新 | New type of Design Firm: FUSEPROJECT

if you ask me, which design company I like most now. Not IDEO, not ZIBA (sorry for my formal colleagues), not PHOENIX DESIGN, but fuseproject, a San Francisco based design firm, which was founded by Yves Behar. 

Yves Behar, he was born in Swiss, studied at Art Center of College (one of the best design school worldwide) both in Europe and California, USA. His multi-cultural background makes his design always with a very different idea, strong character and open-minded. 

What else? If you visit his website and look at the products, you can know, why I like his design so much. His firm, fuseproject, doesn't only provide a single angle of view for design service, but a whole package, from Corporate Identity (the core of a company), Website Design, Graphic Design, Product design and finally Packaging Design. It means, they can make a new product, but also a WHOLE NEW SYSTEM around it. What I always say, no product stands alone. It has to communicate with Surround and lives in a environment. We can see how different they are.

I really wish, I were him ;). Here is a sample: the New Jawbone.  

食 | Linguine con cozze di nonno

I think most of you knew that, I like cooking and tasting different food very much. Since my buddies in Germany presented a Cookbook (see below) of Jamie Oliver, my favorite cook and designer. (For me cooking is like design. We all create thing in our own way. We all solve a problem and present it for the public.)

I like him because of his sympathy. He doe

sn't show off his skills and deal it like art. Cook is not that complicated. Every time he cooks, you can see his love, passion and fun with it. Besides, his kind and easy way for presentation, just like I am always doing. Let everyone join your presentation, let them understand, what is the idea about.    

Last week, we celebrated my sister's birthday at my place. And I chose Liguine con cozze di nonno to cook for the whole family. It is a dish with a lot of seafood (we love fish!!!). 

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Here are the materials: fresh shrimps, 2 kinds of mussels (big and small), small sardinian, linguine 500 g, sea salt, olive oil, garlic, tomato...and so on. Most people will take of the shrimps shells and throw them away. HOWEVER, these shells were one of the most important part of this dish. I used them in two parts. First, I cooked the noodle not only with sea salt, but also the shrimps shells and some small mussels. It can make the noodle with a little bit nature seafood-taste, that matches perfectly with other materials. And the other shells? of course for the source. Attention! use fresh tomato, very important!

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Then, it will look like this. It was rea really tasty :)

獎 | Good Design Award

Not a good photo, made by my iPhone. The resolution is low, and my haircut is ugly v.v.

Well..anyway

You already knew, that I just wan a Good Design Award one of the most important design awards on the world. I esigned this guy (an Automated OpticInspector) for a taiwanese company. We have been in Tokyo to setup the exhibition. Tokyo is a great city, very busy, modern, but also clean and you can't still find a lot of tradition.

here are some photos in Japan. If you click the picture, you can get more info about the product and award.

鄉｜back home or a new home?

Hey guys!

My blog is alive again! now I am looking for a method to merge all my three blogs together. I believe, it is a kind of energy waste, that I write three blogs at the same time. It means, I will just write, what I want. But I will still treat design as a core spirit. Though, what I am in Taiwan doing, is not only design...

It was almost four months ago, when I left Germany. It is really a strange feeling to leave Germany, where I have lived for six years. During this time, I really felt like, I am a German not a Taiwanese anymore. I though, I won't leave Germany (Europe). Still, life is very interesting. It changes. Now I am in Taiwan again ;)

Goodbye Germany...for a short time

Seldom, I did'nt write about design, but about myself.
Yes, as the title shows I am going to leave Germany now.
It is a very strange feeling because I really thought, it is my home now and I will stay for a long long time. However, the life goes, where ever it wants. The pitcher (life) won't always throw a fastball. When it comes a curveball, then you have to change your movement and prepare for it.

It will be a huge change for me, but maybe not a bad one. I live in europe since 6 years. My spirit and connection to Asia is getting weaker and weaker. It is time to pick it up again and renew it, to look at who I am. Asia is my root but Germany is my spirit home. It will take some time to integrate into the daily life in Taiwan.

But I believe, it will be very exiting. Let's go, Chih-Hang

See you my dear friends

Microsoft Surface on a Ball.

I think, most of you have ever seen microsoft surface. Though, I think it is still a interesting demo. It is on a sphere display. A funny try. It means, the limit of a flat disply is no more there. No we have more freedom to think over, what kind of display we are going to use, which kind is better for out application.

The property of a sphere is: you got to close to the display, if u want to get more information. The limited angle of view and a 3D disply are the main ponis of it.
(though i still don't know, in which are we can better use a sphere one...)

cheers!

