Smithsonian's Museum of African American History and Culture Breaks Ground

The national museum of African American History will soon become a part of the national mall. The ground is being broken today that will produce a building opening in 2015 to celebrate and educate the history of African American's.

Article: Philip Freelon Lead Architect

Layout of the African American History Museum

Slideshow of Concept Images

Design History: Norma Merrick Sklarek

Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first African American woman in the country to become a licensed architect (1954) died recently.


Obituary Los Angeles Times

Product Designer Marc Newson

As a designer Newson seems more in touch with the materials and processes of designing than the conventional definition of beauty for the object his designing. It is his odd aesthetic that has contributed to his many of his designs being art world successes, a unique accomplishment for a product designer.

"Newson’s career as arguably the most influential industrial designer of his generation and the leading exponent of the so-called design-art movement may stand as much on the quasi-­moral power of design to affirm the social virtues of wit, proportion, elegance and simplicity, as on his obsession with futuristic forms and modernist aesthetics. Not that he has any overt agenda as a design evangelist. His motivation, apart from the business of it all, is the spirit of personal discovery, not civic edification. Each project is a fresh encounter with the material world."

-NYTimes

Article: Is There Anything Marc Newson Hasn't Designed?

Slideshow: Timeline of His Work

Product Design History: Where did the Single Slice Toasters Go?

I am surprised that single slice toasters are not available. Given limited counter space in smaller kitchens and a sizable single population one would think that option would be in the market.


The Toastmaster
Bachelor/ette Toasters

The Toaster Museum Foundation

Commuter Bike: BMW G 650 GS

I am thinking about an alternate mode of transportation and the entry level G 650 GS has caught my eye. Designed for the street and can accommodate light trail riding with 66mpg has me looking forward to summer.

How to Get a Product to Market Today

It just may have never been easier for a Designer to get a great ideal to market than it is today. With the connections afforded by the internet and programs like Kickstarter almost anyone can test out the value of their ideals.

How one company is revolutionizing product development

History: Capital of the 20th Century, Detroit Disassembeled

"There is no culture — for lack of a better word — no context of public memory and social expectation that would bind together all that the city contains.

What does it add up to, all this abandonment of lives and buildings, neighborhoods and property? It doesn’t seem to add up to anything, other than the decontextualized spectacle itself and the demographic souvenir-hunting opportunities it provides. This city is never coming back; whatever happens next will be without urban precedent because the context of city no longer applies in this place where history has finally run out. And so the reason we come to Detroit — immigrants, tourists, artists, journalists alike — is to engage a fantasy about how we can always walk away from the past, from the now blown promise of an erstwhile prosperity that was once made real for generations of Americans. There’s probably not a better place in this country, maybe in the world, for this kind of work."

- Jerry Herron

More from the Article: The Forgetting Machine



NYTimes Article: Dismantling Detroit

Kayne West Aspires to be the Next Steve Jobs

Not all creative people are designers - I'm just saying, my hope is that the skilled professionals are used to bring this vision to life.


Other Hip-Hop Moguls have made the leap to creating products. For example, Dr Dre launch a very successful product line of headphones called "the beats" in a partnership with Monster, Inc.

According to postings from West’s Twitter account, he’s been inspired not only by Jobs’ example, but also by current events and the need for change: “We need to take what Michael Jackson felt and McQueen and Steve Jobs and we need [to] make things better… The adrenaline is running… I don’t know if I can even get to sleep now… From Wall Street to the London riots to Chicago murders… I sit everyday and ask what can I do to make a difference… There are so many broken systems from the economy to school systems [to] jail systems… we need experts for this… We need scientist[s] and top world designers to directly affect governments…”

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Reworking the Chain Saw

The Worx JawSaw, makes the chainsaw more approachable for everyday use by enclosing the blade. The design team also added an innovative plunging motion to activate the blades cutting. Though less powerful than the standard chainsaw with the right price point it could be a tool a homeowner would consider.

