"Winners from 20 countries took gold, silver, and bronze prizes for service innovation in banking, creating broad corporate and brand strategies, bolstering sustainability via electric cars, and remaking hammers and wrenches in new, better forms" - some nice eye candy
Information designer Edward Tufte looks at the exceptional information design graphics of Megan Jaegerman
The time of the static, stiff, inflexible brand is over - but some design studios just haven't got it yet
maxim zhestkov's motion, graphic and toy design work - quadroplastic
The BBC have designed an easy to use interface for exploring the last 3000 years of British history.
Moleskine have released a new form of diary, the Moleskine City Notebook Each notebook contains a map of your chosen city with various stickers to help your day to day manoeuvres.
20ltd. is an online shop which stocks 20 unique, beautifully designed objects from some of the worlds top designers. Each product is a limited edition.
Stanford Magazine looks at Edward Tufte's drive to communicate the beauty of communicating information.
Meanwhile a study at the University of New South Wales has discovered that basic display techniques more commonly used in Power Point (Matching what is said with the same words on the screen) actually muddles the information instead of re-enforcing it.
On April. 1, a new museum of counterfeit goods opens in the German city of Solingen, near Cologne. The museum will permanently exhibit 300 original products together with seemingly identical rip-offs. These items range from fashion and household products to electrical and medical equipment.
Forbes present their list of the top industrial designers for 2007
The Design Indaba conference in Cape Town, South Africa has been covered by Ping Mag
Some good images of Philippe Starck's newly completed restaurant in Beijing called Le Lan
Alessi have launched their new range of designer products for Spring/Summer 2007
After enjoying a roll of success that has been inspired by their anti-establishment wallpapers and prints, the Timorous Beasties are slowly moving into the mainstream by opening up a new shop in London. Stuart Jeffries from the Guardian talks with the Timorous Beasties.
Italian designer Luca Nichetto - above: the ceramic hook box
Readymech have released their second version of free flat pack toys for you to print out and construct.
Highlights from an Architectural Association talk in London by Peter Saville
On record covers
“I’d been doing them since I was 23 and you just grow out of it. The playground is not an appropriate place for a grown-up.”
Conceptual design from Duncan Wilson
An interesting discussion at Design Observer about the glass ceiling in Graphic Design.
Andy Rutledge takes a good swipe at the self-indulgent, award fixated rhetoric that is predominant within the graphic design & advertising industries - The Thin PMS185 Line
GeriljaWorks product design from Norway
Zaha Hadid's new exhibition of 'furniture' called Seamless
Tibor Kalman's 'Sky Umbrella' available from the MoMA store
Design Observer have put forward their list of suggested reading material for the 2006/07 holiday season.
Print them out, cut them up then put them together - free card models
GK VanPatter from NextD Journal talks to Malcolm Gladwell author of Blink and The Tipping Point about design thinking
Lots of fun vinyl toy designs from Mike and Katie at Tado
A wonderful example of information graphics.
Following on from the financial risks of environmental disaster as written about by Sir Nicholas Stern, George Monbiot proposed a “ten point plan for drastic but affordable action". From both of these sources John Thackara from 'Doors of Perception' puts forward eight tasks/projects that the pro-active environmental designer could undertake.
British designer Anthony Dickens and his linear timepiece
Mocoloco interview French based designer Tord Boontje
Jess Giffin & Jim TerMee are New Hampshire based designers whose collaborative work is more than just 'designing as a solution'.
Design ideas to vote and comment on - Kancept
If you are looking for something a little different, try the Curiosity Shoppe
Swedish designers Hans and Johan from Green Fortune have a desire to bring plantlife into the urban environment.
Build your own ice sculptures (or monoliths) with lego ice cubes
Each day is a dot, passing from one day to the other is a line - by the end of the month a picture appears. A fun calendar from Dadadum to be enjoyed by children.
Designer toys from Sweden - Playsam
Michael Beirut (Pentagram) talks about his design process
Binvention from Sprout design, their first self-initated batch production project - via
For the past seven years, John Walters was editor of design magazine EYE. Walters talks to Stephen Heller from AIGA about EYE's history and what he has done to both preserve its legacy and make it relevant today.
Designer, DJ and Producer - Trevor Jackson
Design your own skateboard deck - BoardPusher
What makes a great credit card design and how has credit card design changed in the last 30 years
The top 20 Launch Pad finalists will be showcased in an exhibition at the Melbourne Museum from July 11-26 2006 - view their work here
KONE™ is a cordless hand vac designed by Karim Rashid for Dirty Devil - the type of portable vac you can leave out on display - on your table, shelf, or counter.