Whom are you designing for?

it is still a very interesting topic. Whom are we, as designer, designing for?
surely, the official answer will certainly for the USER, the CUSTOMER, off cause.
but is it true? is it really what designer thinking? let's us look at a example:


this is the last generation of bmw 7, that is the most exclusive car under bmw brand. it is elegant, luxus and high-end. so the real target buyer are, those who can afford such a car, a high-range manager, business man,, maybe 50 or 60 years old.

but if we look at the old one, we can notice that, this car expresses a very progressive image, exeptional headlamps , a remarkable back, that we never saw before. bmw broke rules and set up new milestones for a car.

I have to admit that, this is a really powerful and iconic design. A very big step of bmw. however, as I just mentioned, "who are we deisning for?". the bmw designer did a exellent design, but forgot the real customers. this fact was also shown by the sell numbers. this bmw 7 is not as popular as it should be. it has been beat hard by Mercedes s class. (see pic below)

a real successful design, high classic, noble and luxus, though it expresses a more conservative image. this s class was addressed on the exact right position on the market. 2 weeks ago, the newest bmw 7 has come out. we can clearly see that, the design goes a step back and shows a more mature, cleaner design. maybe, some designers will say, there is nothing new on this car, but don't forget and ask yourself "Whom ar you designing for?"

the new bmw 7

The Utimate Post Office Box : Earth Class Mail

After the presentation of iPhone 2.0 . It has come true, that the service, that you are providing, is the most important thing in your product. What is the benefit for the user to buy and use you product? A beautiful design and fancy animation are not, what it is about. (I will create another topic to discuss it)

So today, I am showing an interesting "Online" service of Earth Class Mail.
Nowadays, we travel around the world because of business, vacation, education and so on, way much often than what the people did 10, 50 years ago. So he way we communicate with each other is changing. We are no more sitting somewhere and wait. But most of the important letters will be still send physically to a certain address.

Earth Class Mail willl solve part of our problem of missing and waiting post. They can collect all the post of a certain address from customer and scan the envelope cover, and email to the customer. Then he can decide, weather earth class mail should also scan the content or not. So you can quasi get your post everywhere on the world. ( well, if you have internet connection...)

it is really convenient :) (thou I don't know, how much it will cost)

BMW GINA - A living car

BMW GINA - a living car

it is just like a creature. no more a cold metal piece without soul.
It opens and closes the ey, ust like an animal is winking.
Everything is hidden under the skin-like surface.
The engine is really like the heart inside an animal body.
A car seems like it lives and breaths.
It will be just as your second skin on the road, if you drive it.
This concept brings "car" a step closer to us human. It is like a friend, who companies you.

It is a totally different level of thinking and they really created a high emotional idea.
Emotion is one of the most important factors of design, especially at transportation area.
I am really amazed by it

Goog Job, BMW.

teo: an iconic mp3 player

TEO has rolled out their new MP3 player. (the first photo)

it is in an very iconic form- "a cross"

it can be your music source and your personal necklace at the same time.

HOWEVER, the details are not clean enough. the silver buttons and the blue display destroy the whole image. (i guess, it might because of the cost). my suggestion would be the second pic.

in the middle we use a plexi-glass button in the same material. and surround it, we use 4 sensorbuttons. the display, we can use the same technology as sony...here  

in this case, we won't see the frame of the display.

it is much cleaner, isn't it?

The Hydrofoil Water Scooter

The Hydfrofoll water scooter is an interesting water-sport vehicle. what u have to do is hopping ur body up and down, and it moves smoothly but fast further. though it doesn't have the best shape, but it is a nice idea with any extra energy consuming, no enviroment pollution, besides that we still take exercise :D

funny bathroom sign...

it is cool, right :P

NOLA A-Bench

Nola is a swedish furniture manufacture for public space. for the furniturefair 2008 in stockholm, they presented A-BENCH. 

It is a very simple idea, low-cost, high -modular, just made of 4 elements. we can build them together very easily. i like it.

OLPC roll-out in Peru

finally, the OLPC rolls out in peru. i do think, it is a meaningful project for the children in developing countries. HOWEVER, i am concerning, that it could become just a new toy of normal consumers, or some governments wont't really give them to the children, who need it, but use them for the other purpose.

but now it is rolling out. i hope, it will be a good beginn of it.

