Vending Machine

Weheart posted about the latest in vending machines. This machine in Berlin spits out design things, not junk food. The animated touchscreen interface presents detailed descriptions of all 42 Berlin designed products, ranging from clothing accessories and travel essentials to gifts and even a pepper mill.

Snackbot

NYTimes posted the greatest post I've seen by them in a while: a cooking robot. Snackbot cooks and serves. Better than a husband. It cooks and serves.

Snackbot is a mobile autonomous robot, intended for both fully autonomous and semi-autonomous operation, built by an interdisciplinary team at Carnegie Mellon University. Snackbot has two jobs. One job is to serve as a research platform for projects in robotics, design, and behavioral science. We welcome new partners orsponsors for this work. Snackbot’s other job is to serve snacks.

-Snackbot.org

The long article goes into a lot of unnecessary detail. Check out the video for a quick preview.

Germany Architecture

Coolhunting posted about architecture that caught my eye recently. Herzog & de Meuron, a Swiss architecture firm is credited for the new Vitra Haus (The original campus idea).

This is a new thrill: stacked houses. Above is 12 houses stacked, 5 on the bottom, and the rest precisely plat-formed to coordinate with its neighbor. Each house within the stricture serves as a unique showroom for the Virtra home collection. This can be found in Germany. Click the link above to see pictures of the inside. Sure to blow your mind.

Art in Movies

Cool Stuff posted by /Film let us in on Brandon Schaefer's latest: here.

He is a 25 year old graphic designer from Massachusetts. SO YOUNG and already so successful! His most recent work are the posters for the new Ghostbusters movie.

I really like his style; plus it reminds me of the things teachers like to teach. He executes very cleanly. He is a big inspiration.

His other stuff is posted here at inPrint.

Barbie Will Never Die

Coolhunting is full of good stuff, including this article about the latest Barbie.
This new barbie is the "Barbie Video Girl," a doll with a built-in video camera. The Barbie Video Girl features a camera lens in the (standard size) doll's front and a color LCD video screen on her back for an all-in-one shooting and screening experience.

After being around for 50 years, always coming out with the new barbie based on a new career, this is just another example. This new tool can help kids achieve their goals. Barbie Video Girl doll integrates the educational element. It comes with online editing software where young girls can create and edit their own movies.

The camera records up to 30 minutes of footage, while the software allows for adding music, visual and other sound effects. Barbie Video Girl will be available July 2010 for $50 from Mattel.

Talent

Kseniya Simonva, "Ukraine's Got Talent 2009" winner is an artist, and a very talented one.
She does SAND ANIMATION.
Her performance that won her the title is posted on Youtube.
Simonova is 24 years old. She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII. Her work and performance was seen by 13 million and counting. Simonova won 1,000,000 Ukrainian Hryvnia (approx. USD125,000) for her first place in the show.
More videos here.

The New Gugg

Just opened is the Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Musuem. Coolhuting reviews: the museum in NYC invited about 200 artists, designers, and architects to sbmit their dream proposals for interacting with FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT-designed building's central rotunda, or "void."

The results are out of this world! The approaches to the space reinforce the potency of the Guggenheim's organic architecture, by Wright in 1959.

Art in NYC

Mr. Brainwash is a filmmaker turned street artist and his latest exhibition "Icons" is open in NYC now, in the Meatpacking District. It features paint-splattered portraits of famous fashion designers, musicians, and other public figures. The art is controversial, over the top, and loud. It is not for everyone.

He said he's used krazy glue to attach his art to public walls so people can see art, whether they like it or not.

Definitely click to see more images of this crazy dude's stuff.

It reminds me of a modern Warhol.

Let there be light! No, not that much...

This post by Coolhunting is showing this very simple yet genius new design for a light.

It is called Box Light, by Design House Stockholm. It works like a drawer, pulling it and out of the shell to adjust how much light is emitted. Touch the surface to turn on/off.

Finnish designer, Jonas Hakaniemi, is to be credited.

It comes in black, gray, or silver for $275 and is available online for purchase!

I just love the simplicity of this product.

Green to the 10th degree

Asif Khan, a young London designer and architect recently debuted his latest work entitled, "Harvest Project." Coolhunting reviewed. Harvest Project is a small collection of chairs and a table. Not just any old table and chair--these are made from Baby's Breath, a local plant. Yes, raw green material for FURNITURE.

The plant has to go through some phases in order to aggregate and lock together. They mold, freeze-dry, then they are sculpted with a linseed oil-based resin.

They aren't cheap or durable, but... it is an interesting concept!

Here is another 'grown' product, presented by Core77. It's Tokujin's Yoshioka's 'Venus Chair.'

Fancy Stuff

One of my favorite, most thorough blogs, Coolhunting, posted Jaime Hayon x Gaia & Gino: Valencia Collection. A spanish designer, Jamie Hayon, created this Valencia collection for the brand Gaia & Gino. It is a collection of candlesticks and tea-light holders in crystal that are very unique and fancy.

