0Design world notes:
– Sex toys from Industrial Designers
– Core77 reviews Jennifer Hudson’s book Process: 50 Product Designs from Concept to Manufacture
– BMW unveils its new 7 Series this week at the Paris Auto Show
Categories: Design News
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I suppose that the story behind the evolution of a golf ball is no different from many of the other bulk items we surround ourselves with. Initially, the golf ball was built from organic materials found in the local environment (some sources mention goose feathers, others mud and tree sap), but eventually these organic materials were replaced by synthetics, so that now the ingredient list reads like something out of a controlled chemistry experiment. Ionomer resins. Ethylene copolymers. Ionically strengthened thermoplastic. All compressed and molded to create, in the words of one manufacturer, “outstanding resilience, broad hardness and stiffness range, and excellent durability” (don’t blame me if this smells faintly pornographic, blame the marketing guys down in Georgia).
Of course, this transformation of materials and construction methods is nothing new. But when I study a golf ball I find myself immersed in more whimsical questions.
Where does this golf ball come from? How is it made? What does the size of each dimple mean? Is there someone drawing out each golf ball design, painstakingly wrapping each circle around the next? Is it even possible to accurately draw a golf ball freehand? Is there any one among us that can do this? If so, what side of their brain do they rely on? Will their imaginary golf ball (the drawn one) fly straighter and truer than the ones designed and built in some mysterious flat building in Xiamen City, China? When you think of China do you think of brown dusty fields or lush tropical bush? Does it matter?
Imagine, for a moment, a cloverleaf freeway overpass with traffic regulation lights blinking on and off. Our artist, she’s the one heading to work, sitting in a line of small, tidy cars. Place yourself within the passenger seat of her clean white sedan. On her dash, a row of miniature hood ornaments. All the ornaments serve as stand-ins for cultural icons. Moving from left to right: There’s Elvis Presley in a grass skirt (obviously the figure sways as the vehicle rounds a curve or comes to a stop). Next to Elvis, Chairman Mao, whose detached and almost mournful expression often diverts the artist’s eyes from the road (she must cover him up, she thinks). Towering over Mao is NBA center Yi Jianlian (who some also call “the chairman”). The chairman leans against a guitar wielding Kurt Cobain (a roach clip appropriately appended to the end of the fretboard). Kurt looks up absently at the World Trade Center buildings (she actually got these when she visited New York back in ‘99 when everyone was still worried about how the millenium was going to affect their clocks).
So, here you are turning this golf ball over in your hands. Account for every circle. Some of them have a happy imperfection about them. Some spots seem pliable, almost mushy, while others, well, they resist your touch altogether.
– Craig Foltz
Craig Foltz is a writer and visual artist whose work has appeared in numerous journals. He lives on the slopes of a dormant volcano in Auckland, New Zealand.
Categories: Objectify Me
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If you’re in New York or London, be sure to check out this weekend’s premiere of Wild Combination, Matt Wolf’s excellent new documentary about seminal avant-garde composer, singer-songwriter, cellist, and disco producer Arthur Russell. Plexifilm is hosting cinema screenings at the IFC Center in New York and the ICA London. There will be loads of special guests, after-parties, etc., on both sides of the pond this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
“This story begins, as many good ones do, with a gay man from Oskaloosa playing cello in a closet in a Buddhist seminary. It ends with a gentle and brilliant musician dying in New York long before his time. In between, the cellist, Arthur Russell, wrote orchestral music, produced disco hits, and recorded a body of solo cello-and-voice songs that fit somewhere between lullabies and art songs.” –Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker
There will be more cinema screenings over the next few months, and a DVD release in November. Watch the trailer, or get on Plexifilm’s email list for details.
Categories: Musings
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Attention educators: Plexifilm has announced lower pricing on the institutional DVD version of Helvetica, for schools, libraries, and cultural institutions. Institutional copies include a limited public performance license for classroom use, on-campus screenings and other non-commercial showings. Get more info.
Categories: Helvetica
0Design world notes:
– National Geographic’s “Design by Nature” gallery, with examples on biomimetics, the science of adapting designs from nature to solve modern problems. [via Core 77]
– The Marc Newson-designed Airbus A380 lands in Sydney.
