Hasta La Ideas

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby‘s creative consultancy MAP has designed a build-your-own computer kit (+ slideshow).

London studio MAP worked with computer company Kano to create parts for the machine, designed as kit for learning about how computers work.

The kit runs on the Raspberry Pi platform – a customisable single-board computer that allows the user to add components.

MAP created a transparent case for the Raspberry Pi board, comprising two C-shaped transparent shells that clip together to secure the cable connections but leave the top open for the user to experiment with adding additional parts.

“We knew that it was important to protect the Raspberry Pi board and we were frustrated to see that most of the cases on the market actually seal the board in a box,” said MAP director Jon Marshall. “Our two-part bumper case provides protection while encouraging Kano users to experiment and make.”

A clear cover can be added over the board to protect the components or a speaker and small amplifier powered directly from the Raspberry Pi can be clipped on the top.

The kit comes as a case full of colourful parts with an instruction manual containing assembly details.

It includes a wireless keyboard, the Raspberry Pi with its customisable case, a speaker module, packaging and accessories. These elements can be used with a generic computer screen or monitor.

The parts are packaged in a bright orange box, designed to fit through a standard letterbox for easier delivery and be used to store the kit when not in use. The inner box is printed to show how the coloured wires connect to the Raspberry Pi board.

“We wanted to create the first computer that anyone can make – simple, fun, and powerful,” said Kano co-founder and head of product Alex Klein.

A Kickstarter campaign to crowd fund the project launches today.

Keep reading for more text from MAP:

Creative consultancy MAP and computer company Kano have together created a hands-on computer kit that you can make yourself. Using the well-known Raspberry Pi as its platform, users can learn and have fun while making it.

The prototype is now complete and a Kickstarter campaign will launch on 19 November. The kit costs $99 or £69. You can buy one for yourself or sponsor kits for a student, school, or institution through Kano’s not-for-profit programme, Kano Academy.

MAP worked with Kano on designing the kit and all of the components as a complete experience. MAP’s design team set out to make the Kano kit as friendly and as fun to use as Lego. The kit includes a new wireless keyboard, Raspberry Pi and a new type of customisable case, a unique speaker module, packaging and accessories.

MAP designed the Kano kit to guide users quickly and intuitively through the set-up. The packaging was designed to be kept and used as storage for the kit and its components, rather than being thrown away. A colourful outer sleeve keeps the kit protected, with the overall size optimised to fit through most letterboxes (reducing costs and making delivery easy). The inner box has a printed diagram of the cable connections to ensure a fast and easy-to-follow set-up. The components are clearly laid out to ease understanding. Reminiscent of a traditional board game, the robust inner tray keeps the components organised when you have finished playing and pack them away.

MAP designed a protective plastic case for the Raspberry Pi computer board that consists of two C-shaped bumpers in clear plastic. These snap around the board making it easy to handle and stabilising the cable connections while leaving both the top and bottom open for experimentation. There are additional clip-in covers that can be added when you want to enclose the Pi, or connect more components. For a first “making” project based on the basic kit, MAP have developed a special cover with a speaker and small amplifier that is powered directly from the Raspberry Pi.

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by MAP appeared first on Dezeen.

This Greek olive oil comes in simple circular bottles and stripped-back packaging.

The FIVE Olive Oil is bottled and distributed by Greek brand World Excellent Products in bottles that are different for each oil variety.

Clear bottles are for extra virgin olive oil, matte black is used for organic extra virgin and matte white vessels contain ultra premium extra virgin.

The product is also available in five-litre tin containers, which have rounded corners and bear the same minimal aesthetic as the bottles.

The brand’s co-founder and marketing director Dimitrios Panagiotidis has also created a limited-edition design with an image of ancient Greek athletes printed in black on the matte white bottle.

“We have the ambition of creating one of the finest premium olive oil brands in the world, with sensational packaging layout and excellent product quality,” said the company.

The branding features simple typography and a minimal logo by Greek company Designers United, which won a Red Dot Award for the visual identity last year.

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by World Excellent Products appeared first on Dezeen.

These spoons shaped for eating specific snacks by Dutch designer Ineke Hans have to be popped out of a plastic frame before use.

Ineke Hans‘ five Special Spoons for Royal VKB have different ends for scooping or stabbing small foods.

The set includes a tiny spoon for sampling spicey sauces, a pointy fork for retrieving gerkins from the jar and a perforated scoop to fish for olives.

The plastic cutlery is packed like a model kit, so the user has to break each spoon out of their frame. Each spoon has a small indent, which allows it to balance on the rim of a jar.

Hans has also created a bowl to hold washed berries. The Fresh Berry Bowl comes with a perforated bottom to allow the wet fruit to drain and a matching saucer for catching excess water.

Dried food can also be stored in the bowl by using the saucer as a lid.

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come like a model kit appeared first on Dezeen.

Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Dave Hakkens’ concept for a mobile phone made of detachable blocks has gone viral, attracting over 16 million views on YouTube and garnering almost a million supporters online (+ movie + interview).

