ether = tonic

Design Korea 2009 Introduction

2009-12-08T05:45:00.006-05:00

From December 2, 2009 to December 8, 2009 Design Korea was taking place in Incheon, South Korea, just outside of Seoul. Design Korea is an international conference and exhibition taking companies from all areas of the world to meet ans discuss business challenges that can be solved with design. It had everything from New Materials to Green Design.

I think my favorite area ended up being the green design area. In the next week I'll be highlighting some of the best parts of the show and some of the designs I liked the most.

Some more of the Design Olympiad is going to be coming up as well. Keep you posted.

SDO 2009 Part 11

2009-12-06T20:01:00.001-05:00

I think this was one of my favorite pieces from the Seoul Design Olympiad. The soft lighting it gave off as i walked by was enchanting and made me want to stand by it. The warmth of the lighting would give a sense of security as you wait for the bus. Really well done.

SDO 2009 Part 10

2009-11-30T06:38:00.000-05:00

SDO 2009 Part 9

2009-11-25T06:03:00.000-05:00

SDO 2009 Part 8

2009-11-23T05:57:00.004-05:00

SDO 2009 Part 7

2009-11-19T08:16:00.007-05:00

SDO 2009 Part 6

2009-11-16T08:03:00.000-05:00

SDO 2009 Part 5

2009-11-13T07:40:00.000-05:00

I am not sure if you can really appreciate this until you live in a tiny Seoul apartment where you wish everything was made for people half your size so you had some more room for storage. Not only would it easily make portions for individual persons, but also can fit anywhere and it probably portable. Perfect for cooking at the peak of a long Korean hike.

SDO 2009 Part 4

2009-11-11T07:31:00.000-05:00

2009 Hongik Art-Design Festival Part 6

2009-11-09T05:56:00.003-05:00

Nomad Doctor

SDO 2009 Part 3

2009-11-05T03:36:00.000-05:00

I really enjoyed the soft lighting this piece gave off. Also the underwater feel of coral it had. Would be great to have in a backyard or front yard I felt.

2009 Hongik Art-Design Festival Part 5

2009-11-04T05:44:00.001-05:00

Cannabalism by Jung Hyun-Jung

Sitting on the Book by Jung Hyo-Jin

SDO 2009 Part 2

2009-11-03T18:06:00.003-05:00

This is the 'Chorong Lamp'. My romanization is horrible by the way. Hard to get a good shot of this lamp, so the photo doesn't do it justice.

This is the 'What is Your light?' light. I really like the color it is on and the soft vibrant light it gives off. Awesome pattern as well.

2009 Hongik Art-Design Festival Part 4

2009-11-02T05:40:00.001-05:00

SDO 2009 Part 1

2009-10-30T09:05:00.002-04:00

2009 Hongik Art-Design Festival Part 3

2009-10-28T05:38:00.002-04:00

Seoul Design Olympiad 2009 Introduction

2009-10-27T08:26:00.006-04:00

Out here in Asia Seoul is fast becoming one of the largest design centers in the world. It can be seen everywhere you go. From bridges to benches. Sign posts to cathedrals. Seoul is becoming a Design Capital of the world. This fall the 2009 Seoul Design from October 9 to the 29th some of the finest works of Seoul University and companies alike is on exhibit in Seoul. I've highlighted some of these works with my poor DSLR camera skills which will improve as I get out and see more of Seoul's design. Check out the website- http://sdo.seoul.go.kr/eng/ to see what the event is all about.

It is a massive show and one worth checking out if you have an interest in useful and pretty things.

Here's some teasers, I really liked the benches they had throughout the show. Also wish my Korean was better so I could give some more description on the items.

2009 Hongik Art-Design Festival Part 2

2009-10-26T05:28:00.005-04:00

Here is some more from Hongik University Art-Design Festival. I really enjoyed these three. The last table with the square pattern was really hard to gain the real image on. It's legs concave into the center of it, but the pattern really distracts it. Really enjoyable. Don't mind the poor camera work, it's my new DSLR and I'm not used to it yet.

