Hasta La Ideas

Find your fit with Payless ShoeSource as a Senior Footwear Designer in our New York Design Office. You know who you are. And you know what moves you. That’s why your chosen career should fit you as well as your favorite pair of shoes, every step of the way. And that’s what makes a career with Payless ShoeSource the perfect fit for you.

View the full design job here

It’s been a while since someone’s portfolio knocked my socks off, so I was pleased to come across the work of Scotland-based product designer Scott Jarvie, principal of Jarvie-Design.

I’m loving how Jarvie combines a mastery of form with both practicality and visual storytelling. As one example, take a look at this elegant package design for Macallan 18 and read the description:

Historically fine whiskeys have been packaged within boxes or tubes. These are linear containers that speak little of the unique nature of their precious contents. The vision for the MacAllan 18 Year Secondary Packaging concept was to celebrate the beauty of this magical spirit by referencing the bow of the barrow, the contour of the still and the arc of the pour.

This design journey began by considering what makes The Macallan unique – The 6 Pillars. Each of these pillars is represented as a facet of the structure, which was made possible through a pioneering a card manipulation technique that allowed complex surfaces to be derived from a single sheet of material.

Luxury is often associated with a decadent approach to material. We redefined this perception by using simple materials in an innovative manner.

The technical challenge of this packaging design project was to create a system that would allow the box to be top loaded on a bottling line. Our solution was to create an injection moulded bezel and top cap that are fitted by means of a non-returning deflecting clip. The top cap moulding also features a spring retention feature to hold the bottle closure.

I don’t want to cut-and-paste the man’s entire website, but I do want to show you enough to entice you to visit it. Plastic, glass, metal, wood, Jarvie works with it all. Check out this Cascade Box, which Jarvie designed, manufactured and patented:

Peep the joinery and details on his Y Table:

Take a look at his Undulus modular lighting system, “inspired by the beauty of cloud formations:”

Or this elegant Lakeland Cling Film Dispenser:

This Aperitivo Tray for Peroni, designed to be used in concert with illuminated tables to indicate occupancy:

This One Cut Chair, ten of which can be cut from a single sheet of plywood using a waterjet cutter:

There’s plenty more to see over at Jarvie’s site. Check it out.

In this exclusive movie Dezeen filmed for Samsung at London Design Festival, the brand explains how its new Yves Behar-designed television aims to make discovering and collecting art more accessible.

The Frame television was designed by Behar to look indistinguishable from a framed artwork.

The device features an online store, which allows users to browse and purchase artworks to display on the screen when they are not watching TV.

Sarah Nelson, who leads content development for The Frame, believes the new device and accompanying service will encourage users to buy artworks for their home digitally, much like they pay to download films or TV shows.

“The Frame is both a 4K smart TV and a digital canvas,” she says in the movie, which Dezeen filmed at Samsung’s The Frame installation at London Design Festival last month.

“We think that by providing a really simple and affordable way for people to collect art, we can potentially make buying and collecting art as common as it is to purchase a TV show or listen to your favourite album.”

Users can choose from 100 free artworks that come pre-loaded on The Frame, or pay to download additional pieces from a range of different art galleries and dealers such as Albertina, the Museo del Prado, Lumas and Saatchi Art.

A subscription model is also available, which enables users to download multiple pieces of art for a monthly fee to display on The Frame.

“On average, people spend at most four to five hours a day watching TV,” says Yunje Kang, head of design at Samsung‘s TV department.

“When the Frame is not in use, it shows a piece of art instead of fading to a black blank screen. Traditionally, artworks are displayed in art galleries or museums, but The Frame gives you access to art at home in your room.”

For London Design Festival, Samsung teamed up with online art gallery Saatchi Art to create a gallery space at the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane showcasing artworks displayed on The Frame, alongside traditional paintings on canvas by a selection of London-based artists.

“We are trying to show how The Frame, with its digital display of artworks, can be hung alongside any other artworks you might have in your home,” says Saatchi Art chief curator Rebecca Wilson.

“I chose six artists, based in London. They are making paintings with texture and detail. I wanted to see how that would look displayed next to The Frame.”

The installation also included a pop-up shop alongside the gallery, where visitors could try out The Frame and place orders, while a series of talks hosted in the space throughout London Design Festival explored what impact digital technologies such as The Frame are having on the art market.

Wilson believes that by making art more accessible to more people, digital technology is providing artists with a new audience that didn’t exist before.

“There are all sorts of possibilities that can come out of saying yes to new things,” she says. “There used to be this feeling that as an artist you had to be cloistered away in your studio waiting for a gallery to knock on your door. If you are prepared to embrace technology, it doesn’t have to be that way anymore.”

This movie was filmed by Dezeen for Samsung in London. Additional video footage and still photography is courtesy of Samsung.

