Hasta La Ideas

What would we do without thumbs, really? Thumbs have helped us grip things, maneuver tools, turn pages, throw punches, swipe on tinder dates, type texts, and do so much that makes our species extraordinary. The opposable thumb is a major pivotal point in our evolution, and along with our enlarged brains, has created the powerful species on earth. I guess it’s fair to say that the opposable thumb helps us stand out as a species… and helps the Arc Clipfold stand out as a wallet too, because this bifold wallet has, among many other unique features, an opposable thumb-like leather tag that holds onto notes much like the human hand does.

I’ve seen a lot of wallets in my years as an editor, but none as unique as the Arc Clipfold. Wallets could be slim, minimalist, waterproof, made out of kevlar, or have GPS trackers and cameras inside them, but the Arc Clipfold feels like a design evolution of sorts. With an outer body made of premium top-grain leather, complete with a water-repellent surface finish, the Arc Clipfold feels familiar to the eye as well as to the touch. It comes with a nylon pull-tag on one side that deploys your cards without having to open the wallet, and on the other side, a zippered pouch for coins and receipts.

Open the bifold and you see exactly what makes the Arc Clipfold so different. A leather tag/clip on the inside holds your notes in place like a thumb, providing enough grip to keep your banknotes secured, but loose enough that you can pull out a note without any hassle. Unlike most traditional bifolds that store your cash in pouches, having you practically opening your wallet apart so you can see what change you have, Arc Clipfold’s leather clip holds your notes but also keeps them visible and easy to access.

Right behind the banknotes are several card slots for storing payment cards, business cards, ticket stubs, etc. With enough space for more than 6 cards, the Arc Clipfold even comes with an RFID-blocking lining, to not just encase but also protect your cards from digital theft. With its slick, all-black appearance, the Arc Clipfold looks like it means business, and measuring at just 1.3cm when filled with cards, cash, and coins, the Arc Clipfold is as slim as it’s innovative. Besides, Yanko Design readers are entitled to a special 32% discount! I give it a ‘thumbs-up’! You know, with my opposable thumbs…

Designer: Chris Paragas

Click Here to Buy Now: $37 $55 (32% off). Hurry, exclusive YD ‘Secret’ Perk, limited to first 100 wallets!

Arc Clipfold – A Wallet Designed With No Compromise

Access your cash, cards, and coins in the most intuitive and effortless way possible. A newly devised Clipfold Money Clip, Gridstop Pull Tab, and Coin Stash feature makes this possible.

Clipfold Money Clip

Access, manage, and store your cash in the most effortless way possible. The money clip was designed to roughly arc at a 45 degree angle to keep your cash readily accessible for a swift and intuitive cash handling experience.

While other wallets have you pinching for your cash or unraveling a quartered bill, this money clip keeps your cash flat and compliant for optimal cash management.

Now revamped with an extended length and 1.5x the rigidity of previous iterations. Each cash tab is now constructed with a bespoke top-grain leather selected to achieve its unique structure, form, and functionality.

Quick Draw Gridstop Pull Tab

Pull, fan out, and gain access to all your cards in a swift and intuitive motion. Each card cavity can contain up to 3 cards each(6 total), giving each clipfold the needed capacity to hold all your frequently used cards.

Coin Stash

Available exclusively for the Arc Pinnacle. Conveniently stow all your coins and/or trinkets in a swift and organized manner. The coin stash was designed for effortless access and a clear first-person perspective when accessing your coins.

Water Resistant Top-grain Leather

Each Arc clipfold is crafted with their bespoke water repellent top-grain leather for added resistance to any light rain, spill or moisture.

Beautiful inside and out!

210D Dyneema Gridstop Nylon

The beauty of gridstop nylon has been proven to withstand the rigors of any weather condition, while evoking a sleek and modern aesthetic to complement your attire.

Thin and Accommodating

Below: Interior Stash Compartment

It accommodates extra cards, business cards, receipts, tickets, larger notes etc.

Below: Variants – Minimalist and Pinnacle

Below: Lining Option – Traditional and Gridstop

Traditional Black Cross-Weave Nylon Lining

Gridstop Lining

Click Here to Buy Now: $37 $55 (32% off). Hurry, exclusive YD ‘Secret’ Perk, limited to first 100 wallets!

Central Saint Martins graduate Keyi Chen has reinterpreted everyday desk accessories as stress-relieving devices called Inte-rest-ing that encourage people who work long hours to play at their desks.

Chen has created five commonplace office items that can also be used as tools to relieve the stress of a long working day, for his Inte-rest-ing project.

The items include a fan that requires the user to breathe deeply to get it started, a calculator with simple stress-busting games built in, along with a mouse, USB stick, and a pen.

Each object seeks to redress the pressures of overtime culture.

“This project aims to alleviate stress and encourage play at the desk whilst working in an intense and competitive environment,” Chen told Dezeen.

“The idea is that by bringing them some interactive pleasure in the space of their working station, they can become masters of their objects, their work and self-efficiency.”

Chen worked on the Inte-rest-ing series following a period of research into working culture in China and around the world.

He found that employees felt ashamed of taking breaks in their working day and didn’t feel able to express their personality in the work place.

Some reported slowing down in order to appear busier and more productive to their bosses, as staying at work late is often associated with hard work.

Within the collection Chen created a desk fan that allows an overtired worker to control their breathing with gentle breathing exercises.

To turn the fan on the employee must breathe on the small turbine at the top of the object, or even release a deep sigh “to relieve the pressure”. In turn, the gentle air from the fan will calm them down further.

