Crowd-Sourced Mapping [Bing]
I've been a fan of Photosynth since I first heard of it during a TED presentation. While traveling to Jordan, I made a synth of El-Dier Monastery in Petra (Transformer 2). With geotagging, this will help to create a visually stunning and detailed user experience.
To compete with Google Maps, Microsoft has laced photosynth technology to create Bing Maps. Competition is always good. Both Google and Microsoft have been making incredible improvements to their mapping technology.
You can read more about it at Fastcompany.
Pictures of Stats [Visualization]
In one of his pieces, he creates an fantastic image resembling pollution spewing out of a factor. When you get up close and personal, you realize that its actually made of lots of plastic cups. As a matter of fact, it includes 1 million cups, which is the number of plastic cups that are used on airline flights in the United States every six hours.
His work is a pretty cool intersection between art/design and infographics. You can check out his website here and his latest book here.
I have been typecast [Identity]
Am I timeless or a snob? Or maybe both (MWF, TThSat, Sunday I rest). Take the quiz here to find out "What font are you?"
Ethnography and Design [Innovation]
It's been a great couple days here at Berkeley. I'm constantly inundated with new ideas. I've been truly amazed at the ad hoc conversations that occur within the interstitial time between meetings and classes.
One topic that has gotten me really excited is the concept of design thinking. As once an aspiring graphic designer, I have always been fascinated with design. It is the last mile between us and utility.
One core component of design thinking centers around tying cultural analysis and ethnographic observation to create big "I" insights. The following is a great short video on how design thinking was used to design the future of sustainable fishing:
Ideas should scale [Lessons]
Lesson#2: Insights do not scale. Ideas scale. Insights lend themselves to new ideas. Build rapid prototype and explore the idea. Good ideas are not about specifications and therefore, scale.
From:
Putting the People First: Human-Centered Poverty Alleviation.
Featured Speakers: Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO; Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO and Founder, Acumen Fund. Moderated by Stuart Davidson, Managing Partner, Labrador Ventures
Image Source: Tumitu Design
Convert Evolution [iPhone App Design]
Tap tap tap has a short video taking us through their design iteration process. It's amazing the number of little tweaks that result in a highly consumable product. When thinking about your processes, how often do you tweak them? How often do you iterate?
Convert Design Evolution from tap tap tap on Vimeo.
More info about Convert is at taptaptap.com/convert
Online Marketplace for Directors [Online Film Festivals]
While living in DC, I was lucky to be part of a film festival. What continually amazes me is the depth and quality of amateur work out there. Given the high cost of making mass consumptive media (like movies and commercials), its no wonder that companies rarely bet on an unknown director.
Film festivals, especially the strappy small ones, seek to showcase emerging talent and their unique stories. For example, a Paris-based production company Mr. Hyde has launched The Hyde Tube, which provides an online venue for directors to have their work juried.
There are two things I like about the project:
- Creation of a Marketplace: Mr. Hyde, hopes that the Hyde Tube will becoming a marketplace where clients can find source new talent (and probably for a cheaper cost). In effect, Mr. Hyde is trying to remove the middlemen in the process--for a nice price"Clients will contact The Hyde Tube in order to pass on a project to a specific director, who is then free to decide whether or not to accept it. If accepted, the director will write a treatment or make an animated test within 3 to 5 days. For this work you will receive approximately 500€.
If the client is happy with the treatment and decides that the director will make the film, The Hyde Tube will connect the director with the client, and Mr Hyde or one of its affiliate studios will oversee the production until the film delivery."
- Visualization of Content: With a reported 100 directors, I was deeply curious on how they were going to help clients scroll through all the content. The use of screenshots allow the clients to scan multiple aesthetics efficiently.
This post is a bit of promotion [Gallery 400 Exhibit]
This Shadow is a Bit of Ideology, gathers a group of artists working against the darkness cast by a long, drawn-out war, a rancorous spirit in politics, a social landscape obscured by rampant information retrieval, and a crumbling economy. The artists in the exhibition do not turn their backs on current socio-political issues, but neither do they embrace propaganda. Rather, they harness anxieties—political, economic, personal—as productive generators for form. Introspection, reflective criticism, oblique commentary and cohabitation of past with present are just a few of the tactics by which these artists navigate progressively through the twilight.
All Shoes Considered [Nike Considered]
Nike has launched a new initiative called Considered Design. When trying to develop a more sustainable product, Nike realized that instead of creating a new shoe, they came up with the idea of using old shoes to make new ones. Vanessa Farquharson writes:
It's a perfect example of "upcycling" -- a green trend in which an expired product is upgraded into a new, more superior product -- and it's just one aspect of Nike's new approach to sustainability, which the company calls Considered Design.
Some examples of Considered Design's objectives: - A closed-loop system, in which Nike designers and manufacturers use old material and scraps from the cutting room floor to make new shoes, in order to reduce excess waste at the outset and create less demand for virgin resources. - Mechanically locking soles, meaning no glue or solvents are required in the production process; plus, insertable booties, removable logos and other design features that make the shoes easy to dismantle for recycling. - Apparel made entirely from recycled polyester and organic cotton, with water-based adhesive techniques in place of toxic cement or VOCs. - Open-sourced technology, allowing other companies to share research and development and promote sustainability throughout the marketplace.
Read the article from National Post here.
Evolution of Logos
Best Ad has a post showing the evolution of a couple corporate logos. I found it interesting how much or little companies have evolved their logos over time.
For example, after a significant change between 1955 and 1957, the logo design has continually been tweaked.
Bryant, thanks for sharing!