Core77 Design Awards 2013: Introducing Our First Round of Jury Captains

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With the EARLYBIRD Deadline only 3 weeks away, we are excited to unveil this year’s Core77 Design Awards Jury Captains! Although these individuals need no introduction, we are honored and thrilled to have them lead the charge for this year’s design awards program!

Enter your project by JANUARY 31st and receive 20% off for the Earlybird Deadline!

The Core77 Design Awards proudly offers 17 progressive categories honoring the richness of the design profession and its practitioners. From Consumer Products to DIY, Service Design to Writing & Commentary, the Core77 Design Awards provides designers, researchers and writers a unique opportunity to communicate the intent, rigor and passion behind their efforts. We also offer 15 designated student sections within our 17 categories. And with globally distributed jury teams, the individuals who will be considering your work are expert practitioners in the field.

Today we’re announcing jury captains from FIVE of our categories. Stay tuned in the next weeks as we share our full Jury Captain lineup! Without further ado:

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INTERIORS & EXHIBITIONS
Judging location: Mexico City, Mexico

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» Andrés Mier Y Teran, Jury Captain
Principal at Grupo MYT

Andrés Mier Y Teran is Founder and Principal at MYT Diseño, an architecture, design and construction firm based both in New York and Mexico City. MYT Diseño started off as a design and build firm in Mexico City, but has evolved to encapsulate almost all aspects of design in a project. From sketching a new concept to it’s final construction, as well as identity, marketing, graphic and industrial design, the firm now is able to create a holistic design experience. Some of the most notable works by the firm in Mexico include the concept for Soumaya Museum interiors, The Monument to the Mexican Revolution, La Imperial and Moshi Moshi. And in New York, Taka Taka, Antojeria La Popular, Vive la Crepe restaurants and Stella Filante store.

Mier Y Teran studied Interior Architecture at ESAG Penninghen in Paris, furniture design in Copenhagen and Architecture in UNAM, in Mexico City. He worked in Tokyo and in Paris with Philippe Starck before earning a Masters Degree in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University in 2008. Andrés has been frequently published, was awarded the gold medal for a five-year trajectory in Interior Architecture by the Mexican National Association of Interior Design in 2006, and more recently the 2011 Prix Met Penninghen for his Professional Trajectory 2001-2011 by ESAG in France.

INTERACTION
Judging location: London, United Kingdom

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» Anab Jain, Jury Co-Captain
Director at Superflux

Anab is a Director at Superflux and founded the studio in 2009. Leading the Consultancy’s client partnerships whilst balancing the Lab’s self-initiated conceptual projects, she hopes to realize the studio’s vision as a new kind of design practice, responsive to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. She has led interaction design projects for clients such as such as Microsoft Research, Sony, Nokia and the Prince’s Foundation. Originally from India and educated at the National Institute of Design, Anab gained her MA in Interaction Design from the Royal College of Art in 2005. She has been honored as a TED Fellow and has won awards from Apple Computers Inc., UNESCO and ICSID. She has presented her work at the MoMA New York, National Museum of China and London Design Festival, amongst others. She lectures at various design schools around the world and has presented at conferences such as LIFT, PICNIC, Playful, SIGGRAPH and FuturEverything.

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» John Ardern, Jury Co-Captain
Director at Superflux

Jon is Director and Lead Creative Technologist at Superflux. He gained an MA in Interaction Design from the Royal College of Art in 2006, with a distinction for his dissertation on ‘Emergence’ and its role in design. Jon leads the creative and technological development of projects at Superflux. In this role, he has worked with a diverse range of clients such as Sony, Snibbe Interactive, Demotix and the Government of UAE, whilst experimenting with new technologies such as augmented reality, prosthetic vision and synthetic biology in the studio’s Lab. His work has been exhibited at the MoMA New York and V&A London, and has won prizes from UNESCO and New York’s Social Design Network. He has lectured at the Architectural Association London, MAD Faculty Genk, Belgium and Kitchen Budapest Hungary.

