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Form follows social function
Iceland's 320 000 citizens all have a say in the writing of their new constitution. With the help of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr, the 25-member council drafting the constitution is reaching out to Icelanders to get their recommendations. Everyone registered with their name and address can ...
"A building in a bag" is how engineering students Will Crawford and Peter Brewin describe their invention Concrete Canvas. It is a ground-breaking material technology that allows for the construction of concrete shelters in no time and only with the help of water and air. The material the ...
There are so many global problems that we can’t even see. Like the fact that 670 million people lack access to vision correction and around 100 million children don’t have access to basic eyecare. Thankfully, there are people and organizations who not only see but also act to get these problems ...
On a recent sushi night out, a friend of mine attempted to joke with the waitress asking her whether the sushi she had just served him was radioactive. She didn't find it funny and rightly so. It is a valid question after all, with everything that has been going on in Japan. It would be nice to ...
Yes, it is a Pocket Light, and you could actually keep it not only in your pocket but in your wallet as well, next to.. other useful items handy for engaging in romantic activities. The concept was originally created by Ryan Harc who was inspired by the blissful moments with his beloved and decided ...
Have you had days that you would just like to erase out of existence? Or maybe burn away, collect the ashes and let the wind carry them as far away from you as possible? I have. Which is why I love the concept of this calendar made of matches. The Energy calendar is the creation of ...
A project, two years in the making, was revealed this week at the Computer Human Interaction conference in B.C. The device created by students from Texas A&M University is called ZeroTouch and looks like an empty picture frame. Don’t let the looks deceive you, though. It is equipped with infrared ...
Celebration of creativity for creativity’s sake. That is the inspiration behind F5 film festival that took place in New York this April for a third year in a row. "Money might make the world go round, but it doesn’t necessarily help you jump out of bed every morning", say the organizers. I agree ...
A few days ago a friend of mine showed up carrying a city map of Amsterdam in the form of one of the simplest and smartest product redesigns I’ve seen. It was beautiful, light, and indestructible (by map standards), which meant you can just crumple it and put it away in less than two seconds ...
You don't find many designers working in the funeral business thinking about more creative ways for you to leave this world (and maybe they should be). However, the product designer Gerard Moline has combined the romantic notion of life after death with an eco solution to the dirty business of ...
Daily affirmations and inspirational messages may look cheesy but they work. Ironically, the first things we forget are the most vital for our happiness, like the love we have for our friends or the beautiful day that is outside. It's great to be caught off guard and have your daily monotony ...
I am a big fan of Jane McGonigal’s idea to create platforms, such as games, in order to involve everyone into solving global problems. Similarly, but on a much smaller scale, we should start developing models for community sourcing solutions to local problems, needs, and developments - an approach ...
As a die-hard chocolate lover, allow me to bring to your attention this great piece of pacakaging by typography creator and graphic designer from Budapest - Lilla Tóth. And if I should justify my indulgence it will go something like - chocolate is good for you, sending a gift to make someone happy ...
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks”, says Jeff Hammerbacher, the researcher who laid the foundation for facebook’s precision advertising model. A similar sentiment is found in the 2001 artwork “Designers, stay away from corporations that ...
900 million people worldwide live without safe drinking water according to WHO and UNICEF. In most of these areas it is the women and the kids who have to walk for miles each day carrying heavy jugs and missing school and work opportunities. One of the solutions to this problem could be fog ...