Left VS Right

via Information is Beautiful

Department of Questionable Judgement

"For The New York Times Magazine’s annual “Year in Ideas” issue, published this Sunday, Paula Scher illustrated a chart of selected 2009 patents, classified on a spectrum from “When Real Life Isn’t Exciting Enough” to “There Must Be an Easier Way.” Note striped socks were not patented until this year; “At Last,” indeed. The chart was compiled by Alexandra Horowitz and Ammon Shea."

via Pentagram

Where's my scribble??

"Clever advertising campaign for the School of Visual Arts encourages people everywhere to “think” by giving them a place to write down their ideas."


Having drawn on many napkins myself during my student days and knowing that my boyfriend has (on more than on occasion) shown the builders working on the renovation of his country house a drawing on a napkin from his architect, I think these napkins should be in all design professional's natural habitats i.e. bars and cafes.


And the toilet paper design is much better than the puppies and sea shells manufacturers insist on printing these days.

via toxel

Periodic Table of Typefaces

"The Periodic Table of Typefaces is obviously in the style of all the thousands of over-sized Periodic Table of Elements posters hanging in schools and homes around the world. This particular table lists 100 of the most popular, influential and notorious typefaces today.

As with traditional periodic tables, this table presents the subject matter grouped categorically. The Table of Typefaces groups by families and classes of typefaces: san-serif, serif, script, blackletter, glyphic, display, grotesque, realist, didone, garalde, geometric, humanist, slab-serif and mixed.

Each cell of the table lists the typeface and a one or two character "symbol" , the designer, year designed and a ranking of 1 through 100.

Ranking was determined by statistically sorting and combining lists and opinions from the the sites listed below. The final overall ranking was achieved depending on how many lists the particular typeface was presented on and it's ranking on the lists (if the particular source list used a ranking system; some did not, in which case just the typeface's presence on the list boosted it's overall score.) After averaging the typefaces appearances and rankings a composite score was given and the list was sorted on a spreadsheet then finally given an overall score of 1 through 100 based on it's final resting position.

Unfortunately, the typefaces could not be sorted exactly numerically on the table while at the same time keeping them in groups of families and classes. It had to be one or the other. Of course it COULD have been done but I would have had to seriously sacrifice aesthetics of the overall design (i.e. it wouldn't have come out looking AT ALL like a traditional periodic table.) However, upon close inspection, you find that at least the typefaces are ordered within their family/class groupings." by Squidspot

via Why Me Design

I need. I want.

1. Lap Counter


"The Lap Counter is a plastic tray and a neat kitchen facility, which gives you the mobility to peel, chop, slice fruits and vegetables almost anywhere in the house. It’s ergonomically shaped to fit the lap of the sitting person and it’s molded for both a container and a working surface. It will barely sit on your drying rack or fit in your washing machine, so it’s better thinking in the direction of assembling different modules, but besides that the Lap Counter is a brilliant facility for your prep cooking comfort." by Toman Kral

... because peeling potatoes is really boring

2. Bullet Bracelet

Bracelet made out of bullet casings by Tex Astali

... because I like looking like a scary designer and wearing head to toe black just isn't intimidating enough anymore.

3. Soil Lamp



"Free and environmentally friendly energy forever and ever. The lamp runs on mud. The metabolism of biological life produces enough electricity to keep a LED lamp burning. The mud is enclosed in various cells. These cells contain copper and zinc that conduct the electricity. The more cells there are, the more electricity the generate. This technique offers a wealth of possibilities. The only thing the lamp needs is a splash of water every now and then." by mariekestaps

... because I hate power cords and I like sleeping with the lights on. plus I am curious to know the scalability of this product, for example is it possible to have a street light that plugs directly into the ground?

4. Lazarus Wine


Grown and cultivated by the blind.

... because I am a sucker for packaging and this one is niiiiiice.

5. A Magic Wand
One that works as a TV remote. Brillant!

Performing Landscape

Recently I was brainstorming on an ideas competition for the Arts Center in Melbourne and exploring the possibility of integrating performing arts opportunities in public space - that the urban landscape can do more to facilitate performing arts than just allowing for enough hardscape space for the Spiegeltent to set up every year. I wondered if there were ways that the Arts Center could engage with the public on a more personal, one to one, basis and with children to ensure that the instituion stays relevant for the next generation. One of the ideas was "performing space", where all the elements in the landscape could be used for "performing", whether that be music, dance, theatre etc. For example, I wanted to redesign the standard green Melbourne street bench into a xylophone that children could play with. The closest realised project that I found in a precedent search was "Railings" by Greyworld, a standard looking railing in London which plays the Girl from Ipanema when you run a stick along them.

Sadly, the project architects I was collaborating with didn't want to hear about such minor details as the street furniture (or for that matter, the landscape) and the ideas were never communicated to the client but it got me thinking generally about how to extend the functions of street furniture, which is a standard public amenity that is installed all over the city. Then I came across this "bouncing bench" project by Bruno Taylor which I would love to specify for the next playground I am designing if its in production by then.



And playful fencing to keep the children in :) via Inhabitat

via pixelsumo

Dematerializing Samples

A granite paving sample fell on my friend and co-worker Jooyeon's foot yesterday and bruised her. I don't think it she was using it for the purposes that the sample was issued, in fact I think she was using it to stabilize a book that she was photographing because she couldn't be bothered scanning, so maybe its the sample's way protesting its abuse. (I have been reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). But the incident got me wondering if there was a better way to manage the millions of paving samples that we receive constantly - I request new ones for every project because its simply too hard to find the ones I want in the existing sample collection. And voila ~ the interior designers have already come up with a way of doing this...

"In 2002 the Chattanooga-based sustainable-design-services company Tricycle launched an alternative sampling option for the interiors industry; manufacturers outsource the process to the company, which produces and delivers extremely realistic paper samples—called SIMs—to specifiers instead of actual carpet slabs. The idea quickly took off and has become widely implemented (and widely imitated) in the industry. Tricycle estimates that in four years its service has saved about 26,000 gallons of oil and kept more than 155,000 pounds of waste out of landfills.

At this year’s NeoCon World’s Trade Fair, Tricycle launched a significant expansion of the program, called Tryk. Previously the company could only cre­ate samples of tufted carpet, but Tryk works with woven carpet as well as wall-coverings and fabrics. It also allows for different scales and larger sizes—and the image quality is improved. “We continue to move toward a more photorealistic image,” says Michael Hendrix, Tricycle’s creative director and chief brand officer. “If you could see an image from three years ago, the tufts looked flatter. We’ve been able to improve the perception of volume in the overall look.”

The company is also launching a new Web platform, which will be fully functional by January. “It’s more robust,” Hendrix says. “It’s giving more features to the user, and it’s actually better integrated with the business practices of manufac­turers.” The end result is an even more efficient, easy-to-use, and realistic tool for designers to sample materials—without wasting them."

Via Metropolis Mag

warp your room

Who needs acid when i can have wall paper that comes warped... The "technology" section is mildly interesting, but i'm guessing the hard part of all this is actually applying the wall paper to the wall.

via Boing Boing

Organic Concrete

for the concrete-o-phile... Perhaps can be considered a PRACTICAL material now that water restrictions dont look like they are going anywhere soon. by e-studio

in the mood for love

for its 'in the mood for love' article this month, I.D. magazine invited
six designers to imagine the ideal setting for losing one's virginity.

'odds are, if we could do it again, there'd be candles and soft sheets.
but in reality, most of us were deflowered in a haze of alcohol or
teenage self-doubt. for an issue devoted to life's milestones.'

HEAR HEAR...