Interesting and colourful work from this multifaceted design shop, with a pretty unique website to-boot.
Formerly working out of Rotterdam, Toko now operates in Sydney, Australia. They’ve produced a fairly large body of work, often experimenting with diverse materials and methods. Their site is definitely worth checking out.
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pAt press time their website had not yet been updated with this news, but the 2010 James Dyson Award has announced their US National Winner, along with the US Shortlist./p
pTop prize goes to MIT’s SENSEable City Lab for their A HREF=”http://www.jamesdysonaward.org/Projects/Project.aspx?ID=1119RegionId=1Winindex=3″ Copenhagen Wheel design/A, a sort of smart wheel that attaches to existing bicycles and transforms them into “hybrid electric-bikes with regeneration and real-time sensing capabilities.” /p
blockquoteIts sleek red hub not only contains a motor, batteries and an internal gear system – helping cyclists overcome hilly terrains and long distances – but also includes environmental and location sensors that provide data for cycling-related mobile applications. Cyclists can use this data to plan healthier bike routes, to achieve their exercise goals or to create new connections with other cyclists. Through sharing their data with friends or their city, they are also contributing to a larger pool of information from which the whole community can benefit./blockquote
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pCheck out the full Shortlist A HREF=”http://www.jamesdysonaward.org/Projects/projects.aspx” here/A. br /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/competition/mit_senseable_city_labs_copenhagen_wheel_takes_top_us_prize_in_dyson_awards_17151.asp”(more…)/a
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Music Philosophy is a weekly project by designer Mico Toledo – who unites his love of music and typography, in the creation of illustrated song lyrics. Toledo takes lyrics from songs he enjoys listening to and produces an illustration that incorporates (as a general rule) a variety of typefaces.
The Music Philosophy website was launched five months ago and has since prompted a great response that Toledo wasn’t expecting: “I am pretty happy as I am able to spread the music joy and philosophy to thousands of people with my work.”
Here are a few examples of illustrations created for the project:
The past year has seen Toledo taking a masters degree at Central Saint Martins, with plans to return to his previous position as an Art Director for advertising agencies such as Leo Burnett in Lisbon, Portugal – where he has created award winning campaigns such as EPhemeral Museum for Diageo (which you can take a look at here) – whilst continuing his graphic design projects along the way.
To buy prints of Toledo’s work click here. Fans of the project can also suggest song lyrics for Toledo to consider illustrating at the ‘Submit a Song Quote‘ part of his website.
Japanese designer Masato Sekiya elevated this house so that it would fit over the humped site in Ashiya, Japan.
Called Lifted House, the residence is framed by woods and has a view of the ocean in the distance from the upper storey.
More about Masato Sekiya on Dezeen:
A Mono Struct House by Masato Sekiya (June 2010)
House for Three Children by Masato Sekiya (June 2010)
Photographs are by Akira Kita.
Here’s a little more information from Masato Sekiya:
Location is On the northen side of the hills surrounding Ashiya city in Hyogo Prefecture.
The piece of land is 900m sq and humped like a house’s back.
It faces south and on its north side is woods so landscaping and the building’s setting in its enviroment were prime considerations.
In deciding floor height, I designed the kitchen with a view of the ocean in distance, and calculated the storey below accordingly.
Click above for larger image
By lifting most of the upstairs, it was not necessary to alter the contours of the land.
Click above for larger image
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| A Mono Struct House by Masato Sekiya | House for Three Children by Masato Sekiya | Torreagüera Vivienda Atresada by Xpiral |
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pWhile that just looks like a box with solar panels attached, that box makes the stuff life is made of. Swiss company Trunz’s A HREF=”http://www.trunz.ch/TWS-200.347.0.html?L=1″ Water Systems 200/A is a solar-powered water filtration system that sets up in 30 minutes, needs no fuel, and filters viruses and bacteria out of any non-saline water source, producing 900 liters of potable water in an hour. (The saltwater version, below, cranks out 250 liters per hour.) /p
div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/2010/08/0trunzwaters002.jpg” width=”468″ height=”191″ alt=”0trunzwaters002.jpg”//div
pTrunz’s device can also be converted to run on wind power in areas where the sun don’t shine, and regardless of the power source its batteries can store enough to chug on for 24 hours a day. It’s basically a disaster relief dream come true, and all in a fairly portable size–roughly 1.5 meters in each dimension.br /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/trunz_water_systems_eco-powered_magic_box_for_disaster_relief_17150.asp”(more…)/a
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Brooklyn’s new boutique and workshop devoted to the art of denim
From the obsessive mind of Loren Cronk—one of denim’s more vintage-inspired fans—comes Loren, a new multi-use temple to his particular take on the perfect jeans. Higher rises and slim cuts characterize the look, tweaking a retro silhouette to make it more modern.