Auto Design: Aston Martin One -77

The beauty of a well portioned car is a marvel to gaze upon. The Aston Martin super car has great detailing and portions, as does the latest version of the Camero. Getting the right portions is not easy and so I appauled both these vehicles for providing me with very nice eye candy.



More PhotosMore Photos

Auto Design:

Magazine Cover Design

The graphic designer, Shepard Fairey, who came to national attention with his design of the Obama 2008 campaign poster was tapped to create the Time magazines Person of the Year cover.


Shepard Fairey Designs Time's Person of the Year Cover

An Innovative Disposable Cup

This is a great idea that the likes of McDonald's and other fast food companies should consider adopting. The all-paper design has a built-in lid with sipping spout and is called, Compleat by its designer Peter Herman.

Fast Company Article

Rapper Reflects of the Eames House

Pacific Standard Time, a collaborative project launched this past October and including over 60 cultural institutions across Southern California, celebrates the birth of the Los Angeles art scene.



NYTimes Article: Ice Cube on Eames

Eames: The Architect and The Painter

It's great to see an increasing number of design related films being produced. The result is a number of films available that provide context around the contributions of designers and the issues that have shape the profession.



About the Film

NYTimes Article

A Washington DC Designing Couple Jake and Pum Lefebure

Its rare for Washington DC to have a design firm that is known beyond its borders.

Design Love Interview

Audio Interview:

Design Army Website

Nest: A Thermostat that's Different?

The legacy of Steve Jobs will be demonstrated in the work of those who learned from him the value of design as a strategic asset when developing a business and changing an industry one product at a time.

Fast Company Article: After Steve Jobs

Wired Magazine Article: Brave New Thermostat

NYTimes Article: Home Thermostats

Book: Steve Jobs Biography

The biographer, Walter Issacson, speaks about his insights on Apple's founder and creative genius.

NYTimes Article: The Genius of Jobs

The New Yorker Article: The Tweaker

MLK Memorial on the National Mall

After years of hard work the King memorial was officially dedicated on October 16, 2011.

iSad: The Passing of Steve Jobs

NYTimes: Apple’s Visionary Redefined Digital Age

The Six Pillars of Steve's Design Philosophy

"In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service."

"My position coming back to Apple was that our industry was in a coma. It reminded me of Detroit in the '70s, when American cars were boats on wheels."

-Interview with Fortune Magazine, 2000

"Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice."

"My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other's kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That's how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people."

Article: Mourning Jobs

What can Designers Learn from Hip-Hop Artist?

Its hard to glean the impact of culture's impact when your in the mist of living in it. So questioning the influence of Hip-Hop and what it reveals about the state of affairs of the last twenty-five years will be the subject hundreds of books and future documentaries, but one designer has considered the subject in the link below.

Blog Post: What Visual Designers can Learn from Biggie Smalls

A Company to Consider for Design Researchers: GfK

GfK looks like a very interesting organization that would be stimulating for a Designer/Research person. There physical collection of 100,000 package designs spanning the last thirty years is rich in and of itself.

GfK's Website

Apple's New iPhone Interface: Siri

Apple revealed the step in smoothing the interaction between humans and computers with it's Suri interface for the iPhone.



Apple's latest contribution grew out of a military research project. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), under its Perceptive Assistant that Learns (PAL) program, has awarded SRI the first two phases of a five-year contract to develop an enduring personalized cognitive assistant.

Original Project Description

Fast Company Magazine Article

QR Codes are Coming

Quick Response (QR) Codes are replacing the traditional bar code as the method of digitizing scannable information. The smart phone revolution as enabled this technology to reach the hands of consumers so that organizations can quickly share information with smart phone owners.

NYTimes Article

Fast Company Article

The Obama Administration Use Graphics to Tell the Jobs Story

The White House has released a stunning, but simple slide show that explains the American Jobs Act.

