Hasta La Ideas

Tandem currently have openings for industrial design interns to join our design team in Los Angeles working on an exciting range of smart devices and consumer electronics. We are looking for someone with passion for design with strong 3D focus, strong problem solving skills and a team

View the full design job here

It seems crazy that you can buy Amish products online, but there are tech-friendly middlemen who make this possible. Amish steamer trunks and a stepstool that transforms into an ironing board are two Amish products we looked at earlier that have URLs, and which non-Amish people might like to buy. What else do the Amish make that still have a place within the modern lifestyle?

We took a look at Lehman’s, an Ohio-based retailer of home products that sells “low-tech items in a high-tech world.” Lehman’s began in 1955 as a hardware store that served the Amish community (they’re based in Amish Country) and today have many Amish vendors. Here are some of the objects we found in their Amish-made section:

Wooden Ironing Board

Having owned rickety metal ironing boards before, this sturdy maple and birch unit sounds appealing. And yes, it folds flat for storage.

Accordion Wall Clothes Dryer

The Amish might not live in urban microapartments, but they still value space-saving items. This drying rack effectively disappears when not in use. They offer both large and small options.

Extra-Large Arch Drying Rack

This is a much higher-capacity rack than the accordion variant, but still folds up for storage.

Combination Stool and Step Stool

This handy object is a seat that turns into a stepladder. It’s made out of oak and can support up to 300 pounds.

Kitchen Island with Casters

Solid and made from maple, this rolling kitchen workstation has plenty of storage and a 2″-thick butcher block top.

Folding Laundry Lug

An easy-to-carry hamper that folds flat when not in use.

Oak Cookbook Holder

They call it a “cookbook holder,” but they know you’re going to use it for your iPad.

Dual Speed Hand-Cranked Mixer

There’s no motor to burn out, and turning the crank is way easier than stirring a whisk through thick material. Mechanical advantage FTW. It can be set on high or low speed and has a dough hook in addition to whisk attachments.

Corn House Brooms

I absolutely hate the plastic brooms sold in home centers and hardware stores today. The bristles are always too short and they don’t sweep particularly well. This more effective, old-school corn straw design is the type that my family had when I was a kid, and I lamented that no one makes them anymore. Turns out, the Amish do.

There’s plenty more to see on Lehman’s website. Give their non-Amish section a look too.

Circulation: 60,000
Frequency: Quarterly

Background:  Most lifestyle publications on any given newsstand tend to be crammed with content that focuses on women’s relationships with men. But in 1990 the creative minds behind Curve magazine realized that there was a gap in the market and set out to develop a publication that catered to lesbians and queer women.

Curve’s mission is to keep its readers (women in the LGBTQ community ages 25-44) up-to-date on current affairs and community politics with a focus on lifestyle content, says Merryn Johns, editor in chief.

What to pitch: A lot of Curve’s content is created in-house, but freelancers may be able to get a byline by pitching profile stories. Celebrity musicians, actors, and athletes are all fair game—including people who have recently come out, are allies of the LGBTQ movement, or just may be of interest to Curve’s target readership. Profiles of lesser-known people (lesbian business owners, politicians, etc…) may pique an editor’s interest as well. “It’s very important that we do offer a kind of coverage to show the diversity of our community in a positive way,” says Johns. Word count: 500-2000.

Fitness pitches can have a home at Curve as well. Editors are looking for profiles of fitness professionals, as well as trend articles, first-person essays, and reported stories. Word count: 1200.

Photographers are also welcome to submit images for consideration: $30/image.

What not to pitch: Travel stories are handled in-house, so only send a pitch if you have an extraordinary angle.

Online opportunities:  CurveMag.com has about 250,000 unique visitors, so it can provide up-and-coming writers with a great opportunity to get their names out into the digital space. Instead of pitching one-off pieces freelancers should focus more on providing regular column-style content that focus on music, beauty, fashion or movies. Bloggers have tackled topics like parenting and a comedian’s take on touring with the military: $50/post

What publicists should pitch: Send pitches that are of interest to female members of the LGBTQ community. Pitches for products or organizations that are fair trade, cruelty free, certified organic or helmed by a female owner may bump you up to the top of the list.

 Percentage of freelance content: 40%
Percentage of freelance pitches accepted: 10%

Recent freelance story pitched and published: Freelancers pitched profiles that focused on burlesque icon Dita Von Teese, The Indigo Girls and Grammy-nominated artist Mary Lambert.

Etiquette: Limit your pitches to about one paragraph that outlines the focus of your story idea. Include links to clips. And please let the editors know if you can supply hi-res artwork along with your story.

