Hasta La Ideas

We all know fluorescent bulbs flicker; wave your hand in front of one and you see the stroboscopic effect. And even though the lights can flicker faster than the human eye can detect, it can still cause problems: “Although humans cannot see fluorescent lights flicker, the sensory system in some individuals can somehow detect the flicker,” says a 1989 lighting research study on the topic. “Ever since fluorescent lighting was introduced in workplaces, there have been complaints about headaches, eye strain and general eye discomfort.” I’m wondering if this recent Li-Fi technology will cause the same problem.

Hopefully not, because Li-Fi is a really neat idea that essentially promises to replace your wireless router with a simple (LED) lightbulb that does double duty, both illuminating your room and sneakily transmitting data. By cycling the light on and off faster than we can see, it produces binary. And binary, of course, is data. It’s basically fiber optics without the fiber, relying instead on line-of-sight. And it works: Li-Fi researchers at the University of Edinburgh led by Li-Fi pioneer Harald Haas have already transformed standard LED bulbs into 130-megabit-per-second routers.

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Architect-turned-interaction-designer Nitipak “Dot” Samsen first caught our attention a couple years ago, when he’d just completed his MA in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art. For the 2009 thesis show, he exhibited series of coin flippers, a diverting exercise in iteration and probability if nothing else.

For his latest project, he’s shifted his attention from the element of chance to a sort of economic determinism, exploring the hypothetical evolution of currency in the near future.

The short film TRAIL$, produced as part of Samsen’s award-winning project “The Money Trailer,” is an all-too-timely tale of capitalism in the digital age:

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A journalist checks in with eight influential designers to assess the future of the field in a new Kindle e-book

In the new e-book “Design Voices,” Dutch designer Maarten Baas points out that 20 years ago, “designing was quite anonymous as a profession.” Now, not only has the importance of design become more visible outside of the creative industries, but designers themselves have also gained distinction as innovative problem-solvers.

Curious about how some of the industry’s most notorious talents see the future and the “larger design arena today,” journalist—and Cool Hunting contributor—Anna Carnick asked Giulio Cappellini, Ross Loveg- rove, Massimo Vignelli, Stefan Sagmeister, Maarten Baas, Tokujin Yoshioka, Dror Benshetrit and Milton Glaser to offer insight into how the profession has changed, and where they think the industry is headed in the years to come.

The thoughtful and timely e-book sells from Amazon as a Kindle Edition ($3), and you can check out some highlights from the “Design Voices” interviews below.

A designer known for injecting technology and science into his materials-driven designs, Ross Lovegrove predicts that in the future people will stray from issues “purely centered on glamor and expression of personal wealth” and instead look to new industrial processes to shape things. “We will witness an explosion of sculptural forms in society based on the digital process and industrial economics,” he says.

The industrious, multi-platform Austrian designer Stefan Sagmeister offers his thoughts on the fate of photography and books, saying “The still image will continue to lose its importance. Everything that can be animated will be animated. The printed book will die.”

As the creator of the iconic “I Heart NY” logo and co-founder of Push Pin Studios and New York magazine, Milton Glaser lives as a graphic design legend. In “Design Voices,” he expertly sums up design as the “fundamental activity of the human species to achieve results,” adding that “the official guideline of design is effectiveness.”

One of today’s game-changing industrial designers, Dror Benshetrit sees today’s design “at a fascinating point”, and believes people are beginning to see it from a more holistic perspective. “Today, it seems that more and more, people need to compartmentalize others and put them in certain boxes,” he says. “I think that’s going to change. We are going to break that, and we’re going to say, ‘Well, I’m a designer, I’m an artist, I’m an inventor, I’m a machinist, and I’m a poet; I’m all of that.'”

All images courtesy of the designers.

Sandro Kopp’s Skype sessions reflect the hybrid nature of painting reality from a two-dimensional plane

A series that evolved out of two friends chatting online while on opposite sides of the world, Sandro Kopp‘s Skype paintings are a natural progression for the young portrait artist. As a half Kiwi, half German, Kopp—who currently lives in the Scottish Highlands—is no stranger to the nomadic lifestyle that Skype enables, telling us he regularly uses it keep up with friends and family. One person Kopp frequently speaks to is his pal Waris Ahluwalia, who is the subject of numerous paintings and the catalyst for this tech-inspired concept, which will soon be on view at NYC’s Lehmann Maupin gallery in a week-long solo exhibit called “There You Are.”

