The Small Invention that will Revolutionalise Your Workout

This is such a simple idea again, but it holds so much potential.

For anyone that works out you will know both the innate need to listen to music while you exercise, and the subsequent hassle that it can cause. 

If I had a dollar for every time I managed to tangle or pull on my earphone cords and have my phone slam onto the ground, drawing the attention of the entire gym onto my sheepish face, I would have at least 5 dollars. But still, it's so frustrating. You're trying to work out. The music is meant to help you. When this sort of thing happens it only tends to hinder the process and worsen my mood. 

Along comes The Dash, the latest invention for this particular niche and it is a good one. Wireless earphones, reminiscent of the ones seen in the aforementioned movie Her, allow the user to store 1000 songs on the cord free device and control the amount of ambient noise, as well as allowing you to track your progress and make bluetooth phone calls.

Magical. Here's hoping Apple buy, borrow or steal this idea to release it with their next product range. 

DESIGN FEATURE: THE NEW COATHANGER

Coat hangers are notoriously ugly, in my house at least. I have friends, and friends of friends, who spend a lot of money to buy wooden coat hangers which essentially do the same job as my cheap plastic and metal ones, just in a more stylish way. 

I am happy to pay extra money for extra style, but I'm not entirely sure that wooden coat hangers by themselves are worth the cost. 

The Cliq Clothing Hangers have changed my mind. Three words I always seem to come back to in this blog, "simple, sleek and beautiful" - and maybe that is what wall good design should be made of. 

The Cliq hangers eliminate the metal hook that is such a solid part of the coat hanger design. Not only does this save on vertical space, but it also allows for a more stylish design. Instead, these coat hangers rely on strong magnets (holding weight up to 2kg) to keep your clothing hanging in wardrobe. Not only do they eliminate the traditional hook, but due to the magnetic force they also organise themselves to be equally spaced apart meaning that your wardrobe will always look impressively tidy. So much cool in one design.

Fan Girling Over Cameo's Latest Releases

Cameo is one of my favourite Australian brands. Actually, it's one of my favourite brands period. 

Most of the time what they release comes as a slightly unexpected take on the season's fashion, but nearly always I end up falling in love with it anyway. 

The newest style which I am mentally betrothed to is their "Left Alone" 2-piece range of a simple dress and tank. 

Somehow using so little they manage to say so much: less is always more. 

Have your credit cards on guard.

Designer Insider: Sagmeister & Walsh

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that every good design student knows of Sagmeister & Walsh. 

Based in New York City, these creative foxes have worked on everything from Adobe, to the Museum of Modern Art, to Warner Bros Records and beyond. Love their style and love their work. 

P.S. I eat more avocados than they do. 

Poster Crush: Gravity by Kevin Tong

I had never heard of Kevin Tong before until a university lecturer introduced his work to me. 

Wow.

I think this poster is just beautiful. Created for the Gravity movie that was recently released, it reflects the concept of space by giving it no true orientation, so that it can be read multiple ways. Clever. And beautiful.

Click through here to watch his process video.

Form : Function : Existence?

I was thinking back to that design interview that I bombed out in.

At the time, I was showing the interviewer my albeit rushed portfolio, and was telling the interviewer about my smart phone app that I has designed for a project. I explained that a lot of research had gone into the topic before I decided upon it, and I explained its importance in providing a better alternative to the current for the target audience.

The interviewer asked me, "What was more important? That it looked good, that it existed, or that I worked?"

I explained that the visual form of the app was decided upon after the functions were determined, but it was not possible to separate the importance of the app to exist as well as to function, as these things were intertwined. His question did not make sense to me. There is no use in the app existing if it does not function as it should, and there is similarly no point in the app's ability to function and to improve daily life if it doesn't even exist.

I felt like I was being tricked into the age old form:function argument but this time with an entirely new element.

In any case I do not think he liked my answer, though he is notoriously hard to read.

What are your thoughts on this subject? What is more important to you, that it exists or that it worked? Or do you agree that they are inseparable elements? 

The Stool I Wish I Never Knew Existed

I stumbled across this stool while browsing the internet and now I wish I hadn't because it is so, so beautiful that no stool will ever live up to its' beauty ever again. 

Created for Stockholm Design week (why am I not in Stockholm?), this was a collaboration between Stina Lofgren (Illustrator) and Kristoffer Sundin (Product Designer). 

For your viewing pleasure below.

Show us your city type: showusyourtype.com

This is a really great idea. Designing a typographic response to varying cities in the world based on their context and particular style. Check out some of my favourite below, by varying artists available on the website showusyourtype.com

A small scale city in the palm of your hand

This is the kind of idea I should of thought of. SO simple. So effective. I should start making these as presents for family members they are that easy, but they look so great.

Mini 3D sculptures of buildings. 

Props to ZUPAGRAFIKA in Poland. 

Design portfolios of the future: in the palm of your hand

Here's another app that I wish could come into development. Freelance is in the concept stages of a portfolio app, whereby designers are able to display their portfolios, and others are able to view them. 

Simple, sweet and clean. 

I also love the visual styling of their logo, which works exceedingly well with the other parts of the app.

Check it out below - here's hoping it gets developed!

