echa Kucha is one of those amazing things you suddenly stumble upon and wish you had known about the whole time. I personally came across Pecha Kucha when reading an out-of-date copy of Utne Reader I found in a local tavern one fine evening, and I’m so glad I did. Even though I’m seven years late to the party, it’s good to see it’s still going strong and perhaps even getting better.

The event itself consists of a series of presentations featuring designers, architects, artists and creatives who all utilize the 20×20 format: twenty slides with twenty seconds per slide which adds up to a six-minute & forty-second presentation for each speaker on the bill. This format not only creates a cohesive time frame in terms of presentation length, but the 20 images rule creates a strong need for the chosen visuals to be in perfect alignment with the points being made, giving the presenter a creative challenge normally not associated with the typical Powerpoint presentation.

Pecha Kucha (which is the Japanese term for chatter or chit chat) was created in 2003 by fellow Tokyo based architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham in order to provide a simple method for communication between the creative fields themselves. Its DIY concept has since gone completely viral spawning events in Hawaii, Barcelona, Mexico, Detroit and Germany just to name a few.

Although comparisons to TED might come to mind, Pecha Kucha, like their FAQ page states, has a bottom-up model rather than top-down. And obviously its encouragement in creating your own local Pecha Kucha Night is a perfect example of the bottom-up model (if you build it, they will come). The basic formula itself is easily repeatable anywhere. All you really need is a laptop or two, a projector, and a space to perform in and you’re ready to host your very own event.

One thing I’ve really enjoyed from watching the random Pecha Kucha videos online is seeing the actual 20×20 format in action. Six minutes and forty seconds is not that much time after all, and for me, I’m sort of watching the clock, noticing how different people deal with the compilation, display, and presentation of their material within the 20-slide framework.

I should add here that the public domain aspect of the 20×20 format has had good results in the office as well, eliminating those long-winded speeches and run-on sentences as well as tightening up even the most seasoned presenter. So have a look around their site for an event near you. With over 300 cities participating, you’ll most likely find one, but if not, at least you now know how easy it can be to invent one.

ome gorgeous photography from an IBM marketing booklet in 1964. Really love the warm hues, unconventional angles, and the wonderful depth of field. Notice how in the last photo, IBM features the trinity of political correctness: a woman, a black guy, and a white guy. That made me chuckle knowing IBM’s sordid history from World War II.

Only somewhat related, but a bit of commentary on the fashion: On one level, I’m happy that we’ve evolved to more casual dress, but I do love the sophistication of a well-tailored suit or pencil skirt. My first job working in a corporate office in 1998 instigated some sort of dress code, and as a result, I ended up with more pantsuits, blouses and skirts than a girl of fifteen should normally own — but I enjoyed it, and maybe even miss it. Now that I run my own design studio, it’s nice to just throw on jeans and a t-shirt, but some days I find myself disconcerted with how I actually managed to leave the house wearing mismatched socks and my shirt inside out. The fashion and environment depicted in the photographs above were pretty true to life in the 60s, and to see photos like these in a Dell catalog now would seem terribly staged, although incredibly awesome — and I bet their sales would probably spike from that campaign, too. Despite the coolness or comfort of casual wear, suits and red dresses are just so much sexier. It’s no longer a maybe — I definitely miss it.

Learning from Nature How to Create Flow Without Friction (photo via Biomimicry Institute)

Learning from Lotus Plants How to Clean without Cleaners (photo via Biomimicry Institute)

iomimicry, as I would describe it, is the goal of reproducing nature’s solutions to problems. Problems like, how do I stay alive? And how can I live better? How can I take advantage of the Internet (at that time, it was just birds, bees and wind)? Nature has an amazing set of skills when it comes to problem solving and biomimicry is about adapting those natural solutions to our many man-made problems.

