reNEW solar battery charger

Good news! After working for four months, Donn Koh, Herlinda, and I have won the Gold Award for the LiteOn Awards 2009.

Check out our hard work here!

Worrying? Over-rated.

I saw this quote randomly today, and it pretty much applies to my life right now (as I have to fabricate a chair in 2 weeks!). Go go work!

"The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work."

-Robert Frost




That being said, this awesome video is quite appropriate!
Peter Bjorn and John - Nothing to Worry About

Happy Friday!

500 Days of Summer

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel do a music video for their recent film 500 Days of Summer to "Why do you let me stay here" by She and Him.



Let's start this week off right.

Sweet Disposition

Agh i love this song! Happy belated Friday!


by The Temper Trap

Cake

For the past 6 weeks in our Design Communications studio, Sylvia Spencer, Michael Kandel and I have been working to create a new brand/identity for Men's Beauty products. Our design team is called "Cake," because our designs provide many sweet layers of awesome solutions. The concepts shown here are what I rendered for our last critique, where we each presented 3 brand families. We have been working around having a design language that fits the theme "Urban Raw," which is for urban men who are attracted to pure colors and materials and a stripped-down lifestyle. Through our process we have been working together a lot and have made smart decisions because of it.

For our next step, we each are taking one of our concepts and refining the form, CMF (color, material, finish), the brand's story, graphics, and the user.  I will be refining the Envoy concept.

New Rule

Angus and Julia Stone - Mango Tree

Maybe not a new rule, but something that I need to remember when I get my head wrapped up with work: Enjoy your summer, your friends and family, no matter how much stuff you have to do.

Cheers to you, buddies

Raw Beauty

I found this chair on designboom and fell in love with the elegant way the "Yii" chair uses its material and refers to craftsmanship. The chair was a collaboration between NTCRI (National Taiwan Craft Research Institute) and TDC (Taiwan Design Center) aiming to use traditional craft techniques in a contemporary way. Led by creative director Jeff Shi, it encompasses the philosophy of "yii," which is a law of natures transformation over time.

It is made of 43 bamboo cantilevered slats.

Go here.

Yea Friday!

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday!

I'd like to share Little Star Pizza with you. It is the most scrumptuous, mouth-watering pizza I have ever encountered. The deep dish pizza uses a cornmeal based crust that alludes to cornbread. The ingredients, which I feel San Francisco is really good at, are all organic and fresh. If you are ever in San Francisco, it is on Valencia and 16th. Please please go there.

Chair Progress

It's our chair quarter this summer, and narrowed my concepts down to a story that explains nature through geometric forms. The theme is "in the park" where anyone who sits in it can be reminded of relaxing in the park. It is a quiet form, but has many intricacies and elements of surprise.

I'm currently refining the bench (form and legs) and figuring out the most efficient way to manufacture this. As of now, the bottom of the bench will be steam-molded felt which then will be needle felted to a linkage system of multicolored felt pieces. Through the gaps of the linkage system, surprises will come through and give a taste of nature.

I've come to be really fond of this concept and I think it really speaks out my personality as someone who's crafty and cute but also has a need for mathematics and structure.

It's Friday!

by Chris McVeigh. His Flickr.

Western Spaghetti

by PES, known for taking everyday objects and visualizing them as something else.

Updated Portfolio!

I'm looking for some feedback before I start sending this out! Still thinking I should add something to the Compaq project... perhaps.

Check it out!

Want Some Inspiration?

Try Spezify. It pulls images to the word you enter and makes an inspiration board for you!

Happy Friday!

by electronic artist Pogo, known for Alice (below) and mixing other Disney inspired music.

Summer Goals

It is our last quarter of junior year, AKA chair quarter where we are going to design and fabricate a chair in 10 weeks. I am pretty pumped for this, especially since this will be a piece that really expresses who I am as a designer.

