Emerge Trends Weblog

Get Buck

Emerge Trends — 2008-04-09T15:42:03Z

Normally, EMERGE hates just reiterating a bit of info we got in an email, but every once in a while we need to make an exception. Now is just such a time.

Note, these are just stills. click links below to see video

For a few years now, we've been buddies with some of the folks at motion graphics powerhouse Buck. Just yesterday, we got news of some recent work they've done for clients like Toyota, Fuel TV, the NBA, and the Vancouver Olympic Committee. What's more, they've also launched a new site and posted a brand new reel, which is damn fine if we do say so ourselves. That tune in background? That's "Fa Fa Fa" by Datarock...

Also, take a moment to check out their making-of documentary for their recent work on Toyota Corolla here. It's a pretty fascinating peek behind the curtains, into the process of creating a design- and story-intensive spot.

Posted by James Friedman

How I'd Sink American Vogue

Emerge Trends — 2008-03-03T17:34:53Z

Sorry for the lack of original editorial today, but we're feeling referential today...

Last year, Scott King had a show at one of our favorite arts institutions, PS1 in Queens. Included were a year's worth of would-be Vogue covers, reimagining the content while preserving the style of presentation of fashion's most iconic periodical.

Read 'em and weep:

(via Creative Review Blog)

Posted by James Friedman

Two More Architecture Items

Emerge Trends — 2008-02-25T14:42:18Z

Okay, we're not sure why EMERGE is so fixated on architecture today, but after a quiet couple days where we were grasping for worthwhile things to post, we stepped out of our comfort zone over the weekend and dove into learning more about something we're not totally conversant in. Thanks to the insights of good friends who happen to be architects, we discovered a couple fascinating shows we wish we could zip out of NYC to check out:

Shaping The Future: Eero Saarinen Retrospective at Cranbrook Art Museum

The guy who designed the St Louis Gateway Arch and the stunning Terminal 5 at JFK gets his first ever career retrospective, which also showcases lots of lesser-celebrated but no less remarkable designs from this absolute giant of 20th Century architecture and design.

House: Jorge Pardo at MoCA NoMi

A mid-career survey of the work of Jorge Pardo, House features sculpture, paintings and illustration in a format that has transformed the museum space into a series of residential tableaux representing the various areas of a home: bedroom, dining room, garden, etc. As the museum's own description says: "In keeping with the genre-crossing characteristics of Pardo’s work, the exhibition will extend beyond the museum itself to encompass site-specific projects around the world, including Pardo’s own house in Los Angeles. These projects will be presented as photomurals at MOCA." The murals are also presented thematically alongside the corresponding residential vignettes, creating a "disorienting space for viewers that oscillates between the physical space they are occupying and the space represented in the photo-mural."

Posted by James Friedman

Building China

Emerge Trends — 2008-02-25T14:15:45Z

Not to be confused with our last post regarding the Storefront for Art and Architecture, the nearby Center for Architecture also hosts some fascinating events and exhibitions in their space in the West Village. One such exhibition opens tomorrow, February 26th, and like our last post, it too is tied to a major event in 2008: the Olympics. As so much discussion of the Games this Summer mentions, China is in the throes of a massive effort to modernize, a process that is only intensifying under the international glare of the competitions to be held in Beijing. Building China: Five Projects, Five Stories Rather than rehashing this story, the Center for Architecture examines the broader context of Chinese development and showcases five recently completed projects as a lens through which to view several important themes: Production of Contemporary Culture, Reinventing Urban Fabric, Making the Private Public, Reinterpreting Traditional Design Philosophy, and Hybrid Development Models. "These case studies of contemporary architecture introduce critical voices from the People’s Republic of China, challenging the West’s stereotypical interpretation of China as a homogeneous society."

Posted by James Friedman

An Interesting Look At The Dilemmas Of Good Design

Emerge Trends — 2008-02-12T16:22:02Z

It's no great revelation to note that design has stepped out of the shadows in recent years. Thank Apple if you want, but whatever the cause, people are paying attention like never before to how form and function interact. That said, exactly how the balance between these two essential components of design is struck is often seen as creative rather than the more complex and nuanced decision it truly is.

