Re-inventing the Normal Day

Jocelyn K. Glei interviewed designer James Victore in a recent article on The 99 Percent.  Victore is a unique designer who looks at life and his career in a unique and somewhat relieving way.

Now beyond the fact that Victore likes to start his day at 4:30am, the rest of his day seems fairly relaxed for such a professional and successful individual.  His work has been featured in the MoMA and his clients include the likes of the Times.

His recent book, Victore or, Who Died and Made You Boss? displays a large amount of his beautiful work throughout his career.  Victore created a promotional piece for the book in the format of a short film.   In the interview Victore describes how to come up with the concept for the film, his team went to a restaurant to eat and drink until they developed an idea.  This seems to be a typical day for him and his staff.

The most notable part of the interview was when Victore described how important it is to him to do the "thinking" part of a project outside of the studio.  The studio is for "work" and work alone.  It is his belief that no body should sit in a lab or in front of a computer thinking.  The brain works the best when it is functioning in real life.  That's what I took out of it the most and I plan on getting away from this computer right now, and start doing some great thinking elsewhere.

Dreaming up a New App

iPhone apps have been used for organization, gaming, capturing pictures, reading and in countless other ways.  It wasn't until I discovered the Dream:on app that I saw one used as an experiment.

The Dream:on app was developed by Professor Richard Wiseman and is very unique.  His goal is to discover if sound, while played during somebodies REM cycle of sleep can influence your dreams.  In a sense he wants to attempt to make it so that people dream their perfect dream every night.

The way it works is, you set an alarm, an alarm sound, and a "SoundScape".  The key to the experiment is the SoundScape, which is a compilation of certain noises whether it be the city or the countryside.  The user then places the phone on their bed and it registers their movement.  When the person is completely still, it is believed that means the person is in their REM cycle of sleep.  At this time, the phone plays the SoundScape for a period of time, and will then wake you and ask what your dream was.  If it in any way relates to the SoundScape over time, it may be proof that sound CAN influence your dreams.

I find it fascinating that Wiseman is using the iPhone app's to compose an experiment.  It relies on user honesty but I feel this market can be beneficial for numerous other experiments, reaching people that scientists would have a much more difficult time contacting.

I have used the Dream:on app for 4 nights now and have not dreamed of my "city SoundScape", however I am hopeful that it may work down the line.  And regardless, I now have documentation of the weird dreams I have every night.

It Doesn't Need to Burn, to Keep you Warm

Yes, wood burns and can keep you warm.  Now let's forget that and use the wood as a blanket.

Sounds idiotic, I know.  Elisa Strozyk thought otherwise and created a blanket out of wood, yes wood, as in a tree.

In the article A Blanket Made of Wood That Actually Works, Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan explains how humans are fascinated with faceted geometry.  I myself had to Google this to understand what she meant, but trust me it's true. If you'd like to know for yourself, trust Wiki.

The blanket Strozyk developed uses triangular pieces of smooth wood (no slivers would be nice) on a light piece of fabric.  The shape of the wood pieces allows it to bend and move just as a cloth blanket "wood" (ha, get it?).  It is an innovative design that throughly impressed me.  I would buy one in an instant.

I think it is interesting to see somebody reinvent something so simple as a blanket.  I also find it amazing that she seemed to defy the impossible, by making wood, which you assume as hard and immobile into something that can bend, flex and wrap around you.

Lets try this home stationary bike thing again

So I remember when I lived at home and my mother would buy "at-home" fitness equipment.  She would put the large, bulky, useless contraptions next to the television and it would sit there taking up space until it was inevitably moved to the garage.  It seems Lunar Europe may have finally changed that... maybe.

Lunar Europe, a design studio has reinvented the stationary bicycle.  Here it is....

Looks uncomfortable right?  Yea it probably is.

Beyond hte unadjustable handle bars and the plastic toothpick of a seat, this bike does offer some inovations that could possible sway people to use this at home and actually leave it in their living room.

First off it is beautiful looking, with a sleek design and a really cool suspended wheel (which does adjust for height differences).

Second, the best part which I didn't show you yet...

Notice the bike doesn't have any buttons?  Yea, Lunar didn't like those, so they implemented touch sensitive handle bars and lights that illuminate on the floor! Cool!!

The lights roll down from front to back like the bike is cutting through the middle and they change colors to display what part of your workout you are at.  Let's look closer...

I mean you can not deny, that is pretty cool.  I would enjoy testing that out, even if it made me nauseous after a while.

Another problem though, who has enough floor space in their living room for that light show? No body probably, well maybe people who can afford the bike.  But the use of the lights seem to cancel out the sleek design of the bike itself.

The UI lights are astounding though and I think Lunar may be on to something with them (even if it's not necessarily for this bike).

Nature vs. Construction... no more

Every structure that is built, whether it a house, office or school first involves mowing down a bunch of trees.

Everybody knows this, but hey what else can be done?

This...

Yes, that is a house built AROUND the tree's that were currently there.

I know what you're thinking... "Sure they saved some trees around the edges of the house, but they obviously mowed down the ones for the base of the house".

WRONG

OnDesign & Partners created a house wedged in between the natural structures of the Earth.  The narrow house consists of numerous levels so that the house expands vertically instead of horizontally. 

Now yes this severely limits the freedoms of consumers to build their dream house, but hey it's saving the Earth.

The design resembles Frank Loyd-Wright's ideals in architecture to build around nature instead of on top of nature.  More innovated houses like this should be developed in the future to not only help protect the Earth, but to challenge the architecture aesthetic. 

I mean look how cool the inside of this house is....

Apple had a touch screen laptop all along...

THIS IS INGENIOUS.

LIKE SO INGENIOUS IT'S SCARY.

How did Apple not promote this from day 1 with the iPad.

Brydge is a kickstart project that Apple should of invented a long time ago.  It is a stand for the iPad that turns your iPad into a sleek laptop.

Unlike other portable keyboards that can connect to the iPad, this stand holds your iPad upright, just like a laptop and has its own speakers to project your sound louder and clearer.

Due to the fact that the iPad is touch screen, it now creates a touch screen laptop with all functions of Apple's other laptops like the Macbook air.  It even ends up being the same size and weight as the Air.

It is so simple yet tremendously upgrades the iPad.  Made of aluminum, the keyboard surpasses any other keyboards which attempt to sync with the iPad.

Sorry Apple, Brydge beat you at your own game.

Brand Yourself

I have always been interested in how people start to become known through search engines like Google.  For example, I bought my first car from somebody named Nick Ayler.  At the time he was unknown and lived in Buffalo, NY.  As the years progressed, he pursued careers in acting, DJ and modeling.  If you searched his name when I bought my car, he would of never have shown up.  If you search is name now (go do it), you will be flooded with articles and pictures pertaining to him.

It's fascinating that somebody can rise up from all the useless content online and that links pertaining to them will show up immediately on search engines.  I have searched my name a few times and barely anything comes up beyond my Facebook profile.  That is, until I discovered BrandYourself.  I found out about this incredible website through an article on the Huffington Post.

BrandYourself allows you to manipulate what links come up when somebody searches your name.  You can link positive links about yourself to your profile to help them rise to the top of the search list.

BrandYourself also gives you tips on how these links can relate to you and help show positive links about you by "boosting" it.  It seems to be a powerful way to express yourself in a professional way and to control what content about you is in cyberspace.

I have created my own BrandYourself page and have followed one of their tips and included a link to it on this blog post.  this way the BUILDMEUP blog will now show up quicker when somebody searches my name.

CLICK ME!