Hollywood Hotel

Bay Arch, a Danish architecture firm, has come up with a concept to turn the Hollywood sign into a mixed-use commercial complex. "The chief draw would be a 300 room hotel in the facade, but the nine letters would also house a wellness center and spa, a nightclub and of course, a movie theater." I feel like the residents of Hollywood would be extremely opposed to tearing down the old Hollywood sign, a symbol which has stood for the hope of success. This plan would be better suited for a cheap hotel in Bali-wood. Don't rip down a historic structure for the sake of hotel.

Wonderlamp

"Wonderlamp is a collaboration between Pieke Bergmans and Studio Job, presented by Dilmos last week in Milan". The team of designers blew glass blobs and incorporated with objects to portray intangible things. For example, one of the objects is a brass flashlight with a big illuminated glass blob, representing the light bean coming out of it. Another is of a teapot with a glass blob coming out if the spout, representing steam. It's a brilliant idea and very creative.

VW folding Bike

VW just came out with a new concept motorized bike meant to go along with their cars. The bike has a 12.5 mile range and then folds up to fit neatly into the spare tire well in the trunk. The bike is charged by the car itself! The bike is still a concept, and is not being produced by any companies yet. All I have to say is that I want one! I plan to do a lot of traveling this summer and having that in the trunk of my car would be great to really explore the towns I go to. Watch the video here.

SanDisk MP3 player

Technology is continuing to make the world and our consumer products smaller and smaller. Here is the SanDisk MP3 player which plays music stored on slotRadio cards the size of a postage stamp. The blogger on core77 doesn't like the ridiculously small size of the product and that it's not digital. Personally, I agree, but the major issue is that it still cannot compete with the Apple Ipod. With ipods, it's easier to use, and there is vastly more music available to you. Its just a better design. Just like the watch phone, it's just a "gadget" with no future.

Yii Exhibit

Yii is a Taiwanese design exhibit that seeks to combine the traditional with the modern. Located in Milan right now, the show consists of 50 pieces from 15 designers. My favorite is an oriental metal design converted into a modern workman's desk lamp. The whole inside of the lamp is a golden metal scene of dragons and swirling clouds that looks like it belongs in a 5th century Asian palace. Then when you see the whole lamp, it gives you an unsettling feeling.

Neon Flash Drive

Mac Funamizu has come out with a new concept called, USB Memory Stick #6. The drive is made of glass and displays different color lights that tell you what types of data are stored on it. For example: pink for images, blue for documents, green for movie files. This product, if brought to market wouldn't exactly change the world, but it would be a cool gadget to show your friends.

Evan Roth

Evan Roth graduated as class valedictorian from the Communication, Design and Technology school at Parsons The New School for Design with an MFA. At Parsons, he developed Graffiti Taxonomy, Typographic Illustration, Explicit Content Only and Graffiti Analysis - several different concepts of design. His focus is on "technology, tools of empowerment, open source and popular culture."
One such typographic illustration is of the Hip Hop artist, Jay Z in the project "Brooklyn Go Hard." The rapper is illustrated through the use of all different sized letters in all different orientations from the word 'Brooklyn.' Roth did the same thing with other artists such as the rapper, Biggie Smalls. This project consists of an animation of the illustration of Biggie with lyrics from one of his songs while the audio plays in the background.
Evan Roth also created something called Graffiti Analysis. Graffiti Analysis is a computer program that studies the movement involved in creating graffiti art. The machine tracks the artist's hand as he creates a work of graffiti. The software then analyzes it and produces amazing visualizations of the data. It is used in popular graffiti aplications such as Laser Tag.
Evan Roth also developed something called Graffiti Taxonomy, which is a database that catalogues all the different varriations in lettering and style among different graffiti artists. For example, the catalogue take a look at all the different ways that various artists write their "n's" or "p's" when making a tag. This project along with EyeWriter (a machine that allows graffiti artists with paralysis to draw graffiti design just by using thier eyes) were featured in the British Design Museum's Designs of the Year.
Roth's work is similar to the trend of new media and graphic design in the sense that his work is heavily accomplished through technology and computer programs. So much of today's graphic design is done on the computer, whether it's generating vector art flourishes through Abobe Illustrator, or editing photos wildly into abstract or highly interpretive subjects. His work is different in that it seeks to be a tool to study graphitti art as well as be an example of stylistic aesthetic. A lot of his projects are purposed to learn more about the mechanics of art and the practice of it.

Sources:
http://graffitianalysis.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Roth
http://evan-roth.com/about.php

Fight Against Ice

Here are two commonly used super-machines to fight the constant snow and ice in places like Russia. First is the boat equipped with a ten-foot chainsaw, used to cut through the thick ice that accumulates in waterways. The next are big trucks with snowplows - but instead of plows, the trucks have literal jet engines attacked to their front to quickly melt huge quantities of snow and ice. These machines look like they've come straight from a gothic science fiction novel. They represent the violence of industry, but still very useful and innovative.

Logos notes 4/8/10

Logos are stylizes- highly representational and simplistic
A good brand mark has to reuseable in a large amount of mediums and sizes
Resolution - design word for clarity

Ideas and Images for logo

New Hazard Line logo
Logo for Project Green
Logo for Rowdy and Squirrel Webisodes
Logo to be a Personal Trainer

Earthquake Resistant Houses

Darcey Donovan, is a structural/mechanical/civil engineer and founder of the non for profit PAKSBAB (Pakistan Straw Bale and Appropriate Building). Although building houses from straw bales is ecological, and earthquake, fire, pest resistant, it can cost a lot of money in terms of machinery, skilled labor, and processing. But Donovan has developed a cheap method of building the houses using local unspecialized labor. "Our houses are up to 80% more energy efficient at about 50% of the cost of conventional earthquake resistant construction."
Here is a video of one of the houses under test earthquake conditions.

Extreme Dining

There is a restaurant in China that is literally located on the top of a cliff. Unlike most restaurants, or building of any sort, there are no roads, trails, or escalators to get to this remote spot. The only way there is a traitorous and highly dangerous path made up of holes blown into the rock and chains to hold onto. You have to scale a steep mountain-side in order to eat here. Extreme. From a design standpoint, I really like the ancients Chinese aesthetic they modeled the structure of the restaurant around. You see this kind of building on the tops of these mountains in a lot of ancient Chinese landscape paintings. This is people's chance to actually live in one of these paintings. I feel like the perilous climb to the venue is what adds most of its appeal. It's an accomplishment that people can brag about for years to come. Plus, you don't tend to value what comes easy. I bet those noodles are to die for.

Rechargable Study Lamp

Research by eye research institute Sankara Nethralaya in India has led to the creation of the StudyLite,a rechargeable desk lamp, presented as the "World's first 'Safe for Eyes'" lamp. The study lamp is UV- and IR-free. It was designed primarily for people and students who do not have electricity in their household. The lamp can be charged somewhere else, and taken back to their homes to study for 6 hours at a time. This is a great product for the advancement of literacy and education in the world. LED lights are being more and more widely used. They seem to be riding the wave of the future in terms of both function, sustainability, safety, and aesthetic.