Hasta La Ideas

UK studio Seymourpowell has designed a concept for a cosmetics service that would curate the perfect products based on artificial intelligence and user data.

Mespoke is a subscription service that combines “big data” like climate and style trends with a user’s personal data — such as their schedule, diet and travel plans — to come up with highly tailored packages of skincare and beauty products.

The intelligent cosmetics concept would operate via an app, automatically sending users a package of everything they need for the week ahead.

Each day’s products would come as a sheet of biodegradable single-use modules ranging from factor 30 sunscreen and BB cream to anti-pollution serum and omega-3 supplements.

The artificial intelligence (AI) operates on two levels: first, it finds suitable products for each user’s skin type, environment and personal style.

Then, it augments that base profile by incorporating data on the user’s recent lifestyle and their schedule for the week ahead.

Seymourpowell provides the example of a user who is about to go on holiday in Tulum, Mexico. Mespoke receives that information and automatically sends products that suit the high-humidity environment, as well as the vibe of the beach destination.

Based on examples from Seymourpowell’s mock-up, that might include aloe vera after-sun lotion, bronzer, sea salt hair gel and temporary tattoos.

For a person heading to a business meeting in New York, Mespoke might provide longwear matt lipstick matched to the user’s specific colouring, along with charcoal-infused double cleansing pads to take off the city’s grime at the end of the day.

On days that are more about exercise than work or social outings, Mespoke’s offering might skew towards supplements instead of beauty and grooming products.

“Mespoke imagines how beauty products could be designed with the application of AI to be more responsive,” said Robert Cooper, a designer at Seymourpowell.

“Moving to an emphasis on flexibility and function, Mespoke explores the relationship between the power of algorithms to make decision for us and beauty products as a form of self-expression and personal identity,” continued Cooper.

At this stage, Mespoke is purely theoretical. Seymourpowell designers wanted to imagine what a future might look like where beauty services are “hyper-flexible, personalised and powered by AI”.

It is based on the findings of the team’s recent research into the beauty market, when they interviewed influencers and experts around the world.

They found that behaviour was shifting due to digital culture, where skincare fans have become highly knowledgeable about products, often via communities on Instagram or Reddit.

“There’s currently a lot of disruption within the beauty category and as a result, many nuanced and contradictory behaviours to unpack,” Seymourpowell director Mariel Brown told Dezeen.

“Widespread connectivity is having a profound impact on people’s attitudes toward personal identity.”

“There is a desire for more diversity and consequently, new expressions of beauty are emerging,” said Brown. “Individuality follows on from diversity, and we can see people viewing their bodies as an asset and looking for ways to manipulate their uniqueness to get ahead.”

“We became curious as to how new technologies might combine with these new behaviours,” she continued.

“What if AI could analyse data to give you an edge via your makeup and grooming? Would you be willing to let it start to control or prescribe your identity?”

Mespoke also taps into trends for more natural products and more sustainable packaging. By confining its products to single-use modules, Seymourpowell points out that less preservative can be used in the formulas.

The packaging is made of biodegradable injection-moulded fibre.

However, this style of packaging, highly personalised for each user on every day, is the aspect of Mespoke that would be the hardest to execute in the present day.

“Although there are the technology and production capabilities to produce Mespoke, the production techniques are not currently flexible enough to create the variation needed for this bespoke service,” said Cooper.

“Traditional manufacturing’s emphasis on volume and consistency has led to rigid processes that must be reconsidered to align with the digital worlds ability to provide personalised services and meet consumer demand,”

Seymourpowell is a multidisciplinary studio that often works with emerging technologies. Among its previous projects are the modular Fairphone 2 and virtual-reality software for collaboratively designing cars.

Mespoke follows in the footsteps of recently released AI-enhanced styling tools like the Amazon Echo Look, which uses machine learning algorithms to give users a second opinion on their outfit choice.

The post Seymourpowell’s Mespoke concept uses AI to decide your skincare routine appeared first on Dezeen.

The futuristic headpieces featured in Icelandic musician Björk‘s Utopia tour are made to resemble orchid flowers and bones, says designer James Merry.

The masks were designed by Merry to compliment the costumes and sets for the tour of the album Utopia, which Bjork described as “magically utopian” in an interview with Dezeen.

Merry, told Dezeen that he handcrafted the headpieces for the Icelandic musician and her 12-person flute ensemble to appear as extensions of their bodies – as if “new bones had grown out of their heads and half-transformed into orchids”.

“Björk had spoken with me many times about the idea to use the costumes and headpieces to give a more ‘avatar’ sort of appearance to the players – meaning a fuller transformation of the character from human into something more sci-fi and digital,” said Merry.