BLANKA is a collection of original, vintage and limited edition posters and prints.
Sydney's 10th annual design fortnight begins in one months time - their website has just gone live
108 top designs as picked by BusinessWeek in their 2006 IDEA Awards
If you design web pages and want to see what your creation looks like in many different browsers on different operating systems try browsershots
New York animator/vj/artist Nakamura Motomichi is interviewed over at Submarine channel
Original designer prints, magazines and accessories - Arkitip
Some nice illustration/photo montage work from National Forest
A sophisticated billboard campaign from Amnesty International blending what is behind the street signage with images that project the suffering brought about by conflict and torture.
Puma have released a new range of boots that camouflage your feet by using a grass style print so your feet blend into the field.
Fact magazine talks to Peter Saville about his design work for the music industry
Stylish outdoor cooking - Fuego
If you are interested in colour theory or just what looks nice
Shoes with a hole for each toe, designed to give you that barefoot feeling - fivefingers
Wall decals from Paris France - Wall design
Doilies, mugs, plates and glasses - Lovely Lovely from London
New York design studio - Antenna
British design group - Inflate - 10 years of designing the inflateable
David Byrne talks about the role of package design within the music industry and the current path designers need to take now that the physical package is quickly disappearing.
Japanese design group SuperRobot are interviewed over at ping mag
Funny, intelligent products from Atypyk
Maurice Biriotti has written an informative article looking at the role of research within the design process.
Looking at the three basic types of research; Generative, Formative and Evaluative - Maurice attempts to find a solid common ground between the innovative nature of creative design and the research we use to inform it.
A great site design for design studio Sebastian Bergne
A great little tool for finding colour blends and pallets for various apllications and projects - color blender.
Sales of the cult notebook 'Moleskine' (once used by Ernest Hemingway) have been so big over the last few years (4.5m worldwide) that the small company behind it (Modo & Modo) has decided that it's time to sell up.
Owen Jones' 19th Century manuscript 'The Grammar of Ornament' documenting the many styles of ornament, digitally scanned in and presented for your perusal. via
Design critic Rick Poynor takes a look at the role of the 'design critic'
Jessica Helfand at Design Observer looks at the current trend of visually dense, organic, “thornament" that is currently rife within the design community - The Propensity for Density
A nicely designed, cheap to run electric scooter - Scoot
Richard Henderson from Melbourne design company R-Co looks at how important brand building is for business.
Arik Levy's love affair with materials and rapid protoyping has produced an open ended brief where any form is possible - breaking the mold
If Apple had listened to their customers the iPod would never have been invented... a funny look at some of the comments made by the Apple faithful straight after the iPod was released.
Beearo sell some interesting wall adhesive decals while walltattoo design specifically for your wall and paint directly onto the surface
An interesting Pad and Pencil design
An interesting daily planner design from communication designer Rod Graves via core77
Michael Bierut for Design Observer, looks at the current role of the 'graphic designer' within corporate society - menial labour with an exotic twist
When you combine the hospitality industry with high fashion you get the lates trend in designer hotels - Hautel Couture
Graphic Designer, Peter Saville has partnered with Adidas to design a pair of High Top trainers.
Editor of the Dutch design magazine Dot Dot Dot, Stuart Bailey, talks to John Sueda from Speak up about his move to New York and his take on what it means to him to be a graphic designer.
Silk curtains with printed BLOND hair from Amsterdam designer Nicolette Brunklaus.
Tableware decorated with scenes from early 21st century everyday surroundings. Inspired by traditional delft ceramics. Stella Urban Tableware
Might come in handy for 3d computer graphics and other computer design work
The Cha Cha wine rack - $15 per piece - via design*sponge
Using television sets to get across a political message - George W Bush's set design team are leaving very little to the imagination
The design awards season kicks off for 2006
CNN International have recently updated it's on screen graphics - a much cleaner less cluttered look
A beautiful puzzle from Switzerland - Cella Puzzle - via design*sponge
A look at some of the latest website style trends
Mapping knowledge through visual discourse - visual complexity
Janne Kyttanen and Jiri Evenhuis from the Netherlands, have set up Freedom Of Creation (FOC) - where some interesting work is being produced using rapid prototyping techniques.
design*sponge brings to attention the current trend in laser cutting everything. Has this trend reached it's used by date?
