May 15, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Studio 161: The Packatt Cases

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RISD Industrial Design seniors Henry Freel and Kaitlyn Schoeck, who together form Studio 161, have designed beautiful high quality leather and wool felt Macbook & Macbook Pro cases that go by the name Packatt Case. They are now looking for help in funding the cost of production via their Kickstarter page to keep the price of each case down. For $65 to $70 you can basically preorder one of these lovely cases that snap shut and include a 1/8″ felt lining to protect each computer as well as cleverly doubling as a mouse pad when open.

So, if you’re looking for a new laptop case, or feel like switching to the Packatt Case, or simply want to lend a hand to these young entrepreneurs, head on over to their Kickstarter page and back them!

May 10, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 5/10

Free& Cheap things to do 5/10/13 to 5/12/13

Free & Cheap things to do in NYC this weekend (5/10/13 to 5/12/13). It’s an especially good weekend for fans of art and design…

1. DESIGN/ART: Fri 5/10 & Sat 5/11 – Collective Design Fair at Pier 57 – will present a cohesive, curated selection of contemporary design and historical pieces from galleries around the world. $25 Fri 11am to 9pm; Sat 11am to 5pm. Register in advance.

2. ART: All weekend & through 9/2 – Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney $15. Also Fri 5/10 Film No Restraint by Barney at 7pm. Morgan Library. FREE Friday Evenings.

3. ART/DESIGN: All weekend – PULSE NY at the Metropolitan Pavilion. 11am to 8pm $20 to $25

4. MUSIC: Fri 5/10 & Sat 5/11 – Downtown Music Festival Full day passes between $25 and $45

5. DESIGN/ARCHITECTURE/TALKS/ART: All weekend & through 5/21 – NYCxDESIGN inaugural citywide event to showcase and promote design of all disciplines. Events will be staged across all five boroughs,from convention facilities and galleries to design schools and public parks. Most events FREE

6. ART: All weekend – NADA NYC: creatively reinventing the experience and presentation of art in a fair enviornment. at Basketball City at Pier 36 on the East River. See hours FREE.

7. FILM/COMEDY: Fri 5/10 –Kevin Geeks Out about Rip-Off Cinema. Comedy-variety show hosted by Kevin Maher. Vintage clips and videos, games and curiosities. 8pm $10

8. DESIGN/ART: All weekend – Brooklyn Designs annual exhibit of local designers work in furnishings, lighting, and accessories made or designed in Brooklyn. Fri open to Trade. Sat 10 to 7pm, Sun 11am to 6pm. $15 to $20.

9. DESIGN CONFERENCE: Sat 5/11 – Counter/Point: the 2013 D-Crit Conference. 12:30 to 7pm. at SVA theater. FREE with Registration

10. ARCHITECTURE WALK/TOUR: Sat 5/11 – AIA Roosevelt Island: 1970s “New Town In Town” to FDR Four Freedoms 11am to 1pm $15 to $25

11. ARCHITECTURE/TALK: Fri 5/10 – Diller Scofidio in conversation with Dimendberg Vidler and Polan about Lincoln Ctr., 6 to 8pm. FREE with RSVP

12. ART/PARTICIPATORY: Sun 5/12 through 7/28 – The very cool installation that doesn’t get you wet: The Rain Room opens at MoMA $25 admission. FREE Friday evenings and first 100 visitors on Tuesdays in May.

May 2, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Clip Bag: Peter Bristol

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This is fabulous! Em sent me the link to this incredibly clever and fun Clip Bag designed by Peter Bristol in Seattle who, it appears from his site, designed the also fun Training Dresser that made the rounds a couple of years ago.

Made with wool felt and aluminum tubing, this gigantic binder clip is both fun (did I say ‘fun’ enough?) and at the same time rather elegant. A surprising, but delightful, combination. Bristol is looking for potential manufacturing/distribution partners so I imagine this will be a reality soon enough.

via core77

April 26, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 4/26

Free& Cheap things to do

Free & Cheap things to do this weekend in NYC (4/26/13 to 4/28/13) from participatory art events, to music, dance, talks, a design conference, outdoor garden and cherry blossoms, oh and food! Fun and interesting events all weekend long, ’cause it’s spring and spring in NYC is the best (after summer, of course.) Click through on images above for official event pages with more info or in the descriptions below.

