Thursday, October 15, 2009

Call for Entries, I.D. 2010 Annual Design Review




I.D. Magazine is calling for entries for their 2010 Annual Design Review. 

"Since 1954, the Annual Design Review has recognized the best in product, furniture, graphic, and environment design, from the iconic to the obscure. Throughout the years, this annual showcase has chronicled the evolution of design, and highlighted its impact on our material and visual culture. Each year, the featured work is chosen by a jury of leading practitioners, who, along with I.D.'s editorial team, focus the abundance of submissions into a clear survey of the state of design. The resulting overview is published in the July/August issue of I.D. magazine — the Annual Design Review issue." See the full story and competition details here. 

This is not a free entry competition and, "All entries must be postmarked or submitted online no later than December 1, 2009. Entries postmarked or submitted online after December 1 require a late fee of $25 per entry ($15 for students). Entries postmarked after December 15, 2009 will not be accepted." 

Special thanks to Dan Scott for sending the link to this. 

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Some Bike Designs

The Business Week website posted a collection of varying bicycle designs. The above photo is one of 20 or so that look at some different approaches to the humble bicycle. The rest of the bikes can be found here: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/08/0824_worlds_coolest_bikes/index.htm

Patents Gone Wild


Some ideas are best kept a secret, not always to protect their integrity but sometimes to protect the integrity of the inventor. 

I happened to stumble across the "Totally Absurd" website (http://totallyabsurd.com/archive.htm) that has an archive of ridiculous Patents that have actually been lodged and paid for by inventors (hopefully not industrial designers) in the US.

This picture above is one of many - entitled "Doggie Umbrella". Have a laugh going through some of them - it might just make you realise that that crazy idea of yours isn't that crazy after all.