2009 Hongik Art-Design Festival Part 1

2009-10-23T05:05:00.001-04:00

Seoul

2009-10-21T05:04:00.003-04:00

We are gonna have some great pieces showing from the Seoul Design Olympiad and also the Hongik University showing. The products are gonna range from interior design, furniture, urban design, and a little fashion. Just gotta edit the pics and get them online!

Competition

2009-08-06T11:32:00.002-04:00

Dear loyal blog readers,

We will be having a design competition aimed at University students throughout the world, but open to anyone who wishes to compete. The best part will be of course the prize, chance to gain exposure and some royalty revenues. We are going to be narrowing down the product category and having a specific design brief. I'll let you know as more information comes out.

Cheers,

Will

Joy de Vivre

2009-05-18T15:31:00.005-04:00

So I thought I'd spend a little time talking about Joy de Vivre. Where the company originated from and why it has been created.

My brother is the true creator of the company, Joel Yatscoff. He really thought of the company a couple years ago and it just took him a while to start getting everything together. My brother is an Industrial Designer who graduated from the University of Alberta and moved out to Toronto to follow his passion, Design. As many designers know, it's not an easy industry to do well in. Only a limited number of designers really get their ideas chosen and created. Don't even get credit if you are working for a company and come out with a great idea. Many designers have side projects and freelance work in order to build their portfolio and be able to work for themselves. The problem is this is still very difficult. My brother learned firsthand it is hard to get products into the hands of people who want it.

The business side of things is money of course. Products cost money to get made. Depending on the product it can cost anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a product prototyped, not to mention marketing it to businesses and corporations worldwide. Designers don't make enough to front this money with the risks of retailers deciding to buy the product. Well what do they do? Not much. Good ideas typically get lost in the 'ether'.

This is where my brother decided to be different. Why don't we get some more awareness for not only the designer and the product, but also get the consumer involved? I mean market testing is good and sometimes works well, but sometimes companies still fail to sell once all is said and done. My brother thought crowd sourcing! Why not two birds one stone, eh? Get the consumer to buy the product and market test it at the same time. Essentially the consumer funds the development by pre-ordering the product. If enough people pre-order it gets made. Genius right?

Just like any new idea you need to find good products, designers willing to exhibit their product, and interested engaged consumers. Then get them all in one place. I guess this is where we are now.

We get a lot of talk about where the name came from. Joy de Vivre was originally Joie de Vivre, completely French. But we decided to follow our Canadian roots and make it a little of both worlds with an English, Joy. It means Joy of Life for all the mono-linguists. My brother will have to fill you in how he chose the name.

Cheers,

Will

Interview with Matus Prochaczka

2009-05-04T05:40:00.004-04:00

Hello Everyone,

We got Matus Prochaczka here from Slovakia. Check it out.

Matus Prochaczka

Tell me a bit about your background, the whole life story bit.

My high school was an industrial technical school, specializing in mechanisms. Maybe you will say it was wrong decision but for me it was a good step. Because I really understand how mechanisms work, it gave me a good foundation in product design. I am able to better imagine the borders of a concept and communicate better with manufacturers. I then finished 6 years at Slovak Technical University of Architecture graduating with a major in design. It had a really good time. I always wanted to do more than other colleges, and have won several competitions. Beside all this, I play soccer actively. I am pretty normal, not many weird interests... although I do have a pretty big collection of bird sketches I drew from age 12 to 17. It was nice to see steps year by year. This was how I found out that I love to sketch and draw...it was my base for design orientation.

What are you doing or working on currently?

Projects which are we working on are pretty confidential and I can’t speak about it. But it’s in the sphere of machine design.

When did you decide to design products and why?

My dream was to design cars, or everything in movement - so transport design but, somehow I didn’t get any offers from this sector and then I decide to work for Dominic Schindler creations where sometimes projects fit into this section. We do at least a couple of transport concepts in year.

Where do you feel you get the most inspiration for your designs?

