Hasta La Ideas

The city of Boise, Idaho partnered up with ByFusion—an LA-based processor that uses steam and compression to squeeze plastic into blocks—to find a new way to reuse plastics that can’t be recycled. These blocks, dubbed ByBlocks, are the same dimensions as concrete blocks (eight by eight by 16 inches) as well as the same R-Value. Unlike concrete, however, ByBlocks are 10 pounds lighter, have Lego-like protrusions that make them easily stackable (either directly or staggered) and, most importantly, they’re carbon neutral. No chemicals or additives are used to construct them. If 30 tons of plastic go into the processor, 30 tons of ByBlocks are processed. This makes them workable for building sheds, retaining walls, dumpster enclosures, fencing and furniture. Already, they’ve been used to create a bench in Boise’s Manitou Park. Learn more about this innovative alternative and see them in action at Core77.

Images courtesy of Core77/ByFusion

A slow-burning, genre-defying track with a pensive music video filmed in Coney Island

Despite its dark subject matter, “Stranger”—the latest release by recording artist Chris Garneau—burns with a bright, ballad-like intensity. The genre-defying track flexes Garneau’s expertly emotive songwriting and the layered sonic landscape carefully supports his words. In the collaboratively crafted music video, premiering here, Garneau’s song comes to life throughout iconic Brooklyn destination Coney Island, where choreographer Tenaya Kelleher helped the ethereal artist ease into his surroundings. Altogether, it’s a creative coupling of beauty, depth and reflection.

“Stranger” is very much a sonic departure from the tracks on Garneau’s brooding previous album. “I think I literally just wanted to chill after not being very chill for a long time,” he tells us about the song’s inception. “I felt like I almost had to die to make [his 2021 album] The Kind, or at least go deep into the death, mourning, grief, loss, surrender, yada yada yada. Once it was released, I felt like I could move on with my life, finally, after 37 years of just staying in this cyclical sort of hell. When I started writing new stuff and it felt a little lighter, I was having fun and was also kind of relieved to feel that way.”

Still, intimate themes have carried over. “A lot of the material on the previous album was about letting go of a person who had really hurt me, who I was then estranged from and later died under some pretty horrid circumstances,” Garneau continues. “That album was really a plunge into all of these years of unknown and very murky territory with that person. The writing for this song feels more specific to the actual moment where you turn around and a person is simply not who you thought they were. Sometimes people really have a switch, like a light turning off, and all the goodness that you ever knew from then disappears and this… monster is revealed.”

Ultimately, to complete the lyrics, Garneau wove this personal experience into inspiration from a teleplay that the track was originally supposed to support. “Weirdly, this teleplay had a lot of parallels to my own life story,” he says. “There was a complicated and sad relationship between the lead character, a son, and his father. There were a lot of dynamics that crossed over into my life, and so I really just felt like I was writing a new Chris Garneau song, but it happened to fit well in both instances.”

There’s so much nuance to the production, which continues to reveal itself through repeat lessons. This aligns with the track’s specific production process. “I made a few demos of it at home using a synthesized vintage keyboard and horn patches, drum machine and vocals, and I liked how it had this kind of chill like ’70s groove, almost. I knew I wanted bass and drums. Later in spring, I was in Los Angeles working on music for this teleplay/pilot teaser, and I really wanted to work with Patrick Higgins on the track. He produced my last record in his Upstate New York studio and we had gotten really good at building a track in a day or two so I brought him into the studio in LA.”

“We knew we wanted Rhodes, acoustic piano and vocals so I banged those out in a few hours and then Patrick tracked bass and drums,” Garneau says. “By the end of the day we had a good foundation for the track. Back in New York in late summer I reached out to CJ Camerieri who did all the horn arrangements for my third record, Winter Games. He does all the best horns for everyone really, and he loved the track and was super-down to write and record a brass arrangement for that, which he did remotely.” After passing notes back and forth for a few weeks, Higgins mixed everything together.

“It was a difficult mix to achieve basically because things were from three different studios all over the place. It was a fragmented thing to put it all together—just to get everything sounding cohesive, but I really love it,” Garneau says.

As for the music video, Garneau eschews the track’s incisive intensity for a more playful artistry. Garneau, who had just moved back to Brooklyn after 11 years away, chose Coney Island as the location. “This beautifully talented photographer Michael George and I collaborated on photos at Coney Island, also a favorite NYC location for him, just after Luna Park shut down in early November. I knew I wanted to shoot the video here so I wanted the press photos/cover art to all be in the same place. The work that Michael did really served as blueprints for the video. The work was so stunning that I was very easily able to plug those into a video treatment and we had at least half a dozen shots ready to go for us.”

