Hasta La Ideas

LEO the Maker Prince is a children’s book by NYC native and designer Carla Diana that could well enlighten anyone, young or old, about the growing 3D printing community around us. Not only does it humanize the mechanical process of 3D printing but it breaks down the different subcategories of 3D technology and the types of materials that are out there. I bet some of you didn’t even know there was more than one way to get the job done (no shame).

Although utterly fictional—as most children’s books are—this story is oddly relatable, especially for New Yorkers. “I wanted to pay homage to the blossoming creative technology scene in New York City, Diana says. “In particular, I wanted to highlight Brooklyn as the birthplace of a lot of the first DIY 3D printing kits like the MakerBot.” Set on the stormy night of October 29, 2012, the main character finds herself in trouble on the her way back to Manhattan, when she’s looking to beat Hurricane Sandy home and her bicycle chain breaks. I won’t spoil the plot, but a tiny, personable MakerBot named LEO shows up, asks Carla to draw a sheep while guiding her through the various methods of 3D printing. Trust me, it makes sense in the most adorable of ways.

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History books are not meant to be read for fun. They belong in stuffy classrooms with class pets and broken wooden desks that squeak too much. Until The Infographic History of the World and Alternate Histories of the World came along. For someone who struggled through overtexted course books all through school, I took on this review without hesitation and hopes for brushing up on the history I missed out (ok, skipped out) on years ago.

The Infographic History of the World

Not only is this book a chock full of rich visuals, but the organization is an artform in itself. Small details—like a slowly evolving figure in the bottom lefthand corner guiding you through the decades—make this a delightful read from cover to cover. Complicated academic topics such as the United States’ ever-changing GDP and planet sizes in ratio to the universe become elaborately simple figures for right-brained types. Designer Valentine D’efilippo and journalist James Ball form the perfect team for teaching the date-illiterate millions of years of history in one book.

Besides being beautiful, it’s also historian endorsed: Amazon reviewer Michael Kinnear weighs in, “Both my wife and I had read it cover to cover before we gave it to her—we are both professional historians—and rated it A+.” The tone is perfectly snarky and quite liberal. I found myself particularly engrossed in the Keith Haring-like depiction of mental illnesses and the most prominent disorders. The thought-bubble rendition of the language tree came in as a close second. As you turn the pages, the font becomes more modern as you get closer to present-day.

A quick glance at the visual index is more than enough to pull you into the book’s four parts: In the Beginning, Getting Civilized, Nation Building and The Modern World. Every infographic is presented by a lead question on the page that will tell you about the data you’re looking at.

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Image via Archidose

In celebration of the recent release of Lincoln Center Inside Out: An Architectural Account (Damiani 2013), the New York Public Library recently hosted Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio and Charles Renfro, principals of the eponymous architecture studio—stylized as Diller Scofidio + Renfro, or DS+R—in conversation with MoMA’s Curator of Architecture Barry Bergdoll. Among other topics, the participants attempted to define the object itself, only to conclude that the beautifully-printed tome is beyond categorization: it is at once an art book, literally overflowing with beautiful full-bleed photography (more on that shortly), and a scholarly record of the decade-long redesign of one of New York City’s iconic public spaces. Indeed, Diller offhandedly characterized Lincoln Center Inside Out as “an architectural porno book,” though Bergdoll contended that it is as encyclopedic as it is eye-catching.

So too can the book be perused in a number of ways: At over 300 pages, Lincoln Center Inside Out is comprised almost entirely of gatefolds—which, as the panelists noted, might very well be a first for a comprehensive visual and quasi-technical document of such size and scope. The first tenth of the book consists of introductory text and a series of nicely laid-out conversations between DS+R’s Ilana Altman and various, followed by some 30 gatefolds, each of which spans eight normal pages. The exterior panels of the pages invariably feature photos—interiors, exteriors, details, wide angles and even a few process shots—by Iwan Baan and Matthew Monteith, concealing explanatory text and images within. Suffice it to say that Lincoln Center Inside Out (pun most certainly intended) is about as comprehensive as they come.

Photo at top: Alice Tully Hall, Iwan Baan, 2008

Bergdoll lauded the book’s built-in experience of discovery as Scofidio acknowledged that the design serves as “a metaphor for the travails [of the project],” which looks immaculate on the surface but actually goes several layers deep. In fact, he later disclosed that the “archaeology of the space” was a challenge unto itself: By some accounts, upwards of half of the total cost went into bringing the woefully neglected substructure up to code (fun facts: there is a full gas station in the parking garage and there is a river underneath Juilliard).

The metaphor applies not just to space but to time as well: Diller commented that the highly tactile, physical construction of Lincoln Center Inside Out serves to slow readers down and take their time absorbing the dense vignettes, which cover everything from grass species for the ‘hypar’ (hyperbolic paraboloid) roof lawn to the form studies for the prow-like geometry of the new Juilliard building.

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Though over-packaging is often seen as the epitome of excess, it’s really only the tip of the iceberg of a resource-hungry process. According to Laurel Miller and Stephen Aldridge, authors of Why Shrink-wrap A Cucumber? The Complete Guide to Environmental Packaging (Laurence King, 2012): “As is befitting in a convenience society, [packaging] is a convenient, high-visibility target that deflects attention from less palatable forms of environmental action, such as reducing our dependence on high-carbon fossil fuels and heavy industry.” In their remarkably thorough new book, Miller and Aldridge debunk the common myths of sustainable production, introduce new materials, and help designers navigate the often treacherous waters that lie between manufacturers and the client, providing plenty of case studies for inspiration.

Miller and Aldridge begin by discussing how poor packaging choices are linked with global climate change by breaking down every step of a product’s life cycle, from its production to its recycling or disposal. There’s even a refresher that’s helpful for anyone interested in sustainable design, from the lords of the LCA (life cycle assessment) to the everyday concerned citizen. Miller and Aldridge have included Futerra’s invaluable “10 Signs of Greenwash” and they take the time to define terms that are as common as they are misunderstood: green, sustainability, and environmentally friendly.

And for designers struggling to “negotiate the environmental maze [while] balancing profitability and creativity with sensitivity to the environment,” there are few first steps you can take to address your client’s concerns about brand identity while delivering a design with low environmental impact. The case studies are grouped by packaging categories like shape and weight. The iconic Orangina bottle, for example, evolved from a nondescript glass jar to its current shape as a result of a design that took both branding and cost effective packaging into consideration. The Heinz ketchup bottle, too, has changed from a glass bottle to a plastic squeeze bottle for similar reasons. Weight has also played a huge role in packaging design, especially in metal drink cans, which have become 77% lighter since the 1960s, from 60g down to just 14g.

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Hidden Forms explores Franco Clivio’s obsession with objects, particularly those considered banal by most. He finds considered design and innovations in what he refers to as, ‘unremarkable, everyday things.’ These anonymous objects have had a remarkable impact on design, culture and technology.

Clivio assembles his beloved artifacts in collections, creating poetic juxtapositions that tell stories about their manufacturing processes, their functions, their scale and their interaction with each other. Each collection has been harmoniously arranged and photographed by Hans Hansen. Clivio prefaces each individual collection, explaining the significance to him and then comments on a few select items or processes that exemplify his reasons for collecting them. Pierre Mendell and Annette Kr&oumlger developed the layout and complimentary illustrations.

Although Hidden Forms was released in 2009 in the United States, it’s clear that it went well under the radar. At press time Hidden Forms’ page on a major bookseller’s website is neglected: it remains unreviewed, and the official description has fragments of visible html in it. We wanted to give it a second look as it’s been a steadfast favorite here at Hand-Eye Supply.

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