Hasta La Ideas

Le magazine National Geographic a annoncé les gagnants de leur 2012 Photo Contest. Avec un choix parmi plus de 22 000 clichés provenant de 150 pays, le jury ainsi que les « Viewers Choice Awards » vous propose de découvrir des images magnifiques, à commencer par ce cliché de tigre d’Ashley Vincent.

Honorable Mention – Ulrich Lambert

Places Winner – Nenad Saljic

Honorable Mention – Fransisca Harlijanto

Honorable Mention – Jason Ching

Honorable Mention – Eric Guth

Honorable Mention – Micheal Eastman

Viewers’ Choice Nature Winner – Sanjeev Bhor

People Winner – Micah Albert

Viewers’ Choice People Winner – Kai-Otto Melau

News: graphic design studio Barnbrook has defaced a classic David Bowie album and upturned a 1970s photograph of the musician to create the covers of his new album and single.

Jonathan Barnbrook, head of the London-based studio, explained in a blogpost why the cover for The Next Day, due out in March, recycles the artwork for Bowie’s 1977 album “Heroes” by placing a blank square over the pop star’s face.

“The “Heroes” cover obscured by the white square is about the spirit of great pop or rock music which is ‘of the moment’, forgetting or obliterating the past,” he said. “If you are going to subvert an album by David Bowie there are many to choose from, but this is one of his most revered.”

“We know it is only an album cover with a white square on it, but often in design it can be a long journey to get at something quite simple which works,” he added. “Often the most simple ideas can be the most radical.”

The studio also took a picture of the musician from the late 1970s and turned it upside down to create the cover for new single Where are We Now?, Bowie’s first release in a decade.

A new typeface called Doctrine was also created for the covers, and will be released soon by Barnbrook’s font-producing wing VirusFonts.

Barnbrook previously designed the covers for Bowie’s 2002 album Heathen and 2003’s Reality, and has also been working on the upcoming David Bowie is exhibition at the V&A.

We previously featured a selection of work by Barnbrook shown at the Design Museum in London in 2007.

The post Barnbrook designs David Bowie
album and single covers appeared first on Dezeen.

News: a fork for dieters that vibrates when you eat too much or too fast is one of the most talked-about launches at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Created by Hong Kong-based gadget company HAPILabs, the HAPIfork helps users lose weight by reminding them to eat more slowly. The idea is that the slower you eat, the faster you feel full, so it’s easier to eat less.

Sensors inside the fork count the times it travels from plate to mouth, and eating too fast causes it to gently vibrate and flash its lights. The device also works out the start and end time of the meal and the number of forkfuls eaten.

Information about food intake is transmitted via Bluetooth to a smartphone or via USB to a computer, and then collected in a personal online account so users can track their progress.

The HAPIfork mobile app allows users to comment and add pictures, while there are also plans for an online game that lets users follow their friends’ progress too.

The fork comes in five colours and is part of a set of devices from HAPILabs designed to monitor your health, including an activity tracker that clips onto a belt.

Following its launch at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, HAPIfork will launch on crowdfunding website Kickstarter in March. HAPILabs hopes to make the device available to the general public later in the year.

Other unusual forks we’ve featured on Dezeen include a fork with letters on its prongs and another that clips onto a knife and spoon to make a table sculpture – see all our stories about tableware.

Here’s the full press release from HAPILabs:

Las Vegas, NV – January 7, 2013 – HAPILABS, a company aimed at helping individuals in the 21st century take control of their HAPIness, health and fitness through applications and mobile connected devices, today introduced the HAPIfork at CES, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Designed by French engineer Jacques Lepine, HAPIfork, the world’s first smart connected fork, knows how fast you’re eating and helps you slow down using a patent-pending technology. By eating slower, you will improve the way you feel after every meal, enhance your digestion and reduce your weight. This smart electronic fork which comes in five fun colors, is part of suite of devices, applications and services from HAPILABS aimed at improving your overall health, well being and happiness.

How HAPIfork Works:

When you are eating too fast, HAPIfork sends you gentle vibrations and indicator lights so you are aware of when you’re not eating at a pace that is optimal for your health. In an unobtrusive way, the smart fork helps you slow down without a disruption to your meal or conversation.

The HAPIfork contains an electronic key with a printed circuit that links the extremity and the handle of the fork. Because the fork is in contact with only two parts of your body: your mouth and your hand, the device is successful at counting the number of fork servings during a meal. HAPIfork monitors the following activities:

» The exact time you start and end time of your meal.
» The amount of “fork servings” taken per minute and per meal.
» The specific duration of each “fork serving” interval.
» Your overall meal duration.

All of your HAPIfork eating data is transmitted to a personalized online account when you connect your HAPIfork to your computer via USB or your smart phone via Bluetooth. This flexibility means you can monitor your eating habits and health improvement at home or on the road from a mobile device.

You can choose to keep this information private or share some or all of this data with friends and family who are supporting you, your health and lifestyle.

By helping you eat more slowly and improve your eating behavior, HAPIfork can help you:

» Lose Weight: Satiety is only felt roughly 20 minutes after a meal, so the faster you eat, the more you eat. It stands to reason that the slower you eat, the faster you feel “full”, supporting your goal of taking in less calories during each meal.
» Reduce Digestive Problems: By slowing down your eating pace and chewing for longer, you can take better care of your digestive track, which is agitated when you eat too fast.
» Decrease Gastric Reflux: The slower you eat, the less likely you will suffer from gastric reflux after a meal, which is growing at an alarming rate in the United States and Europe.