Solar power is an obvious use of biomimicry, but it can be taken much further. A certain flower, orchids I believe, have a built in system for cleaning its petals. Its design on a micro level allows rainwater to more efficiently remove dirt and other unwanted particles as it moves to the ground, leaving the leaves sparkling clean. There’s a biomimicry-based business opportunity right there. Got a city? Got rain?

So as both consumers and companies become more familiar with the concept of sustainability, we as designers, engineers, entrepreneurs and hippies need to take a closer look at the possibilities within sustainability. The Biomimicry Guild or perhaps the Biomimicry Institute might just be the perfect place to learn more. My own city of Portland, Oregon is even in on the forefront, utilizing fungi no less. And no, I don’t mean magic mushrooms. Portland based Brightworks is on top of things apparently, even helping neighborhoods to become EcoDistricts. Fast Company has the full story here.

What we as designers, artists and developers take away from an investigation into biomimicry can initially seem fruitless. However, we all know that knowledge is power and given time, ideas grow. Definitely a little slower in the business community, but nevertheless, sustainable companies will soon make their mark, if they haven’t already, and soon enough, we will have a very real choice between designing for the future and designing for the past.

Battery switch station design ca. 2008

Charge spot with demo charge plug

Demo Plug ca. 2008

Welcome screen

Better Place charge spots in the snow

Renault Fluence ZE Concept

The Renault Fluence ZE interior

t’s been a long time coming for the electric car, and as Europe rushes to solidify their plan of action for the move away from oil, many nations’ eyes are fixed on Denmark. Better Place, a California start-up, has teamed up with Denmark’s major power company to create the first major electric grid to support electric cars. This is a huge venture, and not without its risks, but Better Place has secured 350 million to start the project and everything’s a go at this point. Money however, might not be the major obstacle in the way of success for this project.

As if we needed another example of how design can change the world, the main roadblock (pun intended) is the lack of unity in a standard system of getting the electricity to the cars in a fashion that resembles the soon-to-be old fashioned gas station. Are battery swapping stations more feasible than pump-style plugs? What if a Russian car drives to France? Will the plug fit the socket? Do you have Russian car batteries in Germany? With car companies, power plants and even governments weighing in on the subject, it’s the lack of global unity here that’s going to factor heavily on the creation of a cohesive plan of action.

Denmark is already getting 19% of their electricity from wind power and the proposed electric grid will tie in with it. The electricity you would charge your car with would come from it, but even better, your car becomes a storage chamber and once plugged in at night can feed the excess back to the main grid — even at a profit to you possibly. Of course the kinks need to get worked out, but essentially you’d have a system where thousands of cars could store the excess power generated from wind power and feed it back into the main grid at night in order to replenish the necessary levels needed  during peak usage, thus reducing the cost of transportation practically down to the cost of running the powering stations. Huge tax credits and free parking are also in the works for potential buyers of electric cars to kick start interest.

Back in the US, the hybrid car seems to be more important to manufacturers than we might have previously thought judging by the North American International Auto Show. And I have to say, everything there looked a lot better than the awful box on wheels designs coming out of Europe right now. I mean, come on. If you’re going to make something that small and unsafe, at least make it look cool. America however, is still at the hybrid stage for the most part, but at least can still be  packaged in somewhat of a decent looking car. And yes, as far as design is concerned, Japan shreds everyone, of course.

But getting back to the purpose of it all, Denmark, no matter what their future cars might end up looking like, could be the prototype for the future. Germany and its solar power program is another prime example of a green success story that other nations are taking note of. In America, it’s ironically the Chevy Volt that might tip us over into a viable solar and wind power system–ironic because in the late 30s, GM bought and dismantled the existing electric streetcar system in order to sell gasoline engine driven buses and were basically caught red handed. However, even I have to root for the Volt’s success. So however late to the game America and other nations are, here’s hoping Denmark can set yet another example of utilizing a sustainable energy source.