SERVICE
Judging location: Milan, Italy

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» Ezio Manzini, Jury Co-Captain
Coordinator at DESIS Network (Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability)

For more than two decades, Ezio has been working in the field of design for sustainability. Most recently, his interests have focused on social innovation and he started, and coordinates DESIS, which is an international network on design for social innovation and sustainability.

Throughout his professional life, he has been at the Politecnico di Milano. Parallel to this, he collaborated with several international schools. Currently, he is Honorary Guest Professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, Jiangnan University in Wuxi, COPPE-UFRJ in Rio de Janeiro, and the 2012 Distinguished Visiting Professor at Parsons, the New School for Design in New York.

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» Anna Meroni, Jury Co-Captain
Assistant Professor in the Department of Design at Politecnico di Milano

Anna Meroni is an Architect with a Ph.D in Design. She is also the Coordinator of the POLIMI-DESIS Lab (Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability) in the Department of Design at Politecnico di Milano. Assistant Professor in Service and Strategic Design at the School of Design, she is part of the board and faculty of the Master of Product Service System Design, Co-Director of the Master in Strategic Design and Director of the Master in Social and Collaborative Housing. In her role as a visiting professor in universities worldwide, she has more than a decade of experience as investigator in research projects. Her focus is design for sustainability, with emphasis on design activism for social innovation.

EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES
Judging location: Århus, Denmark

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» Simon Kavanagh, Jury Captain
KP International Development & Education Design at Kaospilots

Born in Dublin, Simon Kavanagh received his B.A. in Art and Design Education (a joint degree which incorporates three years of Visual Communication) at 21. For the next six years, Simon worked as a Creative Director in an Irish Multimedia company, Interact. It was during these years that he designed, programmed or managed approximately 600 multimedia titles in the business, educational, IT, online-Gaming, leisure and banking sectors for such clients as Oracle, Microsoft, Chase, Reuters, Esat (02), and Masterfoods and set up divisions in NYC and Paris. He then became a consultant in R&D for Windmill Lane Studios in the areas of Interactive Television, Content Management systems and online gaming before moving to Paris to further his studies in digital media and art. He re-embarked on the educational path in Shanghai where he lectured a British degree in new media, design and culture for three years, until he sought and found the most experiential and leadership education in the world, Kaospilots. He continues to explore alternative approaches to education and pedagogy with the long term goal of transferring this knowledge back into art and design education.

STRATEGY & RESEARCH
Judging location: San Francisco, United States

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» Susana Rodríguez de Tembleque, Jury Captain
Executive Creative Director at SYPartners

Susana Rodríguez de Tembleque is responsible for the originality and creativity of SYPartners’ work; setting the overall creative vision for the firm and leading her team of multidisciplinary designers to conceptualize and bring to life transformative strategies, stories and ideas. She also plays an active role in the work itself—helping the Gap reimagine its store environment and customer experience, assisting GE with cultivating a culture of innovation, and working with IBM to design the award-winning THINK exhibit. Susana is also a member of the board of directors on AIGA and was recognized by GDUSA as one of 25 “People to Watch in 2012.”

Don’t forget to Register today for updates and ENTER by January 31st to receive 20% off in our EARLYBIRD DEADLINE!

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Core77 Design Awards 2012: A Trophy for One and All!

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2012 has been an incredible year for design! We just wrapped up our season by shipping out 29 trophies around the world to our awards winners. The Core77 Design Awards celebrates the collaborative nature of the design process with our trophy—a mold designed by New York-based design studio Rich Brilliant Willing. Their approach was to design an artifact that could be employed in the creation of multiples, honoring the kind of group effort that designers and their clients engage in every day. As RBW explained, “We were inspired by a ‘mold’ as an image and symbol of manufacturing and design.”

