I haven’t posted in a long while. Home ownership has caught up with me. New fridge. New kitchen floor. New front steps. New patio. New retaining wall. Whew. I’m not sure why we just didn’t get a condo in the first place (oh yea…still waiting for someone to build condos designed for families). On the [...]
Yesterday, I received a package from some good friends on the other side of the pond. In it, a torn out magazine page promoting DDR Design, 1949 – 1989, a Taschen featuring the “best” of communist, East German product design. If you’ve spent any time near the DDR, or seen Good Bye, Lenin, you’ll know [...]
The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards ’06 have just been announced and local chair genious Bill Stumpf has won this year’s award in Product Design for his contribution to ergonomic design. If you are a web developer, at some point, your ass has likely benefited from one of Bill’s many inventions–most likely the trademark icon of [...]
…when it comes to innovative pedal powered transportation. We’ve been looking for the best way to get our two kids around as a family on our bikes. We have a bike trailer. And that works. OK. But really hard to get two kids squeezed in and then the kid is still way back there getting [...]
One of the ideas that have been floating around in my head lately is that customer experience is becoming a primary differentiator in the desirability of a product. And now science says that’s right! According to an article in Reuters, a Dutch scientist found that half of all product returns are because customers can’t figure [...]
I’ve been reading this great blog lately called Looks Good Works Well, written by Bill Scott. You should definitely check it out. This is my second post here in response to something on this blog. In his most recent post, Scott talks about his experience with a workshop at the eTech conference called “Creating Passionate [...]
I’m fairly certain that the key to independant wealth via product design is not to invent the next Segway or iPod or Flying Car but rather to simply improve that one thing that everyone on the planet already uses. It also helps if that ‘one thing’ has a hefty markup. The latest “why didn’t I [...]
Hey Kids, (first post, great site! btw) Just wanted to bring this to the attention of all the designers out there… from the ISDA chapter. Don E. Harley Associates presents: MNovation [a retrospective look at Minnesota's contributions to product design] An exhibition featuring product drawings produced by the designers of Don E. Harley Associates and [...]
David Pogue reviews Tiger for the NY Times. Al Franken is coming home to Minnesota. Looks like Norm might have an opponent in ’08. Arianna Huffington appears to be forming a blog posse. PacifierOnline is a new modern children’s store in Minneapolis. Nicely priced kids furniture alongside overpriced kids clothing. Smoking Marijuana may be less [...]
I’m a picky person. Being a designer, most products I purchase end up having some design flaw that likely goes unnoticed by most people, but just drives me nuts. I can’t stand how the LCD on our microwave is unreadable from above. The futon that can’t keep it’s cusion in place frustrates me. The coiled [...]