Tag: design
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Reexamining the Kiss Principle
“Keep it simple and stupid.” That was the acronym coined by aircraft engineer Clarence Johnson during the early 1930s. He proposed the “H” style tail for airplanes which helped stabilize flight. Keeping it simple is always easier said than done. What may appear visually simple, took a deduction of complex details. We don’t get to…
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Are video games design objects?
Do video games belong in the museum? I remember checking out the old Tetris and Pong video games at a MoMA exhibit in 2013. They certainly seemed to fit as artistic artifacts. The world’s leading museum of art and design in London, V & A, is making its new exhibit Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt even more contemporary. The show’s curator…
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The design of the classroom from 1750 to today
The design of the classroom is a technology, and you can interpret that in a lot of different ways. Architects can make that look more, and less, typical. But the point is the instruction, the interaction in the classroom, not that it looks more like a circle or more like a square or whatever else.…
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Coles Phillips “fade-away” technique
The story goes that he developed his “fade-away” technique as a money-saving exercise. Upmarket magazines would typically print covers in full-colour, but Phillips’ style allowed them to print a single or two-colour cover and have their magazine still look great. Artist Coles Phillips (1880 – 1927), via
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How design dictates behavior
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Left, right, top, and bottom… Designers make decisions every day that dictate human behavior. The social media notification–in Instagram aesthetics the heart–is what keeps users opening the app more than a dozen times a day. How many likes did we get on our last post? Any new followers? We crave the variable reward, chasing persistent…
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The self that signals
What signals are you giving out? Everything from your wardrobe to your attitude goes on display in to convince or dupe others of who you really are. Led by imaginings, you chase the perfect external note. But sometimes the creation of the ideal self sends you in the wrong direction. Trying to change from outside…
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‘Toys are preludes to serious ideas’
“Toys are preludes to serious ideas.” Charles and Ray Eames Those shiny toys, they give us all the answers and leave little to the imagination. What could unleash creativity like a blank paper does for a pack of gel pens instead turns off the lite-brite of ideas. Charles and Ray Eames knew about the risks…
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Retrofuturistic art by Simon Stålenhag
Art by Simon Stålenhag If you like this particular vibe of retrofuturistic dystopian art, be sure to check out Beeple.
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How design controls behavior
Design dictates behavior. Put a feature front and center like Instagram or Facebook Stories and it’s nearly impossible not to click. Keep a smartphone around while you’re doing work or eating and you’ll fight the urge to pick it up. Listen to enough conspiracy theories and you’re bound to think that they’re true regardless of…
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Airbus Beluga XL 🐳👨✈️
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Loving the whale-inspired design of the Airbus BelugaXL, due to launch in 2019. According to the plane’s official photographer on Twitter, the aircraft is currently on its 17th test flight. You can read more about the plane’s “whale-inspired eyes and enthusiastic grin” here.
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Free the animals 🦁🐘🦓
The design for Animal crackers just got an update. Due to mounting pressure from animal rights group PETA, Nabisco removed the cages from its iconic cracker box. The updated version shows the animals roaming free. The redesign of the boxes, now on U.S. store shelves, retains the familiar red and yellow coloring and prominent “Barnum’s…
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Moving sculptures
Dutch artist and kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen builds wind propelled sculptures that live on beaches. Each sculpture contains a rotating spine that allows it to rotate forward and backward. Even more interesting, these moving pieces of art can detect and avoid waves when they get too close. But don’t expect to see these mesmerizing “mobile animals”…