Core77 Design Award 2011: Makedo, Runner-Up for Products/Equipment

core77_design_awards_logo-BANNER.jpg

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

Makedo_1.jpg

Paul_Justin.jpgDesigner: Makedo – Paul Justin
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Category: Products/Equipment
Award: Professional Runner-Up



Makedo

Makedo is a reusable connector system that enables construction using everyday materials including cardboard, plastic and fabric to create new things. Makedo has the ability to shift perceptions around waste and inspire social change through playful creativity. Makedo comprises three simple parts: the re-clip, the lock-hinge and the safe-saw.

In 2007, after 5 years working in a commercial design studio, I went to Salon Internazionale Del Mobile, to get inspired for a future in furniture design. I became incredibly disillusioned with the entirely unsustainable excess on show. For the first time I saw product design as fashion. I did not see ideas that were seeking to benefit society but merely provide more aesthetic choice to a slim few. During that trip to Milan, I wrote a brief to myself for what would constitute an idea worthy of bringing to market – something open-ended, a system rather than a product, taking in social and ecological consideration, and above all simple.

My second child Ezra was 4yrs old at the time the idea was forming. Ezra is a hands-on maker type but with a wild imagination that demands immediacy. We were spending a lot of time making – in one play session he would ‘need’ a rocket and a space outfit and by the next day it was a castle and a horse.

Makedo began as a much smaller idea, but I soon saw that it had the capacity to fulfill the Milan brief and the Ezra brief at once. The briefs merged and I was now focused on a system of making that was simple enough for a child to use. The more I broke it down to its basic elements, the more open-ended it became and the more green it could be – in product and philosophy.

Makedo_2.jpg

Core77: What’s the latest news or development with your project?

For us, Makedo has always been far more than a product. A big part of our concept is the the creative process it facilitates and the creative community it had the potential to nurture. So one of the most exciting developments for us is the emergence of what we’ve been calling ‘Makedo Master Makers’. We have a handful of brilliantly creative people from different parts of the globe who are making with Makedo and turning it into a bit of an art form. The exciting part for us is they are inspiring others to make and so we are seeing creativity breed further playful creativity – which was one of our aims in the first place. So we are focused on using our website, Facebook and Twitter platforms to help drive this community of makers.

What is 1 quick anecdote about your project?

The first Makedo parts didn’t work. Late in 2009, we cut a soft tool to test the design. A few thousand pieces later, we had a huge launch exhibition organised, top-tier designers lined up to make creations and cartons of dysfunctional connectors. We persevered, the launch was a resounding success and incorporating all the lessons from the experience, I redesigned the parts from scratch on my first day back in the studio.

Read on for full details on the project and jury comments.

Makedo_3.jpg

(more…)


Core77 Design Award 2011: Pure Water Bottle, Student Notable for Design for Social Impact

core77_design_awards_logo-BANNER.jpg

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

Pure_Water_Bottle_1.jpg

Tim's picture.jpgDesigner: Timothy Whitehead
Location: Kent, United Kingdom
Category: Design for Social Impact
Award: Student Notable



Pure Water Bottle

A water bottle designed for Adventure Tourists, Aid workers and NGO’s which filters and sterilises water from almost any source within two minutes. The product uses a wind up mechanism and is not reliant to external batteries or power.

While travelling though Zambia, Africa I realised the reliance people have on chlorine and iodine tablets; these take about 30 minutes to create safe drinking water and leave an unpleasant taste. The aim was to create a product which was compact and light enough for travelling tourists to carry around, while providing; safe, clean and sterile drinking water quickly.

I found that people wanted a simple, easy to use product which worked quickly and effectively. I discovered that by using a big filter you reduced the volume of water to can carry. Consequently, I opted for a compact filter with a ultra-violet light bulb to sterilise the water. UV has the added advantage of no distortion to taste. Another challenge to overcome was the power required to power the bulb. I decided not to rely on batteries, but instead I used a wind-up generator, giving limitless supplies of power on-demand.

Pure_Water_Bottle_2.jpg

What’s the latest news or development with your project?

The project continues to move forward, funding is an inevitable issue and slows progress at times. However, I really believe in the potential for Pure, both for the developed world travelling market and the developing world. I am hoping to go to India in the next month to trial/investigate the potential for the product in this vibrant and up and coming market. All I can say is ‘watch this space’, I am determined to get Pure to market.

What was the best part of working on your Pure Water Bottle?

