We've all heard of high-level advertising but now Flogos has created flying logos. The cloud-like logos are the idea of Francisco Guerra of SnowMasters, a special effects company that specializes in creating snow and foam.
Made of helium and soap (the company promises they are environmentally friendly), a Flogo generator (think big, complicated bubble machine) pushes the bubbly creation through a stencil that gives it the desired look. Flogos can be molded into any form and you can see some examples on the company's website.
In some of Manhattan's better Japanese-staffed bars, like Tribeca's underground B-Flat, ice cubes are noticeably absent; ordering your scotch on the rocks gets you a large ice sphere. With less surface area than the same amount of ice rendered in cubes, a globe of ice will melt more slowly, keeping your drink cold without making it watery.
As an industrial designer, your correspondent couldn't help but notice the parting line on B-Flat's ice spheres; after all, it has to come out of a mold. But now a company called Taisin has come up with a clever device for making a perfect ice sphere with no parting line.
How does it work? You sandwich a large chunk of ice in between the two metal pieces pictured above. As the ice slowly melts, gravity brings the top half to close over the bottom half, enclosing what ice remains in its spherical cavity. Because the ice is in the process of melting into its new shape as the top closes, there's no parting line. Clever!
Chocolate-pencils is a collaboration with patissier Tsujiguchi Hironobu, the mastermind behind popular dessert shops like Mont St. Claire and Le Chocolat de H. Tsujiguchi created a new dessert based on his impression of Nendo after conversations with us, and we designed new tableware for them.
We wanted our plates to show off the beauty of meals and desserts like a painting on a canvas. Based on this idea, our “chocolate pencils” come in a number of cocoa blends that vary in intensity, and chocophiles can use the special “pencil sharpener” that comes with our plate to grate chocolate onto their dessert.
Pencil filings are usually the unwanted remains of sharpening a pencil but in this case they’re the star!
Link, has established since 2005, is aimed to exhibit at the international design trade fairs as not just students in the product designcourse of Tohoku University of Art and Design but independent professional designers.
So Sakai, of the link design group, exhibited this piece as part of the designersblock exhibition in london. phase of sound #08 'reflection' vibrates the surface of the water, creating interference patterns from the waves produced by the two or more motors. the various patterns produced draw out a visual expression on the water of the inputted wave form and its boundaries.
This project investigates the self-organization of two materials, plaster and elastic fabric, to produce evocative visual and acoustic effects. Inspired by the work of the Spanish architect Miguel Fisac and his experiments with flexible concrete formwork in the 1960-70s, p_wall attempts to continue this line of research and add to it the ability to generate larger and more differentiated patterns. Starting from an image, a cloud of points is generated based on the image’s grayscale values. These points are then used to mark the positions of dowels which constrain the elasticity in the fabric formwork. Plaster is then poured into the mould and the fabric expands under the weight of the plaster. The resultant plaster tile has a certain resonance with the body as it sags, expands, and stretches in its own relationship with gravity and structure. Assembled into a larger surface, a pattern emerges between the initial image’s grayscale tones and the shadows produced by the wall.
These cake was designed by Jamie Fobert, an architect, for the London bakeries Konditor & Cook. He was inspired by the work of the sculpture Barbara Hepworth. 4 more British design talents did some other designs, they will all become available in course of the year at the London stores.
Oxman's "Cartesian Wax" is a material designed to replicate the multiple functionalities of living tissue. It uses a combination of flexible and rigid resin to create a building "skin" that evokes living matter and responds to its local environment; its transparency level is modulated based on local heat and light conditions. The work was inspired by Descartes's Wax Argument: Descartes argued that because we can identify wax as wax, even when its physical properties change in the presence of heat, we know our mind has an important role exceeding that of our limited senses.
It's for kitchen junkies, for half-portions, for insatiables, for dieters, for the undecided.It's a necessity for everybody. Whereas formerly you had to estimate and manually portion the cake The clever housewife now bakes with this new silicon form. built-in portioning sections and differently high levels magically produce piece by piece 15 different portions.
After having eggs one morning, the residue left in the mixing cup hardened, leaving a fractal like history of energy dispersion. The simple everyday artifacts of a morning breakfast, transform into a muse.
Employing a spectrographic range of colour, self-similar shapes and contours in her pieces, Jen Stark’s works might at first appear as if they were computer rendered. Instead she cuts through sheets of layered paper, revealing the colours below and shaping the cut paper into complex sculptures with mathematical precision.
One particular place to find amazing colors in nature is the Butterfly and lucky for us there are 17,500 species of butterflies in the world.
They use their bright colors to ward of predators by tricking them into thinking they are poisonous (some actually are) or by camouflaging themselves into plants or bigger insects. But maybe they can also inspire us, chefs and designers, to dress up our plates and products.