 

dear all,

i just finished an one-hour-design-competition for core77.

the theme is to design a olympic torch for a certain city.

my choice was berlin.

i t was designed in a modern, elegant style with german character: minimal, clean and sophisticated. in the front of it, we can see the olympic ring, berlin-logo and the german flag.

a quick design, not very special but with a certain quality :)

cheers

11 the Game | amazing beautiful, but for what?

one of my favorite design firms in  europe GRO and a dutch model-making firm Tim just pushed out a study for milan exhibition, 11 the Game, which is based on a conventional Kicker Table, BUT with amazing details.

YES, 11 the Game is really really incredible beautiful with the finest details. with Its elegant, sophisticated looking, it will fascinate many visitor in milan, i am sure about that.

HOWEVER, the game itself hasn't been improved or changed. The core user experience is still the old one. if we look at the whole design process, from concept to production, this design is very close to the end of process. it means, it just changed more or less the shape. the table might be 10 times as expensive as  a normal one, but somehow the old one.

maybe it wil be the best decoration for a high-end club or restaurant, or in Roman Abramovich's home (chelsea's owner).

"Iconization" of Seat

hello dear all,

still my style. i didn"t update for a long long time.

i hope, u don't feel bored :)

(i am getting lazier and lazier)

in this topic, i am writing about the car brand "Seat".

seat, as we know, was used to be a spanish automobile brand.

several years ago, VolksWagen overtook the company.

Seat is not really a very popular brand, that stands always under the spotlight.

It is rather a sub choice of consumer, like skoda, ford and so on.

but in last few years, we can really notice the quality and design improvement of seat.

now, they are trying to build an icon (design identity ) for skoda.

 

"IBIZA" has just come to the market recently, if we compare with its concept model  "Bocanegra". We can see the original sprit of this car. They tried to strengthen and accent the "HEAD PART" arround the logo, to creat a strong image of the face. 

this kine of methode, we may mark it as a design icon of the whole VW group like, AUDI, VW it self. it is also kind of trend. as i mentioned in my article about the vw up concept and the design style toyota.

but Seat, just like its south blood, acts more energic, speedy and young. this quick, sharp lines recall me on BMW (but not as extreme as it). red is the absolute right color to it.

i like it. 

Straw+Coffee Pad

also an interesting idea.

a single product have 2 functions...

HOWEVER, it can be very hot to drink coffee like this

(well, maybe it is a ice coffee)

It can be better if it is a soft, or mix drink.

Calender Clock

Calender Clock from a dutch designer Stallinga

very simple idea, but good combination between 2 time-elements.

I like it :)

Energizer's Enerji to Go

i believe, everyone has such an experience.: you are on the way and want to make an important phone-call, but ur cell phone is out of power... how frustrated it taht!

don't worry! Energizer has developed a solution for major cellphone brands "Enerji to Go" u can easily put 2 AA batteries into it and plug it in ur cellphone! the power is there again! u can talk about 9 hours with 2 AA batteries.

anyway, it is more like an emergent solution. don't forget charge ur phone ;)

Tata's Innovative Nano

Tata's Nano is an extremely low cost car from India. Toyota, Hyun-dai, Honda, Kia, VW, Skoda, they all provide small and inexpesive cars. why is Nano innovative? Before we point it out, we should think about what is innovative. What we usually do is, to put the best, last technology into our product or to provide more functions. are these functions all necessary?

this is the point of Tata Nano. this is a car only costs $ 2500 (yes, believe ur eyes.) the most important process of this design is to figure out, what is really important or a must for a car. nano passed the safety test, provide enough seat capacity (the wheels are placed on the very edge of the car), doesn't dissipate much gasoline, the maximum speed is only arround 100 kmh, but for the most people in most country (beside germany ;P) it is way more than enough. if we live in a big metropolis, it would be a very good choice.

furthermore, it has build in a modular design. it means, they can build and ship the components separately. it is not only a advantage of cost, but further development. they have more flexibility to do some additional change in a easier way.

applause!

MacBook dock system, a new apple patent

it is a funny idea.
it might attract some people to buy it.

the scenario can be like this:

we have a slim-laptop, you can carry it very easily on the way, work in the train, coffee shop...
on the other hand, you can workk very comfortably with your big display at home. you won't have any problem with sync all you files...

HOWEVER, we can do it easily with our monitor-out cable NOW. why do we need a dock monitor??? or does it have any other functions? if not, I doubt, weather this idea can work or not.

happy chinese new year

dear my friends,

I wish you all, dreams come true in the year of rat.

Chih-Hang

My choice for "Good Design Award"

good design award has just chosen their choices for this year. (they really have ugly website...iiig)
i just viewed them and picked some my personal favorites: