Hasta La Ideas

From time to time, my first reaction to images of an object is to wonder what it does, typically when the form is so compelling as to belie its purpose or deeper meaning. French designer Eva Rielland’s project “Objets d’un Autre Âge” fit the bill in that they almost seem too elegant to use, despite their intrinsically tactile design philosophy (though it might find a counterpart in Sébastian Cluzel’s “Culinary Landscape”, which share the minimal aesthetic).

In short, Rielland’s “Objects” are intended to elucidate the myriad functionality of the touchscreen (the conceptual opposite of Patrick Stevenson-Keating’s futurecasting “Quantum Parallelograph.” Instead, they highlight specific uses of tablets by adding an element of analogy to tablet design.

“Objects of Another Age” [is a rethinking of] high tech tools to make them easily understood by all, and particularly by the elderly. To reduce learning curve anxiety and the risk of errors, object design is based on observation of real world habits and needs; a clear and obvious gesture for each object minimizes the use of a GUI.

They work as a system of objects. Eva Rielland chose to focus on communications features from the world of computers: write, view, upload images, print. Each object does one of these functions. There is the frame (used for video chat), the mailbox (just to exchange e-mails), printer and finally, the visual (that presents an image received by e-mail). The clear separation of each of these functions can facilitate the understanding of the subject.

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This Sunday will be the 50th Anniversary of the launch date of IBM’s Selectric typewriter, a game-changing design that represented mid-century American manufacturing prowess brought to market with a one-two engineering-&-industrial-design punch. A team of engineers led by Horace “Bud” Beattie worked the guts while industrial designer Eliot Noyes is given sole credit for the overall form, his Olivetti influence notwithstanding.

The engineering team’s brilliant innovation was to get rid of the type bars. Prior to the Selectric, each typewriter’s key worked a dedicated bar that slammed its imprint in the center of the typing area. A split-second was needed between keystrokes so that a type bar returning to its resting position had time to clear the next outgoing bar. If a typist was too fast, the bars would contact each other and jam.

Beattie and his team replaced the bars with a spherical head imprinted all around with letters, a sort of “golf ball” that precluded any timing overlaps:

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The Progressive 6-in-1 Multi Opener is a neat tool designed to open six different types of packages. The photos tell you all you need to know about it, but beyond its obvious utility, it caught my eye because of what it says about package design.

If you’re young, healthy and have a good grip, you can open the things pictured here with your bare hands (except for the bottle cap). If you’ve got arthritis, these package designs that are so easy for others to open can become annoying obstacles. Right now it either doesn’t make economic sense for companies to design packaging that anyone can open, or the companies just don’t care.

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Clutter Magazine announced the winners of the inaugural International Designer Toy Awards (DTA) on Friday at Comic-Con International in San Diego. Designer toys have become a hot topic within the last decade and with that we’ve seen an entire industry built around them. Although, at first, these toys may not seem like a true part of industrial design, designer toys are truly just another type of product to design. At Core77 we value the intense design and manufacturing processes behind these products that are also works of design art. Now, here are our favorite picks from this year’s awards:

Artist of the Year: Ashley Wood

Ashley Wood of threeA Productions has already seen a little Core77 coverage by way of his collaborations with graphic designer Tom Muller. Wood is mostly known for his comic book illustration on titles such as Tank Girl, Metal Gear Solid, and Popot. His most recent venture was founding threeA Productions with Kim Fung Wong in 2008, a Hong Kong production house for creating products based on Wood’s characters. The toys threeA has produced in the past few years are ripe with extreme detailing, weathering and graphics. Given their quality, I find it hard to believe that these are produced en masse and not merely one-offs.

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Recent ID grad Current ID student Jake Frey earns the nominal honor of designing the best ‘combination-light-switch-plate-and-keyholder’ with his simple magnetic switch cover, ousting a couple of hook-based contenders that we’ve recently come across (after the jump; three’s a trend?).

It is a standard size switch cover plate with a high power magnet incorporated in the back, so the user can drop their keys when they turn the lights on and come into a room.

If there’s not much to describe, suffice it to say that the design speaks for itself… though I wonder if a “high-power magnet” might affect (or be affected by) the electric current controlled by the switch. In fact, I’m curious if it would be possible to make a magnetic keyholder that activates the lights only when the keys are present (as in some hotel rooms).

Incidentally, it was designed for the Urban Outfitters (they’re based in Philly, where Jake will complete his degree next year)… but the simple two-tone design—a subtle nod to the classic horseshoe magnet—says “hipster” more in a whisper than a shout.

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