Hasta La Ideas

Découverte du travail de Luciana Frigerio, qui imagine ces superbes sculptures faites en partant de livres dont elle plie les pages pour créer différents designs et compositions. Un résultat visuellement très réussi avec de nombreux exemples qui sont disponible à la vente. Plus d’images dans la suite de l’article.

Do you find that it’s difficult to keep still and do nothing? Even when you’re supposed to be relaxing (and though your body may not be moving), your mind might be running though your task list and the many things that you need to get done. Or, perhaps you decide to stay later at work a few days per week in an effort to “catch up.” Though you may be in the mindset of trying to get things done, if you don’t get enough sleep, this can decrease how much you actually get done and increase your stress. And, when you’re stressed, you won’t sleep very well. This is a vicious cycle.

The fact of the matter is that if you want to get more done, you need to be well rested. Lack of sleep or not enough of it can really hamper how productive you can be. The The New York Times recently reported:

Spending more hours at work often leads to less time for sleep and insufficient sleep takes a substantial toll on performance. In a study of nearly 400 employees, published last year, researchers found that sleeping too little — defined as less than six hours each night — was one of the best predictors of on-the-job burn-out. A recent Harvard study estimated that sleep deprivation costs American companies $63.2 billion a year in lost productivity.

This connection between sleep and productivity seems to affect you no matter what your job function is. The article goes on to say that when basketball players slept 10 hours per night, “their free-throw and three-point shooting each increased by an average of 9 percent.”

So, how can you get more sleep — the type of rest that will help you feel energized and well prepared to tackle each workday? To get started:

Stop hitting the snooze button

Though it’s intended to be helpful, the snooze button on your alarm can interrupt your sleep cycle which will in turn make you feel more tired and groggy (this is known as sleep inertia). You’ll feel this way because your body may not be ready to be awake (depending on the stage of the sleep cycle that it’s in) when the alarm sounds. This can translate into poor performance during the day. Instead, implement a consistent sleep schedule so that you are not dependent on the snooze button. Get up and go to bed at the same time every day so that you create a pattern of restorative sleep (you can even use a sleep cycle app on your phone to help).

Schedule recovery time during the workday

Recovery time can include planned breaks from working on your projects. It can also mean taking power naps during the day (whenever possible), particularly if you didn’t sleep well the night before. You’ll want to take relatively short naps so that when you wake up, you’ll feel more alert and energized. Though napping longer than 20 minutes has benefits (like better decision making and being able to recall directions more easily), if you get into a very deep sleep, you may wake up feeling more tired. Consider experimenting with shorter or longer nap times to find the right amount of time that will help you to recover.

Schedule time for energizing movement

While everyone needs downtime, exercise has been proven to have a positive effect on how well you sleep. In fact, according to the National Sleep Foundation, “just 10 minutes of exercise a day could make a difference in the duration and quality of sleep.” The good news is that you don’t have to carve out several hours to exercise, but rather build in a short stints of energetic movement throughout your day to reap the benefits at night.

Keep your sleep space uncluttererd

When there’s clutter build-up in a room, there’s likely to be a good deal of stress felt when you’re in that particular area. So, set the stage for a restful night by uncluttering your space. Put away clothing and keep your nightstands neat and organized. Be sure that you don’t keep receipts, mail, or any other (non-sleep) related items hanging about. One thing you can keep on your nightstand: a sleep journal. Use the journal to track how well you’re sleeping, how much sleep you need to function optimally, as well as specific things (soft music, completely dark room, bath before bed) that help you achieve restorative sleep.

Do less: Practice single-tasking

So, this isn’t a sleep tip specifically, but it’s good to put it into practice as it can have big results. Though I’m suggesting that you should do less, please don’t throw your to-do list out the window! Doing less doesn’t mean that you should ignore your responsibilities. It simply means that you should focus on one thing at a time, instead of trying to wrap your mind around several tasks and projects simultaneously. This can be tricky at first, but after a bit of practice, you’ll begin to notice that you can get more done and, perhaps more importantly, you’ll have a greater chance of getting things done more completely (and with less stress, too).

Getting enough rest should be at the top of your list if you want to improve your ability to be productive. If after trying some of today’s suggestions you find that there has been no improvement to the quality of your sleep, consider talking with your doctor to see if there are other things that could be having an impact (like certain medications) on your performance.

Need help getting organized? Buy the DRM-free audiobook version of Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week today for only $8.99.

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: we speak to architect David Adjaye, fresh off the stage from his presentation at Design Indaba, about his relationship with Africa and why he believes the continent provides a great opportunity for architects. 

