N Building is a commercial structure located near Tachikawa station amidst a shopping district. Being a commercial building signs or billboards are typically attached to its facade which undermines the structures’ identity. As a solution we thought to use a QR Code as the facade itself. By reading the QR Code with your mobile device you will be taken to a site which includes up to date shop information. In this manner we envision a cityscape unhindered by ubiquitous signage and also an improvement to the quality and accuracy of the information itself.
The proposed vision of the future is one where the facade of the building disappears, showing those inside who want to be seen. As you press on the characters their comments made on online appear in speech bubbles. You can also browse shop information, make reservations and download coupons. Rather than broadly tagging, we display information specific to the building in a manner in which the virtual (iPhone) serves to enhance the physical (N Building). The goal is to provide an incentive to visit the space and a virtual connection to space without necessarily being present. Nice…
I’m liking the new identity for The Pew Center. (the identity has also be used as a navigational element online). Based in Philadelphia, the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is a collective of seven grant-making initiatives dedicated to supporting local artists and heritage organizations. Originally, each initiative had its own logo, lacking any consistency with the others. Because of that, there was no indication that it was part of a greater entity. Another problem was the absence of an umbrella logo for the Pew Center. The challenge for London-based johnson banks (one of my top 10 fav studios in the entire universe) was to solve a rather specific client brief.
Deeper in the system are treatments designed to push individual initiatives. Each maintains the typeface, 8-color standard, the word “Philadelphia”, and a tiny “The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.” It’s unclear whether these are meant to be the official logos for the initiative. If so, they certainly won’t work at small sizes. Other than that, the designs show just how recognizeable and flexible the “colored cards” concept can be. A minimal sans-in-square logo isn’t particularly groundbreaking for an art institution. What makes these logos worth noting is the ironic use of that solution — where the bombardment of simplicity creates a clutter that’s hard to miss. Aesthetically, it isn’t the most beautiful, nor the most interesting thing. A family of icons representing the initiatives would’ve been simpler to manage than type. Accusations of bad design decisions about scalability and printability are certainly expected and valid. In the end, though, it’s those risky decisions that make the logo stand out. Most importantly, the design tends to the client’s need of a flexible system that reflects the relationship of an organization and its constituents. love it. (from brandnew)
GNUF a bright and playful visual toolbox for a company who wants to add human and friendly to the vocabulary of the usually quite shady world of online gambling. Nicely stated. Graphic Design and imagery by Daniel Carlsten.
Lovely designed catalogue, love the overlapping grids used here as well as the emboss on the cover nice touch. 123buero is a Berlin based graphic design practise, set up by Timo Gaessner after graduating from Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 2002. The studio works for commercial and institutional clients across various medias, driven by analytic thought and detailed craftsmanship, processing from content to form. The trade name ‘123buero™’ was chosen to gain an neutral position within a generic identity that enables to adapt to a large diversity of assignments and concepts, though keeping a naïve belief in progress and the ability of graphic design. Love the thought behind the studio’s name. Nicely done.
Phone Meets Robot. Mobile phone meets robot, robot meets mobile phone—the beginning of a new relationship between people and their mobile phones. Here’s a mobile phone you carry with you every day that remembers the details of your daily life and features the ability to learn your tastes and habits. Like a capable personal secretary, it delivers essential information when you need it, wherever you may be and with whomever you may be talking. This isn’t just idle talk about the future—the concept underlying such a device is already here. Perhaps in the near future an entirely new mobile product will materialize right before your eyes!
Concept phone from iida – always searching for the touch that will thrill you and the ideas that will stimulate your imagination in the conceptual models it proposes—that’s iida. Each model perfectly embodies iida’s raison d’etre. Every time you use an iida mobile phone, a sense of wonder is palpable, making you anticipate an entirely new kind of communication. It holds a power unbeholden to any previous concept and promises a lifestyle of freedom. iida’s calling in life is to simulate your sensibility by realizing new ideas, in conjunction with creators in various fields who exhibit rich imagination. Expect the iida imagination to produce an entirely new mobile phone experience.
One of the nicest identity “creative platforms”, I’ve seen for a while for Honest Dons and the Chop Shop (love the bloody name to) done by Ptarmak. Reminds me of home where on any street corner you will find your trust worthy butcher giving you the best cuts of pork/steak etc etc. I should quit my job and start a butcher franchise here in the states and charge a premium, defintely chose the wrong career path.
An interactive CD developed by the studio Hubero Kororo when the box is opened for the first time, an ink violet is released and is spread on the cover. Nice visual tactile experience, who needs a website when you can do this kind of shit…
Adidas Originals’ 2010 collection contains Star Wars inspired gear. Besides an ‘Imperial March’ remix the commercial features Snoop Dogg, David Beckham, Calle 13, DJ Neil Armstrong, Daft Punk, Darth Vader and some b-boys, all ‘representing their originality’. Campaign by Sid Lee, Montreal, directed by Nima Nourizadeh and effects by The Mil. Favourite part of the clip is: 0:11…. I’d like to get more of a background why Adidas and Star Wras have teamed up?? and the relvenace to the Originals campaign?
Ha… nice video showing what the future might look like if we went AR happy. The latter half of the 20th century saw the built environment merged with media space, and architecture taking on new roles related to branding, image and consumerism. Augmented reality may recontextualise the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change in the way in which we operate within it.
Interesting take on the rethinking of how coins can be designed. Tokyo based designer mac funamizu infographic perspective. Interesting idea not quite sure it works when you can clearly do the same thing and what is currently being done in several countries using relative sizing. Love the execution.
