Hello, buddy!
here's the vid:
Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
yes, yes, and yes.
Hello, buddy!
here's the vid:
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
the wacky world of socks!!
I have decided to give all of my family members socks for Christmas this year. Among other things. Socks are a great gift classic, probably because a good pair of socks is a good thing to have. I, for one have favorites among my socks, and I wear them accordingly. Sometimes I save my favorites, the way I save the last bite of steak, for a day towards the end of the laundry cycle... I'm a horder like that.
Internet research yields an eye-opening peek into the wacky world of socks. I was told once that I seem like the kind of person who would be into funky socks. I'm not ashamed to admit it. But I got nothing on some of the folks out there. Here are some of my favorite finds:
Internet research yields an eye-opening peek into the wacky world of socks. I was told once that I seem like the kind of person who would be into funky socks. I'm not ashamed to admit it. But I got nothing on some of the folks out there. Here are some of my favorite finds:
Monday, December 13, 2010
'tis ever more the season
I like the idea of Santa as an army of little "Heinzelmännchen". These are dwarf-looking creatures of German folklore - mostly in the sense that they wear pointy red hats and are tiny. Though Heinzelmännchen are very, very tiny, and they come out at night to help you by cleaning, or repairing, or making things. Friendly little domestic spirits. Mythical cleaning ladies. This is a great topic to be explored at length later.
For now: Santa trying on different outfits in front of the mirror:
you can buy them for lots of money here, or hire a cleaning lady.
For now: Santa trying on different outfits in front of the mirror:
you can buy them for lots of money here, or hire a cleaning lady.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Post-Apocalyptic Design
1 part sawdust
1 part plastic
1 giant pot
1 tooled mold
1 standard kitchen oven.
In the future, when we run out of materials, or energy, or both, maybe this is how we will make things! Or we can make them now, this is just my personal interpretation.
Designed by israeli-based kulla design studio. Also yoinked from designboom, here.
1 part plastic
1 giant pot
1 tooled mold
1 standard kitchen oven.
In the future, when we run out of materials, or energy, or both, maybe this is how we will make things! Or we can make them now, this is just my personal interpretation.
Designed by israeli-based kulla design studio. Also yoinked from designboom, here.
Ugly Duckling
What an aptly named lamp! The materials really do transform into something different. It's still a bird, but a very different bird.
With all the DIY, recycling, raw industrial materials stuff around this one really hits the nail on the head. It's austere but still a little playful. You can just see the hands screwing the different bits together, pulling wiring through the pipes, and painting the lampshades a matching yellow. This one makes me wish I knew the next thing about electrical wiring so I could make it too.
Also, nice details! The switch, and the use of curves to turn flat pipes into a stable, three-dimensional frame are just elegant.
Unfortuantely the chopped-off bottle lampshade leaves a little something to be desired, but isn't the lampshade the easiest thing to replace on a lamp? I am sure other plastic refuse could do nicely here. Or even a 1st use, real-live fabric lampshade?
Designed by Hong Kong-based designer Kamric. oh yeah, yoinked from designboom, here. thanks!
With all the DIY, recycling, raw industrial materials stuff around this one really hits the nail on the head. It's austere but still a little playful. You can just see the hands screwing the different bits together, pulling wiring through the pipes, and painting the lampshades a matching yellow. This one makes me wish I knew the next thing about electrical wiring so I could make it too.
Also, nice details! The switch, and the use of curves to turn flat pipes into a stable, three-dimensional frame are just elegant.
Unfortuantely the chopped-off bottle lampshade leaves a little something to be desired, but isn't the lampshade the easiest thing to replace on a lamp? I am sure other plastic refuse could do nicely here. Or even a 1st use, real-live fabric lampshade?
Designed by Hong Kong-based designer Kamric. oh yeah, yoinked from designboom, here. thanks!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
The first cassette player, and My first cassette player
This is the world's first laptop, designed by Bill Moggridge:
(the GRiD Compass, designed in 1979, though it didn't appear until 1982)
This is the world's first walkman, credited to engineer Nobutoshi Kihara under the direction of Sony boss Akio Morita:
(July 1979)
Apparently Sony just announced that they will stop producing the walkman.
There is an article here at Design Observer called "Keith Richards and His Amazing Portable Cassette Recorder":
“I’ve learned everything I know off of records,” says the guitarist-turned-historian of technological innovation.
What is important, Richards declares, is “being able to replay something immediately without all that terrible stricture of written music, the prison of those bars, those five lines. Before 1900, you’ve got Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, the cancan. With recording, it was emancipation for the people. “It surely can’t be any coincidence that jazz and the blues started to take over the world the minute recording started, within a few years, just like that.”
