Leica a annoncé la commercialisation d’une édition limitée de l’appareil photographique X2 « The Paper Skin » de Fedrigoni, changeant la bande de cuir en papier spécialement traité pour l’occasion et appelé Constellation Jade, offrant une résistance plus forte que le cuir. Un appareil produit à 25 exemplaires.
Every Christmas, we receive a few jigsaw puzzles — it’s a family holiday pastime to watch movies and put the puzzles together. Interestingly enough, as I spend time going through the documents I need to prepare for our family’s 2013 income tax return, I realize that the steps involved in organizing paperwork are similar to the steps in assembling a jigsaw puzzle.
When you’re working on a jigsaw puzzle you’ve always got the box that shows what the puzzle should look like once it is together. For most organizing projects, you won’t get a picture of the final product; you’ll have to invent it yourself. Imagine what you want the final result to look like. How do you want it to function when you’re done? Don’t worry about all of the details at this point. A rough outline is just fine. You could simply state, “I want to be able to find the documents that I need, when I need them. I want them to be stored in the filing cabinet for easy access and any documents that I don’t need regularly but need to keep for tax reasons, will be stored in the attic. Everything else will be shredded.”
Sometimes you don’t have the entire picture. Imagine only receiving one or two puzzle pieces a day. You would have to collect a few months’ worth of pieces to get an idea of what the finished project should look like. This is exactly why I have a big pile of paperwork to be sorted and filed!
In our situation, living in a foreign country as visiting military, we are required to keep certain documents beyond what we would normally keep in our home country. I really didn’t know how these should be organized so my solution was to keep all of the documents in one large folder. Now that we’ve lived here for six months, we have a good idea what the “finished picture” looks like and we are able to sort the documents easily into appropriate categories.
If you have a large project or one that you need a few days to complete, consider setting up in a place that has minimal impact on your day-to-day living. We assemble our jigsaw puzzle on a table in our family room, which is also the place I’ve chosen to do my filing.
Consider sorting paperwork into labelled boxes. Rather than have open boxes, consider getting boxes with lids. They can then be stacked up against a wall and out of the way when you are not working. You can organize one box at a time at a later time.
When we’re working on our puzzle, usually we try to get the edge pieces first and then group similar pieces together onto paper plates such as “sky pieces” or “purple pieces.”
Decide on the “edges” of your project. Chose fewer groups with larger categories within each group. For example, if you’re working on financial paperwork, separate by decade, then by year, then within each year, then by month. You may even find that everything prior to a certain year can be immediately discarded and shredded.
Do not take the “Only Handle It Once (OHIO) Rule” literally when sorting and organizing. I have never been able to take a puzzle piece out of the box, look at it once and put it into the puzzle in its exact place. Don’t expect to do it with paperwork either.
Every time you handle a document, it should be to move it forward in the system of processing so that it is in its appropriate place for the next step. Not only should you prioritize it immediately, you must identify when and where the next steps take place so that the item is not forgotten either accidentally or on purpose.
When we’re working on our puzzle, occasionally one of us will zoom in on an easily identifiable object within the puzzle and work on that. On our recent puzzle, my daughter found all of the pieces for a large orange flower that was in the centre of the puzzle. It allowed us to work outwards from that point to complete the puzzle faster. However, while she was working on the flower, she kept it in perspective of the entire puzzle.
If you’re organizing and sorting paperwork, you may find you can easily complete a small portion of the project. You may be able to completely organize all of last year’s financial documents, for example. Congratulate yourself on a job well done but remember to zoom back out and look at the whole picture and remember what you want the final result to look like.
This step is where the similarities between puzzles and paperwork end. Once all of the pieces are put into the puzzle, the puzzle is completed and there is nothing left to be done but admire the finished project. Paperwork on the other hand, increases as soon as the postman arrives the next day.
Create a process to deal with all of your incoming mail. Know what to keep and what to shred. Check out some other posts on Unclutterer for tips and tricks on paper management.
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London architecture studio Orproject has installed a forest of illuminated paper trees that join up to form a continuous canopy at a gallery in New Delhi (+ slideshow).