That's why EMERGE found this article on the design of medical training simulators so fascinating. Published in today's issue of the New York Times Science section, the article explores not just the work of Dr. Carla Pugh, but the broader issues of medical necessity, social propriety, and institutional inertia in the training of new physicians.

A pelvic exam simulator combining a 3D model with a computer image

It turns out that many young doctors complete medical school without an adequate familiarity with the myriad form those awkward bits of human anatomy can take, leaving them ill equipped to conduct potentially life-saving testicular, breast, and pelvic exams. Doctors, like the rest of us, are a little weirded out by fondling their patients genitals, and some schools have even drawn criticism for training students on anesthetized patients- sometimes without their consent. Enter Dr. Pugh, who jury rigs anatomical models to train her students. She simulates tumors in her artificial breasts with a lima bean, builds synthetic scrotums using wood balls, rubber bands, a large condom and peanut butter, and even constructed a "vaginal vault" from cardboard toilet paper roll, Play-Doh and a badminton shuttlecock.

If the idea of doctor's training on what sound like high school science fair projects seems a little alarming, don't fret. The article quotes a surgical pioneer called Dr. Richard M Satava who explains how simple models like Dr. Pugh's are in fact preferable: "A very sophisticated simulator would be too much for a student. For simple tasks like a pelvic exam, a simple simulator like Carla's is actually preferable. You don't teach a teenager to drive in a million-dollar Ferrari."

Posted by James Friedman

It's Almost Too Easy

Emerge Trends — 2008-01-23T16:59:04Z

For the past couple of months, EMERGE has had moving on our mind. Starting back in October we were scoping out new digs and by December we had found a place and had moved on to thinking about decor. Having spent hours scouring the web, furniture shops and catalogs, EMERGE knows just how out of reach much of what is sold by Design Within Reach actually is for the average joe with an agency job and a blog. That's why Thwart Design's Design Without Reach instructional catalog made us laugh so hard. Take a gander and see for yourself.

Posted by James Friedman

Misusing PowerPoint. Hilarity Ensues

Emerge Trends — 2008-01-16T18:57:19Z

It's not unheard of to see PowerPoint used outside the corporate conference room. Michael Showalter from The State and Stella Shorts has been known to do comedic presentations using this staple of the Microsoft Office suite. However, hip-hop isn't something you tend to think of when you think of lengthy slide presentations full of bullet points and infographics.

Well think again. And take a gander at this. EMERGE promises that this timewaster is worth the loss in productivity. Really

Oh and if the server bandwidth is still maxed out, check em out here.

Kelis PowerPoint Slide:

Ludacris PowerPoint Slide:

Posted by James Friedman

Crowdsourcing MJ

Emerge Trends — 2008-01-15T17:11:36Z

When people hear the term "crowdsourcing" it usually brings to mind projects like Berkeley's SETI@Home initiative, which invites the public to donate idle processor power on their PCs to help sift through radio telescope data in the hopes of finding extraterrestrial intelligence, or Stanford's Genome@Home initiative, which does the same for mapping the human genome. These are noble examples, but crowdsourcing need not simply serve the interests of humanity. The fine folks at Threadless have also crowdsourced the design and curation of their product offerings.

And now, the folks over at Eyebeam Openlab and Rhizome.org have cooked up a hilarious demonstration of the power of crowdsourcing: White Glove Tracking. The idea is simple, really. Beginning in May of last year, WGT invitee the public to select a single frame from Michael Jackson's legendary performance of "Billy Jean" in which he first unveiled "the moonwalk" on national television. The user was then asked to draw a square around his single gloved hand. Once all 10,000 plus frames had been processed, the resulting info and code was made public so that anyone with the time, skills and desire could execute some kind of silly special effect to the five minute clip.

