Matt Stonie Attempts to Eat 1,620 Pocky Sticks

1620 Pocky Challenge (15,300 Cals)..(Read…)

Using Creativity to Make School Less Scary

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Between being introduced to an unfamiliar, often sterile place and being separated from their family temporarily, a child’s first few days of school can be scary. Designed with this in mind (and just in time for the back to school season), the Zooo table aims to take their worries away by providing a creative and comfortable space from the get-go.

Kids can customize their own chair with a number of different animal facial features from ears to eyes to noses, simultaneously creating a sense of ownership and familiarity while exercising their creativity. They’ll make and be able to identify their own personal spot each day and associate it with fun and comfort. Furthermore, the design is made of warm, welcoming materials like wood and felt to make it as inviting and comfortable as possible.

Designers: Farid Hatami & Shirin Amini

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Purified Water Delivered in Sublime Style

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This project takes a rather standard product and beautifully transforms it into a sculptural piece of art that maintains its functionality perfectly! JJ is a water purifier that provides the user with both hot and cold water.

The two types of water are distinguishable by the subtle difference in the surface finishes; this ensures that the design is not spoilt by ‘unnecessary’ colors or written indicators. While we are on the topic of surface finishes, the base is rather unique in itself! It features a surface finish that is produced by its method of manufacture… 3D printing, this ‘nod’ towards its manufacturing process is a lovely, albeit rather unusual, feature!

The elegantly flawless form of the faucets contrasts confidently with the textured profile of the base to create a product that steals your attention and would, without a doubt, steal the limelight within a kitchen!

Designer: Sangun Kim

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A Book about Weaving Contemporary Makers

La couture est de retour ! Une nouvelle vague d’artistes du tissage surprenants est en train de s’affirmer, avec une envie de revenir aux techniques traditionnelles. Le livre Weaving – Contemporary Makers on the Loom, par la journaliste de design Katie Treggiden, répertorie certains de ces talents en mettant en valeur leur travaux de tapisserie. Le livre les montre au travail dans leurs ateliers à travers le monde, redonnant le goût de l’artisanat.

Brent Wadden

Alexandra Kehayoglou

Dee Clements

Dee Clements

Alexandra Kehayoglou

Brent Wadden

Genevieve Griffiths








An Exhibition about French Rock Star Johnny Hallyday

La Galerie Joseph organise une exposition qui met à l’honneur l’une des figures majeures de la France contemporaine : Johnny Hallyday. Une occasion de rendre hommage une fois de plus au « rois du rock », celui qui a incarné plusieurs décennies de cultures populaires et a véhiculé une image et un style rentrés dans l’imaginaire collectif. C’est un parcours à travers des clichés inédits et des objets de l’artiste que la galerie nous propose, en remémorant un personnage rentré dans le mythe.

Du 11 juillet au 23 septembre à la Galerie Joseph, 116 Rue de Turenne à Paris.

© Tony Frank

© Tony Frank

© Pierre Fournier

© Nisak

© Tony Frank

© Jean-Louis Rancurel

© Alain Guizard

© Alain Guizard

© Alberto Korda











Design Job: Planet Propaganda Is Seeking a Designer with a Sense of Humour and Strong Work Ethic

Planet Propaganda is looking for a boundary-pushing visual designer with fierce digital chops to join our jolly team in Madison, WI. Let’s see, does this describe you well? You have strong design sensibilities across a variety of disciplines including web, mobile, digital advertising, identity, and print.

View the full design job here

The design story behind the 2019 Trek Madone SLR

When Trek released the 2016 Madone they dubbed it “the ultimate race bike”.  Yet as soon as that bike hit the streets, the design and engineering teams got to work on topping their efforts in the development of its successor. The 2019 Madone is available in both disc-brake and rim-brake variants, is more aerodynamic and includes a number of updated and refined design features.

At the start of the 2019 Trek Madone SLR development journey, the Trek R&D team collectively agreed that the key goal for their next generation road was to offer a more refined experience for the rider. One of the first meetings involved placing sticky notes on all the areas of the 2016 bike that could be improved and refined.

“Whether that’s a more refined function, ride quality, or aesthetic, we knew that we should build on the already successful 2016 Madone by improving the details. I believe we’ve set the benchmark for high-end road bike integration and design.” says Jon Russell, Trek’s industrial designer.