Here are my goals for the quarter:
Professional:

• Expand my design vocabulary. Anyone that has spoken with me knows that I have a small bank of words in my head. This makes it hard for me to verbally communicate my motives and design decisions. I usually do a lot of planning for what I am going to say when presentations, which helps. Also, I like to think that this has helped me improve on my visual design communication skills, but now it is time to expand that small bank of words so I can readily say what I want to say.
• Take what I learned from working at One & Co and apply it to this quarter. One & Co has a deep sense of brand strategy, which I learned is a lot about having a strong theme and story. Also the level of refinement I experienced there is what I want to bring to my work.
• Be more aggressive and confident. AKA get more opinions from others and voice my opinion.
• Be more efficient and make educated decisions.
  

Personal:

• Study Chinese.
• Exercise regularly.
• Get awesome at ping-pong.

3, 2, 1... FIGHT!

Design for a Dollar

At this year's ICFF, ID students at Pratt had the task of creating a design for a dollar. Some beautiful solutions to limited resources.

Drip Plate by Catherine Merrick: Made by melting wax onto an existing plate and sandblasting away the exposed areas.

Scissors by Brian Persico: Laser cut scissors from discarded saw blades and polished.

More here and here.

Design for a Living World

Maya Lin

Paulina Reyes

Christien Meindertsma

Yves Behar

Ted Muehling

Raising awareness of where sustainable products come from the Nature Conservatory chose ten designers to design using resources from different regions of the world. See More here.

Swing Tree

Have a listen!

by Discovery

The weekend... a time for love

love is similar to tape... ;]

Happy Friday!

"Thoughts from a homeless guy now that I'm back on my feet"

So I just discovered Best of Craiglist and saw a post by a 20-something guy from San Francisco titled "Thoughts from a homeless guy now that I'm back on my feet." It actually had great insight for people who do not know what it's like for a homeless person. Even thinking about stories like The Pursuit of Happiness where some people simply do not have a choice but to be homeless.

Anyway, from a research/design and just learning about people/life/perspective, its good to know that people are always open to share.

Here's a (lengthy) excerpt from his post:

Okay, so what are the things that I really appreciate?

-- Light switches: In a shelter, lights come on, lights come off and you have no say. The ability to control your own lighting is a big deal.

-- Access to toilets: Ever hear someone mention how those 'disgusting' homeless guys pee outside? Where else should we? The search for a place to relieve yourself is a constant problem when you are on the streets.

-- Weather: I don't pay much attention to weather anymore. On the streets, weather is your life. A homeless guy rummaging for newspapers only wants one section, the weather report. If you can read, and you know the weather, you will have every dude you know asking what is coming.

-- Clean water: Are you impressed with the cleanliness of your average gas station restroom? How'd you like to drink from that sink?

-- Not losing things: Homeless shelters are life-savers in bad weather, but they are also a guarrantee that you will lose all your stuff. Either it's stolen while you sleep, or the shelter staff told you you have to leave it outside. Secret hiding places never are.

-- Night fear: You never stop being afraid of being outside at night. Think it's scary to have a breakdown at night? Someone gets mad, gets drunk or gets mean, you are going to be the first person they find.

-- Health Care Fear: Did you hear about that Bumfights video? It's BS! No homeless guys are going to fight. We never fight each other because everyone is afraid of getting hurt. You hear about guys who sprain their ankle and then die because they couldn't move for two weeks. Or, you hear about a guy who cuts his arm and his arm swells up the size of his leg. Little injuries kill. I was always terrified of getting hurt because of that.

The Beatles!

The Beatles Rock Band Trailer!!!

Can I repeat this? The Beatles + Rock Band= Super excitement!



Plus the trailer is really great!

Singin' in the Rain Remix

I have been crazy over Britain's Got Talent coverage and just discovered last year's winner George Sampson's final performance, a remix, if you will, of Singin' in the Rain. Compare to classy Gene Kelly and see how modern dance has evolved over the years.

