« design: May 2006 | Main | design: July 2006 »
June 27, 2006
Audi R-Zero Concept
First off let me preface by saying this isn't an official concept from Audi but rather the brainchild of three design students from France.
The R-Zero has Audi DNA in the looks department but the technology behind the drive train is unlike anything on the road or in concept showrooms for that matter.
It's an all electric sports car with its main energy pack amidship. The power is transferred to electric motors within each wheel allowing for fully independent control of how much power goes to each wheel. Dig down deeper and you'll find the large gaping grill in the front actually funnels air thru the entire length of the vehicle exiting vents in the rear. The design aids in cooling the batteries while adding to the car's aerodynamics. The faster you go, the more air is forced thru the vents, keeping the car grounded by reversing the effects of lift from high speeds.
Although it's just a concept by three students, it does share similarities to the Audi TT. I think the students have done a wonderful job in keeping Audi looks intact while pushing the envelope of clean energy in a sports car a viable reality in our future.
Posted by tranism at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
June 22, 2006
Bike Trunk
You ever wish you could bring along your bike where ever you go.
With this sleek trunk it's now possible. The folded bike inside is made by Brompton, and is called M6R. The trunk is wrapped in leather - offered in 51 different colors to match your bike which is available in 10 colors of its own. The whole thing measures 25x25 which pretty much fits in any car out there so pack it up, pack it in and go biking.
Buy it at Pinel & Pinel
another picture after the jump
Posted by diverseawareness at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
June 17, 2006
Ceramic Babies
Ceramist Shigeki Hayashi latest work entitled The Entertainment Ceramics 2 explores the Japanese obsession with youth, technology, and amusement. Two rows of infants sit facing each other with eyes closed, wearing spacesuits seemingly consumed by what appears to be a deep meditative state, or a sweet somber in mother's womb.
His work is startling, not necessarily in a disturbing way, its just visceral and reactionary. Great stuff!
more choice pictures after the jump
via WMMNA
Posted by tranism at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
June 15, 2006
Baby Suit
Yeah, it's called the Baby Suit. I don't think anything else has to be said.
Posted by tranism at 2:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
June 11, 2006
Eye Tracking Visualizations
These visualizations show the dominant pattern of how people perceive content on the web.
In a study on how to enhance the user experience on the web, made by Nielsen Norman Group, an interesting pattern was discovered.
In the shape of a letter "F", viewers scan through any website within a few seconds. Users first read horizontally, usually across the upper part of the page. This initial element forms the "F's" top stroke. Next, users move down the page a bit and read across again, typically covering a shorter distance than the previous. This element forms the F's lower stroke. Lastly, users track the contents left side vertically.
The study was made from several different sites with a variety of designs and the results were shown to be consistent throughout with some exceptions of users reading across a third and fourth time.
It's interesting to think how the web has changed our ways of perceiving information about absolutely everything. For the most part we don't want to spend more then a few seconds looking for something. Our attention span has dramatically lessened because of that. Don't you hate that slow connection at work?
Lets say "F" is for fast - think about the important implications that has.
-Users won't read your text thoroughly. Exhaustive reading is rare.
-The first two paragraphs must state the most important information. There's some hope that users will actually read this material
-Start subheaders, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words. Users will notice when scanning down the left side of your page in the final stem of their F-behavior. They'll read the third word on a line much less often than the first two.
Posted by diverseawareness at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
32 Balls for FIFA World Cup
I was thoroughly impressed with the exhibition called Qualified - that takes a unique approach to nationalistic design by taking the cultures and cliches of each of the 32 competing countries and representing them with a soccer (football) ball. The designs are gorgeous and quite humorous. Take for example, America's ball is covered with levis denim, a nod to the country's culture of work and the wild wild west. Japan's ball is covered with anime manga, and Brazil's ball looks like Carnival reincarnate.
As beautiful as the balls were, I wanted to do something interesting with them. I used to play soccer as a kid but quickly fell out of love with it. Today, I have very little understanding of the sport so the best way for me to learn is to do something creative with it.
I studied how each of the 32 qualifying teams are divided intro 8 groups. Each team competes with its group members to become the alpha dog only to compete again with the other top alpha dogs. Eventually, your team works its way up a pyramid schematic to claim FIFA World Cup champion. The whole tournament takes place over thirty days and these games come one after another; EXHAUSTING!
Okay so now I get the gist of it, but how do I visualize that? Why not take the 32 balls from the Qualified exhibition and arrange them in a way to visually represent how each ball (country) fought its way to the top, how far they got, and which competing team stopped them in their tracks.
So here it is, my base design. You can see each of the 32 countries represented by their balls at the bottom. I have the beautifully designed Adidas Matchballs as placeholders. As the World Cup progresses, I'll update those empty spots until we finally have a winner, represented by a large Matchball.
I thought about making this into a website, by where a user could roll over each ball to get a teams win/loss record, city, maybe even stats and video clips. But alas, there are A LOT of stipulations to using the World Cup emblems and I just didn't want to get into legal problems.
So anyways, let me know what you think of the idea. I plan on releasing it as a digital poster (this thing is HUGE) after the whole tournament is over.
Posted by tranism at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
The World is Your Palette
If the world really were my palette, that would be totally awesome. MIT is bringing that dream one step closer to reality by introducing the I/O Brush; a drawing tool to explore colors, textures, and movements found in everyday materials by sampling those textures to paint with them.
It looks like a giant brush but looks can be deceiving. The brush is more than meets the eye. Equipped with a small camera and touch sensors inside, the brush gives creativity a new meaning, especially to kids. Most beginning painters are concerned with creating the end result. The I/O brush reinforces the idea of creating your own "ink" first, then painting with it. This digital ink makes you look at your immediate environment in a different way - what textures would be cool to use. It's a unique approach to painting.
check out the video here
more pictures after the jump
Posted by tranism at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 10, 2006
Hardcore Tic-Tac-Toe
I don't know a single person that has never played tic-tac-toe or some variation of it. It is one of few games in the world that encompasses many key points of what makes a game successful thus, gives it longevity. I won't go into what those points are because I wanna spend my time talking about this thing. . .
3D wooden Tic-Tac-Toe has reinstated my love for the game. It takes the classic and makes you think in three dimensions and believe me, IT'S CHALLENGING! I play it the hard way by allotting 5 seconds for each move. That combined with my opponent yelling "hurry up" in my ear makes this tic-tac-toe a definite brain teaser. The best part? It's only $12.
NOTE: My friend wanted to point out, it also looks great on his side table when not in use. I concur.
Posted by tranism at 7:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
June 7, 2006
Dayum, You's a Big Ass Mo'fo!
This giant rabbit musk rat was installed in Zuid, Holland to mark the lowest point below sea level (6.86 meters) in the country.
The rabbit rat symbolizes the size of the problem it's said to cause. In fact it's the biggest threat to agriculture dykes because of its digging activities and therefore also the "most wanted animal" in Holland.
more pictures after the jump
Posted by diverseawareness at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Digital Indulgence
Ever since I moved to California I've had to duck down while taking a shower. The solid shower heads that come straight out of the walls are not only positioned way to low, but also not adjustable which makes it real hard to enjoy a relaxing hot shower.
This brilliant shower system is above all that. Kohler DTV is the world's first fully digital unit that caters to your exact showering needs. Temperature, pressure and type of water spray can be completely personalized through the digital control unit.
The design is sleek, smart and modern. Together with this system all you need is a killer robe, in a killer bathroom, in a killer house and you're showering better then most.
Posted by diverseawareness at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)