With Ahluwalia as his sitter, Kopp began his “experiment” of painting from Skype video sessions. A few days after its completion, he explains, he kept noticing it out of the corner of his eye and started thinking more seriously about the concept. Kopp prefers the emotional connection and fodder for real observation a live model gives over working from a photograph. The personal engagement Skype provides, combined with the screen’s two dimensional plane, is for him a new hybrid format. 

The Skype sessions also reflect Kopp’s personal philosophy that art should develop from doing. The industrious artist paints nearly everyday—he told us of one instance in which he did four paintings in one day—and this routine practice allows him to explore new ideas, saying “there a million ways to do a painting.”

The series has evolved since its organically-formed inception, and the forthcoming exhibition will not only include new works, but will also feature video installations that depict various moments during the sitting. Like his self portrait series called “The New Me,” Kopp continues to explore the subject of realism with a sequence of paintings that depict his friend Dave Le Fleming. Each painted on separate occasions, the portraits reflect both his ability as an artist to remain consistent through repetition as well as the inconsistencies in observation on any given day.

Kopp’s cast of models include some of popular culture’s most famous subjects, including Michael Stipe, Tilda Swinton, John C. Reily, Ryan McGinley and more. Those wondering how he finds himself in such good company need to look no further than the artist himself. Beyond the opportunity to sit for the talented painter, they are undoubtedly taken by his incredibly thoughtful, humble and considerate nature. Kopp is very aware of the time they give him, and says his fast-paced style—one where he often completes the small portraits in just a few hours—is both an understanding of the situation and his personal technique. “I would like to slow down in the future though,” he says.

The fourth solo show of his Skype portraits, Kopp’s mind is already wheeling with his approach for the fifth show, which will see the series unfold and progress in another creative direction. “There You Are” opens 25 January and runs through 4 February 2012 at Lehmann Maupin Gallery.

Upscale design lines, advanced technology and unmatched fuel economy in an all new sedan

You can’t help but notice the 2013 Ford Fusion, a midsize category-busting car hell-bent on improving suburban driveways around the world. The new Fusion is the first car that very clearly articulates the ONE Ford mantra (cars designed for a global market) and the company’s Kinetic design language (which debuted on the Evos concept car launched in Fall 2011 in Frankfurt).

Ford sold Aston Martin (in 2007) and Jaguar (in 2008) along with the other brands in their Premier Automotive Group. Perhaps the best thing the come out of that experience was the importance of design and how it can elevate a very expensive hand made car as well as a car you’ll find all over your neighborhood and in the parking lot at every mall. There was no shortage of comments at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit yesterday that the new Fusion looked “Aston-like” or “Jaguar-like,” things you don’t usually hear about the most crowded and pedestrian segment of the automobile market. Part of this may be attributed to the raised hexagonal grill, narrow lights and rear license plate surround, which Ford’s VP of Global Design and Chief Creative Officer J Mays says “create a terrific stance.” Sexing up the midsize market is good for Ford, and good for all customers who seek to be inspired by design regardless of price point.

The Fusion brings a new level of features to an inexpensive, accessible car—or, as Mays puts it, “a car you are proud to drive.” Standard features include Ford’s Sync voice-activated control system and a lane drifting warning system. Options include blind-spot warning and automated parallel parking systems—things you’re more likely to see on high end luxury cars.

Ford offers the extremely fuel efficient Fusion in five different four cylinder engines—an existing gasoline engine, two new EcoBoost turbo engines, a hybrid and plug-in hybrid. Mays elaborates, “the mpg on this car is truly spectacular—26 mpg on the standard model, 47 mpg on the EcoBoost Hybrid, and 100 mpge on the Energi model. It’s just game changing.”

From what we’ve seen so far, Ford has come together to achieve something their competitors have failed to do—create an economy car that is desirable, practical, and affordable. I’m looking forward to road testing it.

The 2013 Ford Fusion will be available in the U.S. mid-2012 (with all models available by Fall 2012), and will be available in Asia and Europe as the Mondeo in 2013.