Nice Website

rachel_bloch Lovely java (I think) based website from illustrator Rachel Bloch. It wouldn't suit for more project based designers as it's tricky to tell a clear story with this type of site but I think it's a great way for illustrators and probably photographers to show work. It lends the single items an objecty quality which I really like. I'm also a big fan of going to the extremities of the site and 'discovering' almost hidden items. Great Stuff. Link: here.

Objectified

objectified some salient quotes from the film:

We designers do not work in a vacum... we are not the fine artists we are often confused with. (Dieter Rams)

We now have a new generation of products where the form bares absolutley no relation to the function. (Alice Rawsthorne)

We tend to want new things- they can do something that has a different look, a newer look, a fresher look, a new now, next now kind of look and the problem with spending a lot of time focusing on what's very now and very next is that it isn't very forever and that means it doesn't last, because there's someone coming along trying to design what's new and next after that. (Rob Walker)

When you own the car and you drive the car even the decisions about whether you're going to put a bumper sticker on it- there's an idea of an audience- I feel pretty strongly that this is true not just of cars but for almost everything you buy that the real 'audience' is really ourselves, and the person you're really speaking to when you're speaking about 'Why me and this car? Why is this the right car for me?' You're making a statement to yourself about yourself.  (Rob Walker)

I like the concept of wearing in rather than wearing out. You'd like to create something were the emotional relationship was more satisfying over time. (Bill Moggridge)

mass communication vs. mass production (Anthony Dunne)

Dieter Rams

Wasn't sure I was going to enjoy the exhibition to be honest- I mean I know a bit about the guy and the designs but couldn't help feeling they were slavishly following a movement rather than doing there own thing and that they were plastic monstrosities created to be consumed and re bought with a different shell. The objects were however filled with an integrity and honesty which rendered a good majority of the objects still very contemporary looking. Of course some things dated- portable record players and some of the shavers and coffee makers. But alot of the audio equipment could have come straight out of Muji- and on reflection alot of the clean functionality which is characteristic of Ram's work for Braun can still be seen in Industrial Facilities work for Muji and others- (and if were going to name drop other contemporay people designing like that there's Apple to consider). I re-found Rams' 'Ten Principles of Good Design' and when you see some of the pieces it resounds very well. His universal shelving system is still on sale today and it really is a testament to the design that it looks so fresh.

1) Good design is innovative.

2) Good design makes a product useful.

3) Good design is aesthetic.

4) Good design makes a product understandable.

5) Good design is unobtrusive.

6) Good design is honest.

7) Good design is long lasting.

8) Good design is consistent throughout.

9) Good design is sustainable.

10) Good design is as little design as possible.

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Design Awards 2010

Took a trip to the Design Museum and here's my round up of favourites from the Design Awards. The stuff shown is what I reckon is most awesome- there was of course some stuff that I didn't dig- but the following was so good I left feeling good about the Design industry which I hadn't expected. This is Sugru- a material which can be moulded by hand and cures at room temperature to become a washable, heatproof silicone. Sold as coloured lumps in various sizes it's designed for hacking your objects- fixing, making better and is generally just awesome.

The Really Interesting Group (RIG) have created the Newspaper Club- utilising down time at printers they have created a service which allows individuals to upload artwork for their own newspapers of between 5 and 5000 copies- they've made printing incredibly affordable. Perhaps the most interesting (excuse the pun) thing which started it off  is 'Things Our Friends Have Written On The Internet', a publication aggregating images and text from blogs, and websites into a printed publication. Heavy web 3.0 shit.

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In a similar vain It's Nice That get my respect for producing a consistently quality package of blog, features, jobs board, exhibitions, artwork and most importantly for me an extremely affordable printed output: again, using the advantages of the internet to create content. Printing it turns it into something better- sort of brings it full circle.

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The Incidental has so many people involved that i'm not going to try and name check them all but it's pretty fucking encouraging to see some familiar names in there. Basically it's an almost immediate magazine based in and featuring both Milan 2009 and The London Design Festival 2009. Content was sourced from the people going around the events- tweeted, blogged, reported directly and then sifted, filtered and created into a new publication each day. Simple- brave- dramatically scaleable- pretty and above all useful.

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Real Time by Maarten Baas is a clock which is changed manually- he's done a few- some with brushes, some as installations but this one is done with some red glass- black paint (I think I read it was latex) and a squigee. Watch the video. Not in the show but found on his website: I really really like his clay furniture series- I mean I really like it and I'm not into chairs.

dm_maarten_baas Also worth a mention were BBC iPlayer, Amazon's Kindle (Both of these were of going to happen, but are still well designed and pretty revolutionary), Why Not Associates Literary Forest, and The Trillion Dollar Project (to raise awareness for The Zimbabwean newspaper.