What makes a design “classic”? That it stands the test of time through continued use, critical recognition and popular approval? Or is it simply that its vision and innovation results in it being regarded…
The Moog, 2014 Model Sub 37 – producer of squelchy bass lines and distorted expressive solos.
Wikimedia Commons
The classic sound many of us imagine when the word synthesiser is mentioned is the sound of the Moog – the warm, solid propulsive groove of its bass sound and the distinctive sweep of its patented lowpass…
The Tibetan Book of Proportions, produced in Nepal during the 18th century.
The Public Domain Review
Staring at a blank page is daunting. Where to make the first mark? As designers have known for centuries, one way is to start with a grid. A grid is a structure of lines used by designers to help organise…
The designer’s main task in these countries [like India] is to operate at the levels of protohistoric continuities and chaotic discontinuities and to introduce a sense of order into this highly fragmented…
Chairs are a health hazard – that is according to Galen Cranz, U.C. Berkley Professor of Architecture and author of the book, The Chair: rethinking body, culture, and design. She states in a 1999 article…
Nothing to wear this evening? Sorry, but 3D printing can’t help.
Rain Rabbit
3D printing has to be a contender for the most talked about technology award at the moment. Gone are the days when I’d start talking about my research in this area only to be met with glazed eyes or polite…
Researchers using the Design and Art Australia Online database no longer need to trek across the country to examine works such as Jean Goldberg’s “Wheels”.
Powerhouse Museum
In 2014 it is hard to remember how isolated research on art in Australia used to be. Before the web, when we were all in hard copy, it used to be almost impossible to find information on Australian art…
Recently on The Conversation, military historian John Blaxand put forward a design proposal for a new Australian flag. This was in light of a call by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key for a “post-colonial…
Designers can work small to produce large impact.
Courtesy of the artist Anupama Kundoo
Designers today are impatient for their work to expand into a larger world. They are testing their expertise in complex and non-traditional fields such as finance, conflict, health and disease; growing…
Street posters advertising the The Saturday Paper in Sydney’s St Peters.
Zoe Sadokierski
Morry Schwartz, publisher of The Monthly and Quarterly Essay, launched The Saturday Paper on March 1 2014 – the same weekend Fairfax Media downsized its weekend broadsheets to “more compact” sizes. Launching…
I have a golden rule, which is never to review a building unless I have been to it. Architecture is at heart about use and experience, and this simply cannot be conveyed through pictures, words and drawings…
Designing a national flag is a difficult task and cannot be done in isolation.
EPA/Mast Irham
It’s coincidental that a renewed call for a “post-colonial” New Zealand flag has been made by Prime Minister John Key in the same year an independence referendum in Scotland may lead to the end of the…
Australian anthropologist Michael Taussig writes: To slip into the blue of your blue jeans is to slip into a surprising and unexpected encounter with the past … but without your having the faintest idea…
Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing takes a new-look car for a spin during pre-season testing in Spain.
EPA/Roman Rios
The big race of the annual Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix is coming up this Sunday at Albert Park, Melbourne – and it marks the beginning of a new era as a new set of rules and regulations are adopted…
It is estimated that by 2050 there will be a six-fold increase in the number of flights there are today. This is going to be an environmental problem, and it will need radical change in aircraft design…
My Twitter feed blew up with retweets of Dezeen’s February 4 2014 article on Danish design student Nanna Kiil’s Flesh Chair, which she had entered in the 2014 Stockholm Furniture Fair. According to her…
We may have found a cure for most evils; but we have found no remedy for the worst of them all, the apathy of human beings. Helen Keller This past weekend, I went with family and friends to see the film…
Last year, while designing the cover for Gabrielle Carey’s book Moving Among Strangers (UQP, 2013), Gabrielle and I started talking about book trailers. A book trailer is a short video created to promote…
Website design shouldn’t elicit this reaction.
Flickr/Mylla
There is probably not one of us reading this who has not lost themselves in time and space as they surf the web. So much engaging content, so many interesting lines of enquiry – and so much rubbish too…
3D printed hat - just the thing for Melbourne Cup.
Flickr/ Hindrik S
The future of 3D printing is firming up as it moves from do-it-yourself tinkerers to key players selling complete consumer solutions. This shift brings important ecological and socio-economic implications…