The best bit of the project was walking into the test lab after filtering and sterilising sewage water. I looked at the results and was so pleased to see no trace of e.coli or other harmful bacteria. It proved that the product would work once constructed.

I also love telling people about the idea, everyone I have told as understood the product straight away and loved the concept. I just hope that I can now make it a reality.

Read on for full details on the project and jury comments.

Pure_Water_Bottle_3.jpg

(more…)


Core77 Design Award 2011: Inside and Outside the Box, Student Runner-Up for Packaging/Branding/Identity

core77_design_awards_logo-BANNER.jpg

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

Inside_and_Outside_of_the_Box_1.jpg

bryantyee1.jpgDesigner: Bryant Yee – University of Michigan School of Art & Design
Location: Troy, Michigan, USA
Category: Packaging
Award: Student Runner-Up



INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE BOX: REDESIGNING LED PACKAGING

This project aims to bring awareness to socially responsible LED packaging. Current packaging does not maximize sustainable materials or construction, while also failing to clearly convey information. My packaging design uses only post-consumer recycled paper, promotes recycling old bulbs, and supplies the consumer with updated information through modern graphic design.

A thoroughly researched and frequently revised foundation is essential when perfecting something as delicate and complex, as a glue-free, sustainable box. While designing the package for the LED bulb required a deep knowledge and investigation of paper, folds, and graphical language, the prospect of developing a package capable of recycling dead bulbs, and still retaining its beautiful object-like qualities was exhilarating. As a result, I was able to develop a springy, protective, interior core made only of folded paper. This interior piece cushions the new or old bulb so that it remains in place and can handle disturbances during transport. The resulting combination of a durable outer shell and a flexible inner body creates a perfectly balanced box.

Inside_and_Outside_of_the_Box_2.jpg

Core77: What’s the latest news or development with your project?

I’ve been featured on TheDieline.com, PackagingOfTheWorld.com and ID-Mag.com. I will also be featured in September’s issue of ‘Computer Arts Projects’ magazine in the UK and I will be published in Gestalten’s upcoming book ‘Boxed and Labelled 2.’

Inside_and_Outside_of_the_Box_3.jpg

What was your process like? What inspired and challenged you?

For several months, I explored the potential of various papers. I experimented and tested for durability, flexibility, and memory. I compared and organized several papers until I had retained enough knowledge to match the appropriate papers with my vision for the packaging graphics. From here, I studied historical packaging techniques and paper engineering. My main historical reference is Josef Albers and the design movement he was a part of at Bauhaus. During my private research, I studied under Matt Shlian, a current University of Michigan professor and internationally known paper engineer.

Then I began production and created countless iterations of my design with curiosity as my driving force. I had a desire to test every possibility and from that curiosity grew a specific set of challenges. How few tabs are required to bind the paper together? How much force can one type of paper sustain over another? Which direction of forces would be most threatening to the bulb and how can it account for those forces? Often by answering my own questions, my curiosity only expanded. Not only does it drive me as I produce iterations, but it compels me to do further research.

Also, one time the laser cutter was broken for a day and I was like fml…

Read on for full details on the project and jury comments.

Inside_and_Outside_of_the_Box_4.JPG

Inside_and_Outside_of_the_Box_5.JPG

(more…)


Core77 Design Award 2011: Safe Agua, Notable for Design for Social Impact

core77_design_awards_logo-BANNER.jpg

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

Social-Impact-Pro-e183-a-1024x788.jpg

Safe_Team_1.jpeg
Designer: Designmatters – Art Center College of Design
Location: Pasadena, California, USA
Category: Design for Social Impact
Award: Professional Notable


Safe Agua

Safe Agua addresses quotidian challenges of safe water access for families living in Latin American slum developments. Driven by field research in Santiago, Chile, the team designed innovative water solutions, implemented by the NGO client: 10 Mila community laundries, Relava kitchen workstations, and 1000s of Ducha Halo portable showers.

The practical challenge for Safe Agua was to design concrete solutions for utilizing, transporting and storing water for families living in the slum or campamento without running water. These families receive water from a municipal truck one to three times per week. When the water is delivered, they store it in barrels outside their homes. Women must hand carry water for each daily task. Bathing becomes an arduous chore rather than a relief; laundry can take a full day of physical labor; and a glass of water can make a child sick. These perpetual burdens consume people’s time, diminish their quality of life, impact health and dignity, and become an obstacle to earning a stable income and overcoming poverty.