To give you a better idea, here is what a tagged frame of the video looks like. There a bunch of other permutations using the WGT tracking info here as well:

And here is what a video using the data crowdsourced by White Glove Tracking looks like:

Not quite as exciting as finding out we're not alone in the universe, but it's still pretty damn cool.

Posted by James Friedman

Tokyo Design Week

Emerge Trends — 2007-11-26T11:59:54Z

It was a whirlwind week of design in Tokyo thanks to the yearly design festival that hits here. Between 100%Design, D esignTide and related events, there's more than enough to digest at Tokyo Design Week. As with the rest of the worldwide zeitgiest, eco-friendly and environmental concepts seemed to be a common link with most of these projects. The ideas ranged from conservation-related projects to more abstract interpretations of recycling, but PLAY was the real running theme throughout all this. Here are some highlights from the DesignTide show:

Originally from Barcelona, Roger Ibars created a series that merged the interfaces of various electronic devices from the 70's through the 90's. For example, an old Nintendo™ game controller could be used to alter the settings on a Sony™ radio alarm clock. The two unrelated devices were merged, bringing together two unrelated interfaces.

image credit Roger Ibars

Another favorite was this �ber-minimal Pong table, by German designer Moritz Waldemeyer. A totally matte white table housed a matrix of shining LED's underneath that you could play the classic vintage electronic pong game with by simply sliding your hand across the surface, sans buttons & sans screen.

Kenichi Okada designed this time delayed double-reflection mirror. You can serve yourself some tea with this piece.

Hailing from London, Abake created a simple but really flexible typgography piece using human limbs. Participants can form characters in Kanji, Katakana, Roman letters, or just whatever abstract shapes you could dream up with your limbs. Another graphical piece Dainippon Type Organization's magnetic wall of abstracted letterforms which allowed you to construct type, illustrations and geometric visuals.
Abake

Dainippon

The Asteroid lamp really reminded us of those spinning vector objects flying through space. Designed by Koray Ozgen.

A more direct take on repurposing included this plastic flower form, constructed from cut and molded recycled containers. Heath Nash, creator of this piece, also found a new use for plastic bottle caps, as shown with this carpet.

Some other DesignTide and 100%Design favorites include:

Yasurshiro Suzuki's Blinking Leaves.

Junichi Matsuyama's Filament Bulbs. These only light up when a drawn line connects the two points!

Magnetic reflective bike badges by Karta Healy. These are so simple, but super-functional, these Double sided magnetic biking reflector badges can go anywhere.

Giant mustache tree stencil

Recycled bottles by Emma Woffenden and Tord Boontje

Researched and written by Vince Montelongo for EMERGE

Hacking Design Classics

Emerge Trends — 2007-10-12T17:24:05Z

Going through our RSS aggregator this morning, EMERGE stumbled across a brief mention of the Eames Hack project on th Core77 design blog. Normally, we're loathe to just repost stuff from other blogs, but this seemed particularly interesting. Conceived as an Industrial Design project at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, the Eames Hack combines the iconic designs of Charles and Ray Eames with the oh-so-of-the-moment idea of hacking (duh), the Eames Hack saw Jared Delorenzo, Tim Peet, Alexandra Temple Powell, Tom Reynolds, Alie Thomer, and Andrew McCandlish shatter the veneer of high status associated with these objects, and aggressively repurpose them for alternate uses.

What we like about this is the low-tech application of the ethos behind hacking and the demystification of high design items through their transformation into far less glamorous objects. We also think its high time that people start looking beyond the icons of mid-century modern design. It's more than a little played out at this point.

Posted by James Friedman

Beyond the Wii: Neurofeedback Technology

Emerge Trends — 2007-06-25T21:45:28Z

Below is the first EMERGE post from BSSP staffer and full-time coolguy Scott Mcfadden. Expect much more from this guy in the days, weeks, and months to come:

I remember when my roommate first brought home the Wii, it was amazing. I kept thinking that this was the next step in gaming, an actual physical interaction with the game beyond the thumb-numbing, action-packed pleasures
of the past. But what???s beyond the next step? Neurofeedback technology, that's what.

