An Aside - Electric Literature

Electric Literature is a quarterly literary magazine that revitalizes the short story by making each issue available in whatever form of media the reader desires: paper, Kindle, e-book, iPhone, and soon audiobook. Using their Twitter, writer Rick Moody will tweet an entire story in a few days. There was also a collaboration between authors, visual artists, and musicians creating Youtube videos inspired by a single sentence in selected stories.

Electric Literature was created by Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum, writers who met at Brooklyn College's M.F.A. program in 2006. Check out NYTimes full story.

The animated videos were created as part of the first issue.

An Aside - KickStarter.com

Last week I had the opportunity to sit in on a CMJ Music Marathon panel about "Being Your Own Label". One of the panelists was Yancey Stickler, the Cofounder of Kickstarter, a "funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers..." The site gives an opportunity for people to present their ideas while giving others the chance to fund these projects. Ideas are first submitted and approved by the site creators. The projects vary from books, art projects, films, design, activism, and music.

Among these projects is the Designing Obama text I talked about a few weeks ago.

Another interesting project that has reached success is Joseph Wain of NYC's Icons for iPhone apps. With 94 backers, he has met his goal of earning $500 and beyond, earning $1,820.

An Aside - GQ becomes iPhone app

The publisher of GQ, Conde Nast, is now among the first publishers to develop an entire magazine issue as an iPhone app. The December issue of GQ will be available as an iPhone app for $2.99. By doing this, Conde Nast is stating that they "must have a paid model" in future digital products and that other publishers have been "giving their applications away."

This is a model that could revolutionize the entire print publication world and further shows how far Apple, Inc. has come. Congrats on the 47% sales gain btw.

An Aside - Vancouverian Olympian - say it three times fast

The design of the Olympic medals for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 was just revealed with artwork by Corrie Hunt and designed by Omer Abel. The form of the medal itself was inspired by "ocean waves, drifting snow and moutainous landscapes found across Canada>" (Design Boom) The medals were based off of a large artwork of an Orca whale. Each medal depicts a section of the artwork. Each medalist will be presented with a silk-screened scarf of the original artwork along with their medal, seeing how their medal is connected to all the other athletes in the Olympic Games.

This is the back.....

This is the front...

An Aside - Too Far?

An Apple Inc.'s iPhone owner could say that the iPhone is multifunctional to the point where their daily life is simpler and certain responsibilities require far less attention. Like driving, a daily responsibility that the iPhone takes care of - WHAT?

Welcome to the iDriver - the iPhone remote controlled car. The app that allows you to do so is still under collaboration with the Spirit of Berlin Team at Freie Universitat Berlin (German university robotics team who designed the remote controlled mini van) and Appirion who created the app. Check out the video below.

I do love the iPhone as being the multi-purpose personal tool that will change civilization as we know it - but is this a little too far? What if the iPhone battery dies during a long road trip?

An Aside - Rugged Radio

It's an adorable yet RUGGED RADIO. Here we have a "green" radio from
Solène le Goff and Christophe Gouache. On the top is a thin solar panel - therefore, no batteries or electrical wires needed. The Radio Log is 80% wood and the other 20% is only comprised of components necessary to make the radio work. The "buttons" are the drilled holes on the lower right. Clever and cute. I'm a fan.

An Aside - Color Lovers Part 2

Talk about saving a project for a rainy day. Rachel Berger pulled out a paint chip every day for 100 days and wrote a description for it. She posted her favorite 40 here. Here are three examples:


07 Lipstick
What's the difference between Sarah Palin and the next vice president of the United States? Lipstick.

48 Moss Landing
Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion opens with a description of the frightening, dripping, verdancy of Oregon. It continues for many pages, and it's all true. In Portland, moss grows on the roofs of the houses, ferns sprout from cracks in the sidewalk, even the best maintained streets and buildings are prone to sliding around during the dark wet winter. One time in college, I came home for a holiday, and there were huge gray mushrooms growing out of my bedroom carpet.

