Hasta La Ideas

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.”

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slot securely around a D-lock appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen promotion: Dezeen readers can receive a 25 percent discount on tickets to the Designs of the Year 2014 exhibition, opening today at London’s Design Museum (+ slideshow).

The exhibition displays architecture and designs nominated for this year’s Designs of the Year awards, which will be given to the best projects in each category and an overall winner later this year.

Projects on display include a fashion collection made from metallic heat-pressed neoprene, a concept car with a retractable windscreen and a bamboo bonnet by Jean-Marie Massaud for Toyota.

Dezeen is media partner for the exhibition and our readers will receive 25 percent off regular admission price when pre-booking online and using code DEZ25 under the Dezeen Special Offer.

There is still a chance to win free tickets to the exhibition in our competition, which closes on 9 April – find out how to enter.

For more information about Designs of the Year 2014, visit the Design Museum website.

Exhibition photographs are by Luke Hayes.

Here’s some more information from the Design Musuem:

25% off Designs of the Year 2014 at the Design Museum

Now in its seventh year, Designs of the Year gathers together a year of cutting-edge innovation and original talent; showcasing the very best in global Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphic, Product and Transport design.

Featuring Kate Moss’s favourite app, a floating school in a Nigerian lagoon, friendly lamp posts, a mobile phone you can build yourself and many others, Designs of the Year 2014 include international design stars such as Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield and Miuccia Prada, alongside crowd-funded start ups and student projects. This not to be missed exhibition is a clear reflection of everything that is current and exciting in the world. Someday the other museums will be showing this stuff.

As a Dezeen reader, you receive 25% off regular admission price when pre-booking and using code DEZ25 under the Dezeen Special Offer.

www.designmuseum.org

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Swedish firm OkiDoki! Arkitekter has created its own offices inside a former corset factory in Gothenburg, designing an open-plan workspace that hosts events for local residents in the evening (+ slideshow).

The Corset Factory by OkiDoki! Arkitekter is situated in a building that was designed by architect Gustaf Wickman in 1898 but had been renovated as offices several times over since production ceased in 1950.

Light floods in through the large original windows and the main space is divided by a series of ten cast-iron columns.

The open-plan space is dominated by one continuous table, where members of staff all sit together to reflect the company’s unhierarchical nature.

“Everyone sits around the same table, literally as well as figuratively,” said the architects. “Aside from a few smaller rooms for quiet meetings or telephone calls, everything takes place in the same big room.”

A selection of colourful curtains, rugs and specially designed furniture demarcates the space into zones for meetings of different sizes, reception areas or places to take a break.

There is also a row of smaller rooms along one side of the space for private meetings or phone calls.

In the corner of the main area, a stepped seating area replete with cushions looms over the room. This is used for presentations and screenings as well as a place for people to work away from their desks.

On evenings when the Corset Factory hosts seminars and lectures, movie festivals or parties, the break-out areas can be cleared to make open spaces or filled with chairs to create a screening area.

“The Corset factory is more than just an office,” explained the architects. “It is a place not only for architectural work but for open discussions, new ideas, spontaneous meetings – a sort of living room for the city: available for anyone, anytime.”

Off from the main space, conference and meeting rooms are simply finished in white with wooden floors. These are separated from the main area by a partially exposed brick wall with pieces of plaster painted in an array of different colours.

Photography is by Bert Leandersson.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

The Corset Factory, Gothenburg, Sweden

The old corset factory in central Gothenburg is one of the city’s most beautiful buildings. Designed by Gustaf Wickman in 1898, the great windows flooding the open spaces with light made it ideal for its original use as a factory. Since 1950, when the production shut down, the building has hosted several offices. In September 2013 Okidoki Arkitekter moved in.

Okidoki’s organisation is open and un-hierarchical. This is reflected in the premises and how they’re used. Everyone sits around the same table, literally as well as figuratively. Aside from a few smaller rooms for quiet meetings or telephone calls, everything takes place in the same big room. Curtains, carpets and specially designed furniture helps divide it into zones suited for different purposes; weekly meetings with the whole office, informal meetings with guests and customers, breaks with coffee and a magazine.

The Corset factory is more than just an office. It is a place not only for architectural work but for open discussions, new ideas, spontaneous meetings – a sort of living room for the city, available for anyone, anytime. In the evenings the Corset Factory hosts seminars and lectures, movie festivals and parties. Thus, the most interesting thing about the project is perhaps not how it is designed and used as an office but how it actually is a part of the urban life.

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and events space by OkiDoki! Arkitekter appeared first on Dezeen.

