Hasta La Ideas

Gamer tantrums are well-known, especially when they get destructive, but this plush toy recreation of a popular console offers a safer outlet when lashing out.

Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo might be the last remaining contenders in the console wars, but there was a time when they weren’t the only ones in that arena. Before Sega was reduced to being a game publisher, it was also making consoles that eventually became icons in gaming history. The SEGA Genesis is one of those historical gaming machines, and one shop is creating a lovable and huggable version that recreates more than just the console’s form.

Designer: kidrobot

You probably wouldn’t be hugging this console-shaped plush toy in bed or on the couch. Or probably you would if you were feeling a bit melancholic and pining for the good old days of gaming. Or you might want this soft and cushy SEGA Genesis beside you when you’re mashing buttons on your Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch. That way, when you get the urge to throw the controller in frustration, you can simply grab this plush and throw that instead. It’s therapeutic and safe to boot!

This SEGA Genesis Interactive Plush tries to recreate the iconic console faithfully in both shape and size, though it’s admittedly a bit larger than the actual machine. That does mean it’s not exactly fit for comfy hugging, but it won’t take up too much space on your couch or bed either. The plushie also tries to be as faithful to the small design details, from the buttons and indicators to the warning labels at the bottom.

The “interactive” part comes from the pieces that you can remove or “plug” into the console. Rather than just a single plushie, this SEGA Genesis comfort toy is actually made up of three parts. There’s a game cartridge that has Sonic the Hedgehog’s face emblazoned on it. There’s also a controller that can connect and disconnect at will. That could come in handy when you want to throw the controller without the console flying along with it.

This 12-inch SEGA Genesis Interactive Plush is a cute and fun nod to an age long gone. Of course, even those who never even held a SEGA Genesis might still appreciate having something of a reminder of that past, especially one that you only have to wash to keep it clean and usable.

The post SEGA Genesis plushie lets you throw your controller without feeling guilty first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Federal Prison Industries program, whose brand name is Unicor, is a prison labor program meant to rehabilitate inmates, teach them a trade and enable them to earn money while they’re locked up. In short, Unicor has prisoners making goods and providing services. Unicor claims they reduce recidivism and increase post-imprisonment employment, but ultimately prison labor is a thorny issue that raises questions well beyond the scope of this blog.

What is within our purview is the range of items the prisoners make—and the services they provide. We all know that prisoners make license plates, but I didn’t realize they also make prescription eyewear, apparel and office furniture. As for the services, I was mildly surprised to see they provide strongly competitive call center staffing (Unicor’s talking point is that the labor wages are as inexpensive as overseas wages, but with native English speakers).

And I was absolutely stunned to see that they offer CAD services:

“These include architectural drawings, 2-Dimensional plans, and 3-Dimensional models for the manufacturing and construction industries. While Large Document Scanning and CAD Conversion are our most sought-after services, we also offer Photorealistic Product and Architectural Visualization to bring your designs to life, as well as 3-Dimensional Design/Modeling and Production Drawing.”

They’ve got a video (unembeddable) showing examples of their CAD animations and such here.

In Germany, the font you’ll find on license plates is called FE-Schrift.

Image by Wassim Chouak on Unsplash

FE-Schrift was designed by German typography professor and designer Karlgeorg Hoefer. It was applied to license plates starting in the 1990s as a replacement for the previous font used for license plates, DIN 1451.

DIN stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung, which translates to “German Institute for Standardization.” DIN 1451 was designed for industrial uses and traffic signs as it’s easy to read.

DIN 1451

The problem was that DIN 1451 is also very easy to modify and forge; this became a problem in the 1970s and ’80s when Germany was still divided, and victim to violence from the homegrown Baader-Meinhof Gang, a/k/a the Red Army Faction. This group carried out terrorist-style assassinations, bombings and kidnappings. They robbed banks for funding and tended to get into shootouts with the police. To avoid detection, they often used license plates that they modified.

Hence the introduction of FE-Schrift, which is short for Fälschungserschwerende Schrift, which translates to “anti-counterfeiting font.” It was created specifically to make forgery difficult.

