Michael Alvisse @ Powerhouse

We went to the Powerhouse Museum yesterday, and were just in time for a talk from Michael Alvisse (Schamburg + Alvisse) about eco-sustainable design. He talked about how he started in his small company and how they still only have 6 people, but are making quite a difference, with relationships with major corporations and international success. Their main focus is to use materials and manufacturing that does not harm the environment in any way and protecting the people who live around the forests where deforestation occurs. He is about leading by example and by following his values and not being influenced by the big retailers.

We were all SOOOOOO impressed with his talk, as he was so inspirational and encouraging. It was only around half an hour long but he left a huge impression on us.
Here he is with his work, and Schamburg, his partner!

tee hee
Found this article about them... although it is not in English, his work can be seen


This was at the place where he talked to us about..hanging over the table. Laser cut spirals.
The table and chairs were made from recyclable materials
Super comforable chair by Arthur Koutoulas!!!! The grey part is foam, brown is corrugated cardboard.

Fast biodegradable coffin -> what about those metal handles? but quite clever, very creepy
yay!

mmmmmmmmmmm.....cardboard jordans

Coffee Culture

Anyone who knows me will know that i luvvvv coffee, so i was totally stocked when I saw this from Designboom, from Shenkar College of Engineering an Design. They looked at the culture of coffee and the rituals involved with it, like the pouring of the coffee and how its a sociable thing.

c8- h10- n4- o2 by gilad davidi

This one is my favourite. Absolutely no idea how they made it though. It's about the molecule shapes. No one ever looks at the sugar stirrer but its good how they made this one not disposable and match the glasses. Huge contrast between the clear glass and the dark espresso.

tea= time by erez bar am

This student designed the sugar to slowly dissolve. The three balls are connected and they will slowly disintegrate and dissolve, to remind the user to take their time. However, this is impractical because the tea/coffee would probably get cold by the time the sugar dissolves.

Saturday in Design

We went to Saturday in Design yesterday and it was really impressive. I thought it would be more like last year's design week, where a couple of exhibitions were set up around set up around sydney, but this was more interactive, where people would tell us about the designs. I think they were trying to get their stuff out there more, with important looking investors rocking up in BMWs and whatnot in suits and ties, sipping champagne going round to the different places. Also heaps of designers and students and people just interested in design from the general public were there. Met an economist on the shuttle bus who was going round to all the places, super enthusiastic.

First stop - a design shop selling furniture and lights and some other stuff. This light looks heaps organic and the material is going all one direction but inside it's all different directions so that it will hold in place around the thin metal frame. There was a live artist painting some stuff on the windows. Forgot to take a photo but was heaps cool.

Lights. Buying just one of them to hang above your dining table would look a bit empty.....so buy all of the above! i think its made out of some kind of paper?

If only I brought a camera with a macro function. GAR! ended up using my camera phone.

(stole this pic from Jenny - Thanks!)

This was a mini chair competition, where they were supplied two Chandon Sparkling corks. Would have been really tedious working with corks, carving and sanding to create tiny chairs, but it looked awesome with so many entries all lined up next to each other.

Use of cork wrapper --> INSANE weaving.

(pic from Jen)

are those swirly thingys from the foil?

Perforated metal. Looks origami paper/cardboard-ish. Bends at dotted lines. Very subtle, soft lighting, compared to other lighting with exposed light-bulbs.

Looks kind of.....huggable....

Chairs n lights! Musta been hard to get up there! They took the light in the background with the light bulbs spiraling downwards and put it in the centre of this upside chair installation.

This reminds me of something, cant put my finger on it. hmmmmmmm....

From far away it looks like a comfy black rug but its actually bark bits!! the stuff they put in pot plants and parks! They had a whole colour coordination thing in this furniture place, everything had that tiny bit of teal blue. i like the textile on the chair on the right.

If i got into this bath tub i wouldn't be able to get out fo sho. SO COMFY LOOKING!

This bathtub has some kind of aromatherapy thing. Changes lights, pinks greens blues. I don't know the point of changing lights though, would be very distracting in a bath..or maybe it would be better with bubbles.

I've seen someone do this with a shopping trolley in randwick...chuck the trolley high up in a tree..maybe they got their inspiration from there. Looks quite whimsical.

I saw these leaves on YANKO!!!!! LOVE IT! each leaf is a separate piece, and those thin long things are the connecting piece, and they click together kinda like lego. All plastic. If you grab one leaf the whole wall of leaves will move.

<3

Don't think you can see it properly from the photo, but its got tiny holes in each leaf.

Looks quite structural but i'd be scared of snapping the entire chair with my weight. Won a design award though

a true industrial designer sticks his head under chairs and tables (Kevin)

Inspired by brail? wonder if it says anything

cute little chair boxes

Nowonder its called planeX...storage systems...

This thing opens up and then you press some buttons for the table to fold down.
WHOA!! kinda like a disco light ...very in yo face...futuristic? or retro?

(pic from Jen)

the white one looks much better though

Looks a bit cardboardy...

GENIUS! <3

At first glance it looks like all the light-bulbs are lit up.

Market the chairs as artistic designery ... feel like climbing to the top

Held together with pop rivets!! but still looks flawless

twistyyyyyy...what is it for? i think its just an ornament.. or maybe a light?

From far away it looks like plastic, but it is actually fabric...one tiny hook into the fabric and the whole chair is rewened! I'm guessing there is a weight limit to this. You sink into the fabric between the frame and get a floating sensation because none of the frame is touching you..your just kind of suspended..

SUUUUPER smooth...looks like there's just one sink hole without the dip in the surface for the sink! mmmm...

LED

(pic from Jenny)
whats cool was how they displayed all the lights! all on these cardboard boxes. Looks more friendly and approachable.

pyd. if only we had business cards. hai.

Treasuring TIme

I was aiming to capture short moments in time that don't last very long, such as free falling and parachuting. These moments are so short lived, yet people value that time in the air because of that excitement and adrenaline rush. I have designed a different way of capturing a memory from this activity. As the target market are probably outgoing people, they could want a fun way of capturing these moments, besides photographs.

The target market of this product is people who sky dive. It is clamped to the user's parachute strap, near to their shoulder, after their parachute has expanded and they are floating down to earth. And then the trigger is pressed with one hand, which then releases squirts of paint that would project onto the top of the roof of the parachute. After a jump, a pattern of paint patterns, (maybe similar to the style of Jackson Pollock) would be left. It allows the user to create an art work without having any art experience necessary, only maybe some sky diving lessons would be useful. As parachutes eventually need to be replaced, instead of disposing of the remains of the parachute, it could possibly be framed, or a portion of the parachute could be framed, allowing the user to look back on the art piece to be brought back memories of each jump.

Task 4: Bad Design, Navman GPS

When pressing a letter, sometimes it'll select another letter on the screen. For example, if I press on H, sometimes it will show that I pressed G instead. This could be because the letters on the screen are too small, or my fingers are too fat, or simply because the touch screen navigation is not accurate enough.

This holds the computer to the front screen and is adjustable. The A in the first image is slotted into the A in the second image. Same for B. It supplies the batteries to the device. The problem with the design is that when trying to remove the device from its stand, alot of force is used, which results in the user applying so much force that the device hits the glass window or fingers are crushed against the glass. This is dangerous and could damage the product.

My suggestion for the first problem is to implement a surface acoustic wave for the touchscreen monitor if not already chosen for the touch screen navigation system. It works by having transducers and reflectorsat the x and y axis of the screen, and when there is a touch at the glass, waves are absobed, causing a touch to be detected. This would allow a high touch resolution and also allow the highest clarity for the images behind the glass. I thought about introducing a stylus but that would easily be lost, or would cause to be too time consuming and fiddly to take out and store, considering if someone is on the road, they would want navigations fast.

For the second problem, of removing the device from it's stand, I would suggest, instead of removing the device upwards, it should be pulled out towards the user. I changed the port and the slot in piece, labelled A and B in the above images, so that they are horizontal, and so the wire comes out from the back of the device instead of from the bottom. I kept these lower to the stand, so as not to change up the inside of the device too much. This way, when removing the device from its stand, the user can push against the stand, in order for the device to slip away from the stand easier. Also, they can use two hand to do this, allowing more control.