Hasta La Ideas

Irish designer Johnny Kelly has debuted a short movie that attempts to show how design impacts on everyday life using basic shapes and without words (+ movie).

Directed and designed by Kelly, Shape was written by graphic designer Scott Burnett, who is creative director of Dublin-based Studio AAD. The movie shows a day in the life of a nuclear family, but also illustrates some of the changes that happen over time “so slowly that we never really think about them”, Burnett told Dezeen.

“The characters are actually affecting the changes themselves in the film, everything changes and shifts to suit their needs,” said Burnett. “They’re very much part of the changes, the daughter understands this and has more control, the Dad doesn’t so is hijacked by a series of chairs.”

Commissioned by Pivot Dublin as part of its remit to promote the value of design, the brief for the film included a stipulation that no text or voiceover be used so it could be understood universally.

“Having tried to explain design, and particularly its value, to everyone from sisters and grandmothers to politicians and CEOs, I know that it usually takes about ten seconds until people start to glaze over,” Burnett told Dezeen.

“In the end we did the only sensible thing and decided not to try and explain design, but just to show it. Its prevalence, its impact, its role in everything we interact with.”

The film is set to be used in schools and classroom in Ireland as part of the MakeShapeChange campaign to raise awareness about design. This informed the style of the graphics, which aim to create something that is immediately understandable for a young audience.

“I like that it is simple enough to be watched small on a phone, in fact you could probably watch it at postage-stamp size and it would still make sense!” Kelly told Dezeen. “When it comes to characters, I find the simpler they look, the more you empathise with them. So I started with a square, circle and triangle and went from there – Saul Steinberg has a lot to answer for.”

“In a lot of ways, all we did was animate the idea that good design is invisible, which is the bit that’s always hardest to communicate to people who aren’t designers,” explained Kelly. “They get the ‘designer’ stuff, the added extra, all bells and whistles version, but it can be really difficult to explain the invisible bit.”

“We didn’t want to highlight supposed ‘good’ or ‘bad’ design – that’s not the aim with this film. Rather we wanted to show how almost every thing around us has been designed, and can and will be re-designed,” he added.

Pivot Dublin – the organisation behind Dublin’s bid to be named World Design Capital 2014 – worked with Dublin City Council to commission the project. Despite coming runner up to Cape Town, Pivot has continued with its original plan to promote the value of design in Ireland and is collaborating with other design capitals to use Kelly and Burnett’s film internationally.

Here’s some information about the film:

MakeShapeChange

As part of PIVOT Dublin, the city’s bid to become World Design Capital 2014, project initiator Ali Grehan thought that a simple animated film, that somehow explained what design was, would be a great way to expand the conversation, providing a way in for the wider public. Post bid, PIVOT Dublin has continued as planned to promote wider acceptance and use of design as a tool for positive change.

In 2012, Ali approached director Johnny Kelly to collaborate on making the film, and he in turn approached designer Scott Burnett to help write it. The challenge was to show what design was, and why it’s important in a way that could be understood universally, so without language. Simple. After exploring several ideas the team did the only sensible thing and decided not to focus on design at all.

MakeShapeChange is a project to get young people thinking about how the world is made around them and where design fits in. It’s grown from a film to a website to an education programme.

‘Shape’ is the short film at the heart of the project, highlighting the changes happening around us that we don’t ordinarily notice, and how they affect us. The website makeshapechange.com hosts the film and provides a prompt to Think Design. Breaking the film into a series of scenarios, it presents design within wide contexts, prompts curiosity and identifies some of the practitioners working in these contexts.

As part of the project we’re developing an initiative to get designers into schools to talk about what they do and the difference it makes. And to come full circle, while Dublin came runner up to Cape Town for World Design Capital 2014, both Cape Town and previous host Helsinki are keen to collaborate on projects that use the film to educate, connect and explain. We hope this network will grow to include more partners.

The project was commissioned by Pivot Dublin and Dublin City Council.