FE-Schrift

As an example, with your average sans serif font the letter “P” is easy to change to “R,” “B” is easy to change to “3,” and “F” is easy to change to “E.” So let’s say your license plate contains “PBF,” and you want to change it to “R3E.” If you try that with FE-Schrift, at first glance it seems do-able:

Image by Stybn, CC BY-SA 3.0

However, when you stack up the fake (red) “R3E” with the real way it’d be printed in FE-Schrift, the differences become apparent:

Image by Stybn, CC BY-SA 3.0

The casual onlooker might not be able to spot the fake, but it was good enough for the primitive license-plate-reading cameras and software Germany was using at the time of its introduction.

FE-Schrift fully became Germany’s official license plate font in 2000.

Lastly, a question for you typography nerds: Why are there two types of “6” and “9” in DIN 1451?

In an industry riddled with gender disparity, this Queens, NY-based brand is changing what sneaker culture looks like

Though they are regularly worn by any and all genders, highly covetable streetwear sneakers are branded, stylized and shaped for men. “If you look at the history of most athletic brands, they’re rooted in male sports, male athletes. All the footwear silhouettes are built for them,” says Sarah Sukumaran, the founder of the Queens-based sneaker company Lilith NYC. “The Sheryl Swoopes basketball shoe is the only shoe from the ’90s for a WNBA player,” she continues. In fact, in the nearly 25 years since the WNBA’s inception, only nine players have garnered signature shoes, compared to the NBA which saw 22 signature sneakers in 2021 alone.

I always say: women are asked to compromise

This gender disparity isn’t just a matter of representation, it also has consequences on women’s footwear options, from a more limited range of shoe sizes due to shopping in the men’s section to the quality of the sneakers. As Sukumaran explains, “Shoes for women are just made poorly. They strip out the performance tooling—which is actually out of cost but they strip it out for women—and they use cheaper materials, synthetics, because they don’t think women are paying attention to more than aesthetics. I always say: women are asked to compromise.”

As a longtime sneakerhead herself, Sukumaran constantly combed the internet to find sneakers in her size, frustrated by the meager options for women consumers. It wasn’t until she was recruited by Nike as the Director of Product in Analytics that she realized how much the streetwear industry needed to be overhauled. “Coming from e-commerce analytics, I know the data. Women outspend men in footwear sales, period,” emphasizes Sukumaran. “From there, I realized if I want to see change in the women’s footwear space, I need to do it myself, and that’s when I decided actual footwear has to change. We need to start designing silhouettes for women as opposed to just repurposing a man’s silhouette.” So in November 2021, Sukumaran launched Lilith to provide women and femmes with sneakers designed specifically for them.

The ethos of the brand is embodied in the name of the company itself, which Sukumaran had picked out in 2015, long before operations began. Taken from Jewish and Mesopotamian folklore, Lilith (not Eve) is Adam’s first wife. “She gets written out of history by male scholars because she’s considered to be the first feminist. She didn’t want to be submissive to Adam,” Sukumaran explains. “And then through history, she’s demonized and made out to be a baby-snatcher. It’s an interesting story that I felt being a woman in tech, being a woman in footwear, was so apt.” By naming the brand after Lilith, Sukumaran channels her confident, subversive nature to create something for those who are overlooked in streetwear culture.

Currently, the collection comprises a custom, low-top silhouette Caudal Lure, a design that pays homage to where Sukumaran grew up. “My love for sneakers really came from growing up in Queens,” she tells us. “Queens culture is sneaker culture before the term ‘sneaker culture’ even existed.” A gritty sense of the neighborhood, ’90s nostalgia, handball courts and Nike Air Max 95s manifested into the urban, thick-soled and functionally forward aesthetic of the Caudal Lure.