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As part of this manufacturing story, we worked with our partners at Proto Labs to tell the story of creating this year’s trophy. Working with the engineers at Proto Labs, each trophy is CNC-milled from a solid block of alumnium—we had boxes of trophies in our office within a week of submiting the final CAD files!

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Core77 Design Awards 2012: Fountain of Life, Student Runner-Up for Equipment

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards 2012! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com

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  • Fountain of Life
  • Designer: Danwei Ye, Yakun Zhang & Yu Liu
  • Location: Rochester Institute of Technology
  • Category: Equipment
  • Award: Student Runner-Up

Fountain of Life is a water birthing assistant medical device. It is a product based on a more traditional water birthing container like a tub and has several advanced material and medical technology modifications.

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How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
We think the most valuable point of our design is to showing the humanity and warmth through a life-related equipment. Through viewing jury’s comments, we are glad that they could feel the character even though they aren’t the users. As industrial designers, we believe that we should always pay attention to the development of our society and people’s lives, trying to find design opportunity which accord with the changes of people’s concepts. In that way, we could design something to fill the vacancy of a new type relationship between people and the society.

What’s the latest news or development with your project?
Our design process was done by us, with the technical support by our Innovation Center and the financial support by our CIAS department funding. Now, we want to take this design to the next level, which is introducing to more audiences, getting their feedback and making the decision whether it’s really necessary to design and even product this equipment from a more marketing and investing point of view. At the same time, we will work with mechanical engineering students via the support of Innovation Center, to figure out the interior structure as well as add more details to the product. That is to say, if we can’t persuade someone to spend money on this project, we still can make a better portfolio based on it.

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What is one quick anecdote about your project?
As we are designing a product for women, and unfortunately we have no female team member. It became very hard for us to define some gynecology problems. And, as students, our female classmate were not familiar with these problems. As a result, we needed to discover everything by ourselves (and of course we didn’t want to ask our parents). Every time when we asked something, people would ask ‘Why do you want to know that? You will deliver your child?’ It always takes time to clarify our idea, and after that everyone will support us.

What was an “a-ha” moment from this project?
Lots of “a-ha” moments happened in the development process of this project, and the most important one was in the beginning of ideation, one of us said: Is it comfortable to set in a hot tub in that weird position? Then, we actually tried the position by our self in a tub, and it was very hard for us. After that, we merged a chair into the tub, that made it easier to get in and push. A-ha, that is a good solution to combine chair and tub into a new medical delivery equipment. At last, we collect every thing we can create into one design and here it is.

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Core77 Design Awards 2012: FABLAB Education Program, Professional Runner up for Educational Initiatives

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards 2012! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com

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  • FABLAB Education Program
  • Designer: TYTHEdesign
  • Location: Hunts Point – South Bronx, New York
  • Category: Educational Initiatives
  • Award: Professional Runner-Up

TYTHEdesign in collaboration with the non-profit Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx), has developed and piloted an educational after-school program to teach job and life skills by focusing on sustainability and business basics through the lens of design. By using design educational principles, students learned valuable transferable skills that can be used in every area of their lives.

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How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
It was lunch time in New York and we took a break to watch the live broadcast of the awards. We work in a co-working space in Brooklyn, so watching the awards meant sitting quietly in the corner, with our earphones on! We were so honored to be recognized and immediately shared the news with our collaborators.

What’s the latest news or development with your project?
Following the initial pilot launch of the program, Sustainable South Bronx has set up the FABLAB as part of their regular programming. We supported the organization in the hiring process to make sure they brought on someone who had the right background in design, education and the environment. Additionally, we provided some basic training and education to the new teacher to make sure the transition worked smoothly. In the Spring/Summer of 2012 they officially launched the program to great success, doubling the attendance of the pilot. The programs have just ended and we are looking forward to an update from both the students’ and organization’s perspectives.

