The Linz Hocker stool: Not your typical product launch

Swiss designers Zmik have a knack for the highly detailed execution of simple concepts. This is demonstrated especially well in their two latest projects: Nafi and Anna.

Nafi, pictured top, is a new interior for an existing hair salon, dividing it into two zones that contrast in their function (waiting room vs. working area) as much as their atmosphere. The first section of the deep rectangular space is seamlessly papered with photocopies of Vogue magazines on brown packing paper, furnished opulently, and lit warmly, creating an intimate space for discussion and rest. This butts abruptly into the second segment, designed for working—it’s brightly lit and bare, with nothing to distract the stylist.

Anna (pictured second) is an interior treatment for Iart Interactive AG’s new office space in an old building. Anamorphosis is used to visually enlarge narrow corridors. From 5 fixed positions, the wireframe drawings reveal imaginary spaces behind the walls, appearing as abstract, graphic lines otherwise.

Many more shots of both after the jump.

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We know, we know, another stacking, modular furniture set? Still, this one’s pretty nice, nesting closely for storage and expanding into a brightly colored shelf, sideboard or room partition when offset. We suspect that one might also be able to flip a module over to create a recessed coffee table, though its hard to tell from the pictures.

Steckbar, which translates to “snap” in German, was designed by Ismail Özalbayrak, a student at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg. Our only regret is that the shelf is only a computer model. Get that thing prototyped!

Several more shots after the jump.

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That’s designer Gilles Belley’s Energy Saver power strip, which “glows to show the wasted energy your gadgets eat up when they’re plugged in but not doing anything.” Belley and nine other designers are slideshow’d in William Bostwick’s Fast Company piece “Are These Ten Names the Future of Industrial Design?“

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Maison & Objet’s product design trade show Now! Design a Vivre, design-world godfather Philippe Starck and Intramuros editor Chantal Hamaide chose 10 rising French stars to usher in a new decade of design. Fear not, Francophobes–these guys actually epitomize all the current trends whizzing around the design world–warts and all–from environmental commentary to DIY grunge to blog-friendly wit. It’s a perfect picture of product design today–but is it a pretty one? Get to know these names and decide for yourself.

Check out the slideshow here.

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Switzerland-based designer Barbara Bona just sent us “Waterfall,” an LED-lighting concept that intends to “transform night into day” by bouncing the focused light of the LEDs off the reflective, translucent fabric of the curtain and into the surrounding space. The project transforms the unfriendly light of LEDs into atmosphere and suggests that a room be lit from its window instead of point sources on the ceiling, wall or floor.

We spent some time poking around her site and found a few more blog-worthy projects. Though never groundbreaking, each one exhibits a level of clarity and execution that we can get down with. A favorite is Twisted Chips, pictured above, where Bona created new ways to prepare and present potato chips, reminiscent of Kenya Hara’s pasta re-design project and Guixé’s Meta-territorial cookbook.

Below, see her temperature reading teacup and lightweight, collapsible stepladder for the closet.

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Copious documentation accompanies ID student Maximilian-Peter Von Speyer’s ID thesis project, his personal mission to “design and develop the best downhill frame ever made in Chile, by combining various rider’s experiences with my own into sophisticated technologies software adopted from the aerospace industry.” Called the Norland Cycles Project, Von Speyer draws upon both his love of bicycles and fascination with military airplanes in hopes of perfecting his design.

Luckily for Von Speyer, a Berlin-based German downhill bicycling club saw his work and has offered to build multiple prototypes for him for free, for simultaneous testing in both Germany and (Chilean-German) Von Speyer’s home base of Chile.

The final design is still some time away, but you can see tons of his ideational CAD work here.

via pink bike

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The Victory Ceremony podiums and medal trays for the fast-approaching Vancouver Winter Olympics have just been unveiled, and they are stunning—what you see above are not renderings.