57 Cool Melon
Only three times in its hundred-year history has the Crayola company changed the name of a crayon. Prussian Blue became Midnight Blue in 1958 and Indian Red was renamed Chestnut in 1999, both in response to requests from educators. In 1962, the company voluntarily changed Flesh to Peach, partially in response to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.


An interesting way to show yet again how a single color can invoke a mood.

An Aside - Inorganic Flora

Here is some work from Japanese artist Macoto Murayama, who created a "new form of plant depiction that transcends accepted (common, usual) horizons of botanical illustration": inorganic flora. Using photography and botanical drawing, the overall effect is a technical look at what are always seen as organic living things.

An Aside - Do You Take Risks?

Seth Godin talked about risk taking on his blog. Is it better to take risks or play it safe? Smarter to avoid possible conflict or to take a chance? Godin says there is a difference between those who will only eat at restaurants that are Zagat rated and those who will walk into any venue, daringly so.

"When things get interesting is when the apparently risky is demonstrably [less safe] than the actually risky. That's when we sometimes become uncomfortable enough with our reliance on the apparent to focus on the actual. Think about that the next time they make you take off your shoes at the airport."

I do take risks - but it's based off of my tendency to act on impulse. The difference is that I usually have the common sense to cover my tracks beforehand.

An Aside - Color Lovers

Did you ever have a favorite childhood story? Ever needed to create a palette and lacked the inspiration? While at working searching for Wizard of Oz fans, I came across this entry on Colour Lovers about the color palette behind the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz printed in 1900.

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was an innovative book not least because of the twenty four full colour plates and myriad monochromatic illustrations in which the colour changed according to the location in the story (Kansas = grey, Emerald City = green and so on). With the illustrative vignettes often encroaching on the text area, the type was cleverly printed over the top of the coloured images" (BiblioOdyssey). (BiblioOdyssey is another great blog about illustrations in general)

It just shows that inspiration can come from anywhere. An illustration from 1900 can still be relevant to what you design today.

An Aside - Green Energy

Green Puzzle from Kalomix Limited, a product design and development company based in Hong Kong, is a roof green that also provides green energy for your house. Grass grows naturally from a green paid that has flexible solar panels, converting into solar energy. The natural grass naturally converts carbon dioxide into oxygen. And you get beautiful green surroundings in an urban environment...just like my indoor landscaping "product" Kasan. Win win.

An Aside - Inspiration from Relations

I have been inspired by my old family photographs for various art projects, normally paintings and sketches. Itay Laniado is inspired by his family photos too - for designer furniture. In the following examples we see a chair, a table, and a lamp.

I find family photos inspiring due to the emotional context. In Laniado's case, he has looked at these photos long enough to pick out different genetic shapes, receiving concept ideas for product development.

What do you think?

An Aside - A bad habit

As you can tell, I am a fan of reading. I like eating too. The two do not mix. There are spills, crumbs, terrible mishaps. Until...bam....Design Boom shares a design for a new kind of reading tray by London based designer Yu-Hun Kim. Now you can read and drink simultaneously!
However, after looking at the comments section, there are some issues:

1. you can't turn pages
2. you can't read under the cup
3. you are holding a tray and book with one hand - awkwardness
4. more of a solution for an invented problem
5. all in all - a waste of time and resources.
   

cute idea - but not for the practical world.

An Aside - Digital Reading

I've been reading a lot about e-books and "digital reading" and how it is turning the media and publishing industry upside down. While downloading reading material is seen as the ultimate convenience, some traditionalists are still fight for the comfort that comes with holding a book in your hands and turning the pages. Is there a way to bring both concepts together?

I bring you.... the Infinite-Book.

Designer Ewald Neuhofer came up with this digital book that allows you to flip pages, just as you would for anything traditional publication. For example, if you were reading the times, you can still have the experience of flipping through pages and disorganizing sections, as well as folding it in small quarters to toss on the breakfast table.

I'm not so sure if the whimsy of page turning is as necessary as practicality today.