An interesting article by Deyan Sudjic looking at the history of modernism and it's constant resurgences - Modernism: The idea that won't go away
Brianna Sylver over at Core77 looks at the meaning behind 'Innovation'
Director of Design and Innovation at the UK Design Council, Richard Eisermann is interviewed by Mark Vanderbeeken at Experientia
The latest call for entries from the Art Directors Club has Rick Poynor from Eye Magazine and Steven Heller from Voice: AIGA Journal of Design, questioning whether the design suggests that graphic design and branding is a simplistic, exploitative and degrading practice - "One wonders how the judges feel about being associated with a competition presented in this way."
Virgin Galactic have requested Philippe Starck to draw up designs for their new $225m spaceport to be built in New Mexico (construction begins early in 2007).
Video installation work - klip//collective
If you have a small child that needs to be trained to mix you cocktails then these 'story books' might be what you are looking for
Some fun chocolate designs from Christchurch, NZ
Domestic are a Parisian publishing house set up by Stéphane Aurriubergé and Christine Montard. Domestic aims at producing « design » collections with the particular feature of offering the end user the freedom of participating in the design process. Their vinyl wall decals are worth checking out.
Core77 looks at how 'Value Transference' played it's part in the success of the iPod . An interesting article that looks at the iPod product lifecycle and how the intrinsic value of the iPod's success can be traced back to the 'essence' of the product's design.
In their current feature of listing the top 'tastemakers' - Forbes are now listing the 10 most influential industrial designers working today
If you are looking for a gifts, design*sponge have put together a 'seasonal selection' to look through.
Is the new form of 'design' less about designing objects and more one of designing systems for solving problems? The design world is changing and the battle lines have been drawn.
Gideon Dagan's latest creation - an interlocking puzzle wine rack.
A beautiful collection of information graphics available for purchase at HistoryShots
Yoyo ceramics have produced a great looking Egg Saucer by Helen Johannessen
The AIGA Design conference 2005 have released all their main-stage presentations and backstage interviews in mp3 format for you to listen to.
The FX International Interior Design Awards for 2005 have recently been announced
Design Journal issues from 1965 - 1974 have been scanned in for your perusal
It's like having a small skateboard under each foot - Freeline skates
A Dutch designer has created a wall of fake breasts to help male shoppers buy bras that fit their wives or girlfriends.
"When trying to buy a sexy bra for their wife or girlfriend, usually they point to other women in the shop or, when asked about size, they say a 'handful'."
Design publication 'Emigre' has come to end. The final issue (issue 69 'The End') will contain 69 short stories tracing the development of the magazine from its early days as a “culturetab” through to the final twice-yearly, book-sized issues co-published with Princeton Architectural Press. The Emigre type foundry will live on.
Flavor Paper, old style wallpaper with a contemporary twist
A List Apart look at testing a website so the results match your expectations - Design can cripple a website
Nick Currie from the AIGA looks at how design could exist as a conceptual product.
The British Design Council have produced the most comprehensive look at the British design industry. Their presentation and in depth findings can be found here
Neubau Welt is a book and CD containing over a thousand editable vector illustrations of everyday objects in scalable editable formats.
Made of wax, with LED lights, run by battery, motion sensors to start them up - smells like candles, look like candles - the future, but with the emotional attachment of the past via popgadget
Andrew O'Hagan from the Telegraph looks at how the semi-naked celebrities are bringing about the demise of the magazine cover.
BusinessWeek Online have a good look at how States in the USA develop that 'come hither' look.
The National Design Awards were launched in 2000 by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum to honor the best in American design.
To mark the launch of their new 'Ambient' section, Mocoloco talk to designer Peter Saville with regards to his new 'ambient loops' - update: part 2 of the interview is now available
Handmade jewellery from Teresa Robinson & smallthings designs
Why is it that dictators surround themselves in cartoonish tacky glitz? The Tyranny of Design
Japanese economist Noguchi Yukio's technique for filing paper
Core77 have their photo gallery from the recent 100% Design event in London.
Designer Stefan Sagmeister is interviewed by Tokyo based design mag - Ping Mag
If you are in Australia this weekend then check out the 'This is not Art' Festival in Newcastle or Melbourne's Fringe Festival - so much to do!
Core77 and BusinessWeek Online have combined to produce an online Design Directory for your perusal
Limited Language is a website dedicated to the intellectual discussion of design.
Vienna design duo Polka
Luke Williams from Frog Design talks about the visual language used when combining a product's materials and colour and this manipulates your perceptions of that product.
