21st Century," Harari focuses on the present and dissects the most pressing issues facing humanity.

Interview on CBS morning show

The African Potential for Design

Two speakers at the 2018 Design Indaba Conference highlighted the enormous potential for design to contribute to improving the life of millions of people by solving real world problems.

Video: BRCK's Mark Kamau Brings the Internet to Rural Schools

Website: UXAfrica

Video: Sunu Gonera - Creating Images for Africa by African's