Directed & Designed by Johnny Kelly
Written by Scott Burnett
Produced by Ali Grehan
Production company: Nexus
Nexus Producer: Isobel Conroy
Animators: Felix Massie, Joe Sparrow, Alex Grigg and Johnny Kelly
Gif Wrangler: Alasdair Brotherston
Editor: Steven McInerney

Thanks to Mark Davies, Sergei Shabarov and Chris O’Reilly
Special thanks to Cllr Naoise O’Muiri and Dublin City Manager Owen Keegan for their support

Music & Sound Design: Antfood
Ensemble: Andrew Rehrig (flutes), Will Bone (trombone, trumpets, tuba, baritone sax, tenor sax I, clarinets), Jesse Scheinin (tenor sax II), Wilson Brown (pianos, guitars, synths, percussion), Chris Marion (strings)
Composition and Arrangement: Wilson Brown
Sound design: Spencer Casey, Charlie Van Kirk, Wilson Brown and Pran Bandi
Final Mix: Andy Baldwin

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the role of design in everyday life appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Zaha Hadid Architects has unveiled images of a 40-storey hotel with an exposed exoskeleton that is under construction in Macau, China (+ movie).

The 780-room hotel was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects for property developer and casino specialist Melco Crown Entertainment. It will be located at the company’s flagship City of Dreams resort in Cotai, an area that takes its visual cues from the Las Vegas Strip.

Conceived as a monolithic block with a series of voids carved through its centre, the hotel will be encased behind a latticed structure.

It will contain 150,000 square metres of floor space, and will also contain meeting and event facilities, restaurants, a spa and an elevated swimming pool.

“The design combines dramatic public spaces and generous guest rooms with innovative engineering and formal cohesion,” said the architects in a statement.

The building will be Melco Crown’s fifth hotel in Macau which, like Hong Kong, is a Special Administrative Region of China.

Construction started on the building in 2013 and is set to be completed by 2017.

Here are some more details from Zaha Hadid Architects:

The Fifth Hotel of City of Dreams Macau

Melco Crown Entertainment, a developer and owner of casino gaming and entertainment resort facilities in Asia, has unveiled the project details and design of the fifth hotel tower at City of Dreams, the company’s flagship property in Cotai, Macau.

With 40 floors and a gross floor area of 150,000 square metres, the tower houses approximately 780 guestrooms, suites and sky villas. The hotel also includes a variety of meeting and event facilities, gaming rooms, lobby atrium, restaurants, spa, and sky pool. Including extensive back of house areas and supporting ancillary facilities, the tower’s design resolves the many complex programs for the hotel within a single cohesive envelope.

The design combines dramatic public spaces and generous guest rooms with innovative engineering and formal cohesion. The rectangular outline of the site is extruded as a monolithic block with a series of voids which carve through the its centre of the tower, merging traditional architectural elements of roof, wall and ceiling to create a sculptural form that defines many of the hotel’s internal public spaces.

The tower’s exposed exoskeleton reinforces the dynamism of the design. Expressive and powerful, this external structure optimises the interior layouts and envelops the building, further defining its formal composition and establishing relationships with the new Cotai strip.

Development of the new hotel at City of Dreams commenced in 2013. The project is expected to open in early 2017.

The post Zaha Hadid unveils sculptural hotel
for casino resort in Macau appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Music Project: water becomes the main character in this black and white music video created by director Albert Sala for John Matthias’s Spreadsheet Blues.

Having never worked with water before, Albert Sala was interested in the different effects he could create to help evoke a sense of melancholy and tenderness he found in Matthias‘s music.

Sala was recruited by Matthias’s record label Village Green to develop the proposal for the video.

“As I listened to the first notes of the song, I sank into a nocturnal and rainy atmosphere, and saw raindrops falling on a lake,”  Sala told Dezeen.

“Following this train of thought, I started to work with the idea that the main character in this video should be water. I was interested by the possible effects we could achieve with its movement and light changes,” he said.

Each object from the fallout of an accident, which takes place off-screen, appears on the surface of the water, some emerging from underneath in slow motion and some falling from above to create a series of hypnotic scenes.