“I tried to keep in mind the very specific utopian world that Björk had been creating around the album and tried to make something that would fit into that, giving Björk and the flute players this specific character: orchid-like, mutated, individual, but united – a matriarchal tribe on an unknown island starting anew.”

Each headpiece was made individually by hand and designed specifically for Björk and the flute players on stage. “It was important to me that each design was different from the other so that they would look cohesive together but still have their own individual character,” he explained.

“During rehearsals, we tried on lots of different prototypes and I let each player gravitate towards the sort of shape and silhouette they felt most themselves in,” he continued.

“Then once that was worked out, I went away and made the final pieces specifically with each person’s preference and personality in mind.”

Given that the musicians had to play complex flute arrangements and perform choreography on a rotating stage, the headpieces needed to be lightweight and practical to not block their instruments.

“I couldn’t put anything that would obstruct the mouth or the eyes, and they also had to be very lightweight,” said Merry. “There are some head-banging moments in the show, so I had to make sure they were easily fixed in place, with as little distraction and as much comfort as possible.”

“Those restrictions are usually quite fun to work with, I think they forced me to come up with designs I might not otherwise have discovered,” he continued.

Merry crafted the headpieces from thermoplastic, which has a felt-like texture that hardens to a tough plastic when heated.

He designed and cut out each pattern and threaded the pieces with wire so that they retained their shape, then heated carefully until they became hard enough to hold their form but still felt soft.

“The thermoplastic is quite an exciting material to work with, bending and shaping it by hand to create a new sort of canvas to embellish with more traditional needlework or beading,” he said.

Afterwards, he beaded pearls onto the surfaces and embroidered the edges with gold cord to define the white surface.

“I was also very aware that these headpieces needed to work from a distance – given that we would be playing shows at large open-air festivals,” he explained.

“Whereas the silicone pieces I made for the Utopia music video were more about the detail and texture, these were more about the silhouette and giving that sense of transformation from a distance.”

Björk’s unique visual language often draws upon themes of nature. In a recent interview with Dezeen, the Icelandic musician spoke of her sets and costumes for her Utopia world tour, which were inspired by classic Icelandic paintings and summer nights.

Photography is by Santiago Felipe.

The post Björk’s Utopia tour headpieces made to resemble orchids and bones appeared first on Dezeen.

Michael Oliver est un jeune artiste ayant étudié la photographie au Saint Petersburg College en Floride. Plutôt focalisé sur le portrait et l’autoportrait, le photographe a beaucoup puisé son inspiration dans sa jeunesse voyageant de pays en pays. Ses photographies sont souvent construites avec simplicité, tout en laissant le choix au spectateur de libérer son imagination quant à l’histoire qu’elles racontent. Une douce spontanéité, qui évoque mille contes. Découvrez plus de son travail sur son site.

Italian design studio Alcarol has teamed up with Tuscan stone company Vaselli to create a table and stools made from eroded Travertine encased in resin.

Presented at BSPK, a furniture gallery curated by Nicola Gallizia, during Milan design week, the table and stools are made from Rapolano Travertine – a type of sedimentary rock which has been quarried near Siena, in Tuscany, for centuries.

Alcarol and Vaselli took blocks of the eroded travertine stone and cast them in transparent resin. The resin, which strengthens and preserves the stone’s cavities, is then polished to create perfectly angled blocks and slabs.

Fixed on a burnished steel base, a slab of Travertine that fades into clear resin forms a low table, while the blocks of stone and resin are cut into perfect cuboids to create the stools.

The designers said that clear resin was chosen as it resembles the water in which these rocks lay submerged through various eras.

Travertine, which can be white, tan, cream coloured, and even rusty is a terrestrial sedimentary rock with a crystalline-texture. It is composed of calcite, which is a form of a limestone deposited by hot mineral springs.

For centuries it has been quarried in the Italian town of Rapolano, which is known for its hot springs in which the Romans used to take thermal baths.

The rock is formed by the precipitation of carbonate minerals, often at the mouth of a hot spring or in a limestone cave, and its porosity is due to the presence of organisms such as macrophytes, bryophytes and algae.

It has been used as a building material since the time of the Etruscans around 800 BC.

The travertine pieces are the latest in a long series of resin furniture made by the Italian design studio based on the same concept.

The studio’s founders, Andrea Forti and Eleonora Dal Farra, have previously cast a variety of natural materials in resin to make furniture, including timber poles dredged up from Venice’s canal, decaying Bricola wood planks riddled with ship worm, and worktops taken out of Italian quarries and marble processing labs.

The post Alcarol makes furniture from eroded slabs of Travertine cast in resin appeared first on Dezeen.

