Green Light: A Animated Cyanide & Happiness Short Film

What are you so happy about?..(Read…)

A Hilarious Parody of the 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Trailer

“The Force is wide awake now and sipping non-decaf. Join Luke, Rey, Ren, Finn, Poe, porg, Snoke and multi-syllable characters like Leia, Phasma and – whoah slow down now – Chewbacca on the space adventure trailer spoof of a very sheltered lifetime! And remember, he who Jedis last, Jedis longest.”..(Read…)

It Doesn’t Get More Minimal Than This

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The latest from city park accessory master Art Lebedev, the Urnus-14 design is a compact and easy-to-service trash can. The stark metal structure is barely-there compared to other monolithic garbage bin designs but depending on color of the trash bag used, it can also stand out.

It’s also easier to reset by maintenance personnel. A built-in rubber band holds the bag rim in place, ensuring it doesn’t slip out of the grooved holder. One perk is that it doesn’t require additional cleaning – only removal of the bag.

I’m not sure how well it will contain items from outdoor critters, or how much people will enjoy visible garbage bags, but as far as being expertly minimalist goes… it’s a winner!

Designer: Art Lebedev Studio

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Two beverages, one filter!

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The two most consumed beverages in the world… Both brewed by one single device! The Twin Carafe is a carafe and filter attachment that works for both tea as well as coffee brewing! The silicone attachment sits in a borosilicate carafe/jar, acting as a coffee dripping apparatus that you place your filter into. However, it can also be used to brew tea! The ridges on the underside of the silicone piece acts as filters, stopping the leaves from leaving the carafe as you pour your brewed tea out. The borosilicate carafe has a rather wide mouth that’s easy to clean while the glass itself can withstand high temperatures. The silicone attachment works flawlessly at high temperatures too, and is completely dishwasher friendly.

No matter whether you’re a tea person or a coffee person, the Twin Carafe checks both boxes… and looks rather exquisitely minimal while doing so too!

Designer: Studio Gorm

BUY NOW

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A Lamp That Detects and Mimics Ambient Color in Real Time

Connected device maker Digital Habits, who previously won a Core77 Design Award for their Open Mirror, have created another device that’s caught our eye: The Ambient Light Color Swing. This pendant lamp contains a sensor that allows it to detect the color of nearby objects, then changes its own light to match.

That’s a pretty neat trick, and I’ve been trying to think of a practical application for it.

Okay I’ve got one:

A subset of people of Asian descent turn red when they drink alcohol. Something to do with enyzmes. I don’t get it much, but I’ve got some friends who turn positively scarlet after a single sip and they find it embarrassing.

In the ’90s some Asian-American friends and I used to go drinking at Decibel, a sake bar on 10th Street in the East Village. Run by Japanese, this bar featured completely red lighting, so everyone looked red in there and my self-conscious friends could drink with abandon.

So I propose we use this Color Swing light in bars, and once it detects a lot of red-faced folk the lighting changes.

Oh wait a second–then it would just highlight all of the drunk Asians in a bar, since the lights further away from them wouldn’t change. Hmm. Okay, this is a pretty dumb idea and I should delete this.

No, you know what, I’ve come too far now and I can’t turn back.

Today's Urban Design Observation: Falling Apart at the Seams

It’s a shame that everyone from name-brand architects to homeowners to neighborhood beautification organizations often miss this important fact: Wood, if not properly maintained, is actually a very poor materials choice for outdoor products and facades.

Outdoor-dwelling wooden objects need to have a protective coating that must regularly be re-applied. And the object must be designed with seasonal wood movement in mind. When these things are not heeded, this happens:

These planters are on Lafayette Street. I remember when they first put them in, and I want to say they looked spiffy for about six months. But in the photo above you can see the vertical boards are pinned in on both sides by carriage bolts, meaning that when they expand and contract there is no place for them to go, and they crack.

Some of the finials have snapped off, allowing rainwater to infiltrate the joints.

Someone on the neighborhood improvement committee has been desperately trying to save these by attaching bracket after bracket. This person also did not account for expansion/contraction and has probably contributed to the splitting over time.