As the most diverse borough in all of New York City and home to countless immigrant families who are no strangers to a long commute, Queens also became a fitting influence for Sukumaran who was determined not to compromise performance for style. Motivated to make sneakers that could support those constantly hustling or running back and forth for the train, the founder partnered with Vibram, an Italian tooling company based in Milan and revered for their quality outdoor hiking boots. Vibram’s proprietary lightweight, high-abrasion EVA outsole lends a cloud-like quality to the sneakers. This comfort (bolstered by premium pebbled leather, suede and neoprene) helps to enhance endurance and mobility.

When paired with Lilith’s custom colorways—the green-hued Concrete Jungle and burnt orange Amberlou Brick—performance meets unique tones. Like the silhouette, these colors are also inspired by Queens. The green color, Sukumaran explains, “is the juxtaposition of the grittiness of Queens and tropical modernism, which is a type of architectural style that came out of Sri Lanka that was actually pioneered by a woman architect [Minnette de Silva] who doesn’t get credit for it.” The name elegantly captures the lush vibrance of both places.

As for Amberlou Brick, the portmanteau moniker combines the color of bricks commonly found in Queens with the name of the architect who regularly used them, Louis Allmendinger. “Allmendinger was a German architect who used a specific clay from Staten Island. So if you’re in Ridgewood or Maspeth, you’ll see this like kind of amber-colored brick. He focused on low-income housing at the time as a response to tenement housing, so that was another point of influence,” continues Sukumaran.

Rather than adhering to a stereotypical tomboy aesthetic or one that’s overtly sexual as feminine representation tends to be in the culture, Lilith’s footwear offers a realistic, utilitarian but elevated options that are backed by personal style and demographic research. “A lot of feedback I was getting from women was like, ‘I want sneakers that I can go to dinner in that don’t look like a Brooks or an ASICs’ because those are super-comfortable, but women are not showing up to dinner in them,” says the founder. “I want the comfort of a shoe that still looks trendy so you can navigate from office to evening drinks with the girls.”

Urban yet earthy, elegant yet utilitarian, Lilith’s sneakers address the exclusion of women and femmes from the hypebeast space. They are, as Sukumaran tells us, “flipping the paradigm of what sneaker culture has been” and they do so with class, confidence and style.

Hero image courtesy of Jonathan Wijayaratne & Ryan Wijayaratne/Lilith NYC

If there’s one architectural trend that’s blown up like anything – it’s tiny homes! As much as we absolutely love tiny homes, you know what’s even better than them… Tiny Cabins! Cabins have been a relaxing and quintessential getaway option for everyone for ages galore. They’re the ultimate safe haven in the midst of nature if you simply want to get away from your hectic city lives and unwind. And now they even come in tiny shapes and sizes! Tiny cabins are space-saving, economical, sustainable, and not to mention great vacation spots. If you want a simple and minimal vacation that lets you truly connect with nature, without any of the materialistic luxuries most of us have gotten accustomed to, then a tiny cabin is the answer for you! And, we’ve curated some beautiful and super comfortable tiny cabins that’ll be the perfect travel destination for you. From a tiny cabin with an asymmetrical roofline to a tiny cabin that floats above nature’s sloping hills  – these mesmerizing and surreal tiny cabins are the ultimate retreat you’ve been searching for!

1. Mountain Refuge

Mountain Refuge is a wooden, square, prefabricated cabin with an angular roof. While the geometric cabin is a structural contrast to its natural setting, it still blends in well while showing off its modern design. “The project acts as a contemporary interpretation of old traditional mountain refuges, bringing in architectural character and spatial quality,” say the designers. The wooden cabin comes in different modules, and each has the capability to be flexible and expandable. It is made to be compact and optimizes the space while taking up the least in nature.

2. The Luna

Defined by an asymmetrical roofline, The Luna embraces a geometric, angular profile to complement the natural ruggedness of snow-covered plots of land. Combining rustic energy with modern design, The Luna is clad in matte black, 100-year corrugated steel for a lived-in, yet contemporary look. New Frontier decided against filling up The Luna’s lengthier facades with windows, opting instead for a sweeping, floor-to-ceiling window wall on one end.

