Hasta La Ideas

Earlier this week, we took a look at some of our favorites from the iF Design 2012 Gold Award-Winners in the Product Design category. Here we have a selection of a few standouts from the other three categories, communications, material and packaging.

Communications Design was the second largest category, though it garnered only about a third of the entries as the Product Design category (1,054 vs. 2,923), with 275 earning the coveted iF label, of which 30 were gold winners.

The Product Interface subcategory saw a predictable range of several touchscreen implementations. We liked OYSTAR‘s “One HMI” is a single touch-based Human-Machine Interface “control concept and software design for 12 technologies, 36 machine types and 3 monitor sizes.”

Print Media ain’t dead yet: 11 of the 30 gold winners fell into this subcategory. Nevertheless, decodeunicode had an obvious digital age appeal for those of us who nerd out over well-designed reference materials. (Viewable here; hopefully they’ll translate it into English soon!)

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Several weeks in the making, Art Hack Day took place just over a week ago and was by all accounts a sure sign that the digital counterculture is alive and well in 2012. From from January 26–28, Brooklyn’s 319 Scholes—an exhibition space in the no-man’s-zone between Williamsburg and Bushwick—hosted the 48-hour hack-a-thon, which started on Thursday night. By the time I had a chance to stop by on Saturday afternoon, it was all hands on deck as organizers Lindsay Howard, Marko Manriquez and Igal Nassima were rallying the troops in anticipation of that evening’s one-night-only exhibition of the pieces, projects and collaborations by all variety of tech-savvy creative type.

Incidentally, I ended up reporting on NYIGF just a couple days later, and it was essentially an antithetical experience. From the product-driven premise to the oppressive interior of the cavernous convention center—not to mention the alternately aggressive or disinterested attendants lurking amid labyrinthine booths, hawking their latest injection-molded doodads—suffice it to say that materialism was on display throughout the tradeshow, in stark contrast to the ingenuity and imagination that characterized Art Hack Day…

Former Core77 intern Marko Manriquez was on lasercutter duty, contributing signage (above) among other precision-cut objects for his fellow art hackers. His new-ish plaything also allowed him to explore his interest in “Ecology without Nature,” a.k.a. moss graffiti:

Made using laser cut stencils and a “moss milk shake” blend of moss, beer, water and water retention gel. Moss Graffiti serves dual functions to beautify urban spaces and as camouflage for tiny sensors (C02 & VOC) embedded for monitoring air quality and vehicle exhaust for upload to IoT sites such as Pachube. As eco-graffiti or green graffiti, moss replaces spray paint or other toxic chemicals and reactivates liminal, junk space where moss “paint” grows on its own as a hybrid form of guerrilla gardening.

David Stolarsky‘s “SwimBrowser,” for which he won the 2011 OpenNI Developers Challenge, was nothing short of brilliant. Although the GeorgiaTech Masters student (in Computer Science, of course) created the kinesthetic UI nearly a year ago, it was definitely one of the more impressive pieces on display:

Stolarsky also created a brand new work to show for the occasion (as did dozens of other art hackers, after the jump)…

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Cuisine meets design in a Finnish concept restaurant during Stockholm Design Week

On 7th February Stockholm welcomes design lovers as the annual Stockholm Design Week kicks off again. Timed to run alongside the Furniture & Light Fair, Finnish concept restaurant Hel Yes! will set up a special space on Skeppsholmen Island in the center of Stockholm.

Hel Yes! first entered the design fray during the 2010 London Design Week, hailed as one of the highlights of the festival itself as it tied together the disciplines of food and design with a sophisticated site-specific installation.

With Helsinki having been named Design Capital of the World in 2011, Hel Yes! gets another chance to shine as creative founders, restauranter Antto Melasniemi, artist Klaus Haapaniemi and designer Mia Wallenius bring their diverse skills to the new location.

London’s Hel Yes! was focused mainly on food and design, but Stockholm’s concept looks more toward the social aspects of gathering to eat, played out against neo-paganistic iconography devised by Haapaniemi, whose graphic forms of fauna and far-off galaxies will fill the 100-square-meter space. “Everybody on the team is interested in mysticism and Finnish pagan aesthetics,” explains Wallenius. “The textiles create a vast architectonic element and are part of creating a unique cosmos.”

In the months leading up to the opening, the founders worked with Finnish choreographer Kenneth Kvarnström and his dancers at Helsinki Dance Company to incorporate key elements of interaction and movement to the latest iteration of Hel Yes! More than just dance, the heightened sensory experience builds sections of choreography into the cooking and preparation of the food. “There’s no distinction between the dancers and the waiters. We’re trying to create a logical entirety with the audience being a part of it—more of an event than a performance,” explains Melasniemi. According to the chef, it’s about more than just food. “I’m not so much of a technician but have found myself getting more and more into the whole experience and concept of the dining ritual,” he says, explaining that when he eats out, he spends more time looking at the movement of the waiters, the sommelier’s delivery or the angles of tables and chairs.

As with the last Hel Yes! close attention to detail guides every aspect of the experience, from the special waitstaff uniform to the beer and vodka selection. Even the tablewear is drawn together from swap meets, in which residents from the Mylittala community are asked to hand over their old pieces from legendary Finnish brand Iittala and share the memories attached to each piece, in exhange for a free dinner. More advanced choreography fills the venue throughout the evening, including the introduction of an orchestra with a section of instruments crafted from whale bone. As for the food itself it’s likely to be a true showcase of Finnish cuisine and ingredients by chef whose vision goes beyond the food itself and transcends into a spectacularly memorable dining experience.

Hel Yes!

7-11 February 2012

Eric Ericsonhallen, Kyrkslingan 2

111 49 Stockholm, SE

photo by Jessie SeneseJessie of Shop Sweet Lulu was a tremendous help and excellent conference buddy. She provided the lovely polka dot cups that we used as tea light holders (easily and stylishly covering battery-operated candles that were scattered on the tabletops).

Candy cups

Paper straws

The photo area backdrop, made of tissue paper garlands, was also sourced by Jessie.

Looking for party decorations or something special for Valentine’s Day? Look no further than Shop Sweet Lulu.