Hasta La Ideas

Since its debut at the Geneva Motor Show, the general public hasn’t had a chance to see and be touched by the new Mini Countryman, the first “big” Mini. But during Milan Design Week, the new car is taking center stage with a series of events, installations at State University and the Triennale Design Museum, as well as a picnic party in Zona Tortona. At more than four meters long and equipped with four doors and four-wheel drive, the new model hits dealerships this September.

Part of the festivities at the recent crowded party, Michelle Branch revealed an ongoing collaboration with Timbaland—all within a beautiful indoor garden and a mysterious forest, where Dsquared, Missoni, Fendi and Maarten Baas interpreted four different cars. Each designer packed the car as if for a weekend trip, in keeping with “The Getaway Car” tagline.

The concept for the installation provides an occasion to experience the car as a living object, not simply as a piece of design. As Mini Design’s General Manager Gert Hildebrand told CH, “this car needs to be experienced, not only admired.” The design is in fact surprisingly convincing, with every detail very distinctive and lots of innovative functions to discover.

At State University (one of Milan’s hidden architectural jewels), the installation plays entirely with the idea of the number four, considered the interpretive key of this model. Displayed inside this singular “fourank,” a lighting system carefully designed to show off its lines illuminates the car.

Mini, along with the Triennale Creative Set conceived as the space of creativity which engages the public in a journey through the iconic elements of the Countryman—at the end the vehicle appears.

Today our second annual 99% Conference, in partnership with Behance, kicks off in NYC. With a line-up full of some of today’s most respected visionaries, an audience that has been sold out for months, and a few surprises, we’re all pretty excited. To get a taste of the event highlights, follow our tweets (and of course other attendees’) with the #99conf hashtag.

pimg alt=”0syrpoth.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/0syrpoth.jpg” width=”468″ height=”396″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

pThese days you can’t walk through downtown Manhattan without running into a pop-up store, and now comes a new variant: The pop-up thesis show. For one night only, Syracuse University’s fifth-year Industrial + Interaction Design majors will present their theses at the Lubin House in New York City:/p

blockquoteThe event will feature 21 student designers presenting work ranging from traditional product design to the design of social and intrapersonal interactions. Concepts and experiences that empower collaboration, education and emotional connections reflect the user-centered style of Syracuse I+ID. The diversity of the projects reflects the expanding limits of industrial design, embracing the possibilities of physical and psychological interactions in a rapidly changing field.

pSyracuse Universitybr /
Industrial + Interaction Design comes to NYC/p

pApril 29th, 2010br /
Reception: 6pmbr /
Guest speaker thesis presentations: 7pm/p

pLubin Housebr /
11 East 61st Streetbr /
NY, NY/blockquotebr /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/events/syracuse_iid_pop-up_thesis_show_in_manhattan_april_29th_16384.asp”(more…)/a
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pemRecap written by Hiromi Matsubara; photos by Hiroaki Yamane. Both are from a href=”http://greenz.jp”greenz.jp/a./em/p

pOn Friday March 12th, 2010, the first Designers Accord Town Hall meeting in Asia was held in Tokyo, Japan. Hosted by a href=”http://www.sustainabledesign.jp/e/”The 4th International Conference of Design for Sustainability /aand a href=”http://greenz.jp”greenz.jp/a, there were five speakers and 80 guests representing educators, business leaders, and students that came together to participate in the sustainability dialogue. /p

pThe Design Hub was an ideal venue for the Town Hall where its purpose is to connect and foster Japanese design amongst the local design community. Yoshihiro (Yosh) Kanematsu, creative director at a href=”http://greenz.jp”greenz.jp/a, kicked off the event with a hearty a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMPCLCaA1Rw”welcome video/a from Designer Accord’s Valerie Casey./p

pHe then introduced the evening’s theme “Design x Sustainability x Open Source,” and explained how the four Japanese speakers are pioneers in adapting to the open source movement and implementing their creativity in actual projects. /p

pCollaboration and Open Source is the fundamental mindset behind Designers Accord. According to Yosh, when we talk about sustainability, the same mindset should be applied. We are entering an era of “unsustainability” and a point of no return, when sooner or later we would all have to think about how we are going to sustain our own lives and the planet we live in. Designers need to stop competing in sustainability but instead share and collaborate to empower creativity, drive innovation, and as a result accelerate the adoption of sustainable design. All of which is relevant to improve the quality of our lives and the planet./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/events/designers_accord_tokyo_town_hall_reflections_and_photographs_16309.asp”(more…)/a
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Thank you to EVERYONE (all 5,986 of you!) who are now following @Unclutterer on Twitter and who are participating in our Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 giveaway. Now, let’s get on to the good stuff …

At 10:00 a.m. EDT, the random number generator picked the following number:

1,142

Which means, the winner of this week’s Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 is:

@DavidStith

I have direct messaged the winner of the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 and he has 24 hours to respond.

Remember, there are still two more giveaways between now and April 22, so you can still sign up to follow @Unclutterer on Twitter. Also, sign up to follow @ScanSnapIT for tips and tricks about reducing your paper clutter. Big thanks continue to go to Fujitsu for doing such a generous giveaway for Unclutterer readers and our Twitter followers.

Is this the first you’ve heard of the giveaway? Learn more.