The medical community widely supports the importance of eating more slowly since a series of scientific studies highlighted many negative effects related to eating meals too quickly. References for these studies can be found on SlowControl.com.

Product Specs & Availability:

The HAPIfork is part of a complete suite, with add-ons to help you migrate to smarter eating habits from the first day you use it. The product’s estimated retail pricing is $99 and includes:

» HAPIfork (available in one of five colors: blue, green, black, white and pink).
» Online Dashboard: stores and reviews your eating-related data and helps you track your progress meal after meal.
» Mobile App: allows you to follow your stats and enrich your HAPIfork entries with comments and pictures.
» Online Coaching Programme: provides tips and tricks on how to eat smarter and healthier, including helpful, practical advice and balanced meal plans.
» Online Social Game: designed to motivate you to implement these new healthy habits with your loved ones.

HAPIfork will start shipping in early Q2 2013 for Kickstarter backers (USB connection only) and to the general public in both the U.S. and France in Q3 (Bluetooth connection) with distribution to other countries later in 2014.

The post Vibrating “smart fork” for weight loss
launches at CES appeared first on Dezeen.

Insects including a weevil and a wasp transform into cars and motorbikes in these lenticular prints by Canadian design studio Joe Jin.

The Taxi-Dermy lenticular prints change depending what angle they’re viewed from and are inspired by the way aerial views have become commonplace in high-rise cities such as Toronto, where Joe Jin is based. “From above, automobiles that dot the city streets below begin to resemble insects,” explains the designer.

The collection includes a wasp turning into a BMW motorbike, a weevil becoming a Formula 1 racecar and a praying mantis turning into a Kawasaki motocross bike.

There’s also a beetle that turns into a Mini Cooper Clubman, the ‘stretch’ version of the Mini, which we featured in 2007.

Joe Jin studied architecture at the University of Toronto and worked as an architect for several years before setting up his own design studio in 2012.

We previously featured lenticular prints used to create maps of Beijing’s disappearing ancient alleyways as part of Beijing Design Week.

We also featured several projects involving insects on Dezeen, including porcelain containers based on insect eggs and posters based on the movement patterns of woodlice and crickets – see all our stories about insects.

See all our stories about graphics »
See all our stories about design »

Here’s some more information from the designer:

With over 150 residential high-rises and skyscrapers currently under construction, Toronto, Canada is experiencing unprecedented growth in the history of the country’s largest populated city. As apartments and condominiums become synonymous with city living, from several storeys up, city residents are privy to a view that was once less accessible but has now become commonplace – the aerial view. From above, and at a height of 150-240m (or 50-80 storeys; the new standard in Toronto condominium development heights), automobiles that dot the city streets below begin to resemble insects. Taxi-Dermy lenticular prints were designed as a playful acknowledgement of this new reality that we, along with the residents of most other major metropolitan cities, now find ourselves in.

Taxi-Dermy (pun intended) lenticular prints playfully merge two objects, one living and the other man-made – the insect and the automobile; seemingly different but eerily alike when scales are blurred. Aerial stock photos combine with lenticular lens printing to create artwork that appears as a taxidermy insect at first glance, then morphs into an automobile when viewed from different angles. Four 3D transforming prints to collect – Heterorrhina elegans (beetle) to Cooperrhina clubmans (Mini Cooper Clubman); Vespula vulgaris (wasp) to Vesportbike bimmeris (BMW sportbike); Mantis religiosa (praying mantis) to Motocross kawigiosa (Kawasaki motocross); and Eutrachelus temmincki (weevil) to Racetrackelus grandprix (Formula One). Each lenticular print comes framed in a shadow box and ready-to-mount.

The post Taxi-Dermy Lenticular Prints
by Joe Jin appeared first on Dezeen.

Product News: industrial designer Konstantin Grcic has created a bench system based on the iconic Barcelona Chair by Mies van der Rohe.

The B Bench features the distinctive crossing legs of the 1929 original but is reinterpreted as a flexible, modular system.

“I think it’s interesting to make these references in design. Design is not about inventing new things all the time – design is an evolution of things,” says Konstantin Grcic. “So this famous chair designed by Mies van der Rohe: we pick it up now so many years later and make it in a completely different way in terms of technology but also turning it into a more systematic product.”

His bench can be any length from a one-seater chair up to a six-metre bench, with or without armrests. It can be upholstered or left as bare aluminium and is suitable for use indoors or outdoors. “We have created a kit of parts which can be changed into very different typologies,” adds Grcic.

The B Bench will be presented by Spanish brand BD Barcelona Design at trade fair imm cologne in Germany next week.

Based in Munich, Grcic has also designed a series of tables with extruded aluminium tops for the brand, first shown in 2009, and he more recently created aluminium and pine furniture for Herzog & de Meuron’s Parrish Art Museum. See all our stories about design by Konstantin Grcic.

BD Barcelona Design was the first design brand in Spain and recently celebrated its 40th birthday by commissioning designer Jaime Hayon to hand-paint 40 unique vases. It has also worked with contemporary designers including Doshi Levien and NHDRO. See all our stories about products from BD Barcelona Design.

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for BD Barcelona Design appeared first on Dezeen.