CHARLES PERRETTI

Recycled Paper’s Beautiful New Future

The material has come a long way from brown paper bags, as this new lamp proves.

The new W101 lamp, designed by Swedish architecture and design firm Claesson Koivisto Rune, does away with gangly components in favor of a single molded form.

The origami-like lamp is made from Södra DuraPulp, a biodegradable material that consists of wood pulp from managed forests combined with corn starch-based plastic. Purportedly as durable and long-lasting as wood or metal, the material can be pressed into a hard, molded form.

The lamp is made from a single piece of DuraPulp, attached to a base containing electronics. CKR collaborated with Wästberg to develop a strategy for integrated electricity and light within the paper structure. The final solution uses LEDs, which are efficient and produce little heat.

Recycled Paper’s Beautiful New Future | Co.Design.

Levels of Sketching | Industrial Design Sketching and Drawing Tutorials

“I’ve met alot of designers in my limited experience that complain about the “sketchers”. Sometimes designers with an aptitude for sketching get labeled as being shallow or non-creative. However, I see sketching as a means to and ends rather than the end all. When all is said and done, regardless of how flashy the sketch may be or how killer it may look, the essence of why we sketch ideas as designers is seeded in effectively communicating those ideas to our clients. Sketching is our language of communication.”

Sometimes we sketch for fun, but most of the time when working, we sketch for clients or other designers. The sketches that go into your sketchbook are of a different quality than those you would show to your fellow designers in a review or to a client in a meeting, but both sketches have their uses nonetheless. Take this for example, you’re in a restaurant on a lunch break and something comes to mind. You quickly jot it down on a scraggly napkin so that you don’t forget the idea. That sketch too has its purpose. Although it could be the killer idea of a lifetime, the communication may be lacking from you to the client and may be more of a self communication tool.

So then what are the different types of sketches you ask? Well fortunately you are in the right place, at the right time, reading the right blog.

1. Personal Communication Sketches aka the Doodle:

These are the scraggliest of the scraggers. The dirtiest of the dirty. They sketches that tend to live in the sketchbook or on discarded pieces of paper. The purpose of doodling and sketching so roughly is for you the designer to work out the issues with form or function, but in a looser more empathic way. These sketches tend to be most present at the genesis of the product concept. For me, these are the doodles I do when preoccupied in thought on the bus or train as I try to fiddle around with new ideas or sketch techniques.

2. The Thinking Sketch:

Al little more focused and refined, these sketches are usually alot cleaner than the scraggly doodles you find in a sketchbook. You may find yourself showing these to other designers, so you can make certain assumptions as you sketch and use cues that your colleagues would pick up on suck as hatching and contour lines. Simple gestural sketches could also fall into this category. . .

3. The Technical Sketch

Designers bridge the gap between art and engineering. (you can decide for yourself what your role or mantra is) As such, sometimes it’s necessary when sitting and working with an engineer or clay modeler to then speak on their terms. That means pulling out the ol’ exploded views, cutaway views, and cross sections to help communicate your vision for the product your designing.

4. The Presentation Sketch:

This is where you bring out the big guns. These sketches tend to be a little more refined and thought out. you can think of them as being a little technical yet a little emotive. They serve to captivate the viewers interest while then explaining the concept visually. For a client that does not have the visual thinking skills of you fellow designers, it may be necessary to be a bit more explicit in how you explain things in your sketches (hence the technical aspect). Notes, callouts, different views – this is where you’ll want to be overt in how you express the idea.

5. The Emotive Sketch:

The gushy, over the top, killer sketch whose soul purpose is to make your viewer stare in awe at the killer sketch/render in front of them. Yes this is what tends to be the automotive sketch. Descriptive yet very emotional. I rarely do these much as I tend to work in 3-d once I get past the presentation sketch phase, but don’t get me wrong, I totally dig these and love a good emotionally and visually captivating sketch.

discuss it in the IDSKETCHING.COM forums,

Levels of Sketching | Industrial Design Sketching and Drawing Tutorials.

This one goes out to all the DJs

This corrugated cardboard sleeve that doubles as a record player just blows my mind. Just open it up, fiddle with a pencil and, boom. No speakers needed either, the sound goes through the needle and into the cardboard (so don’t expect bumping bass, but we hear it’s quite good). Such great design, so few records that I don’t illegally download to listen to though.

Monkee Design – Industrial Design Blog/ Student Resource – Cardboard Sleeve Doubles as a Record Player.

Kök Flat-Pack Chair by Erdem Selek

A Really Flat Chair

Kök is a flat-pack chair inspired from a blue chair, a common staple in Mediterranean and Aegean culture. Simple to make and easy to assemble, no adhesives or complicated joints. From my understanding, the weight of someone sitting reinforces the tension at the joints making the bond even stronger.

