By Max Burton - May 11, 2012
Last week was the culmination of a 16-week Industrial Design junior level class from the California College of the Arts (CCA). The class was divided into two groups with two different subject areas for the students to choose from. Myself, Max Burton from frog and Karson Shadley from Shape Field Office taught a segment on ‘wearable sound’ and Chris Luomanen of Thing-Tank and Rob Swinton from Huge Design taught a segment on ‘personal mobile safety.’ To enhance the level of realism and to develop connections with the local professional design community, we held the final presentation of the students’ work at frog design in our San Francisco studio and Lunar‘s head office in Potrero Hill with many local industrial design professionals as guest critics.
The course is intended to emulate a real-life design project. Students go through the entire design process from choosing an end user and discovering opportunity areas through design research. They then go onto concept exploration, sketching, model-making, 3D CAD and rendering and final presentation. We put an equal emphasis on problem solving and a rigorous design process as we did on the final physical form factor. In today’s competitive marketplace for industrial design it is essential that students demonstrate their capacity for original-thinking and problem-solving skills as well as the high mastery of skills that are fundamental to be a successful industrial designer.
By Jonas Damon - May 4, 2012
As designers we enjoy figuring out new ways of interacting with the world around us. Clients often come to us with raw, just-invented technologies, and we help add a human perspective. New technologies prompt new forms, and we look for meaning in form. A product’s personality is the sum expression of the content it delivers, the function it performs, the behavior it elicits, and the aesthetic it portrays.
By Jin Seok Hwang - April 2, 2012
Ever since the birth of the bicycle nearly two hundred years ago, designers, builders, and manufacturers have been inspired to evolve this two-wheeled mode of transportation. The motorcycle developed as an offshoot, and it too continues evolving through inspired technological advancement. Today we are facing the normalization of electric vehicles, and are looking at this technology to once again create a distinctive influence on state of two-wheeled transportation design. The introduction of new technologies often serves as an impetus for industrial designers to rethink the design of familiar archetypes.
By Martin Ruegg - January 18, 2012
Having been in San Francisco for nearly a year, I was excited to head back to Switzerland this Autumn and revisit my roots. In October the Alps are still free of snow and the grass is a lush green. An ideal time to explore the Confederation Helvetica.
By Cormac Eubanks - December 6, 2011
After all the feedback I got on my last motorcycle-related post, and having had to answer a lot of requests from folks since about which is the best first bike to buy, I decided to make a handy flowchart to determine exactly which bike is right for you. Just work your way down the chart to motorcycling bliss.
By Amina Horozic - November 7, 2011
A few weekends ago, during Oakland’s Art Murmur, my friend and I swung by a rather small gallery to check out the work on display. It was near closing time, and we were obviously late to the party. Aside from the gallery owner, some fancy cheese, broken up crackers, half-empty bottles of cheap wine and the two nouveau-hipsteresque gentlemen in all black, there was nobody else in there. The pieces were hung in the back half of the space and resembled some sort of indigenous dream catchers. At first glance I thought that they might have been remnants of an archeological dig, rather than contemporary art created just few months prior—there was simply a certain air of primitive authenticity to them.
By Mimi Zou - September 26, 2011
The subject of aesthetics is one of changing paradigms and endless intrigue. In objects, just as with subjects, the meaning of “beautiful” has evolved perpetually with time. But one decision spares debate: given two which only differ in aesthetics, the one we consider more beautiful will always remain.
By Mansour Oursanah - September 12, 2011
Since the dawn of civilization tools have been an extension of humanity. Today more than ever humans and their tools are inseparable. I’ve noticed that for the past couple of years I’ve gone to sleep with my laptop and my phone flanking my bed. An observation I’ve taken for granted but that has categorically reshaped my night and morning routines. My two “goddesses— to borrow a meme from Charlie Sheen— are the first things I touch when I wake up-no pun intended: one to check the time and the other to absorb information I missed while I was asleep. Despite this often symbiotic relationship I have with my two favorite tools, I’m never satisfied; I’m always left wanting more. I’m not alone…..almost everyone wants more out of their tools and designers are no exception.
By Kristina Loring - September 12, 2011
We know at frog that good design can improve the experience for life’s problems both large and small. That’s why frog teamed up with Dune Road Design to create a product that alleviates the chaos and frustration of rogue headphone cords. Thus, the Sinch was born: a new, high-design answer to the problem of keeping smart device cords tangle-free.
By Kajsa Westman - August 22, 2011
A lifecycle analysis of a design before it flies is tough task, the specs are likely to not exist prior to the product being on the market. It’s next to impossible to locate the hidden toxic traps, logistic nightmares, and energy thieves without expensive testing of the supply chain form start to finish. It’s also possible to miss out on finding better logistic solutions, material and energy savings as well as consumer benefits.
So how about a middle way, a lifecycle guesstimation?
