I started Designverb on January 18th, 2006 as a quick experiment to jot down the many things I found to share with my friends and anyone else curious. Today, August 1st, 2010, marks my 1000th post, and this one being the 1001’st.
I’ll admit the the opportunities, friendship, community, and insights I’ve received throughout the years has been amazing and it has surely kept me busy after a long day of work and on weekends. There are times where I’m flooded with work and have very little time to post, but I started a Facebook Fan page where I post quick fun links and have recently found some extra contributors to help find more great things to post about.
The Above picture is of sushi at O Ya here in Boston. I tend to eat sushi to celebrate so maybe I’ll go there this week again.
Back in March 2007, soon after starting Designverb, I was selected as 1 in 100 artist worldwide to create a design for the Converse JoinRed initiative to bring AIDS awareness and to raise money for the cause. Above is the one of the final designs I submitted which was stitched by hand and went through quite a design process even though I later submitted a re-worked design because of trademarks issues in my first design. Though I am not a shoe designer, I approached this project as any of my other projects diving into research, discovery, meaning, definition, creation, and refinement.
If your interested, read after the jump to see the design process, thinking, and some other design concepts I thought up but did not continue with in this short 2 week project.
It’s been awhile since I last posted about a new beverage but this week I came upon a refreshing drink called Alo which infuses aloe bites along with an assortment of other flavors giving water a nice simple zest. I think I’ve had something like his in Hong Kong before. I first had the aloe with wheat grass mix called Awaken and just picked up the original aloe version called Exposed, but they have quite a few new assortments of flavors on their website which I have yet to come by at a store. Anyhow, go give Alo a try… these bottles cost me about $5 each so hopefully it’ll be available in bulk to customers for a better price soon…. otherwise Alo is DELICIOUS!
I’ve been incredibly busy helping organize the TEDxCambridge event occurring May 16th at the MIT Stata Center. The theme “How do you eat” is based off of this year TED prize winner Jamie Oliver in regards to Food and education. If you are in Boston May 16th, apply to get an invite and let me know. We can only invite 300 attendees and registration will close soon. You can learn more on tedxcambridge.com
Also, if you are in a position to sponsor any food, funding, or gifts for the event, please contact me asap. (now! =) ).
We will have 2 break sessions followed by an evening event in eating, drinking, and idea sharing!
Lots of awesome speakers in the line up!
- Wylie Dufresne: WD 50
- Chandler Burr: Times Scent critic
- Dan Ariely: Behavioral Economist
- Richard Chisolm: Filmmaker
- John Gertsen: Mixologist
- many more!
Right after that I’ll be scurrying off back to Boston for ROFLcon II for a rather fun 2nd day of the web in a room!
Several posts to follow, otherwise, lots of extra mini links on the facebook fanpage.
Summers near and it’s times to buy some new shades. Having been in an Industrial Deign program a few pairs of safety glasses has always been standard, but to see them make it out to the fashion world is refreshing with a twist of style to the vintage look. Jon and Lizzie of Wintercheckfactory.com have taken a spin on the safety glasses and I might just have to get a pair. A good buy for $45.
Wow! Bing has really taken Maps navigation to a new level. First off they are finally integrating Photosynth into Maps which will take some time to become more common due to cameras lacking gps data, but then they blow the socks off of the TED audience with streaming video footage inside a map taking augmented reality to a live reality. Watch the video above to be blown away!
I was shopping around Boston this weekend and came upon a new watch by Nixon (51-30 PU) that caught my attention. It’s big, heavy, and pretty feels great on the arm. I’ve come by other like watches which cost more but I just wanted to share this find with ya’ll because I like it and think it’s a pretty good deal for $370 though $300 would be much nicer. I’m thinking about buying it, but for now, I’ll just share the find. It comes in a few colorful flavors. Check it out.
While in Hong Kong I was told about some Coca-Cola soda bottle that created ice just by shaking it. These soda bottles are stored in a special vending machine throughout Hong Kong. When you open it, then shake it a bit, the inside liquid creates ice! I didn’t have the time to fetch one of these bottles, but I found a few video clips (here, here, and the above video) .
From my knowledge, the soda is the same as regular soda, but the temperature is a bit more chilly. When you shake the soda after opening it, carbon throughout the bottle fizzes up, creating ice crystals, hence making ice. It’s just the right temperature to turn some of the of the liquid to slush, but not freeze the whole bottle. I’m making a guess about how this all works based on this “Beer magic trick video” though it seems to also work with plain water. I’m going to have to give this trick a try.
“Blue Dot Studio put 25 of their chairs on the streets of Manhanttan, and then followed the chairs through a combination of GPS and video surveillance as people picked them up and took them home–which, by the way, the public could follow in real time on Twitter. Then they interviewed the chair-collectors. This is the film.I love the friendly use of hacked mobile and surveillance technologies to enhance the shared nature of urban experience, and the exploration of how today’s brick-and-mortar cities are fused with real-time electronic interactions. I love the way these people talk about how the chairs intersect with their lives, and the passionate way they speak of “curb-mining” and upcycling the things they find on the city streets.”