Called Vana, meaning “forest” in Sanskrit, the hanging installation by Orproject features four trunk-like structures designed to mimic natural growth patterns.
To achieve this, the team developed a series of algorithms that mimic the veins found in leaves.
“When the leaf grows, the veins develop with it in order to reach each cell on the surface of the leaf and supply them with nutrients,” said Christoph Klemmt, one of the founders of Orproject.
“Also when a tree grows, it tries to get an exposure of each leaf to the sunlight, so a similar mechanism drives the branching of the tree,” he explained. “We wrote a computer algorithm to simulate this development, in order to grow architecture.”
The four trunks branch upwards and outwards from “seed points” on the floor towards “target points” on the ceiling where they join up into a single surface, creating a suspended tensile structure.
The installation is made from triangular segments of paper connected via stitched joints and backlit by LEDs. When the lights are turned on, the light glows through the gaps and highlights the vein-like structure of the piece.
Vana was designed for last year’s India Design Forum and is currently on display at The Brick House in New Delhi.
Photography is by Sumedh Prasad and Orproject, copyright of Orproject.
Here’s a project description from Orproject:
Vana
Orproject developed a series of algorithms that digitally generate open and closed venation patterns, which can be used to simulate the growth of topiaries. The systems consist of a set of seed points that grow and branch towards target points in order to maximise exposure to light for each leaf. The resulting geometries fulfill these requirements and provide a suitable structural and circulatory system for the plant.
The structural system of topiaries acts mainly in compression and bending. Reversing this, we can obtain a geometry that performs as a tensile system. The installation Vana is designed as a single surface in tension that hangs from the ceiling and descends into the space as four columns of light. The surface is tessellated into triangular segments which are connected by stitched joints. Back lit with LEDs, light shines through the gaps and illuminates the space below with an immersive glow.
As the prototype for a large scale canopy construction, Vana has been developed as an iso-surface around an anastomotic network diagram, as the cortex around the venation system. In a continuous transformation, nature merges into architecture, columns merge into the sky and solid merges into the ephemeral. Vana appears to grow as tree-like branches blending into a continuous canopy that floats above the visitor.
Title: Vana
Architects: Orproject
Project Architects: Rajat Sodhi, Christoph Klemmt
Project Team: Sambit Samant, Manu Sharma
The post Glowing indoor forest made
from paper by Orproject appeared first on Dezeen.
Une nouvelle fois, le studio japonais Nendo nous prouve qu’il déborde d’inventivité avec ces superbes stickers « Paper Bricks » imaginés pour le magazine japonais Pen. Proposant ainsi un faux rendu en bois et en perspective, ces stickers peuvent être utilisés ensemble ou séparément pour décorer votre papeterie.
Créé par Yuki Ariga pour le fabricant de mouchoirs japonais Nepia, ce beau court métrage propose une animation d’origamis faits de mouchoirs délicatement pliés représentant des animaux. Voici un making-of d’une imagination et d’une créativité débordante et plus de visuels dans la suite de l’article.
Focus sur le travail de Kyung Hwan Kwon qui s’arme de crayons de couleurs et d’acryliques pour représenter sur du papier noir des illustrations d’une très grande qualité. Des représentations impressionnantes souvent guerrières à découvrir sur son portfolio en ligne et en images dans la suite de l’article.
Sometimes you may leave your current job by choice and sometimes you don’t have an option but in today’s fast-paced economy it is best to be prepared for a job search at any time. When you’re applying for a new job, you need accurate records of where and when you worked because almost all employers perform background checks. If you have had many jobs over the years, it may be difficult to remember exact dates of employments.
The following tips explore what type of information you need to collect and how to organize it for quick reference:
Company contact information: Obtain the postal address, phone number, and website of all your previous places of employment if they still exist. Additionally, if these people are still employed at the company, have your direct supervisor’s name, company email address, and telephone extension, his/her supervisor’s contact information, and this same information for a key member of the Human Resources department. If they’re not still at the company, note this in your records and try your best to obtain a private email address for your former supervisors. Future employers usually wish to verify your previous employment with the company as well as discuss your performance with a supervisor, irrespective of where that person is currently employed.
