Monthly Archives: April 2009

Sous-vide is a method of cookingthat retains the strong flavors of the ingredients by heating them for an extended period of time at relatively low temperatures. The flip side is that it needs to be performed under carefully controlled conditions to avoid botulism poisoning. Here is a look at a sophisticated iteration of this cooker that promises to maintain the intense flavors and cook some very tender meat.

Those weary of the clean-up process of this home-version need not bother coz the mess is contained in the plastic bags and since all the parts that touch food (except stainless steel probe) are disposable, hygienic conditions are maintained. The design of the cooker features expanding reservoirs and the multiple disposable marinade pods allow for flavor experimentation and customization.

This is how Ben has explained the cooking process:

1. Prep food
2. Vacuum Seal the meat
3. Attach probe and insert marinade, the probe tracks the temperature of the meat during cooking and makes adjustments to the temperature of the water.
4. Configure each thermal probe by selecting the meat thickness and type and the cooker sets the time for the user based on their inputs.
5. The food cooks for about 24 hours
6. When the food is done cooking the user then freezes the meat and thaws the meat when the user is ready to eat the food.

Designer: Benjamin Greene

The long awaited Stile Bertone Mantide Project M supercar made its debut yesterday at the Shanghai Autoshow. The showstopper designed by famed Pininfarina designer Jason Castriota is a sleek, uber futuristic outlook on bespoke automotive engineering. Underneath the hood lies a Corvette ZR1 which if you have ever heard before, befittingly goes well with the aggressive sculpted front and rear.

The carbon fiber body enables the ZR1 engine to push the relatively lightweight supercar 0-62mph in 3.2 seconds topping out at 217 mph. Much more information to be had at their site including a video. Com’on, you know you wanna hear what it sounds like.

Designer: Jason Castriota

I know that Molecular gastronomy is a scientific discipline involving the study of physical and chemical processes that occur in cooking, but this is the first time Im coming across a device that actually allows you to do some Molecular Cooking! Consisting of a whip syphon, vaporizer and blow torch the “Moleculars” is something that would make an adventurous cook pretty happy in the kitchen. Experimentation would be the name of the game.

Designer: Sandro Frank

If you’re not up to the Blowtorch style, then maybe its safer that you stick to the un-conventional cooktops that we recently featured at YD. Random concepts that are evergreen!

Electrolux Personal Mini Kitchen by Kai Yu

Lotus Cooking Plates by David Barry & Laurence Finnegan

Cooka by Maurizio Maiorana

Fellow YDers, if you are looking for a new place to hang out on the net then I must recommend the swanky Amuen site. Designed by our friends at RKS Design, this is the spot to hobnob with fellow creative souls painters, musicians, sculptors, photographers, writers, enthusiasts, and everyone in between. The social site is even running an intro contest where you can snap up a Mac Book with a custom skin designed by Carson Hill or a 16GB iPod Touch.

Designer: RKS Design

Actually it’s called the “Bath Bomb,” but any naval commando super sailor knows that this is a mine. Any any naval commando super sailor also knows that one needs dolphins to check for mines. Note: Bath Bomb is “dolphins not included.” This design was designed by none other than Mukomelov Aleksandr. An explosive designer is he. Russian. Tough. That’s what you’ve gotta be to pop one of these into your bathtub. Believe that.

The following words are from Mukomelov Aleksandr himself on the fortitude it takes to use the Bath Bomb: “For absolutely fearless champions used to any difficulty or danger. For men stepping along the blade every day. For ones who really know the value of the words ‘honor’ and ‘courage.’ This gift is candy for eyes and ambitions.”

The most important fact about this design is surely this: women may also use the bomb. The explosion is for everybody with fire in their heart.

Designer: Mukomelov Aleksandr

Clank, Smack, Stand or Glowwe resort to so many new tricks to catch those extra Zzzz, its ridiculous! Its time to add to the collection an alarm that will WAKE YOU instead of adding to the mayhem. This ballsy (pun intended) gutsy alarm clock expects you to lift the globe off the base when the shrieking starts only to be put down precisely in its cradle, to stop the commotion. Dare you snooze! Wake, stimulate, whateverjust make sure DiGi sits pretty next to Chumby.