Kök Flat-Pack Chair by Erdem Selek » Yanko Design.

Primordial and cellular levels of knowing. « Synaptic Stimuli

I don’t know what it is, but I like it.

Primordial and cellular levels of knowing. « Synaptic Stimuli.

ReStyle by James Howlett

“Longevity through versatility”

This ReStyle system has got to be somehow a great big yes in the futures of hip nomads. It’d be so great to not have to change furniture (buy and sell or trash) each time one moves due to changing space and junk requirements. Having items that sit on their head or their side… that’s just smart.

ReStyle by James Howlett » Yanko Design.

Mission Motors Electric Superbike

141 horses is a good amount of power for an average sized car. That’s what the Mission Motors “Mission R” electric superbike is putting down in a package that’s the size of a 600cc road bike — An electric bike, naturally, gives you all that power right from 0 RPM. Get a glimpse under the fairing, at the trellis frame that bolts to the MissionEVT drivetrain ahead of the swingarm. There’s naturally a big hole ahead of that, where the battery slots. The aluminum plate you see is part of that, left in place here but normally yanked from the top with the rest of the cell pack.

To bring this amazing machine to market, Forrest North and his two co-founders, Edward West and Mason Cabot, have assembled a real dream team with incredible depth and experience and whose resumés list companies like Tesla Motors, Ducati and Google.

P O W E R T R AI I N
Battery Pack High Energy Lithium-Ion with Integrated Safety
Motor Liquid-cooled, 3 phase AC Induction
Torque 100 lb-ft @ Zero RPM
Transmission Single speed, #525 O-ring chain

C H A S S I S
Front Suspension Ohlins, 43mm inverted fork, fully adjustable
Rear Suspension Ohlins, single schock w/piggyback reservoir
Front Brakes Brembo forged 4 piston calipers.
Rear Brakes Brembo, 220mm disc; single-piston caliper
Wheels/Tires/Front Marchesini forged Al 3.5″x17″, 120/70Z
Wheels/Tires/Rear Marchesini forged Al 6.0″x17″, 190/55

T A R G E T P E R F O R M A N C E
Top speed 150mph
Range 150 miles per charge (Est. under EPA drive cycle)
Recharge Under 2 hours @ 240V (8 hours @ 120V)
Features: Adjustable regenerative braking,
Intuitive/adjustable data acquisition system

Via Autoblog Green]

Eco-Fashion Books

Eco Fashion by Sass Brown

“This book shows the range of companies making a difference in the area of sustainable design in fashion, exploding the myth that sustainable design is bad design, or at best basic design, by highlighting the range of companies producing desirable and well-designed apparel and accessories with a conscience. It not only demonstrates the range of products available around the globe, but explains the stories behind them and the communities they support, as well as showing how and where they make a difference.” – Laurence King Publishing

Future Fashion White Papers by Earth Pledge

“A collection of 30 compelling essays by scientists, retailers, farmers, dyers, models and others in the industry, including Diane von Furstenberg, Julie Gilhart, and Shalom Harlow. FutureFashion White Papers take an in-depth look at the fashion industry and provides a thoughtful, wide-ranging analysis of how a transition to sustainability can be achieved. Diane von Furstenberg notes: ‘FutureFashion White Papers is an exploration that signifies movement towards a more sustainable fashion industry. It is an opportunity to think about and evaluate the fashion industry as it stands today’.” - Earth Pledge

Eco-Chic, The Fashion Paradox by Sandy Black

“Sandy Black has divided the book into four chapters: The Greening of the Fashion Industry, Re-Designing Fashion, Fibre to Fabric and Fabric to Fashion. In the first chapter she has profiled six of the most influential players in the UK ethical fashion industry: the inimitable Lynda Grose, the pioneering Fair Trade label People Tree, the mainstream advocates Marks and Spencer, the long-term campaigner Katharine Hamnett and the style leader Sarah Ratty of Ciel. By choosing these six profiles to feature at the beginning of the book Sandy Black has very quickly laid out the complex territory on which the battle for ethical fashion must be fought.” - Treehugger

Green Is The New Black-How To Change The World With Style by Tamsin Blanchard

“Tamsin Blanchard is a journalist and writer. Since 2005, she has been the Telegraph Magazine’s style director. Before that she wrote about fashion and interiors for The Observer, and spent three years as The Independent‘s fashion editor. She is contributing fashion editor to the V&A Magazine, and a sometime contributing editor to 10 Magazine. She has also written for Vogue, Marie Claire, US Harper’s Bazaar, and The Daily Rubbish. In the late Nineties, she co-founded “˜it’ a luxury boxed magazine for fashion, art and design. She has taught fashion journalism at Central Saint Martins and University of Westminster and is currently an external assessor at London College of Fashion.”

With a foreword by Lily Cole, and lots of contributions from designers and eco experts, it is an entertaining, inspiring guide on how to be fashionably green. - www.tamsin blanchard.com

Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys by Kate Fletcher

“Kate Fletcher is a practitioner and academic who has been working in the field of sustainable fashion for the last 15 years: she has recently become Reader in Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion. Her consultancy within the fashion industry, coupled with her educational experience, makes her uniquely well qualified to write this much-needed text. Fletcher, who has helped to develop the concept of “˜slow fashion’, is at the center of research in this area and calls upon both established texts such as McDonough and Braungart’s Cradle to Cradle and recent research from a wide variety of sources, including her own, to support her writing. The quality of research is high.” - Oxford Art Journal

Threads of Labour: Garment Industry Supply Chains from the Worker’s Perspective by Angela Hale and Jane Wills

“This book gives valuable insights for decision-makers in international clothing brands. Read it and learn how garment workers worldwide are affected by the sub-contracted manufacturing that characterizes this industry.” - Dan Rees, Director of the Ethical Trading Initiative

Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes for Beautiful Textiles by India Flint

“The essence of plants bursts forth in magnificent hues and surprising palettes. Using dyes of the leaves, roots, and flowers to color your cloth and yarn can be an amazing journey into botanical alchemy. In Eco Colour , artistic dyer and colorist India Flint teaches you how to cull and use this gentle and ecologically sustainable alternative to synthetic dyes.

India explores the fascinating and infinitely variable world of plant color using a wide variety of techniques and recipes. From whole-dyed cloth and applied color to prints and layered dye techniques, India describes only ecologically sustainable plant-dye methods. She uses renewable resources and shows how to do the least possible harm to the dyer, the end user of the object, and the environment. Recipes include a number of entirely new processes developed by India, as well as guidelines for plant collection, directions for the distillation of nontoxic mordants, and methodologies for applying plant dyes.” - Amazon

Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style by Christie Matheson

“Matheson slyly steers us toward consumer goods and services that minimize our earth-stomping human footprint. She’s brave enough to say ‘buy less of everything,’ and even the politically fraught ‘buy nothing.’ Matheson’s genius is to make this seem not only doable, but fun.” – Elizabeth Royte, author of Garbage Land and Bottlemania

Sustainable Fashion: Why Now? A Conversation Exploring Issues, Practices and Possibilities by Janet Hethorn and Connie Ulasewicz

“Sustainable Fashion: Why Now? is a critical read for anyone with ties to the fashion industry: designers, marketers, product developers, retailers, teachers, students, and consumers that want to become involved with balancing the fashion desires of the individual with the need to be a steward of our environment.” - Fashion Practice

Fugitive Denim: A Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade by Rachel Louise Snyder

“Smart and ambitious, cosmopolite journalist Snyder maps the global garment industry, beginning in a New York loft where designers plot a line of ultra-pricey, socially responsible jeans that would ensure a fair wage for workers and not cause excessive environmental degradation. From there she visits cotton growers in Azerbaijan, denim specialists in Italy and factories in Cambodia and China. An excellent reporter, Snyder talks comfortably to both sophisticated designers and factory workers, conveying their very different motives as she paints a picture of an industry far more tangled than most consumers imagine. She notes that economic and employment shifts are felt globally, describing Italy mourning the loss of manufacturing to cheaper factories in Asia, where low-paying jobs represent unprecedented opportunity to many workers. If the prose occasionally verges on cuteness, it’s preferable to the jargon of quotas and NGOs ubiquitous in most discussions of global trade. Snyder’s investigation is an essential read for those curious about fashion or the globe-spanning business that produces their clothes.” - Publisher’s Weekly

Add a Watermark to your WordPress Portfolio

A  way to protect your images is to apply a watermark to your photographs. Rather than have to add a watermark to each individual photo (and permanently alter your file in the process) with a WordPress plugin, you can automatically add a watermark to all of your images. With Watermark Reloaded, you have complete control over how the watermark appears, choosing the font, the size, colour and placement.

You can also control which size images the watermark will appear on – from the thumbnail to the full-sized image.

4 Must-Have Plugins When Using WordPress as a Portfolio.

Newsprint. Primary colors. Basic Shapes.

Graphic designers/illustrators Alex Fuller and Gabe Usadel partnered to create this booklet that presents some abstract compositions using only the most basic of elements. While it would be easy to dismiss this with a “So What?” each spread reveals the endless possibilities available to designers, all of us basically working with the same ingredients (type and image), always trying to find new ways of presenting them. The official description:

Squares, circles and triangles are at the core of what makes the industrial world around us. A universal visual language apparent in all things — the tools we use, the fashion we wear, the buildings we live in and the communications we see.

The Incredible Journey that is Consciousness Booklet – FPO: For Print Only.