1. FOOD/TOUR: Fri 4/26 & every Friday: Free Chinatown Food Tour – sample tasty fried dumplings, tapioca bubble tea, sticky buns, candied crabs and more. You choose what treats you would like to taste and how much you would like to spend. Suggested amount for snacks $7 to $10. 1pm to 3pm. Reservations required.

2. PARTICIPATORY ART/PHOTOGRAPHY: All weekend & through 5/10 – JR’s Inside Out Project Photo Booth in Times Square! (see post) FREE

3. DESIGN: Fri 4/26 – Bordo Bello NYC through July 2nd. A skateboard art show at the AIGA National gallery. FREE.

4. ART: All weekend & through 9/8: Orly Genger’s monumental installation of hand-knotted brightly colored nautical rope takes over Madison Square Park. Much cooler than the rendering on the site. FREE.

5. ART/PERFORMANCE/PARTICIPATORY/TOUR: Fri 4/26 – Concrete Escort I, II, III, IV at the Guggenheim. Ei Arakawa’s performance-based work. Axe-wielding man, participatory sprinting down the museum’s spiral walkway and other activities/performances. 6pm and 8pm. $20 to $25.

6. MUSIC: Fri 4/26 – Catch-Pop String-Strong: This duo come from Serbia and Kosovo, play viola and cello, often singing. they are both intense and full of humor. 6:30pm FREE w/RSVP

7. MUSIC: Fri 4/26 – Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr indie-pop duo at Music Hall of Williamsburg. 8pm $18 to $20

8. DANCE: Fri 4/26 & Sat 4/27 – Anna Sperber – The Superseded Third 8pm $15

9. ART/TECH: Fri 4/26 & Sat 4/27 – Alchemy & Art – Part I. Features 3D prints from Lily Su and Heidi Lee In addition, there will be live demonstrations, including Kinect body scanning and 3D printing with Ultimaker and Up! desktop printers. Opening Fri 7 to 9pm. Sat 4pm to midnight including party. FREE

10. DANCE: Fri 4/26 & Sat 4/27 – Comedy in Dance Festival. All shows at 8pm. $12 to $15.

11. DESIGN/CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP: Sat 4/27 – DIY Days is about the accessibility of ideas, resources and networking that can enable creators to fund, create, distribute and sustain. 9:15 to 6pm with Social Mixer from 6:15 to 8pm. FREE

12. MUSIC/FOOD/FUN: Sat 4/27 – F.O.R.T: CSAA’s interactive multi-tiered garden opens with all day music, food, and general merriment. 12 to 7pm at the Silent Barn. FREE

13. MUSIC: Sat 4/27 – The Losers Lounge perform selections from the Music Division’s historic Brill Building lead sheet collection, with commentary by division chief George Boziwick. at NYPL 7pm FREE

14. PARTICIPATORY/FUN: Sat 4/27 – Flux Factory’s Tween Dweam Social with YouTube Karaoke, Viva Bodyroll and dancing. 8pm $10 to $12.

15. PHOTOGRAPHY/WORKSHOP: Sun 4/28 – Pinhole Camera Workshop, Picnic & Bus Trip. $25 includes travel, film & loaner camera for the day, plus picnic. Sign up.

16. ART/PARTICIPATORY: Sun 4/28 – Photographer/Videographer Laurel Nakadate invites you to PS1 to confess, detail, and atone for shameful acts of the past publicly in the VWDome. 4 to 6pm. $10.

17. PERFORMANCE/FUN/MUSIC: Sun 4/28 – Sakura Matsuri, the annual cherry blossom festival offers over 60 events and performances that celebrate traditional and contemporary Japanese culture. Brooklyn Botanical Gardens 10am to 6pm. $15 to $20.

18. NEXT SUNDAY/MUSIC: Sun 5/5 – The National at PS1 performing their song “Sorrow” for 6 hours straight. Get tickets now: $15.

