Pranav Mistry and the Sixth Sense


Wow. Wow. and WOW.

The Nook: Raising the Bar

Launched just last week by Barns and Noble, the Nook has added a few sexy features to rival Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. It’s white, has an e-ink screen, and is priced at $259, all like the Kindle.

The biggest distinctive feature is its ability to wirelessly “lend” ebooks to other nook users for 14 days. For more info on the Nook go here.

Apple’s Hyperwall

At this year’s WWDC, Apple is showcasing 20,000 of the most popular iPhone apps on a massive hyperwall constructed with 20 Apple Cinema HD displays. The wall highlights the apps activity by lighting-up its icon with each customer download. Peak over at Apple Insider for more images of the installation.



via:

Call for Entries: AIGA (Re) Design Awards

The 2009 (Re)design Awards is now accepting submissions of work. The competition is focused on recognizing designers that have produced innovative sustainable solutions. Find out more here.

Phone Drawing

This weeks cover for the New Yorker was developed by artist Jorge Colombo. What separates this cover from previous ones is that his medium was an iPhone apps. called ‘Brushes’. The artist explains his process below:

The drawing was created by Colombo in just an hour, while he stood outside the Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in Times Square. “I got a phone in the beginning of February and I immediately got the programme so I could entertain myself,” says the artist on the New Yorker website, where a film of his process can also be viewed. “Before, unless I had a flashlight or a miner’s hat, I could not draw in the dark.” Colombo also stated that drawing on the phone had the advantage of allowing him to draw without being noticed, although he does mention one drawback of phone painting: that when the sun is up, it is hard to see, “because of the glare on the phone”.

To see additional work by the artist you know the drill.

via:

Personalize your laptop


By Tristan Eaton

Dell Design Studio’s spring collection offers 120 more custom designs to their growing selection of 200. Ed Boyd, Dell vice president of consumer experience design says below…

“Dell Design Studio is the purest form of self-expression for a wide variety of tastes and styles,” said Boyd. “I loved creating this first themed volume, and am really excited about the opportunities to bring in new curators, artists and points of view to the Design Studio.”


Thanks Kia for the tip.

Come a long way, kinda

Check out this “record player” iPhone app. The author, Theodore Watson, threw it together in one morning. I really like projects that get the point across quickly. It’s a build-to-think mode and sparks dialogue (like this blog post) that gets people thinking about how to use what’s around them.



At Free Art and Technology, via NOTCOT

Virtual Graffiti


WiiSpray Teaser from Martin Lihs on Vimeo.

The WiiSpray conceptualized by Martin Lihs at Bauhaus-University for his final diploma presentation enables users to bomb virtually. Martin Lihs explains the project in detail at the WiiSpray website:

The foundational basis for the project goes well beyond replacing real graffiti as an art form. Moreover, WiiSpray is to be seen as an interface to give graffiti a new virtual level surpassing tactile boundaries of the tangible world.

Within the system, there is a symbiosis of digital and analog as well as overcoming restrictions of distance and time. An advantage of the system proves to possess a user-friendly design simple enough for children to use. The virtual canvas allows the user to decide what is saved and what is discarded, all the while keeping the surrounding area clean and free of what otherwise would be a messy form of media.

The actual hardware tool of the artist – the spraying can – remains constant in its shape and function and is a catalyst for this software supporting innovative computer interaction. The self-explanatory program requires no previous knowledge or reference of a user’s manual. This software allows users to make the game all their own, offering a wide range of colors, interchangable caps, along with the possibility to incorporate the user’s personal photos, graphics, and backgrounds into the setting.

The WiiSpray provides a framework of different possibilities yet without any specifications on how to use it. Every user decides for themselves what his or her creative expressions might be.

WiiSpray is independent of platforms and is based on »Adobe Flash«, a »WiiiSpray server« which is based on the »WiiFlash server«, and standard »Wii« technology.

WiiSpray, a technical experiment with a lot of potential for expansion and application.

via PSFK:

Spring 2009 Liu Lectures in Design at Stanford University

I’m really excited to present the lineup for this Spring’s David H. Liu Memorial Lecture Series in Design.

All talks will begin at 8pm in building 320, room 105.
Every lecture is free and open to the public!

Andy Spade will be speaking on Wednesday, April 15th. Spade had over a decade of experience with top advertising agencies Saatchi & Saatchi, Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, and TBWA/Chiat/Day managing accounts with companies such as Coca Cola, Evian, Reebok, Lexus, and Coach. He’s the branding and marketing man behind Kate Spade and Jack Spade (the companies that he and his wife created.) He has also been tapped to design the experiences of a number of companies including Delta’s Song Airlines and J. Crew retail experiment The Liquor Store. Spade’s latest project is Partners & Spade. It includes a highly conceptual retail experience in downtown Manhattan. Beyond all these business ventures, Spade is heavily involved in the art world. He is a patron to emerging artists, co-owner of a gallery, and curator of several exhibitions. Spade’s projects merge emotional branding, experience design, brilliant collaboration, and always a touch of surrealism.

Dr. Jonathan Cagan will be speaking on Monday, May 4th. Dr. Cagan is a co-director of the Masters in Product Development program at Carnegie Mellon and also the co-director for the school’s Center for Product Strategy and Innovation. He has the title of Barrett Ladd Professor in Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and holds appointments in the School of Design and Computer Science. He has expertise in product development and innovation methods for early stage product development. Both his design methods and computer-based design research have been applied in a variety of industries. Dr. Cagan is the author of two books: Creating Breakthrough Products (co-authored with Craig Vogel), and The Design of Things to Come (co-authored with Peter Boatwright and Craig Vogel). He has consulted with a variety of small and large companies in diverse areas on product development, brand strategy, and strategic planning. He is co-founder and chief technologist of DesignAdvance Systems, Inc., a company focused on developing CAD software for the early synthesis processes. Cagan teaches New Product Development at Carnegie Mellon and runs executive training sessions in small and large companies.

Alex Wipperfürth will be speaking on Thursday, May 21st. Wipperfürth is a partner at Dial House in San Francisco. He is the author of Brand Hijack, and the upcoming The Co-Creation Myth and The Fringe Manifesto. Dial House is part think-tank and part creative hot shop. The client list is diverse: from fringe (Napster, Doc Martens, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Jones Soda, Red Stripe, Altoids) to cutting edge (Current TV, New Yorker Magazine) to blue chip (Diageo, IBM, P&G/Clorox, Toyota, Coca-Cola). Projects range from innovative strategy, innovative research, meaningful creative expressions with DIY production to brand innovation. In earlier work, Wipperfürth had interviewed actual cult members and people in “consumer cults” (like Apple or Harley-Davidson fanatics) and made fascinating insights about their similarities.

Apple + “O” wax seal


Apple + "O"