Hasta La Ideas

ArtPrize is the largest art competition in the world with prizes 10 deep. First place artist takes home a quarter million, which would probably afford you the opportunity to finally get those Golden brand acrylics you’ve had your eye on.

At the dawn of the ’90s, a silly Jim Belushi/Charles Grodin movie had an ex-con finding a business executive’s Filofax (remember those?) and using the information inside to essentially take over the businessguy’s life.

In those pre-Palm days, all of that information could be contained in a thick book; nowadays, it’s all in that tiny cell phone of yours that tends to fall out of your pocket in taxis.

Recognizing that, yesterday the UK’s Design Council launched the Mobile Phone Security Challenge, a “search for designers and technologists to create ‘crime-proof’ mobiles:”

…research shows that 80% of phones contain data which can be used by criminals to access bank accounts, steal identity, or sell on personal data.

The Mobile Phone Security Challenge is offering a total of 400,000 pounds to designers and technology experts to come up with new ways of securing handsets, the data they contain, and their future use as electronic ‘wallets’ when m-commerce technology is introduced in the UK.

The Challenge is part of Design out Crime, an initiative from the Home Office Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime and the Design Council. The Mobile Phone Security Challenge is supported by the Technology Strategy Board.

Click here for more details.

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Moy designed by Elvis Tomljenovic.

“MOY koncept is made for generation who uses technology as a means to express themselves and communicate with others.

The idea behind MOY koncept is that everyone can design their own car on their own computer and then apply the design to the vehicle using wireless data transfer or share it with other people through web-site, forum, e-mail etc.

To those who lack the necessary skills or time to create their own design, we offer the option of downloading ready made designs. The vehicles are interconnected, so the change is possibble in motion. Movement recognition technology enables us to draw on the car in real time. Since MOY can display both static images and videos, it can be used as a new medium of promotion.

Vehicle is powered by batteries that charge electromotors set in wheels and controlled by drive-by-wire technology. The body of the car is made of outer and inner policarbonate layers, with layers of liquid cristals, LED diodes and electrochromic foil (film) inbetween. ”

Pugzee designed by Dave Cortes.

“Acclaimed toy sculptor Dave Cortes’ first designer toy – Pugzee is a gangster Pug from Red Hook Brooklyn. While working for the mob bosses in the old days, he got knocked and was serving jail time. When he heard that his old stomping grounds of Red Hook, Brooklyn was undergoing changes (gentrification), he decided it was time to break out of jail and reclaim his old hood. Pugzee is out!

Standing at about 4.5″ tall, the piece comes with a removable hat, cigar, baseball bat, comic book, thought bubble cards and a dry erase marker to express your Pugzee’s mood by writing on the thought bubble cards!

Limited pieces. First 100 pieces sold through Cookies -n- Cream will be signed by Dave himself!”

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It’s that time of year again. Not Valentine’s Day, we’re talking about Electrolux’s annual Design Lab competition:

The brief for the competition’s 7th edition is to create thoughtfully-designed home appliances that will shape how people prepare and store food, wash clothes, and do dishes over the next nine decades.

The design ideas should address key consumer insights such as being adaptive to time and space, provide learning and allow for individualization.

A limited number of finalists will be invited to participate in the final event in London September 24, 2009, to present their entries to a jury of high-level designers and experts. The jury will review the entries based on intuitive design, innovation and consumer insight and then select a winner.

The Design Lab 2009 has a First Prize of 5,000 Euro and a six-month paid internship at one of the Electrolux global design centers. The second prize is 3,000 Euro and third prize 2,000 Euro.

Entry deadline is May 31, 2009. Click here for more info.

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