“Unique combination of electronic entertainment device – the cult iPod touch – and a modern fridge freezer from Gorenje opens up new dimensions of living, fun, cuisine, and household tasks. Specially designed and developed Gorenje fridge features a docking station that enables charging the iPod, playing back music and video through built-in speakers, and connecting to the world-wide-web, if wireless connection is available in the kitchen. iPod has conquered the world, and new Gorenje appliances with interactive functions are conquering contemporary kitchens as they anticipate and set new trends.”
What a complete crock of horse crap.
As designers, we hang our heads in shame that someone related to our profession can either think up shite like this or be so dominated by a marketing department that they agree that it’s something worth doing.
Here’s a nice one for all those that still Ollie in the house…
The Dry Leaf Eco skateboard by Lets Evo is made from sustainable materials and socially responsible labour practices. Nice. Inhabitant.com wrote about it:
“The Dry Leaf is composed of multiple layers, using innovative renewable materials at every stage. The backbone of the board is a 3-ply organic Mosso bamboo, developed by Fibra Design Sustentável. The bamboo is treated using natural processes without of toxic chemicals and is produced following fair trade criteria. Than there is the second layer, a composite of 70% natural fibers (jute, malva and curaua) and 30% post production recycled polypropylene. To topping it off is a Pupunha Veneer - another material developed by Fibra Design Sustentável. The Veneer is produced from the waste of the sustainable palm-heart industry and is another way that the dry leaf supports farmers.”
Spotted over at Bike Commuters is a feature on a bike frame designed by Matt Clark in Southern California made from recycled plastics. While it won’t win over the purists out there, it is a great look at developing a low cost bike from recycled materials. Fantastic to make bikes for commuting and poorer countries and an interesting step towards looking at new ways to make what many consider as something’s that is already perfected.
Things we’ve spotted on this fine Thursday, before we head off for a week’s break. As we say, this blog is all about posting things we find that we find inspirational, interesting, or just plain amusing (as well as a place to express opinions and thoughts), so we hope some of you out there find these things interesting… or vaguely amusing!
Over at Hell For Leather, we spotted this Norton concept by David Mucci. Based on a 500cc single, the design harks back to old skool cafe racers. We’re liking it.
Then we spotted this ‘break down and pack in a bag’ bike by ‘Freeman‘ (and [here]). Another single speed but the break down aspect coupled together with the total coverage matte olive green paint is an interesting touch. All a little retro, yet cool at the same time.
[via]
Finally, we came on this, for the second time. A bike for the Geezer in you… or is that the Gov’nor?
We all spend far too long sitting in from of computers and computer related hardware, but how often do we think about the sustainability of this stuff? Very little (or only token) effort is made to make hardware sustainable, either from a materials or an energy efficiency point of view, so when something like this crops up, it’s worth a look.
Using heat sinks (and chassis) made from recycled aluminium instead of fans and a bamboo instead of plastic, it not only looks cool, but is very friendly to the world it’s dropped in.
Just spotted. Designed and produced by German Industrial Design house ‘neongrau.id’, the Veloheld is a super paired down urban single speed. Sweet to look at, sweet to own we are sure - even if you are not into single speed.
While there are more cool SS bikes going around than one can poke a stick at, we somehow think that in some ways they are becoming collectible, like say….. collectible things. The rarer the cooler maybe?
Keeping with the vehicle theme for the moment, we like to keep pace with the design world especially transport, and came across these two proposals recently that cold not be more different.
The first is the Suzuki Crosscage moto. Based around a hydrogen cell for zero emissions, it’s certainly an interesting bit of design - using a mix of moto design technologies and concepts that appear every now and again in different gusies. What’s really interesting about it though is that Suzuki seem to have a running prototype.
On the other end of the scale is the Pivo 2, an electric car concept dropped on us by Nissan. While it has a host of ‘interesting’ design ideas we have to say it’s so ‘cutesy bubble gum’ in design that it make us (in anyway) want to puke. Where the Suzuki Crosscage makes one think, yea, we could ride that happily around town (impressive for an ‘alternative’ when considering that the moto market is so saturated with great, economical designs), the Pivo 2 makes us think that if that’s what’s install, then we are going to start processing cooking oil to keep the Vito running.
