CES 2011 Roundup, by Jordan Nollman

With almost 150,000 people in attendance at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, CES had the buzz of the 2007 and 2008 shows and the long lines at the convention center was a good indication that the market is booming once again.

From the design perspective, there was a lot of great color material finish (CMF) examples and some interesting forms. Speck has nice in-mold fabrics and House of Marley really did a kickass job using real wood and other natural material in its inspired products. (Ed. Note--check out ourpost about House of Marley!)

There was a ton of hype around tablets. With over 15 new Android-based tablets on the floor I was really expecting more compelling product.Blackberry's Playbook fell a bit short but the cases were cool. Motorola's Xoom and Artix with built-in phone charger were pretty dope as well. However, you won't see me ditching my iPad any time soon.

Razer's Switchblade mobile-gaming PC was probably the most innovative device I saw on the floor. A customizable switch-on-the-fly keyboard and 7-inch LCD screen means this little guy packs a mean punch for mobile-PC gamers. Razer also had a pretty sweet Tron-inspired keyboard and mouse.

The Casio Tryx was also one of the more innovative designs I saw. Its articulating design allows the user to set up and hold the video camera in an infinite number of configurations allowing you to capture any moment. Microsoft's new Multitouch & Arc touch mouse were pretty sweet as well and for those of you who have not tried out Kinex yet make sure you do.

See more of Jordan Nollman's Roundup at Sprout and make sure to check out his comprehensive Flickr Roundup!

The Faltazi Lab's heavily-considered Ekokook kitchen design

Missed this one the first time around: Ekokook is a holistic kitchen design project from 2010 by The Faltazi Lab design collective, and it is more than a series of pretty renderings; these guys have done serious research, as you'll see on their website, in their bid to introduce ecologically-sound practices into the modern home.

So what exactly is the Ekokook? It is a complete kitchen system that strives to reduce not only food waste, but electrical and water waste. While it's impossible to succinctly summarize the myriad details that The Faltazi Lab have considered, the following should give you the basic idea:

Our project is based on four essentials: waste management, kitchen health, reduction/consumption of energy, and intelligent storage. Our kitchen has built-in fittings for selecting, processing and storing all kinds of wastes: organic, solid and liquid. As well, the alternatives for conserving and cooking that we propose target a more healthy cuisine, one that uses fresh products raised locally, which are stored in bulk.

We include electrical appliances that consume less energy, such as twin-tier dishwasher, steam oven and refrigerator with compartments. We also try to use materials and fabrication processes that have the least possible negative impact on the environment and which are long-lasting.

Click on over to the Ekokook site to learn more (and yes, you'll actually be able to read the callouts in the photos on their site, where the images are larger).

CES 2011: House of Marley Audio

Audiophiles were all over the place at CES sampling and enjoying a wide range of new, high-end headphones and earbuds, many of which were endorsed or developed in collaboration with celebrities in the music, entertainment and luxury markets. With Ludacris, 50 Cent and Miles Davis-endorsed products in the ring, the line that seemed to stand out was from the House of Marley. The House of Marley's new line of eco-friendly earbuds, headphones and iPhone/iPod docks were developed to adhere to Bob Marley and the Marley family's values of equality, unity, sustainability and charity. As Elyse Kaye, Senior Product Manager from The House of Marley explains, "Materials for the products are sustainably sourced, and include FSC-certified wood, recyclable aluminums and plastics. Packaging is recycled or recyclable and a portion of each product sale goes to 1Love causes that focus on charities that benefit youth, planet and peace. Our hope is to create a movement, not just a product line." Check out the full video of our interview with Kaye below (and enjoy the music!).

Core77's "Sustainable Refrainables" Poster Design Competition Winners!

Congratulations to the "Sustainable Refrainables" Poster Design Competition winners as voted by the Core77 community. First place goes to the playful entry pictured above Reduce, Reuse. by framecio who wins a copy Adobe' CS5 Master Collection and $500 cash--Nice!

Second place went to Buy. Bye. by Fabio Furlanis, Ivo Arzenton, and Francesca Lorenzon, third to Hey. Clean Up Your Mess by Laura Polkus, and fourth to There is no Plan(et) B by Lee Willett who each score a copy of Adobe' CS5 Master Collection.

The Jury choice will be announced live on stage at Compostmodern, January 22 & 23 in San Francisco. Thanks to everyone who participated, voted, commented and helped to make the challenge a success (we had over 400 entries), and a very special thanks to our sponsor Adobe for making the generous prize packs available. Check out all the entries here, and don't forget there's still time to get a video response in for our Powers of 10 competition.

See you in San Francisco!

You design the inside, OKW Enclosures will take care of the outside

Part of the pleasure of being an industrial designer is getting to determine the exterior form of the object you're working on. But let's say you're designing an electronic gizmo--something like the scanner/signing board the UPS guy carries--and you're too consumed with the interface to deal with the form. Then what do you do?

What you do is go to an Enclosures Specialist company like OKW Enclosures, which has the proverbial shit-ton (European translation: "metric ton") of enclosures waiting for you to design guts for. As an example, check out their variety of ABS cases here. And they do more than handheld/arm-mounted--they've got desk-, wall-, rail-mounted enclosures and more.