From that initial design meeting, the team then spent almost a year in the theoretical world; researching, brainstorming, conceptualizing, prototyping, modeling, analyzing…

“We had hundreds of individual ideas which were each explored conceptually, then ranked on a variety of metrics. Coming up with an interesting idea is the easy part. Exploring it further, massaging out the kinks, selling it to management, and ultimately testing the ideas, was the hard part,” says Russell.

As the Madone represents the cutting edge in performance, technology and design, inspiration was drawn from other industries like automotive, aerospace, furniture and architecture. Following research and brainstorming, Russell started to sketch ideas. “Ideas like utilizing part-lines as graphic breakups, letting wind drive the form, expressing gesture through proportion, and pushing our brand language to the next level while still maintaining familiarity.

“I also sketched hundreds of different ideas for features like integrated electronics, adjustable bar widths, or top tube IsoSpeed, to name a few. Although most of these ideas didn’t make it to production, they are still potential opportunities for Trek in the future.” adds Russell.

Polygonal modeling was used for fast iteration as engineering and design changes can be made almost immediately. “The fluidity of modeling gives me the flexibility to make 100+ small tweaks a day, refining the design until I’m happy with the shape. It’s very similar to the benefits of clay modeling, just digital.” says Russell.

As a race bike, aerodynamics are paramount and presented a sculptural challenge for the team. The highlight lines in the above images show what Trek refer to as ‘kammtail virtual foil‘ (KVF), which is a unique truncated aerodynamic profile. This provides most of the benefits of a full airfoil but in a more structurally efficient shape.

“One of the key attributes of this KVF shape are the two corners on the trailing edge. I took advantage of these corners to move the eye through the form and to aerodynamically improve certain tube intersections. Bringing the outside corner of the fork leg into the down-tube not only improves the airflow as it transitions off the fork into the frame, but it offers a nice parallel to our brand’s signature ‘brow’ feature, which carries the eye from the head-tube all the way back to the dropout,” explains Russell.

As Russell explains, because aerodynamic bikes have broader surfaces, controlling how light and reflections behave on a surface is extremely important especially in how it relates to color and finish. “Matte paint shows how sculptural the form is whereas, due to the broader surfaces, gloss strongly reflects the environment. I worked closely with the graphic designer on the project, Micah Moran, to ensure that regardless which color or finish a customer was chosen, the paint and graphics remain flawless.”

To finish the R&D process, Trek’s engineers made full carbon fiber prototypes for analysis and testing. “These prototypes are a testament to our dedication to R&D – we took the time and effort to make custom tooling for all the components, even before we settled onto a final design,” admits Russell.

The final design features several small improvements from the 2016 model, which culminate in a significant overall improvement.

The first is the integrated cockpit, which Russell describes as a completely different animal from the 2016 bike. “Ergonomically improved in both the flats and accessing the drops. The back-sweep on the flats puts your hands at a more natural and comfortable position, simultaneously pulling your elbows inward for a more aerodynamic stance. The transition from the flat to the hoods has also been reshaped to increase wrist clearance in the drops.”

The adjustable top tube IsoSpeed allows riders to adjust compliance, and it’s damped with an elastomer so even when it’s in the most compliant setting, it won’t bounce on the road.

“The all new damper technology uses an elastomer to control the flexing tube’s rebound. If you imagine a pogo stick, when the spring is compressed, it releases that energy back, shooting you up. The elastomer slows the rebound energy in a controlled motion, making for a really smooth ride,” describes Russell.

“The new Madone seat post design integrates the clamp inside the frame. This helps streamline the design and also allows us to paint match the seat post to the frame, giving it a modern, custom look most bikes don’t have.

“The new Bontrager Flare R has a dedicated mount for the new Madone. It attaches in seconds via a tool-free clip onto the seat-post hardware for an integrated look. Riding with a taillight is probably the best preventative safety measure and it shouldn’t detract from the bike’s sleek aesthetic,” explains Russell.

Although Trek admits to preferring disc brakes there are riders who still prefer rim brakes, so it decided to offer both choices in the design. “It was very challenging to design such an integrated, highly optimized bike around two completely different braking systems. The result in either case is what we call the ultimate race bike,” says Russell.

The 2019 Madone SLR 9 is ready for purchase and customers can choose from a variety of paint options as part of the new Trek Project One Icon.