Designer: Justyna Szacon

Self-help is the best help, the sooner you imbibe this rule in your life, the faster you will find success. Im not trying to be preachy here, but this is a fact that most biggies in the industry live by.

If you want to own the best possible mobile phone in this world, my dear friend youre gonna have to design it yourself, because you know whats best for you. We live for the future and this is the theme for LGs Design the Future Competition as well. Partnering with crowdSPRING and Autodesk, LG is accepting applications from eligible candidates who have the power of transforming their creative thoughts and imaginations effectively to design. Its a chance to do something for yourself that others can benefit from as well.

To help in this adventure, participating designers will get a free 15-day trial pack of the Autodesk SketchBook Pro software to showcase their talent. Of course, the rewards are plenty! The First Place takes home $20,000 Cash Award; the Second Place: $10,000 Cash Award; Third Place: $5,000 Cash Award; 40 Honorable Mentions: $1,000 Cash Award + 1 LG U.S. Phone (A.R.V. of $300).

Regulations require participants to be a U.S. resident, 18-years and above, and the entries need to be submitted before June 7, 2009 @ 11:59 p.m. (midnight) PST. Owning an LG phone or purchasing a new one wont win you any favors, so designers dont bother, just let your creative juices flow.

Official rules can be found at www.crowdspring.com/LG.
Winners will be announced on July 7, 2009 at www.crowdspring.com/LG/winners.

Oh, Das Wine Boot, how I wish theoretical science did work perfectly in sync with real-world physics. The three minds at Kyouei Design contain at the very least thrice the creativity that my fake-German brain does – evident here in the wine-holding “Glass Tank.” Get the wine in that bubble and you’ll be booting your way to strange wineglass supremacy. An eye opener, to be sure… or maybe an eye closer? How much you drinking?

As you can see below, it works perfectly. Drink more than your share of wine in one shot. I should suppose that red win looks best. Watch out for the bubble. Train for winefest. Train well.

Big ups to DVice for the wine findery.

Designer: Kyouei Design

Given a chance, many of us would like to glam up our dcor with some prt interior lighting and classy furniture. However the likes of Dana Otto prefer to opt for subtlety and the de-glam route by fashioning a lineup of lamps out of recycled paper and wires. Needless to say the outcome is impressive as you can see with this Growth Series. The unpretentious trio can be placed whichever ways you like to project light on walls, ceilings or even the table. Custom Lighting at its best!

Designer: Dana Otto

Update: Dana Otto’s design came as a result of Pratt Institute’s second annual George Kovacs Lighting Competition.

Whom amongst you partakes in the art of search engine optimization and general internets traffic-directing? How’s your web-page doing? I’m sure a lot of you use such as Google Analytics or whatnot. But what if you want a giant bowl-clock with pretty amazing lights that help you visualize your traffic fate? It’s big and crazy and good.

This “Emotional Statistics” device is hardware. It’s made specifically for an internet-shop. Flashing diodes show how “deep” visitors get into the site: if they reach the center, they’ve bought a product, and if they buy a product, it’s listed in the center. There are four possible sources that a visitor can come from, each tracked by a line of lights: Direct Access, Paid Search, Referral, or Organic Search. Each visitor is also identified by the color green (unknown, new visitor,) or white (known, returning visitor.)

Enough?

Designer: Frederik Podzuweit

My recent 32-hour train journey across the length of India brought back memories of the times when I last traveled with my son on such a long journey. He was just six months old then and I remember having to sweet talk the Pantry Attendant to keeping the milk bottle in the fridge and later re-heating it on the stove for me. Times have changed and we no longer need to rely on such small mercies. Take this Baby Bottle Thermos for example; its the apt design for a mother who is traveling with a baby.

The 2-in-1 bottle features a temperature retentive case that keeps the contents warm. The semi-transparent finish, fine chrome detailed rim and see-through rubber lid on the top, complement the design perfectly. The innovation lies in fact that the bottle doubles up as a thermos; hence you can store and use the same bottle for feeding.
No sweet-talking Pantry Attendants for favors anymore!