To help control this effect, Sala created a series of platforms for each item to stand on within a cube filled with water.

“It is a visual metaphor in which our character has an accident, causing the realisation that the things that surrounded him in life weren’t as important as he once thought,” said Sala.

“The visual idea of the project was to evoke a sense of melancholy and tenderness, states our character goes through, with the help of elegant and poetic imagery.”

The post A watery accident plays out in slow motion in
Albert Sala’s music video for John Matthias appeared first on Dezeen.

London designer Paul Cocksedge has launched a set of circular bike lights on Kickstarter that can be locked to a bicycle by slotting them over a standard lock (+ movie).

Cocksedge said he wanted to design a stylish light that also confronts issues associated with theft and glare resulting from light sources that are too bright.

“I’ve used many bike lights but I feel some things could really be improved,” the designer explained. “The inspiration for Double O comes directly from the shape of the bicycle. I wanted something that almost looked like the bike had designed it itself.”

The round lights feature a polycarbonate shell with a robust silicone backing housing 12 LEDs that are more spaced out than the densely arranged ultra-bright bulbs used by many other bike lights.

Cocksedge said this configuration produces a bright glow that is less dazzling for other cyclists and car drivers. “We use more LEDs at less power, which means the harshness is gone but the brightness hasn’t,” he said. “There is no compromise, you can see and be seen.”

A button on the back of the light enables the user to switch between steady, flashing and eco modes.

The lights contain magnets that allow them to clip onto a bike mount when in use and snap together to protect the LED surface when they are removed from the bike.

Once attached to one another, the two lights can be slotted over a typical D-lock and locked up with the bike so cyclists don’t need to carry them around.

Cocksedge has launched a campaign on crowdsourcing website Kickstarter aiming to raise £75,000 to fund prototyping, tooling and manufacture of the product.

Photography is by Mark Cocksedge.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

Paul Cocksedge launches the Double O bike light on Kickstarter

Today Paul Cocksedge Studio® launches its second innovative design on crowd-funding platform Kickstarter. Following on from the success of the Vamp®, Paul has this time turned his attention to bike lights, creating a product that will revolutionise the market and provide an intuitive and practical solution for cycling enthusiasts and leisure users alike. Cycle safety was a crucial element in the design and the resulting product is a simple, safe and secure light for everyday cycling.

Double O, named after its distinctive shape, is inspired by the form of the bicycle and the fluid motion of cycling. Double O attaches magnetically to the bike-mount supplied, making it super easy to get on and off, minimising any fiddling that gets in the way of the flow of cycling. It consists of two ‘O’ shaped lights, one white light for the front, one red for the back. When not in use, these magnetically connect together to protect the LED face.

One of the most common problems with bike lights is the safe keeping of them whilst a bike is locked up. The unique shape of the Double O allows users to thread the lights through a D lock and leave them secured along with their bike, eliminating the need for cyclists to carry their lights around with them.

Most existing bike lights use ultra-bright LEDs which are packed too closely together. This causes a very bright light which is blinding for car drivers and approaching cyclists. Double O tackles this issue by using 12 LEDs which are spaced out creating a bright yet soft glow, enabling cyclists to be seen without dazzling others. The light has three modes: steady, flashing and eco which can be changed via a push button.

Double O is made from a polycarbonate shell with silicone backing and is extremely robust and hardwearing. Bike lights come in all shapes and sizes but none as practical and as stylish as Double O’s. These powerful lights are very likely to be the last ones you’ll ever need to get for your bike and also do away with batteries as they are USB chargeable.

Paul Cocksedge says: “As with so many people, cycling is an essential part of my life, and cycling safety is crucial. I’ve used many bike lights but I feel some things could really be improved. I wanted to design a bike light and the inspiration for Double O comes directly from the shape of the bicycle. I wanted something that almost looked like the bike had designed it itself.”

The post Paul Cocksedge’s Double O bike lights
slot securely around a D-lock appeared first on Dezeen.