A creative environment equals happier employees leads to better work which results in more time being spent at work. Parliment a design studio in Portland Oregon has a nice setup, love the bear rug, wish I could convince the wife to have one in our house, the kids would love it. Reminds me of a place where I used to work, JDK where we had a skate park in the basement and our own silkscreen print shop.
Been in Seattle for just under 2 years now, and just recently found out about these guys. Doing some amazing, beautiful work loving the colour palettes that they are using and the simplicity of their work is just amazing. Domestic Furniture / Domestic Architecture’s aesthetic approach is guided by memory and archetypal forms, resulting in structures that are at once familiar, reassuring, and challenging, resisting an easy identification with any particular style or period. A careful choreography of the building’s program, often carried out by a concentrated attention to the smallest details, ensures a lasting intensity and integrity that is rare in architecture today.
Roy McMakin is the main man, a designer, architect, and furniture maker, and his art, which draws on his knowledge of and experience in these disciplines, demonstrates a deep engagement with the artistic potential of domestic objects and environments. In sculpture that looks like furniture or mundane household fixtures (a nonfunctioning toilet made of wood, for example) and furniture that is detailed or decorated to emphasize its sculptural aspects (such as a wooden writing desk painted bright pink), McMakin tests the cultural distinctions that separate the two classes of objects, which occupy the same physical space.
Can’t wait to see this to hit the streets. I’m a huge fan of the brand, how it has evolved for what it was and what it stands for today. Love the signature mini look. The MINI Countryman carries on the design of the brand in superior style and quality, combining larger body dimensions, greater ground clearance and four doors with unmistakable design features so characteristic of MINI. Short overhangs, a high window line, powerful stance on the wheels, and windows extending around the entire car create those unique proportions so typical of a MINI. At the same time, the MINI Countryman re-interprets the characteristic icons of a MINI such as the roofline, the hexagonal radiator grille element, the large headlights integrated in the engine lid with integrated side direction indicators, the prominent wheel arches and the upright rear light clusters in new style and class.
Proceeding from that design language so typical of MINI, the MINI Countryman authentically visualizes the particular features of this very special car. Positioned almost upright, the front end bears out strong presence and serves to optimize pedestrian safety. The extra space within the car, in turn, is emphasized by extra-large windows and the individual shape of the roof. The particularly wide frame around the lower part of the body and the powerfully flared wheel arches highlight the robust character of the car and its all-wheel drive. With that typical MINI style now being conveyed to a new segment in absolute clarity and precision, the MINI Countryman stands out from the start as a brand-new, highly innovative model but is nevertheless clearly identifiable from the very beginning as a genuine MINI. Love the attention to details the barnd brings across all their models giving it the constant visual language that is undoubtedly MINI.
F**k You, Buddy is a theatrical performance, fusion of “game theory” and the dramaturgical development in computer games in the last decade. Created by recoil performance group from Denmark, F**k You, Buddy is a physical performance in combination of interactive video scenography. hmmm interesting…..
Great use of local materials to create a functioning library with minimal budget. All they need is an OLPC . Amazing……. TYIN Tegnestue is a non-profit organization working humanitarian through architecture. They aim to build strategic projects that can improve the lives for people in difficult situations. Through extensive collaboration with locals they hope that their projects can have an impact beyond the physical structures. If I had 1 million dollars make it 100,00 dollars to donate this is whom I’d be giving it to. Amazing and for a great cause….
The concrete base of the library is cast on a bed of large rocks gathered on-site. Walls made of plastered concrete blocks cools the building during the day, while the open bamboo facade gives a good ventilation. Iron wood makes up the solid frame construction and serves as comfortable floor for the children to play on. The bookshelves run along the concrete walls in their full height, and the floor is left unfurnished to give room for different activities. The entrance, creates a comfortable buffer between the outdoors and indoors and divides the ground floor into a small computer area on one side and a larger library room on the other.
The most important thing to Tasanee is that her children are provided food and education. In the library the children at Safe Haven Orphanage now have a space to do homework, use a computer with internet and read books written in different languages. The new building has also attained the important role of a gathering space and is frequently used for play, games and crafts. That NTNU, as an educational institution, contributes to workshops like this is of great importance. It creates a unique opportunity for young, skilled students to engage real problems and make decisions with real consequences.
No need for an expensive touch wall experience, when you have stickers. Appeel is a virus spreading through interacting individuals. Surfaces are covered by thousands of coloured stickers laid out in a grid. Peeling a sticker leaves a white spot in the grid, people hence start individually and collectively changing its appearance. Once off the wall, the stickers ask to be sticked somewhere: people begin putting them on objects, walls, people, they collect them, they compose new images, they write messages. Slowly the little stickers spread, appearing further away from their source and occupying space. Appeel inherits basic principles of interactivity and generativity applied to purely analogous means. Its immanent potential of penetrating regulated public and private space counterpoints its apparent plainness. The dot spreads with the promise to ironically mark its carrier as a symbol of sale and possession. Another interesting installation from TheGreenEyl, worth checking out the…
aperture is a facade installation with interactive and narrative displaying modes. Consisting of an iris diaphragm matrix, the facade’s surface with its apertures’ variable opening diameters is enriched by a dynamic translucency, that creates new imagery as well as a new channel for communication between inside and outside. I’d love to have one of these in the entrance halway of the house…love it!
Love the bikes….Love the brand even more…. Deus Ex Machina which is in latin, translation God of Machine, bloody brilliant. Founded by the original founders of MAMBO an australian surf/lifestyle brand. One of my favourites “The Drovers Dog”. – a custom motorcyle that has a built in surf board rack…. Now I only wished i had a 22k to spare.
