Three aspiring architects from Columbia’s GSAPP program, Paul Chan, Richard Angus Duff and Ebberly Strathairn took it upon themselves to end their unrewarding quest for the ultimate notebook by making…
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Il problema è sempre stato lo sbattimento di dove riporre i tappi. Kent Frayn e Joe Walsh hanno la soluzione su kickstarter. Supportateli.
Barcelona-based designer Ryan Frank has invented a modular hanging system called Grapple. The molded hooks have a buckle feature which allows them to be set at different heights along strands of webbing and hold items of…
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You couldn’t make it up—or could you? The fact that a London-based artist/designer is turning to a popular crowdfunding platform to launch her latest project is hardly newsworthy, but it turns out that Ilona Gaynor is looking to plan an extremely elaborate bank robbery (a somewhat ironic twist on a certain topical New Yorker cartoon).
Gaynor has been plotting “Under Black Carpets” for some two years now, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike her hitlist of five major banks at One Wilshire in downtown Los Angeles. What originated as an architectural observation—she notes that “particular events or moments could be hidden from view behind protruding floors, light refractions from the mirrored glass and thick palm tree heads”—has now evolved into an obsession: to get away with the perfect heist.
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As we continue to grow more and more attached to technology, the weight of social relationships and ever-connectedness builds with it. While we all seem to subconsciously know the downside of this lopsided relationship, few of us do anything to address it. But…
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Of all the behind-closed-doors creative departments out there, the New Yorker‘s cartoon desk has inspired as much idle speculation as to what actually goes on in there. Filmmakers Leah Wolchok and Davina Pardo wondered the same thing, and they hope to shed some light on the situation with Very Semi-Serious, a mostly-produced and to-be-edited documentary for which they’re seeking funding on Kickstarter.
VERY SEMI-SERIOUS is an offbeat meditation on humor, art and the genius of the single panel. The film takes an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the New Yorker and introduces the cartooning legends and hopefuls who create the iconic cartoons that have inspired, baffled—and occasionally pissed off—all of us for decades.
I couldn’t help but notice that the trailer evokes Wordplay, Patrick Creadon’s 2006 doc about New York Times‘ Crossword Editor Will Shortz (which, by the way, is quite good), and it so happens that they “even filmed a killer Ping Pong match between [cartoon editor] Bob Mankoff and PuzzleMaster Will Shortz.” Go figure.
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There seem to two paths to creating smart (and thusly non-cringe-worthy) life-tracking device: either design something so seamless that you barely think about it, or design hardware with enough applications that the possibilities are worth the inconvenience. Enter Melon, a headband tricked out with three metal electrodes that run across the forehead monitoring your brain activity in the pre-frontal cortex. Essentially, the headband measures the electrical activity of constantly firing neurons in your brain and puts it into a sleek mobile app so you can track your level of focus and learn about your own behavior (a little something for the Nick Feltron in all of us.)
First thoughts are inevitably in the realm of “Nike Fuel Band for your head” or “what would implanted Cube Sensors be like?”—but hang on for a second. The idea that you can track focus if pretty appealing, and not for a single activity, but for whatever you actually happen to do in your daily routine. Likewise, because Melon acts as a tiny EEG monitors the possibilities for software that stretches even beyond the focus data. Shifting the conversation from ‘quantified self’ to ‘understood self’ is a good lesson for UX and product designers alike as there does exist a thin line between waking up in the morning, feeling like a bar graph and actually gaining insight into the way you live your life.
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As we saw with NEMO Equipment’s gear, clever design can enable air to play a significant structural role with camping gear. In NEMO’s case, that air is provided by a pump.
Portland-based inventor Ryan Frayne is also experimenting with air, but he’s zeroed in on a particular element of the user experience: How to get the air into the product. To that end, Frayne has focused on designing a special valve, and the results are pretty impressive. Frayne’s Windcatcher design amplifies your exhalation, using physics I don’t understand to multiply your air volume by a factor of 10 or 15—with the added benefit that you don’t even have to put your mouth on the thing. Observe:
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Inclement weather and clunky fenders beware: Plume’s new mudguard (a Britishism for fender) will keep cyclists on the road—and dry—no matter what Mother Nature has in mind, all the while keeping the aesthetic of the two-wheeled…
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Statistically speaking, most of us only use crowbars when we’re about to be arrested for Menacing, but if you’ve ever had to do light demo around the house you know how handy they can be. Someone actually stole my crowbar a couple of years ago, and I never bought a replacement since I haven’t recently needed to pry anything open or dispense street justice.
Maybe it’s just as well that I’ve held off, as a new crowbar may be hitting the market at the end of this summer. And, usefully, it also happens to be a hammer. And a 1/2-inch socket wrench, and a couple of other things. I’m normally skeptical of multi-tools, but the Cole-Bar Hammer, which is currently up on Kickstarter, look pretty promising:
I know what you’re thinking: How well would that central joint hold up when the tool is extended into a full-length crowbar?
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
