Smart Cars come to America!

Wohhooo!! The SMART car has finally been approved to make its way to America around 2008. I'd still prefer the Nissan Cube or Chapo, perhaps a Mini, but the SMART will do just fine.

Tim Knowles:Weeping Willow Tree Drawings

"Tim Knowles creates drawings independent of his own hand, using elaborate apparatus or time consuming practices. Interested in the process of drawing Knowles invents experimental and playful procedures to introduce chance and unpredictability into his work. Often he will employ and expose mans relationship to nature, in an ongoing series which will feature in the exhibition, Knowles attaches pens to the tips of branches of various trees; placing paper in front of them he allows the chance movement of the wind to dictate the composition of the final drawing. The artist surrenders final control of the work, questioning the authority of the artist whilst allowing the fundamental and primordial characteristics associated with drawing to be communicated."
Read more at Rokeygallery

Flavored Skewers

Heres a “Why didn’t I think of that” idea! Flavored Seasoned Skewers! Perhaps I’m just really hungry right now, but these sure sound tasty for a nice BBQ. I’m also the type that licks every savory taste off the stick usually. It’s about time something simple gave a kick of flavor into the middle of the meat!
via coolhunting

Business Week: IDEA Awards

Business weeks annual IDEA awards for outstanding designs and innovations is out. They have 108 projects documented, some great, some stunning, some just ok in my mind. One that popped out for me was the Sushi Plate by Mint Inc. Take a browse at the winners here.

Bodega Boston- Fresh, Fresh, Fresh!

So, I was shopping online for some Maharishi cloths I posted about, and ended up emailing the company to find out where I could get some of their goods. They ended up introducing me to a place called Bodega in Boston, which I had never heard of. I found out this high-end fashion store was somewhat hidden inside a soda machine, inside a thrifty little convient store, with no signs. So as you are probably thinking, bizzare right. Well, my first drive by, I saw a convient store, but thought nothinig of it, and went back home and just said another day. Well, today I was in the area again, and decided to go into the convient store. At first it was locked, but a stylish person came out to greet me and said they were closed, and I asked if I could just take a quick peek. "Sure, come on in." Ok.. I see some fritos, detergent, spam, toilet paper, some candy, and a soda machine.... If you dont mind hearing the surprise experience, continue here..

ipod cases: why?

Do you own an ipod? Do you have a case protecting it? If so, is it one of the hundreds of incredibly ugly cases out there? Now, my question to you is, why? Why buy a beautiful ipod and dress it up with an ugly case 24/7 ? Now I understand the idea of protecting it, but what I don't understand is if you are so proud of how beautiful it looks, why make it look even uglier with an ugly case at all times? Sure you can pull it out and be proud there's not a scratch on it, but how often do you actually do that? What happens if you just let your ipod get scratched up? Will it somehow get a nostalgic appearance? Will it get scratched up beyond usability? Or will you keep buying the new one that comes out each year. Do you buy covers for your cell phone, jewelry, camera, car, watch, shoes, laptop, etc? Sure for some, but the ipods created a phenomenon about protecting it. Sure it easily scratches..perhaps Apple did this on purpose so you'd buy the new ipod each year. Perhaps it's about value, but jewelry, cell phones, cameras, watches, cost $$. Take for example shoe($100+). The function is to protect your feet,(ipods to play music) but you also buy it for style, but your not going to wrap a plastic bag around it. Shoes wear, get dirty, get wet, get scratched, and you buy a new one eventually. I'm not saying you don't need a case, I'm just curious why else. Anyhow, just food for thought...

Nostalgic Technology

I've always questioned if technology and electronics would become nostalgic, where electronics, laptops, cell phones, mp3 players would be kept for longer than say two years. In todays society, electronics are thrown away not only because they are behind in technology, but for their looks.(little dings here and there) I was reminded of this question when I saw this post here, about how a scratched up Sony camera actually looked cool, how it had a splendid patina look. In this rare case, a dinged up electronic actually had a good emotional response from someone, much like a beat up leather jacket, worn out ripped jeans, overly wrinkled fashionable shirts, a used baseball glove, a wooden old ladder, a dirty but huggable teddy bear, etc. As Russell Davies says in his post, "One of the things I hate about the design of most things, especially most electronic things, and definitely most automotive things, is they're all designed to be new. They're all at their best when you buy them and they get worse the second you remove them from the packaging." So, what's the solution to this, is there a need for nostalgic electronics, should electronics be made to have more meaning?... I'm not sure, it's just a thought. I use to think soft materials would add this meaningful value but from what I know, the only integrated soft electronic is this sleek porsche like vertu ascent phone for $5,000. It's strange how tons of people buy soft cases for their gadgets.... are consumers saying something companies are not realizing? ;)

Papa Johns eyehole ad

Here's a pretty clever little ad to slap onto a door. It's been a little minii trend to replace real objects with ads lately, but hey, it's grabbed my attention for the better for now.via frederiksamuel

TED Talk!