Cronk also has all the tools on hand to sew pairs from scratch, and does dry and wet customization processes, like bleaching, special washes, and a labor-intensive silicone dip, to make beautifully-deconstructed denim.
In addition to the former Levi’s and Ralph Lauren designer’s own Lips line and a handful of other labels he’s behind too, you’ll also find collaborations with local brands—ranging from Heavy Leather guitar straps to J. Cravata bowties.
via The Moment
pimg alt=”0oregontree.jpg” src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/0oregontree.jpg” width=”468″ height=”539″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p
pThe industrial design version of turning lemons into lemonade: After an oak tree collapsed on the University of Oregon campus, destroying the Provost’s car, the school harvested the oak and handed it off to their product design students, tasking them with turning the wood into useable furniture pieces./p
p”It makes me feel much better about my car that it went to serve the educational mission of the institution,” said UO Provost James Bean./p
pOregon local news affiliate KEZI has a brief (and alas, unembeddable) video on the story A HREF=”http://kezi.com/news/local/184231″ here/A. br /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/education/product_design_students_turn_a_destructive_tree_into_class_projects_17145.asp”(more…)/a
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DezeenTV: in this next film in our series of Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents, Cologne gallerist Gabrielle Ammann explains how she came to exhibit and sell design, the need to categorize people and whether she would prefer to keep a Ron Arad chair or sculpture.
Click on the symbol in the bottom right of the video player above to view the movie in full-screen HD.
Can’t see the movie? Click here.
More information about the talks here. Keep an eye out for more Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents interviews over the coming weeks…
Watch all the Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents »
See all our stories from Cologne 2010 »
Watch all our movies »
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| Dezeentalks at [D3] Design Talents: Marco Dessi | Dezeentalks at D[3] Design Talents: [D3] winners | Dezeentalks at D[3] Design Talents: Eric Degenhardt |
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pChina is so often thought of as the World’s Factory, it’s easy to forget they’re also a major, and growing, global purchasing force; producing all those inexpensive products and items of clothing has swelled their income by amounts that might seem small to wealthy Western nations, but would have been unimaginable to the Chinese citizen of two generations ago./p
pJapan, on the other hand, is largely recognized as producing sophisticated, high-quality, relatively expensive goods. Question is, which Japanese products would Chinese consumers buy?/p
pJapanese business weekly IShukan Economist/I recently listed the top ten Japanese products purchased on Taobao, China’s version of Amazon. The list was rather surprising. The number-one selling item, for instance, is a Uni pen set made by Mitsubishi that sells for 50 cents. “Why,” A HREF=”http://blogs.forbes.com/china/2010/08/12/what-chinese-shoppers-are-buying-online/?boxes=marketschannelnews” asks Ray Tsuchiyama of IForbes/I/A, “is this Japanese pen continuing to sell without Chinese copycat products?”/p
blockquoteOne reason is that the materials and manufacturing are quite advanced for such a cheaply priced product, and a Chinese firm would have to invest much in product design and sourcing the right materials for manufacturing, and end up losing much time and funds./blockquote
pOther items on the list are equally surprising, at least initially: Japanese baby formula, Japanese diapers and Japanese shampoo, all of which China already produces and sells for far less than their Japanese counterparts. But the Chinese variants of these products are known to be inferior or even chemically dangerous, and internet-savvy consumers of course want the best for their babies and their bodies. /p
pThis reminds me of American consumers refusing to buy junky American cars. While Chinese manufacturers are often derided for producing cheap and inferior products, it’s worth remembering that that country’s consumer and manufacturer are two different things entirely./p
pRead Tsuchiyama’s full article on the subject A HREF=”http://blogs.forbes.com/china/2010/08/12/what-chinese-shoppers-are-buying-online/?boxes=marketschannelnews” here/A.br /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/the_online_bestselling_japanese_object_in_china_isa_cheap_pen_set_why_17142.asp”(more…)/a
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