London studio dRMM has completed a house and studio for Hackney artist Richard Woods, using his trademark cartoon-style print to add colour to the building’s facade and staircase (+ slideshow).

Richard Woods is best known for the painted woodgrain graphics he applies to furniture and textiles, so dRMM used the pattern to inject the character of the artist into the architectural design.

Panels in shades of white, yellow and green run horizontally along patches of the front and rear facades. They reappear inside the house as treads for the main staircase, which features a rainbow of colours ranging from pale pink and white to bold reds, blues and greens.

Entitled WoodBlock House, the project is described by the designers as “a chance for experimentation that resulted in domestic joy and Spartan pleasure in every aspect of the finished product”.

Functions inside the three-storey building are divided up by storey. A large-scale printing workshop occupies the entire ground floor, while the level above accommodates living spaces and the second storey contains four bedrooms for Woods’ family.

Externally, only the bedroom storey is clad with the colourful plywood. The rest of the exterior is clad with unpainted larch boards that are arranged vertically to contrast.

Timber also lines the walls, floors and ceilings of the two domestic floors. “WoodBlock House also has the unique atmosphere of a house built only in timber and glass, with a sensual quality that has to be seen, touched and smelt to be fully understood,” said dRMM in a statement.

The studio opens out to a yard at the back, ensuring easy access and constant ventilation, while the dining room leads to a balcony terrace where residents can dine al fresco.

The staircase also ascends to another terrace on the roof, which is accessed via a small library.

dRMM used a cross-laminated timber structural system to build the house. Only two types of windows were used, which include full-height sliding windows for the living rooms and smaller “punched hole” windows for bedrooms and corridors.

The interior is completed by a wood-burning stove, leather seating and a few select pieces of furniture by the artist.

This isn’t the first time dRMM has collaborated with Richard Woods. The pair previously worked together to create a gallery space for Modern Art Oxford.

Photography is by Alex de Rijke.

Here’s a project description from dRMM:

WoodBlock House, Hackney, London

WoodBlock House demonstrates a genuine collaboration between architect and client, a chance for experimentation that resulted in domestic joy and Spartan pleasure in every aspect of the finished product.

The brief was to create a studio, home and office for UK artist Richards Woods and his family. Woods’ working process requires a large-scale printing workshop where work can be manufactured with adequate space for him and his studio employees. The building had to be designed with the inclusion of an open yard at ground level, to ensure ventilation and ease of access – both essential to Woods’ work process. From the start designs evolved from extensive conversations with the client, whose own work traverses the boundaries between art, architecture and furniture design in the interplay between the functional and the ornamental.

The result was a simple, large workshop and printing studio space on the ground floor, with separate living accommodation above, all characterised by the qualities of timber, good spaces and daylight. The design principles of the scheme can be grouped as follows:

Articulated Massing

The massing and CLT panel structural system is expressed through the articulation of the facade in relief and choice of cladding. The building consists of three elements, the ground and first floor housing workshop and main living area, the second floor box of bedrooms with small rooftop library on the third floor. The building is positioned slightly away from its neighbours flank wall to include the careful brickwork in its composition.

Timber cladding

The home section of the building is south-facing and sits on top of the north-facing studio. The former is horizontally clad painted plywood using a printing technique for which the artist-client is internationally renown; by contrast the studio is clad in unpainted larch.

Fenestration Principles

A simple, generous fenestration specification has been used throughout. Generally there are two types of window – full height, sliding windows to principal living areas, and smaller ‘punched hole’ windows to secondary living spaces such as bedrooms and circulation. All are laminated timber.

The building is a response to the family’s needs, as well as dRMM’s own commitment to sustainability in architecture through the use of engineered timber. Panelised construction was far quicker than an equivalent brick or concrete construction, and since noise, pollution and site traffic are lessened, relations with the neighbours were good throughout.

Apart from being environmentally sound, WoodBlock House also has the unique atmosphere of a house built only in timber and glass, with a sensual quality that has to be seen, touched and smelt to be fully understood. But perhaps its greatest success lies in something even more intangible: the feeling of a building that is in constant use, brought to life through the noisy combination of family, work and play.

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to his new Hackney residence by dRMM appeared first on Dezeen.

Opinion: as the market for design education explodes and schools struggle to keep up, we need to work out what a designer actually is and what they need to learn says Lucas Verweij.

Design has expanded in all imaginable directions, but the world of education doesn’t know how to respond to the new situation. What on earth should you teach future designers? For what profession are we actually educating them? Will they be entrepreneurs? Or artists? Engineers? Writers? Innovators? Researchers? There’s no time to reflect on the answer, because courses and programmes must be developed quickly in response to the crazy growth in the market for design education.

