Undeterred by the clunky rollout of products featuring folding screen technology, IBM has just patented an intriguing yet awkward wearable device: a smartwatch that unfolds into a full-sized tablet on your wrist.
Rendering by Let’s Go Digital
Originally submitted in 2016 and approved last month, the patent, titled “An Electronic Display Device Configured for Variable Display Size,” details how the bezel-less screen can be expanded by using “a set of slides that form a storage compartment within the housing.” Each panel would measure 2 x 3 inches and could expand in two configurations. First, you can add three additional panels and achieve a screen that’s roughly the same size as a smartphone. From there, you can fold out the same area again and end up with an 8-inch by 12-inch screen—eight times the original size.
An illustration from IBM’s patent
It’s possible that more screen real estate could make smartwatches more useful, but the tech necessary to make this work is still far out. We’re also not sure how many people will be eager to walk around with a goofy, tray-sized screen on their wrists.
Just because the patent was approved doesn’t mean we can expect an actual product anytime soon. IBM is very patent-happy and their website proudly notes that “IBM inventors received a record 9,100 patents in 2018, marking the company’s 26th consecutive year of U.S. patent leadership and crossing the 110,000-patent milestone.” As Venture Beat pointed out, “IBM rewards employees for patenting even ‘stupid’ inventions, tying patents to promotions and internal recognition while giving the company both licensable innovations and defensive patents for lawsuits.”
Italian furniture brand Arper has appointed Armin Broger as CEO, following his departure from rival brand B&B Italia in April, after just a year in the job.
Broger replaces Vincenzo Rivizzigno who has stepped down after fifteen years in the role.
In a statement announcing the appointment, Arper declared its intention to consolidate its position “within the premium segment of the design furnishing industry at a global level”.
Chairman of Arper, Claudio Feltrin, praised the outgoing CEO and said that Rivizzigno’s tenure “led to the success, growth and internationalisation of Arper”.
“I warmly welcome Armin to the team,” he said. “His international experience and strong leadership skills will undoubtedly make him capable to lead Arper to reach its ambitious goals.”
Broger former head of B&B Italia
Broger began in the role last week, after leaving B&B Italia in April after a year as CEO.
His departure came at a time of significant upheaval for B&B Italia and its recently formed parent company Design Holding, which also owns Flos and Louis Poulsen.
Armin has previously also held top management roles within international groups primarily in the fashion industry, including Levi Strauss & Co, Tommy Hilfiger, Diesel and The Walt Disney Company.
Outgoing CEO takes position at parent group
Arper was established by Claudio Feltrin’s family in 1989, which owns Marco’s Group, the brand’s parent company.
Rivizzigno will continue to work with the Feltrin family within the context of Marco’s Group, where he will lead the development of industrial activities not connected to the Arper brand.
“I would like to thank Vincenzo on behalf of the Feltrin family for all the years he dedicated to Arper, for his hard work and outstanding energy and for the great results he helped the company achieve,” said Claudio Feltrin.
“I am sure he will accomplish extraordinary things in his new role,” he continued.
Brand focuses on exports worldwide
Arper is based just outside Treviso, 30 miles north of Venice. It currently has 11 showrooms around the world, including in London, New York and Tokyo, as well as a network of dealers in 90 countries. In 2018, 92 per cent of the brand’s turnover came from exports.
Twitter has launched its first major website redesign in seven years – a subtly streamlined experience that is more in line with the company’s app.
As of today, the desktop site for all users features a responsive design that can shrink down to a simple tweet stream, a rejigged side navigation that integrates bookmarks and lists, and more options for popular “dark mode” display.
The primary goal behind the changes is consistency — the social networking platform’s website has long looked outdated next to its native iOS and Android apps.
And while the new layout and functionality is not insignificant, Twitter‘s designers told Dezeen that the true extent of the changes is hidden under the hood. As part of the project, they moved to a new technical stack, meaning the underlying frameworks and programming languages are more suited to the demands of contemporary web design.
“This was built from the ground up,” said Twitter’s lead designer on the project, Ashlie Ford. “And it’s something that is going to be much easier for us to build new features on, experiment with new features on, and it will get them out to our customers much quicker.”
Website the product of a “smarter” company
Twitter’s head of design and research, Mike Kruzeniski, described the redesign as the company’s “worst-kept secret”. Where once they might have tried to keep the news under wraps, they now value a slow rollout with extensive testing, meaning many users are aware of what’s coming.
He also says that thanks to investment in research and data science, their designers can feel more confident in their choices.
“As a company, I think we’ve gotten a lot smarter over the years,” he said. “When we make these changes, we know much more about the way people are using the product, what changes make sense, and which changes work.”
