Handmade bears

I could not resist! All these bears are handmade by Bearka

Use 1915's conventions: Pink for boys and blue for girls!

Sony is a visionary: the use of a stronger color for its ps2!

I found an article 11 Great Color Legends on Colour Lovers. An excerpt:

According to the website “Gender Specific Colors,” it would seem that assigning color to gender is mostly a 20th century trait. It would also seem that at one time, the color associations were reversed when color first came into use as a gender identifier.

In fact, this reversal of what we consider “normal” was considered conventional, even in the early 20th century.

“At one point pink was considered more of a boy’s color, (as a watered-down red, which is a fierce color) and blue was more for girls. The associate of pink with bold, dramatic red clearly affected its use for boys. An American newspaper in 1914 advised mothers, “If you like the color note on the little one’s garments, use pink for the boy and blue for the girl, if you are a follower of convention.” [The Sunday Sentinal, March 29, 1914.]

“There has been a great diversity of opinion on the subject, but the generally accepted rule is pink for the boy and blue for the girl. The reason is that pink being a more decided and stronger color is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” [Ladies Home Journal, June, 1918]

According to Jo B. Paoletti and Carol Kregloh, “The Children’s Department,” in Claudia Brush Kidwell and Valerie Steele, ed., Men and Women: Dressing the Part, (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989). - In the United States: “The current pink for girls and blue for boys wasn’t uniform until the 1950’s.

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Nao Matsunaga | Conversation Part 2

Everyday objects and architecture have symbolic meanings that we have come to accept and rely on, as if they are the norm and there is no alternative. They create a sense/illusion of a place where what we expect from our world and what is expected from us are seemingly set. I feel that my job is to remind myself and others that this is not always the case. --Nao Matsunaga

Sweet logo

To design psychohaptic's logo, I searched a visual identity for the research. The logo that I ended up creating visually represents a mix between therapy and artificial comfort: a cross pink. The pink reminded me of artificial candy' sweetness, and the cross aimed to connect to medical care. Creating an artificial sensation of touch with Psychohaptics for therapy, the pink cross logo worked pretty well.

I recently discovered Happy Pills, a sweet shop in Barcelona designed in homage to traditional pharmacies. The logo is exactly the same one than the one I made for our project at MIT. I started to be interested in the common points between projects with similar logos. I envision a database of logos with a few keywords on the rationale for their design choices and their corresponding projects. As for a navigation system through design works, that would be very exciting!

M designed the branding and packaging as well as the interior of the store. “When you get candy in your mouth, your mood lifts, you feel better,” says M partner Marion Donneweg. “It’s like a bite of happiness.”

Take comfort seriously!

Sometimes you want to blog, read a book, channel surf, eat popcorn or play World of Warcraft and it is chilly in your home. It is hard to lie on the couch or in bed and play video games without your shoulders and upper body exposed to the elements. Well I found the solution: the Slanket, a blanket that wraps you up and you end up snugged like a toasty burrito in the middle of winter!
NB: Works especially well for Boston area!

Object Artistically Modified

Stéphane Vigny, Mécanique Populaire. For this installation, an electric drill becomes a skipping rope.

I discovered the work of Stéphane Vigny at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Mixing minimalism to mainstream objects, he produces subversive pieces. I love his work that I find humorous as much as alarming.

Foux de fa fa

I love this series Flight of The Conchords given to me by Aurelius. I especially loved the Foux de fa fa episode on French impersonation. It is not meant to be an accurate reflection of French. It's a representation of the public school child's exposure to French culture via outdated textbooks, 1970's film reels and Serge Gainsbourg disco era.

Golden Disk

LaCie makes now golden hard drive!

And computer choppers proposes golden mac book pro!

Sketch furniture

Sketch furniture by Front allows sketching onto space to become an object.

Motion Capture translates motions into 3D-files and are used in this project to simply record the tip of a pen when people draw pieces of furniture in the air. Rapid Prototyping is a technique that materializes 3D-files. A laser beam builds the 3D-file layer by layer within a liquid plastic material. Every 0.1mm the liquid harden by a laser beam. After a few hours, the 3D-files come out as materialized pieces. The Sketch Furniture project in Japan is made in collaboration with Barry Friedman Ltd. Tokyo Wonder Site Aoyama and Crescent.

Lifestyle in 2057

2057 EP1 The Body featured on Discovery Channel offers mixed information between current research explorations and fictional scenarios of our lifestyle in 2057.

It is a nice effort in considering what is being done in HCI and medical research which converges into everyday scenarios. Under its over dramatic tone, the examples are sometimes tacky and stereotypical. The show could have incorporated other important issues such as affordable cutting edge technological solutions for the rest of world.

This video is fun and accessible. I loved the transplantation of a human heart, heart that can be 3d printed! Presenting a vision for a future lifestyle, this video reminds me of the American Look (1958): America lifestyle in the 50's with its *idealistic* sense for design.