Maker Faire

photo: plastigami by Andy Lee

The thisislarry clan headed up to the Maker Faire today, between our now-standard Little League game Saturday and a pair of birthday parties for friends of Princess Pony on Sunday afternoon.

Stacks of mind-blowingly cool stuff, from DIY mechanical frog dissections hosted by Ambidextrous magazine, to the giant human-powered nose-picking machine, to an experimental duo of electronic cellos named the Trees of Pythagoras, to good old-fashioned robot wars (Rabbit Dragon's fave) -and we only saw maybe a third of what was there!

Also got to find out alot more about the TechShop, a new DIY open-access workshop here in the bay area. Very cool, and very tempting.

My favorite single piece, in terms of elegance, simplicity, scale, and trying to do one thing well, was IDEO alumni Andy Lee 's plastigami series of prototype furniture (pictured above). Especially as Andy's booth was situated between the loud experimental instruments, and the DIY glitter-and-paint kids projects (Princess Pony's fave), his nice white prototypes were an oasis of calm. Doh, I forgot to buy one of his $3 plastigami frogs....

nonobject book and website

Branko Lukic, an extraordinary personality as well as a impressive IDEO alumni, once described my engineering skill as "strong, like a train." I can't say I live up to, but doesn't it sound great?

Branko emailed me to tell me that the book he has been thinking about for years is coming to life:

After almost 10 months of intense work (and 5 years in preparation) I am pleased to announce the first public preview of the nonobject Book.
To see the preview please go to:

nonobjectbook

(make sure you have the sound ON)

This is the first installment in series of 6 movies that will be released in sequence, prior to book launch in q3 2007.

Feel free to share and propagate the link. The nonobject Book was created to inspire and provoke.

I hope that you will enjoy!

Kind Regards,

branko Lukic

Cant wait to see the next five installments, go Branko go!

on Hubwear

Been busy here in the thisislarry tower. Not even time to give proper comments to all the good posts on ricedaddies.

The project which took me travelling this summer has ended, and the new one begins next week, with a trip to Michigan, not Ohio.

Some good news to write about, for a friend of thisislarry's: Hubwear, the t-shirt line promoting storytelling thru airport codes, has gone both viral and global. Viral in that designer George Aye recounts how he spotted a hubwear shirt in the wild! And global in that Hubwear has been written up very keenly in Springwise, billed as "your daily fix of entrepreneurial ideas." See the Springwise write-up for an explanation of the teensie hubwear shirts shown above.

When I was in Chicago this summer, I of course had my hubwear tee with me, and George immediately recognized it as one of his earlier shirts. I have no idea how, so I guess I'll just have to get a few more and compare for myself....

Have your National Design Things without me.

Wouldn't you know it, metacool says today starts the inaugural National Design Week, and I am in London and Munich until its over (and its already tomorrow here, so take that).

And then daddytypes has to tell us about the Frieze fair, which I am missed because I didnt know what it was until Friday night, er, I mean, I opted not to attend this year ....

London Calling

In London this week & weekend on business, in trendy Clerkenwell to be precise, at the Zetter hotel to be absolutely precision. The weather has been exceptionally lovely, and I just got to spend the day talking up some colleagues I've not met before, capped off by beers, mojitos, and gastropub food.

Stopped by the muji store to get covetous japanese design goods in the heart of the UK.

On tap for this weekend: the Tate Modern, and trying not to get creamed crossing the street.

Prarie Modern Dilemma

In my regular scan for all things Eichler, I came across a site called PrairieMod . Their mission?

It's our self-described mission to show that the ideas and ideals expressed over a century ago by the Prairie School and in the case of what Frank Lloyd Wright refined and matured over his 70 year career, can and should be studied, experienced and adopted for our modern world. Those notions of craftsmanship, honest construction, unity of design, beauty, function and simplicity are universal themes that are not relegated to a bygone era.

Sounds pretty good so far,

In the era of the "McMansion" and the mass consumption of cheap and poorly manufactured Chinese imports, it becomes imperative that we rethink our society's cultural course and re-examine what makes us American.

Hmmm. Cheap shot at China aside, a good question. Can one really recreate the ideals of a bygone American era, in today's global (warming) -ized world? Makes living in a mid-century modern Eichler somewhat of a moral dilemma....

Design by listmaking

Somehow, it has become a week (or two) of lists.