Amongst the bustling 24-hour shopping district of South Korea‘s capital city, Zaha Hadid has completed a 38,000-square-metre cultural complex with a twinkling aluminium facade (+ movie).

Inaugurated on Friday, the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) by Zaha Hadid Architects provides Seoul with a hub for art, design and technology, plus a landscaped park that serves as a much-needed green oasis, and a public plaza linking the two.

The building features a shapely facade made up of 45,000 aluminium panels of varying sizes and curvatures. This was achieved using advanced 3-dimensional digital construction services, making DDP the first public building in Korea to utilise the technology.

Described by the designers as “a field of pixilation and perforation patterns”, the backlit facade is speckled with minute perforations that allow the building to transform from a solid entity by day into an animated light show by night.

“The design integrates the park and plaza seamlessly as one, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape,” said Zaha Hadid Architects in a statement.

The complex is made up of eight storeys, of which four sit above ground level and four are set below the plaza. Facilities include exhibition galleries, convention and seminar rooms, a design museum, and a library and education centre.

Voids puncturing the surface of the park offer a look down into the spaces below, and also allow daylight to permeate the building.

The building opened on 21 March to mark the start of Korean Fashion Week, but is also hosting five art and design exhibitions, alongside a collection of Korean art from the Kansong Art Museum.

Photography is by Virgile Simon Bertrand. Movie is by Dan Chung.

Here’s the project description from Zaha Hadid Architects:

Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP)

The DDP has been designed as a cultural hub at the centre of Dongdaemun, a historic district of Seoul that is now renowned for its 24-hour shopping and cafes. DDP is a place for people of all ages; a catalyst for the instigation and exchange of ideas and for new technologies and media to be explored. The variety of public spaces within DDP include Exhibition Halls, Convention Halls, Design Museum, Library, Lab and Archives, Children’s Education Centre, Media Centre, Seminar Rooms and Sky Lounge; enabling DDP to present the widest diversity of exhibitions and events that feed the cultural vitality of the city.

The DDP is an architectural landscape that revolves around the ancient city wall and cultural artefacts discovered during archaeological excavations preceding DDP’s construction. These historic features form the central element of DDP’s composition; linking the park, plaza and city together.

The design is the very specific result of how the context, local culture, programmatic requirements and innovative engineering come together – allowing the architecture, city and landscape to combine in both form and spatial experience – creating a whole new civic space for the city.

The DDP Park is a place for leisure, relaxation and refuge – a new green oasis within the busy urban surroundings of Dongdaemun. The design integrates the park and plaza seamlessly as one, blurring the boundary between architecture and nature in a continuous, fluid landscape. Voids in the park’s surface give visitors glimpses into the innovative world of design below, making the DDP an important link between the city’s contemporary culture, emerging nature and history.

The 30,000 square metre park reinterprets the spatial concepts of traditional Korean garden design: layering, horizontality, blurring the relationship between the interior and the exterior – with no single feature dominating the perspective. This approach is further informed by historic local painting traditions that depict grand visions of the ever-changing aspects of nature.

DDP encourages many contributions and innovations to feed into each other; engaging the community and allowing talents and ideas to flourish. In combination with the city’s exciting public cultural programs, DDP is an investment in the education and inspiration of future generations.

DDP’s design and construction sets many new standards of innovation. DDP is the first public project in Korea to implement advanced 3-dimensional digital construction services that ensure the highest quality and cost controls. These include 3-dimensional Building Information Modelling (BIM) for construction management and engineering coordination, enabling the design process to adapt with the evolving client brief and integrate all engineering requirements.

These innovations have enabled the team building DDP to control the construction with much greater precision than conventional processes and improve efficiencies. Implementing such construction technologies make DDP one of Korea’s most innovative and technological advanced constructions to date.

DDP opens to the public on 21 March 2014 by hosting Korean Fashion Week. DDP will also host five separate design and art exhibitions featuring works by modern designers as well as the prized collection of traditional Korean art of the Kansong Art Museum.

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opens in Seoul appeared first on Dezeen.