Hasta La Ideas

pimg alt=”mike_ditullo_headshot.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/mike_ditullo_headshot.jpg” width=”468″ height=”417″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

pOur dear friend and Core77 favorite son, Mike DiTullo, is moving from http://www.nike.com”Nike/a to a href=”http://www.frogdesign.com/”frog design/a. Michael spent almost a decade at Nike, working on iconic products under their Nike, Jordan and Converse brands, and frequently collaborates with outside clients like a href=”http://icon4x4.com/”Icon/a. During that time, he has also been a super-contributor to the design community at large through Core77: moderating our a href=”http://boards.core77.com/”discussion forums/a (as a href=”http://boards.core77.com/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofileu=28″Yo/a), producing design events, blogging, and producing a series of “5 minute” a href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/broadcasts/core77_showtell_converse_design_director_michael_ditullo_sketches_a_sneaker_in_4minutes_10334.asp”sketcha/ a href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/broadcasts/core77_demo_converse_design_director_michael_ditullo_sketches_a_chair_in_5minutes_11608.asp”videos/a. He’s got a great new book out, a href=”http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1166889″Analog Dreams, sketches of Michael Ditullo/a, and regularly speaks at design conferences, schools, and corporations on the value of design. Michael is a prolific creative and an unfailing advocate for our industry as a whole. He joins frog’s San Francisco studio July 1st as Creative Director./p

pMike is the latest in some great frog talent acquisitions (most recently a href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/think_global_jan_chipchase_moves_to_frog_design_16322.asp”Jan Chipchase/a of Nokia), and we wish him the best of luck at his new gig!/p

pimg alt=”mike_ditullo_sketch.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/mike_ditullo_sketch.jpg” width=”468″ height=”313″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” /br /
emAbove: Mike giving a rapid visualization demo at the 2009 IDSA NED Conference./em/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/yo_michael_ditullo_moves_to_frog_design_16595.asp”(more…)/a
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pAlissa Walker’s got a fine piece up on Good right now (cleverly-titled “Why I Write About Design Now”), shining a light on the tension between the concerns and artifacts of design and Design. Here’s a taste:/p

blockquoteNew York City’s Design Week officially kicked off yesterday, its physical heart encased within a barricade of European furniture at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, its arteries branching out into shelter stores throughout SoHo and the Meatpacking District and into a series of edgier satellite fairs scattered across Manhattan and Brooklyn like tiny, throbbing capillaries.

pAnd up, way up, on East 91st Street, almost completely isolated from the rest of the Design Week bustle, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s Triennial Why Design Now? opened today. Physiologically, this would be the cerebral cortex. You might want to call this the brain of Design Week./p

pThe disconnect between these two vital organs is a discrepancy that plays out every day in design publications. But it becomes increasingly apparent every three years when the Cooper-Hewitt opens its show on the Upper East Side. I like to call it the battle of Design versus The Chairs./blockquote/p

pRead the whole piece a href=”http://www.good.is/post/why-i-write-about-design-now/”here/a./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/alissa_walker_the_battle_of_design_versus_the_chairs_16583.asp”(more…)/a
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“Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire, and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.” That’s the mission statement of eco-friendly outfitter Patagonia, while Wal-Mart’s is focused on perpetually low prices, at any cost. Despite their differences, the two companies are now working together. (If hell has indeed frozen over, we recommend the Nano Puff pullover in Forge Grey.) Wal-Mart is taking advice from Patagonia on green business practices, writes Monte Burke in the May 24 issue of Forbes:

Over the last two years Patagonia has shared its knowledge about greening its supply chain with Wal-Mart—for free. It is also working with Wal-Mart to develop a sustainability index for its products: Within a few years Wal-Mart wants to place a scorecard on its store goods, rating products on eco-friendliness and social impact. The first step Wal-Mart has taken is to evaluate its suppliers. It will give preference to those who best comply.

Patagonia has assisted Wal-Mart mainly on the clothing side, helping Wal-Mart buyers figure out things like how much water is consumed in the manufacture of garments and whether pesticides are used. The Patagonians helped Wal-Mart come up with questions regarding things like climate, energy and efficiency that the company will use to evaluate its suppliers.

“I always thought the revolution would start at the bottom,” said Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard (above). “It’s starting at the top.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

pa href=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/dx1w.png”img alt=”dx1w.png” src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/assets_c/2010/05/dx1w-thumb-468×364-4032.png” width=”468″ height=”364″ class=”mt-image-center” style=”text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;” //a/p

pa href=”http://designforthefirstworld.com/the-competition/”Design for the First World: the rest saving the West/a/p

pI first thought this was a spoof but its a real competition with cash prizes and a fast approaching deadline of May 30th. Here’s a snippet about the competition followed by more details on their a href=”http://designforthefirstworld.com/the-competition/”website/a./p

blockquoteOur fellows in the first world often come to visit and give us their well intentioned but often very problematic “solutions”. We thought, why don’t we pay back? Dx1W is a competition for designers, artists, scientists, makers and thinkers in developing countries to provide solutions for First World problems./blockquote

blockquote
Dx1W has proclaimed 2010 International Year of the First World in Need, and has defined four main areas to address: strongFood Production and Eating Disorders/strong, strongAging Population and Low Birth rate/strong, strongImmigration and Integration to Society,/strong strongSustainability and Over consumption/strong./blockquote

pNote: Participants should be 13 years of age or older and a legal resident of a Developing country./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/_design_for_the_first_world_competition_16534.asp”(more…)/a
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pimg src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/2010/05/190.jpg” width=”468″ height=”300″ alt=”190.jpg”//p

pBill Moggridge, now Director of the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum has started a href=”http://blog.cooperhewitt.org/2010/04/21/a-car-in-the-house-bill-moggridge”enthusiastically blogging and this post/a came to our attention a href=”http://metacool.typepad.com/metacool/2010/05/bill-moggridge-blogger.html”via MetaCool/a. Here’s a snippet of the fun Bill’s having, curating design that makes a difference,/p

blockquoteThe poster on the fence outside the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum showed a photograph of the Tata Nano with the caption “actual size.” That didn’t mean that it was easy to install for display in the museum, as you can see from a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohz_4LNvr-o”this little movie/a (filmed by our media makers Shamus Adams and Alex Tibbets). One of the challenges of using the Carnegie Mansion as a design museum is that the architects of the building never expected that we would want to install a motorcar in the great hall!

pThe good news is that oura href=”http://cooperhewitt.org/redesign/” RE:DESIGN renovation project/a is under way. Work has started on the Miller/Fox townhouses on 90th Street that will house the National Design Library and staff offices. When we have moved into the renovated space next year, work will start on the Museum itself, adding new gallery space on the third floor and allowing us to offer a permanent (but frequently refreshed) exhibition on the ground floor called “What is Design?” There we will talk about the contribution that design can make at all levels, illustrated by examples from our collection and elsewhere./blockquote /pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/business/bills_blog_over_at_the_cooper-hewitt_design_museum_16523.asp”(more…)/a
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