Lead time: Three months
Pay rate: $.20 a word
Payment schedule: On publication
Kill fee: 25%
Rights purchased: All rights for first three months

Contact info:  Twitter handle: @TheRealCurve | Facebook

Direct all pitches to:  Editor in Chief Merryn Johns: MERRYN at CURVEMAG dot COM or EDITOR at CURVEMAG dot COM

The post How To Pitch: Curve appeared first on Mediabistro.

Le cabinet norvégien d’architecture SPINN est à l’origine d’un projet de cabine en bois organique chauffante destinée à promouvoir la randonnée dans la ville de Hammerfest. La structure a été brillamment conçue afin de s’adapter au paysage ambiant. En effet, le site a été cartographié en 3D à l’aide d’un drone et d’un logiciel de photogrammétrie afin de constituer la base de référence à la construction de l’abri. Leur conception a ensuite été mise à l’épreuve des conditions climatiques réelles afin de s’assurer qu’elle résisterait aux tempêtes hivernales arctiques.

Architect Matthew Springett and educator Fiona MacDonald, who collaborate as Matt + Fiona, have worked with children with autism to design and build a sensory playground.

Matt + Fiona collaborated with children at the Phoenix School in south London to create the Phoenix Playground Room, a structure made from dark blue folded triangles, for the school’s new location.

Although the project resulted in a useable play space, equally important was to involve the children in the process of design and creation, to help add continuity during the school’s move.

Students designed the playground in their final term at the old school building, then built it their first term at the new school.

“Familiarity with environment is particularly important for young people with autism,” said MacDonald.

“Phoenix School is expanding and is moving twice in the next two years. Therefore the teachers were keen that there should be something recognisable in the new school’s grounds, that the students felt ownership of.”

To create the playground, every student at the Phoenix School was invited to design a structure that could be built from a series of simple triangles.

These designs were assessed by a small group of students, who acted as curators, and amalgamated to construct a paper build at half scale. This model was used to determine the final design.

The actual playground, which was constructed with the help of volunteers, is built from a simple prefabricated frame and triangle-shaped sheets of plywood. The wood was provided by timber merchant James Latham and manufactured by fabricator Aldworth, James and Bond.

This use of prefabricated elements allowed the playground to be built within a few weeks.

“The children got to see something imagined and ambitious become a reality in a matter of a few weeks, a hugely empowering experience,” said MacDonald.

For the buildings final touch, each child at the school made a circular token from colourful oven-baked clay, which was embedded in the structure’s wooden frame.

Involving the students throughout the process has not only empowered them, but also created a better playground, according to Springett and MacDonald.

“Young people – and even more so young people with learning difficulties – are rarely asked about what they need from their built environment, and yet they are in fact the experts, in particular when it comes to playgrounds,” said MacDonald.

“The design responds much more to small moments the children imagined, for example curling up in a corner or sky watching. This collaborative process gives express authorship to the young people and empowers them in a way a conventional design process cannot.”

Matt + Fiona previously worked with students from Oakfield Residential School in the city of Hull to create a green timber pavilion with moving walls on the school’s allotment.

Photography is by Rob Harris, unless stated.

Project credits:

Designers: students aged 9-16 at Phoenix School, Matthew Springett, Fiona MacDonald, Alex Taylor, Kate Slattery, Milly Wood
Project managers: Alex Taylor, Matt+Fiona
Engineering: Price & Myers
School leads: Amanda Benson, Paula Farley, Phoenix School
Timber: James Latham
Fabrication: Aldworth, James and Bond
Volunteers: Thomas Armston, Marco Bencivenga, Cameron Bray, James Bromley, Pauline Cabiro, Alex Clegg, Thomas Draper, Harry Dunn, Ashleigh-Paige Fielding, Joseph Hazelwood-Horner, Rosie Helps, Tilly Jeganathan, Amy Johnson, Rosie Jones, Morgan Lewis, Harrison Marshall, Elizabeth McLeod, Ubada Muti, Elliot Nash, Robert Newcombe, Eve Olsen, Rebecca Outterside, Amy O’Shaughnessy, Hannah Parr, Sion Pierce, Ellie Pritchard, Grace Simmonds, Gosia Socha,Niki Sole, Kat Spence, Kara Thompson, Ruby Thompson, Milly Wood, Glenn Wooldridge
Matt+Fiona industry champions: Jestico + Whiles

The post Matt + Fiona work with children with autism to create Phoenix Playground Room appeared first on Dezeen.