Toast messenger

Once upon a time, a morning, a child who would like to hang out with his friends and play Dungeons and Dragons instead of visiting his grand parents, well this toaster would do it. A subliminal request can be printed on the parents' toasts and the little gesture of preparing the breakfast will convince the parents that role playing games assure their child the development of a sense of otherness and care. I don't really know what designer Sasha Pure envisioned when developing this concept, but I believe there is a poetic and idealistic rationale behind it.

Chrono Shredder

The Chrono_Shredder is a device that makes past time tangible. It is a hybrid between calendar, clock and waste producing automaton. It has no on/off-button, thus it is unstoppable, just like time. It features the 365 days of the year represented on a paper-roll. The paper-roll is led through a hacked paper-shredder, which is programmed to use exactly 24 hours to shred one "day".

Designed by Susanna Hertrich the Chrono Shredder invents a near-future scenario, in which people have embraced human hibernation as common practice and efficient method to delay their natural ageing. The chrono_shredder is one product from a fictional series of products, which are developed under the umbrella of "memento vivere" (remember that you also have to live your life). Those products target at people with hibernation obsession.

Aerial Jewelry

I design Jewelry in the form of aerial patterns of a city. My vision is to have in miniature the multitude of patterns that one can see from a distance.

I research on how digital technologies make us re-evaluate the physical world. We perceive a new physicality through digital materials. In this project, I study the materiality perceived through aerial technologies. I believe that this modification of our perception of the environment is developed through our experience with the digital.

Now that we constantly travel by plane, use GIS, google map, satellite imagery, our vision is expanded. Our everyday objects have a language that adapt itself to our influences. As much as the car has influenced painting and the representation of space and movement, I want to show how the use of new technologies can change our way to design personal objects as exemplified by Aerial Jewelry.

Aerial Jewelry web site

Automatic stapling

A stapler that automatically assembles your most valuable documents. The visible board makes it irresistible! I bought it today at The design town.

The making of toys for everybody

A secret firm: Charlie's chocolate factory.


A toy plant in China.

A reality on toys: a large quantity of them needs to be mass-produced. MaZm offers a visual documentary taken in one of Chinese toy making plant unique in its optimism, clean-looking feel while featuring the serialized cherished toys and the 'scandalous' working conditions.

A cup

An ordinary mug cup, with the handle being slightly square and big enough to fit two fingers through. Designed by Plusminuszero.

Block party

I recently played with these cubes created by Radica Games. These pixel men are interesting. One pixel man per cube, they each have their individual behaviors. They can play, visit and interact with one another. They can play games and be pestered: just tilt the cube and the pixel man falls!

Windbelt: Cheap Generator Alternative

As part of the 2007 Breakthrough Awards discovered on Popular Mechanics.

Frayne’s device, which he calls a Windbelt, is a taut membrane fitted with a pair of magnets that oscillate between metal coils. Prototypes have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best microturbines. Frayne envisions the Windbelt costing a few dollars and replacing kerosene lamps in Haitian homes.

Video
Third-World Wind Power: First Look

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.