1. From John Thackara at The Doors of Perception, the Power Laws Of Innovation:

Don’t start from zero. Re-mix what's already out there.

2. More from John Thakera, Eight Rules on How to be Good:

Hands-on or hands-off. Hungry people need posters and campaigns less than they need food to eat.

3. And some rules from Nabeel Hamdi:

Work backwards, move forwards; start where you can

4. Bob Sutton continues his reply to a WSJ article bashing brainstorming with these Eight Tips for Better Brainstorming.

Brainstorming sessions are worthless unless they are woven with other work practices.

5. Finally, making the rounds again recently, Michael McDonough's Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me In Design School, via Design Observer:

Start with what you know; then remove the unknowns.

6. Happy list reading!

Darn, Too Reliable!

Every designer secretly wishes that her or his creations become icons. But be careful what you wish for, especially if you happen to be designing small arms. Mikhail Kalashnikov is the designer behind the AK-47, the most popular assault rifle in the world, with over 100 million in existence.

Kalashnikov recently lamented the icon status of his creation:

"I didn't put it in the hands of bandits and terrorists and it's not my fault that it has mushroomed uncontrollably across the globe. Can I be blamed that they consider it the most reliable weapon?"

Good thing I could never say the same thing about the products I've worked on. Or, could I?

simplicity, design, and corn

[Update August 17] Totally cool, these cornholders I worked on for Zyliss were just reviewed in the New York Times, two weeks after my blog entry. Coincidence? You decide.

From the article:

"How is a corn holder like a sock? No, this is not the first line of an absurdist joke. The serious answer, courtesy of the product development team at Zyliss USA, a kitchen tools maker, is that neither item is useful on its own. Just as socks come in pairs, so too must corn holders; lifting a cob with a single holder can end only in frustration.

"Mr. Gerber says that many parents have praised the product, not only because it lessens the chances of a painful poke, but also because it provides entertainment value. "It's a little bit of a toy," he said. "You have it in your hands, and you have to pull it apart and then put it together."

"In this way, too, corn holders are rather like socks. Anyone who has ever turned a tube sock into a cheerful puppet can attest to that."

[original post: Aug 2, 2005] My goal in designing a product is simplicity. Perhaps because I spent years doing engineering on robots and satellites, I've really come to appreciate not overdoing a thing. Instead, I'd rather distill an idea into its most deceptively basic incarnation, so that it stays true to what it was designed to be, and doesn't try to be something else.

Simple doesn't mean easy. Often, you have to start with complex solutions, and then reduce them down to simplicity. A good case study: the corn holders IDEO designed for Zyliss. These corn holders do just two things: First, of course, they hold ears of corn. Second, they nest together in pairs when not being used. That's it. They don't try to look like corn. They dont try to look classic, or cute, or gadgety. They don't give you a rubber grip, because, really, it's corn. They just hold the corn when you need them to, and nest together when you're done.

Why nest in pairs? I imagined my toddler digging thru the kitchen knick-knack drawer, poking his little fingers on inconsiderate corn holders. I needed a way for corn holders not to be so dangerous. Nesting these holders hides the sharp ends of the prongs. This is great for fingers, small and large. It turns out that nesting these corn holders in pairs also helps organization: matched pairs stay together, no odd bit left in the drawer.

My first idea was for each corn holder's prongs to flip in and out, like a pocket knife. But, even with only three or four parts, there were too many extra parts and motions in hiding and revealing the prongs. Same with other 'actions' to collapse the holders like little machines. Who wants something as simple as a corn holder to become as complex as a corkscrew?

The idea to nest the holders came after. Much simpler: No moving parts. By adding features in the plastic body of one holder to accept the prongs of the other, you could tuck away the sharp points, without adding any new parts or complexity. This was the right path, the appropriate amount of simplicity.

Our industrial designer took the concept and improved on it. He gave it an elegant form, echoing the purposeful design language of our previous work with Zyliss. We also moved the nesting feature to the core of the form, simplifying the concept even more. When nested, each holder completely hides the prongs of its mate. The pair is secure, and complete. Its simple form conveys this fact.

Just this afternoon, I heard a talk from one of our London designers about some work they've recently done for a well known Italian brand. Simplicity was the key phrase she used as well, to describe the design intent of their work. It's definitely one continuing theme in the IDEO aesthetic.