We have featured power drills on Yanko Design in the past, but this particular drill is very different! This is primarily because of the tough environment that it is intended to be used in… water.

The introduction of water brings a plethora of possible issues that must be considered, such as the water pressure that increases with depth, the long airline that comes from the overhead compressor which reduces movement and freedom, and the dust dispersion drastically reduces visibility.

Designer Alander Kalua has created a drill that vastly increases the ease of use, so much so it allows the product to be used in a domestic environment! Its standout feature is a turbine that’s mounted at the rear, not only does the water flow cool the motor, but it also pulls through dust, allowing much improved visibility. The bold, contrasting colors make Nautilus easy to see underwater while also making it rather exciting to look at!

Designer: Alexander Kaula

Research

One of the biggest problems is that many materials have only a limited durability due to the alternating dry and wet phases. What makes working under water even more difficult is the water pressure that increases with depth. Therefore, special attention must be paid to the sealing of the housing, as otherwise corrosion and short circuits can occur. Special attention must also be paid to the handling of equipment in such an environment, since in some cases the user lacks a firm stand and thus the counterpressure for drilling and screwing is missing. For this purpose, it had to be ensured that the device could also be operated with one hand during work in order to be secured with the second hand if necessary.

Currently, most underwater tools are usually operated by compressed air, which binds the user to an overhead compressor via a long air line. This leads to enormous restrictions of freedom of movement. Due to water currents and turbulence, the smallest suspended particles do not settle but float around as clouds. Under such visibility conditions it is of great importance for the user to carry a sufficiently light source. Especially in shafts and murky waters it is impossible to work without additional light sources. In addition, when drilling into rock, the finely ground drilling dust mixes with the surrounding water to form a dispersion, making visibility increasingly difficult. Since it is rarely or not at all possible to deposit the tools underwater, it must be possible to secure the tool.

Innovation

Most underwater devices have a metal shell and can therefore release the generated heat into the surrounding water. However, since plastic has up to 2000 times worse thermal conductivity than metal, an alternative had to be found here. Furthermore, the dispersion of drilling dust and water creates a further hurdle for the user in the work process. A technical solution that solves both problems would be a water flow that cools the motor block via cooling fins and carries the dispersion away from the drilling site. The engine block is encased in a second outer casing. A channel is formed inside the device. In the rear area there is an impeller, which is connected to the motor by an electronically controlled clutch. This draws in the surrounding water by rotation and thus also the drilling dust dispersion in front of the cordless screwdriver. The incoming water flows between the inner and outer walls. The inner wall is supported by recessed cooling fins, which The motor block touches, penetrates and projects longitudinally to the outer wall. The water flowing through it cools the motor indirectly and prevents overheating of the tool. In the impeller cover there is a bayonet fitting to which a hose or filter can be attached. Thus, the drilling process is not The resulting dispersion is carried away from the workplace and provides a clearer view. The cooling fins and the impeller are made of aluminium bronze. It should be noted that the cooling fins are integrated during the production of the cover to avoid possible leaks.

Another advantage of the cordless drill is the ratio of the current from the battery to the tool by induction. This works by means of two induction coils, which are located both in the plastic housing of the battery and in the outer casing of the drill. In order to bridge the shortest possible distance, these are already integrated during the injection moulding process. This proximity allows relatively small coils to be used. Current is conducted into the coil of the battery, which generates a magnetic field which is located between the two coils. The current fed in is thus transformed into the magnetic field. The second coil then converts the energy back into current through the magnetic field and conducts it into the mains of the cordless drill. This prevents open contacts from starting to rust and creates an additional seam which can become leaky. To counteract water pressure at depths of up to 50 metres, the inner shell of the engine block is provided with an increased air pressure. The battery housing is designed to accommodate standard AA batteries. The remaining body volume is used as a pressure vessel. When charging the accumulator, compressed air is supplied again via a valve. When connected to the cordless screwdriver, this is released into the inner cover and thus ensures constantly optimal pressure conditions in the device.

Prototyping

The 1:1 prototype was first designed in CAD and modified for 3D printing. Since we wanted to use components from a functioning cordless screwdriver for our prototype, mountings had to be planned and designed inside the housing. The housing was printed with a Stratasys Objet 3D printer. After the finished prints were removed from the printing bed, the support material was first removed by hand and later with a water pressure jet.
After thorough cleaning, the printed holes were cut to a thread using an M3 tap. Some adapters and axles were made from aluminium on a lathe. The housing parts were wet sanded and then primed and painted white.
After the innards such as motor, accumulators and circuit boards were installed, the housing could be screwed closed.