Design has expanded. In the digital domain we’ve seen the emergence of interaction design, game design and app design. Managerial tools now include design thinking and business model design. In the humanitarian domain we now have service design, human-centred design and social design. None of these new directions bear much relation to the roots of the profession in industrial or product design. Instead, we are increasingly coming to view design more as a mentality than a skill. And while education struggles with this shift, the market for education keeps on growing.

Half a century ago, universities established courses in design largely as offshoots of mechanical engineering. In addition to technology, designers received academic instruction in design methods. Design freedom was therefore limited. Academies of art established courses grounded in ceramic and graphic design, which were both practical and artistic in orientation. For decades just two professional profiles existed alongside each other: a designer was either a creative engineer or a practitioner of an applied art.

The design explosion disrupts education. Teachers and administrators in the field of education disagree about what to teach designers. In Eindhoven the battle even culminated in a personal shootout among the academy’s management. While individual teachers and administrators harbour explicit, personal opinions, there is no shared vision about what to teach designers.

Is collaboration with other disciplines the most important aspect? Or is it still creative ability? Should programming be a compulsory subject? Or understanding of production processes? Is a knowledge of materials still important? Which entrepreneurial, journalistic and research skills should students learn? And should they be instructed in a more didactic setting than has been the case up to now?

While schools are driven to desperation, the market for design education is growing explosively. Århus, Bern and Amsterdam have all seen the emergence of creative business schools boasting names like Kaospilots and Knowmads, with a clear vision of creative and social entrepreneurship. Students are capable of writing business plans, learn about management strategies for online start-ups, and are blessed with a mentality of engagement. Leadership skills are also on the syllabus. Businessweek rates them as “top design schools”.

Start-up schools and bootcamps have come up with new learning formats for prototyping commercial ideas. Courses are internal and last about half a year. Students pay for their tuition with shares in the business they plan to set up. Admission is determined on the basis of ideas proposed by prospective students, and courses focus entirely on the elaboration of one single idea.

Hasso Plattner has initiated schools for design thinking and design innovation known as the Institute of Design and the School of Design Thinking. This is where one of the best-selling apps of 2010 – Pulse Reader – was created. In addition, over 80 courses in interaction design have emerged, usually through the addition of a design component to an existing course in technology.

Even though most designers think that service design “has nothing to do with design”, the Royal College of Art in London recently established a course in this field. Similarly, Domus Academy, the birthplace of Memphis, is doing its bit by offering a course in business design. In New York courses in design criticism were established recently, and a course in curating and writing will launch this year in Eindhoven. Design thinking is offered as a subject at many American universities. So although fundamental questions remain unanswered, new courses are popping up everywhere like mushrooms. It makes you wonder just how good all those courses really are.

Now that the education market is totally globalised, schools are recruiting students all over the world. Everybody who pays is welcome. In Europe, European students bring in less money than real foreigners, so students from further afield are more lucrative. Tuition fees for a masters course at Domus costs €17,000 for students from Europe, but €25,000 for students from everywhere else. That’s cheap compared to design criticism, where you’ll pay $18,000 per semester.

The multicultural make-up of the student population is often seen as a criterion for quality. But is learning in a class with lots of nationalities really better? I don’t think so. Something else is expected of designers in Seoul or Dubai than in Paris. Around the world there are vast differences in levels of professional freedom, in the role of clients, in how critical a design can be.

You don’t go to school in Hong Kong if you want to become a chef in Montpellier. But that’s precisely what’s happening in design. And the upshot is the globalisation of masters courses, which are churning out jetlag designers who lack a cultural framework.

Academies of art educate students to master specific skills such as game design, interaction design, business design, social design or service design. Graduates become practitioners of applied arts in the old sense of the term. Universities turn out managers and engineers, who have never quite been able to master the unpredictability of design and creativity.

It would be better to leave design thinking to schools of management, and leave interaction and game design to schools of computer science.

Design criticism could be instructed at schools of journalism, and social design at teacher-training colleges. A creative and design dimension to these professions can develop or evolve organically in such places. Design has become a mentality that can be applied in courses structured to impart specific skills. That is better than the reverse, which is now the case.

Design no longer belongs to anybody. Design no longer belongs to the people, places of education or lobby groups that have represented and tutored it for decades. Let it go. The time has come to give design away.

Lucas Verweij has been teaching at schools of design and architecture around Europe for over 20 years. He was director of a master’s programme in architecture and initiated a masters course in design. He is currently professor at the Kunsthochschile Weißensee and teaches master’s students at Design Academy Eindhoven. He has initiated and moderated various seminars devoted to designing design education.

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more as a mentality than a skill” appeared first on Dezeen.