The most inspiration I get is from nature through TV or books. Reflecting on the principles of nature are intuitive to me. I often use it for global shaping or for small details. For car design, my attitudes are a little bit different. My style varies in terms of point which I need to reach. Mostly its claim to create something unseen or completely new, so you need to break existing rules and shapes.

Tell us how you describe your design style?

It’s simple. Initially I start using only pencil, eraser and paper. Beside easy drawings I am thinking of some crazy ideas. So often I store some concepts which are not applicable in current time, to maybe use them or be inspired by them later.

What do you think is the worst mass produced product and why?

Tamagotchi, it was bad.

What has been the hardest part about being a product designer? What has been the easiest?

After school, I jumped directly into real projects. It wasn’t a problem to adapt to work 8 or 9 hours a day, but learning how to be quick and productive, plus adapt my style to actual design language of our company in machine design was difficult. There are many rules and limits in terms of manufacturing.

The easiest was modeling: the ability to transform sketch to three dimensional shape. This is a big advantage of my car designing skills. Through studies and learning at school, or by competitions and hours and hours of sketching and modeling, you can really make steps in the feeling of forms and modeling volumes. And of course space imagination. So when I adapted this process to product design everything was easier, because in cars you think in many parts bounded on each other, which compared to product design is much more complicated.

Who are your favourite designers currently?

His name is Jozef Kaban and he is most successful Slovak designer ever. He became a designer in Volkswagen and later join Bugatti and designed Bugatti Veyron. His work was on the whole car except the wheels. This is a big success for Slovakia and for that matter any designer worldwide. It’s great for such a small country where we both come from, Slovakia.

You are grown to the size of the empire state building and mass is increased in proportion so you are your original density. Your muscle mass is increased to that of Hercules (10 times a regular man) which compliments your massive size. A massive flaming asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, what do you do?

I will try to dig out hole across the whole earth, so the asteroid will fly through.

If zombies were to attack where would be the safest place to hide?

Why hide? Try to understand what they want...

Town Car

The car is for one person and works on gyroscopic movement. It rolls on big bearing rings. The rings are driven by a special system, where one side slides against other, but it isn't shown in the picture.

If one ring moves against the other on the skew guide way, the whole vehicle turns left or right.

It was designed to be used in cities with a max speed 80 km/h. It can park perpendicularly to footpaths, making great use of parking space.

Interview with Paul Sandip

2009-04-28T08:30:00.002-04:00

We found Paul Sandip when we were cruising Coroflot and Core77. His products really grabbed our attention so we thought we would give him the chance to spread some of the word about him and his life.

Paul Sandip

Tell us a bit about your background Paul

Born in the city of joy, Kolkata, I was raised in the eastern part of India.

After graduating as an electrical engineer I have worked as a journalist, been a cartoonist and designed sets for food festivals. After post graduating in Product design from National

Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, I donned the ‘industrial sculptor’ avatar!

In my free time, I like to sprinkle water on cob webs and see them sparkle.

I am married and live with my wife Suhasini, a toy designer, in Noida. And I am on the lookout for manufacturers interested in producing my designs.

What are you working on now?

Of late I have been seeing unidentified objects in my dreams. Tasting color and smelling sound. They say I am synesthasic!

I’m not an expert of psychodynamics either, to be able to unravel the underlying psychological forces that are motivating my behavior, emphasizing the interplay between the unconscious and conscious me. May be…that’s why I am working on my new initiative “Pleasures of Imagination” which talks about an alternative form of consumption of a visual nature along side the literal.

In short, thematic product design backed up with consumer insights.

Recently, I designed a symbol for the Indian Rupee, hope it gets selected by the Government of India.

When did you decide to design products?

On a sultry afternoon, some eighteen years ago, I was feeling comforted by the ceiling fan hovering above me while I lay still on my bed. I thanked the unknown, who had devised that machine. Thereafter I started wondering how everyday products came into being and whished; someday I would be a creator of products too.

After graduating as an electrical engineer I have worked as a journalist, been a cartoonist… designed sets for food festivals until I donned the ‘industrial sculptor’ avatar!

Where do you feel you get the most inspiration for your designs? Travel, Life, Family, TV, etc.