The pieces are handmade that play into the style of 'affordable yet rare.' They are designed to maximize light reflections and crystal's shine--by way of sandblasting!

They go from $55-200 and debut in May 2010.

Hayon's designs are modern and bright. Check out his other works.

The Sagmeister

Abduzeedo is a graphic design site made to inspire and tutor, showcasing artists and their amazing work.
They recently featured Stefan Sagmiester.
Here is the interview.
For those who don't know, he is a Austrian designer working in New York City whose work gets attention worldwide. He's done projects for clients like Adobe, the Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Aerosmith etc. Sagmeister got awarded with the Lucky Strike Award 2009 which made him $50,000 richer. And, he got nominated for the Grammy because of his awesome CD cover designs four times and got awarded once, for the cover of the Talking Heads album "Once In A Lifetime" in 2005. Since 1993 Sagmeister runs a small design studio in New York City.

A good line from the interview, in my opinion:

"I think we are responsible for anything we do, walking down the street, climbing a mountain and selling a product. We can do all three in a wonderful, sweet and elegant fashion, or we can fuck it up. It’s all up to us."

Just for Laughs

This post is just to have a laugh, not really to show off any new piece of technology or the latest in the design world.
Unfortunately, the site (nowthatsnifty) doesn't say where these pictures came from, who took them, who created them, anything!
So, let's just look and smile. Here are a few. Click for all 31 AWESOME BENCHES!

Architecture in Photography

NYTimes posted this article about Iwan Baan, an architecture photographer. He traveled to nine major cities all over the world in a three week period to feature and capture great design and architecture by the best guys in the biz. Mr. Baan, 34, into almost certainly the most wandering architectural photographer in the world as well as one of the most widely published.

This picture featured is the an elevated railway over the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, with its Rem Koolhaas-designed encircling tube.
A slideshow of other great architecture in beautiful technology, click.

OLED

Another new invention by Konica Minolota that will revolutionize the world. Recently, OLED is attracting attention as the next generation lighting. Konica Minolta is the world leader in OLED. The target is lighting. As of July 2006, they have already released an OLED lighting device which possesses the light emission efficiency and lifespan equal to that of a fluorescent lamp. This device has created much excitement.

OLED stands for Organic EL (Electro-Luminescence), and is the phenomenon of light emitted by organic materials to which a voltage has been applied. This helpful chart shows the difference between OLED and other light forms. The creations of five designs have sprouted from this: flat, slim, curved, lower, and environmentally sound design.

New light that is safer and more efficient while being more advanced in its design and actual job is innovative and exactly what other companies should be striving for.

Museum + Technology

NYTimes featured a side button (not an article) about the latest from Konica Minolta, a company specializing in the advancement of imaging. A couple of their latest projects caught my eye. The one I'm featuring in this post is the one about the Venus de Milo; taking beauty from art to a whole new level. This new invention takes looking at art and enhances it by combining computer technology and 3D imaging to bring out the detail and the unseen.

The advanced technology of the Non-Contact 3D Digitizer, developed by Konica Minolta. This digitizer uses a laser to scan the target object and then analyzes the reflected light to perform detailed measurement of the object's shape. This technology was used as the basis for a grand project in which the Venus de Milo was recreated in perfect 3D detail on a computer.
Their site features a video going into more detail and showing exactly what is happening with new imaging. The sights are spectacular.

The iPad competition

Already! GOOGLE has come out with it's own version of the tablet. Delicious.com linked me to this article by TechCrunch where we can see the compeition to the iPad. The iPad obviously has its flaws, as any first edition would. Google's tablet claims to have fewer glitches and a better way to feature certain apps.

This actually looks legit. I didn't think something would come close in the runnings with Apple, but Google is the exception.

I'm curious to see all the tablet users in a year, and which one is the most popular. I won't have one any time soon, but I like the idea of tablets taking over our lives!!

America, America, America

This article by coolhunting really grabbed me. "America's new heartbeat is Silicon Valley!?" One, I've been to the Valley, and I know several tech-ies, so I feel like I am a little more in that state of mind, understand that world, whatever.

The post talks about how the new America is so fixated on technology and the latest piece of it; not cars like in the 50s, or fashion like in Milan, or art like in Paris.

It is a total reality check--we are so obsessed with technology, it is what sweeps the magazine covers, newspaper headlines, and our Christmas lists.

Sign of the Times

Driving along any major road in America, we are bombarded by signs. Every major brand has its own unique design of sign: style, shape, color, font, etc.

Think about it: a company pops into mind, and usually the sign will correspond.

Josef Schulz, a Düsseldorf-based photographer, captures images and edits them into a new way to look at them. His pictures make up his latest exhibition, "Sign Out," at the Galerie Heinz-Martin Weigand.

The signs are empty, without the makeup of font or words, and erasing certain colors. It is a very interesting piece, something that correlates to the recession, maybe. All in all, this work screams America.