Designer: Christopher Lavelanet

The linguist in you yearns, nay, craves to learn the Korean script? Worry not; here I present to you a calligraphy board that has succumbed to the charms of the touchscreen technology while it works wonders in the Korean Script. The brush you see in the gadget design is of course the input mouse and the board features an array of options that lets you write in this beautiful language. Too bad Im still in the midst of perfecting my Chinese; else I would have given confusing Korean a shot!

Designers: Soonkyu Jang, Chung Lee & Yonghuk Yim

Although the blind will not be able to appreciate the simplistic style of Feel the Time, the practical approach of the design will be well received. The watch face features rotating discs with a tangible nub on each. Feeling the nub helps the blind read the time. Threedimensional rings distinguish the discs from each other and a flexible membrane protects the face of the watch. A break at the 12O Clock position acts as the guide for feeling the time accurately. Sight or no sight, the watch will look neat on any wrist.

Designer: Anna Bieniek

Lines. Lines and Lines and lines. With the front face looking like a Lego, or a mega-blok. It’s the “2015 Honda CB 750″ by Igor Chak. The engine is powered by a four-cylinder liquid hydrogen engine. POW! A six-speed dual-clutch transmission with electronic lurch and traction control. Electronic tuning by the onboard computer. I’ve decided to call it “Frank”. Hello David, Frank, aka CB750, is here to take you over the canyon top.

This 2015 Honda CB 750 is a predecessor to the 1970s-80s CB (pictured below.) It’s basically exactly the same, as you can see, except it has some computers on it.

Computers! Controlling the tuning. Is that madness? What else we got here… frame and body is a unibody contstruction combining carbon fiber, aluminum, and titanium. Seat cowling is part of the frame, allowing it to carry heavy boys and gals: up to 300lbs.

Front and rear electro-magnetic suspension adjusted, you guessed it; electronically. Sensors show readouts updating every 1/10 a second and can adjust everything on-the-fly. ABS, airbag, and steering damper. Rims designed to be sleek and aerodynamic. Radar technology to “sense an upcoming head-on collision and will automatically slow the bike.” – most of these features can be manually disabled to suit the driver.

Now, the on board computer, which can be controlled through a 5 OLED multi-touch display positioned right on the fuel tank. This is the brains of the bike. There are 3 menus: GPS, Drive modes, diagnostics mode.

GPS mode is like your standard GPS that will give you directions and etc, but it will be connected to the internet through Wi-Fi and 3G. This will enable you to find information on the go and implement it to your rout.

Drive mode: economy, race and standard. All can be electronically tuned.

Diagnostic mode: lap times, gas consumption, top speed and etc.

Me bikey.

Designer: Igor Chak

I really dont like the idea of keeping birds for pets as I feel it curbs their freedom to soar the skies. What I do like is the idea of installing birdfeeders instead, this way you can enjoy the scene from afar when an unassuming robin partakes the grains you have left for it. OKKO is as versatile as a birdfeeder can get coz it can either be hung from the ceiling in a balcony (if you have such luxury) or be placed on a post in the garden.

In its Pool World avatar, this ceramic feeder hangs from ceilings and offers extra perch space. In the Green World avatar it hosts a potted plant on the top and sits on a stand.

Designer: Emir Rifat Isik

Your trouser fly just influenced my friend Ji. Quit smirking, coz his YI earphones concept will take care of a lot of wire-tangle-hassles in the future, if it ever gets to production. Simple thought process and application! If pants can have a zipper to hold in the essentials then why the idea cant be used on earphones to manage them when not in use! Zip then open when you want to use them; zip them shut when you want to store them.

Did I mention that it even features a volume control button?
No? Ohok…now you know, so happy Zipppiiinnnggg!