Adjaye was born in east Africa, to Ghanaian parents, before moving to London at 14. He explains that, after graduating from the Royal College of Art, he felt the need to return to the continent where he grew up.

Above: Nairobi, one of the photographs taken by Adjaye for his research

“I wanted to revisit the continent of Africa” he explains, “but I wanted to revisit it, not through the lens of my parents or through any kind of formal experience, tourism or anything. I wanted to claim it for my own.”

He spent 11 years, from 1999 to 2010, visiting the capital city of each country on the continent “to try to understand the nature of the cities in Africa, to understand their past and their present, to understand their history and their geography.”

Through this research, which was published as a seven-volume book, Adjaye realised the importance of Africa’s unique geography. “It became clear to me that the political map of Africa that we have is a very difficult way to understand the continent,” he says. “Fundamentally, the way we should be looking at it is through geography.”

Adjaye created his own map of the continent (below), divided into six distinct geographic zones, which, he believes, have shaped African culture. “In these [zones], all the civilisations of Africa have manifested themselves,” he says. “Their unique identities come from that, the artefacts of the continent reflect that geography.”

This realisation was important to Adjaye’s own approach to architecture. “I wanted to create a blueprint for how I wanted to work on the continent,” he explains. “I didn’t just want to make contemporary architecture with the usual references of anonymous abstracts and global things, I wanted to find a way of making architecture that could take onboard issues that are big, but also specific enough to make unique objects.”

Adjaye believes that, despite the continent’s considerable problems, Africa presents a great opportunity for architects. “GDP growth over the last decade is anything between 10 and 15 percent, which is extraordinary. It’s greater than what China was doing,” he explains. “This economic drive is changing the political paradigm because as people are becoming more wealthy they are starting to question politically their structure.

“What’s amazing is that, unlike working in Europe or America at the moment, [as an architect] in Africa you can try to ascribe a new paradigm. If you get the right political agency and the right construction environment, you can make extraordinary moments in architecture. That for me is very exciting.”

This movie features a MINI Cooper S Countryman.

The music featured is by South African artist Floyd Lavine, who performed as part of the Design Indaba Music Circuit. You can listen to Lavine’s music on Dezeen Music Project.

Political map of Africa above is courtesy of Shutterstock.

See all our Dezeen and Mini World Tour reports from Cape Town.

The post “Africa is an extraordinary
opportunity” – David Adjaye appeared first on Dezeen.

Soulful Creative graffiti artists 45rpm, Koze and Richt painted three billboards on London’s Old Street last night as part of a campaign for charity CALM to raise awareness of the scale of male suicide in the UK…

According to the Campaign Against Living Miserably, three young men take their own lives every day in the UK, making suicide the biggest killer of men under 35. (There are sobering figures for both sexes at the Office of National Statistics’ page for 2011: in that year alone there were 4,552 male and 1,493 female suicides.)

“Suicide is something that every Tom Dick & Harry may well think about, regardless of how successful, talented or popular they are,” say CALM. “This is a toxic legacy, which impacts all communities.”

Painted on site the three pieces (‘Tom’ by 45rpm, ‘Dick’ by Koze, and ‘Harry’ by Richt) will be on show for 36 hours before being auctioned in aid of CALM tomorrow morning. At the Old Street site, a fourth billboard introduces the project and links to thecalmzone.et/stopsuicide.

Soulful worked on the project with agency BMB (Beattie McGuinness Bungay), with support from JCDecaux. BMB chose to use graffiti as a way to raise awareness around the issues because of its notions of self-expression. “[This is] something that inspires graffiti artists to carry out their work, but something that unfortunately holds people back from speaking about their problems,” say Soulful.

The work will be auctioned by CALM on the morning of Tuesday March 26. CALM offers a free, seven evenings a week confidential helpline and texting service, and campaigns to raise awareness of suicide and improve policy and practice in suicide prevention. See thecalmzone.net. More images of the billboards being painted, here.

The April print issue of CR presents the work of three young animators and animation teams to watch. Plus, we go in search of illustrator John Hanna, test out the claims of a new app to have uncovered the secrets of viral ad success and see how visual communications can both help keep us safe and help us recover in hospital

Buy your copy here.

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Focus sur Txaber qui est un infographiste espagnol basé à Bilbao possèdant un talent impressionnant pour la typographie. « Just Type It » est un alphabet qu’il a réalisé pour la marque Nike composant visuellement chaque lettre de lamelles de bois. Une véritable réussite à découvrir de A à Z dans la suite.