Also, a tribute to Gene Kelly by Usher!

Bag Stool

by Gitta Gschwendtner for Quinze and Milan

God is in the Details

1. Bent/Stefan Diez 2. Sequence bowl/One & Co. 3. Black Calm and Black Noise/Defne Koz 4. Textile Clouds/Bouroullec brothers


Check out this new blog focusing on the details of refined design. Featuring a lot of furniture, but other products too. Also nice to see some new materials being used. Spotd It

Amadou and Mariam

Happy Friday!

Girls versus Boys

I like this new aspect on how competition can drive people to achieve personal fitness goals. Go Nike plus!

Think of how this could be applied to make people want to be more eco-friendly?!--(but not this recent fake-flimsy-flamsy "I'm green, but not really" stuff)



found here

ping Pooong!

We have a ping pong table at work. And it is awesome.

Here are some ping pong related designs:







images courtesy of: certified Random, complex.com, Highsnobiety, Vvork

Because I love them... Happy Friday!

The Avett Brothers- I saw them in concert last Friday. It was happy. :] Please go see them if you have the chance!

Happy Friday!

Tina Fey, Jim Gaffigan, Funny

"I don't know why I even bother chewing corn anymore." Tina Fey


hehe

on the same lines of comedy...

Hoooot pockets! by Jim Gaffigan

The Sound of Music Can Make Your Day

Central Station in Antwerp, Belgium

Happy Friday!

Dan Deacon - Snookered


It's Friday! Get your party on!

and...

Please watch this for extra Friday happiness!

It's Friday!

Short film Signs by Australian director Patrick Hughes

Real lovely



Happy Friday!

You Gotta Use Corrugated!

Perhaps these people have learned under Tony Kawanari... Nothing Studio's studio space has taken an eco-concious approach in having an office interior entirely constructed using corrugated cardboard, as they are a highly eco-concious company. Created by Joost van Bleiswijk and Alrik Koudenburg. More here.

Adventures!

Since the end of March, I've been interning at One and Co. in San Francisco. So far it's been a blast! Here are some pictures of the adventures I've had (mostly with my awesome roomie Brittany!).


Sun setting on Pier 39.. well nearby. This view really reminded me of The Goonies. (Also, look at that Mad core shadow! yuk yuk!)





Walkway near the Pacific Ocean beach. Wow, it was a beautiful day. Apparently the first week I arrived in SF, it was "unusually warm".. so now it is not so warm. Anyhoo, everythink looked vibrant! I reckon we celebrated Kandy's birthday that night too! Whoo!







Visited my Uncle in Fremont. Right behind his house is the Mission Peak Reserve. Walked about 3 hours up and down this baby. On this particular mountain, a lot of people like to hang glide off of here. Really cool to watch.. but according to my uncle someone's died doing that. Everything was honky dory that day! :] It was SUPER windy when we got to the peak so the lighting is different on all of the photos.. my attempt at panorama. Click on any photo to see a larger view! (Oh yeah, the squirrels on that mountain did the army crawl everywhere--because of the hawks, I think- and lived in holes in the ground because there weren't many trees. So funny to watch!)


P.s. I'm stupid because I tried to downsize the photos on my new camera so I could fit more photos on my SD card, but accidently ended up erasing all the photos on my card. So these are the only memories I have saved so far... T^T must.. go on.. more adventures.....

It's Friday!

You can learn from Friday night dance moves from this guy!


Happy Friday~~!

Designs for women

Knife Combs by Lorenzo Damiani




Straightener/Curling Iron by Babybliss





Solar Vintage by Elena Corchero

What's in your cell phone?

by Redmer Hoekstra. Found here.

Creative Exam Answers

Happy Friday!

Look here.

Takasugi-an

Takasugi-an (Meaning "teahouse built too high") by Terunobu Fujimori.
via Dezeen. Look at his other works here.


Ahh, building a treehouse is one of my goals in life!