Designer: Ji Woong

Kitchen dish towels are basically vacation spots for the propagation of bacteria. Put it under a microscope and I’m sure you’d see a whole Club Med resort. Gross! We don’t wash our kitchen towels nearly as often as we should. WIPE-C DISHCLOZ is a mini washer designed just for kitchen towels. Drop it in the very cool iris opening top and voila! Clean kitchen towels. Not sure if it uses water and detergent but I’m already sold on the idea.

Designer: Hye-Jin Jang

This highly conceptual interior space with spatially graphic planes meeting into floors meeting into ceilings meeting into walls is not for the faint at mind. Kazimira Malevich’s supermatic compositions are prototypes, schemes on which the spectator can define his/her own spacial relationship within the room. Even the shadows cast by the lines create more geometric planes to confuse the visitor. Remember to take a dramamine before entering.

Designer: 2-B-2 Architecture

Visually challenged people require braille books in order to read. However, not many books are available in braille due to cost and inefficiency. Translating a 500 page book into braille nearly doubles the thickness. EAP is a technology that can dynamically change the surface pattern by way of an electromagnetic signal – simulating braille text. Not exactly a new idea but a nice executive nonetheless.

Designers: Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, Sun-Hye Woo & Jin-Sun Park

Musicaficionados rejoice. The idea of having only 1 device that combines multiple instruments, track recording, equalizer, sound editing, internet connectivity, and a touchscreen interface all into one compact package is drool worthy. The Vivace makes it all possible. Information is scarce on how the interface works but I have no doubt up-and-coming artists like FrankMusik and Bjork could do a lot with such a device.

Designers: Young-Shin Lee & Hae-Jin Jung

Is it next MacBook? no, but everyone likes to put their 2 cents in. It’s called the Mac Folder – not all that different from any other laptop but this could be the netbook everyone wants/expects Apple to make. The UI has been reworked to work more like the interfaces seen on the iPod Touch and iPhone and of course it has a multi-touch screen and OF COURSE it’s as thin as Kate Moss if not more. Want one?

Designer: Tryi Yeh

Beauteous industrial designs. Below check out three top amalgamations of the eco-friendly totally-new Veuve Clicquot champagne box. Devour the color of this “Design Box,” first of all. Look at that yellow! Or is it gold? With red accents. Oh then also it’s made of paper. Paper only. Less than 5% coverage with inks, glues, and solvents. And no plastic film. And micro-grooving is used to reduce the amount of paper in the packaging. AND the paper is FSC approved. What’s that mean?

FSC: “The paper used comes from forests under management of the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), a non-profit organizationestablished to promote the responsible management of our forests.” Wowie. Now check out some of the projects inspired by the box, along with renderings of all three and in-progress pics of the couch and the cellar.

1) Couch by Front Design Boxes stacked and arranged to create an interesting albeit seemingly difficult to clean couch. That’s not to say it’s not splendidly-modern and probably truly comfortable for it’s squareness. Take a peek at the pic that shows one of the designer ladies from Front having a sit on a bit of it : doesn’t she look joyous?

2) Lamp by Tom Dixon: part of an edition of 500 lamps for the greater good of cut-up letters! Slicing graphic design projects up like this can go wrong, but sometimes can go terribly, terribly right. This sort of letters-to-chopped-pattern motif is a trend that’s not quite reached it’s peak yet. It’s still big in the designy-shops in my city of Minneapolis – here Dixon does it right.

3) Cellar by 5.5 Designers: a wall I wouldn’t mind testing out in my house. The repetition works, and so does the brickery motif. Super orangy. Notice how the design of the box becomes the pattern for the whole object. The cellar is built to house the champagne boxes in the same way store shelves are sized to fit them for distribution.

Ideation abound! Fit to win.

Designer: Veuve Clicquot featuring Front Design, Tom Dixon, 5.5 Designers

On March 21, SCI-Arc’sSCI-FI program andThe Architects Newspaper announced the winners of their open ideas competition,A New Infrastructure: Innovative Transit Solutions for Los Angeles.

The competition, inspired byLA County Measure Ra half-cent sales tax hike that promises up to $40 billion in transit funding for the city attracted 75 proposals from around the world. It offered architects, engineers, urban planners, and students a chance to propose new ideas for the city’s transit infrastructure. Their entries focused on specific rail extension projects in the city and also take a look at larger-scale, interrelated planning challenges.

