Adriean Koleric's Herd of AT-ATs is a salute to the designers of a toy that was truly a piece of art.

The lost city of Atlantis could well be at the bottom of any body of water, if it is really made out of plastic containers, the way Gayle Chong Kwan sees it.

Madrid's Spy lightens the urban panorama with his signature interventions.

Antlers are certainly not over. Not when they are on Alessandra Exposito's horses, at any rate.

Si Scott's intricate pen and pencil drawings cover a wide range of themes. Shown above is part of a piece called Babel, in answer to a project on God.

More at Art MoCo.

Craig Alun Smith's WANK chair is a metaphor of the interdependent relationship between the first and third world and speaks to the war for oil in Iraq. You may have noticed the white chair is missing a leg (possibly due to a roadside bomb) and is bleeding oil....

Craig's summary of this work: "In reality WANK is a joke, a commentary on the current state of design and the trend of designers to create pointless 'one line' design objects and pass them off as art". WANK is also currently on display at the Winnipeg Art Gallery as part of the 2 Chairs exhibition.

+ othergallery.com

This week's picks:

+ Matali Crasset's interactive chandelier at matandme, "the light changes colour to the colour of the food [underneath]".

+ Studio Job's Industry collection at designboom, "a cabinet, a screen, a dresser, a table and a pedestal all inlayed with white dyed bird's eye maple and black dyed tulip tree veneer. The studio adapted this traditional woodworking technique using modern laser cutting technology. The pieces all feature intricate and thin patterns, achieving something not possible before.".

+ Asobi design studio's Plye Lamp for Intra Lighting at DesignEast, "The restrained use of bundles of lights offers the possibility of creating different spatial effects.".

+ Igor Pinigin's ANEMONA lamp at Behance, weighted at the bottom the "lamp can be freely rotated and tilted. Several lamps can be assembled into dynamic figures.".

+ Amélie Lachance, Alexandrine Lemaire, Christine Mongeau and Jackie Richardson Allume-moi lamp (light me up), a simple wooden block that transforms into an ambient lamp. Via TrendsNow and AEDII.

+ Patricia Urquiola launches the colorful polycarbonate Frilly chair for Kartell at designboom, "Urquiola wanted to create a fabric effect and incorporated pleats for her final design.". .

+ We Make Money Not Art interviews designers El Ultimo Grito, curators of the Nowhere/Now/Here show at LABoral on now until April 20, 2009.

+ Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec narrate a video of their design portfolio with insights on some of their best known works. The video is in French with English subtitles, click on the Quicktime icon on the lower left side. Via Dezain.

Consumer packaged goods makers enhance product designs with practical twists.

Always on the lookout for new ways to interest customers, packaging designers have found ways to enhance the pack’s contents, by using it to chill or make its contents more flavorful. No longer competing on aesthetics along, the new designs give customers a practical reason to opt for the packaging.

Cases

Fruit Stickles

Trying to help customers find new ways of getting their five a day in a less monotonous way, Fruit Stickles are skewers infused with a cinnamon or tropical flavor. The company has refrained from adding sugar to its recipe to attract a health-conscious customer base.

Robero Cavalli for Coca Cola Light

Enhancing its contents in a fashion sense rather than a functional one, these limited edition Roberto Cavalli designs have been commissioned by Coca Cola Light (Diet Coke). 100,000 bottles of each animal print will be released, bringing a sense of exclusivity, fashion and collectability to a readily available commodity.

Burn Energy Drink

Coke’s Burn Energy Drink, currently available in Europe, offers a can with a unique re-sealable top. A plastic cover can be twisted into place, with a design that is based upon the packaging of salt and other spices. With new energy drinks being constantly introduced, Coca Cola is adding special packing features to separate themselves from competitors.

Kyo No Matcha
With “fresh” and “local” being key words for food products these days, manufacturers of pre-packaged items are seeking ways to change the image of their traditionally less than healthy goods. While bottled green tea might be one of the already acceptable convenience store products, CIC Co. goes the extra mile with its Kyo no Matcha. With a twist of the air-tight cap, 1.4 grams of traditional Kyoto matcha (high-grade green tea) is released into the mineral water below, creating a serving of fresh (yet instant) tea with no added chemicals or preservatives. At ¥5,280 ($52) for a case of 24, Kyo no Matcha is nearly twice the price of regular bottled teas, but certainly within the acceptable range for products billed as healthy and natural.