MORE…

FOOD/CRAFTS/FUN >> Sat 4/27 & Sats thru 10/26– Hester Street Fair kicks off their season. 10am to 6pm. FREE

ART >> All Weekend & till next April– Busted – the High Line’s latest commission. Figurative sculptures, celebratory portraits, and commemorative monuments installed on and around the High Line. FREE

ART >> Fri 4/26 & Sat 4/27 and through June 22nd – Here and There. New work by Maya Lin exploring environmental issues at Pace 57th St. FREE

ART >> All Weekend – Fashion Center Space for Public Art, a vibrant series of public window displays which showcase the work of local artists. This month through May: the paintings of Diane Englander. 215 West 38th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenue) FREE

April 23, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

TOO by Blu Dot at Target

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Googling around for stools, I came across these surprising tableware collections at Target as part of the TOO by Blu Dot series (yeah, I have no idea how you go from stools to plates, but that’s what happened.) I can’t really say that I “like” the Duct Tape Collection, but I do think it’s pretty unique and would be curious to see what they look like in person. The Ruse Dinnerware plates are fun too with their drains in the center of each plate. There are also the Storyteller Dinner Plates which made me chuckle as well.

In fact, the whole TOO by Blu Dot line of furnishings is worth checking out. I especially like that sideboard, though we already have something vaguely similar. And now I see how I ended up on the collection’s page; there are stools there after all!

April 23, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Frank Tjepkema: Il Treno

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Not since the banquettes at Brasserie have I seen such a contemporary twist on the traditional booth. Originally designed as a fixed booth for the Fabbrica Restaurant in Bergen, Norway, Dutch designer Frank Tjepkema and his Studio Tjep have now come out with a variation for the at-home diner who wants to be transported. The wood and steel all-in-one piece called Il Treno, features two facing banquettes with hollow backs that can store all your tableware, or anything else you’d like to put in there. The piece suggests travel and promotes intimacy and romance. Fun.

via dwell

April 18, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Trevor Jackson: Hand-Painted Artillery Plates

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I’m not exactly sure what designer/artist Trevor Jackson had in mind when he made these plates, but on the day after the U.S. Senate disappointingly blocked gun-control legislation, and based on the moniker “Agitdelft”—from Agitation Delft akin to Agitation Propaganda— under which the Seattle-based Jackson creates these ceramic works, I’m going to choose to interpret them as a make-love-not-war/pro-gun-control statement.

If you’re looking to purchase one of these ceramic pieces, you can do that here.

via Far4

April 17, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Wellington Writers Walk

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Though built about ten years ago, I don’t think I’ve ever come across the type-filled Wellington Writers Walk before. A project of the New Zealand Society of Authors, the waterfront park is full of bold concrete plaques and more subtle “benchmarks” emblazoned with 19 quotations from some of New Zealand’s best known writers, both past and present. The plaques have been designed by renowned typographer Catherine Griffiths and the benchmarks (some actual seats) by Wellington architect Fiona Christeller. Pretty impressive architypeture.

Photos courtesy Wellington Writers Walk; Catherine Griffiths; Bruce Connew; and Jason Busch.

via LetterScapes by Anna Saccani

April 15, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

CellBag: Le Laboratoire

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Not only is this a fun-looking bag, but it’s an innovative approach to water transport and profits from its sales go towards funding a humanitarian initiative in South Africa to provide sanitary water transportation solutions. The CellBag is the brainchild of industrial designer Mathieu Lehanneur (previously here) and David Edwards (and his students) who came up with a concept for water transportation at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute. Inspired by the way in which biological cells transport water and nutrients, the CellBag divides into two parts: a rounded zippered pouch for snacks or lunch and an accordian-style bottle that holds up to a liter of water. These tubes can be strung together for larger quantities of water and can carry several days’ worth of liquid.

The bags were originally only available to the Moretele community in South Africa but now are sold in four different colors at the Paris-based Lab Store. I would definitely consider one of these as an alternative to a canteen or water bottle, but I’m not really buying the guy biking with the huge water hose at the end of the video below.

via anonymousd

March 22, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 3/22

Cheap things to do this we

Free & Cheap things to do this weekend in NYC (3/22/13 to 3/24/13) in art, music, theater, performance, dance, architecture, film, design and general fun. Click through to event pages for more info, either on images above or in the descriptions below.

1. ART: Fri 3/22 & Sat 3/23 through 4/20 – Sergie Tcherepnin: Ear Tone Box. Works at the intersections of sound, sculpture, and theater with objects taking on hybridized personalities, inviting play between things and bodies. At Murray Guy in Chelsea FREE

2. THEATER/DANCE: Fri 3/22 and Sat 3/23 – Breaking Surface: merges dance, acrobatics, flight, water, & poetic imagery in a watery adventure that defies expectation. 8pm. $25

3. BOOK/MUSIC/PARTY: Fri 3/22 Celebrate Touré’s new book I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon with a dance party featuring a night of Prince music spun by Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest. 7pm. $5.

4. FILM: All Weekend – New Directors New Films: $12 to $15. See schedule

5. ART: Fri 3/22 – Anne Lilly: Temporal Tincture. Beautiful and elegant interactive kinetic sculpture (one of my favorites at Scope). Noon to 5pm. Reception 5 to 8pm Galerie Swanström, 136 Sullivan St. FREE

6. MUSIC: All Weekend – Planetarium by Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, and Nico Muhly at BAM. A few $25 seats left.

7. DANCE: All Weekend – DanceBrazil at the Joyce Theater. Tkts $10 and up.

8. FILM: All Weekend – The Films of Stanley Kubrick at IFC: $13.50

9. FOOD/DRINK/MUSIC/FUN: Sat 3/23 & Sun 3/24 – The Big British Invite will take place from 12pm-6pm. Drinks, dance, express manicures. FREE

10. MUSIC/FOOD/FUN: All Weekend – Freetown Produce Festival with Cajun Music and Cooking. Day Passes $30 to $37. See schedule

11. ART/TALK: Sat 3/23 –Artist Hans Haacke and Irving Sandler in Conversation on Haacke’s practice, including his contribution to the German Pavilion at the 1993 Venice Biennale. 3pm $8

12. MUSIC: Sat 3/23 – Fredericks Brown & Jean Grae: a double bill of Soul and ground-breaking hip hop. 7:30pm $20

13. COMEDY/PERFORMANCE: Fri 3/22 & Sat 3/23 – NYC Improv Fest. See schedule for shows. $8ea/$40 for Fest Pass

14. FOOD: Sat 3/23 & Sun 3/24 – Big Cheesy Competition: Seven Grilled Cheese sandwiches from 7 chefs compete: $25 (This is apparently sold out.)

15. MUSIC: Sun 3/24 – Lucy Michelle & The Velvet Lapelles at Mercury Lounge 7:30pm $10

16. ARCHITECTURE/WALK: All Weekend – Go for a stroll on the brand-spanking new bouncy Squibb Park Pedestrian Bridge with yet more spectacular views of the NYC skyline. FREE

17. FOOD/WALKING TOUR: Sun 3/24 – Big Onion Multi-Ethnic Eating Tour. Combines the history of the diverse LES with a series of small food sampling, or “noshing” stops from local shops. 1pm $25 with RSVP

18. TALK/ARCHITECTURE: Sun 3/24 – Surfrider Foundation: Mobilizing Grassroots Activists in Coastal Conservation at Beach 94 in the Rockaways. 1 to 3pm. FREE RSVP

Check last week’s COTC, or the week before, for some ongoing events. Enjoy!

March 21, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Drop the Beat: Wesley Chau

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Drop the Beat is a wearable electronic drum set designed by RISD Senior industrial design student Wesley Chau. Inspired by Laurie Anderson’s concert film “Home of the Brave”, Chau aims to elevate the artist’s presence during live performance. The neoprene vest gets velcroed with drum pads embedded with piezo sensors. The result is a one-person band allowing for flexibility and movement. Fantastic! Make sure to watch the video above to see it in action. Check out Chau’s other designs on his site. I especially like this pill box.

March 18, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Matchstick Necklace: Joseph Escobar

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Originally from California, Joseph Escobar is currently finishing his senior year at RISD in industrial design as well as being co-director of 2ndLife — a non-profit, student-run, material upcycling center — and bringing the project to a storefront, including designing the retail space this past year. If that’s not impressive enough, he’s a part time sous chef to boot. But back to his design work: Escobar’s Matchstick Necklace was at the Senior ID Show and caught our eye. Made using 100 packs of matches, the necklace can be worn in both its unburned or burned state, yet clearly best to avoid having it on when lit.

You can see more of Joseph’s great jewelry work here and follow updates on his design-sustainability projects over on his blog.

Photos: Joseph Escobar

March 14, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Jamie Wolfond: Inflatable & Frumpy Furniture

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Daniela went to the RISD Senior ID Show last week and reported back with lots of exciting work and photos. We’ll be featuring some of these talented designers in the next couple of weeks, but first, here is an impressive RISD Furniture Design Senior: Jamie Wolfond. Not only are Wolfond’s designs super creative and fun, but his choice of materials are unusual and seem to be a lot about their feel and texture. The Lunar Stool (top two photos) is made with foam, while his Ball Ottomans are yoga balls whose shapes have been morphed by steel and air. The Emergency Bench is another clever inflatable object broken down to a mere three pieces. Make sure to check out Jamie’s site for more of his work as well as interesting videos documenting his process. And click on his name while you’re there, too.

March 13, 2013 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Algaculture: Michael Burton & Michiko Nitta

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Will humans be compared to lichen, sea slugs and salamanders in the future? With the future in mind, U.K.-based designers Michiko Nitta and Michael Burton study and design alternative ways to fuel the body. Algaculture offers a symbiotic relationship between humans and algae. It proposes humans to be semi-photosynthetic allowing us to gain food from light, the way plants do and, apparently, lichen, sea slugs and salamanders. Burton and Nitta have come up with an Algaculture Symbiosis Suit enabling the mutually beneficial relationship with algae to occur. Last September, one of these suits was used in The Algae Opera at the V&A in London. An opera singer sang using her large lung capacity to produce high-quality algae-product. The photosynthetic plant-like organisms fed on the carbon dioxide from the singer’s breath, creating a sample of the future food source. The audience was not only invited to appreciate her music, but also to savor her unique blend of algae. If you think this sounds unappealing, think again; Burton & Nitta’s Republic of Salivation is much harder to swallow.

via DesignSaint-Etienne

March 11, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Windchimes: Reinventing NYC Payphones

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A few months back NYC launched a Reinvent Payphones Challenge for ideas on how to upgrade and/or replace the existing 11,000+ payphones around the city. Among the six finalists is Windchimes a distributed sensor network providing real-time and hyper-local records of the city’s rain levels, pollution and other environmental conditions. Created by a group of students and recent grads from Parsons, NYU-ITP and Cooper Union, the goal behind Windchimes is to empower the city with data which has never been readily available before. Scientists, city officials, urban farmers, techies, educators and the general public would have open access to the information enabling and impacting future environmental legislation, helping us work towards building a more sustainable city.

Why are we voting for Windchimes, besides the fact that we know one of the students on the team? Well, Windchimes is the only project with an actual functioning prototype, proving that it works and that the engineering has been tested and worked out. Windchimes could be deployed today; simply plug it into a telephone jack and watch as it instantly collects data and sends it to a database on the Internet. Windchimes is cost-effective with an estimated cost of $100 to $200 per unit and uses the existing payphone structures throughout the city, plus being energy-efficient as well.

Take a look at all the projects here (you may have to ‘like’ the group to view and vote) and vote for your favorite, though we hope you’ll consider Windchimes!

Oh, and here’s a video:

March 5, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Shane Scheck: Office for Design

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Office for Design is a Stockholm-based industrial design studio founded by American designer Shane Schneck. There’s a beautiful simplicity and elegance to all of their work. From the Orbit series of stools and tables, to their modems and routers you’d be proud to display instead of hide in a corner behind a plant. And one of their most recent products, Strike, a series of matchboxes cleverly makes the design of the phosphorous striking strip the focal point of the boxes in delightful patterns on all sides against bold, bright colors. Love it all.

via notcot

February 28, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

PAS House: Pierre-André Senizergues

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Imagine a home in which you could skateboard to the dining room table, or, for that matter, on it. That’s just what ex world champion pro-skater Pierre-André Senizergues (PAS) turned Sole Technology founder envisioned when he came up with PAS House or Casa PAS. Senizergues created the concept, but Gil Le Bon Delapointe is responsible for the cool design of the full-scale 753 sq. foot version that includes a sofa, bed, and even kitchen appliances. The skateboard ramp-style structure allows the inhabitants to skate or bike on virtually every surfaces. The prototype was made with a Malibu location in mind, overlooking the ocean, with three separate living areas connected by a continuous ribbon-like skateable surface. The execution of the actual house will be overseen by architect François Perrin.

Check out the video:

via plataforma arquitectura via anA

February 25, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Daniella Mooney: Parquetry

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It’s probably hard for Daniella Mooney’s wooden (or is it?) sculpture Parquetry not to illicit some sort of reaction from a viewer, whether it be a smile or an expression of confusion. The South African artist’s sculptural work consists mostly of natural materials such as wood, stone, moss and crystals, with meticulous detail in their crafting as can be seen above in the process photos of Parquetry and in more detail here. Mooney tends to explore themes of alchemy, magic and natural phenomena and I’d say this piece is pretty magical.

via lustik