Category: Product Design

Advertising

A Shoe That Floats on Air

By Delphine Hirasuna |

This looks like a high-school science project, but it is really a commercial for Asics new Gel-Blur 33 athletic shoes, which Asics claims offers lightweight, cushioned comfort to all 33 joints in the foot. To illustrate the tagline “Gravity, Meet Your Archenemy,” Southern California-based creative agency, Vitro USA, strung multi-colored ping pong balls on fishing lines and pumped compressed air into a glass chamber, causing the balls to rise into the shape of an Asics 33 shoe and float in space. As with some of the amazing 3-D projection mapping videos now coming out, the behind-the-scenes making of this commercial needs to be seen to appreciate the feat achieved.

Product Design

Bookcase for Non-Readers,
Light Readers and Heavy Readers

By Delphine Hirasuna |

The REK bookcase, designed by Rotterdam-based architect Reinier de Jong, is ingenious both in its simplicity and functionality. Made in five parts, the zigzag-stacked components slide in and out of each other – expanding to accommodate more books or to fill a longer length of wall, if desired. Compressing the shelves together allows the bookcase to fit into a smaller space or avoid a half-empty look if there are only a few books to display. The zigzag construction automatically creates sections of different height — big ones to fit tall books, artwork or sound systems, horizontal slots for magazines or a DVD player. The owner can play with the design to customize a look or add more bookcases to create a larger library or architectural pattern. Finished with a high-gloss white laminate on the outside and a warm gray stain laminate on the inside, the REK adapts to most any décor. The more we studied it, the more we admired its smart, flexible design.

Read More »

Product Design

Philatelic Pursuits

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Whether the trend is being driven by improved automated postal sorting machines or the insatiable demand of stamp collectors for ever-more novel designs is unclear, but lately more nations are issuing commemorative stamps that arouse the urge to lick, sniff and touch.

Austria has been a pioneer in this area. In addition to joining forces with Austria’s famed Swarovski Crystal to create a swan stamp imbedded with bits of real glass crystal, the Austrian post office honored the UEFA European Championship by creating a soccer ball stamp out of a synthetic mix of rubbery polyurethane. To immortalize Andi Herzog’s winning soccer goal in the 1998 World Cup, it put a three-second moving image of the goal on a postage stamp, and to honor simultaneously a native craft and national flora, Austria issued embroidered stamps featuring its Edelweiss and Clusius flowers.

Read More »

Product Design

Finally, A Bright Idea

By Delphine Hirasuna |

“It’s strange that the bulb, an object synonymous with ideas, is almost entirely absent of imagination,” comments Plumen on its website. The UK-based compact fluorescent (CFL) bulb maker is determined to change that. Calling its product the “world’s first designer energy-saving light bulb,” Hulger, the British electronics company that designed Plumen, has challenged the notion that CFL light bulbs can only come in three shapes and must, by necessity, look unattractively utilitarian.

Plumen — which draws its name from “plume,” a bird’s showy feathers — is bending the gas-filled tubing the way a glass blower manipulates molten glass into sculptural forms. Like other energy-saving bulbs, Plumen products use 80% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs and last about eight times longer. The savings may not just be in the electricity usage; consumers may decide to forego the cost of a lampshade and just enjoy the decorative style of the bare bulb. Right now Plumen bulbs are only available in the UK and Europe, but the company says they will be introduced in the U.S. soon.

Read More »

Product Design

Over the Moon Cakes

By Delphine Hirasuna |

The must-do gift of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival season, mooncakes have become more luxurious and lavish in their presentation than ever. In China, mooncake gifting is a multi-billion dollar industry. Opulently packaged mooncakes, typically sold in boxes of four, cost upwards of $45, with each cake elegantly displayed or nestled in its own container. As pricy as this is, Chinese social etiquette pretty much demands that everyone give these sweet delicacies to friends, family, co-workers, clients and sometimes even government officials during the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as Moon Festival.

Read More »