Designed by James Lee, industrial designer and Coroflot member, with Leo Obstbaum, the late design director of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, the podiums “echo the undulating peaks and ridges of the Coast Mountain Range.” Each podium (there are 23 in all) is assembled from more than 200 pieces of precision-cut wood. The lumber was harvested from the forests of British Columbia, famous for its red cedars and douglas firs, and donated by businesses, organizations and individuals across the region. Finally, each podium is topped with a thick acrylic surface reminiscent of snow.

Lee and Obstbaum also designed the trays on which the awards will be presented, sculpted rom the same wood, and coated with a special non-slip surface to grip the uniquely undulating surface of the medals.

Many more beautiful shots after the jump, and don’t miss Lee’s full book on Coroflot!

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Municipal governments regularly collect all manner of data across multiple strata, everything from restaurant inspections to mass-transit alerts to lists of recycling centers and at-large, wanted murderers. Most of this data is publicly available, but until recently there was never a device that would easily get this data into the hands of citizens; the proactive city-dweller would have to comb through virtual reams of webpages to find it.

In a surprisingly forward-thinking bid to disseminate that data on the off-chance it might do some good, last year New York City’s Economic Development Corporation sponsored a NYC BigApps competition, whereby entrants would design easy-to-use smartphone apps incorporating the data, and updating it in real time. Yesterday they announced the winners, and the top three are:

WayFinder NYC: An application designed for smartphones powered by Google’s Android operating system allows users to find the closest subway entrance. It uses an approach known as augmented reality, overlaying subway line symbols on a live view through the phone’s camera.

The WayFinder demo is pretty awesome:

Taxihack: Like Yelp for cabs, this Web tool allows people to post comments on individual taxis and their drivers via e-mail or Twitter.

Big Apple Ed: This Web-based guide offers detailed profiles, reviews and information about the city’s network of public schools.

I personally found the winners interesting but not that relevant to me; however, the People’s Choice awards went to an app called NYC Way, which I downloaded out of curiousity. And it is amazing! The information on it ranges from merely interesting (how long would an ambulance actually take to reach your current location?) to totally useful (real-time views of traffic cameras around the city, real-time subway updates). It also makes great use of your phone’s GPS locator–hit a button and it not only shows you all of the nearby restaurants, but provides you with their health inspection reports. I was kind of grossed out to see what goes on in the kitchens of the restaurants in my neighborhood that I regularly eat at.

Overall I was impressed at the depth of the application, as it seems they have incorporated data from every city organization you could think of. I’ve only mentioned a few of the functions here, but check out the app for yourself–it’s free!

via ny times bits

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Seal Brand, a company from Japan that specializes in transforming used tires into fashion accessories, and Hiroshima sneaker line Spingle Move have just come out with the “Sneaker 101,” made almost entirely of unaltered rubber tire, with an intact tread for a sole (Oops! Not looking closely enough, the tread was molded for the shoes. Thanks, Alex!). An eco-conscious company, Seal employs artisans to hand-make each product, plants a tree for every piece sold and donates 1% of their profits to the World Wildlife Fund.

Extra great is this clearer-than-day “process diagram,” describing where the material comes from and gets used.

via japan trends

Thanks, Jake!

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Fido Fashions’ Power-Generating Dog Leash adds some much-needed design to this usually boring product category; the device features on-board storage for waste bags and an array of three LED lights for night walks. The cool part is that the LEDs are battery-free–they’re powered by the coil and recoil of the leash.

Product Design & Development’s “Inside Design” section has an interview up with Andrew Goddard of Goddard Technologies, the industrial design firm behind the leash. Check it out here.

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Once upon a time, everyone assumed dinosaur skin looked like this:

[photo credit: Flickr user normanfelchle]

Now we find out, according to a team of Yale researchers led by professor Richard Prum, that there were dinosaurs that actually looked like this:

[image credit: Michael DiGiorgio]

Feathers? Black and white stripes? Orange accents? We know what you’re thinking–how they heck would they know all of this? In fact, by analyzing fossils researchers can determine color right “down to individual feathers.” Read about the science behind it here.

via cnet

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