Trend Impact
These products may not revolutionize the food industry, but they could inspire new approaches to packaging, putting the customer in control of the final stage of preparation before the product is consumed. It’s also possible this trend could inspire food wraps infused with certain flavors or cling film that absorbs certain unpleasant odors or bacteria.

If you’ve ever wondered what it means to work at the intersection of Managers and Designers than you should watch this great video clip! … after all I was wondering the other day which Muppet character would best characterise a Design Manager!? Any ideas?

Again one of these posts I would have wished to have written myself ;-) Anyway I’ve skim read Kevin McCullagh’s posting on the Core77 Design Blog just before leaving to The Hague last week. Fortunately Kathryn Best reminded me on Kevin’s posting after my return a week ago!

What I like about Kevin’s post is his approach to assemble a sort of list of patterns he has observed when it comes to describing the term we love so much these days: ‘Design Leadership’. What I like in particular about ‘pattern recognition’ in general and this is also a reason why I like Kathryn’s book on Design Management is that it is not aiming for categories and definitions academia is looking after like: ‘right-wrong’, ‘good-bad’ or ‘truth’ in general.

While I will give my very own definition or better ‘description’ of the term later on I’d like to point to the four questions that have triggered Kevin’s article:

1.) What makes a design leader?

2.) Do they have to be designers?

3.) Who is leading whom?

4.) And to where exactly?

A point where I do disagree with him is clearly addressing question 2 as I don’t think that ‘Design Leaders’ necessarily need to be designers themselves. Let me try to explain this by referring back to the photo (or collage) I’ve assembled and which you see in the upper left corner. The picture in the lower right corner is taken from Kathryn’s book and illustrates quite well the three areas of responsibility of a Design Leader, a Design Manager and a Designer as those people in organisations who ‘Define a Vision’, ‘Manage the Process’ and ‘Create the Content’.

While on one hand I think that this ‘classification’ is helpful for better understanding the very often unclear terms I do think that on the other hand they are too discrete. Apparently a Designer or Design Manager can only remain in their category and won’t be able to embrace all of them at the same time. In contrast according to my understanding of a ‘Good Designer’ she/he must be able to address all those levels in order to ‘thoughtfully design’.

Therefore and in order to make the model more flexible I’d want to refer to one of the originators of the term ‘Design Thinking’ namely Roger Martin. You see his latest book ‘The Opposable Mind’ pictured in the upper left corner of the collage. Then replace ‘Design Leader’ with ‘Design Thinker’ and let ‘Design Leadership’ embrace all three functions ‘Design Thinking, Design Management and Design’ and you have a more flexible framework that communicates the key message: “Only if you’re good at all disciplines: ‘Thinking, Managing and Designing’ you are a ‘Design Leader’!

Accordingly this perspective also implies that one person will have a hard time to act as a ‘Design Leader’ since this would imply that all functions would need to be addressed by her/him alone. Even though for example the success of Apple Computer these days might appear as the single effort of Steve Jobs it is for sure the joint effort of many more (needless to mention Jonathan Ive).

Furthermore I do think that it is somehow anachronistic to believe that (in the competitive business landscape of these days) that individuals are still able to dominate; even though I admit that we tend to have a fascination for these sort of ’single heroes’.

Instead ‘Design Leadership’ according to my perspective above recognises that it is something that needs to be achieved collaboratively as a joint team effort of various ’specialists’. So the answer to Kevin’s question No. 2 definitely is: No, because only teams as I’ve described them above can effectively handle various functions from several disciplines with ‘Design Thinkers’ as the category most likely to embrace people from non-design disciplines.

What do you think? Is this something Kathryn/We shall adopt for the future?

I should share some snippets from last Friday when I’ve joined several of my peers in The Hague, NL. However please allow for some digesting of my impressions and thoughts! I will write a follow up for sure ;-)

After all what we’ve touched in our panel discussion as well as during the ‘after show’ talks has been (amongst others) the question how to best enter the ‘Design Management Sphere’. From regular email conversations as well as face2face talks this seems to be an urgent question in particular for fresh (design) graduates.

What I usually respond (and this is not meant as ‘fobbing off’) is that independent from their focus of study (let it be design or business administration just to name the two most dominant ones) graduates should try to gain as many and rich experiences in their field of profession as possible. This enables them to comprehensively explore the pros and cons of the field and will help them to render more precisely which domain of the Design Management sphere they are most interested in: Digital, Brand, Corporate, Industrial, Consumer, Services, just to name a few.