Ron Faris on Designing Brand Experiences for the Nike SNKRS App

Ron Faris got his start developing brand experiences working for Virgin Media to produce the well-known Virgin Mobile music festival. Inspired by the energy of people waiting in line at the festivals he produced, Faris developed Virgin Mega, a mobile platform to engage communities while they wait in line to participate in experiences they love. 

Nike took note of Virgin Media’s new approach to in-line engagement and decided to acquire the startup in 2016 to help further develop the Nike SNKRS app. We spoke with Faris about some of the considerations he and his team at Nike’s digital innovation studio, s23NYC, need to keep in mind while designing for the longstanding and habitual sneaker community. Here, he shares with us a few of those considerations and gives advice to young designers hoping to one day change the way a pre-existing community interacts:

How would you describe your current occupation?

I’m the general manager of Nike’s SNKRS App as well as the general manager of our digital innovation studio, s23NYC. My occupation is essentially obsessing over new experiences that fuel visual communities.

What projects are you currently working on at s23NYC?

Right now we’re obsessing over building new experiences that connect mobile millennials and create emotion and energy around sneaker culture.

What is your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part of my job is looking at an existing type of behavior from a community and looking for ways to change it or make it better.

What challenges do you face when trying to bring people together through digital experiences?

Whenever you’re trying to build a new digital experience, especially with the sneaker community, it has to resonate authentically with that community and honor them for all the effort they put in and for all their fanaticism around sneakers. The challenges we face most are that we invent something new—a new type of experience or a new way to get active with sneakers—there’s always a bit of a learning curve because of the change in traditional behavior. Anytime you have a change in traditional behavior, you’re going to have to figure out ways to train your community to engage in that new behavior. So we test focus groups with members of that community thoroughly so that when they engage with the experience it’s done in a truly authentic and seamless fashion.

The s23NYC studio

What is the most important quality of someone that is successful in your line of work?

I think especially for the folks we hire in our studio, the number one value we regard the highest is hustle or drive—the ability to go fanatically beyond the call of duty and obsess over the ideation and execution of a new experience.

How do you keep your team at s23NYC motivated?

Our studio is broken up into different pods of people who work feverishly on the features they put to market, and as one of them breaks through and gets recognized, whether it’s by the community or by the press, it actually motivates everyone to work harder to support their features that they’re working on. It’s kind of like a healthy competitive environment in the studio where everyone tries to one-up experiences that we build. I think that starts to really get people to come together in a really unique way to launch next level experiences.

What is the most widespread misunderstanding about creating brand experiences?

I think the biggest misunderstanding about building new experiences is that they will automatically go viral or that they will connect and really resonate instantly with a community. The best features of brand experiences really take time to iterate and perfect to get them to a point where they earn the right to go viral. Just by putting something out and watching it—that’s just the beginning process, it’s not the end.

Do you have any advice for young designers who are hoping to succeed within the brand experience realm?

My advice to any young designers is to always stay bold and be fearless. Never let anyone dilute your original inspiration or idea or water it down. Many people will try to water down your ideas to make them more accessible—to make them easier to do. New things are very, very hard to build and they’re very much worth the effort.

Ron and the s23NYC team

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This is the latest installment of our Core77 Questionnaire. Previously, we talked to Levi’s Head of Design, Jonathan Cheung.

ListenUp: The Go! Team: Mayday

The Go! Team: Mayday


With Morse Code leading into percussion and Detroit Youth Choir choral work, “Mayday” finds The Go! Team up to their old tricks. It’s an exceptionally enjoyable track that moves forward with fury and force on pop-powered harmonies. The song will appears……

Continue Reading…

Pilotis support black house on Canadian hillside by Atelier General

Montreal architecture firm Atelier General has created a two-storey black residence on a hillside in Quebec, with a main living room supported by slender columns to form a car port underneath.

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Titled The Rock, the structure measures 2,300 square feet (701 square metres), and is clad in black-painted timber. The house is built on a slope, with a forested hill above and a gravel driveway joining a flat grassy area below.