CES 2011: ThinkEco's modlet

Sustainability was a key theme at CES this year. And, among the many eco-technovations on display, was the modlet, the modern electric outlet. Offered by ThinkEco, a NYC-based company that was founded in 2008 by a "team of concerned entrepreneurs," the modlet looks like a high-end, glossy, contemporary wall outlet. ThinkEco designed the inside circuitry of the modlet and worked with Spark Design in Connecticut for the industrial design. As David Kaiser, President of Spark explains, "In the case of the modlet, we wanted a design that broke away from the rectangular shape of a standard outlet. We wanted to develop a simple and friendly shape that wouldn't intimidate the user." The modlet certainly isn't intimidating--it not only looks friendly, but it seems to be user-friendly. It simply plugs into an existing wall outlet, and when an appliance is then plugged into it, the modlet wirelessly monitors and manages the power consumption of that appliance. Since many appliances continually draw power, even if no one is around to use them, the modlet can help to eliminate that wasteful use of power by intelligently scheduling outlets to automatically shut off power to plugged-in appliances when they aren't needed.

20 Questions with Benjamin Hubert

We met Benjamin Hubert at last year’s Electrolux Design Lab event and although familiar with his work, came away with even more respect. Born in 1984, Benjamin studied ID at Loughborough University graduating in 2006. A year later he founded his own studio that includes a diverse range of furniture and lighting products. He’s laid back and has an awesome sense of humor so we decided to play 20 questions.

Designer: Benjamin Hubert

Benjamin Hubert, what do your friends and family call you?

Ben….I have a university nickname some of my friends call me but I’m not telling you that.

Who do you admire?

My family, my girlfriend.

If you weren’t an industrial designer, what would you be doing?

Maybe an artist but I like the idea of being a chef, I love food.

You have your own studio, why go solo?

To have control of the whole process.

What’s your favorite color and why?

Different colours work best in different situations.

What are you most proud of?

Forming my own studio and making it into a working business.

What was your most recent moment of inspiration?

A trip to Marrakech.

If you weren’t Benjamin Hubert, which other industrial designer would you be?

I wouldn’t be another industrial designer.

New project at hand – do you plunge headlong or move with control and caution?

We have lots of new projects on the go for launch in 2011 and 2012, it’s a combination of planning (caution) and going headlong with a vision.

Something about you most people wouldn’t expect?

I worked for 4 large industrial design consultancies before and whilst setting up my studio.

Do you ask for critique during work in progress or wait for the reveal?

Yes lots of critique throughout the process is healthy.

Your ultimate goal?

Happiness.

Where would you be if you could pick up and go right now?

Tibet.

What animal would you be?

A shark.

Strangest question you were ever asked?

Some of the questions on this interview…

Are you a good dancer?

I think I am when I have had lots to drink.

Can you sing well?

NO!

Favorite quote?

Don’t have one.

Favorite number?

Still don’t have one.

Sage advice in seven words or less.

Never give up.

The Water Vapor Project

This year’s IIDA has some pretty interesting entries. For example the Water Vapor Project is an attempt to hydrate the parched desert landscape of Africa. It proposes to build an environment where greenery thrives thanks to the basic principles of water vapor. Hat tip Designboom!

Designers: Sangwook Park, Sinjeong Lee, Hoyoung Lee & Hyeonju Jo

The supplier becoming the master? Johnson Controls unveils their own concept car

Johnson Controls, formerly a supplier to the auto industry, is taking a bold step forward with their ie:3 concept car, unveiled at the North American International Auto Show.

The car is powered by enough of JC's lithium-ion battery packs to enable a 100-mile range, and the under-floor design provides both a flat floor and plenty of storage space with those flip-up seats; the front passenger side, for instance, can reportedly fit a suitcase (though getting it in and out should be interesting). Overhead LED lighting, recycleable seat materials and an honest-to-God standard plug for accessories round out the car.

Johnson Controls says the ie:3 will be production-ready by 2015.

Book review: Victore or, Who Died and Made You Boss.

James Victore's new monograph is so slick that a stranger on the subway asked us what we were reading because he "needed a new book." The design strikes such a careful balance between craft and irreverence that has the same appeal as the cool kid in school that never followed the rules but still graduated on time.

The matte black pages provide a striking contrast to a typically bound book, even when closed, and the cover painting sandwiches those uncommon pages between a carefully defaced oil painting festooned with Victore's trademark hand illustrations (scrawled painted words and a Van Dyke goatee) combined with a stark typeface arrangement. The cover itself actually forms a fold-out of the painting that can serve as a poster, Victore's stock and trade. From the cover on in, the monograph is just as boisterous and freewheeling an exploration of the bounds of graphic design as James Victore's career has been.

On the inside cover are a series of what this reviewer suspects were abandoned title possibilities in bold white type with strikethroughs, but they could just as easily serve as rules that are meant to be broken, such as "Location, Location, Location," or "It's Not About Persuasion." A few pages further intrepid readers will discover the most irreverent inspiration list we've ever seen including such gems as "Salvador Dali, for his mustache, not his painting," "Franz Kline, for his painting, not his mustache," and "Patrick Swayze, but only for Road House." The book is overstuffed with too many throwaway gags and in jokes to mention in the intro pages alone, so it's worth moving on to the content inside the actual graphic design.

Once we get past the stark cover credits, we finally get to Victore's work. He cut his chops on book covers and the visuals are dynamite. Almost all are photograph or collages with scrawls on top, but the wit and spontaneity that drove them takes precedence over the craft of the line. A few standouts include a military photo with white lines cutting up a soldier like a butchers diagram for Johnny Got His Gun and a stark black cover with white teeth for The Werewolf of Paris..The poster content that follows is irreverent and raw. Explaining that that when he went looking for his posters, they had disappeared, Victore says, "I had made something that people wanted to steal." Well, in this case you have to pay for it, but the sheer volume of creative energy contained in Who Died and Made You Boss is sure to inspire and entertain.