Never thought about it like that!
This is the model of portable casette player I had as a kid. Though I was more into the story telling than the Stones.
oh, and this:
(the GRiD Compass, designed in 1979, though it didn't appear until 1982)This is the world's first walkman, credited to engineer Nobutoshi Kihara under the direction of Sony boss Akio Morita:
(July 1979)There is an article here at Design Observer called "Keith Richards and His Amazing Portable Cassette Recorder":
“I’ve learned everything I know off of records,” says the guitarist-turned-historian of technological innovation.
What is important, Richards declares, is “being able to replay something immediately without all that terrible stricture of written music, the prison of those bars, those five lines. Before 1900, you’ve got Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, the cancan. With recording, it was emancipation for the people. “It surely can’t be any coincidence that jazz and the blues started to take over the world the minute recording started, within a few years, just like that.”
Never thought about it like that!
This is the model of portable casette player I had as a kid. Though I was more into the story telling than the Stones.
Hello, old friend.
oh, and this:
Monday, November 29, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
SATURN and the empty-space-shudders
Gas Giant
5 times more voluminous than the Earth
An average of 1.43 billion kilometers from the sun
It's nine rings mostly composed of water ice, rocks, and dust
The largest of its 62 known moons: Titan
incredible photographs taken by the Cassini spacecraft, found at Wired magazine here.
5 times more voluminous than the Earth
An average of 1.43 billion kilometers from the sun
It's nine rings mostly composed of water ice, rocks, and dust
The largest of its 62 known moons: Titan
incredible photographs taken by the Cassini spacecraft, found at Wired magazine here.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Ugly Alarm!
Looking for an alarm clock. I thought digital would be nice - no TICK TICK TICK through the night. Radio! Why not. I don't even have a radio at home. Off to ebay!
Practically 100% of all new alarm clocks on ebay (and Amazon) are hideous. Sure, there's your $200 designer alarm clocks, which are nice, but, geeeeeez, all the old ones are so much better looking. What is happening?? 80's - 30's it's all pretty thumbs-up. The new ones I am ashamed to even post here. But I will. At the bottom. In small.
First, look at these beauties (I'm having a hard time deciding which one to bid on, though I am partial to peach, as always):
and blech:
Practically 100% of all new alarm clocks on ebay (and Amazon) are hideous. Sure, there's your $200 designer alarm clocks, which are nice, but, geeeeeez, all the old ones are so much better looking. What is happening?? 80's - 30's it's all pretty thumbs-up. The new ones I am ashamed to even post here. But I will. At the bottom. In small.
First, look at these beauties (I'm having a hard time deciding which one to bid on, though I am partial to peach, as always):
and blech:
This Is So Interesting, I Postponed The Other Post
My ancient nokia cell phone (tiny, robust, and lightweight - ah, those were the days) recently lost its last useful function, which was that of an alarm clock. After it enjoyed a brief stint as a friend's emergency replacement phone, the alarm just wouldn't ring anymore.
The tiny animated bell on the display would roll from side to side, and the word "Alarm!" would flash aggressively, but all was silence. Perhaps my little old phone was overwhelmed when it came into contact with my friend's sim-card, which was full of complicated Blackberry data. Maybe, being of old age, it couldn't handle the abrupt change in its routine. Suddenly it was supposed to make calls again, when it was used to whiling away its days by the side of the bed, ringing every morning, and watching the seasons change through the window.
The only visible clue I could find was a tiny symbol in the center of the display that was always, idly present. It was barely 10x10 pixels big, and it looked vaguely like a tiny VW Bug-like car in profile. It had two little windows and two teensy wheels. I figured, in the car, you use your headset, so all is quiet. This is a usefull setting. So I scoured the phone's menus, sub-menus, sub-sub-menus, and so forth, trying to undo the setting that caused the litte car to appear and my phone to be mute. I went as deep into the phone's brain controls as I could penetrate. Which is not all that far.
I never found the setting anywhere. Maybe it wasn't a car, maybe it was a tiny skull. Maybe it was a herald of death, announcing the end of my phone's life. And so I did my part. Since it was no longer able to fulfill faithfully its wake-up services I eventually let the batteries run out. After using my iPhone for a week or two (which has obnoxious sound effects and lacks the haptic qualities that make more sense in half-sleep) I decided to look around for a new alarm clock. And this is what this post was really supposed to be about: Radio Alarm Clocks!
