Design in a future

Design in a future is the name given to the 6 week "pressure project" we were given to start us off this year.

And preasured it was.

The first part of the brief was all about establishing contacts within the university. We were asked to find and chat with "an expert" in a chosen field. I spoke to Dr. Malcolm Horner and he gave me some valuable insights.

2 weeks in, and the usual 100 ideas sketchbook.

I decided to focus in on one of my ideas; to harness the energy that is generated by children at a playpark. My reasoning for this is an insight gained from Dr. Malcolm Horner. He mentioned that our attitudes towards sustainability HAD to change. He was even doing this through the SCC.

I liked the social change that this would induce; children would not consume energy to be entertained, instead they would be making it. Of course, they would not be expected to do this for free. They would be payed based directly on how much electricity they generated and it would either be stored or fed directly into streetlighting.

Playparks in their current state are not designed to generate electricity so a subtle re-design would be needed. However the playpark asthetic is an essential part of a playpark so this would need to be approached carefully. It was also important to consider such things as vandalism, and safety. I worked with a fellow student to do some initial research on 2009 playparks:















The roundabouts really interested me. It seemed the technology in wind turbines would directly translate into something that could be pushed round. With rough calculations, I calculated that if a roundabout was linked to a generator 1/50th the size of a wind turbine (10kg) and spun for 10 minutes, at an average of 20rpm, a child could earn as much as 50p. I worked on some other pieces of equiptment that also required the user to spin a generator.

I mocked up this "Energy Park" in solidworks to get the feel for it:



































































And our final hand in was a one great image. Mine shows a child spinning a roundabout to generate both electricity and pocket money. She is enjoying herself and excited at the prospect of earning money. The collection point for her earnings is in the foreground:















I would like to revisit this project at the end of the semester and pollish it up a bit, however I am happy at the level of finished achieved in 6 weeks.

3rd year

Ok so it has been a long time since my last blog but here we go...

So i probably should be doing the educational, A1 poster that is due in tomorrow but here's what i have been doing.

Almost daily we are told the words co-creation and inter-disciplinary. By the time I leave uni i will have completed my Top level book for the Arcadia group which is effectively one step below a brand manager, so what a good advantage I have.

So I will take this advantage and work on it. I decided to draw up a mid-seasonal trend set for men. It's actually a little late as the Spring trends are out but I have to start somewhere, right?

So this is my attempt. I'm open to criticism.

Urban Camouflage

How effective are these Ikea camouflages?! When you look close there is no way that boxes orbags could sit like that but they still hide the people. Also notice how easy they are to spot the human silhouette in the first image even though it almost completely hidden.

BROKEN IMAGES

































URBAN CAMOUFLAGE

Sony and Apple's 'new products'

Although I have no objection to Sony, it's hilarious how far this video goes to slag it off. It still made me Laugh:
Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

Also the MacBook Wheel. If you own an ipod, you'll laugh
Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Topman

First of all I work for Topman so I am obviously bias.

I was just on Topman.com and realised how much I like the 'new trend' aspect of Topman. OK so it's nothing new but the way the website explains the trend as if you already know what it is, you might just be stuck on what outfit to buy. The photos are self explanatory and the word choice is easy to understand but with some abstract make-you-feel-smart words.

See what you think for yourself.

The Future of Books

As design students we are supposed to look to the future of design but I don't think this is what is intended.

However i really like this concept by Kyle Bean.

Can you guess the future of books?



[click picture]


KyleBean.co.uk

latest from Inventables

Temperature Sensitive Tiles.


I think they look fantastic and i think they've only scratched on the potential applications.

Click to see how good they look in a shower:

Future Ipod

Yes Mac have churned this out now.

You slap it on your wrist and all the ipod features are there and more. Oh, and the headphones are unbelievable as well.

On sheer aesthetic I'm impressed.

Thing i like most about it is although the familiar ipod look is questionable the most identifiable product of the 21st century - this looks nothing like it.

Did i mention if you hum the song you want to hear it plays it?

Genius.


Click below for more pictures and info.
Yankoo Design

Radio Redoux

Last semester the class completed the Radio Redoux brief set to us by the Product Design lecturers at Dundee University. We were asked to redesign a radio and given a lot of freedom to do so. The constraints were size of the circuit board we had to use and the fact that the tuning potentiometer could not be moved from it's original solder.

My solutions rationale reads as follows:























Here is my final solution render:














This is my working prototype finished in 'any shade between black and white' as required in the brief:



























And finally this is the intended user interaction with my radio (click to enlarge):













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As a class the standard was very high and all looked fantastic. There was a huge verity in the designs too. Click this link to see Steven Hogg's interpretation of the brief. Eight of the radios are now featured in the main PD corridor (level 7, Matthew Building) and this photo does not do it justice.

Monome

I must confess now i like music a lot. Mostly fairly weird stuff and i do like to dip in a bit of sample/chiptune electro.

Menome really appeals to me. You can not deny - even ignoring the fact it sounds genius - it looks fantastic. Also, it leaves so much up to the user, the possibilities are endless. It comes with some recommended software but I would be tempted to make my own.

Only unfortunate thing is there is no way I can afford one on a student income, but it is something to aspire to!















http://monome.org/

Ad Goodness

I've been subscribed to the Ad Goodness RSS feed for a long time so i guess i should give them some credit.

I love it for querky mock ads like this, simple yet clever.

Single function adverts like this inspire me.










Agency: DDB Helsinki, Finland
Art Director: Jukka Mannio
Copywriter: Vesa Tujunen
Photographer: Mikko Harma / Kustom

Spongebob Square Pants

Today our class were described as sponges, meaning we're absorbing information from all sides and storing it all inside. I like that because it's true, though I'm not sure about the metaphor for squeezing all the information out. Funny because I was wearing my Spongebob Squarepants t-shirt from Topman. Which I also like.

Transparency in Design

Admittedly i got pretty excited when i saw this article. It made me realise how much transparency can offer in design, especially when it is just a transparent version of an already familiar product. Makes the user feel they can see more than the average non-transparent product owner and looks fantastic.









However I have to confess, probably the main reason I enjoyed the article was because the first game console i ever owned (8th birthday present) was this...











Transparency in Design