The deep personal, empathetic connections that our team forged during field research with families living in these conditions ignited our creativity and our passion to work with the families to create Safe Agua projects with maximal impact, with minimal resources.

Social-Impact-Pro-e183-c-1024x767.jpg

Core77: What’s the latest news or development with your project?

In Fall 2011, SAFE AGUA Peru will build upon the investigations and experiences of the 2009 SAFE AGUA Chile project, while working with a new community on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. SAFE AGUA Peru is a trans-disciplinary studio for social innovation: a collaboration between Designmatters and the Innovation Center of Latin American NGO Un Techo Para mi Pais (“A Roof for My Country”), with the aim to help families in Peru’s slums overcome water poverty. The project will begin with a ten-day intensive field research trip, where the team will work directly with families without access to basic services, including running water and sanitation, in Cerro Verde, a 30,000-person slum perched on the hillsides surrounding Lima, Peru. Driven by field research, teams will design innovative water solutions and create full-scale working prototypes, to be tested by the community, and implemented by Un Techo’s Innovation Center. SAFE AGUA Peru is the recipient of a 2011 NCIIA Sustainable Vision Grant.

SAFE AGUA will be featured in the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s “Design with the Other 90%: Cities” Exhibition at the United Nations (October 15, 2011-January 9, 2012)

Social-Impact-Pro-e183-e-1024x787.jpg

What is 1 quick anecdote about your project?

One of the most significant moments for many of us in the project was meeting Rosita Reyes, the remarkable community leader of Campamento San Jose in the outskirts of Santiago, Chile, where we worked with the Innovation team of Un Techo Para Mi Pais. Rosita’s vision, stamina and innate sense of leadership in the face of tremendous complexity was so very inspiring. I remember when we said good-bye after the end of our first field immersion. We were talking about the aspirations we both had for the project and the collaboration. I remember her telling me: This is a community with dreams. That statement, suddenly crystallized so much of what was at stake in terms of the design process that would follow. – Mariana Amatullo, Designmatters CoFounder, VP, Designmatters at Art Center College of Design

DSC_0244.JPGSAFE AGUA exhibit at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC, June 2011 (Client: Innovation Center, Un Techo Para mi País/Design Team Leaders:Penny Herscovitch & Dan Gottlieb, Padlab)

On the last day of our field research trip, Rosita, the community leader of Campamento San Jose, shared with our team the impact that we had made with each of the families in the campamento. What she shared was extraordinary—that the students’ research interviews and connection with each family had a therapeutic and “milagroso” (miraculous) effect, when our students truly listened to people’s aspirations and challenges, and deeply valued what each family expressed. These personal connections were essential to our design process of co-creation—a shift from designing for people to designing with people. – Penny Herscovitch, Faculty Environmental Design, Art Center College of Design / Principal, Padlab

Read on for full details on the project and jury comments.

P1110289.jpegSAFE AGUA exhibit at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, DC, June 2011 (Client: Innovation Center, Un Techo Para mi País/Design Team Leaders:Penny Herscovitch & Dan Gottlieb, Padlab)

(more…)


Core77 Design Award 2011: Simple Memory and Bloom, Student Runner-Up and Notable for Interactive/Web/Mobile

core77_design_awards_logo-BANNER.jpg

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

Simple_Memory1.jpgVisualization from Simple Memory

Amy_Martin2.jpgDesigner: Amy Martin – California College of the Arts
Location: San Francisco, California, USA
Category: Interactive/Web/Mobile
Award: Student Runner-Up and Notable



Simple Memory

Simple Memory visualizes personal relationships within email. Using a 4.5 gb Gmail archive, this prototype shows the top ten recipients each year from 2004 to 2010. In addition to representing the natural ebb & flow of relationships, it also shows how data can create understanding and evoke emotion.

Simple_Memory2.jpg

Simple_Memory3.jpg

Bloom

Bloom moves an emergent function of email–task management–out of the inbox and into an external, physical object. Drawing on the ideas of ubiquitous computing, this project combines an existing behavior, starring items in an inbox, with the familiar metaphor of a plant.

Bloom1.jpg

Bloom3.jpg

Core77: How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?

I learned from the twitter feed first. As I was at work, I didn’t want to draw attention to myself and I was a little too scared to watch the broadcast (in case I didn’t win… I watched it afterwards though).

What’s the latest news or development with your projects?

Both of my projects were prototypes for thesis work and so are indefinitely on hold. If I come into riches, someday, I’d love to continue the work myself but I’d also be delighted to see someone else take a similar concept (for Bloom) and run with it. I could easily see that being some kind of ipad app.