The Rock by Atelier General architecture

Projecting from the hillside, the building is topped with a flat roof to keep a low profile.

“The initial idea for this project was to merge with the mountain, to nestle into the terrain until it becomes one with the residence,” said Atelier General. “The house as a whole is a refuge both anchored and aerial.”

The Rock by Atelier General architecture

The residence is accessed from the lower level, where the drive continues in a space covered by the upper floor. This portion of the building is supported by thin pilotis, or columns, along the far edge.

The Rock by Atelier General architecture

Under the canopy, the front door provides access to two guest bedrooms and a bathroom, a utility space, and a wooden staircase leading up to the main living area.

The Rock by Atelier General architecture

The majority of the upper storey is occupied by an open-plan area sitting and dining room, separated from a galley kitchen by a built-in island. Floor-to-ceiling windows wrap around a corner of the dining room, which joins a decked terrace built along the hillside.

Another outdoor deck is reached from the living room, and is triangular to fill the gap made by the structure’s L-shaped upper-floor plan.

The Rock by Atelier General architecture

A master bedroom with a large bathroom and storage rooms are also located on the top level. The master bath has a white tiled unit with a tub and glass shower. White walls, polished concrete floors and laminated wood ceilings decorate the whole interior.

The Rock by Atelier General architecture

The black house is located an hour outside of Montreal, in an area that borders the US state of Vermont and is a popular location for rustic homes. Others in the area include a black metal cabin with decking by Appareil Architecture and a contemporary farmhouse covered in reclaimed timber by LAMAS.

Photography is by Adrien Williams.

Project credits:

Architecture team: Alexis Naylor, Stéphanie Plourde, Xavier Crépeau Bellefeuille, Patrick Lévesque
Structural engineer: Latéral
General Contractor: Constructions Boivin
Cabinetmaker: Ébénisterie Gaston Chouinard

The post Pilotis support black house on Canadian hillside by Atelier General appeared first on Dezeen.

Studio Zanellato/Bortotto design wall panels that create the illusion of age for CEDIT

Dezeen promotion: ageing Italian dwellings provided the inspiration for this ceramic slab range, designed by Studio Zanellato/Bortotto to make walls appear old and worn.

Italian designers Giorgia Zanellato and Daniele Bortotto designed the Storie collection for CEDIT – Ceramiche d’Italia, a prolific Italian ceramics brand that has recently relaunched.

Storie tile collection by Studio Zanellato/Bortotto for CEDIT

The duo were interested in how the appearance of buildings changes with the passing of time. This led them to explore a range of old villas, historic palazzos and run-down farmhouses.

By closely studying the aged colours, shades and textures they found, they were able to design a range of wall coverings that create the illusion of age.

“This collection originates from a nostalgic journey to discover a series of Italian domestic ambiences which time has profoundly altered,” said the pair.

Storie tile collection by Studio Zanellato/Bortotto for CEDIT

The slabs are available in six designs, each based on a different type of ageing building: Palazzo, Cascina, Masseria, Villa, Castello and Casale.

They incorporate a variety of effects, from the faded paintwork of traditional frescos, to rust-marked masonry and damp-stained plaster.

“Technological innovation enables us to reproduce on large-sized ceramic materials all the effects of wear and stratification that normally only time is able to create,” said the designers.

Storie tile collection by Studio Zanellato/Bortotto for CEDIT

The colour palette includes pale tones of white and grey, and washed-out shades of teal and brown.

The slabs can be applied to indoor or outdoor surfaces, and are crafted as large panels to cover entire walls.

Storie tile collection by Studio Zanellato/Bortotto for CEDIT

CEDIT – Ceramiche d’Italia was a hugely popular brand in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. It was recently relaunched by Florim Group, and has been working with a range of prominent designers, architects and artists, including Martino Gamper and Formafantasma.

Storie is the first collection that Zanellato and Bortotto have designed for the brand. The pair met while studying product design at Swiss university ÉCAL, but are now based in Treviso.

To find out more about the Storie collection, visit Cedit’s website.

The post Studio Zanellato/Bortotto design wall panels that create the illusion of age for CEDIT appeared first on Dezeen.