Thursday, December 13, 2007

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Christmas gift?


How cool is this? Maybe for the hard to buy for relative? Some neat things on the website, too....


Monday, December 10, 2007

Euro-Sweet!



Cool thin set ceramic material that is available in large sheets.





Thursday, November 29, 2007

twoxfour.net

check out:

http://twoxfour.net/

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Caution!




Remember, what may seem hip today, may not survive the test of time. See more examples at the link below.


Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Screw that Civic Hybrid!

Powertrain engineering firm Quantum Technologies and Fisker Coachbuild are co-developing a four-door plug-in hybrid sedan. The new car will make its debut at the Detroit auto show in January wearing an $80,000 sticker. First deliveries will be in the fourth quarter of 2009 with annual production projected at 15,000 cars.

Fisker is claiming the car will go 50 miles on a single charge, and a whopping 620 miles using the engine. Fisker says the car will get 100 mpg.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

For us visual geeks


The Visual Thesaurus is out there. It is an amazing tool, well worth checking it out.


Friday, October 26, 2007

It's a bird.......

....it's the Biplane. Suzuki introduced this concept motorcycle
at the Tokyo autoshow. Pure hotness. Check out the
custom tread pattern on the tire.





Wednesday, October 24, 2007



Sony to Release First Energy-Efficient OLED TV in December
Categories:
At Home, Future Tech, News and Events
Tags:
OLED, Sony, television

A few weeks ago, we mentioned OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TVs as being the future of green television. (A brief review: unlike LCD screens, OLEDs don't need to be backlit--hence, they're thinner, use fewer parts in manufacturing, and can reduce power consumption by a power of four. Also, you've seen them before--in your cell phone).
And... they're almost here. Sony has announced that it will release its first OLED model in December (thanks to Engadget for the tip).
Unfortunately, the December release is only for Japan; the U.S. will have to wait another few months. But it's worth waiting for: an 11-inch screen that is 3 mm thin and with a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1.
The price? No info just yet, but I'd expect it to be between $800 to $1,000. Fortunately, I'd also expect it to come down fast in the next year or so.
Interestingly, Sony just won an eco award for its energy-efficient, 40-inch Bravia LCD TV. So if you want a green TV that's bigger than 11 inches and available now, check it out. Sony is apparently the go-to company for green TVs.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Million dollar Origami

I found a couple interesting projects that support the origami concepts we've been discussing.

The Tea House in the Netherlands



Theatre Agora in The Netherlands



I found a couple interesting projects that support the origami concepts we've been discussing.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

HERITAGE IN PROGRESS


Elric Petit, Augustin Scott de Martinville and GrĂ©goire Jeanmonod met at ECAL, in Lausanne. Respectively Belgian, French and Swiss, they developed a common approach and soon they formed a close team. Big-Game was created in June 2004.For “HERITAGE IN PROGRESS”, their first collection presented at the Milan Furniture Fair in 2005, Big-Game are confronting two radically opposed notions: heritage and contemporary lifestyle.While heritage places the object in the continuum of time, the current consensus regarding speed goes against any kind of continuity. How are we to confront our mobility and so-called “zapping culture” with cultural references passed down to us? Heritage can be the heads of animals we didn’t hunt, the tables too heavy to be moved and the centre lights you just can’t remove the dust from. Humour and distance are to be found in HERITAGE IN PROGRESS as much as technical and economic realism. The objects displayed are thought out for industrial mass production.

fridge magnet


OK, you like a nice cold beer every once in a while – like every other night. And obviously you prefer a good microbrew over a Bud – or maybe you don’t – taste varies. In any case, you need to open the bottle somehow.Yes we are aware of twist off caps, but what if you do like microbrews? Or prefer Coke in a bottle? Unless your hand is a wrench, you won't get to far…Why not consider this elegant piece of work from the good guys over at Suck UK?

interactive light show


Module based system buildt with LED technology enables possibilities for creating huge architectural interactive lightning systems that instantly reacts on any movement from by-passers.A person will instantly create a mirroring light, as a pixelated glowing shadow, the opposite experience of ordinary light. Bringing a short instant greatness for the playful.

yes... it's McDonalds


Monday, October 8, 2007

1 more











some paintings i finished this weekend

Monday, October 1, 2007

Dantastic!