During spring in Denmark, at approximately one half an hour before sunset, flocks of more than a million European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) gather from all corners to join in the incredible formations shown above. This phenomenon is called Black Sun (in Denmark), and can be witnessed in early spring throughout the marshlands of western Denmark, from March through to the middle of April. The starlings migrate from the south and spend the day in the meadows gathering food, sleeping in the reeds during the night.
WD-2 can make facial expressions that, if possible, are more human-like than some humans can make. WD-2 is short for "Waseda-Docomo face robot 2," and is the most recent version of the face robot developed by researchers from Waseda University in Tokyo led by mechanical engineer Atsuo Takanishi.
According to a recent article at Robot World News, WD-2 may provide insight into the creation of personal robots. In the future, personal robots may serve a multitude of purposes in work and entertainment with humans, and therefore must be able to communicate in a human-like manner.
WD-2 not only makes facial expressions, but changes its facial expressions with nearly the minute detail of a human face. According to the article, "While other robots make expressions that mean ‘happy,' ‘sad,' ‘excited,' or ‘angry,' WD-2 can make tiny movements to reveal a wide spectrum of meanings."
WD-2 changes its facial features by changing 17 specific facial points on a mask, with each point possessing three degrees of freedom, for a total of 56 degrees of freedom. To make certain points of the face move, a shaft is driven behind the mask at the desired facial point, driven by a DC motor with a simple pulley and a slide screw.
According to the article, the researchers say that the mask can be modified to "copy" a human face, even displaying a person's hair style and skin color when a photo of their face is projected onto the 3D mask.
Similar visually to the mandala images, these are cups of coffee vibrating at (top) and near (bottom) a normal mode frequency - coffee a la mode.
The resonance phenomenon shown in these coffee cup images is similar to Cymatics and Chladni patterns on a circular plate. Although the lines in Chaladni figures are nodes, the bright areas in the coffee images are anti-nodes. (The coffee cups are vibrating at approximately 20Hz). Is it time for the first cymatics latte art? We think so, let us experiment!
Roots is a dreamlike screen that follows an old persian image: a bush growing heads. – In a green and brownish fluid iron crystals grow steadily...Bubbles ascend like jellyfish. Branches break off and sink to the dark ground. They start to dissolve and become thick clouds hovering over the scene.
Sound and Electricity Electricity is pulsed through the whole Sculpture. It is the key to the constant transformation. Growth changes the flow of the current. The modified flow changes the growth. Software and Hardware leave the next step to the material. The voltages at each wire are put through a resonance filter and thus transformed into sound. The 4/4 pulse results in a sublime rhythm.
Utopian Screen The installation is based on the model of a chemical computer by Gordon Pask in the early 1950s. It was open to the environment and it managed to grow to a configuration which was able to distinguish between different frequencies. Roots refers to a time when the big synthesis and simulation of image, sound, thinking and memory was soon to be started.
The interior of an 18" square x 1" piece of Plexiglas was charged to 2.2 million volts (MV) using a 5 MV particle accelerator. A layer of excess electrons become trapped deep inside, When discharged, the excess charge escaped with a bright flash and a loud bang. The hot, lightning-like discharge created thousands of microscopic fractures inside the acrylic, resulting in a branching "Captured Lightning" sculpture (or Lichtenberg Figure).
The branching, self-similar patterns observed in Lichtenberg figures exhibit fractal properties. Lichtenberg figures often develop during the dielectric breakdown of solids, liquids, and even gases.
Two-dimensional (2D) Lichtenberg figures can be produced by placing a sharp-pointed needle perpendicular to the surface of a non-conducting plate, such as of resin, ebonite, or glass. The point is positioned very near to, or in contact with, the plate. A source of high voltage, such as a Leyden jar (a type of capacitor) or a static electricity generator, is applied to the needle. This creates a small electrical discharge to the surface of the plate.
Another type of 2D Lichtenberg Figure can be created when an insulating surface becomes contaminated with semiconducting material. When a high voltage is applied across the surface, leakage currents may cause localized heating and progressive charring of the underlying material. Over time, branching, tree-like carbonized patterns are formed on the surface of the insulator called electrical trees. These may ultimately bridge the insulating space, leading to catastrophic failure of the insulating material.
Nice to hear this sweet news from Greetje. On the RCA summer show: Design Products graduate Greetje van Helmond has created a range of jewellery using sugar crystals, which she “grows” directly onto cord suspended in sugary solution. Called Unsustainable, the project deals with issues of durability and resource consumption, deliberately using a basic material to create precious, but extremely fragile, objects.
Below is van Helmond’s statement about the project:
"In present day life we can say that we consume a lot. Durable materials are often used for the production of goods that are typically replaced or thrown away quickly.
Contrary to this I use everyday, basic materials to create products that appear valuable and sustainable. Because of the materials I use, the products won’t last long, but long enough to stay “new”.