Meanwhile the R&D team are hard at work on future bicycle designs. That’s the funny thing about designing in this field, you live and breathe a design for several years, but then before it even launches you’re already working on future models. It will be interesting to see where Trek goes next!

Maternity facility in rural Uganda is entirely self-sustaining

HKS Architects and Engineers for Overseas Development have built a maternity unit in Uganda, using local materials, skills and technology to create a sustainable facility.

The 275-square-metre Kachumbala Maternity Unit, which opened six months ago, can accommodate up to six births a day and offers hugely improved aftercare facilities to the town of Kachumbala.

The building replaces a ward that comprised of just two rooms built in the 1950s, which served a population of 160,000, in an area that lacks a reliable source of water or electricity.

Midwives were having to process paperwork in the same rooms as medical procedures, and only 40 per cent of expectant mothers in the district could access the facilities. Home births here are risky, and infant mortality rates in the region are high.

“It was about increasing the capacity of the centre, making an environment that was suitable, which was a lot more pleasant, had a degree of privacy, which kept the harsh sun off, and which used passive deign methods to motivate air flow,” HKS Architects design director Dan Flower told Dezeen.

Kachumbala has a hot and particularly dry climate. In order to suit its environment, the new birth centre had to be entirely passive and self sufficient, able to generate its own power, collect its own water, and keep the rooms comfortably cool without air conditioning.

The new unit generates its own power from solar panels, and collects rainwater runoff from the roofs in tanks to create its own water supply.

“It was very important not to import any alien technologies, mainly because they fail. We’ve tried it on previous projects, and they don’t work,” explained Flower.

“We tried to understand local process, practice, and what was possible.”

Terracotta screens, a feature found in local architecture, were added to external walls to allow light and air flow through the building while being self-shading.

“It’s a local clay, it’s got that beautiful red marum colour to it. It really grounds the project in its place,” said Flower. “I think it produced quite a beautiful architecture.”

Bricks were handmade on site, using a press block machine developed at a Ugandan university. Apprentices from Cyfle Building Skills helped train local labourers in the technology. This construction material is less environmentally destructive than traditional clay fired bricks, which require significant local deforestation to make.

“It was a responsible way of using a local material and a local workforce, transferring a skill, teaching a skill, and the output is blocks you can use for the building,” added Flower.

All materials were sourced as locally as possible, with hollow breeze blocks used as columns to extend the building’s span and tiles used for the floors.

“In the UK we would never use tiles [in a medical facility], we’d always use a seamless surface, but they just don’t exist in Uganda,” explained Flower. “There, tiled floors are the absolute Rolls Royce of facilities.”

“A mono-pitched roof allowed us to create a delivery room that sits as a kind of shell inside under the building, which keeps it a lot cooler and allows air to pass over it and out the other side,” he said.

The new maternity unit layout separates all the existing functions, with a separate reception, two delivery suites supported by a dividing sluice room, and an open plan observation ward.

A bay was also added to provide cooking and washing facilities for female family members who come to support expectant and new mothers.

HKS Architects fundraised to finish the project and equip it with things such as the medical fridge for the onsite pharmacy, which is specially designed to cope with intermittent power.

“It became an entire little ecosystem that was meant to self support and collect its own water. It is also connected to the mains, for when there’s a dry season and there are no rains to collect, but the majority of the time it can effectively run as a net zero building,” said Flower.

The global architecture firm sent out it’s own staff to volunteer with the build, alongside skilled apprentices from south Wales. Construction workers were employed from local families, and the project was part of a prolonged engagement with women’s cooperatives in district.

In Senegal, Swiss studio Manuel Herz Architects is planning to extend a hospital near the border with Mail to include a new maternity ward, using curving walls of perforated brick to allow cooling air to circulate.

Dutch design studio Super Local has worked with craftsmen in Malawi to create affordable hospital equipment that can be made locally, rather than expensively imported.

The post Maternity facility in rural Uganda is entirely self-sustaining appeared first on Dezeen.

Matt Stonie Attempts to Eat 1,620 Pocky Sticks

1620 Pocky Challenge (15,300 Cals)..(Read…)

Norway’s $47BN Coastal Highway

The Norwegian government are embarking on the largest infrastructure project in the country’s history…(Read…)