‘ve always been endlessly fascinated with high-tech things, including futuristic vehicles. While digging through the Popular Science archives last week, I was reminded of a vehicle very ahead of its time — the Holden Hurricane. It was one of the most expensive experimental cars of the 60s commissioned by Holden of Australia, which helped the carmaker sell one million other Holden vehicles between 1969 to 1974. The Hurricane tends to be overshadowed by similarly styled supercars, particularly the 1970 Bertone Lancia Stratos Zero photographed by Benedict Redgrove, which is also an amazing car in its own right.

Some more history behind the Hurricane, via Cartype:

Finding the ”feasibility of applying aerospace techniques and materials to the manufacture of future Holdens’ was the companies’ motivation for the project. However, this rhetoric held little weight, and only the production-worthy engine found its way into the road cars. With this engine, the Hurricane started a trend that would have 500,000 Holden’s feature Australian-designed V8s.

What made the Hurricane special was elements that didn’t make it to assembly lines: it’s styling, electronics and engineering. Probably the most experimental aspect of the Hurricane was it’s styling. The low wedge shape was an upcoming trend for the period and was copied in previous years; the 1970 Bertone Stratos Concept, 1970 Ferrari 512S Berlinetta Speciale and 1972 Maserati Boomerang all share the Hurricane’s lines.

Inside, Hurricane had an array of extraneous instrumentation to convince any onlookers that the driver car could pilot to moon. Of these, the most notable was a “retro-gps” system called Pathfinder. It used magnetic signals built within the road to alert the driver of upcoming turns. Other electronic amenities included digital instrumentation, a rear view camera, lifting seats and an automatically opening one piece door.

At the core, the Hurricane used a tubular space frame, supporting a new Holden V8 and covered in an impressive fiber glass body. The engine sat mid-ship in the chassis and was attached to a four speed transaxle. Very GT40. A distinct feature of the chassis was the oil-cooled disc brakes. Used on the front, these discs used oil, and oil coolers to dissipate heat.

In conclusion, the Holden Hurricane might be the most exciting car made in Australia. Its motor sport engineering, glorious styling and funky electronics complete a concept that can still impress forty years later.

tari is an international brand synonymous with the video game and electronics industry since its inception in 1972. No longer involved with making hardware, Atari now specializes mostly in one thing: distributing entertainment software. If you were lucky enough to be a kid in the 70s and 80s when the company was at its heyday, you probably have a lot of fond memories of Pong and the ubiquitous 2600 gaming console (wood veneer what!). And you might even remember that Atari wasn’t just a video game company; they also designed and manufactured home computers — super awesome ones. Their success in tapping the home computer market was short-lived, but their efforts shouldn’t go by unappreciated. This isn’t really a history lesson though; it’s more of a show & tell of an amazing find: During a late-night geek session, I happened to dig up these insanely rad concept sketches designed by former Atari industrial designer Regan Cheng (via the Atari Museum).

By 1981, Atari’s home computer division began looking into replacements for the aging 400/800 line of computers. Several types of systems were conceptualized and in the end it came down to two routes. One was called the A-300 project which involved a new series of Atari computers which would work as modules and plug together to form a complete computer system. The second was an evolution of the A-300 project that shed all of the expansion and modular design for a low profile, high tech computer system which became the Atari 1200XL Computer System.

I really love Cheng’s illustrative style. If these were sold as prints, I’d totally buy the whole lot. The modular concepts at the bottom get me more excited than I care to disclose.

Concept with slant-in top panel

Cooling Fins Concept

Very close to final design, with disk drive on top.

