I know it's not Valentine's day, but...

I love these!

Not only do these paper valentines come mailed in a flat package, but they are designed and manufactured by local Portland designer and friend, Nathan Chrislip! He's recently been featured in the NY Times, TreeHugger and a number of other blogs! Way to go, Nathan!

Maybe it's a good time to be prepared for next year's Valentines day!?

Social Connectivity

People want to share their experiences. During a workshop for mobile technologies hosted by Intel, there were a number of issues that came up with this design challenge. It is easy to see that, with the success of facebook, people want to be connected; community is important. Yet, so is privacy. "How people interact and how can a mobile device enhance their daily lives?"

Something that my partner, Nina, and I came up with was a mobile phone application to track the level of activity of your friends, as well as their location. Being new to Portland, and not knowing anyone when I moved up here, I also experienced the need to meet new people. But how is one to meet people when you don't have an established network? So, our application also included an activity invitation option. This would allow people who, say, want to go on a bike ride to send out an anonymous invitation from their mobile network. In this way, we would be using social networking to encourage social activity.

But is this a good thing?

At the end of the day, the group had an interesting discussion that addressed the issue of privacy and relevance to social networking. But I couldn't help but wonder: is our hunger for social networking (through internet and mobile devices) the result of a dysfunctional society? Would this type of application fill the void that has been created from the massive suburban sprawl that resulted in social isolation? I see this kind of mobile technology development as a desperate cry to the poor social structure of our cities today. But maybe that's just me, being an architect. :)

The Venus Chair by Tokujin Yoshioka. The chair is "grown" in a tank as crystals form on a sponge-like substrate. 

Is this perhaps a design of the future, or merely an artistic statement? Hard to tell. But I still think it probably isn't very comfortable to sit on!

Valentines and Air Supply

What is true love without a little Air Supply. Or perhaps the real question is, what is LIFE without Air Supply? 

I'm lying alone with my head on the phone

Thinking of you till it hurts

I know you hurt too but what else can we do

Tormented and torn apart

I wish I could carry your smile in my heart

For times when my life seems so low

It would make me believe what tomorrow could bring

When today doesn't really know, doesn't really know

Chorus:

I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you

I know you were right, believing for so long

I'm all out of love, what am I without you

I can't be too late to say I was so wrong

I want you to come back and carry me home

Away from these long, lonely nights

I'm reaching for you, are you feeling it too?

Does the feeling seem oh, so right?

And what would you say if I called on you now

And said that I can't hold on?

There's no easy way, it gets harder each day

Please love me or I'll be gone, I'll be gone

With lyrics like these, it's not hard to believe that their 1980's album "Lost in Love" contained 3 U.S. Top Five Singles. Actually, what amazes me more is that it's two men singing. I thought for sure that one of the two was a girl... 

Oh, how I love the 80's.

Soda or Pop?

I'm sure you've had it happen to you, too. You say, "pop," and someone stares at you blankly for a minute, only to follow up with "oh, you mean soda!" Whatever. While this may seem rather insignificant, I would like to propose that soft drink terminology is one of the most disputed (linguistically) phenomena in the United States. Lucky for me, I also happened to find this chart to prove my point.

The term for soft drink is so commonly used, you might actually give away your place of origin the moment you open your mouth. In actuality, it doesn't really matter how you say it. Most people will probably understand eventually... but I do have issues with calling every carbonated beverage "coke." Not that I'm bias against the southern dialect, but really. It's like calling everything you wipe your nose with a "kleenex," or every temporary bandage a "bandaid." Oh, the power of product identification. 

Which way am I going?

Design that's not "murder"

As I read Victor Papanek's essay on how design "has finally put murder onto a mass production basis," I was reminded of a design I saw a couple years ago in a business magazine article. Perhaps it can stand as an example of how design can make a meaningful impact on the environment?

The Q-Drum is a response to the lack of access to potable water in many rural African villages. Because the burden of carrying water lands largely on the women and children of these communities, they are faced with  many debilitating back and neck injuries from carrying such large quantities of water great distances. Made of a durable linear low density polyethylene, the doughnut shaped cylinder is designed to be rolled from place to place. Holding 50 liters at a time, it is a manageable size that also meets the waters needs for the day. The simplicity of the design insures the ease of use.