Protesis con verdadero diseño

Interview with Scott Summit of Bespoke Innovations, creator of kick-ass prosthetics

Posted by hipstomp | 20 Dec 2010

We recently caught up with Scott Summit, the industrial designer behind San-Francisco-based Bespoke Innovations, at AU 2010, where he was one of the keynote speakers. Bespoke Innovations has a clear mission: Apply good industrial design and rapid prototyping techniques to make kick-ass prosthetics. They don't do off-the-shelf parts--they interview amputees, find out what makes them tick, and design some seriously cool custom limbs based on their interests and tastes.

Some amputees like Mid-Century Modern. Some like motorcycles. Some like leather or tattoos. Summit seems like the first industrial designer to realize that with today's manufacturing technologies, there's no reason an amputee should have to wear a cold and impersonal prosthetic designed by some engineer who's ordering parts out of a catalog and has never been to design school.

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With about a million diabetic amputees in the U.S. alone, Summit and Bespoke have a huge market to address. And as they serve them, they're raising some very good issues about the product space that mass production should, and should not, occupy in the future. The production world is changing, and as you'll see in the interview below, Summit isn't just riding the wave--he's helping to create it.

Para los fanaticos del photoshop

Pimienta y Sal - Photoshop Salt and Pepper Shakers

Posted by shaggy | 21 Dec 2010

So bad that it is good: a pair of shakers in the shape of the Photoshop application icon. Easily enhance taste contrast! Add noise (Monochromatic) to your steak!

Found at Coroflot

Energia solar para tu celular

Help launch the Solar Vox through Kickstarter

Posted by StuCon | 22 Dec 2010

Detroit-based industrial designer Eric Strebel, along with his partner Jim Nogarian, have launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking funding for the Solar Vox, a solar powered USB charger. Inspired by the Minty Boost DIY charger, Strebel added a solar panel to recharge a pair of AA batteries or connect directly to your portable device. The housing allows you to angle the solar panel easily to optimize charging, and features a built-in storage compartment to hold your phone while charging.

The project video explains the whole thing nicely, including footage of the sketch models. Pre-order yours now to help bring this product to market. Deadline is Jan. 28.

While you're at it, check out Strebel's portfolio at Coroflot.com too!

Lamparas dinamicas existenciales

"Tvor": Perhaps the world's most existential lamp

Posted by Sam Dunne | 24 Dec 2010

The "Tvor" lamp by Czech design student Jindrich Vodicka, is another example of the weird and wonderful creations to emerge from the maturing design scene in central and eastern Europe in recent years.

This bizarre concept, uses sensors and an Adruino programme to scan its immediate environment to locate the darkest patch—which it then leaps into action to flood with light. Unfortunately, the creation is "doomed to endless travel" as it eagerness to illuminate only transfers the darkness to another part of the room—starting the whole process again.

Conceptos de diseño que vuelan..

Your desk is so plane

Posted by hipstomp | 29 Dec 2010

If I could hire employees, I'd have a desk like this and sit behind it wearing a leather flying cap, bomber jacket, scarf and goggles while I interviewed prospectives. I would act normal through much of the interview but pause at intervals to shoot down enemy bombers with pantomime and self-generated sound effects.

That's Restoration Hardware's new Aviator Wing Desk, "inspired by streamlined World War II fighter planes." It instantly reminded me of the work of MotoArt, a California-based firm we looked at last year that produces furniture from old airplanes. There are a couple differences, though: MotoArt's stuff is made from the real deal, while RH's desk is just aluminum sheets screwed (not even riveted?) to a wooden frame; and judging by the close-up shots, the fit and finish of the latter's product doesn't look up to the former's standards.

Anyways, back to my interview fantasy. If the interviewee gave an answer I didn't like, I'd suddenly go into a tailspin and re-enact a fiery crash.

Nuevos conceptos de zapatos -El fin de las medias?

Make your existing socks obsolete with this interesting footwear design ("interesting" being the operative word)

Posted by hipstomp | 29 Dec 2010

I know they're not meant to be funny looking, but I keep thinking these are the kinds of shoes you send your kid out in when you want him to get beat up at the playground:

They're by a Japanese company called Globe, and the advertised merits of having separated-toe shoes is improved circulation, hygiene (I guess isolated toes develop no "funk"), and a better sense of grabbing the ground with your feet for those being physically rehabilitated.

One merit they forgot to add is that it will make your boy tougher or at the very least, accustomed to fighting off a daily onslaught of attackers at the monkey bars. Yeah, if my kid had to wear these I'd draw attention away from his feet by giving him one of those beanies with the propeller on top.

Nuevo concepto de calentador de ambiente

Muscular furnace designPosted by hipstomp | 30 Dec 2010 |

Good gosh do I want one of these Bullerjan furnaces, a woodburning stove whose design suggests in contains a V8 engine. In fact the pipes on the bottom draw in cold air and those on top vent hot air, giving this "Free Flow" design an "enormous heating capacity."

My favorite part of the product copy is the company's claim that it was developed by Canadian lumberjacks. I picture a group of enormous Paul-Bunyan-lookin' dudes in red flannel shirts crammed around a comparatively tiny CAD machine in a forest cabin, waiting for the render to complete. "It's stuck at 82%, eh?"