Very close to final design, with cooling fins on the rear

All white top concept, again with rear cooling fins

Various designs of the XL style of beveling

Side view of 1200 concept

A-300 Concept sketches

A-300 Concept One

A-300 Concept Two

Modular add-on System

Another variation, note the pre-1020 Plotter on the top right of console

Modular plug-in system

Bus Bar module connector

1981 Atari version of a "Mac"?

Two piece system

Bus Bar modular System

Atari 900 Concept

was hoping to breeze by today without blogging anything for the sake of productivity, but I couldn’t help but drop everything just to talk about this new (OMG rad) ASUS notebook. Apple has severely raised the bar when it comes to top-notch industrial design, but I’m always excited to see how other computer manufacturers innovate in rivalry to Apple’s success, especially when done well. Bang & Olufsen’s designs are generally hit-or-miss with me, but they’ve done a pretty incredible job designing this notebook. I wouldn’t be able to tell you how it functions, but here are some specs from Engadget:

• Polished aluminum body
• Dual touchpads (cool, but why?)
• High-definition 18.4″ display
• Core i7 processor
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 334M graphics
• Support for up to 1280GB of storage (with dual drives)
• Slot-in Blu-ray drive
• USB 3.0
• B&O ICEpower speakers

For such a large notebook, it’s obviously meant to be more of a living room machine rather than something truly portable. Still though, I want it.

ver the past few months, I’ve sat through several James Bond marathons on television and thought about what 007 would be like if he were a designer. Would he be a Mac or PC guy? What would be on his bookshelves? And as a designer, who and what would he be influenced by? All hypothetical questions that I thought would be interesting to answer in a three-part series, the first focusing on furniture and tools of the trade.

Task chair: The Silver Chair

The task chair is obviously a no-brainer. We’ve covered Interstuhl’s Silver Chair a couple times now on the blog, and frankly, looking at it never gets old. I personally don’t know what it feels like to sit in it, but I imagine it’s like damn good intercourse. Interesting thing is, the Silver Chair was featured on the set of Quantum of Solace (which I actually haven’t seen yet). I heard the movie sucked, and if you haven’t seen it either, see it for the chair at least.

Desk: Prism Glass Table

This table designed by Makio Hasuike seems to be rarely talked about, and I’m not sure why. When I thought of a desk that would match perfectly with the Silver Chair, the Prism Glass Table was the first thing that came to mind. Its aluminum legs and architectural details is like I.M. Pei meets Le Corbusier and Marcel Breuer. Unfortunately I couldn’t find better photos of the table, but the scale is much larger than it seems (79″ W, 35.5″ D 29″ H) and can seat six to ten people (or more realistically, ten small people the size of Hervé Villechaize).

Computer: Apple 27″ iMac

I’m going to place my unbiased bets that Bond is really a Mac guy. In Casino Royale, he and Vesper were sporting all sorts of Sony gadgetry including the Ericsson and Vaio laptop but that’s only because of the film’s ties with advertising. Also, would Bond really drive the fugly Mondeo if it weren’t for the small fortune that Ford paid to make that happen? Uh, no. It was tough deciding between a 27″ iMac or a Mac Pro, but for the sake of minimalism and keeping wires at bay, the iMac won.

Keyboard: Apple Wireless Keyboard

Having a glass desk means that clutter is more obvious. I used to have a glass desk too, and opted for everything to be wireless. The Apple wireless keyboard is the perfect clutter-free solution, and its tight little profile is sexy as hell. Bond prefers his keyboards to be like his women: Easy on the eyes. And hands.

Mouse: Apple Magic Mouse

After listing Apple’s iMac and wireless keyboard, it would only be ostensible that the Magic Mouse follow. Well, it did, because it’s awesome. And unlike other mice, it works best when touched in all the right places. And you know how good Bond is with his hands.

Tablet: Wacom Cintiq 12WX

The 21UX takes up too much desk real estate, and the Intuos 4 series, lacking an LCD, isn’t quite the Cintiq. But the 12WX is the perfect pen-on-screen experience for a 007, and Bond sometimes uses it as a stand-alone lap display to catch up on his Netflix Watch Instantly queue when he’s not busy killing bad guys.

Flatbed scanner: CanoScan LiDE 700F

Most flatbed scanners have this awful history of looking like total horseshit. It’s hard finding a scanner that looks great and works well. Enter the CanoScan LiDE 700F, capable of scanning resolutions of up to 9600 x 9600 DPI as well as 35mm negatives. Note: Bond’s favorite features includes the 180 degree tilting lid and the 3-Way Positioning: upright, portrait, and landscape.