“I put the video online and in the first 24 hours I had like one million views on YouTube,” Hakkens told Dezeen. “I got a lot of responses to it.”

Dutch designer Hakkens, who graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven this summer, presented his Phonebloks concept at the academy’s graduation show in Eindhoven today at the start of Dutch Design Week.

Phonebloks is a concept for a phone made of swappable components that fit together like Lego, with each component containing a different function. This means that components can be replaced or upgraded without having to throw away the phone.

“Usually a phone is integrated into one solid block and if one part gets broken you have to throw away the entire phone,” said Hakkens. “But this has different components, so if  your battery is broken you can replace the the battery or if you need a better camera you only upgrade the camera component. So you don’t throw away the entire phone; you keep the good stuff.”

Last month Hakkens uploaded a video explaining the concept to YouTube, where it went viral and has now been watched over 16 million times.

He then put the idea on “crowdspeaking” site Thunderclap, where instead of donating money, supporters donate their social reach. He now has over 900,000 supporters on the site, and when the campaign closes on 29 October a message about Phonebloks will automatically be sent to each supporters’ social media contacts, giving Hakkens a total audience of over 360 million people.

Hakkens said: “That’s the whole point of this idea; to generate lots of buzz so companies see there’s a huge market and realise they really need to make a phone like this.”

The Phonebloks concept features electronic blocks that snap onto a base board, which links all the components. Two small screws lock everything together. Users can choose components from their favourite brands or make their own modules.

“You can customise your phone, replacing the storage block with a larger battery if you store everything in the cloud, or replace advanced components you don’t need with basic blocks like a bigger speaker,” says the video explaining the concept.

Hakkens hopes Phonebloks will lead to fewer phones being thrown away, thereby reducing waste. “Electronic devices are not designed to last,” the video says. “This makes electronic waste one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world and our phone is one of the biggest causes.”

Here’s the interview conducted at Design Academy Eindhoven today:

Marcus Fairs: What is Phonebloks?

Dave Hakkens: Phonebloks is a phone made to upgrade and repair; it’s a phone worth keeping. Usually we throw it away after a couple of years. But this one is made to last.

Marcus Fairs: How is it made to last?

Dave Hakkens: Usually a phone is integrated into one solid block, and if one part gets broken you have to throw away the entire phone. But this has different components, so if for instance only your battery is broken you can replace the the battery, or if it’s slow after a couple of years you can change just the speed component. If you need a better camera you only upgrade the camera component. So in this way you don’t throw away the entire phone; you keep the good stuff.

Marcus Fairs: Tell us how it went viral.

Dave Hakkens: The idea with this whole project is I’m just one guy at the Design Academy; I can’t make this phone by myself. I can go to a lot of companies and pitch, ask them if they’d like to make my phone, but I thought I’d do it the other way around; so I gathered a lot of people who told companies they really wanted this phone. So I put this video online and in the first 24 hours I had like one million views on YouTube. I also gathered supporters so currently I have 900,000 supporters, and they all just wanted this phone. So now I have all this attention and I get a lot of nice emails from companies who want to work on this.

Marcus Fairs: How did you spread the message?

Dave Hakkens: You have this site called Thunderclap. On Thunderclap instead of crowdfunding you crowdspeak people; people don’t donate money but instead they donate their friends and family. You say you’re interested in a project and want to support it, so you donate your friends – their Facebook followers and Twitter followers – and on the 29 October automatically a message is sent out by those people saying “We want phone blocks”. That spreads to all their friends and families. So currently I have like 900,000 supporters but on 29 October we will reach 300 million people. So that’s the whole point of this idea; to generate lots of buzz so companies see there’s a huge market and realise they really need to make a phone like this.

Marcus Fairs: What is the next step?

Dave Hakkens: My idea succeeded from day one; I got a lot of responses to it. I’ve got a lot of people interested in developing it: engineers, technicians and companies. So right now I’m thinking what would be a logical next step. Crowdsource it on the internet? Work together with a company? That’s what I’m thinking about now; how to realise the phone the best way.

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by Dave Hakkens appeared first on Dezeen.

News: the #milanuncut debate that exposed the poor royalties designers earn has inspired the launch of Crowdyhouse, a new crowdfunding platform that helps designers find funding for their products.

CrowdyHouse, which will launch next week at Dutch Design Week, has been developed by Mark Studholme and Suzan Claesen to provide an alternative to the traditional royalties system, which Studholme says provides “an awful deal for the designers”.

“Our platform means that designers don’t have to take their product to Milan, stand next to it for a week, convince someone to buy it and then only receive 5 percent in royalties of the wholesale price,” Studholme told Dezeen.

Studholme says the #milanuncut project, which engaged dozens journalists and designers during Milan 2011, focused his attention on the difficulties faced by young designers trying to sell their work.