One more thing before I get to the other fascinating thing I want to discuss: I wanted to snap a photo of the mini-death-car to illustrate my mesmerizing tale. I went to grab the old Nokia, which for some reason, was charging on the window sill. But I wasn't able to get a picture of the mini-death-car...becasue it's gone! The phone is all buttons-a-beeping and alarm-a-ringing again! A magical resurrection form the ashes of exile! Of course by now I have spent 2 hours on ebay looking at so many great old radio alarmss that I'm having trouble picking one out, let alone cancelling the whole idea of buying one. I will hold on to little Nokia though. I'm sure it will come in handy. Haha! (This was a stupid pun for German speakers.)
Thank you for your time.
The tiny animated bell on the display would roll from side to side, and the word "Alarm!" would flash aggressively, but all was silence. Perhaps my little old phone was overwhelmed when it came into contact with my friend's sim-card, which was full of complicated Blackberry data. Maybe, being of old age, it couldn't handle the abrupt change in its routine. Suddenly it was supposed to make calls again, when it was used to whiling away its days by the side of the bed, ringing every morning, and watching the seasons change through the window.
The only visible clue I could find was a tiny symbol in the center of the display that was always, idly present. It was barely 10x10 pixels big, and it looked vaguely like a tiny VW Bug-like car in profile. It had two little windows and two teensy wheels. I figured, in the car, you use your headset, so all is quiet. This is a usefull setting. So I scoured the phone's menus, sub-menus, sub-sub-menus, and so forth, trying to undo the setting that caused the litte car to appear and my phone to be mute. I went as deep into the phone's brain controls as I could penetrate. Which is not all that far.
I never found the setting anywhere. Maybe it wasn't a car, maybe it was a tiny skull. Maybe it was a herald of death, announcing the end of my phone's life. And so I did my part. Since it was no longer able to fulfill faithfully its wake-up services I eventually let the batteries run out. After using my iPhone for a week or two (which has obnoxious sound effects and lacks the haptic qualities that make more sense in half-sleep) I decided to look around for a new alarm clock. And this is what this post was really supposed to be about: Radio Alarm Clocks!
One more thing before I get to the other fascinating thing I want to discuss: I wanted to snap a photo of the mini-death-car to illustrate my mesmerizing tale. I went to grab the old Nokia, which for some reason, was charging on the window sill. But I wasn't able to get a picture of the mini-death-car...becasue it's gone! The phone is all buttons-a-beeping and alarm-a-ringing again! A magical resurrection form the ashes of exile! Of course by now I have spent 2 hours on ebay looking at so many great old radio alarmss that I'm having trouble picking one out, let alone cancelling the whole idea of buying one. I will hold on to little Nokia though. I'm sure it will come in handy. Haha! (This was a stupid pun for German speakers.)
Thank you for your time.
Monday, November 8, 2010
hands play with rubber bands
Rubber bands are hard to transform. They're intriguing, stretchy, and colorful, but their distinct texture and shape makes it difficult to turn them into something more. This is a successful transformation - the results are beautiful.
You can read more about this project by New York based Milev Architects in this deezeen article.
You can read more about this project by New York based Milev Architects in this deezeen article.
nosing around the interwebs
The Internet: immediate curiosity / idea spinning satisfaction. I can already see some creatures coming to life...
Monday, October 4, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
hair ball pin etc.
This hilarious piece of jewelry reminded me how I wanted my friend Tom, at Ultimate Shirt Co., to print a t-shirt that alread had sweat stains on it! Nice, big ones. He wasn't a big fan of the idea... I don't know if it would be such a big seller. I think it could be good, maybe if you use bright colorful colors. It would be funny.
Which reminds me, growing up in Austria, we never had hypercolor t-shirts, but I always wondered if you wouldn't just have hypercolored pits the whole time?? This great picture I found was just too good to be true....it's american apparel.
Friday, July 9, 2010
LBRB - the imaginary store
The left brain items are the rational-order-reality-based products. Sensible, in one word. Like an affordable, lightweight, sturdy folding chair.
The right brain items are the emotional-intuitive-fantasy-based things. Like plates with intricate decorations or an ottoman covered in scraggly wool that looks like it might come to life.
And then there's some objects that are really difficult to categorize because they're a little of both. Like this one:
The right brain items are the emotional-intuitive-fantasy-based things. Like plates with intricate decorations or an ottoman covered in scraggly wool that looks like it might come to life.
And then there's some objects that are really difficult to categorize because they're a little of both. Like this one:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