What is the impetus behind your design?

I went into graduate school with the idea of representing how interchangable humanity is/has become (something of a personal obsession). Throughout most of my work during school, however, I never touched that concept. It was, then, incredibly satisfying to me, to touch again on that theme with Simple Memory. It felt a little like coming full circle.

Read on for full details and Jury Comments on Simple Memory and Bloom.

Bloom2.jpg

(more…)


Core77 Design Award 2011: Ping, Runner-Up for Never Saw the Light of Day

core77_design_awards_logo-BANNER.jpg

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

Ping_3.jpg

Studio Sophisti.jpgDesigner: Studio Sophisti – Wouter Reeskamp & Tijin Kooijmans
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Category: Never Saw the Light of Day
Award: Professional Runner-Up



Ping: The Connected Lamp

Two lamps are connected with each other over the internet through a simple installation. One user will see his/her lamp glow when the other switches it on. When both users have their lamps on both light up to full capacity. This makes people aware of each others presence over distance.

Our goal was to design a lamp which emphasizes there is a part missing while still being an aesthetically pleasing product on it’s own. Our main inspiration was two penguins in a mating ritual or two flames dancing around each other. The dividing curve between the two lamps has parallels with the defining curves or a yin-yang symbol. Only later we realized that the two lamps together bared resemblance to a flower, which is also a symbol of love.

At Studio Sophisti we strongly believe in the notion of the Internet of Things. Everyday artifacts connected to the internet and therefore connecting us to people in much more subtle ways as it is doing now. We do believe that this needs to start out simple to prepare consumers for much richer ways of communicating to each other. A uniquely paired ‘pinging’ lamp would be simple enough.

Ping_2.jpg

Core77: How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?

We learned about the runner-up nomination by watching the webcast of the jury.

What’s the latest news or development with your project?

The publicity of the Core77 runner-up award and the exhibition of Ping in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago raised a lot of attention through social media and e-mails we received. It strengthens our dedication in finding a launching partner to bring the product to market! We are working on technical improvements and on the materials to be able to hit the market as soon as possible

What is 1 quick anecdote about your project?

What we are thrilled about with Ping is how it really hits a nerve with people. We have received page-long emails from people explaining why the product would be great for them and their loved ones. That a product concept can trigger such emotional response makes us believe the ‘Internet of Things’ will be more social and emotional then switching on coffee machines over distance.

Read on for full details on the project and jury comments.

Ping_1.jpg

(more…)


Core77 Design Award 2011: Exhale Pavilion, Winner for Interiors/Exhibition

core77_design_awards_logo-BANNER.jpg

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

exhale-1.png

Phu and Rachely_OpeningNight by Robin Hill (17).jpgDesigner: Phu Hoang Office & Rachely Rotem Studio
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Category: Interiors/Exhibition
Award: Winner

Exhale Pavilion

Exhale Pavilion, which covers a 25,000 SF beach site, literally shifts with the weather, producing an open and dynamic environment. The project created a public art venue for the Art Basel Miami Beach art fair. The site was temporarily transformed by seven miles of hanging ropes swaying in the wind.

We are fascinated with the possibilities that interactive architecture can bring to the built environment. We design novel relationships between architecture and the environment. For us, this is more than “sustainability”—it is about conceiving of the environment as an interactive experience. These two research focus of ours—interactivity and the environment—were synthesized together in the Exhale pavilion as the public interacted with the dynamically wind forces on the site.

The Exhale pavilion used two types of rope to create these interactive environments. Some ropes were reflective while others were phosphorescent; together they produced a canopy that shimmers and glows in the night. The reflective ropes shimmered as the night winds moved through them. When the wind would reach a particular speed, it would momentarily activate special ultraviolet lights, “charging” the glowing phosphorescent rope. Other, smaller wind speed sensors mounted at human height respond directly to users’ behavior. When someone blew on a sensor, it momentarily “charged” the nearby glowing ropes. Rather than relying on fixed relationships, we were staging possibilities for the public to experience the wind with the medium of ropes and light. We were giving form to the site’s wind effects while also creating new forms of public interaction with the environment.

exhale-2.png

Core77: How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?

We watched the live broadcast as it was happening. Since the jury was in Tokyo and we are both based in New York, the broadcast occurred at 10 pm local time. It was a really exciting moment to find out that we won—especially after the very high quality of work that was evident with the other competitors.

