insight

Research is important, but experience is necessary.

My portfolio is finally finished. Please, take a look and enjoy!
www.carmenliu.com

http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20070518/without-thought

http://www.creativeboysclub.com/naoto-fukasawa-box-without-thought

Match, Form Us With Love, so witty!

Life advice

In the style of Calvin and Hobbes, an inspirational quote from Bill Watherson, illustrated by Gavin Aung Than.  I clipped it, but do click through for the full strip. here

The quote in full is:

Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential — as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth.   

You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them.   

To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.

This quote used is from a graduation speech Watterson gave at his alma mater, Kenyon College, in 1990.

Work hard friends, don't give up yet!

wouldn't that be fun. Like an advent calendar, I'd probably finish popping all 365 days before the year is out.
via

simple event instructions for Festival of Ideas for the City in NY May 2011 via Michael Babwahsingh

Judy Kaufmann

Andrew Rae

Malgorzata Gurowska

more great posters here

Molecule bowl, bo concept, collapsible? 

Wicker, by Cecilie Manz Ceramic plastic

Concrete Jungle, Jonas Bohlin

tea chair, sancal, link

Fresh stats!

More here about the recognition of industrial designers. It's nice that now they see that we too, are an important part of the team. This is why we lose designers in Canada going to the $tates. That and they can support companies like IDEO. However, on the flip-side, living in Canada is pretty not-so-bad.

There are more than 40,000 industrial designers in the United States. Most salaried industrial designers work in two sectors, manufacturing (11,730 workers) and professional, scientific, and technical services (7,570 workers). While fewer in number than other design workers (such as graphic designers or interior designers), industrial designers have higher salaries. In 2012, the annual median wage of industrial designers was $59,610

Although, on a different note, I am surprised, at the fact that the sectors that they found industrial designers in, are so... last century and traditional. I feel like today, we cover a broader set of industries. Either that, or I am too optimistic about the versatility and the usefulness of a designer in almost every industry.

http://www.arts.gov/news/news13/Industrial-Design-Report.html

lamp form

Spooky action at a distance

I read an article about Einstein's theory about quantum entanglement and what he calls "spooky action at a distance" where two atoms are are in sync no matter if they were next to each other or across the world, and the change in one particle could change the properties of the other particle it was in sync with no matter how far away it was.

I'm not too sure I understood it entirely, but I enjoy that there is room for randomness and 'spontaneity' in science and that the world still remains a mystery.

read it here:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~yikes/spooky_action.html

Congratulations Industrial Designers of America!

You have been finally recognized!

I'm happy to hear that the role of the industrial designer is being officially acknowledged, and that it's not as an individual role but a very useful and supportive role. Go team!

I also agree on that note about ID and innovation being tied to manufacturing, and I think that is one of the reasons why Canada is so slow when it comes to design.

Supporting American Manufacturing with Industrial Design

... Industrial designers develop the concepts for manufactured products such as cars, robots, home and electronic appliances, sporting goods, toys, and more. Working in a range of industries, these creative individuals combine the principles of art, business, and engineering to design and improve upon products and systems so they don’t just work but rather work with the people using them. ...

... In short, industrial design innovation is most effective and efficient when coupled with intimate knowledge of and influence over the manufacturing process, and vice versa. Separating the two processes of design and manufacturing—through the often-short-sighted model of design at home but manufacture abroad—can interrupt this iterative feedback process and slow the development of next-generation innovations. 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/08/22/supporting-american-manufacturing-industrial-design