American Jobs Act Address Enhanced Graphics

View more documents from White House

The White House Website

9-11 Memorial Designer: Michael Arad

It sounds like the 9-11 memorial turned out as a great testament to the people that lost their lives on that faithful day, and to their families and the country.

Michael's individual committment to find a fit tribute is core to the success of the final solution.

Audio Interview with Michael Arad

Exhibition: Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects

Interaction design helps humans relate to the computer systems framing our daily lives more with each passing year. The beauty of the NYC subway vending machines is largely in how easy its design helps users to understand how to work it. But for me it is also in the materials and color coding that is really very attractive.

MoMA Exhibition

Fast Company Article: Why-does-interaction-design-matter-lets-look-at-the-evolving-subway-experience

Review of the exhibition, Talk to Me

Dyson Designs a Heater

Dyson continues of expand its product offering with technological advances being applied to common household products.

How the Dyson Hot Works from Core77 on Vimeo.

Fast Company Magazine: Design Issue

This annual issue on Design captures the moves in the field and things to look out for in the changing face of design.

Fast Company October 2011

Article: The United States of Design

Rewriting the Rules of the New Economy?

Steve Stoute the founder of Transitional Advertising as authored a new book about the impact of hip-hop culture on the global marketplace, titled the Tanning of America.


Steve Stoute Interview

The Aging Designer, Do They Get Better?

Steve Heller,the co-chair of the MFA Design program at the School of Visual Arts and co-founder of the MFA Design Criticism program, reflects on the number of older designers who are practicing far beyond the age of retirement.

Let the 80s Roll: In the Design World, Octogenarians Rule - The Atlantic"

Steve Jobs: An American Icon

The discussions of Steve Jobs impact on our lives has only just begun with the announcement this week of his resignation as CEO of Apple, Inc. Much like Henry Ford a century before, Jobs has create an American story that will continue to reshape industries far into the future.

Fast Company: What makes Steve Jobs So Great?

Steve's Bold Leadership




The video below summarizes Steve Jobs career at Apple in two minutes.

History: The Development of IDEO's Logo

IDEO has made a name for itself as the leading product development consultancy in the world. The companies original logo designed by the godfather of commercial graphic design, Paul Rand.


Link to IDEO Logo History

Good Design and a Smart Gift for Kids and Adults Alike

Sifteo Cubes have arrived! Long hyped as the most exciting new development in table-top entertainment, the cubes -- part Lego, part video game, part board game -- started shipping to American and Canadian customers today.The cubes are 1.5-inch, motion-aware blocks with full-color screens that wirelessly connect to a computer and can be shaken, tilted, rotated, and clicked to play a vast array of games.



www.sifteo.com

In the latest installment of their "Off Book" series, PBS explores the power of type with some of its most talented practitioners.



PBS Off the Book Series Website

Visualizing Data: What Does it Mean?

A book by Nathan Yau who writes for FlowingData, Visualize This is a practical guide on visualization and how to approach real-world data.




FlowingData Website

A Leader in Fashion Design: Natalia Allen

She share her story in the video below. Natalia proves a powerful argument for the role of a designer in creating sustainable products.



Design Futurist Website

Designing a Better Tea Experience

The second most consumed beverage behind water is tea, its preparation is now being considered and products designed in support the ritual.

Tea Time: A Conversation on Tea (NPR)

Kicker Studio:Kicker Tea Project

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The Breville One-Touch Electric Tea Maker is unique in simplifying the tea making process and is currently on the market.

Chris Conley Speaks on Design Thinking

Chris a favorite professor of mine when we were both at the Institute of Design shares his thoughts on design in the video below.

Stamp: Pioneers of Industrial Design

The USPS includes the following background information on the profession and those honored on the stamp.

"Industrial design is the study and creation of products whose appearance, function, and construction have been optimized for human use. It emerged as a profession in the U.S. in the 1920s but really took hold during the Depression. Faced with decreasing sales, manufacturers turned to industrial designers to give their products a modern look that would appeal to consumers. Characterized by horizontal lines and rounded, wind-resistant shapes, the new, streamlined looks differed completely from the decorative extravagance of the 1920s. They evoked a sense of speed and efficiency and projected the image of progress and affluence the public desired.