What’s the latest news or development with your project?

We just received an exciting piece of news. The Department of Environmental Resources Management in Florida has successfully lowered our concrete footings to the bottom of the ocean. Working with Creative Time (one of our clients), we had arranged to donate all of the materials used to build “Exhale”—this included the concrete footings, which will form an artificial reef off the coast of Florida. It is terrific that our project will have an “afterlife”—for the fish and scuba divers!

image-1.jpgimage-2.jpgProject afterlife images courtesy of The Department of Environmental Resources Management of Florida

What was one of the most exciting experiences from your project?

We had designed the project to constantly change its form according to the site wind levels—but we never could guess how exactly it would appear. The unpredictability of its final appearance was very exciting to us. As we completed the construction, we were amazed by the effects that the wind had on the rope. At times, the ropes would move wildly and create entirely unexpected forms. At other times, the ropes would sway gently in the wind as if suspended in slow motion.

Read on for full details on the project and jury comments.

(more…)


Core77 Design Award 2011: Radioball, Notable for DIY/Hack/Mod

core77_design_awards_logo-BANNER.jpg

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

DIY-Radioball-1.jpg

Radioball TeamDesigner: TEAGUE – Benoit Collette, Adam Kumpf, Tad Toulis
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Category: DIY/Hack/Mod
Award: Notable


Radioball

Radioball is a simple-to-use radio that encourages spatial exploration; the non-traditional form of content navigation inspires playful and social interaction. Users find stations as they ‘roll’ through the FM dial, a discovery experience often lost in modern digital interactions.

Radioball was originally a hack, a way to create a tangible interface. The idea of creating a device without any buttons, screens or recognizable interface was a great challenge. Looking at the media coverage of this study, people seemed to agree with us that touch screens are not the ultimate way to interact with a product.

Exploring other ways to interact with common electronic product today is infinite. The amount of tools, sensors, and material we have at our disposal to create more poetic and more human ways to interact with our everyday surrounding is vast. The beauty of the Radioball is to use those tools, but abstract them away so that the user doesn’t have to think about the amount of electronics inside—they just think about how fun it is to interact with it. Based on this observation we are developing parallel ideas and derivative products that could be marketable.

If you look at people today they assume they should immediately understand how a product works. We rarely even have time to read the fine lines or the “how to” of a product; if it works then great if it doesn’t then the product is probably poorly designed, and we totally agree with this spirit. If you create a new way to interact with a product and you ask people to learn how to use it, it needs to bring something essential, something magical, or the user will get confused and bored, and they are likely to jump to another product right away.

DIY-Radioball-2.jpg

Core77: How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?

As Core77 is a daily read for us, we were just browsing the site and found the list of winners. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Radioball was featured as a Core77 Awards Notable.

What did you learn during the development of your project?

It’s been great to see the physical response that people had to randomness. In the super fast, super polished world that we live in, there is no more room for randomness or dirtiness — everything needs to be HD, super easily accessible, and precise. Part of the Radioball’s success came from using a medium that everybody knows and that is on the edge of being old-school (such as the dial radio). Today crisp, clear HD satellite radio and internet radio is taking over—very soon the FM band will be part of our memories.

There is something interesting in those analog memories—fussiness, imprecision, randomness, discovery, memories—that we are delighted and fascinated by. Radioball was never intended to be a marketable product, even though a lot of people have asked us how much it costs or where they could buy it. But Radioball has definitely been a root behind a couple other projects that will hit the market in a near future or that are still in development. Tangible and spacial interfaces, bringing memories into interaction, and leaving room for randomness are important and not going anywhere soon.

The tool you are using to achieve a task should please you as much as the result will.

DIY-Radioball-3.jpg

What was the eureka moment for your project?

The eureka moment was when we met again after discussing the idea of a 3D faceted radio interface, and quickly moved from a quick sketch on paper and a quick sketch in 3D to discovering that this was actually possible. More than just being possible, the Radioball was actually fun and exciting. Using just a handful of wires, an accelerometer, an arduino, and an FM transmitter the device sprang to life. It captivated us and kept us imagining, trying, and creating for quite a while—making Radioball real was not the end of the design process, it was the process.

On this project everything went from “what if?” to “hell yeah, it’s working!” or “it’s working, but what if…”

Making physical prototypes informed most of our design decisions. From the number of facets on the ball for the stability or the cleanliness of the way the ball was rolling; from the sound resonance inside the central structure to the durometer of the outside shell; and from the necessary speed of twisting to changing the volume. Every step was a necessary physical exploration and every exploration was an ah-ha moment. To this day we are still evolving and twisting things here and there, but the lesson we learned was really about “thinking by making.”