Employment record: Most large companies keep employment records that include employee training, qualifications, and performance reviews. Review this information on an annual basis to ensure that it is up-to-date and obtain a copy prior to leaving the company.
Smaller companies may not keep detailed employment records so you may have to create your own. It should include the job titles you had at the company, dates you held those positions, and the rates of your pay. It should also list any training courses you took to improve your job performance.
Compensation: In addition to your pay rate/salary, note if you earned any bonuses or commissions. This gives you a benchmark to negotiate your salary at your next place of employment. List any benefits you received such as health and dental plans, maternity benefits, holidays, family, and compassionate leave.
NOTE: You can request a statement of your employment history from your government’s employment or taxation department (Social Security in the United States). This statement will provide you with details about your places of employment, dates, and earnings. You can also find this information on your old tax returns. However, these documents do not provide job descriptions or details about supplementary training during the periods of employment.
Job descriptions: If a detailed job description is not available from the company’s Human Resources department, create your own. List all the tasks for which you were responsible, to whom you reported, and who reported to you.
NOTE: If you used acronyms in at your company, always write out the words in full. You might not remember what those letters mean a few years from now. This is especially important with proprietary software programs used within a company. No one knows what “SADC-DB” means but future employers would understand “Systematic Approach to Document Control database.”
Challenges and achievements: Using the job description, write down a few problems that you encountered during your time on the job and how you solved this problems. Make note of your achievements and awards, too. It is easier to recollect this sort of thing when you are in your current job rather than when you are updating your résumé for the next job. You can use it as leverage when discussing your salary at your next performance review or at your next job interview.
Likes and dislikes: Write down what you liked and did not like about the tasks you performed. This information should never be put on a job application or résumé, but it can definitely help you decide the types of roles in which you excel and it will save you the trouble of applying for jobs you probably wouldn’t enjoy. It may be helpful to write this information in a style that would be a suitable answer for interviewers who are going to want to know what you liked and did not like about a previous job.
Contracts: If you signed a contract for employment or a confidentiality agreement, keep a copy for your records. Ask your employer how long they recommend you keep these documents and be clear, especially with any non-compete clauses, how long they apply to you. If you work with proprietary, copyrighted, or patented material, you may be obliged to maintain confidentiality for many years after you’ve ceased working for that company. You also may be prohibited from working for a competitor for a number of years.
Certificates: If you took any specialized training (WHIMS, First Aid, computer skills) in order to do your job, make sure you keep the certificates. They are the proof of having successfully completed the training.
Reference Letters: If you’re preparing to leave a job, it will be much easier for your supervisor to provide you with a letter of reference now when he/she is familiar with your work. The letter should state things like your relationship to the letter writer and a couple examples of how you contributed to the team and helped solve problems. It can also outline your positive character traits such as being punctual, hard working, and ability to adjust to the corporate culture. Obtain several original signed copies if possible.
A simple form (the document is in Word and works on both Mac and PC) can be used to capture the details (company, contact information, job description, likes and dislikes) of each job. You can fill out the form and save it on your computer or print a paper copy.
It is helpful to organize your employment history on your computer as many documents are now only in electronic format. It may be worthwhile to scan the original certificates and letters of reference in case the originals are lost or damaged.
Ideally, the folders on your computer and your paper files should have the same names so it is easy to cross-reference and find the information you need. For example:
Keep original copies of certificates and reference letters in file folders or binders. You may be required to provide proof of training at a job interview, so storing documents in acid-free sheet protectors will keep them in good condition.
Career transition experts indicate that résumés and cover letters should be customized for each job application for best results. By having your employment history organized and easily accessible it will eliminate some of the stress in applying for a new job or promotion.
Finally, special thanks goes to TORI Award winning career transition expert Audrey Prenzel for her guidance on this topic.
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Students from Łódź University of Technology in Poland built this delicate stacked sculpture to demonstrate the structural properties of curve-folded paper.
The Fragile Beasts sculpture was designed and built by 17 undergraduate architecture students from Łódź University of Technology during a three-day workshop with Suryansh Chandra, a senior designer at Zaha Hadid Architects.