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What is one quick anecdote about your project?
Through the initial pilot program and first Etsy store, we heard back from a college recruiter, “I was interviewing a prospective student for college and we talked at length about FabLab; you have an excellent-sounding program there and I do hope you keep it going.” Additionally, we have been contacted by individuals looking to hire our students, who were using the program as a form of reference. It was great for us to hear that the program had such a positive reach towards our students next steps.

What was an “a-ha” moment from this project?
Bottom line, our ‘a-ha’ moments came through collaboration, with both the organization, our team and the students. Due to our constant evaluation during the pilot program we were able to quickly identify what was working well and what wasn’t. This in itself was our ‘a-ha’ moment/process. Many times our assumptions were incorrect and our ideas didn’t match the interest of the the students. The biggest ‘a-ha’ moment was changing our terminology, learning to relate better to the student by talking about ‘next steps’ not specifically college or job. This allowed everyone to feel comfortable, be in the same conversation and be excited that ‘next steps’ were all equal and exciting regardless of what they were.

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Core77 Design Awards 2012: Peritoneum, Student Runner up for Interiors & Exhibitions

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards 2012! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com

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  • Channel of Mindfulness
  • Designer: Second Story Design Team; Kyle Fiano, Joshua Gallagher, Erica MacKenzie, Courtney Larsen, & Anna Christy
  • Location: Tempe, Arizona
  • Category: Interiors & Exhibitions
  • Award: Student Runner up

This project is a freestanding organic shade and seating structure constructed to turn a campus location into an attractive destination for others.

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How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
I found out that we had been recognized by the jury via Twitter. The Core77 Awards account tweeted at me when I was at the studio and I was completely thrilled and surprised. I thought it was very smart that I was contacted through Twitter because it was very easy for me to instantly broadcast the news out to the rest of the team as well my other Twitter followers.

What’s the latest news or development with your project?
Peritoneum has actually gone through a lot of changes in recent weeks. We moved the entire structure off of the site at the Arizona State University Tempe campus and transported it to a lot on the corner of Roosevelt Street and 2nd Avenue in downtown Phoenix Arizona. We decided to move because it was necessary for Peritoneum to continue to have an impact on the Arizona aesthetic, and by transporting it to Phoenix the structure is opened up to a wider audience base. Since we consider the structure to not only be a great design work but also a beneficial public art piece, we are working on programming to change the aesthetic of the material by collaborating with artists as well as the general public as a whole.

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What is one quick anecdote about your project?
When we presented this structure to the faculty after being awarded by the jury, many within the school administration doubted our ability to pull off the construction of a project with this big of a scope. We were advised to add an architect to the team for additional guidance, but refused and ended up proving a lot of people wrong with our success.

What was an “a-ha” moment from this project?
I think the amount of work that we had to do in order to pull this off did not really hit the team until we were on the site for day one of construction. We were all pretty nervous given the limited timeframe we had to actually build the structure, but after we finally figured out the proper guideline to place to wooden slats on, things went off without any big problems.

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Core77 Design Awards 2012: Project RE_, Runner up for DIY

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards 2012! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com

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  • Project RE_
  • Designer: Samuel Bernier
  • Category: DIY
  • Award: Runner-Up

This experiment of Project RE_ explores 3D-printing as a DIY tool for upcycling. Customized lids are created using low cost 3D-printing. They are then clipped or screwed onto standard jars, tin cans and bottles to create new and personal objects.

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How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
I was at work, designing urban furniture when I realized what day it was. I got on CORE77 at the very moment where Becky Stern started talking. She is quite famous in the DIY world. After the first notables projects were mentioned I became really stressed. When my name got mentioned, I was extremely happy, but couldn’t show it… I was suppose to work.

What’s the latest news or development with your project?
The existing designs are often updated by me or by users and more products are on their way. The Instructables page of Project RE_ reached 30,000 visits. Also, a collection of 3D-printed lamp shades is to be published in the next months. We’re pushing low cost 3D-printing to its limits.