No need to drill holes this speaker wire is easily hidden - via bb
Alessi have recently launched their Winter 2005 range.
When designing a product, try and use parts from your old products. This cuts production costs as well as environmental damage. Treehugger talks about Inverse Manufacturing
A good example of eco-friendly design - the TrioBike
Dutch mega-designer Marcel Wanders and household electric appliance manufacturer HE, have come together to produce some great looking appliances
New hotel designed by Karim Rashid - website in Spanish, but images in jpeg
Open competition announced to design the new coins for the British Royal Mint and win 30,000 pounds
Nike are releasing new contact lenses for use in outdoor sports.
I will pay for good design
A comprehensive library of Saul Bass' title sequences, accompanied with a written review over at notcoming.com
Mathias Bengtsson's laser cut layered furniture
Marcel Wanders from Dutch design group Moooi shows off his 'Two Tops Table'
Sydney Design 05 kicked off last week. Each year up and coming designers talk and exhibit their new designs at 'Workshopped' - mocoloco has the rundown.
Swatches of colours - handy if you need colour inspiration
The art of perfume bottle design
Some nice screen printed posters from Jason Munn at The Small Stakes
Last May, Police in Florence started to crack down on people wearing or buying counterfeit designer clothing. In one day, police confiscated 1,159 counterfeit items, including 136 handbags, 200 CDs, 46 watches and 333 pairs of eyeglasses. With fines as high as 10,000 euros people are finding out it's cheaper to buy the real thing.
Phillipe Starke's property development company - Yoo
Michael Bierut from the Design Observer looks at where credit is given on designs that have been worked on by a group
Designer Johanna Balušíková went about the process of asking 75 creative field workers from 20 different countries: what colour do you associate with each day of the week? The result is a series of t-shirts, one for each day of the week, the colour of each having been selected by majority vote. The shirts could either be worn according to the calendar days, or more intuitively, according to the actual mood of the wearer.
AIGA have a good knowledge resource for learning how to get the most out of networking within the design industry.
Some good looking motion graphics work from National Television
Hillman Curtis have put together this documentary on David Carson
Sydney based graphic design journal - Open Manifesto
David Byrne was in Toronto and had a look at Bruce Mau's 'Massive Change' exhibition. His slight distrust of the utopic haze that this exhibition espouses is interesting.
The Industrial Design Excellence Awards for 2005 View over 150 of some of the best product designs for 2005.
A new design for swimming goggles that include a lap counter and timer
A good resource for some commercial design products from some of the worlds top designers - Magis
The often overlooked and under-rated area of the aesthetic appearance of medical instruments.
Patients make decisions on the quality of care based on how the instruments look - this perception can then play a major role in patient outcomes.
IDFuel have a nice look at growing the areas that are important
On the Massive Change site there are a number of good interviews with top designers and intellectuals that can be downloaded in mp3 format to listen to at your leisure.
Fast Company's latest issue is all about the Power of Design.
The Table of Contents
The Business of design
Better by Design
Masters of Design
And if that's not enough try Business Weeks 'The Power of Design' - all via core77
A good collection of posters from the Kung Fu genre
Will Wright the designer behind the game 'The Sims' is working on an interesting new game based on evolution called 'spore'.
When unlocked the handle glows green, when locked it's red. This design by Swede Alexander Lervik was launched at this year's Stockholm Furniture Fair
Some good examples of eNewsletters using the pdf format - via PoynterOnline
Taking design beyond the graphics and packaging designers are now looking at how consumers 'experience' the product - Procter & Gamble know all about it.
The Register look at the new Gwen Stefani Digital camera.
If you work in an advertising firm then you might know someone who may deserve one of these
After failing in the design stakes last time around, Microsoft decided to revisit the xbox's design. The Seattle Times has the story
An interesting new shower design from Dornbracht, a German brand of luxury bathroom fixtures via - popgadget
A good look at the need for brand and product development within China - written in English by the Japan Design Foundation - via core77
A 'one book' bookshelf - very minimal
Eric Von Hippel from MIT has released his new book 'Democratising Innovation' in pdf format under the creative commons license.
Fitch redesign their website
Core77 have a couple of good design articles worth looking at;
Constructive Ignorance - Cordy Swope talks about Strategic Marketers and their drive for the 'breakthrough' product.
Seismic Shift - How are design studios coping with the changes happening within their industry.
Marc Hedlund talks about the design features that can give a product that added connection with the consumer - he calls it the Bud Vase Feature.