Consumer interest in modern design continued to increase after World War II, when machines allowed corporations to mass produce vacuums, hair dryers, toasters, and other consumer goods at low cost. Industrial designers helped lower costs further by exploiting inexpensive new materials like plastic, vinyl, chrome, aluminum, and plywood, which responded well to advances in manufacturing such as the use of molds and stamping. Affordable prices and growing prosperity nationwide helped drive popular demand.

Even as streamlining gave way to new looks in the 1960s, the groundbreaking work of industrial designers continued to transform the look of homes and offices across the country. Today, industrial design remains an integral component of American manufacturing and business, as well as daily life.

Frederick Hurten Rhead
Frederick Hurten Rhead helped pioneer the design of mass-produced ceramic tableware for the home. He is best remembered for the sleek Fiesta® line (shown on the stamp) introduced by The Homer Laughlin China Company in 1936.

Walter Dorwin Teague
Known as the “dean of industrial design,” Walter Dorwin Teague believed that good artistic design fit both form and function into a single aesthetic package. During his career-long collaboration with Eastman Kodak Company, he designed several popular cameras, including the 1934 “Baby Brownie” (shown on the stamp).

Norman Bel Geddes
A founding member of the American Society of Industrial Designers, Norman Bel Geddes was a noted champion of streamlining. “Speed is the cry of our era,” he once said, “and greater speed one of the goals of tomorrow.” The author of highly influential books on design and urban planning, Bel Geddes created visionary new looks for cars, trains, planes, buildings, even entire cities.

Raymond Loewy
Raymond Loewy arguably did more to define the look of modern America than perhaps any other industrial designer. Loewy created the distinctive look of Air Force One and worked with NASA on the interiors of America’s first space station, Skylab. In 1971, he created the logo for the newly formed U.S. Postal Service, and his designs have appeared on several postage stamps.

Donald Deskey
Donald Deskey is best known for the lavish Art Deco interiors he designed in 1932 for Radio City Music Hall in New York City. However, he was also one of America’s most innovative industrial designers. A founding member of the American Society of Industrial Designers, Deskey was instrumental in winning public acceptance for modern design.

Gilbert Rohde
Gilbert Rohde was one of the most influential and innovative furniture designers in the U.S. His designs for Herman Miller in the 1930s and 1940s were based on simplicity and practicality and marked the beginning of modern design at the company.

Greta von Nessen
Greta von Nessen specialized solely in lighting, and none of her designs is better known than the “Anywhere” lamp (shown on the stamp). Introduced in 1951, the lamp featured a tubular aluminum base and an adjustable shade made of enameled metal. This and several other of von Nessen’s lamps have been featured in industrial design exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art.

Russel Wright
Specializing in household products, Russel Wright revolutionized the way we live at home. He designed at a time when growing numbers of Americans were shedding the prim conventions of the early 20th century in favor of simple and informal practicality. During his career, Wright created affordable modern furniture and tableware characterized by minimal but elegant forms.

Henry Dreyfuss
Considered by many to be the first designer to apply ergonomics systematically to product design, Henry Dreyfuss considered the user to be the center and focus of his industrial design work. During a career that lasted more than 40 years, he designed products that touched all corners of American life, from household appliances like clocks, sewing machines, and vacuum cleaners to tractors and even the comfortable interiors of trains and planes.

Peter Müller-Munk
Peter Müller-Munk is best remembered for the “Normandie” pitcher featured on the stamp. Introduced by the Revere Copper and Brass Company in 1935, the mass-produced pitcher was made of chromium-plated brass, an alternative to silverware that was affordable and easier to care for.