Just thought we needed to go ahead with the visuals for ai3 Mallorca






This pershing 90 will make the perfect home for our new Spain based residential practice. ai3 Mallorca is slated to Launch in April '08


Monday, August 27, 2007

Six Principles of Sticky Ideas

PRINCIPLE 1: SIMPLICITY

How do we find the essential core of our ideas? A successful defense lawyer says, "If you argue ten points, even if each is a good point, when they get back to the jury room they won't remember any." To strip an idea down to its core, we must be masters of exclusion. We must relentlessly prioritize. Saying something short is not the mission — sound bites are not the ideal. Proverbs are the ideal. We must create ideas that are both simple and profound. The Golden Rule is the ultimate model of simplicity: a one-sentence statement so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime learning to follow it.

PRINCIPLE 2: UNEXPECTEDNESS

How do we get our audience to pay attention to our ideas, and how do we maintain their interest when we need time to get the ideas across? We need to violate people's expectations. We need to be counterintuitive. A bag of popcorn is as unhealthy as a whole day's worth of fatty foods! We can use surprise — an emotion whose function is to increase alertness and cause focus — to grab people's attention. But surprise doesn't last. For our idea to endure, we must generate interest and curiosity. How do you keep students engaged during the fortyeighth history class of the year? We can engage people's curiosity over a long period of time by systematically "opening gaps" in their knowledge — and then filling those gaps.

PRINCIPLE 3: CONCRETENESS

How do we make our ideas clear? We must explain our ideas in terms of human actions, in terms of sensory information. This is where so much business communication goes awry. Mission statements, synergies, strategies, visions — they are often ambiguous to the point of being meaningless. Naturally sticky ideas are full of concrete images — ice-filled bathtubs, apples with razors — because our brains are wired to remember concrete data. In proverbs, abstract truths are often encoded in concrete language: "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush." Speaking concretely is the only way to ensure that our idea will mean the same thing to everyone in our audience.

PRINCIPLE 4: CREDIBILITY

How do we make people believe our ideas? When the former surgeon general C. Everett Koop talks about a public-health issue, most people accept his ideas without skepticism. But in most day-to-day situations we don't enjoy this authority. Sticky ideas have to carry their own credentials. We need ways to help people test our ideas for themselves — a "try before you buy" philosophy for the world of ideas. When we're trying to build a case for something, most of us instinctively grasp for hard numbers. But in many cases this is exactly the wrong approach. In the sole U.S. presidential debate in 1980 between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, Reagan could have cited innumerable statistics demonstrating the sluggishness of the economy. Instead, he asked a simple question that allowed voters to test for themselves: "Before you vote, ask yourself if you are better off today than you were four years ago."

PRINCIPLE 5: EMOTIONS

How do we get people to care about our ideas? We make them feel something. In the case of movie popcorn, we make them feel disgusted by its unhealthiness. The statistic "37 grams" doesn't elicit any emotions. Research shows that people are more likely to make a charitable gift to a single needy individual than to an entire impoverished region. We are wired to feel things for people, not for abstractions. Sometimes the hard part is finding the right emotion to harness. For instance, it's difficult to get teenagers to quit smoking by instilling in them a fear of the consequences, but it's easier to get them to quit by tapping into their resentment of the duplicity of Big Tobacco.

PRINCIPLE 6: STORIES

How do we get people to act on our ideas? We tell stories. Firefighters naturally swap stories after every fire, and by doing so they multiply their experience; after years of hearing stories, they have a richer, more complete mental catalog of critical situations they might confront during a fire and the appropriate responses to those situations. Research shows that mentally rehearsing a situation helps us perform better when we encounter that situation in the physical environment. Similarly, hearing stories acts as a kind of mental flight simulator, preparing us to respond more quickly and effectively.