I just wanted something very cinematic, very old-school New York feeling. The character and weirdness of empty winter Coney Island is so weird and fun, everywhere you look is basically a film set

“I scouted the location again later in winter and put a great team together with my co-producer Abigail McCreary. I really wanted to keep this video on the lighter side—I think everyone’s seen enough devastating melancholy from me—and I just wanted something very cinematic, very old school New York feeling. The character and weirdness of empty winter Coney Island is so weird and fun, everywhere you look is basically a film set. Our director of photography, Paul Quitoriano, exquisitely captured all of that really well.” The endearing video has no official director, as it was truly a collaborative effort.

Images courtesy of Michael George 

For those of you that still need to iron stuff: Do you do a bunch of ironing at once, or one or two pieces as needed?

“We researched the ironing category,” writes Youmeus, a UK-based consultancy founded by industrial designer Chris Christou, “and discovered several key insights that informed the design architecture of this product. How we iron today has shifted from a task of batch ironing to a ‘little-and-often’ routine.”

Youmeus then designed the Pocket Plus Folding Ironing Board, which is produced by Joseph Joseph.

“One key observation that informed this concept was that people often stored their irons and ironing boards in different areas of the home, and therefore time to setup was one of the key barriers that prevented people from ironing. [We created] a more compact ironing board with integrated storage for the iron, and accessories helped to broaden the storage opportunities, allowing the user to store their ironing board alongside their iron for a quick and speedy setup.”

This appears to be sold in Europe, the U.K and Australia, but not the ‘States. #supplychain

With cigarettes in decline the U.S. (just 14% of the population here smokes), Zippo has expanded their product offerings beyond cigarette lighters. In Japan, however, smoking has declined more slowly, with 18.2% of the population still puffing away. Thus Japanese manufacturer Tsubota Pearl is still cranking out cigarette lighters, and pretty designey ones at that.

Their Hard Edge lighter, which has steel guts but a polycarbonate body, features a Zippo-like form but with crisp edges and chamfers to accommodate the hinge.

They also offer a translucent model…

…and a transparent one with copper guts:

The Hard Edge Rubber features a rubber texture lacquer and an iPod-looking feature molded into the body that makes me want to touch it:

Their slim, stick-like Queue lighter is made of polished metal:

The Queue also comes in colored variants:

To use their USB-rechargeable Slide Lighter, you slide the cover back to reveal a heated coil, like in a car’s cigarette lighter:

They also offer these throwback Marvel lighters, which they first sold in the 1950s:

There are more models to see here.

Airstream is finally going electric with its two newly announced EV concepts namely eStream and Thor Vision Vehicle. The eStream trailer developed in close quarters with European subsidiary Erwin Hymer Group and tech company ZF, addresses the lingering issue with most campers and RVs – that being – the need for extra power which in turn limits the range of towing vehicles.

Whether the eStream is hooked onto a pure electric vehicle like the Tesla Model 3 or the hybrid Ford Escape – the trailer by Thor Industries (Airstream’s parent company) is not just dead weight. This is done with the dual independent motors and the two onboard lithium-ion battery packs. The Thor’s advanced electrical architecture brings to the fore regenerative braking energy as the motors can be used to apply torque to the wheels in both directions.

One thing is to keep in mind here, the eStream weighs more than traditional trailers – so, how much electrical power boost is negated has also to be considered. The trailer can be operated remotely too via an app when it’s detached from the towing vehicle. So, you can reposition it on a campsite or alight it for hitching up to a vehicle. The modern travel trailer comes with solar panels for off-grid camping on extended adventures. On the inside, it is loaded with things like voice and touchscreen activated climate and lighting controls.

The other one is the Thor Vision Vehicle which is a Ford Transit-based motorhome EV with a 300-mile range. This recreational vehicle comes with a digital cockpit that’s quite high tech and you have the luxury of extensive tools to find chargers en route to the next destination. On the inside, everything looks upbeat in terms of a comfortable journey on the roads, and a cozy sleep by the nighttime.

For now, the two vehicles are in the concept stage, and whether or not they’ll make it to the production lines is also uncertain. I believe, both these being highly practical and satiating the needs of users will make it to reality one day – of course with a premium price tag presumably. Especially the eStream which brings towing capabilities to vehicles that you would normally not even think of burdening the task with. A game-changing feature for the trailer industry and other related spheres.

Designer: Thor Industries

The post Airstream’s self-propelled trailer and luxe motorhome concepts could soon be a reality first appeared on Yanko Design.