Twitter has redesigned its website including dark mode
There are a few key differences in redesigned Twitter website. The top navigation bar is gone, so the entire menu is now stacked in the left-hand column — including bookmarks and lists, two useful curation functions that were previously either hidden or unavailable on the website.
Trending hashtags now top the right-hand column, providing a glimpse at the day’s biggest discussion points. Both direct messages and expanded single tweets now have their own dedicated pages, meaning there are fewer overlays around the site.
One of Ford’s favourite features is personalisation, which allows different font sizes and colours — although not the infinite range offered by the previous site, which she admits led some low-contrast, barely legible user-created interfaces.
The overall impression is of less clutter and more white space. Some users might prefer to think of it as dark space, if they use the Lights Out or Dim display modes, which turn the site predominantly black or dark blue-grey, respectively.
While the experience is now much more consistent with the apps, this is also a responsive, desktop-specific design, with three full columns of information if the user expands the browser window to fill their screen.
The last couple of years has also seen the idea of “Time Well Spent” entering into the conversation around technology, which has seen some social networking sites launch measures to temper their addictive qualities.
The design introduces greater levels of customisability
It is possible to interpret features of Twitter’s redesign in light of these trends – follower counts and user analytics are both less visible in the new layout, for instance.
But Twitter’s designers deny that health and safety concerns influenced the new website. They see it as a technical project almost wholly geared around consistency with the app and efficiency for future iteration.
Kruzeniski insists there are many such initiatives at Twitter, however, and that they are a priority for the company rather than a threat to the business model.
“If people are not having a good experience through having good conversations and good interactions, they’re not going to use the platform,” said Kruzeniski. “So I do think it’s not only possible [to both grow the business and promote wellbeing], I think that it is the future for products like Twitter.”
Author moderated replies set to be tested
Kruzeniski gave a sneak peek of one such potential feature: author-moderated replies. Set to launch for testing to users in Canada in the coming weeks, it will allow the person who posted the first tweet in a conversation to hide replies that they don’t like or don’t want to engage with.
The replier does not need to have said anything against Twitter policy necessarily. Kruzeniski likens it to handing control over the room to the host of a party.
“In the same way if someone comes to your party and they’re being disruptive, what they’re doing is maybe not illegal, but you just don’t want them to be at your party,” he says.
Twitter is the 11th most visited website in the world, according to online traffic analysis company Alexa. In terms of how many people use the site daily, however, it is a fraction of the amount of its competitor Facebook. Twitter has around 126 million daily users, while Facebook has 1.2 billion. Snapchat also has more, at 186 million.
However, Twitter has grown its daily active users by nine percent compared with the same period last year. It also has huge cultural and political influence relative to its size, especially since becoming the go-to platform for unfiltered pronouncements from the president of the United States.
This urban residential building by Californian firm SPF Architects features design strategies to eliminate a sense of repetition or homogeneity – qualities that can make apartment living “relatively unpleasant”.
The Line Lofts are situated along Las Palmas Avenue, just one block from the famed Hollywood Boulevard.
Encompassing 68,000 square feet (6,317 square metres), the six-storey infill building is the tallest new structure in the neighbourhood, according to local firm SPF Architects, which is also known as SPF:a.
The building was constructed on a relatively slender 182-by-127 feet (55-by- 39 metre) property that is flanked on three sides by existing buildings. Given these site constraints, the architects had to “rethink the traditional floor plan.”
In response, they created rectilinear forms arranged in a curve around an open-air courtyard on the south side of the property. Rather than incorporating one stairwell linking all levels, the team interspersed staircases throughout the plan.
“The building abandons the standard filing cabinet layout, taking on a C-formation and dispersing its circulation space in an unconventional but far more fluid way,” the team said.
“This multi-level communication provides a visual variation among the floors and removes any feeling of sameness or repetition that can be relatively unpleasant for those living in apartment buildings,” it added.
The building contains studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments, which range from 480 to 1,265 square feet (45 to 118 square metres). Units have either one or two levels.
The ground floor houses 1,100 square feet (102 square metres) of retail space.
The building’s 82 apartments are arranged in a way that optimises views and natural lighting. Oversized windows, glass sliders and a recessed balcony figure into every unit. In order to increase privacy, perforated screens were added to units facing the courtyard and street.
“Details we would normally implement in a custom home, we tried to achieve in these apartments,” said Zoltan E Pali, founder and design principal at SPF Architects.
“We wanted to improve upon the rigid living environment that’s typically associated with multi-family residential buildings.”