Chen also built a set of easy-to-complete games into the calculator, that get around the fact that employees are constantly monitored by managers at work.

“When staff feel bored or tired at work, they can relax and entertain themselves with a quick game and they do not have to worry about being caught by their manager while potentially breaking the rules in an open office,” he said.

“By disguising relaxation activities via the most common office activities, perhaps the manager will think that you are calculating projects.”

Chen designed “digital fortune cookie” software for a computer mouse that monitors whether the user is distracted or exhausted by the speed and number of times they roll the mouse.

When activated, the programme emails a reminder to the user, which pops up on their screen with a pre-arranged topic, such as their horoscope, or an update on their pet. They can choose whether to open it for a brief moment of respite.

The USB stick allows employees who feel “demoralised or dispassionate about their work” to vent their frustration by smashing it on the desk or squeezing it like a stress ball. This action releases the USB from its holder, so that the worker can use it.

The final object in the series is a pen that emits a gentle rattling sound as you write, caused by a set of small objects implanted in the pen lid. Along with the naturally relaxing activity of writing rather than typing, this should work to relax the user.

His project also adds to a movement begun by an anonymous computer programmer, who launched the website 996.ICU.

The site is named after the common practice in China of working from 9am to 9pm, six days a week, and seeks to boycott this culture by clearly stating the country’s labour laws. It is now available in six languages.

Given long working hours during which “the worker works like a machine without seeing any meaning of their work”, Chen’s objects offer a moment of respite.

The designer 3D printed the objects and built the internal circuits and software himself, in collaboration with Imperial College and Gudong University of Technology.

A group of third-year students at Central Saint Martins recently completed a project that saw them redesign prison cell furniture, with the resulting designs to be made by the prisoners themselves in on-site workshops.

The post Keyi Chen’s desk accessories encourage us to play while we work appeared first on Dezeen.

The US has had eight buildings by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright inscribed on UNESCO‘s World Heritage List after 15 years of campaigning.

New York’s Guggenheim Museum and the Fallingwater house are two of the structures awarded heritage status by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee at a meeting on July 7 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The six other listed sites are Frederick C Robie House, Illinois, Hollyhock House, California, the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House, and Wisconsin, Unity Temple in Oak Park, along with Wright’s homes and studios at Taliesin, Wisconsin, and Taliesin West, Arizona – both of which are now home to The School of Architecture at Taliesin.

Along with the eight Wright buildings, there are now 24 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the US.

These buildings are the first pieces of modern architecture from the country to have been recognised by the international conservation body.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy has been working with property owners and custodians for a decade and a half to have the 20th-century buildings officially recognised.

“This recognition by UNESCO is a significant way for us to reconfirm how important Frank Lloyd Wright was to the development of modern architecture around the world,” said Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy.

“There are nearly 400 remaining structures designed by Wright. Our hope is that the inscription of these eight major works also brings awareness to the importance of preserving all of his buildings as a vital part of our artistic, cultural and architectural heritage,” she added.

A list of 10 buildings was originally submitted in 2015, but was revised down to eight works for the 2018 submission. Price Tower in Oklahoma and the Marin County Civic Center in California were the sites that didn’t make the final list.

Wright is considered one of the most important architects working in the 20th century. He pioneered the Prairie School of architecture, a movement that sought to develop an “indigenous” style of American design.

In a career that spanned 70 years he designed landmark hotels, museums, churches and skyscrapers as well as private homes, often expanding his creative control beyond the title of architect to be an urban planner and interior designer. The MoMA staged a retrospective of his work to mark 150 years since his birth in 2017.

In 2016 UNESCO added 17 projects by 20th-century French architect Le Corbusier to its World Heritage List.

Main photo is by Carol M. Highsmith.

The post Eight Frank Lloyd Wright buildings added to UNESCO World Heritage List appeared first on Dezeen.

Le UCCA Dune Art Museum situé à Qinhuangdao en Chine et conçu par la firme OPEN Architecture, s’est mérité le prix du «meilleur bâtiment de moins de 1 000 mètres carrés» lors des AZ Awards 2019 soulignant l’excellence en design qui se sont déroulés à Toronto le 21 juin dernier. «Le musée d’art Dune incarne une relation unique entre intérieur et extérieur», exprimait Stefano Pujatti, un membre du jury.

Sa structure organique et minimaliste se déploie grâce à un design audacieux qui cherche à retrouver des formes primitives et intemporelles de l’espace. Cet édifice culturel inusité fait se rencontrer la nature et la prouesse humaine avec simplicité. Le sable qui entoure le musée contribue à faire de ce lieu un joyau du littoral s’imbriquant dans le décor avec beauté et respect. 

Crédits photo: WU Qingshan & TIAN Fangfang

Vanity is one of the main reasons why cyclists ditch the helmet and ride without any head protection. I understand their point of view, but don’t agree with them. You could be a safe cyclist, but there is little that you can do about an inefficient driver. Solving the issue of using a helmet that mars your appearance, the Porsche Vuelta Smart Cycling Helmet looks sleek and sexy. It almost makes you feel like you’re riding a Harley Davidson or a Porsche Bike!

The goodness doesn’t stop here, designer Jihwan Lee has also included smart functions like front and rear lights, hard brake and turn signals, onto the helmet. The Porsche Vuelta pairs up with your phone via Bluetooth and intuitive buttons are on the side to adjust volumes without having to take your phone out.

Designer: Jihwan Lee