IDEAS

We, as desingers, are in the business of ideas.
We need to constantly be honing our skills at
presenting an idea so that it can be easily understood
and accepted.

So...what makes an IDEA "Stick" watch this video and see a little more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkntPrREjCA

If you still want more, you can borrow it when I'm finished...

http://www.madetostick.com/thebook/index.php

Spatial Art



Patrick and I had an interesting conversation with my friend, Danielle Roney, Friday who makes a living as an installation artist. Currently, she operates a studio in Bejing, China and one here in Atlanta (Chandler Smith Warehouses). We were suprised at the level of technology integrated into here work in addition to strong conceptual foundations. When she's not bouncing ultrasound wave off of bent mirrored acrylic (see below), she consults with multiple cities regarding public art including Atlanta's Beltline project.

If interested, learn more at....
http://www.danielleroney.com/

Friday, August 17, 2007

If The Shoe Fits

Abbadabba's is well under construction and is set to open by end of August. Dave and I stopped by for a quick site visit to observe the construction and see how things were progressing.

Griffin has done a great job with implementing the design intent and looks to have everything well under control.









Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Cool spot if you're ever in Beirut


Hand-bent cold-cathode tubes wrap the all-white Waterlemon restaurant in syncopated illuminated stripes, while directional halogen accent lights extend from slots to highlight the tables.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

CYOR Day 5 - NYC



































Wow, what a day.....

Jennifer and I were in Tribeca at 9:30 to interview Gigi Chang who started a company called Plum Organics. Great lady with a ton of energy. She actually shares space with Ray20 a design firm with a great modern furniture collection.

After Gigi's interview we met up with Jen Mar and Carolyn Kepcher (of The Apprentice fame) for lunch. They are both great people and Jennifer really connected with them. They have recently started a company called Carolyn & Co.

This afternoon we sat down with Robin Wilson, founder of Robin Wilson Home. She is a excellent contact for us (ai3) and a great advocate for sustainable practices.

After Robin's interview The New York Post interviewed us for a section on Careers and Entrepreneurs that prints in Monday's edition. We took a ton of pictures in and "on" the airstream. Should be fun to see what they print.

This has been an amazing adventure with still more to come.

Monday, July 23, 2007

CYOR Day 3








































After a nice weekend with the family in Raleigh, we took project CYOR to Washington DC yesterday. Jennifer and I made our way to Annapolis for dinner and witnessed one of the most incredible sunsets. This morning we jumped the Metro along with a few hundred thousand other commuters to downtown to interview Ada Polla a young entrepreneur who has launched a high end skin care product line. She has an amazing amount of energy and was a great interview.

We set out for the New Jersey shore around 2pm, made a short stop for steamed shrimp and beer on the Chesapeake Bay and rolled into Bayville around 7 this evening.

Jennifer has an interview set for 11 tomorrow in Red Bank, NJ and then we plan to take the AS onto Manhattan tomorrow evening.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

New York Gets Decent Street Furniture


















Apartment Therapy notes that new bus stops and news stands are popping up all over New York. Cemusa, a Spanish outdoor firm, is installing the first of 3500 bus shelters, 330 news stands, and 20 public toilets in a billion dollar contract that is the culmination of a process that started in 2002. They are designed by Nicholas Grimshaw Architects, made from "95% recyclable materials" and are not yet scratchittied into eyesores like Toronto's,.
Well designed amenities like bus stops and news stands make the public spaces more comfortable (certainly a clean public washroom does) and public services like transit easier to use. Too bad the price is always more advertising in the public realm.


Grimshaw even makes a public toilet look good. They are the jazzy new kind that are self cleaning:
"These state-of-the-art facilities offer comfort, hygiene, accessibility, and security to the public, within a modern design. Designed to self-sanitize after each use, the APTs will also be serviced twice a day for inspection and system maintenance, affording the people of New York a safe and valuable convenience."
::Apartment Therapy