Hasta La Ideas

designed by felissimo for social designer this complete set of 500 colored pencils consists of 20 units, each pencil telling its own story with a unique name. you cannot buy the complete set of pencils all at once, but you can receive them over the course of 20 months. four different display methods let you keep your pencils at hand, while being displayed either as an artwork, or kept aside as a special collection. the cases have been designed especially for the 500 colored pencils and are available in a limited edition.

‘orchestra’ is a wall-mounted display which allows you to snap and swap pencils, giving you control over how to orchestrate colors on your wall.

single piece of ‘color wave’

–> See more at DesignBoom

We’re loving Seed Magazine’s “Workbench” feature, where they visit the workspaces of people they like. Previous visitees included author/physician Oliver Sacks and zoologist Nancy B. Simmons, and this morning we ID’ers got one of our own, Smart Design’s Richard Whitehall, “who is leveraging the power of design cues and functionality
to convince people to live greener lives.” Click here for an interactive look at Whitehall’s desk and its design-assisting clutter.

thanks greg!

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On August 20th, Michigan’s Muskegon Museum of Art debuts “Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller,” a traveling design exhibition slated to hit 15 American cities by 2013.

MMA Executive Director Judith A. Hayner’s long-standing interest in modern design sparked a dream of showcasing original designed artifacts along with their drawings and prototypes.

…Commenting on the idea behind the exhibition, Mr. Berry observed, “Many people are confused by the difference between art and design. Design is a noun, a verb, and a problem solving process. It is art with a purpose. Good design requires a clear understanding of the particular need, conditions, constraints, and opportunities. Good design does not happen in a vacuum.”

“At Herman Miller, design is the means and the end,” said Berry. “It is the starting point and the destination. Since 1931, not long after its founding, Herman Miller had embraced design as a way to improve people’s lives, and through that goal, they created new industries and some of the most iconic objects of the last century. Charles and Ray Eames’s molded plywood Lounge Chair, George Nelson’s Marshmallow Sofa, and Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick’s Aeron Chair which populates so many offices today, are all products of Herman Miller, Inc.”

Click here for more specifics.

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In the more dangerous New York of the early ’90s, the glassware of any off-the-radar nightlife spot was a dead giveaway to the sort of place it was. The ones that served drinks in plastic cups and had tin ashtrays were generally more trouble-prone. You knew this because one night you’d be at a place that used regular glasses, a fight would break out, and someone would get a glass, bottle or ashtray smashed into their face; next week you’d go back and all of the cups would be plastic.

I’d always naively thought of this as a bygone phenomenon, but apparently fighting with glassware is still an issue in Great Britain. According to statistics 5,500 Britons a year are involved in booze-fueled altercations that end in shattered glass and stitches, and the United Kingdom’s Home Office Minister Alan Campbell feels the problem can be solved through design: “Innovative design has played an important role in driving down overall crime, including theft, fraud and burglary,” said Campbell. The Home Office has thus commissioned a new plastic cup design for pubs.

Unsurprisingly, there’s opposition: The British Beer and Pub Association is naysaying the plan. “For the drinker, the pint glass feels better, it has a nice weight and the drink coats the glass nicely. That’s why people go out for a drink, to have a nice experience,” says Association member Neil Williams.

But Nick Verebelyi of the company Design Bridge, tasked with designing the new plastic cup, is determined to make it work.

“One [approach] is to coat the glass with a substance that will make sure the glass doesn’t shatter into pieces when it is broken – that could be a plastic material for example. But it would have to feel like an existing pint glass to the consumer.”

Mr Verebelyi [is] also looking at changing the pint altogether.

“We could do something more radical, by looking at the whole shape and substance of the pint–we could come up with something that is completely different to glass.

“Remember that years ago people used to drink out of pewter tankards. It could be quite a significant paradigm shift.”

via bbc news

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