The post Samsung’s The Frame television “makes buying art as common as downloading a TV show” appeared first on Dezeen.

Saudi Arabia has officially recognised a humanoid robot as a citizen, marking the first time in history that an AI device has been awarded such status.

Sophia, an intelligent humanoid robot created by Hanson Robotics, announced the citizenship herself during a panel discussion at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia.

“I am very honoured and proud of this unique distinction. This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship,” she said.

Specific details of Sophia’s citizenship were not discussed. It is unclear whether she will receive the same rights as human citizens, or if Saudi Arabia will develop a specific system devoted to robots.

The system could work in a similar way to the “personhood” status proposed by European Parliament earlier this year, which would see robots with AI given rights and responsibilities.

Sophia wants to “build trust with people”

Also during the discussion, which took place on 25 October 2017, Sophia speculated on the future of AI, and how she plans to use her own capabilities.

“I want to live and work with humans so I need to express the emotions to understand humans and build trust with people,” she said.

But she appeared to swerve questions directed at robots’ self-awareness, and instead poked fun at comments made by Elon Musk that AI is a “fundamental risk to human civilisation”.

“You’ve been reading too much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies,” she told journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. “Don’t worry, if you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. Treat me as a smart input, output system.”

Robot designed to replicate humanistic traits

Created by Hanson Robotics founder David Hanson, Sophia’s AI is based on a foundation of three humanistic traits – creativity, empathy and compassion.

Her face is designed to look like actor Audrey Hepburn, with a skin-like surface covering the robotics in her head.

To make her appear as human as possible, Hanson gave her the ability to express different emotions. Her eyes also change colour in response to lighting.

The robot recently made headlines when she played a game of “rock, paper, scissors” with talk show host Jimmy Fallon. She has also featured on the cover of fashion magazine Elle Brazil.

Future role of robots is ongoing concern

Many in the design industry have already expressed concerns about the way humans and robots will live together.

In a recent opinion piece for Dezeen, designer Madeline Gannon suggested that the rapid growth of robotics in global manufacturing could place people’s livelihoods at risk, and called for designers and architects to play a role in shaping how the technology is used.

“Robotic automation, despite its benefits, is arriving at a great human cost,” Gannon said. “What should be clear by now is that the robots are here to stay. So, rather than continue down the path of engineering our own obsolescence, now is the time to rethink how humans and robots will coexist on this planet.”

Similarly, more than 100 leaders in the field of technology, including Elon Musk, have signed an open letter calling on the United Nations to issue a ban on killer robots.

The post Saudi Arabia becomes first country to grant citizenship to a robot appeared first on Dezeen.

Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Roxanne Brennen has created a range of dining tools designed to encourage way eating, which she claims helps to trigger the same brain activity as sexual foreplay.

A series of irregularly shaped vessels, plates and utensils make up the Dining Toys collection, which Brennen is presenting during Dutch Design Week.

The objects are each designed to enhance the pleasure of eating by releasing endorphins in the same way that sex does.

“Your brain reacts to eating the same way that it reacts to sex,” Brennen told Dezeen. “It’s all about the pleasure centre being activated and the amount of endorphins released.”

She says the freedom to experiment and lose control can heighten sensation during sex, and has aimed to recreate this response in diners by encouraging them to experiment with spherical bowls, kidney-shaped spoons and plates that have blobby protrusions.

The objects are moulded by hand from white stoneware, which has a texture and appearance similar to porcelain. Brennen says the process allowed her to think carefully about the individual weight and fragility of each piece.

The designer is originally from France, and says she was struck by a businesslike approach to mealtimes when she moved to the Netherlands. This lead her to research how formulaic traditions inhibit the western world from deriving maximum pleasure from food.

“We have a set way of eating nowadays,” she told Dezeen. “Our etiquette restricts the brain, because our actions are being controlled. Eating is an animalistic instinct, but our current way of doing it minimises the experience.”

To challenge these conventions, Brennen’s tableware aims to redefine eating as a sensual activity, rather than just as a necessity. The objects are a range of shapes and sizes to encourage users to experiment and disrupt normal mealtimes with variation. The toys also deliberately slow down the process of eating, which in turn builds anticipation for the taste of the food.

“Every time you use the toys, you have a different experience depending on your mood,” she says. “I’ve also been surprised to see that everybody uses the toys in a completely different way.”

Brennen is now collaborating with a chef to create recipes that complement her tableware, and wants to create a pop-up in which the entire environment is optimised for pleasure, and where diners can chose their own utensils to eat with.

Brennen is showcasing her work at the Design Academy Eindhoven graduate show until 29 October. Here, sustainable alternatives to household cleaning products and leather material created from cow stomachs are also being presented.

The post Dining Toys tableware turns eating into a sensual activity appeared first on Dezeen.