Basically the way it works is sensors are applied to your head measuring your baseline brain-wave activity, including signals related to concentration, anxiety and relaxation. These signals can then be translated to the gaming experience allowing you to move object simply by concentrating your focus on them. Think about throwing a fireball at your opponent and it
happens- awesome. Need to jump out of the way of one of those spikey-shelled turtles from Super Mario Bros? Just think about leaping over that pesky terrapin and it's done!

The two companies researching Neurofeeback technology for gaming purposes are Emotiv Systems and Neurosky. This is some pretty heady stuff and it's bound to make the Wii look pretty basic once the technology is further refined and software optimizing its capabilities is developed. If nothing else, nobody will be able to tell you that you're rotting your brain with all those video games...

Check out the videos below to learn more

Neurosky on BBC

Emotiv Systems on Tina Wood's Blog on on10.net

Designing Audiences

Emerge Trends — 2007-06-27T18:38:29Z

EMERGE had a chance to attend AIGA's Designing Audiences forum last week. Conceived as "a stimulating and entertaining forum on the changing role of the designer in the era of constant feedback", the timing could not have been better as the New York Times had just written the day before about the issues and uncalculated costs associated with "putting amateurs in charge." The subject of user generated content and a broader move towards amateurism is a touchy one, especially for Graphic designers where the term "Helvetica" instantaneously becomes a character-defining statement.

Ze Frank played host to a lively bunch, including Stefan Bucher the creator of the Daily Monster series; Eric Rodenbeck of Staman Design, the company behind the live data visualization mapping of Flickr and Digg Labs; and Katie Salen the co-creator of Karaoke Ice, the interactive traveling Karaoke machine. The panel spoke about the issues facing not only graphic designers, but discusses how society at large now posseses the ability and tools to define oneself graphically. A deep understanding of typography, composition, or technical design is no longer required. Instead, a general knowledge of how to "pimp" a MySpace page passes for graphic know-how.

The discussion shed light on the issues that face not only the design industry, but explored just what exactly represents "good" design. We've all witnessed the explosion of Youtube and the plethora of creative ideas and "crapacopia"- to paraphrase Ze Frank- that it makes available to anybody with an internet connection.

The discussion helped shed light an issue many creatives are struggling with: how do you let go of creative control. As there is a very hungry audience who wants to participate, designers and creatives are trying to map the terrain and find a middle ground between utter amateurism and a closed aesthetic world crafted soley by design elite. It's readily apparent that if done incorrectly, bringing consumers into the design process can cause your brand could be seen as a joke. Instead enable your audience to use a variety of tools that you present to them, fostering inclusion while defining parameters that maintain some modicum of control. The end result is dialogue and smarter ads.

Amy Daroukakis for EMERGE

energyFACTory

Emerge Trends — 2007-03-02T17:19:40Z

The folks from Global Inheritance, a California-based nonprofit have announced a new program centered around alternative energy called energyFACTory.

Already involved in six different campaigns "working to reinvent activism for today's young generation," GI focuses "on the power of creativity to communicate and push for progressive social change while rejecting conflict." Now, in addition to their ongoing Fashion Peace, Trashed, Trashed Recycling Store, Tour Rider, You're The Bomb, Instrumental Assistance projects, Global Inheritance is planning a full blown 10 day event scheduled to take place in California in late April/early May. The call has gone out searching for engineers, architects and artists to help design, construct and operate "a compelling and creative installation to showcase the possibilities of alternative fuels and energy sources." Additionally, GI are looking for qualified energy scientists, environmentalists, and teachers to help educate attendees on the issues surrounding alternative energy as well as general assistance installing and operating a massive museum-style installation.