Coordinated by Dezeen and facilitated by an identity and a mobile app developed by London graphic designers Zerofee, #milanuncut was an open-source discussion on Twitter about the way designers are paid for their work in the furniture and product design industry. It drew attention to the paltry royalties and unfavourable contractual terms that are typical when young designers develop products for well-known brands.

“I’m very surprised that, since #milanuncut two years ago, no solutions have really been proposed,” he points out. “The conversation just died down, so hopefully we can ignite it again.”

During the Milan Furniture Fair in 2011, journalists including Kieran Long, Max Fraser, Justin McGuirk, Julie Taraska and Dezeen’s Marcus Fairs contributed to the #milanuncut debate, which set the international agenda for the fair. McGuirk focused on the issue in his Milan review in UK newspaper The Guardian and publications including Abitare, Form magazine and Architects Journal reported on the topic.

“The #milanuncut story was really just a symptom of the unsustainable state of the furniture industry,” said McGuirk this week. “As design manufacturing is forced to reinvent itself, crowdfunding platforms are an obvious step in a new direction, potentially giving designers direct access to markets of their own making.”

Using a similar crowdfunding principle to the one popularised by companies such as Kickstarter, designers are able to raise money upfront by inviting funding for products which investors eventually receive once they have been produced. The designers retain 90 percent of the funding total, with CrowdyHouse taking the other 10 percent.

“Crowdyhouse is actually the first crowd-funded platform specifically for design,” says Studholme. “We realised the traditional Kickstarter model doesn’t favour designers so we thought there was a need for a design-specific platform that really allows the designers to focus on the designs.”

CrowdyHouse offers contemporary products and furniture ranging in price from €65-3000. Designs have to reach a minimum order number before the designer begins to manufacture the product and distribute it to investors.

Details about the designers and the story behind the products, how the funds will be used, and the progress of funding and product development are listed on the website.

Some of the products featured include pressed-clay vessels by Studio Floris Wubben and a concrete, wood and leather lamp by Tim Vinke. Design studio Vilt aan Zee plans to use the funds generated on CrowdyHouse to buy a sheep to supply wool for its felt-shaded table lamp.

The designers listed on the site are currently all based in CrowdyHouse’s home nation of The Netherlands but Studholme and Claesen plan to expand the roster to include designers from other countries.

Here’s a full press release about the launch of CrowdyHouse:

CrowdyHouse stimulates unique design
Launch of innovative crowdfunding and sales platform on October 21st

A new Dutch concept to stimulate innovative design: CrowdyHouse. This platform is a unique combination of crowdfunding and retail. Giving designers the possibility to self-­produce their work and allowing consumers to buy unique design in a transparent manner. CrowdyHouse is launching during the Dutch Design Week, October 21st, in Eindhoven.

When you have a good design as a designer, it’s surprisingly difficult to get financing for the production of it. What CrowdyHouse does is loosely based on the popular crowdfunding principle, but adds a dimension. Investors are also aspiring buyers. Their funding enables the designer to start producing. In return for funding the product upfront they will get the design they helped put into production.

On CrowdyHouse.com, the renowned designer Marc de Groot offers his Helix Light, a strongly geometrical shaped ceiling lamp, which splits a line of light into the shape of a three-­dimensional Helix. Rebob offers a sympathetic porcelain birdhouse, shaped like a bird’s head. Renate Vos designed a table lamp of concrete, which sounds heavy but appears fragile and subtly spreads light.

‘The idea for CrowdyHouse began at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, says Mark Studholme who, together with Suzan Claesen, founded the platform. ‘We were surprised about how little a designer earns if his design is taken into production by a large manufacturer. It can be just 5 percent of the wholesale price that goes to the designer.’

Democratic design for an honest price, is one of the principles of CrowdyHouse. Democratic because the consumer decides which design gets produced by funding it. And honest because the money that is earned fully benefits the designer. CrowdyHouse’s role is limited to being a mediator. The initiative for the new design platform arrives at a time where the creative industry boils of good ideas, but all sources of financing have been depleted. The government is handing out increasingly less innovation grants. Banks don’t spend any money on young entrepreneurs. ‘CrowdyHouse can be a crowbar, a party that fills the void between a good idea and the lover of design’, according to Studholme.

The dozens of products being offered on CrowdyHouse.com are mostly meant for home interior use and vary in price from 65 to 3000 euro. Those who like the product and its story deposits their funding upfront. The site can then be used to track the popularity of a product, how long it will take before production starts and what the money will be used for.

The designers at Vilt aan Zee want to use the investment to purchase a sheep which they can use to produce wool for a lamp. Carpet designer Lizan Freijsen needs a small storage space before she can close a good deal with a textiles lab which produces carpets made from lichen. Each designer needs a small push. Design consumers can provide this small push on CrowdyHouse.

Stimulating unique design through crowdfunding, is the core of what this new platform does. ‘We offer products with a story from the designer’, says Studholme. ‘This gives funding and ordering at CrowdyHouse a very special dimension.’

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designers avoid “awful” royalties appeared first on Dezeen.