America’s appreciation for great design : 

Charles & Ray Eames show their then-new masterpiece on the Arlene Francis “Home” show broadcast on the NBC television network in 1956.

In production since it’s introduction, manufactured in the United States by Herman Miller in and Europe by Vitra.

via shoebox dwelling

If anyone has an extra one of these on hand, please feel free to give me a call.

- AC in RVA

Check out the inventive final product: a twist on the traditional annual report, from Frontier favorites Warby Parker.

-AC in RVA (still)

laughingsquid:

Kona Imperial Stout, A Craft Beer Brewed With Kona Coffee Beans

Love the design and the flavor concept - “intense in-your-face-goodness”.

Wondering what else they’re coming up with in a place generally known for tourism and surfing? Maybe we should investigate.

Happy Friday.

(Source: tuaw, via emergentfutures)

unconsumption:

In Berkeley, California, at a mixed-use urban-infill project designed by Leger Wanaselja Architecture, there’s a gate constructed out of Volvo station wagon doors. 

Other car parts and street signs are among the salvaged materials incorporated into the design of the project. See our earlier post about it here.

Also, if you didn’t catch the Unconsumption post about large-scale art (in the form of cow sculptures) made from old car parts, check it out here.

(Photo by Randi Berez, via Dwell.com.)

 

Solar Ivy combines photovoltaic technology, piezoelectrics, and design thinking to challenge the glum banality of large black solar panels. Instead, it “draws inspiration from ivy that grows on a building”, offering a modular architecture that allows for full customization of color, spacing, photovoltaic type, and orientation. 

The product’s flexibility and modularity allows it to go almost anywhere (like where traditional solar devices can’t go) and achieve the maximum potential of a solar panel. In general, solar energy isn’t just good for the environment- it leads to substantial savings by avoiding the use of AC and HVAC units. 

If that isn’t enough, Solar Ivy utilizes “recycled and reclaimed materials and life–cycle analysis to ensure that the system and its component parts can be recycled and reclaimed”.

via Yanko Design:

“Inspired by the emotional connection between object and user, designer Camilla Fucili has created Between The Lines, a collection of dining objects that aim to inspire a sense of play and storytelling at the dining table. The collection includes common dining objects such as plates, utensils, glasses, and a tablecloth, but each presents a unique and articulate twist on the familiar.”

Does this aim - “to inspire a sense of play and storytelling” - sound familiar? Probably because it’s what you try to do in your business and not at the dining table. It makes intuitive sense though when you consider where creativity comes from.

The ability to freely and successfully innovate or think outside the box comes from enjoying the process and not purely for the sake of reaching a business goal. When we sit down at dinner, we’re not too worried about the consequences of telling a bad story or making the risky move of forking food off a loved one’s plate. We do it for enjoyment (both personally and for others). 

The takeaway is to enjoy the creative process. All parts - play, experimentation, storytelling - with the ability to accept and learn from failure. Something to consider when looking at these objects for the dining table: how can we design relevant pieces that inspire similar values for our offices?

via designer Carl MH Barenbrug:

“The Libreria ABC Bookcase by designers Eva Alessandrini and Roberto Saporiti made me smile. It’s a fun and functional bookcase made up of modular storage cubes, which have been produced as letters and numbers, allowing one to manually organise and assemble the entire bookshelf to form words, sentences or perhaps something a little more abstract.”

The bookcase has a creative design, but what I love is its modular architecture. It challenges the owner to play with the furniture to come up with innovative ways of presenting their books and personality.

It reminds me of how businesses that seek to replicate a similar type of modular architecture within their organizations (as opposed to an interdependent architecture) seem to create the right kind of environment that sparks experimentation and innovation.  

via designboom:

“sanitov bicycles focuses on producing sustainable solutions that are related to movement and transport in the urban environment. their vision is to ‘make the urban everyday easier and more sustainable by creating design solutions that might, in turn, shape the future city’”