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…
As a book designer, I’m often asked whether I think printed books have a future. Short answer: yes, but it’s complicated. The future of print question is often followed by a declaration of love for tangible…
This season, it’s all about the jacket for Watson.
BBC
The third season of the BBC’s Sherlock opens with a bang and gives us Derren Brown, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock in an action hero window smash, followed by an insouciant hair tousle and a Hollywood…
My new year’s resolution is to read less, more deeply. By this, I mean that I aim to break my habit of skimming multiple texts at a time; to focus on reading one thing from start to finish, before moving…
Anyone who wishes to innovate can design.
Gn!pGnop
“It’s not just a _____, it’s an experience.” Substitute the blank space above with just about anything these days (car, meal, city, website, course, concert, charity, therapy), and you get the unofficial…
Products that were once new and expensive are quickly treated with disdain.
Gareth Fuller/PA
Reducing waste should be uncontroversial. While the government’s newly published waste prevention programme represents an improvement on previous strategies, it could have been – should have been – far…
Put simply, typography is the art of making language visible: designing what words look like on a page or screen. Before desktop computing, typography was a specialised trade. Now, anyone with access to…
Paola Antontelli, a senior curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Robin Holland
Paola Antonelli, a senior curator and director of research and development at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), caused a minor art world storm when she added videogames to the official collection…
A trained typographer can see font problems a computer cannot.
Jenni Konrad
If the type that surrounds us clamours for our attention, then the space that surrounds it is the silent component: ever-present, but only considered when it imposes upon, hinders or muddies type’s meaning…
A print designer by trade, I resisted eBooks until a single publication won me over: an edition of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land designed for the iPad, jointly produced in 2011 by publisher Faber and Faber…
Our perceptions influence the type of robots we create.
EPA PHOTO/EFE/Columbia TriStar/Robert Zucker
Dear robots: you have an image problem. Typically cast as either as vicious killing machines, cutesy pets or house slaves, robots are usually depicted in Western media as either something to be feared…
Open-plan layouts showed considerably higher dissatisfaction rates than enclosed office layouts, the data showed.
John Blower
Open plan offices attract the highest levels of worker dissatisfaction, with cramped quarters, lack of privacy and noise topping the list of gripes, a large study has found. An open plan workplace, in…
It’s the end of the runway for Nicole.
jaimelondonboy
High-end fashion label Nicole Farhi has called in the administrators. Restructuring specialists Zolfo Cooper are looking for a buyer, while property consultants are wondering what to do with the firm’s…
The Museum’s actions create the perception that they does not understand, respect or value the design community.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/threthny/
Each year, Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum commissions one of Australia’s best design studios to create a poster and accompanying marketing material for the Sydney Design festival. This year they went for a…
From hot property to unwanted waste: it’s time to rethink the way we design, produce and reuse new products.
Obsolete computer image from www.shutterstock.com
Many of us get frustrated with the slow pace of international action on climate change. But powerless as we feel, we can still make a difference by rethinking the way we design our lives. Design is rarely…
Battle of the smartphones: the Apple iPhone IV and the Samsung Galaxy II .
AAP
Don’t worry — you’re not seeing double. Everything looks the same … well, certainly in mass market products such as consumer electronics. The high profile litigation between Apple and Samsung is just one…
Australia’s unique manufacturing DNA - comprised of tens of thousands of small-to-medium enterprises - means that we must forge our own path to innovation.
DNA Art Online
As the manufacturing landscape shifts in response to new economic and social pressures, Australia is looking for an answer to the question: What does the future look like for Australian manufacturing…
Sex shops are venturing out into the High Street.
Paul Maginn
Cities are fizzing with opportunities to experience sex and sexuality. While sex usually takes place in private spaces, it is never really out of our minds. Unconsciously we “know” that it is taking place…
Website designers want to woo you, and will use every trick in the book.
EF Photography
Beautiful women make great con people, as do handsome men. Why? Because, for better or worse, we are predisposed to trust beautiful people more than normal-looking folks. But what if we take it one step…
Intelligent walls could soon help you navigate around public transport.
Infostructure/Vinh Nguyen
Can you imagine a public transport environment free from the complications of buying a ticket and validating it? What if fare evaders were automatically singled out for their faux pas? Or how about the…