Little monochrome squares are everywhere now. They are pretty ugly and clunky and it has to be asked how many people are willing to get their smartphone out whilst waiting for the tube or the bus and scan in the nearest advert or poster, I can’t say I ever have and in all honesty, you’d probably look a bit of a goon. But that said, these little gizmos have unleashed an unlimited amount of potential for taking our online lives and making it part of real life.
Archive for the ‘Product Design’ Category
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Wednesday, October 5th, 2011Postmodernism at the V&A
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Hello dear blog readers. Apologies for posting this so late in the day but I have been out at the V&A Museum all afternoon trying to get my head around just what exactly Postmodernism is. Stupid though this may sound I managed to complete my art degree and 27 years of my life without having any grasp of the concept whatsoever. Thankfully the V&A Museum have now answered that with their new exhibition – Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970 – 1990 which is running from now until the 15th January.
Period drama
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
From the off, I am happy to acknowledge I am male and therefore not necessarily best qualified to judge the merits or flaws in advertisements for ‘sanitary protection’. But, as media planners have yet to find a platform completely invisible to men, I glimpse such campaigns from time to time. Ever the critic, I also tend to form opinions on the work.
Subversive Cross Stitch
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
When you think of cross stitch what probably springs to mind are images of Victorian samplers made by children, elaborate celebratory plaques made by your Nan to celebrate the birth of a baby or an anniversary or even Disney characters shoddily put together by the grubby mits of 10 year olds who get bored halfway through and leave it in a drawer for the next 5 years. But what you may not know is that cross stitch is making a cult comeback along with knitting and crochet and this is all thanks to a Texan who goes by the name of Julie Jackson.
How the Golden Arches went green
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
Last week, a good friend of mine found out that he was going to get one of these ‘real job’ things with no other than Richard Branson’s Virgin. As part of the company’s ethical ethos, they encourage their employees to cycle to work by giving them 20p for every mile they peddle in. Cynical me pointed out that this was a mere drop in the ocean for Mr. Branson’s carbon offset seeing as he has put so many planes in the sky. I then suggested that my friend should get the brand(son) to change their infamous red logo to green, just like MacDonald’s did, so that the public might be convinced they have gone all tree-huggy. There’s an idea for a blog, I thought, so here it is.
What’s in your gift box?
Monday, July 18th, 2011
Well, it’s all over. This year’s Apprentice is Tom Pellerau, snaring a £250,000 investment from Alan Sugar, his new business partner. Sorry if you were going to watch it on catch-up tonight and I’ve just spoilt it, but hey, that’s the cut-and-thrust of the business world for you. I always said from day one of the process ‘you gotta love Tom’. Realistically, though, however much I and his fellow would-be apprentices liked him, I wondered whether Lord Sugar would go for this softly spoken mad professor of a gent. In fact, it was only right at the very end of the series that Tom won over Lord Sugar for good. He did this by revealing his very creative approach to a leading buyer which secured a place for his invention in Walmart – one of the biggest retailers in the world. So how did he do it?
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The long-legged lemon squeezer
Friday, April 15th, 2011
The French product designer Philippe Starck was seated at an Italian pizza restaurant, contemplating a brief he had recently received from the kitchenware company Alessi.
It was not an interesting brief. The request from Alessi, a company, responsible for many top designs over the years, was for the design of a tray. Now, as any product designer will tell you, there is little fame and glory to be had from the design of a tray and Starck pondered how he might turn this rather humdrum brief into his advantage.
iPad 2 is here.
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
It’s a year since Apple first brought out the iPad and convinced us to part with a sizable chunk of our hard-earned dosh in order to own the then most ‘revolutionary’ piece of technology that Apple had ever made. This Friday sees the launch of iPad 2, a machine which according to Apple, blows its predecessor out of the water. That’s it then everyone, take your iPads down to the pawn brokers and dig deep in those pockets, it’s time to go and worship at the Apple altar again.
Plumen light bulb Wins Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2011
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Last night it was announced that the British Designer Samuel Wilkinson and the supporting product design company Hulger have scooped the Brit Insurance Design of the Year award with their innovative redesign of the low-energy light bulb.
The award was presented by the jury chair Stephen Bayley, he states “The Plumen light bulb is a good example of the ordinary thing done extraordinarily well, bringing a small measure of delight to an everyday product.”
Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
Thursday, October 6th, 2011This morning, a bouquet and an apple with a bite missing were placed outside the Apple store on Regent Street. It was the first of many tributes to Steve Jobs, who has died aged 56.
Alongside Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne and Mike Markkula, Jobs founded Apple Inc. in 1976. Long before pads, pods and phones, Apple had a mission to develop the first practical and affordable home computer. It was in 1984 that an emotional Jobs announced the birth of the Macintosh – the first commercially successful small computer with a graphic interface.
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