In The Streets » Design

Aerion AS2

@itsthatsmith — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 22:40:21 +0000

Aerion Corporation, of Reno, Nev., is taking orders now for its supersonic private jet, the Aerion AS2. Last year Airbus Group agreed to lend engineering support to the company, and the aircraft is now in development. The company says its proprietary laminar-flow technology reduces aerodynamic drag over the wings by up to 80 percent, enabling the three-engine jet to achieve efficient long-range flight. Supersonic speeds can cut flight time by 3 hours between Paris and Washington, D.C., and by 6.5 hours between San Francisco and Singapore, the company says. Supersonic flight is currently prohibited above the land areas of the United States and many other countries, due to concerns about sonic booms; however, flight speed above oceans is unrestricted. Aerion is working to develop its Boomless Cruise technology that would ensure the shock waves created by supersonic flight would dissipate well above ground level. The AS2 will be built mainly from carbon fiber, with titanium alloy along the leading edge of each wing. The 30-foot-long cabin will seat up to 11. Maximum range is expected to be about 5,400 miles, and top speed is Mach 1.5. The company hopes the first $120 million AS2 will be flying by 2021.

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Jyo John Mullor | Custom-Made Human Head Helmets

@itsthatsmith — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 22:25:51 +0000

dubai-based digital designer jyo john mullor has realized a series of helmet designs that appear to leave the human head totally exposed to outdoor elements. the trompe-l’œil effect brings about the illusion that a series of different people with shaved heads are seamlessly integrated into the plush, yet sturdy protective gear. four variations include a motorcycle cap with ears and earrings, a simple bicycle style with shaved brunette hair, and a vintage safety hat with attached goggles stretching over the surface of the skin. although not yet physical objects, mullor’s ‘custom made helmets’ provide a look at the possibilities of extreme personalization, and would guarantee a double take on the road.

Design To Grow | David Butler

@itsthatsmith — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 04:09:22 +0000

Coca-Cola’s vice president of innovation and entrepreneurship reveals the soft drink giant’s approach to ‘designing for growth’ in new book ‘Design to Grow: How Coca-Cola learned to combine scale and agility’. Get a taste of his insights in this exclusive extract for Marketing.

I used to love my BlackBerry. It was simple to use and made email so much easier than using my laptop.Of course, I wasn’t alone. A few years ago, BlackBerry devices were so popular that many people referred to them as Crackberries; they were that addictive.From 2004 to 2010, BlackBerry owned the mobile phone market. Fast-forward to today: BlackBerry went from a 50 percent market share to near irrelevance. What happened? BlackBerry simply couldn’t adapt. When the market began to shift from cell phones to smartphones—from a focus on hardware to software innovation, handsets to apps—BlackBerry kept developing hardware solutions.

By designing for agility, companies can learn faster and become smarter

Why not? It had worked before. They saw what Apple was doing, but chose to stay the course. After all, Apple was a computer company. What did it know about mobile phones? Like most successful companies, BlackBerry focused on flawless execution— on what had worked in the past—designing beautiful handsets and marketing them around the world. They designed for scale, not for agility.

Designing for agility reduces risk

Unlike Apple, BlackBerry didn’t understand how to use design to learn and adapt to a rapidly changing marketplace. Frankly, Apple didn’t know exactly what would connect with consumers with its first release either. If you bought one of the earliest iPhones, you probably remember that it was very buggy and unreliable. However, this allowed the company to start learning what worked and what didn’t very quickly, which made them smarter.

By designing for agility, companies can learn faster and become smarter, which reduces the risk of being disrupted.

In hindsight, it’s easy to see how BlackBerry missed the whole industry shift. Far from being a toy, the iPhone was actually an incredibly smart design decision by Apple. It enabled them to leapfrog into a completely new industry, disrupt it, and take a leadership position— with the speed and destructive power of a startup.

“The world did not stop for BlackBerry, and we’re seeing the result of that today,” said Bill Kreher, an analyst with Edward Jones. By the time BlackBerry released its Z10 app-based smart phone in 2013, it was far behind the curve—at least two years too late.

Using design to learn and adapt is becoming more and more critical

It’s not like the executives at BlackBerry were oblivious to the world changing outside its doors. I’m sure they had a solid business plan, long-term growth model, and, perhaps, even an inspiring video to boost senior management’s confidence. However, unlike much of business history, the window that a company has to recognize its mistakes and take corrective action has become stunningly small.

As the stakes get higher, and the world gets more complex, using design to learn and adapt is becoming more and more critical. The environment in which managers must make potentially life-and-death decisions for their companies has never been more difficult.

You don’t have to be a CEO or head of state to understand this on a personal level. We have all had to make big shifts—pivots—in our careers just to stay relevant.

This requires an ability to be quick-witted, combined with the intelligence to see what change is coming, and how your own skills can adapt to an environment that is in constant flux.

Fibonacci Zoetrope Sculptures

@itsthatsmith — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 19:09:00 +0000

Don’t stare too long at these zoetropes by John Edmark, a lecturer inStanford‘s art department and a member of Autodesk’s artist in residence program.

The 3-D printed sculptures are designed around the Fibonacci sequence, a mathematical sequence of numbers that can be used to create a spiral, and the “golden angle,” a pattern often found in nature, like in the angles between the florets on sunflowers. The sculptures come to life as they’re rotated, blooming into hypnotic works of art with the help of a little lighting magic. To animate the sculptures, Edmark spins them very quickly, capturing movement with a rapid shutterspeed (1/4000th of a second) to create a seamless stop-motion animation. The same effect can be recreated using a strobe light synchronized toflash every time the sculpture rotates 137.5 degrees.

Check Out Villa Chameleon

Hugo Cubias — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 04:02:38 +0000

A unique architecture and design offered by the Chameleon villa in the exclusive area of Son Vida, with breathtaking views to the sea, the city and the harbor of Palma.

The Chameleon house attracts through its exceptional light effects, which accomplish a true miracle of light; finest crystal on which surface has been installed a special LED technology, can be programmed in its colors corresponding to your wish. The villa consists of three buildings. The main house is divided into three floors with living room, library, TV room, bedroom suites, kitchen and wine cellar. The second building offers the pool, wellness and fitness area. The third building is used as the guest house with 200 m2 of living space.
Characteristics

Home Features – Library, Media Room/Home Theater, Pool – Indoor, Pool – Outdoor, Security System, Spa/Hot Tub, Sprinkler System, Staff Quarters, Steam Room, Storage, Terrace/Outdoor Space, Water View, Wine Cellar/Grotto

PURCHASE HOME

A Guide To American Football

admin — Fri, 24 Jan 2014 12:41:50 +0000

For Liberals, Ladies & Limeys.

Directed, written and animated by Fraser Davidson, kindly voiced by the great guys over at Adventures in Design podcast (aidpodcast.com). All sound work by Morgan Samuel.

Fraser Davidson is a BAFTA Award winning, London based, Motion Graphic Designer, Animator and Director. He was previously Head of Motion Graphics at Mainframe, a Motion Graphics, VFX & Animation House.

Graduating from Nottingham Trent University with a BA in Graphic Design, Fraser has six years experience creating advertising, music videos and channel branding across many media, while working with companies like Sony, MTV, BBC, Nickleodeon, Nike and Guinness. Fraser has had his work featured in a number of publications and has collected three International Promax Awards.

He is one third of Animation Collective Sweet Crude