A Peak Inside My First Semester Uni Bag

Along with a much less stressful uni year ahead, below are some pictures of what my uni bag contains this semester.

Bag from Dangerfield, Frankie 2014 Diary, Pencil case, book and pens all from Officeworks.

What is a designer / design theory

This Semester is a welcomed relief. And I am saying that because partly it is the truth, and partly it is what I want to believe.

This is the first semester out of what was meant to be a 3 year design course that I will only be studying theory for. Life chucked me a small curve ball and I realised I couldn't have everything I wanted at the time - and that included studying full time. These things happen. But now I am catching up on all of the subjects that I left behind. So this year I am making up for that hiccup in the timing of my degree by taking on 3 theory subjects and one design elective.

First up I am studying a subject on design and culture, with my other subject regarding the critical practice of design. Yawn. 

But actually I really love reading and I'm slowly taking to writing so it can't be all bad. Except that I am terrified of oral presentations - however successfully I manage to hide that from the crowd - and this kind of reading generally isn't fun.

Tonight I was preparing for my first classes of the year tomorrow by doing the readings that were outlined for the week. This week they were questioning what a designer is, and how that role should be described. There were a few comments within the text that made me actually feel excited to be involved in design again, and for that I am grateful. Last year was not my favourite but I'm determined to make this one better. 

From a collection of short essays I have deducted that design is a process of active reflection and analysis that occurs at many different stages of the solution. Design is a process of problem solving, as well as it is a learning journey. This journey becomes a process of narrowing down the precise problem, and then pairing it with the most ideal partner. But these partners need to satisfy a wide range of people and factors including those of financial, technical, ergonomical, aesthetical and so on. This means that design is a process of negotiation, and this negotiation becomes like a game that you play at and put your ideas into and then gamble your time on: it is addictive. While designers should act responsibly and consider any moral conflicts, it is not necessarily fair for a designer to take the brunt of the responsibility for the overall wider implications of the final design. 

Design is a team effort involving negotiation between a wide range of parties that have been considered after an effort to match the problem with a solution that was arrived at after many evolving stages of critical and active reflection.

And yeah. Welcome to Semester One. 

Shape your sofa: Petter Skogstad

This is really cool. I actually think this might have only been a prototype and I don't really understand why, because I think it's pretty great. 

Petter Skogstad has designed modular sofa pieces which you can move around and deconstruct as you like, allowing you to shape your own sofa and change this day in and day out. I also love the beautiful grey material that he has used for this.

Hotel whhhhhaaat?

Hotel Minho ... I have no idea what that means, but I like it. 

This Portuguese hotel looks like an ideal place to visit. A clean, beautiful combination of textural wood finishes combined with clean, often 3-Dimensional whites helps to create a visually attractive haven. The icons are smart and simplified, helping to support the bi-lingual text. And that is just considering the interior and exterior walls, not what lies within them.

A quick flick through their website (which strongly reflects the style which they determined with their hotel) confirms that this is definitely the kind of place I would like to stay. 

When translated to English, their About Us description nails their design aesthetics, as well as I presume their service, "Stylish but unpretentious. Simple but sophisticated. Casual, yet refined. And typically always welcoming." Well as long as they are typically always welcoming, right?

I'm not sure when I will make it to Portugal, but this hotel is definitely on my bucket list if I do. 

Agenda: New Zealand Design

Brogen Averill worked on a collaborative project with 8 other designers across the world. I will be honest in saying I am not 100% sure what this is meant to be, or how it is meant to be used, or what it is meant to represent, but on a visual level I like it very much so. 

Find more photos here. 

Free Downloadable Font: Milano

Marco Oggian from Italy has designed a typeface to represent Milan. 

And, yep... the first is basically exactly how I would have thought to represent it also. I love that he explored it further to create a more crazy version of it with the same underlying structure. 

Looks great and love the sample images he has created to explore the possibilities of the typeface! Great colour choices also: they remind me of italian gelato. 

This font is currently downloadable for free here. 

You had me at Icelandic: OmNom Chocolate

This is just too cute. I came across this as per usual trawling through the internet.

Working with just cocoa beans and sugar, OmNom Chocolate (an Icelandic-based business), create dark chocolate which they then add any array of flavours (or items) to in order to experiment with the tasty, tasty outcome.

What can only be equally as delicious, if not more, would be the beautiful packaging design which accompanies it. I was taken by the illustrative style combined with well picked colours that adorned the exterior of the packaging, and I became captivated once I saw how they had treated the inside too. 

Their online shop isn't live yet, but once it is I will be very excitedly ordering this chocolate just to see the design quality first hand. 

To read an interview with OmNom themselves, click here.

Hungry for Vegemite

This is cool. This is really cool.

Australian printing & graphic design service, The Hungry Workshop literally printed with Vegemite, for the Vegemite business cards. Watch the complicated (but amazing) process here.

Beautiful typography by Veronica Cordero

I stumbled upon this project on Behance. This is just breathtakingly beautiful. From the laser cutting, to the photography, to the layouts, to the typography and colours - just everything. 

Veronica Cordero is based in Auckland. She has absolutely nailed this piece. 

I can only hope to make something this beautiful one day.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/Auckland-City-Editorial-Spread/8725979