One notable feature in the building is the inclusion of two-storey apartments on the ground level, where units traditionally are darker and less desirable. The “lofted apartments” are much brighter and airier, thus increasing their appeal.
A range of amenities are meant to extend tenants’ living space and foster community, such as a work area with artisanal coffee, a wet bar in the lobby, a recreation room and a heated swimming pool. The building is topped with a sky lounge that offers vistas of the Hollywood Hills and Los Angeles skyline.
While The Line Lofts is billed as a luxury apartment building, the project had cost limitations.
“Budgetary constraints played a role in materiality, pushing the architects to think creatively about how off-shelf products could bring the cost of construction down and reflect a custom look,” the team said.
In terms of structure, concrete was used for the ground level, while prefabricated wood framing was used for the upper floors. The main facade is wrapped in corrugated metal and grey-toned plaster, which are alternated in order to enhance the building’s appearance.
The finish on the textured metal “reflects the changing hues of the sky throughout the day, giving a sense of a building always in flux.”
SPF Architects has an eclectic portfolio of projects, including a number of high-end homes such as the Orum Residence. Located in LA’s Bel Air neighbourhood, the 18,000-square-foot (1,672-square-metre) dwelling consists of three rectangular wings that protrude out in different directions from a central point.
Architect: SPF Architects Design team: Zoltan E Pali, Damon Surfas, Natalie May, Ryan Hong, Sebastian Greider, Jee-Hye Kim Owner: Wilshire Skyline Developer: Integrated Development Interior design: Gulla Jonsdottir
Les artistes de Design Crowd ont décidé de moderniser l’art en réinterprétant certains tableaux classiques emblématiques.
A la renaissance, l’individu devient une préoccupation artistique centrale et on remarque une effervescence de portraits. A quoi ressembleraient ces portraits s’ils mettaient en scène des célébrités du 21ème siècle? C’est ce que les graphistes de Design Crown ont imaginé avec « Modern Renaissance », 30 peintures classiques dans lesquelles les visages on été remplacés par ceux d’acteurs contemporains. Parmi les personnalités choisies : Hugh Laurie, Emma Watson ou encore Jim Carrey.
Un projet original qui permet de relier les différentes époques par l’art.
Curtiss Motorcycles Zeus Radial is a functioning—and super-fast—motorbike powered by an electric motor designed in a cool “V8” configuration. The look of the “engine” is actually 8 cylindrical batteries that make up the “V” formation. The YASA P400 R Series electric motor produces 217 horsepower and 147 lb. ft. of torque. Curtiss expects the Zeus Radial V8 to enter production in 2020 with a lofty price tag of $75,000…(Read…)
Ever wonder how they wrote the hit NBC show The Office? Hear from Greg Daniels, Michael Schur, B. J. Novak, and Mindy Kaling about their experiences in the writers’ room and how they created one of the best TV shows in history…(Read…)
Chilewich is seeking a design lover with an entrepreneurial spirit and a deep passion for how things are made to join our team as Design & Product Development Coordinator. In this role, you’ll take ownership of the entire Chilewich product development process, including research, sourcing, sampling, costing,
Dans l’imaginaire de tous, Kellog’s est une marque emblématique de l’enfance. En Australie, la marque de céréales iconique a eu une excellente idée pour communiquer en boostant la créativité des enfants : des packaging à colorier ! Avec The Kinetic Agency et la marque Crayola, Kellog’s a même développé une appli qui permet ensuite de voir les personnages coloriés s’animer en réalité augmentée.
Nous vous l’annoncions, précédemment, Fubiz s’associe à Adobe Stock afin de mettre en avant les tendances visuelles de 2019. Nous avons cette fois choisi la thématique “Prise de Position de Marque” pour mettre en avant l’urgence de la protection de l’environnement et de la Nature.
Nous vous avons proposé sur Facebook une sélection d’images présentes sur Adobe Stock, représentant cette thématique et vous présentons votre sélection des cinq images qui illustrent selon vous le mieux la nécessité de protéger notre environnement, entre photographie et illustration.
Il y a quelques semaines, nous vous présentions une oeuvre collaborative, sur le thème de “La protection de la Nature”, imaginée par l’illustrateur Andrea Minini avec les photographies de Patrick Masse. Cette sélection de cinq images vient renforcer le propos fort de cette oeuvre collaborative en présentant de manière visuelle ce qu’il faut préserver et les efforts qu’il reste à faire pour y parvenir.
Merci aux lecteurs qui ont sélectionné ces images qui viennent alimenter la mosaïque visuelle des tendances visuelles de l’année 2019 d’Adobe sur notre site.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
Rendering by Let’s Go Digital
An illustration from IBM’s patent