Ultimately and this is what I truly believe in: Design Management to a large degree is to a large degree nurtured by the application of (for sure!) cross-disciplinary experiences and skills that tend to rather grow over time. This does however not mean that undergraduate BA & MA programmes in Design Management are not useful. This is however a different discussion to be discussed at another time.

So, for those of you who are seeking for these cross-disciplinary experiences delivered in a highly condensed format you might want to have a look at the MoHo Website. Here’s a snippet from their vision statement:

“Innovation is hampered by a myriad of factors in today’s globalised world. The lack of communication between knowledge centers such as engineering, marketing and design in companies, creates distortions and miscomprehensions between people that heavily penalize the innovation process.

These problems are further amplified if economic reality is brought into the picture. Too many products have been ‘invented’ in the past with little or no potential for economic success. ‘Inventors’ very easily forget the importance of market reality.”

Unfortunately I haven’t been aware of this initiative and hopefully they will share some of the findings publicly soon!

Side note:

These are the facts & figures of the event I do miss more designers here for sure:
# 7 days in Palo Alto
# June 1 - June 8
# 1 house
# 16 partners
# 15 endorsements
# 15 engineering students
# 3 design students
# 15 business students
# 10 social entrepreneurs
# 10 artists
# 5 venture capitalists
# 2 design professors
# 3 business professors

MODERN FURNITURE - COOL SWIVEL CHAIRS (to see full article go to 2modern)

Luxy italy | big jim
31.5" wide x 32.28" high, seat height: 16.53"
for version with swivel auto return and polished aluminum base
$1,525.00 available through SPENCER INTERIORS

MODERN LOUNGE CHAIR re-inventing the bean bag chair


Available through Ligne Roset, Livingspace Interiors Vancouver

MODERN DAYBEDS - Frigerio Italy (to see full article go to 2modern)


Frigerio Italy | cooper wings daybed 90 cm
35.43" x 59.84" x 26.77"/34.25" high, seat height: 13.77"
$5,685.00 in fabric Cat Lusso available through SPENCER INTERIORS

MODERN FURNITURE - SPAIN (to see full article go to 2modern)

The "holy day" lounge chair from Vicarbe Spain designed by Jean-Marie Massaud is the perfect modern alternative to the the commonly used Barcelona Chair.
(27.5"W x 30.3"D x 26.4"H) $2,179.00 CAD from Spencer Interiors.

MODERN DAYBEDS - still sourcing (to see full article go to 2modern)

“The reuse of billboard vinyl in earthbag construction mitigates the impact of global warming in two ways. Transforming this landfill-bound material into another useful product helps lessen landfill overflow worldwide. It also eliminates the need to protect earthbags from UV rays, resulting in more robust emergency shelters that can be used longer to lessen the human suffering caused by natural disasters.”

“As a visual concept, each billboard shelter stands as a symbolic gesture of sustainability. Beyond its environmental benefits, the strategy of reusing billboard vinyl visually recontextualizes the nature of billboards, which are symbols of mass consumerism and a pervasive form of visual pollution in our world. This concept does not seek to generate imagery, but instead appropriates existing commercial imagery as a metaphor for global recycling and reuse. Assembled together into a shelter, the earthbags create a dynamic and vibrant pattern of collaged images and text from around the world, dramatically suggesting a unified, international gesture of sustainability, hope, and humanitarianism.”

According to the jurors, they "were intrigued by this project as an example of ‘cradle-to-cradle’ design pertinent to the signage industry. Utilizing intrinsic qualities of billboard PVC—UV resistant and near indestructible—this concept proposes the creation of dwellings from recycled material and imagery. The idea takes the recycling of billboards, street banners, and print graphics—already employed by art museums in the creation of second-use products—to another level. Truly inventive!"

This all sounds pretty good, and might well work if the billboard material were cut and sewn into bags. One obvious disadvantage of the idea is that since PVC is toxic when burned, this would present a potential hazard to the occupants, but of course this is true of many modern building materials. PVC poses a great risk in building fires, as it releases deadly gases long before it ignites, such as hydrogen chloride which turns to hydrochloric acid when inhaled. As it burns it releases yet more toxic dioxins. Additionally, vinyl does outgas highly toxic VOCs over time. Fortunately most of this danger would have passed with the use of recycled signs, but this could also be an issue.

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