Everyday products, they are so numerous and ubiquitous. They form the material framework of our existence, enabling it to function, not only in practical or utilitarian terms, but also in ways that give pleasure, meaning and significance to our lives.

But why do not we notice them?

Most of us travel by the same route everyday, do similar tasks everyday, go to same places and although we are awake and seeing things around us we are not actually looking at them consciously. Hence, such products are frequently taken for granted.

Design, to my understanding, is all about having an eye for such details and bringing back life to mundane objects.

I am inspired by people's behavior and experience — physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural. I am trying to kill elitism in design and bring the best to the maximum number of people. Raise the quality! Down the price!

Tell us how you describe your design style?

I believe in voluntary simplicity. It is about freedom. It is about wanting less. It permits one to spend less time on innovating features (which land up adding clutter) and more time bringing in new experiences, insights, and relationships between the product and the user. It is rather difficult to say much about my approach towards design, but I have a fascination for monolithic, mono-colored ‘organo-mathematic’ forms and whatever needs I have felt and observed I have tried to translate them into products.

My knack for infusing everyday objects with poetry helps me create products with alluring beauty and their delirious charm keeps the user not only using it but it also make it an integral part of his daily life.

Most of my works are like pieces of sculpture impregnated with utility which are manifested by manufacturing / production aids, hence I like to call myself an industrial sculptor.

What do you think is the worst mass produced product?

I think any weapon which causes mass destruction.

What has been the hardest part about being a product designer? What has been the easiest?

The hardest and the easiest part has been convincing Indian manufacturers, the importance of design.

Who are your favourite designers currently?

I have always admired the sensibility of S+ARCK and the style of Karim Rashid.

You are grown to the size of the empire state building and mass

is increased in proportion so you are your original density. Your muscle mass

is increased to that of Hercules (10 times a regular man) which compliments

your massive size. A massive flaming asteroid is on a collision course with

Earth, what do you do?

Play cricket!

How many designers does it take to change a light bulb?

None…coz changing a bulb needs common sense…which is mostly uncommon.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Coz KFC was across the road.

If zombies were to attack where would be the safest place to

hide?

By their side.

Paul has got himself a great portfolio going on Coroflot if anyone wants check it out. We have a couple of the examples below.

Tapeworm

Tapeworm is an adhesive tape dispenser clinging onto the tape itself! Due to the high yeild strength of the material used to construct it, tapeworm returns back to its original flat shape despite significant bending or twisting, thus making it easy to stack.

Material: Stainless 'sprin' steel

Finish: Rubber coated

Poke

An unusual connection between an abnormal human tendency and the physical structure of a spiny pig + an urge to push my mental faculty resulted in the conception of POKE'.
Imagine a masochistic porcupine!

Product: Pin holder

Material : Grip Foam

The Hector Silva Interview

2009-04-22T17:52:00.016-04:00

Hey Everyone,

We got a great series of interviews lined up in the next few weeks along with some great products. We found Hector Silva's profile on Coroflot www.coroflot.com/hsilva2. I could say much more about him, but I'll leave that for our interview with him below. Check it out.

Hector Silva

Tell me a bit about your background. The whole life story bit.

"Well first off my name is Hector Silva and I am from Chicago, IL. I went to Curie Performing Arts High School by Midway Airport, and then later attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which I will graduate from soon in May. I am one of six in my family and somewhere fall in the middle (3). Having a big family is great; I definitely developed thick skin, competitiveness, self motivation and self initiation of projects. Attending UIUC was the best experience as an undergrad in the Industrial Design Program; I met so many great people, talented designers and was inspired by one of my favorite professors, Alex Fekete. I also began hanging out with a group of great young talented IDer's that have grown up and become very mature sophisticated problem solvers, or designer’s haha. I then received a break from a great designer and 'teacher' Jamie MacBain who gave me an opportunity to show and develop my talent at RC2 Learning Curve in the summer of 2008. This toy design internship was the best as far as learning, school will educate you 20% about the design industry and 80% comes from real world experience. This was one of my proudest achievements so far. I always try to do my best to help students and underclassmen with whatever they need, because I was once in their situation. This is why I am always active in the Coroflot community. Failure is not an option; I will never give up because if I do, I have failed."