For the first time ever, the exclusive invite-only TED conference experience, which I've posted about several times, is launching TEDtalks which is a free video and audio series of some of the best TED speakers for everyone in the world to see and hear. TED is a journey of some of the most mind-provoking idea gatherings in the world which is limited to 1,000 people each year but is now spreading some their love through this new chapter. I'm extremely happy that TED decided to add this feature as every time I return from the TED conference I ramble for endless enthusiastic months to my friends about it. Attending TED is like no other conference and a heaven of ideas for anyone to experience. Though the speakers talks are only a portion of the magical safari, TEDtalks is a first step in sharing the real magic of captivating, igniting, and making real world changes that keeps this community so compelling. Go check it out, get inspired, and start spreading the idea virus! (Sir Ken Robinson on creativity is a must watch video!)
via TEDblog

Guy Kawasaki: The Art of the Start

If your an entrepreneur and missed my post "Entrepreneurialism: the new rock ‘n’ roll", then you must watch this great video presentation by Guy Kawasaki on his book "The Art of the Start". Who is he you might ask...don't ask, just watch, be amazed, get inspired, and google him later. Otherwise, read his post on the "Bozo Explosion"! This guy rocks!!! I'd love to have him on my team anyday!

Matt Harding: Dancing World Traveler

Have you ever wondered how to travel the entire world and get a company to pay for it all? Well, meet Matt Harding, a game developer that quit his job to travel the world for a bit of an adventure while filming himself doing a little dance in each location. Upon returning from his world safari, his video hit the infectious internet world and got in the hands of some corporate leaders who decided to pay and sponsor him to do it all over again and in different locations if not everywhere. If you have not seen this viral video see it here (2005), here (2006), or wherethehellismatt.com. Once you see this mesmerizing video you’ll understand why it’s hard not to watch Matt do his goofy dance in sooo many amazzzing locations. Matts dance reminds me of the Six Flags dancer which also stuck in my head for some time. This post is just a reminder that doing some of the darnest things on the net will score ya big much like the crazy christmas light house last year that got some crazy check for a Miller Lite commerical.

FreddySays.com

These baby print shirts are way tooooo cute not to buy for your fashionably styling todlers. I'd wonder what my lifestyle would of been like if I rocked on these shirts as a kid. Anyhow, check out their site, get some sweet gear, and let your young ones get their pimp on! Buh yeah!
FreddySays.com
via thecoolhunter

Martin Laksman

Martin Laksman has a great set of illustrations, icons, characters, graphics, and logos at his website Laksman.com.ar. My particular favorites: freaky flo, cosos, eggs, egressados, consumerway, letterface, and many more. If your looking for some lively, colorful, fun, and spunky graphics, check out his website and get inspired.

The Big Umbrella

Talk about a HUGE umbrella! "The Big Umbrella is a big umbrella designed to shield a large group of people from the rain. A typical big umbrella can shield approximately 4 tightly squeezed people from the rain. ‘The Big Umbrella’ is twice as big (240 x 160 cm) as the biggest men’s umbrella found on the consumer market and can in turn potentially shield 16 people from the rain. "
I'd love to get my hands on one of these head turning monsters for fun. I best not get wet!
Umbrella project by aleksandra mir
via neatorama

tech gestures

It’s amazing how technology has become an indispensable element in our everyday lives, but it’s also curious how it has introduced us to a series of gestures that are perhaps changing more than our intent. Pictured left is Private Public, a great series of objects that highlight the privacy we sacrifice when using mobile devices in public spaces, making visible a cone of privacy technology has brought to our public attention. Pictured right is a series of sculptures inspired by gestures formed by people using the PSP (Playstation Portable). Keyboards, mice, laptops, remotes, etc are all devices that have made us gesture in new ways. My favorite is probably the the awkward position designers plot their fingers on the keyboard at all times while using photoshop or illustrator. Another example is googles interface design. Anyhow, this is just a brief thought on how the things we design change and echo out past our intentions and expectations.via WMMNA

Mr. Clean ad

Here’s another great ad that goes straight to the point and shows what the product does and how well. If only mr clean were everywhere in public spaces. I’m not sure if this ad is real, but it sures cuts to the point.
via frederiksamuel

“Shoot me if you can” game

“Shoot me if you can” is a fun urban game inspired by first person shooting video games. A gun is replaced by a phone camera, players wear bright labels with their numbers on them, players track down opponents, snap pictures, and SMS the opposing teams when they are shot. First team with shots of all the other team members wins! Different rules exist for variations in the game.I love it when creative uses in technology allow people to return to the physical landscape, though, anyone playing this game may seem like a krazy James Bond nut on the street with a bright barcode on their shirt. This game brings awareness to the mind-boggling abundance of cameras throughout our culture eveywhere we go. Whichever the case, I’d be curious to give this game a go if I can convince a dozen of my local friends to give it a run. Check out their webpage for more info!

Robert Leonetti: doublechair

"Already beautiful, already essential, Doublewide legitimizes the elegance that already exists within the simple steel folding chair. A subtle change in proportion alters its character, subtly shifting typologies. It is now slightly more formal, more intimate. It moves from the meeting hall to the living room. What was a public banality to accomodate a singular person is grown to accept a couple in a more private setting."
via designboom

Kenka: spunky, tasty, awesome!

While in nyc I went down to St. Marks street to grab some grub with some friends at Kenka, a spunky, fun, and wildly popular japanese restaurant streaming with a vibrant crowd of college students and visitors curious about the oddly colorful and punk like scene, though I think the whistling grandmother logo and beaver-like red eyed mascot really caught my curious attention. I'd been to a like place nearby, Yakitori Taisho, right down the street, but thought I'd give this find a try. The wait to get in took some time, but it was worth evey second. As for the restaurant, the staff was jazzy, the environment was fun and spontaneous, the bizarre menu was full of delicious and surprising items, and the prices just rocked! A bowl of edamame for $1, Seaweed salad $2, japaneses pancake $4, smoked salmon $5, sapporo beer for $1.50!!! The best part was their dessert. Instead of the traditional mint, or chocolate candies, they give you a little bucket of red suger to toss into their cotton candy machine at their entrance. You toss it in, grab a chopstick, and spin it till you have a fluff of carnival like candy to munch on. Kenkas is a great place to kick it with friends and munch down on some fast, hot, and tasty japanese food. If your in nyc, give it a try!

Cactus Friends

Bastardino is a prickly little pooch in the Cactus Friends series by artist Simone Legno and his art brand tokidoki, which is a pretty krazy page(launch the flash page). Others in the series include the pink and spunky Sabochan and a very green Sandy!
via Strangeco

Gregory Colbert: Animal Copyrights Foundation

I had the wonderful opportunity to hear Gregory Colbert speak at the TED conference where he made an extremely rare public appearance talking about his photographic journey and exhibition “Ashes and Snow”. He also spoke about his controversial initiative to start the "Animal Copyright Foundation", which will aim to collect 1 percent of royalties from companies using images of animals in their ads and distribute these funds to conservation projects around the world, which could become the largest environmental fund in the world. He suggests we should renegotiate our contract with nature. It is common practice to compensate people for fair use of their images in advertising but this has not been the case for nature and animals.
I think this is a brilliant foundation to give back to nature and help keep it sustainable. There's not much online about this foundation, but lookout for it soon.
more via ethanzuckerman

Organic Promise: Strawberry Fields Cereal

So I walked into Wholefoods today and did my regular routine, picked up my usuals and a few surprise items, but as I walked over to the the cereal section, I saw an empty spot!!!! My new favorite cereal was sold out!!! Seriously, if you have not tried this cereal (Organic Promise Strawberry) you are missing out. .. it's crispy, flavorful, and yummy. It's seriously delicious and I've become an addict. Anyhow, I had to resort to the Cinnamon Harvest this week, which is also tasty.

Maharishi collection

Check out maharishis website and see their fresh line of clothing styles for men and women ranging from pants, shirts, jackets, shorts, dresses, and skirts. Maharishis been a huge influence in the prolifereation of camouflage trousers in fashion for a while but also has some other great designs. Also, if you have not had a glimpse, check out their awesome book DPM (Disruptive Pattern Materials), or buy it here.

Putting the customer in charge

Business 2.0 has a short article on a few great companies that not only listen to what their customers say, but let their customers run their company. "It's the open-source software concept applied to product marketing".Two examples mentioned were Threadless, an awesome ongoing online t-shirt competition that has some great deals and designs, and Etsy, a very unique place to sell all things handmade.
I love the idea of letting customers vote on what gets further developed and perhaps produced. Sure, people are paid to make those decisions and some products take a ton more time to manufacture than t-shirts, but as we all know, the mass market will always surprise us with what customers want. I mean, seriously, we already have TV shows that let viewers decide who the next rock star, singer, dancer, comedian, invention, chef, designer, wife, etc are!

I'm not saying all products need to adopt this method nor am I asking for mass customization... I'm just saying there is such a rich opportunity in this internet infested society that allows us to show and hear from customers before they see what we thought was great. Sure, smart marketing will always enhance a products desire, but why not just make products that people already desire? Then again, some desires for products are not realized until marketed... since in Seth Godins book Marketers are Liars, marketers are not liars... they just help consumers tell their own lies.

Ok..My brain hurts a bit now, but hopefully this is some food for thought...semi open source hardware, with a timeline of course! Makes me think about Instructables which is cool, but moreso of an open source hardware platform for DIY types.

Samuel Cochetel

Samuel Cochetel has some wonderful sketches and illustrations on his website. His styles are broad and I love his loose sketches, the type thats sporadic and spontaneous, like this one here , here, and here. Enjoy!

Sustainable goods!

Having read Cradle to Cradle, listened to Jack Johnsons Curious George CD (3 r’s, reduce, reuse, recycle), and watched Inconvenient Truth, I’ve noticed a rebirth in more products based on reused or broken materials which is awesome! Recycled materials was a mini trend some years ago, which is actually somewhat bad for the earth, but reusing is another option which I hope stays a trend. Posted are three products that fit the “reuse” part of things. First off, is the beautiful Transglass Carafes+Tumblers, made from perhaps broken or thrown away bottles. Next is a “open tote bag” from Shawn Parks made from “safety fence plastic” that pretty much all construction sites use then discard. (Shawns a RISD alum, wohhooo!) Third is a is a clever use of a broken ceramic cat, sold to be a 3D puzzle.

Fuzzmail

I recently had a conversation with a friend about the digital gap and how things seemed more authentic in the past. One such topic was e-mail. E-mails are easy to delete, easy to read, and easily copied, but real physical mail has a personal feel, an authentic touch, a ritualistic process, and at times a more meaningful if not more emotional experience. This can be due to simple crinkles in the paper, ones handwriting, a few scribbled out words, the stamps they used, color of paper, a coffee spill, or something that the digital world has not yet captured. An example I brought up was Fuzzmail, a great email tool that records the act of you writing and let's you send it as an e-mail. You hit record, start typing, deleting, re-spelling, thinking, etc and finish recording. When your friend receives the fuzzmail, the message is played back as you wrote it, including your spelling errors, backspaces, and pauses. Now, I know this isn't great for the fast paced digital revolution, but it is a bridge between the authentic years and the fast paced digital years. You really have to try it out to understand how it works. Rather than reading the email, the email reads to you. It's almost like an IM conversation without the interactivity.
Fuzzmail was created by Hayes Raffle and Dan Maynes-Aminzade at the MIT Media Lab.
For an example fuzzmail, click here! Enjoy;)

The Book of Cool

" The Book of Cool" is a simple and edgy looking 320 page book with 3 DVD's packed full of 35 of the worlds most talented sportsmen and performers showing and teaching you over 250 of their coolest tricks, skills, and moves. The tricks range from soccer tricks, baton twirling, freestyle frisbee, golf tricks, skateboarding, streetball, card tricks, bar tricks, pool, footbag, pen spinning, and much more. You can watch a preview of their DVD's here though the breakdancers were one of the cooler clips. I'd love to get my hands on this set and just might for a sweet $40.

Political Soccer Heads!

With the World Cup kicking off this week, there have been tons of great ads everywhere, but these political soccer heads really caught me off guard and made my day. "Heads will roll: Just in time for the World Cup, visitors to the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts can bounce Bush or Blair, corner-kick Clinton or soccer-punch Saddam. Kendell Geers' interactive art, titled Masked Ball, is one of 24 football-themed works by international artists. "
via sfgate

I will pay for good design

Many of you have asked me about a shirt I wear saying “I will pay for good design”. If you want one of these great T’s you can grab one at my friends company Artefacture or the good design shirt here! So go to Artefacture, check out the designs, and buy a few of their shirts!

Timbuk2 Artist’s Canvas Bag

I had the wonderful opportunity to donate some of my creative time to create an artist bag for Timbuk2’s Charity Auction for the Homeless Youth taking place June 15th, 2006, from 5-8pm, at TIMBUk2 San Francisco, 506 Hayes Street. TIMBUK2 donates hundreds of messenger bags each year to “At The Crossroads“, which reaches out to homeless youth and young adults at their point of need, and works with them to build healthy and fulfilling lives. You can view my bag on Timbuk2’s website here, my detailed pictures here, or other artist bags here. The bags will be available for viewing starting June 12th, so if your in the area, go check them out, attend the silent auction at 5pm on the 15th, enjoy the cocktails & hor’s d’oeuvres, and rock on an artist bag!

Diet Coke+Mentos Kraziness!

This is what happens when you take 200 liters of DietCoke, 500 mentos, and have some serious free time to have fun. Watch this insane video!
I'm not sure what to think, but no soda is ever entering my mouth with a mentos together. This viral video has surfed the net the past few days and is a bit geeky to post, but also too cool to miss.

PopUrls

I've been using Popurls for the last few days and must say it's a great little tool for the web. Popurls is much like an rss feed that merges several dynamic content driven sources into one simple easy to read page. These sources include the best of Flickr, Youtube, Digg, del.icio.us, google news, slashdot, odeo, and a few others. The titles also have roll-over blurbs detailing the articles. If you don't end up using PopUrls, I'd also highly suggest Bloglines, which is an incredible time saver for you blog readers.

iBar- interactive bar

"iBar is a system for the interactive design of any bar-counter. Integrated video-projectors can project any content on the milky bar-surface. The intelligent tracking system of iBar detects all objects touching the surface. This input is used to let the projected content interact dynamically with the movements on the counter. Objects can be illuminated at their position or virtual objects can be "touched" with the fingers. "
I'm not sure what to think here, but I guess it would be fun while I was a bit loopy or really bored. I go to bars to socialize with people and feel this is more of a distraction than an enhancement. Otherwise, it has a settle way of connecting strangers to one another, but it's not quite there yet. I love the idea of interactive tables in bars, but it comes down to meaningful and smart applications. Be cool if it somehow connected lines to people that were attracted to each other. Otherwise, it looks super cool! Watch the video on their website or watch a YouTube Video.

The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less

I first heard Barry Schwartz speak at the GEL conference about his book, "The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less". He talks about how freedom is better, but also worse. How the more options we have the better the final outcome, but the worse the experience. How 175 different types of salad dressings is ridiculous. Is too much choice bad? Does it really numb our thinking and decision making? Does variety mean quality? What's better, Capability vs Usability. Anyhow, his incredible 1 hour Google lecture can be viewed here. For any of you out there that create consumer products, this is a must watch!
In my opinion, there are the services and products that that I love to have choice in, but then there are a ton of services I wished never had options. Airline tickets, phone plans, health plans, cameras, cars, and the everlasting ordeal of figuring out which movie to watch. A few years back, we'd just watch a movie that came out. Now we look at all the trailers, read a bunch of reviews, dive into their websites, ask friends that have seen it, look at their rankings, look at who's in it, then finally deciding if the movie is worth watching even though we know everything about the movie now. After all that chaos, we have to figure out how to buy the ticket. Should we buy it early, online, offline, as a group, print the ticket, pick it up, matinee, which theatre, etc. Many hours later, our choice is made, which is probably a great decision, but the experience to get there has become a job... So, is choice good? Is thinking about this good, bad? Well, enjoy the video which has several other examples of this paradox!

JetBlue Theatrical Terminal

JetBlue is already one of the coolest airlines to experience with great service, prices, DirecTV in every seat, some yummy snacks, their shut-eye package, and their recently won wireless license, yipeee! So, what's left you may ask..well, enhancing not only the on-flight experience, but also the off-flight experience by hiring design guru David Rockwell to design their busy interior terminal environment. In Mr. Rockwells well known odd collaborations, he hired Broadway colleague and dance choreographer Jerry Mitchell for the job. For some this may seem odd, but in truth, I love it when projects bring in new disciplines to solve problems. This collaboration decided to use movement, like in a dance, throughout the terminal as a central means to differentiate the user experience for arrival and departing customers. This interplay between architecture and choreography for a public space is brilliant. The terminal is not scheduled to be finished until 2008 at the Kennedy International Airport(which needs a GUI re-design), but I'm looking forward to checking it out then.
Read more via nytimes article.
Project PDF (more pictures)

HONO Electrical Candle

Here's a pretty sweet stylish candle. To turn it on, you touch a large match to it, and to turn it off, you simply blow it out. Personally I love real candles/fire, the ones that can burn you, but seeing how everything is becoming electronic, it doesn't hurt to add a bit of nostalgia into them.