“16 Inventions That Boost Habitats, Humanity, Health and Happiness” Slideshow | Fast Company

“16 Inventions That Boost Habitats, Humanity, Health and Happiness” Slideshow Fast Company

Designer, architect, and author Emily Pilloton is founder of the non-profit Project H Design, where chapters of designers around the world collaborate on products that improve the four H's: habitats, humanity, health and happiness. While working to develop products like the Hippo Roller, a water transportation device, or the Learning Landscape, a low-budget playground for teaching math, Pilloton began collecting examples of similar products that solved social problems. Her book, Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People (Metropolis) features 115 solutions that range from high-tech prototypes from industrial design firms to DIY hacks that originated in the developing world. –Alissa Walker

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Why crazy guys tend to be more creative

A new study seems to have established a link between psychosis and creativity.

Szabolcs Keri, a psychiatrist at Semmelweis University in Hungary, focused his research on neuregulin 1, a gene that normally plays a role in a variety of brain processes, including development and strengthening communication between neurons.

Writing about the study in the journal Psychological Science, he has revealed that a variant of this gene is associated with a greater risk of developing mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Read more @ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/man-woman/Why-crazy-guys-tend-to-be-more-creative/articleshow/5067126.cms

On Prototyping: The Simplest Solution Never Comes First

When we use a break-through industrial design product – the iPod, for example – we don’t necessarily spend much time thinking about the extensive development process that went into achieving such a simple solution. But the long journey from visionary idea to intuitive product is a trajectory worth contemplating. In the case of Herman Miller’s new Setu chair, designed by Berlin outfit Studio 7.5, the numbers are telling: 18 months of self-financing, 5+ years of development, and 40 fully functional prototypes.

Read more @ http://the99percent.com/articles/5937/on-prototyping-the-simplest-solution-never-comes-first

Wireless Electricity @ TED.com

Eric Giler demos wireless electricity.

Design Globally, Manufacture Locally: A New Paradigm for Sustainability

A new chair concept exemplifies one interesting strategy for green design: Letting locals do the manufacturing.



The mission of product design, when you boil everything else away, is to entice people into buying things that they almost certainly don't need. As sustainability becomes a household word, that leaves designers in a tight spot: How can design ever be sustainable, if the discipline is fundamentally about making more stuff?



Read more @ http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/design-globally-manufacture-locally-new-paradigm-sustainability

Cabbage Chair >2009 Finalist >Index Awards.

What began as Tokyo fashion designer Issey Miyake's concern about paper waste has become a chair hand-crafted with organic simplicity -- the seat of a new message of re-invention, human ingenuity, delicate beauty and a meeting of minds between not one, but two designers.

Designed by: Nendo, Tokyo, Japan

Read More @ http://www.indexaward.dk/index.php?option=com_content_custom&view=article&id=111:cabbage-chair&catid=10:finalists-2009&Itemid=229

Google Patents World's Simplest Home Page

After five and a half year fight google and its attorneys have managed to convince federal bureaucrats to bestow a patent on the company's iconic home page.

We alaways thought the page was brain-dead simple, but apparently it's an innovative 'graphical user interface."

Read more @ http://gawker.com/5350982/google-patents-worlds-simplest-home-page