When did you decide to design products and why?

"I first began to have an interest in Industrial Design in high school when I took sculpture. I would make these cool toys from wood and paper mache, and I loved making them but I had no clue I can actually make this hobby into a career. My sculpture teacher Alex Gordon later told me...and I was like AWESOME. Another big influence was the heavy presence of toys I had growing up from GIJOE's to Transformers, X-Men and He Man, very good influence from my older brothers. This is how I got into toys...and never looked back. Every project I have done at UIUC I have transformed it into a toy project, that’s how passionate I am about toys!"

Where do you feel you get the most inspiration for your designs?

"My inspiration comes from two places, my family and other toy designers. Working at RC2 Learning Curve gave me exposure to how toy designers work, think, draw, brainstorm; I was then exposed to other toy designers from other schools at IDSA Midwest Conferences. Inspiration comes easy from family; I have two younger brothers, a nephew and niece who are always playing with toys..."

Tell us how you describe your design style in a few sentences?

"Haha, I don't know if I have a design style, but I guess I would describe it as 'childish, fun and developing'. The reason is I love to draw and design; I always want to make things very childish because of obvious reasons, designing for children. Fun, well, I'm doing this for the rest of my life, I want it to be FUN! And developing because I am constantly learning and developing my designs."

What do you think is the worst mass produced product and why?

"This is a hard question; I don't want to be hated by people who disagree with me, haha. I can give you my most disliked product? I really hated the die cast Yellow Mighty Tonka Diesel Dump toy truck. As a child playing with this ten pound toy, my fingers were always hurting because they would get caught on the hinge...the truck in general is not child safe, it was so heavy and if that toy fell on your foot, OUCH! I really didn't like it; now it's all plastic and lightweight."

What are your plans for the future?

"My plans for the future are to get a job as a toy designer...for any toy company. I am working very hard to make this happen!"

What has been the hardest part about being a starting product designer? What has been the easiest?

"The hardest part keeping pace with the rest of the talented designers out there. There is always something someone else knows and you don't, there is always a software to learn...basically being the best so that you are more versatile and diverse. The easiest for me would be...."

Who are your favourite designers currently?

"My favorite designers right now: Yves Behar, Ross Lovegrove, Jonathan Ive and Carl Liu."

"I would grip the asteroid and throw it towards the sun. Hopefully no damage is done."

How many designers does it take to change a light bulb? Elaborate.

"I believe it takes three. One to get a chair and hold it, second one to stand on the chair and change the bulb, and the third one to direct the one changing the bulb. HAHA!"

Why did the chicken cross the road?

"The chicken crossed the road to poop."

If zombies were to attack where would be the safest place to hide?

"The safest place to hide would be in your attic as long as you destroyed the stairs to the attic. You must have the following: A simple weapon like a bat, you should also have rope and a bicycle wouldn't hurt. Think sustainable!"

Tilt n' Play

Children need to be exposed to toys that will help them develop basic skills that are required from ages 2-4. Many toys in the market are well designed but lack interactive components that will educate and help learn basic numbers, letters, develop sensory skills, motor skills and hand-eye coordination at once. Many toys are ten minute ‘teasers’ that are expensive and eventually does not attract the child to learn and have fun! This toy will help develop children basic skills by different stages: music mode, education mode and creative mode. This toy is also icon driven so it tells the child when it's on, off, sleeping, when it wants to play a game!

Online!

2009-04-05T21:42:00.002-04:00

Hello Everyone,

We've finally made the move over to blogger. As our description says, we will be sourcing and promoting some of the best designs yet to be manufactured.

Expect some feature interview with up and coming designers who are helping to redefine our built environment.

J

New Blog!

2009-03-15T15:48:00.000-04:00

We've just moved over to Blogger to host our blog going forward. We will be posting much more engaging and interactive topics...hope to hear from all of you about our posts.