“Curved folding isn’t just the aesthetic, it’s also the structure: it can lend substantial stiffness to fairly flimsy material,” explained Chandra.
The sculpture was designed using digital modelling software to determine the slender polyhedra forms, which were then subjected to scripts that broke them down into shapes suitable for curved folding.
Once the forms and net shapes of the irregular-sided polyhedra were determined, they were sent to a laser-cutting facility that transferred the design onto a series of flat cutout sheets in five hours.
The 0.5 millimetre paper was then folded and glued into shape by the students, who had no previous experience of curved folding.
“It never fails to amaze me how nicely this shape lends itself to fabrication and quick assembly,” said Chandra.
It took just five hours for the students to fabricate the components and arrange them in two stacked clusters that reach a height of 1.9 metres.
Zaha Hadid Architects has been exploring different applications for curved folding and thin-shell structures for several years through a series of academic workshops and commissions.
Its Arum installation at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale resembled a huge pleated funnel made from folded metal, and was described by the firm as the first to combine its research into lightweight shells and tensile structures.
All images are courtesy of Suryansh Chandra.
Suryansh Chandra sent us the following details about the Fragile Beasts project:
Research Context
This sculpture was built as a part of a 3-day workshop on ‘Curved Folding’ at the Łódź University of Technology, Poland. The workshop explored the idea of curved folding as a design technique in Architecture, leading to some amazing outcomes that are pre-rationalized by their very nature. It continues the lineage of work on ‘Curved Folding’ and ‘Thin-Shell Structures’ started two years ago for ZHA’s Arum Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and further pursued through academic workshops.
Highlights of the sculpture
Curved folding isn’t just the aesthetic, it’s also the structure: it can lend substantial stiffness to fairly flimsy material: 0.5mm thick card paper in this case.
Ease of assembly: The whole piece was put together with 17 students in their 4th year of undergraduate Architecture program (and novices at curved folding) in a matter of 5 hours (the laser cutting was outsourced and took an additional 5 hours).
Dimensions: 1.9m tall x 1.35m wide (6’4″ x 4’6″), 0.5mm thick card paper.
Credits
Workshop Tutor & Sculpture Design: Suryansh Chandra; Senior Designer, Zaha Hadid Architects Code Group
Assisting Tutor: Sebastian Bialkowski; Doctoral Candidate, Łódź University of Technology, Poland
Workshop Organizer and Coordinator: Anetta Kepczynska-Walczak; Assistant Professor, Łódź University of Technology, Poland
The post Fragile Beasts sculpture made from paper
by Łódź University of Technology students appeared first on Dezeen.
Pour l’année 2014, nous avons décidé de vous présenter des sélections de créations précédemment publiées sur Fubiz autour de thématiques différentes chaque mois. Voici notre première sélection sur le « Paper Art », insistant sur les œuvres et projets les plus rafraichissants. Le tout est à découvrir dans la suite.
2014 Calendar With Flavours by Nearly Normal Craft.
Exploded Views by Zim & Zou.
Paper Craft Castle by Wataru Itou.
BBQ of Paper by Zim et Zou.
Bone-A-Day by Wendy Wallin Malinow.
New York by Eiko Ojala.
Paper Art by Fideli Sundqvist.
Paper Craft Sculptures Of Food by Maria Laura Benavente.
Paper Dragon by Ink Studio.
Paper Sculptures by Rogan Brown.
Paper Sculptures Map by Matthew Picton.
Paper Typography by Sabeena Karnik.
Impressive Paper Origami by Nguyen Hung Cuong.
The Me Bird Animation by 18bis Studio.
Drawing with Paper by Lobulo.
Laser Cut Paper by Eric Standley.
3D Paper Sculptures by Calvin Nicholls.
Happy 2014 from Fubiz.
Un collectif de designers anglais travaillant chez Nearly Normal Craft ont conçu un calendrier très coloré pour la nouvelle année 2014. Chaque mois est représenté par un fruit imprégné du chiffre du mois en cours. Ce mois de janvier a donc un goût de pomme rouge faite de papier et de collage. Plus de détails dans la suite.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