The Washington Post talks to Karim Rashid about the qualities of the Italian Design and furniture production industry.
Recent design graduate David Mansueto has designed an elegant, compact and portable 60ml espresso maker called 'Aroma' - he just needs a manufacturer.
Organic forms and graceful curves - blobject design and the designers that produce work in this style.
CoBranding - when the culture of a designer joins with that of a manufacturer from a different industry, something new happens e.g Yohji Yamamoto and Stella McCartney with Adidas or U.S. streetwear label Phat Farm designing its own Motorola cellphone.
A good idea over at Jeremyville - Sketchel
Early prototypes from Apple, when they were developing the mouse.
Erik Spiekermann (founder meta design), talks about the titles used in design firms and what they mean.
The wallpaper responds to the lighting requirement of a room, acting as a decorative element when a room is naturally bright, and as a wallpaper light when the space requires more light.
An interesting selection of design/advertising/web design essays
Some good nylon toys and design over at Android 8
An article on how Philippe Starck looks after his health while jetting around the world
Last October, Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine wrote on the 'Long Tail' - his public weblog looks at this topic in more depth. The Long Tail is "products that are in low demand or have low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the relatively few current bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough." - (quote from Wikipedia)
The Better by Design conference has just come to an end in NZ. Some interesting reading in the 'Business Stories' section. Tom Peter's Keynote slides are online here
Keep that six pack cool when on the move with this byobag
A huge library of global brands in eps format.
Moleskin release their new reporter notebooks
Icon magazine list their top 21 most influential designers
Some nice colourful products from Pantone
Japanese Sunglass-maker KT Optica Inc have developed an interesting way for glasses to attach to your ears.
An infinity/8 shape fishbowl designed to keep your fish happy
Some good examples and explanations of film poster design by allcity
Dutch born product designer - Chris Kabel
New York based design collective - Elseware
An interesting story covering the development of a new toy idea and the developers experience working with manufacturers in China
Marie Torbensdatter Hermann - Tactile Ceramics
Glassware designed by Karim Rashid - two glasses for the price of one
Lots of nice design to browse
A good design blog with some nice links
A site dedicated to Dutch design
Interbrand readers pick the top brands of 2004
Designers from more than 72 countries explore and visualise personal and portable timekeeping 150 years into the future
The tool to make the perfect cucumber sandwich
For the person that has everything
Using a special metal based undercoat paint, magnetic shapes can be positioned around the 'wallscape'
As society ages, new products need to be designed
A database of posters from Soviet Russia
Have some nice graphic design and illustration work to peruse
If you eat lunch at your desk then you need one of these
Organic ceramic forms mounted on the wall by Jennifer Prichard
Some nice design work, sent in from around the world for the 2004 Taiwan International Design Competition
Surface Magazine have asked some of their design friends to suggest some ideas for the future.
Make a wallet out of money
A lighting device with many uses - one such use is for a dress at the Milan Triennial 2005.
Nicely designed site with lots of colour and smooth animation
Some nice work from Australian brand and package designers, Liston + Platon
Rinspeed concept cars
An interesting article discussing the 'form follows function' debate that was once again sparked by James Dyson's resignation from the London Design Museum.
A recent study organised by the University of Surrey has found that UK companies will fall behind their American competitors if they do not exploit design to deliver products that customers want to buy.
Fast Company lists the 6 myths of creativity - is money a creativity motivator?
Some great looking illustration from the sticker nation competition winners - via
How does America's product design industry cope with the outsourcing of manufacturing and now design of it's products? This article suggests you focus on designing the products personality
Some cool looking trainers designed by Marc Newson
Interview with Karim Rashid
A review of the latest 100% Design
A new development by Philippe Starke - Downtown
Some good looking work from Australian design and film company Collider - some of their web work; Khali Interiors and minus2 connectable chopsticks - all via Australianinfront
What a great selection of some very interesting light designs
If you are looking for the ultimate ear buds
Newsweek has a look into Bruce Mau's Massive Change project
Jonathan Ive talks at London's Design Museum
73 year old designer and "lifestyle guru" is interviewed at the Japan Times
Stylish looking speakers for your iPod
JC The Store, has an interesting website interface for delivering the emotional experience of the Jean culture.
There is something suspicious about a company that uses the name of it's founder to promote a design ideology that is supposedly the 'future of design'.
A new look for the creative commons site
A new mobile phone design by Marc Newson
James Dyson has quit as chairman of the London Design Museum. He believes the museum was more interested in form over function - sigh
