In many ways modern cellphones are little more than high-tech pieces of jewelry that keep you connected to the world while looking great pressed to your ear. Barb at Etsy’s “iPhone G3” earrings eschew all that unnecessary functionality and focus on the aesthetics, shrinking a pair of handsets the same way she miniaturized two Wiimotes, turning them into tiny charms to dangle from your earlobes — head decor that’s sure to light up the eyes of every male geek in the room. A pair are yours for just $22, which is a fair bit more affordable than the real things.
The Greener Gadgets Conference is coming up in a few weeks here, so we thought we’d bring you some highlights of the design competition it’s sponsoring. First up, Recompute is a fully sustainable design for a desktop computer — meaning that it makes use of low-impact manufacturing, uses fully recycled materials, and is easily dismantled at the end of its life for… you guessed it: more recycling. We don’t have full specs on this puppy right now, but we know it’s got 8 USB ports, and that we’re getting one if it ever makes it to production. Also in the running is the RITI eco-friendly printer, which uses coffee and / or tea dregs in place of costly, old, boring and non-eco-friendly ink. The printer is also manually operated, and does not use electricity — which may not make it the speediest device in the world — but we don’t print that much, anyway. Next up, there’s Harddrive — which is a simple USB flash drive encased in concrete to stave off harmful leaching into landfills once disposed of — though the concrete obviously makes the drive a bit nastier to haul around town. Finally, the Inlet Outlet is a whole-home concept that combines a standard outlet — which eats up the juice — with an inlet right next to it, which returns some electricity to the grid. The design is for adapter kits which could easily be used to green up your home. Votes are being tabulated online for the Greener Gadgets Competition, whose winners will be announced on February 27, 2009, at the Greener Gadgets Conference in New York. Check the gallery for more photos of the submissions.
Given that we’ve seen mirror TVs and MP3 players designed to emit sound within one’s shower, we’d say Antonio Lupi’s MP3 Mirror is just one of the gang. In fairness, we do appreciate the sleek design and its reported ability to integrate into any steel frame mirror, but unless we’re badly mistaken, the user is still responsible for adding speakers. Our suggestion? Hook up with Emo Labs and concoct an all-in-one device with sound emission baked right into the shiny stuff.
Pardon us while we gush profusely, but this is easily one of the most amazing audio products we’ve ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on. The Speak-er, which honestly looks like something straight from the labs of Art Lebedev Studios, is quite simply a speech bubble-shaped speaker. It measures in at 4- x 6- x 2-inches and is constructed from polished white ABS with a matte black steel grille. We don’t even know what kind of driver resides within, but we don’t care. All we know is that this amazing piece of art will be on sale later this year for $120 per pair, and we can’t wait to hear the words “now shipping.”
Design / animation studio Gridplane’s recently unloaded photos of a mockup it contributed to the Microsoft Xbox team in charge of revamping the Xbox user interface, which eventually became the New Xbox Experience, AKA NXE. There are a few things here we like — the design has a clean, other-worldly feel to it that’s semi-appealing. However, we’re not so into the milky haze that could have separated us from our beloved, fashionable avatar. Check out a few more shots of the proposed design after the break.
I agree with designer Tariq Krim that we’ve yet to see an OS interface perfectly implemented to a netbook’s uniquely small hardware. Hence Jolicloud, and judging from this UI shot, he’s on to something.
Yes, this is what our netbooks need: clear, big app icons (big enough to be touchable) on scrollable page a la the iPhone OS, an easy installer interface for quickly adding more, constant access to a universal search bar, all presented in a clean, clear and colorful design scheme.
If we had to name two essentials to any geek home, well, we couldn’t. But if we were jacked upside the wall and forced to, we’d likely pick sound and lighting. It goes without saying that designers Hoang M Nguyen, Poom Puttorngul and Anh Nguyen would agree, as they’ve dreamed up the conceptual Soundbulb that you see above. Essentially, what you’re looking at is a light bulb that includes a small driver along with an embedded wireless module that would enable it to receive streaming audio from a transmitter. Oh sure, you wouldn’t get any of that soul shaking bass from these guys, but just think of the convenience factor.
As he did for Helvetica’s namesake typeface, Gary Hustwit gathered the world’s top designers for his forthcoming documentary Objectified, telling the story of the magic behind the objects we use every day.
