The Donut Project

I was motivated to write this blog entry because I stumbled upon the above video of a robot created four years ago by a German company called Festo. Four years ago?! The first thing that crossed my mind was, What the hell is this thing, and why isn’t it delivering my pizza already?
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There is a really cool Op-Art from The New York Times this week, showing the ‘other’ 1% of Americans. From being in the military, to completing Sudoku, we’re all seeming in some 1%.

It’s pretty big, so check out the full size version on nytimes.com.

See the smallish version

This incredible video was created by Hornet Inc., and will be screened at the Pictoplasma 2012 Berlin conference held in April.

I have to admit, I love Pictoplasma. I have been buying Characters in Motion ever since I watched the first DVD in a time and sequence class years ago. Animators are a special bunch of people who do a hell of a lot of tedious work, usually as a labor of love.

While the world that was created in The Master’s Voice may be gritty and dusty, the rendering of the animation is flawless. I can’t wait to see where this is going!

Are you in need of some inspiration to get that side-project off the ground? I first came across the efforts of Tim Hoover and Jess Karle Heltzel through Kickstarter and their successfully funded campaign for Kern and Burn, an online and print publication celebrating those who’ve championed design entrepreneurship.

“Kern and Burn invites design entrepreneurs—those who pursue self-initiated projects, to think for themselves, and channel passions into self-made careers—to share their perspectives. They are designers who dream big and burn the midnight oil to forge their own paths.”

100 Days of Design Entrepreneurship is a collection of essays and interviews covering some of the creative industry’s biggest game-changing people and projects — Wilson Minor, Jessica Hische, Mikey Burton, and the Designer Fund just to name a few. And they’re only on day 86, which means there’s still more inspiration to come.

PS. I can’t wait to write a post about my copy Kern and Burn!

Chuck Jones effortlessly drawing a childhood icon. From the movie Chuck Amuck.

(via SvN)

To be honest, the work of Jonathan Ive is the main reason I became a designer. A few weeks back, The London Evening Standard did a nice piece on the newly-knighted industrial designer. Here are some highlights from the article:

What makes a great designer?

It is so important to be light on your feet, inquisitive and interested in being wrong. You have that wonderful fascination with the what if questions, but you also need absolute focus and a keen insight into the context and what is important – that is really terribly important. Its about contradictions you have to navigate.

When you are coming up with product ideas such as the iPod, do you try to solve a problem?

There are different approaches – sometimes things can irritate you so you become aware of a problem, which is a very pragmatic approach and the least challenging.

What is more difficult is when you are intrigued by an opportunity. That, I think, really exercises the skills of a designer. It’s not a problem you’re aware of, nobody has articulated a need. But you start asking questions, what if we do this, combine it with that, would that be useful? This creates opportunities that could replace entire categories of device, rather than tactically responding to an individual problem. That’s the real challenge, and that’s what is exciting.

Is it easy to get sidetracked by tiny details on a project?

When you’re trying to solve a problem on a new product type, you become completely focused on problems that seem a number of steps removed from the main product. That problem solving can appear a little abstract, and it is easy to lose sight of the product. I think that is where having years and years of experience gives you that confidence that if you keep pushing, you’ll get there.

Do consumers really care about good design?

One of the things we’ve really learnt over the last 20 years is that while people would often struggle to articulate why they like something – as consumers we are incredibly discerning, we sense where has been great care in the design, and when there is cynicism and greed. It’s one of the thing we’ve found really encouraging.

In a world of mass production and immediate gratification, there’s something so appealing about people who put their time and energy into crafting things by hand. A couple of months ago I stumbled upon this film series, which celebrates those craftsmen and their work.

The Beekeeper is the third video in the series and even after multiple views it never ceases to amaze me. The shots are perfectly composed and their use of light is beautiful. On top of that, the stories are inspiring.

Be sure to check out all of the other videos in the series. By the way, I’m Todd.

I would like to introduce you to Bryce Wilner. He’s friend of mine living in Chicago, but originally from Virginia (by way of South Carolina). And he’s one of the most visionary young people I have ever met.

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