Read on for full details on the project and jury comments.

(more…)


Core77 Design Award 2011: Museum of Possibilities, Notable for Speculative Concepts/Objects

core77_design_awards_logo-BANNER.jpg

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

museedespossibles_1.jpg

Ethan_and_Jonathan.jpgDesigner: Living with Our Time – Mouna Andraos, Melissa Mongiat, Kelsey Snook
Category: Speculative Objects/Concepts
Award: Professional Notable



Museum of Possibilities

The Museum of Possibilities was created for the public to take ownership of a new space in Montréal’s Quartier des spectacles. People were asked to share what they would like to see, do, or who they would like to meet in this space—and together explore all possibilities.

The “Museum of Possibilities” was created during Montréal’s city-wide open day for Museums. Members of the public could pick up a piece of paper and write down what they would like to have happen in that space in the future. Visitors entered the field of balloons to add an ‘entry’ to the museum of possible things which might happen on site.

We also wanted to inspire people to imagine the possibilities! So we came up with a variety of inspiration mechanisms—juice of possibilities in mystery colors, bingo, and dice to roll that gave extra prompts, like “at sunset” or “on my birthday,” or “with my best friend,” so people could more easily imagine scenarios there.

museedespossibles_2.jpg

Core77: How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?

We tuned in online and watched the live feed, bazooka blasts and all!

What’s the latest news or development with your project?

With the amount of public interest in creating activities in the new public space, our next challenge is to involve the public in turning the submitted possibilities into realities. In the mean time, the client approached us to further help create an environment of engagement with the developments of the neighborhood, this past spring we launched a 21 Musical Swings project just a few streets away.

museedespossibles_3.jpg

museedespossibles_6.jpg

What is one quick anecdote about your project?

Maybe a good time to mention the project’s brief after-life. Since the Museum of Possibilities was a pop-up museum for one day, we held a public dismantling. We kept the written contributions and gave away 500 balloons to participants. The balloons trickled out into the neighborhood, attached to bicycles, cars, balconies, and followed people home.

Read on for full details on the project and jury comments.

museedespossibles_4.jpg

museedespossibles_5.jpg

(more…)


Core77 Design Award 2011: Ploom – Alex Ko, Notable for Packaging/Branding/Identity

core77_design_awards_logo-BANNER.jpg

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

Ploom_1.jpg

Ethan_and_Jonathan.jpgDesigner: Ploom – Alex Ko
Category: Packaging/Branding/Identity
Award: Professional Notable



Ploom Pod

Designed the interaction with Ploom Pods, natural tobacco for the 21st-century. Responsible for the design of the structural packaging, graphic identity and the supporting point of purchase assets.

We’ve seen two radically different approaches to cigarette packaging this week, so Alex Ko’s Ploom Pod Packaging is particularly relevant solution to the broader issue of tobacco consumption and public perception of such:

Tobacco, I’m willing to guess, is one of the more polarizing topics one could tackle. It’s sort of like convincing your school that the class bully is now the class angel, or at the very least, the class nerd. Ploom aims to convince you of just that.

Ploom is a tobacco product for the 21st century, using technology to offer a modern alternative to smoking that takes a responsible point of view on ingredients and health. The technology consists of a pocket-vaporizer, called the model One™, and hermetically-sealed, single servings of tobacco, packed in anodized aluminum capsules called Pods™…

Vapor, not smoke, is the key distinction, as research shows that most harms associated with tobacco consumption are associated with combustion, not with tobacco or nicotine. The problem posed to the team was to design the Pod packaging, defining the experience of purchasing, carrying, and dispensing tobacco and herbal Pods.

Ploom_2.jpg

Core77: How did you learn that you had been recognized by the jury?

I was checking my iPhone in the middle of Green Lantern. We were out for my brother’s 50th birthday.

What’s the latest news or development with your project?

Ploom continues to spread domestically and internationally. We just got a bunch of interest in South Korea!

Ploom_3.jpg

What is one quick anecdote about your project?

As soon as I walked into a convenience store and saw the visual assault of typical cigarette displays, I both knew what we were up against and what the solution needed to feel like.

Read on for full details on the project and jury comments.

Ploom_4.jpg

Ploom_5.jpg

(more…)