If you want to help out, here are the contacts:
Design: energyFACTory@globalinheritance.org
Professional: prof@globalinheritance.org
Volunteer: help@globalinheritance.org

Also, check out the GI myspace page. Their main website serves as a portal to their various projects and has scant info on exactly who Global Inheritance is and what they are striving to achieve. Yet with such exciting and inventive packaging for causes anybody can feel good supporting, as well as a diverse list of partners, including Apple, Focus Features, Coachella, X Games, Street Scene, Knitting Factory, Loomstate, Netflix, Pool Tradeshow, Atlantic Records, MAGIC International, Swindle Magazine, Black Book Magazine, ESPN, MySpace, Thievery Corporation, Atticus, Flavorpill, Warped Tour, DVS, Kangol, Fuel TV, and Voodoo Music Experience, they are obviously onto something great.

Supreme Still Reigns Supreme

Emerge Trends — 2006-08-31T14:51:51Z

As any regular reader of EMERGE will know, this blog has a strange relationship to street culture (skate, graffiti, music etc). At once excited and inspired by DIY creativity and the thriving alternative to mass produced consumer goods, we are also rather uncomfortable with the way that it's become such a bandwagon phenomenon. Every brand seems to be doing artist collaborations, limited run product and we've written more than a couple posts about the now infamous "Brand Underground" story in the New York Times back in late July.

Despite all the ambivalence, there is a lot of really interesting and exciting stuff happening in the world of street culture, from the elevation of street art not just into the legitimate art scene but into academic circles (see here for starters), the elevation of good design as a priority, and the popularization of the scene's anti-establishment ethos within a culture too quick to defer to the powers that be-politically as well as culturally.

Surveying the streetwear scene, one of the originators of the whole mini-industry that has cropped up is New York's Supreme, a high-end skate shop that has thrived off of producing smart, premium quality merchandise in limited quantities for well over a decade now. With essentially no advertising and a keen sense of the power of the Japanese market, Supreme has become the iconic street brand in EMERGE's eyes. From product collaborations with Nike, Peter Saville, Vans, and Public Enemy, plus grassroots work with scene heroes like pro skater Harold Hunter and Brand Underground figurehead A Ron The Don, Supreme has set the standard for how this whole scene operates. And they've done so without a website and without ever making it look like they are trying, which is of course the coolest way to do it.

Now that Fall is upon us once again, the interweb is abuzz with talk of Supreme's coming collection , which is sure to sell out within a couple days of dropping onto the racks of the Lafayette Street shop. Influential Japanese style blog Honeyee has announced that one part of Supreme's fall collection will be a collaborative series of skateboards done not with some big graffiti legend or hipster graphic designer, but with Jeff Koons, one of the most significant contemporary artists living and working in New York today.

It speaks to just how far above the fray Supreme is that they are looking to the artists that defined the store's SoHo environs for inspiration. Supreme exists at the very forefront of progressive brand culture, yet they have brought themselves there via a keen historical eye for far more than the low culture that dominates so much of the brand underground sensibility. The shop's logo, which riffs off of Barbara Kruger's iconic imagery suggests as much, but this high art/low art partnership between Koons and Supreme confirms it once and for all. No matter how far the street scene has come, nobody has even begun to touch Supreme in terms of inventiveness, innovation, and plain old vision.

Creators Recommend

Emerge Trends — 2006-08-22T12:26:01Z

Online shopping site Compact Impact may not have the sexiest interface or even a slightly sexy one. But it is chock-full of interesting products, all of which are design-forward and many of which are genuinely useful, embodying the best of contemporary industrial design.

With a product range spanning everything from microwave egg boilers to LED clock made of wood, there's bound to be something of interest to even the hardest to please gift recipient. There's even an inflatable bong for sale for that outdoorsy stoner in your life!

While not everything at C-I is terribly mindblowing, it's great to see sites like this cropping up, introducing consumers to design-savvy products, be they decorative or functional. Target may have the mass market design angle cornered, but for more esoteric items or less mass-produced products, sites like Compact Impact are helping to reintroduce the public to the pleasures of thoughtful product development.