Hasta La Ideas

Have you ever wanted to buy furniture from a decommissioned U.S. post office, glass-doored wall cabinets from a high school science lab, or linoleum-lined drafting tables from a long-gone architecture office? Or maybe you’re looking for vintage furniture in bulk, like 40 computer desks from the ’80s, a dozen butcher-block worktables or a lot of 20 round wooden tabletops?

GovDeals.com is a “liquidity services marketplace,” i.e. the place where you can find all of the stuff above and tons of other things you could not imagine a citizen having access to. As more and more government agencies get the axe, everything they had goes up on the auction block. And we mean everything–decommissioned emergency services equipment, old firehoses, school buses, playgrounds, lab equipment, lighting fixtures, vending machines, welding tools, and even confiscated vehicles that happened to be on the police lot at the wrong time, like this 1967 Lincoln Continental that’s currently up to six grand.

This being a government-run website, the photos suck and the design is horrible. But if you want to buy any of the aforementioned stuff, or one to thirteen fire trucks or a freaking self-elevating mobile police observation platform, this is the site for you.

Dive into the categories here.

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Above we see a Turner’s Cube carved out of Cocobolo, a Central American hardwood. It was done “cheating”-style, using a CNC mill:

But that doesn’t mean the unnamed Micro Machine Shop craftsperson who produced it lacks lathing skills. With step-by-step photos, s/he shows you how they produced this:

That’s a “Euro-style” pen made off of instructions from Woodcraft, and the simple, pocket-sized device belies the amount of time, materials and variety of machinery it takes to produce.

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I have two foreign fetishes, and you may not share the first: I love listening to BBC interviews of foreign politicians with super-thick accents who nevertheless speak more articulate English than I can. The second, I hope you do share: A love of seeing creative and manufacturing spaces in other countries. I could stare at photos of Parisian ateliers, Swedish factory floors and Tokyo design studios all day.

This CoSPACE CoCREATE video by Stylo Vision, a/k/a filmmaker Thomas Lee, takes a fleeting look at such spaces in cramped Hong Kong.

To make the video Lee lensed the workspaces of handmade leather shoe workshop Shoe Artistry, product design firm KaCaMa Design Lab, product design firm Milk Design, farmer/artist/designer collective HK Farm, and fashion label Daydream Nation. I kept wondering “Why the hell isn’t there any narrative?” but as it turns out, this short is just a trailer, comprised of piecemeal scraps from individual vids he shot of each outfit. Stay tuned for the ID-relevant ones.

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It’s hard to imagine, but it really wasn’t that long ago when we stared at computers all day without email, Twitter or even the internet in general to distract us. How on earth did anyone procrastinate effectively?

Solitaire, of course. Artist Evan Roth, one of the key thinkers behind the famous Eyewriter, has memorialized the famous .exe file found on every Windows 98 computer. The longtime salvation of the bored-at-work, Solitaire helped people while away the time while feeling somewhat intelligent and thoughtful.

Designed in a limited edition of 500 for the Cooper Hewitt (and now sold out), the cards physicalize the original pixelated designs of Susan Kare. The decks have completely sold out, reflecting a clear nostalgia for the original video game. And unlike, say, Angry Birds and other popular pastimes, Solitaire.exe was based on a real world version. Roth is repurposing a repurposing. As Co.Design’s Mark Wilson notes:

There’s certainly a satisfying Ouroboros effect, too, as the computer game simulates reality, which in turn just creates a game to simulate the computer. While I can’t academically pin down what any of it means, I do know that I like the tingly paradox the deck activates in my brain.

But perhaps what’s most compelling is that this game which has occupied the desktop software of millions now exists in the physical world. Few people today use Windows 98, and even fewer play video Solitaire—I, for one, forgot it existed. But by making the work physical, Roth has given the game another chance to live on a little longer.

The only bummer, I think, is that the cards are now sold out, and there will be no further editions. Time for a Minesweeper version?

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It’s easy to criticize the newly available Little Printer as a somewhat frivolous or outright extravagant producer of waste: after all, one of the basic premises of digital media is that we can access and consume information without the baggage (or guilt) of printed matter. Why would anyone in their right mind want a device that takes the all-important “e” out of “e-ink”?

Why indeed: I’m certain that much more ink is spilled on far broader sheets on a more regular basis than that which could possibly be emitted from the coffee-mug-sized, ever-smiling printer. I bet I receive more paper in the form of junk mail than things I actually print on a daily basis, and it’s simply a sad fact that saving the world will take more than boycotting a new gadget.

All of which is a long way of introducing Burgopak‘s wonderful packaging for BERG’s product. While we’ve seen some of Dane Whitehurst’s (admittedly outlandish) projects in the past, but it so happens that his day job is in packaging design, and he is very pleased to present his latest project for his fellow London-based designers. Just as “the product itself ‘lives in your home, bringing you news, puzzles and gossip from friends’ in the form of a small personalized printed newspaper,” so too must the packaging “encapsulate the charm and personality of the character.”

Creating the appropriate first ‘hello,’ marking the beginning of the relationship between person and product was fundamental to the design. Despite the challenges in physically protecting fragile parts of the device, it was imperative to make Little Printer’s friendly face the first thing you see.

Beyond the first introduction it was also essential to make every stage of the unboxing process feel considered and important. Detail is apparent in every element of the product and the design of the packaging was no different. Challenges such as finding a way to remove the main device and its power supply at the same time proved to be interesting problems in themselves.

To guide people through the unboxing process, the designers at BERG did a great job of developing delightful graphics to wrap around and introduce each part of the product. All of which connect as part of a broader narrative which encapsulates the cheery tone of voice which has become synonymous with the product.

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