The competition jury included architects Thom Mayne, Eric Owen Moss, and Neil Denari; Aspet Davidian, director, Project Engineering Facilities, LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority; Cecilia V. Estolano, chief executive officer, CRA/LA; Gail Goldberg, director of planning, City of Los Angeles; Roland Genik, urban planner and transit designer; and Geoff Wardle, director, Advanced Mobility Research at Art Center College of Design.

First Prize: Ms Transit

Joshua G. Stein/RadicalCraft, Aaron Whelton/AAW Studio, and Jaclyn Thomforde with Jacob M. Brostoff

Ms is regional high-speed rail for Los Angeles with a landscape to match. Promoting dense, organic development, it diversifies the communities in the built environment, making travel less necessary, easier and more predictable, and bypassing roadway congestion through a new raised infrastructure. Looping around the city, with connections to subways and buses, Ms links local and inter-regional commuting; providing frequent service that will also sync up with the California High Speed Rail network. San Diego via ms is less than an hour away, including transfer times; San Francisco is less than three hours away.

Second Prize:Infrastructural Armature

Fletcher Studio: David Fletcher, Dylan Barlow, Ryan Chandler, Daniel Phillips, Tobi Adamolekun

Recognizing the vital role that mobility, water, and sewage will play in Los Angeles’ future, the city must begin to invest in a core armature of new bundled infrastructures which will allow the city to survive the impending reality of peak water and peak oil. The city must reorganize along the matrices of transportation, water and sewer networks, and grow infrastructural tentacles out into the world to ship and receive.

Third Prize:Mag Luv

Osborn: Holly Chisholm, Kate Harvey, Armen Isagholi, Takeshi Kobayashi, Michael Pinto, Jared Sopko, Esmeralda Ward, Yuju Yeo

The scheme proposes eroding a portion of the freeway and supplanting it with a new object, mode, and form for adorationMag Luv. The high speed magnetic levitation peripheral train appropriates freeway, right of way, and dream space to become the mega structure of the Los Angeles transit system. The loop circumnavigates the city providing 12 hubs of activity, transportation, and power production.

Via: Archpaper & Arch Daily

Made for only the purest of the pure comfort; here is the “Edge Desk.” Designed by certified non-newb designer Alexei Mikhailov. This desk is made for design professionals and design studio owners. If these clients prove true, surely this desk would also ring correct for design schools as well. Its geometric shape provides an ambidextrous an attempt at a perfectly-ergonomic experience in sketching. Drawing and writing are also allowed, maybe possibly.

Inclines on the side are “in the area where the wrist meets the edge in order to create a more ergonomically comfortable sketching experience.” Overhanging shelves on the sides there are in place to store “markers, paper, or even a desktop pc without cluttering the work area.”* And finally, the most interesting part:

The system aspect of the desk, allows for its form to be arranged in various special configurations according to the desires of the available area or client. The desk can be placed in configurations as follows: symmetrical, radial and asymmetrically.

Reeeally?

*also, what if my work area IS my laptop?

Designer: Alexei Mikhailov

What in the heck is this thing? Is it an egg? Is it a blob? Nay! It’s eggyblob -I mean, actually, the “Infinity Remote Control.” Designed by Damien Crossan, this remote was designed to fit a model of a possible remote 7 to 10 years from now. This remote utilized “4G” technology, lithium polymer batteries, and flexible touchscreens. And for its next trick, separation anxiety!

Whoa. Trippin out here on some futuristic fantasy. The remote receives live signal, acting as a preview for the television channels you could choose. It has channel/video/recording memory, allowing you to “take the screen with you” to different monitors around your home (or even around your world?)

And it has touchscreen technology, the blue part comes off and acts as a portable media player, etc, etc, all the normal stuff. And don’t forget, you can play Nintendo Wii with it if you want, as it takes the technology used in todays controllers and applies them…

…applies those technologies to tomorrow!

Designer: Damien Crossan