In one project, I create jewellery out of sugar. Sugar has the quality of growing into crystals under special circumstances. By controlling the process I allow crystals to grow around strings to form accessories.
In a second project I create a set of accessories from quilted paper. With a lot of time and effort I believe one can make apparently banal and cheap materials into something beautiful."
Behold BoxFish, Mercedes’ bionic concept car. Despite its boxy, cube-shaped body, this tropical fish is in fact outstandingly streamlined and therefore represents an aerodynamic ideal. With an accurately constructed model of the boxfish the engineers in Stuttgart were able to achieve a wind drag coefficient of just 0.06 in the wind tunnel.
In addition to superb aerodynamics and a lightweight construction concept derived from nature, the 103 kW/140-hp diesel engine and innovative SCR technology greatly contribute to fuel economy and a further reduction in exhaust emissions.
"AdBlue" is an aqueous urea solution which is sprayed into the exhaust system in precisely metered quantities, depending on the engine operating status. This converts the nitrogen oxides into harmless nitrogen and water. The reservoir for this service fluid is located in the spare wheel recess of the concept car, and its capacity is sufficient for a mileage corresponding to the service interval for a current Mercedes diesel model.
The boxfish is also a prime example of rigidity and light weight. Its skin consists of numerous hexagonal, bony plates which provide maximum strength with minimal weight and effectively protect the animal from injury.
What do ice wedge networks, meandering rivers, sorted patterned ground, beach cusps, sand dunes, and humans have in common?
Emergence is the process of complex pattern formation from more basic constituent parts. Emergent structures are patterns not created by a single event or rule. Nothing commands the system to form a pattern. Instead, the interaction of each part with its immediate surroundings causes a complex chain of processes leading to some order. One might conclude that emergent structures are more than the sum of their parts because the emergent order will not arise if the various parts are simply coexisting; the interaction of these parts is central. Emergent structures can be found in many natural phenomena, from the physical to the biological domain. For example, the shape of weather phenomena such as hurricanes are emergent structures.
It is useful to distinguish three forms of emergence structures. First-order emergence structures occurs as a result of shape interactions (for example, hydrogen bonds in water molecules lead to surface tension). Second-order emergence structures involves shape interactions played out sequentially over time (for example, changing atmospheric conditions as a snowflake falls to the ground build upon and alter its form). Finally, third-order emergence structures is a consequence of shape, time, and heritable instructions. For example, an organism's genetic code sets boundary conditions on the interaction of biological systems in space and time.
Tara Donovan (b. 1969) is an installation artist who uses materials such as scotch tape, styrofoam cups, and drinking straws to create large scale sculptures that often have a biomorphic feel. All of her work must be assembled and disassembled, sometimes an extremely tedious process. Her work was featured in the 2000 Whitney Biennal and the All Soviet Exhibition and in a recent edition of Art News magazine. She is also the recipient of the Alexander Calder Award and a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University. Most recently her work was featured in a solo exhibition in the Pace Gallery in New York.
Food for design wants to be an open source for design, food and science cross-over. We are not interested in creating hypes, but in long term co-operations, where everyone benefits. Promoting quality and collective creativity are the things that count... So please take a seat and have a bite! Best view [res: 1024 x 768] x [browser: firefox]
_ random newsletter
_news
_m[eat]ing 003
17.03.2007::MATERIALS ::
Food for design was invited by the Meat & Fresh expo and will install a creative food laboratory at the rambla during the fair,
where people can find inspiration towards form and taste.
[+ more]
_m[eat]ing 002
18.11.2006::MATERIALS ::
A feast of surfaces, textures, colors and other sensorial elements, using a large palette of food materials.
The objective is to inspire new uses for food materials and provoke new applications within a design context.
[+ more]
_seminar
20.09.2006::MG SEMINAR IN BELGIUM ::
This seminar [ 20 november 2006 ] is organised by the innovation and knowledge centre of food for every one who is interested in food science, technology and cooking processes. This can be chefs, scientists, recipe developers, foodies,...
The guest speakers tell and demonstrate how food science and technology can inspire gastronomy...
[+ english][+ dutch]
_manifesto 001
03.02.2006::FOOD for design::
The first aim of this project is to explore and understand the physicochemical properties of materials / ingredients and apply this under-standing when designing.
_manifesto 002
28.01.2006::food for DESIGN::
A different way of thinking : abandoning the role of "creator" and "descending" to the role of a participant playing within the rules of an experimental process.
All experiments come into being as a result of self-formation processes.
_manifesto 001
22.01.2006::food FOR design::
In exploring the materials the main focus lays on the food as in exploring the structure the primary focus lays on the process.
The goal of this cross-fertilisation project is to add more senses / experience to design, it is a way of sustainable, random, natural thinking to in-spire others, giving food for the future.