– Amsterdam police remove Stefan Sagmeister’s Urban Play project.
– I am the DJ, I am what I play…
Categories: Design News
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Objectified cast member Tim Brown, CEO and president of IDEO, is regularly posting to his new Design Thinking blog:
[via Core 77]
Categories: Design News
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New York Magazine’s design editor Wendy Goodman and a panel featuring MoMA curator (and Objectified cast member) Paola Antonelli, hotelier Andre Balazs, architect Richard Meier, and designer Murray Moss discuss the city’s influence on their work.
Tuesday, September 23, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
65 Fifth Ave.
Swayduck Auditorium
New York City
Free, doors at 6pm.
Categories: Design News
0Nowadays the term ‘interaction design’ mainly refers to software or the screen, intangible components. But the way I think about it, designing hardware, things that we can touch, solid objects, is all interaction design. People tend to think of interaction design for mobile phones as talking and pushing buttons, but I think of having the phone in your pocket, or having it in your hands while talking, as interaction design, since it’s a part of the communication. Touching an object without thinking means that your fingers are interacting with something.
Categories: Quotes
1Our weekly series of guest posts where people we like discuss objects that inspire them
One of my favorite things to do as a little girl was visit my father’s pharmacy. I was dazzled by all of the branded boxes that neatly lined the mahogany shelves, and I would spend hours ogling the packaging. For me, the crown jewel was the barrette display. This was a stand of magical wonder; it was a spinning cascade of glamour and hope and desire. The stand held every possible hair accessory: head bands, bobby pins, colorful plastic clips in the shape of butterflies, a myriad of hair brushes, combs, shower caps, pretty bows in velvet, bows in gingham, and my favorite barrette of all: pony tail holders. They were sold in packages of 4 or 8 or an eye popping 20. The barrettes were of simple construction: two round baubles held together by an elastic band that was twisted around to hold ponytails in place. Each pack was organized by style: some were translucent, some were opaque, and they were segmented by color and size: small, medium and large balls of primary and secondary colors. I was allowed to pick out one package per visit to keep. I would stand in front of the stand for what seemed an eternity, slowly spinning it round and round, overwhelmed by the magnitude of my choice: what should I take? What was the most beautiful? What would make me look the prettiest? After I made my decision, I would bring home my coveted treasure, carefully open up the packs, spread out my newly obtained amulets and then I would, well…I would do nothing. I wouldn’t do my hair up and I didn’t try them on. I just stared at them in divine bliss. I was simply content to look at them and add them to my lovely, expanding trove. I felt rich with accomplishment and dizzy with glee. No one had the collection I had; no one could be as lucky as I was.
My best friend, a very sweet girl named Andrea, lived next door. We would spend hours on end imagining what we would be when we grew-up and where we would travel and what we would wear. Andrea did not share my penchant for hair accessories and while she tolerated my burgeoning collection, she had no desire to join me in my trinket worship. One day, when we were playing at her house, I noticed a small ponytail holder on her bureau. I was immediately mesmerized and perplexed. It was a pearly pale yellow, and I had never seen a barrette of that hue, ever. Whenever I went over to Andrea’s house I always looked for the barrette and it always there in the same place. Suddenly I was angry and jealous. I wanted that barrette and I didn’t know how to get it.
I continued to fixate on Andrea’s yellow barrette, and one afternoon, before I could stop myself, when my best friend wasn’t looking, I took the barrette off of her bureau and put it in my pocket. I stole Andrea’s yellow barrette.
For weeks after I completed my crime, I waited for Andrea to notice. She never did. But our friendship had irrevocably changed. I now had a terrible secret we couldn’t share, and I couldn’t face her anymore. And I couldn’t face who I became because of my desire and my greed for a little yellow barrette.
Debbie Millman is the President of the design group at Sterling Brands, a leading brand consultancy. She is also the host of Design Matters, a radio show on the Voice America Business Network and the author of How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer. [And yes, that's a picture of the actual barrette...]
Categories: Objectify Me
0Design world notes:
– Marc Newson has been awarded the 2nd London Design Medal.
– Naoto Fukasawa’s new designs for Japanese paper company ONAO. [via Design Corner]
– Post-War Plastics exhibit of Dieter Rams designs at Vitsoe in London.
Categories: Design News