3. Road-Haus

Road-Haus is a 250sqf tiny cabin scaled down from a larger model designed by Wheelhaus, a tiny home company committed to modular and eco-friendly design practices. Considered crowd favorites by the tiny home company, Wheelhaus adorned Road-Haus with the same pitched roofline and wrap-around clerestory windows found on the Wedge model. From the bottom to the top, Road-Haus residents are immersed in the glory of the woods, with timber flooring that’s mirrored on the tiny home’s ceiling.

4. A45

Architecture firm BIG built a tiny black cabin in the Hudson Valley. Called A45, the cabin is a part of a series of tiny homes named Klein. The one-story structure occupies 183 square feet in the midst of lush greenery. Triangular walls come together to create a building that is similar to A-frame cabins. The interiors include a living and sleeping area, a cooktop, a bath, and a lofted space. “The design evolves from the traditional A-frame cabin, known for its pitched roof and angled walls which allow for easy rain run-off and simple construction,” said BIG. “The resulting crystal-like shape gives A45 an ever-changing appearance.”

5. The Ashen Cabin

Architecture studio Hannah built a tiny off-grid cabin in Upstate New York. Called Ashen Cabin, the home is supported by 3D printed concrete stilts. In fact, the walls of the cabin are made from infested ash wood! “From the ground up, digital design and fabrication technologies are intrinsic to the making of this architectural prototype, facilitating fundamentally new material methods, tectonic articulations, forms of construction, and architectural design languages,” Hannah said.

6. Cabin Moss

With its exterior constructed from only one building material, Cabin Moss is a tiny cabin built by Béres Architects located in the woods of Kőszeg, Hungary where it floats above a sloping terrain on a collection of thin stilts. When building Cabin Moss, the architects at Béres would return to the old proverb, “Measure twice, dig once.” Designed by Attila Béres and Attila Hideg, Cabin Moss seems to float atop an area of untouched forest ground, one of many choices made to preserve and respect the natural world that surrounds the cabin.

7. The Nook

The Nook is a tiny cabin located in the woods of North Carolina’s Appalachia designed with Scandinavian, Japanese, and Appalachian handcrafted elements to weave local craftwork together with a personal history. Brimming with artisanal goods and artwork of local craftsmen and artists, The Nook was designed to bring the handcrafted touch of the old world into the modern era. Described as a “collection of stories,” Belleme designed The Nook to link his personal history to the surrounding forest and architecture of the cabin.

8. Nido

In Finland, homes with a 96 to 128-square-foot floor plan do not require a building permit, which opened the door for Falck to construct his very own “compact getaway” deep in the woods of Sipoo. In building Nido, Falck maintained a sub-100 square-foot floor area and took to local recycled building materials to construct his tiny cabin. Working with such a modest floor plan and recycled building materials made the entire undertaking a lot more affordable, clocking in at just around $10,500. Falck was also able to champion the home’s construction work on his own, only needing an extra set of hands for carpentry work on a window and door frame.

9. The X-Suite

American firm M-Rad created a tiny cabin to accommodate people with disabilities. It includes a shower with a seat, doorways wide enough to let a wheelchair enter and exit the space. Called the X-Suite, it is located at Autocamp Yosemite, and occupies a space of 270 square feet.” The X-Suite exemplifies ADA-complaint design that doesn’t compromise beauty for functionality,” said the architecture studio. The cabin includes a bedroom, a bathroom, and an open-plan living room and kitchen.

10. The Willow

Perched somewhere in the rolling hills of Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, a tiny cabin dubbed  ‘The Willow’  accommodates glampers and travelers alike inside a zany retreat that looks a lot like escape pods from old sci-fi flicks. With two rounded roofs, The Willow’s bulbous frame stands out against the sprawling green lawn where it’s situated. From the outside, The Willow appears like something straight from a science fiction cartoon, immediately drawing in its guests with its whimsical shape. Placed right in front of the tiny cabin’s wooden deck, two circular windows punctuate The Willow’s front-facing facade and provide unobstructed views of Pembroke’s countryside.

The post Best Tiny Cabins of 2022 for your nature getaway first appeared on Yanko Design.