DSLR Camera: Leica M9

Unarguably the sexiest DSLR camera to date, the Leica M9 also works as well as it looks, and it’s obvious that 007 is all about form and function. Bond may have many lovers, but for him, the M9 is a lifelong companion. Leica M9 photographs via Ken Rockwell.

Mobile phone: Motorola Droid

Some of you may be wondering why Bond doesn’t have an iPhone. Well, he does, but he likes the Droid better. I know, there are like a gazillion more apps for the iPhone, but do you really think Bond cares about that when he’s got the Q Division making custom apps for him? Plus, following the whole awesome industrial design thing we’ve got going here, Droid is designed to kill.

Cordless phone: VTech LS6245

Landlines generally lack excitement, but when looking at this VTech LS6245 Cordless (could they have made the name any harder to remember?), eyes tend to light up. There are no real buttons on this phone, and uses touch technology instead. It also connects to Bluetooth cell phones so you can make and receive cellular calls through the cordless phone. Pretty slick.

Headphones: Grado PS1000

Some may argue that the Sennheiser HD 800s have a slightly better sound and fit more comfortably, but the refined Mr. Bond will tell you this: it is an ugly leviathan and you will look like an idiot wearing it. The only sensible choice would be the Grado PS1000, headphones that bear industrial elegance as well as an amazing fidelity.

Conclusion

Be sure to check back next Monday for Part II of this series where we’ll cover what Bond likes to read, his favorite design blogs and influences. If there’s something I’ve missed, or you just want to moot on theory, feel free to sound off in the comments.

Runner Ups

A few items that didn’t make it on the list but are worth mentioning:

Keyboard: Logitech diNovo Edge, Mac Edition

Mouse: Logitech MX Revolution

DSLR Camera: Canon 5D MkII

ondon-based photographer Benedict Redgrove is most known for shooting cars, particularly with Bertone, the Italian automotive company, but his work extends to technology interiors and landscapes as well. If you’ve had a chance to peruse his portfolio, which you very well should, you’d find that Redgrove is a man passionate about capturing a particular structure and form with meticulous execution.

I’ve always admired Redgrove’s sharp eye and wanted to focus on his work with aircrafts. I really love the theme of symmetry displayed here. There are many more awesome shots not included in this post, but you’ll have to gawk at them over at his aircraft folio. If you enjoy these photographs, you’d probably like our post on Greg White, another amazing photographer.

arlier this year, high fashion house Hermès and iconic Monaco yacht brand Wally unveiled a revolutionary mega yacht named WHY, an acronym for Wally Hermès Yachts. This 58 metre-long, 38 metre-wide motor yacht is supposed to redefine the art of living on the sea with a low environmental impact. The resulting form and function is quite impressive: photovoltaic panels on the glass hull sides, a massive roof opening that operates like Venetian blinds, a 25 metre-long forward end swimming pool (with thermo regulated water, obviously), and a massive promenade on deck.

While altogether super rad, I’m not quite sold on the interior. My main critique is that the spiral staircase looks too Guggenheim-y of the Nora Roberts variety, you know, the kind of stairs that would be staged with chintzy romance and roses. I had expected a more minimal straight-flight design. I’m sure all the discriminating billionaires out there would customize everything to their own needs though, equipped with the necessities of diamonds and ponies. My only question is, where is the helipad?

In terms of sustainability, WHY requires less power at cruising speed than a boat of equal size. Its diesel-electric propulsion is the most efficient motorization today, and the surface of the photovoltaic panels, almost 900 square metres, covers most of the boat’s auxiliary system needs. If I were to spend mad scrilla on a WHY yacht, I wouldn’t feel so bad knowing that I’m saving up to 200 tons of diesel per year. Maybe in a few years, the Colorcubic headquarters will be cruising at a lovely twelve knots, saving diesel while redefining the art of working on the sea. I won’t hold my breath.