Dave Chapman
Honored by the Industrial Designers Society of America for his “vigorous sponsorship and backing of design research and high standards of industrial design education,” Dave Chapman is probably most known for his innovative and award-winning designs for classroom furniture. He also designed household appliances like refrigerators, hairdryers, radios, and electric heaters. Shown at the first exhibition of the American Society of Industrial Designers in 1947, Chapman’s streamlined sewing machines (shown on the stamp) featured a chrome grille that evoked the sleek look of contemporary automobiles.

Eliot Noyes
Eliot Noyes bridged the gap between business and art, transforming the industrial design profession into more than just a commercial venture. Rather than continue the practice of changing a product’s design every year, Noyes persuaded his corporate clients to adopt long-lasting design principles instead. He is best remembered for his long working relationship with IBM, for whom he designed buildings, interiors, and a range of office equipment, like the iconic 1961 “Selectric” typewriter pictured on the stamp. He also helped IBM and other companies develop a distinct and consistent identity.

Art director Derry Noyes selected objects designed by 12 of the nation’s most important and influential industrial designers to feature on this colorful pane of self-adhesive stamps. The selvage features a photograph of the “Airflow” fan designed by Robert Heller around 1937. Denis Farley photographed the fan for The Macdonald Stewart Foundation.

Each stamp includes the designer’s name, the type of object, and the year or years when the object was created. The pane’s verso includes a brief introduction to the history and importance of American industrial design, as well as text that identifies each object and briefly tells something about each designer."

An iPad App for Type Design 101

Dong Yoon Park has produced a great tool for learning the basics of type design.

Typographic Insight - New ways of learning & teaching typefaces

The Power of Prototyping

One of the keys to the process of designing is modeling the idea. This can take a variety of shapes, but the idea is find a way to stimulate and test the idea. This will result in many discoveries (failures) before the final solution is identified.

Article: Rapid Prototyping: The Wright Way to Fail

Also check out Method's series on innovation, 10x10, from which this article is taken.

Method's "Innovation: Wrapped, Packed and Stacked"

Howest University College, (5-day hands-on prototyping course)

Rethinking Product Design Education

In 2012 the first class of the School of Visual Arts MFA in Products of Design will begin a discovery of how to best teach a product design program in the changing landscape.

"I’ve come to believe that designing the process that creates the product is way more important than the object itself."

Interview with Allan Chochinov

Steve Jobs Presents Plans for Apple's New HQs

Steve Jobs does a great job presenting the concept for a new Apple headquarters before the Cupertino's city council.



Below he describes the building itself.

A New Way to View the Food Pyramid

This new graphic clarifies Michelle Obama's effort to encourage healthy eating habits for Americans.

Choose MyPlate.gov

NYTimes Article

The plate is a great metaphor from which to base the discussion of food. It also makes the message of portion size and relationships between food groups so much clearer.

Grapic Designer: Michael Bierut

Michel describes the development of his interest in design and highlights of his career during his presentation before a D. Crit School audience.

Michael Bierut, “Designing, Writing, Teaching: Not My Real Job”.

Design History: Dieter Rams, The Father of Modern Consumer Product Aesthetics

Dieter Rams prefers being described as an architect, because of the over use of the term designer/design that has lessen the value of the word in his opinion.



Article and More Interview Videos

Furniture Design: Clear Concept

Few furniture items could serve the new nursery better than this cool dresser. The graphical elements speak to the developing mind of a child learning to store their essentials.


Training Dresser

Fashion News: Olivier Rousteing

Wow! a black (mixed-raced) man heading a fashion house in Europe I wish him the best. With a number of talented fashion types trashing and burning in the high pressured world of fashion I hope Mr. Rousteing is prepared for the riggers of the industry.

"Just two weeks ago, the 25-year-old Olivier Rousteing was one of the legions of nameless, faceless designers, patternmakers and stylists toiling behind-the-scenes at a fashion company. Now, he heads one of the most storied, influential luxury labels in Paris, Balmain, and will debut his first, hotly anticipated collection for the house this fall." - Forbes

Forbes Article: Name You Need to Know

Daily Beast Article: Balmain's Olivier Rusteing