Hasta La Ideas

If you’re wistfully watching as your kids prepare to go back to school or sighing every time you pass people wearing backpacks, wishing you had some place to go to learn something, we have good news for you: you’re already here. Our parent company/mothership, mediabistro, has just released their Fall Courses schedule. Loads of classes (more than 450) taught by professionals from a wide variety of creative fields, ranging from Young Adult Novel Writing to Flash for Journalists to Blogging courses, available both online and in person. And because you’re a pal of UnBeige, if you sign up for any multi-week Fall Course between now and August 27th, they’ll throw in a Self-Paced Course for free. They usually run $179; probably the best deal you’ll see all day. So sign up now and stop living in the shadow of your children and the backpacked.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A brilliant ’72 video from the Eames Office begs you to slow down and learn about an iconic instant camera

A precursor to today’s digital era, Polaroid’s iconic 1972 SX-70 Land Camera is notable not only for its achievements as the first folding and first SLR instant camera but also for its perfection in form, function, and beauty. The revolutionary camera ignited and defined the instant era, allowing a photographer to focus solely on capturing the moment at hand. One of our favorite sources of inspiration, a pristine example along with its brass-riveted leather case sits on the book shelves at CH HQ. Though we see it every day we were reminded of its importance when our friend Doug Jaeger posted a 1972 video celebrating the camera and its made-in-America pride (a theme that brands like Jeep, Corvette, and Levi’s are currently emphasizing in their campaigns).

Partially because the camera’s technology was so radical at the time and partially because it came about during an era where people allowed themselves the luxury to understand how things function, the Office of Charles and Ray Eames produced a 10-minute-long video advertisement (more of a documentary, really) about the SX-70, which beautifully captures the camera in all of its glory. What’s most surprising (and rewarding) is the pacing and storytelling—something that lacks in today’s 30 second sound-bite, ADD, multitasking culture. Though parts of the video may feel slow, you will be completely rewarded for your patience.

As the brilliantly executed video demonstrates, the sleek leather and aluminum SX-70 “helps meet the universal need to do things well.” Designed so that the face perfectly fits into the device when looking through the viewfinder, the camera’s intelligible exterior conceals a complex internal structure—a system that perfectly illustrates Edwin Land‘s philosophy to only undertake a project that is manifestly important and “nearly impossible.”

The camera’s unique optical path (fully explained at 4:13 in the video) is a result of its folding capability. A four element lens collects and then bounces light off a permanent mirror onto a Fresnel surface. The light is bundled, bounced back again and then passed through two astigmatism-correcting slits before hitting an aspheric plastic mirror, creating an image which is then captured through the Fresnel and an elevated taking mirror. Flash bulbs and close up lenses were some of the additional equipment availale for this flexible camera.

The SX-70 film was the first instant film that was self-contained and didn’t require timing or peeling. The film developed in a few minutes but continued to set for a few days, allowing photographers of all skill levels to achieve previously unattainable effects by cooling or heating the film during that time.

The original SX-70 (pictured above) was replaced a few years later by the Model 2 and 3 versions, and ceased production in the 1980s. eBay often has several to choose from, and thanks to the Impossible Project you can still order SX-70 film

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pIt’s a promising sign that plucky upstart Kia is trying, in a crowded market, to distinguish itself through design. Its Electric Pop concept looks like it’s just an ambitious rendering, but apparently the automaker will be pulling the wraps off of a physical version of the car in less than two months at the Paris Motor Show.br /
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This stepped cardboard installation was designed and built by Berlin University of Arts students to display their own work and meandered around a gallery at their summer show.

The UdK Bookshop was made from six hundred corrugated-cardboard panels that were cut, folded and glued to create a lattice structure strong enough for sitting on.

The installation was bent into sweeping curves and could be compressed to a tenth of its full length.

Students Dalia Butvidaite, Leonard Steidle and Johannes Drechsler won the competition to design the installation, which they built in collaboration with the rest of the participants.

At the end of the four-day summer show the installation was auctioned off.

All photographs are by Reiner Hausleiter.

Click above for larger image

Here’s some more from the designers:

UdK Berlin, Germany / Bookshop 2010

The UdK Bookshop was created in 2009 by a group of architecture, art and graphic design students wanting to provide an interdisciplinary platform for the works of students and professors, which until then had been missing at the yearly open house. During the three day event thousands of visitors have the opportunity to explore the works of students from art and architecture to graphic design and fashion and much more.

The Bookshop was conceived with the goal of highlighting works from throughout the university in a central location, while offering a program of events including readings and informal discussions among professors from different faculties. This year saw artists and UdK Professors Olafur Eliasson and Gregor Schneider coming together to talk about “Installations and Their Spaces” and media theorist Siegfried Zielinski with Graphic Designer Günter Karl Bose on “The time of the Book.”

The design of this year’s Bookshop was selected from the entries in a student competition, and was subsequently built by the competition participants.

In the winning design, cardboard was chosen as the main material due to its flexibility, stability, affordability, sense of impermanence, lightness and last but not least, its recyclability.

Click above for larger image

Six hundred 2,6 by 1,3 meter corrugated cardboard panels were cut, perforated, folded and glued together to form a massive block, which in turn was pulled apart like a giant accordian to achieve its final shape. Adaptable to any space, the entire shelving unit can be easily folded down to a tenth of its ultimate length for storage or transport purposes.

The cardboard itself, despite being light in nature, provides enough rigidity not only for the books, but also for the lowest shelf, which doubles as a bench for events, a place to display oversized objects, or simply to sit comfortably while leafing through a book.

The originally rectangular room was transformed into an unique space with the shelving units serving as background and space-defining elements. By cutting away the corners of the rooms, enough storage space was ensured for the inventory.

At the end of the four days, the shelving unit was auctioned off, ensuring funding for more publications as well as the continuance of the Bookshop in the coming year.

Organisation : Florian Hennig, Eric Zapel
Professor : Florian Riegler
Assistants : Dipl.Ing. Jeanne-Françoise Fischer; AA Dipl. Karoline Markus
Design : Dalia Butvidaite, Leonard Steidle, Johannes Drechsler
Manufacturing : Fabian Wolf, Tobias Benjamin Bosse, Dalia Butvidaite, Eva Susanne Roll, Doerte Boeschemeyer, Johannes Arolt, Marie Poth, Leonard Steidle, Lisa Josephine Goethling, Johannes Drechsler, Karl Naraghi, Anja Schumacher, Paulo Felipe Bellani Mendes, Anne Bruschke, Irina Hoppe, Daniel Ripplinger, Anna Derriks, Georg Hana, Lena Wimmer, Paul Greschik, Johannes van Suntum, Dulcinea Gomes, Eric Goesswald, Anastasia Becker, Edem

See also:

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Cardboard Cloud installation by Fantastic Norway	Flatform 322 by Toby Horrocks	Dezeen’s top ten: cardboard projects