Henkel Interactive Packaging Design Contest

the big rethink competing on ideas

The Big Rethink, taking place on March 3rd 2011 will focus on the various ways that businesses are generating new ideas to gain competitive advantage. We will explore the drivers of fresh thinking, from imaginative leadership to global trends like changing consumer behaviour, and consider how these can be used in your own organisations.

	Gain insights into how breakthrough technologies, disruptive business models and today's complex customers are shaking up business
	Better understand the critical value of new ideas in the new global economy and how these could revolutionise how you lead
	Seize the opportunity to take these ideas to the next level and make them a reality
	Idea exchange with 250 business leaders through live polling and workshop sessions

Production Methods: Arne Jacobsen's Series 7 chair

It's shot and edited like a European film of the variety one spouse drags another to see, but the following vid is a great look at how a bentwood chair is made. And not just any chair, the Arne-Jacobsen-designed Series 7 made by Republic of Fritz Hansen. It starts off with sheets of veneer, then you get to see which parts humans do and which parts the machines do:

The thing we'd love to see: Footage of how they made the Series 7 back in 1955 when it was first designed, pre-triple-CNC router.

Core77 Gallery: NAIAS 2011 Gallery + Wrapup

America is back.

At this year's North American International Auto Show, Ford and Chryslerstole the show with their exhibits and products. As they say in America, "Bigger is Better" and their exhibits were on-par with the Germans (the krauts always set the bar for exhibit design,) but much, much bigger. Besides exhibition design, both Ford and Chrysler are rolling out great new product after great new product. They both killed it; I can't emphasize enough how well they showed.

With the exception of the vintage Corvette, the GM booth, on the other hand, wasn't very interesting. I later realized that I didn't take many shots of their exhibit -- not to mention that there has been more than enough pictures of a hybrid disguising itself as an electric car. It has one-sixth the range of a 4-year-old Tesla Roadster and none of the beautiful proportions that made the 2007 concept car penned by Nigerian-born designer Jelani Aliyu so exciting.

Speaking of American car companies and Tesla, Tesla didn't have a prototype Model S on the stand, but they did have an Alpha build bodyand powertrain in glorious raw aluminum und schteel exploded view. To fully appreciate how awesome the design engineering of this car is, watch the Vimeo films with Peter Rawlinson (formerly of Lotus and chief engineer of some of the best cars in the world) below.

Tesla Vehicle Engineering - Part 1 from Tesla Motors on Vimeo.

Leaders a few short years ago, the Japanese were relatively unimpressive. Toyota rolled out the new Prius family, consisting of four vehicles, including the larger Prius V and the small and sporty Prius C. Honda was...meh. Nissan and Infiniti didn't even exhibit this year. The Lexus booth was interesting for using all LED for architecture.

The most interesting technology was Porsche's hybrid 918 RSR. Check out our previous coverage with a Q+A with Porsche Design Director Michael Mauer. It has, what looks like, a mini nuclear reactor where the passenger seat should be that stores electric power that can be used as a boost -- like NOS. Good description of it at Jalopnik.

Other observations:

Mercedes usually has the most challenging exhibit design. They kind of phoned it in this year. A very nice, but not very innovative exhibit. The cars were great. The SLR E-cell is my ultimate dream car... in a less cop-target paint job.

The Koreans kicked ass with product. Hyundai and Kia had bad exhibits, but really impressive product. Hyundai's styling is still cringe-worthy, but Kia is taking a leadership role in good design.

Audi wins again for best booth design. Their lighting and attention to detail is beyond challenge.

Check out the full gallery below!

>> view gallery

Stockholm Furniture Fair 2011: "Something" nuts and bolts stool

Now this is a stool that gets the hardware fanatic in us very excitable. Charlie Heyward and Peter Bingham from the Steneby school at the University of Gothenburg collaborated to make this giant nut-and-bolt stool—that we can confirm actually works! Peter kindly gave us a demonstration.

More from the Greenhouse:

+ oOo Design Lab's "Book of Light"

+ SHE Studio's "Myk" Clock

+ Clara Sjodin's Shoe Lamp

+ Marta Mattson's Laser-Cut Jewelry

+ Jaeuk Jung's Amber Bottle

Interview with Pattie Moore, proponent of Universal Design

SmartPlanet's got an interview up with Pattie Moore, one of the mothers of Universal Design. Most of us that have gone through ID programs learned that way back in 1979, when product design was a lot less enlightened as a field than it is now, Moore began disguising herself as an elderly woman and traveling the country to learn firsthand about the challenges she'd face as a result of poor design. A resultant Reader's Digest article andToday Show coverage put her three-year project on the map and added an important element to the industrial design profession, most famously encapsulated in the Smart-Design-designed Good Grips line of products for Oxo.

Today Moore runs MooreDesign Associates, and in addition to doing research and consulting, she lectures at schools all around the world.

Here's a snippet from the interview:

What makes good functional design?

Design can't just be about the technology, the material science, the widgets and wow factors. It has to be holistic, it has to be human, it has to speak to us. We know the perfect little black dress when we see it. Everyone's in search of the perfect mattress and has their special favorite cup. Things become an extension of what we're able to do.

So design is a combination of technology and know-how and sensitivity and know-why. It's like pornography--you can't really define it, but you know it when you see it.

Read the rest here.