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What is one quick anecdote about your project?
It took me more time to choose the color I would use for the project than it took me to design the products. There is a long explanation for the orange… and it is not to match the Core77 award website.

What was an “a-ha” moment from this project?
It was time for me to choose a subject for my graduation project and I couldn’t decide between Upcycling, DIY and 3D-printing. I also wanted to build a brand that would be open source and follow simple aesthetic principles. Once I realized I could do all that at once, the project grew by itself.

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Core77 Design Awards 2012: zSpace, Professional Notable for Consumer Products

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards 2012! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com

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  • zSpace
  • Designer: Whipsaw, Inc.
  • Location: Mountain View, CA
  • Category: Consumer Products
  • Award: Professional Notable

zSpace is a remarkable new 3D visualization tool that enables designers, engineers and film makers to build, manipulate and view objects in 3D. Unlike 3d TV, zSpace objects are created and displayed in 3D with CAD in real-time high-definition. Your creations float magically in front of you as you imagine, develop, change, spin around and fly through them. Using a proprietary stereoscopic LCD display, trackable eyewear and an interaction stylus, virtual objects appear “solid” in open space, with full color and high resolution.

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How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
Email announcement.

What’s the latest news or development with your project?
Since zSpace launched at Autodesk University in November, it has quickly gained notoriety. It’s been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered”; NASA’s “TechBriefs” newsletter, and Fast Company’s CoDesign website; and it received a “Best of Show” award at the Computer Graphics World conference in March 2012.

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What is one quick anecdote about your project?
When we first saw this technology we were blown away. High-definition holographic objects floated in front of us and we could manipulate them completely. It was a designer’s dream. CAD came alive and felt so immersive, no longer limited by a 2D interface on a flat screen. It’s a rarity that a team of designers has an opportunity to design a product that refreshes the human-machine interface of a tool they use on a daily basis.

What was an “a-ha” moment from this project?

Initially, the virtual “zSpace” working area was only intended to occur “above” or “outside” of the display. While testing a number of ergonomic parameters, we tilted the prototype display to achieve more comfortable viewing angles. When the virtual CAD ground-plane was adjusted to fit these display angles, we discovered that an infinite amount of virtual working space had opened up “behind” the display glass. zSpace had become a virtual environment to design in, rather than just a virtual representation of a CAD object.

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Core77 Design Awards 2012: Channel of Mindfulness, Student Runner-Up for Interaction Design

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards 2012! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com

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  • Channel of Mindfulness
  • Designer: Yufan Wang
  • Location: Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design
  • Category: Interaction
  • Award: Student Runner up

Bringing mindfulness (paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally) in to our day-to-day lives is key to spiritual growth. Channel of Mindfulness creates a new way to help inexperienced practitioners to discover and integrate mindfulness in their everyday life.

The design includes two communicating parts: a handheld tangible device and an iPhone application. The idea is to help people live in the moment through listening and concentrating on some meditative sounds. By paying closer attention to listening, assisted with a rolling gesture, a higher stage of mind—mindfulness and awareness—will be created.

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How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
I paid continuous attention to the Core 77 Design Award website. So I knew the date on which you would announce the result of the Interaction category and I watched the live announcement.

What’s the latest news or development with your project?
For the project itself there is no further development yet, but it really opens up some design opportunities to create more meaningful apps which are enhanced by external accessories. Right now, I’m working on a research project on this topic and it involves both technical and design points of view.

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What is one quick anecdote about your project?
I started this project with a very broad and abstract topic—spirituality and spiritual growth. In the very early stages, I had a very hard time to narrow it down and frame out the design challenge. Then I did my research in the Copenhagen meditation center and interviewed some experienced meditators—the most valuable insights about meditation were generated from that. It helped me to be more clear about the design direction and also drove the project from spirituality to mindfulness.