We’re lucky enough to be the first folks anywhere to bring you the trailer for Objectified, and I’m excited. Helvetica, is one of my all-time favorite documentaries because it distilled a daunting stack of design theory books into a film that was not only beautiful and entertaining but seriously informative—you didn’t have to be a Swiss RISD student to appreciate it, even though there was enough back and forth about modernist and post modern graphic design theory to fill a seminar or two.
And by the looks of the trailer here, Objectified seems poised to do the exact same thing for industrial design, and we’ll be learning from the best: That is, of course, Apple’s Jonathan Ive telling us about the psychology of our gadget purchases in the first voiceover. We also see several heavies from IDEO, the major design firm responsible for the first laptop and Apple’s first mouse, among other things, as well as Naoto Fukasawa, whose credits include the Infobar phones for KDDI/au (that you may have seen at Gizmodo Gallery) as well as his awesome wall-mounted CD player for MUJI. Present too are Dan Formosa & Davin Stowell from Smart, designers of the Flip cameras, and Dieter Rams, a legendary designer from Braun who was one of Ive in particular’s biggest influences.
Objectified should be premiering this Spring. Watch for more info on the official site, and if you missed Helvetica, it’s getting its US TV premiere on PBS tomorrow night (check your local station’s times here) in a slightly abbreviated hour-long version. [Objectified]
If you wanted to sum up your city in one room without making it cluttered, what would you put in there? This is precisely the challenge that TOKYO CULTuART, a new project and shop from BEAMS in Harajuku, is taking on since its opening two weeks ago.
While their main business is design and apparel (ranging from casual to business to t-shirts), culture is also a valuable commodity, a point not lost on BEAMS RECORDS. CULTuArt is in the culture business, taking the best of Tokyo’s art and design scenes and letting it all play together, regardless of medium or genre.
Recently we were lucky enough to spend some time with Nagai-san, the General Manager of CULTuART and a mainstay at BEAMS for over two decades. According to Nagai, CULTuART is an aggregator of urban Tokyo, bringing its many faces and artists into one place that acts as both retail outlet and museum.
From the Gundam figures of Akihabara to design books and prints found in Ueno, CULTuART spans the urban landscape of modern Made in Japan, shows it to the world, and makes it available to the masses all at once. The contents reflect the tastes of modern Japanese, but also those of its curator who values a piece’s cultural and aesthetic qualities at once.
The shop is decidedly down-to-earth in its sensibilities, but that doesn’t mean it comes with a small price tag. While Modoka Morikawa’s Peloqoon stuffed figures can go for around $150, one-of-a-kind pieces like the Doraemon stained-glass lamp from Pucci (seen in the slideshow) can exceed $7000. This is surely the nature of bringing in the best of the best, and makes it a great stop for both foreign and local visitors to get a solid overview of Tokyo culture and design in a very pop-culture kind of way.
Technology certainly has its place in CULTuART’s space as well. Aside from multiple Mac models open for use, they’ve also created a special browser-based application for iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Each item has its own number which, when clicked on, brings up detailed information about the piece and its artist in both Japanese and English. If you have one of the devices yourself, click here to browse on your own, and check out pieces like MODERHYTHM’s very cool CHUBU 01, pictured below.
Gadget-less customers can get loaners to use during their browsing time, but Nagai-san notes that devices integrated with the shopping experience are going to expand even more in the coming years, incorporating RFID and other technologies to better provide interactive information about the displays.
For the next step in its evolution, CULTuART is expanding to bring the best of Tokyo to other major cities around the world, though they haven’t made any firm plans yet as to where they’ll be going. Since they’re interested in spreading culture, a unique or unusual location (in our opinion anyway) would be far more interesting than the usual suspects.
However, the concept can work both ways as well, as many Japanese are increasingly travel-minded and appreciative of other cultures. TOKYO CULTuART would be interesting in Brooklyn, but how about a BROOKLYN CULTuART version in Paris or Cairo?
To visit for yourself, click for a map from Harajuku Station.
We weren’t able to find anything online about these, but our recent trip to a Lawson convenience revealed these very cool Hello Kitty bottles. Aside from being rather ergonomic, the seemingly Gaultier-inspired sexy bottles are also sporting the latest in Kitty-chan fashion.
Of course, for 368 yen ($4), this is clearly water for cute-loving women over 30.
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I agree with designer Tariq Krim that we’ve yet to see an OS interface perfectly implemented to a netbook’s uniquely small hardware. Hence 
