Hasta La Ideas

The world’s lightest NeoShell jacket from Canada’s tech-driven outerwear maker

Weighing about as much as a bottle of water, Westcomb‘s impressive 15oz Switch LT Hoodie is the latest to be named the world’s lightest NeoShell jacket. While outerwear companies spend every season trying to capture industry attention, Westcomb is one of the few to hit the high mark year after year with cleanly designed, solidly manufactured gear created from start to finish under one roof in Vancouver.

A performance-driven, waterproof shell designed for all conditions, the Switch is made of Polartec Neoshell fabric, a revolutionary lightweight material rated at the market’s highest level of breathability and waterproof capability. With a slightly slimmer fit and articulated joints for ease of motion, the jacket maintains function while tackling the divide between tech and style. Multiple zippered pockets give the jacket just the right amount of portage possibilities while keeping contents completely dry. Westcomb president and lead designer Alan Yiu explains that the design team “started with a core foundation of the best possible materials, and then built the design upward from there, adding only what’s truly necessary for users in the field.”

The Switch LT Hoodie is now available from Westcomb in colorways spanning basic neutrals to adventurous bold hues, for $430. An investment piece, the ripstop nylon jacket will likely last a lifetime, allowing you to easily traverse rainy city streets or off-road trails.

Designed in Hackney: designer Ian McIntyre hand-crafted this pottery collection for furniture brand Another Country at his Hoxton studio in the London borough of Hackney and fired some of the pieces in his own kilns.

The range of tableware includes a jug, pinch pot, plate, bowl and cup.

The pieces explore the properties of different clays including industrial terracotta, stoneware and porcelain.

Another Country first presented the ceramics as part of their Series Two collection during the London Design Festival 2011.

Ian McIntyre graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2010 and we featured his degree project on Dezeen, which was a set of tableware that included Chai teacups. His studio is located on Ermine Mews, just behind Kingsland Road in Hoxton.

Key:

Blue = designers
Red = architects
Yellow = brands

See a larger version of this map

Designed in Hackney is a Dezeen initiative to showcase world-class architecture and design created in the borough, which is one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices. We’ll publish buildings, interiors and objects that have been designed in Hackney each day until the games this summer.

More information and details of how to get involved can be found at www.designedinhackney.com.

Dani Wolf et Tal Moskovich ont pu imaginer pour leur études un faux générique d’ouverture pour un film qui serait réalisé par Ridley Scott et qui reprendrait l’histoire écrite de Kurt Vonnegut “The Sirens of Titan”. Une séquence aidé par la musique de Tomáš Dvořák.

Previously on Fubiz

• Dark Knight Rises Titles
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Offf 2011 Cincinnati

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Exploring the graphic expertise and vision behind Communist-era posters

The ideological imagery from the height of Communist rule in central and Eastern Europe has become a familiar motif in the west in the decades since its fall. From the illustrations of bourgeois fat cats to the classic “Niet” posters depicting a stern and handsome man refusing alcohol, the political and cultural lines drawn by these materials are clear. What is less recognized on this side of the former Iron Curtain is the technical ability and graphic skill that went into composing posters representing the industrious superiority of the former Communist empire.

Edited by Stefania Carla Duschka and Ciprian Isac of the creative Romanian publishing house Atelierul de Grafica, “Iron Curtain Graphics” explores the graphic qualities and composition of Communist-era posters from Romania, ranging from political propaganda to workplace safety warnings. Looking beyond the geo-political and social purpose of these images, the book gives some insight into the skill, thought and beauty of imagery that is, as the book’s subtitle states, “Eastern European Design Created Without Computers”.

While graphically stunning, many of the book’s images represent Communist ideals without humor or irony, raising the question of artistic value versus technical skill and messaging. The posters cover a dynamic range of topics, in propaganda images that clearly resemble those popularized in modern media and that can be found at trinket stores throughout the former Communist states.

The section on Labor Safety offers a unique look at imagery that was created for completely utilitarian purposes but is composed at the same level as those used to promote core political and social ideas, drawing fascinating parallels between the advanced graphics employed for propaganda and mundane instructions and warnings alike.

The comprehensive collection presented in “Iron Curtain Graphics” is a crucial read for anyone interested in the culture, design and politics of that time period. The bold representation of strength, industry and the symbiotic relationship between man and machine—the depiction of the perfect working mechanism—juxtaposed with highly stylized graphics to inform about safety offers a truly unique vision of the scope of graphic design before the fall of the Berlin wall.

“Iron Curtain Graphics” is available through Gestalten and Amazon.

Grad students at the Interactive Telecommunications Program—ITP for short—at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts have produced far more amazing projects than we could possibly cover in these pages, not least because many of the projects deal in pixels themselves. Alumni aside (full disclosure: one of them landed here in our very offices), we do the best we can to cover their student shows.

Just about a year ago, NYU announced the first extension program of the storied department with one of the inaugural programs at NYU Shanghai, the “first American university with independent legal status approved by the Ministry of Education.”

ITP’s Shanghai program will offer a unique opportunity for an incoming class of 32 graduate students to explore the imaginative uses of technology in one of the world’s most exciting and quickly changing cities.

ITP’s facilities will be located in downtown Shanghai. In addition to classrooms the site will feature a workshop for physical prototyping: a machine shop, firmware programming stations, electronics prototyping tools, and digital fabrication. An equipment room giving students access to digital photography, video, and audio equipment will also be on site.

ITP Shanghai has the same degree requirements as its 20+ year-old sister (or parent?) program, and courses will be taught in English.

Interested? Find out more at the Open House tomorrow night, Friday, March 30 at 7PM, at the original ITP, 721 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10003.

Already sold? Start your application here.

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