What was an “a-ha” moment from this project?
After the first round of prototyping, I focused on finding a comfortable gesture with a certain amount of attention which will help people focus on listening. The “a-ha” moment came when I saw a picture of a Tibetan prayer wheel. I built a quick prototype to test the rolling gesture and it proved that this was what I was looking for and it also gave a strong metaphorical meaning that fit well with the project.

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Core77 Design Awards 2012: Chromatic Typewriter, Professional Runner-Up for Speculative

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards 2012! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com

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  • Chromatic Typewriter
  • Designer: Tyree Callahan
  • Location: Bellingham, Washingtion
  • Category: Speculative
  • Award: Professional Runner-Up

The Chromatic Typewriter is a conceptual art piece consisting of a modified late-1930′s Underwood typewriter that types a spectrum of colors, rather than the letters of an alphabet.

How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
I saw the results on the C7712DA website on my lunch break from work. It was a very happy lunch break.

What’s the latest news or development with your project?
The Chromatic Typewriter is heading to Grand Rapids, MI for ArtPrize September 19 to October 7, 2012! It will be on exhibition at the Federal Square Building—the SPOT. I’d welcome some votes!

What is one quick anecdote about your project?
My primary medium is painting, and the exposure generated by the typewriter assured that many people assumed my paintings were typewriter-generated; some bloggers went so far as to juxtapose the image of the typewriter with some of my larger five-foot-by-seven-foot paintings!

What was an “a-ha” moment from this project?
Definitely when the project was first conceptualized: I rolled a watercolor into a typewriter carriage to type a poem on it and the idea hit me. The first mock-up of color on the keys was a very exciting ‘a-ha!’ moment.

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Core77 Design Awards 2012: Papernomad Sleeves, Professional Notable for Consumer Products

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting award-winning projects and ideas from this year’s Core77 Design Awards 2012! For full details on the project, jury commenting and more information about the awards program, go to Core77DesignAwards.com

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  • Papernomad Sleeves
  • Designer: Christoph Rochna
  • Location: Vienna, Austria
  • Category: Consumer Products
  • Award: Professional Notable

Papernomad originated from the idea of designing and manufacturing environmentally friendly paperboard furniture as a promotional vehicle for open-air events: bio-degradable beanbags made of paper and filled with popcorn. With technical support from a leading Austrian company, we developed an organic paper composite, which is the basis of all our products. This tear and water resistant sandwich exhibited such great properties, that we did not want to confine its use to furniture. We set out on a quest for industrial niches where traditional materials could be replaced by our paper composite.

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How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?
I received your Email late on Monday, the worst day of the week. My current office is located in Germany, therefore I am eight hours ahead of C77 office hours. I was about to go home when I checked my emails one last time. Sometimes I regret that because of some last minute request that screws with my schedule and forces me to stay and work. That evening I received your email, left the office immediately and went home with a big smile in my face.

What’s the latest news or development with your project?
Some of our customers told us that they can’t hold a pencil or don’t like to doodle on their sleeves. This is why we have been running a Talenthouse contest, asking young designers to submit artwork for a printed papernomad edition. From more than 400 submissions we will choose one to be produced and sold in selected retail locations around the globe.

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What is one quick anecdote about your project?
Assuming that Apple-Users are early-adopters, we decided early on to design our sleeves specifically for apple devices. That also reduced the spectrum of different models which we had to cater for. While discussing which color to choose for the wool felt inside the sleeves, we had a bowl of Granny Smith apples sitting on the table in front of us. With Apple users as our first customers, we took one of the apples to our supplier of wool felt and ordered the first lot of wool in ‘Granny Smith.’

What was an “a-ha” moment from this project?
We discovered that people love stories. Everyone we told about our idea, cared about our story more than about the material composition of the product. Stories define our lives, our past and future; papernomads are much more than biodegradable cases for electronic devices. They are canvases for our thoughts and memories. Above a green conscience, the diary-like character of our products sets Papernomad sleeves apart from a mass of similar but soulless products.

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