“Forsman & Bodenfors came up with another innovative digital campaign for Ikea by turning one of Facebook’s basic functions into a promotional tool, to promote the opening of the brand’s Malmo outpost, its most modern store to date. Armed with little media budget, the agency came up with an unconventional Facebook campaign that started with a profile of the store’s manager, Gordon Gustavsson. Gustavsson uploaded pictures of the store’s showrooms to his photo album and any “friends” who tagged the products with their names then won those items.”
This weekend (thanks vimeo) I’ve been enjoying the TV series Design for Life (mentioned before) featuring design guru Phillipe Starck.
Unlike many other design reality shows that I’ve seen, Design for Life dives into the reality in design thinking. Most people outside of the design community generally perceive design as purely aesthetics which in some industries is true, but in a majority of the ones I know, aesthetics is perhaps the last 10% in design.
Design is a method, a process, a way of life, a means to adapt. One breaths every aspect in design while eating, walking around, watching people, sleeping, or typing as I am now. There is a intricate pathway in researching, understanding, inventing, presenting, developing, trying, and broadcasting before one even touches how an project finally looks. Designers want to encapsulate an experience from A to Z and not just elements of a product. One must understand how to observe and learn about a project, then have the ability to influence and push forward a direction upon these observations. Then the deep dive into sketching, communicating, collaborating, interacting, and executing several steps within design. A large understanding in manufacturing techniques, engineering, material properties, transportation limitations, cost, client definitions, brand awareness, business, marketing, users, and trends are all aspects which all designers should be knowledgeable of.
Design for Life is an entertaining glimpse into Starcks personality and philosophies while watching his team educate young individuals into their process. It would be nice to see more shows like this. Watch the 6 episodes after the jump via Vimeo…. which does not include commercials =) ( a better user experience) (more…)
Oh my, luggage that flips into a scooter while your waiting in the airport. A little bored, or tired lugging your gadgets around? Stick them in, flip out the wheel, and ride them around! ha! pretty sweet and has a I want One vibe. Not sure if this is just a concept or actually going into production, but I think I’d buy one for 80-90 bucks and have some fun in the airport.
Dupont sent designverb an iPod Touch to test out their new MySurface app which has a catalog of Corian and Zodiaq materials. It’s a pretty simple app with a library of images to flip through and a gallery of environments. Though I personally find materials like Corian and Zodiaq very tangible, a quick glance at colors and texture visually with this app can be quick filter in selections before grabbing real samples to feel their weight, temperature, light refraction, and vibe.
And yup, I’m giving away a brand new iPod Touch (thanks dupont) to a reader that sends me the best improvement for this app or any other general cool design must have app that does not exist. Send ideas to designverb (at) gmail.com . I’ll pick a winner in a few weeks.
I’ve got a few suggestions for this particular app:
1. For iPhone users, let them use the camera, and augment the materials in their real space.
2. Let the materials be custom adjustable to augment onto their cameras view like a table.
3. A details page about the material like hardness, texture, cost, colors, uses, weather, etc.
4. Options in sorting, not just by color, but by hardness, texture, weight, grain, cost, etc.
5. Have a gallery of images for each material, not just a separate gallery.
6. I know Corian has some translucency . Maybe show what the material looks like when thin and back lighted.
7. Add an adjustable bar to have light go across the material. See how it reflects, moves, changes.
8. Maybe add some filter options… dark, marble like, textured…search.
A few pics of the app after the jump of the app. (more…)
“The Obama presidential campaign was innovative. For the first time in American politics, a candidate used art and design to bring together the American people—capturing their voices in a visual way.
The Design Director of the Obama campaign, Scott Thomas, has collaborated with artists and designers to create Designing Obama, a chronicle of the art from the historic campaign. Get the inside story on how design was used by the campaign, and scope out the pieces, created unofficially, by grassroots supporters.”
This book will only happen enough donations are received by November 4th. They are 2/3rds they way there, so if you you’d like to buy the book ($50) or donate a smaller amount for a pdf of it ($10) visit their site now.
Transform an existing staircase in a subway staircase next to an escalator into a step-a-thon playing piano, and people will walk. Add fun changes common behavior!
If your liking these video posts, go join the Designverb Facebook Fan page, where I’m posting lots of cool videos not on designverb, including my tweets, Last.fm favorites, yelps, and much more.
Philippe Starck has a reality show about design called Design For Life on the BBC… but not just design, but more importantly design thinking, observation, understanding, and how design is almost more about everything outside of what most think of design.
Thus far, I’ve enjoyed the first episode and think it’ll be a great insight into what design really is… not just aesthetics or making cool objects, but understanding a story as a whole, a process, an eco-system and a rather complex element that is widely ignored.
IKEA’s 2009 online catalogue uses the old typeface. (Futura)
IKEA’s 2010 online catalogue features the Verdana font.
Unbelievable! IKEA switches up their long lasting Futura font that everyone has grown to love to Verdana which though great, just quite doesn’t do the trick for me for an icon like IKEA! Outrage I say =)
Much like the whole Tropicana rebranding disaster that got rejected by consumers once it came out, I’m not sure this is a good move, though change and understanding take time… I’m sure ther was a reason for this… wait, isn’t Verdana a free font from Microsoft? I’ve had recent troubles in license agreements with font foundries.
Article:
“Thumbing through his local Swedish newspaper, Göteborg resident Mattias Akerberg found himself troubled by a full-page advertisement for Ikea. It wasn’t that the Grevbäck bookcases looked any less sturdy, or that the Bibbi Snur duvet covers were any less colorful, or even that the names given to each of the company’s 9,500 products were any less whimsical. No, what bothered Akerberg was the typeface. “I thought that something had gone terribly wrong, but when I Twittered about it, people at their ad agency told me that this was actually the new Ikea font,” he recalls. “I could hardly believe it was true.”
Chow.com has a great video interview with John Nese of Galcos incredible soda pop store of more than 500 sodas. Very insightful video briefly talking about history in flavors, bottles, ingredients, politics, experiments, and just plain great to watch!
