Toronto: See the World in Just One City by Megan Marin

A recent ID grad made this cuuute map of Toronto!

click here for details

mini-lion

Designers & Books

Designers & Books is a website devoted to compiling booklists/commentary from designers and architects of all types. With lists comprised of both design literature and sources of personal inspiration, contributors include names like John Maeda, Michael Bierut, Michael Graves and Stefan Sagmeister. My reading list just got so much longer...

Design on TV

QUIRKY - about both the company, and the people submitting designs trying to make money off the online community at Quirky. More info here, and here (but I warn you, this one is a mess)

THERE'S MORE...

Toy Stories

Click for more super cuuuuute Toy Stories

SketchChair Kickstarter Campaign from diatom studio on Vimeo.

Open-source Software and Industrial Design Make Love with SketchChair. SketchChair will be a free, open-source software tool that allows anyone to easily design and build their own digitally fabricated furniture.

Experiment No. 1 - Skateboard Shades from Shwood Eyewear on Vimeo.

"Follow Shwood’s own Eric Singer as he meets up with Keith Hufnagel and others to claim the streets of LA in pursuit of Shwood’s latest experiment, sunglasses made from broken skateboard decks. Crafted entirely in Shwood’s local woodshop, this one-of-a-kind pair of sunglasses was created out of curiosity, just to see what was possible."

Word of the Day: Skeuomorph

Ever wondered why Jeans come with a tiny change pocket? It's actually a remainder from the days when people needed a place to put their pocket watch. What about that 0_0 voicemail icon on your cell phone? That's a remnant from the days when answering machines used reel-to-reel tapes.

Skeuomorph
an element of design or structure that serves little or no purpose in the artifact fashioned from the new material but was essential to the object made from the original material.
Basalla, George (1988). The Evolution of Technology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 107. ISBN 0-521-29681-1.

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2011/02/against-chrome-a-manifesto.html

Graboids

Monstrous Wildlife from Frank Robnik on Vimeo.

The animation is really nice, but now I'm really scared of meeting a Graboid!!

Do people see the same when they see colours?

BBC has a program called “Do You See What I See?” that explores this question. The result is interesting, especially the experiment with the people from the tribe. It really is neat when you realize how limited by language we are. Somewhere in the comments there was a suggested book: Through the Language Glass, about how different the world is in another language. 

Hipster Lorem Ipsum

I found this on Swiss Miss, I laughed a lot!  Next time you need some random text, instead of this:

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua....."

Use this!!

"Organic gentrify sartorial, chambray blog next level shit you probably haven't heard of them...."

Thank you http://hipsteripsum.me/

Patent Trollin'

If you have an hour to spare you should listen to this. It's mostly about the software and tech industry in Silicon Valley, but I think hearing about the complications of intellectual property management is valuable to anyone in a creative industry.

This American Life 441: When Patents Attack!

NYT Karim Rashid Office Tour

The New York Times has a section on interior spaces and they recently did an article on Karim Rashid's studio/office in New York. There's a decent amount of pictures with corresponding commentary, so check it out!

click link here.

Think Before You Design

yeahhhh...

Buy Your Yacht Island

Makeshift 22: A collaborative movement

What is Makeshift 22? from Alex M. Chong on Vimeo.

Taken from their website:
Makeshift 22 is a student collaborative projects group at Carleton University that works across years and disciplines to promote a greater sense of learning and personal growth among students.

We invite you to explore with us on our unique variety of projects. In the spirit of collaboration – we are interested in a multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary approach to our projects and look forward to working with a diverse group of individuals.

If you have a project or are interested in becoming involved with this group in the new semester they are always looking for more members!

For those of you in Toronto, there is going to be a gathering this Thursday, August 4th downtown Toronto. For details, email me at mhjz@hotmail.com.

hu-man inn-stoo-men-to

and sometimes we thought we were advanced...