April 25, 2012

April – self similarity, seppl and more

In this issue: Akaoni Design, Anna Korshun, Noisy jelly, Seppl, Pleasure Hunt 2 and more.

Seppl

Espresso machine in porcelain. The qualities of porcelain like high thermal storage, neutrality in taste and an antiseptic surface are making the material ideal for the use in food context. The machine is attached on the wall. This helps keeping work space free and relieves the operability. The single components are separately affixed and completely visible.

Rolognese pink spaghetti fork

How does it work?

Noisy jelly

“It is a game where the player has to cook and shape his own musical material, based on coloured jelly. With this noisy chemistry lab, the gamer will create his own jelly with water and a few grams of agar agar powder. After added different color, the mix is then pour in the molds. 10 min later, the jelly shape can then be placed on the game board, and by touching the shape, the gamer will activate different sounds.” Noisy jelly

Esthetic of the tradition

Thoughtful food packaging from Akaoni Design in Yamagata is steeped in traditional Japanese technique and made contemporary with materials and proportions.

Shoes architecture

Anna Korshun is using simple, bold lines and omitting any ornament, stitching or components that aren’t a necessary result of the production process. Adopting a technique normally used for furniture making, the shoes are vacuum-formed in one go from only one or two pieces of leather.

Suction cup tape

Have you ever needed to adhere something to a surface without using a sticky adhesive? This tape bonds to smooth, flat, clean surfaces just like a suction cup. The surface of the tape has thousands of microscopic craters that work by creating many partial vacuums between the tape and the target surface. The tape is not pressure sensitive, can rebond repeatedly, and leaves no residue on the target surface. To remove, you simply pull the tape off or twist it to break the bond.

Pleasure Hunt 2

It does not happen often that an advert game gets a next round. The Magnum Pleasure Hunt 2, this time taking you for a run in New York, some flight time over Paris and even a surf in Rio De Janeiro! Pleasure Hunt 2 /

Self-similarity
Description: Self-similarity is a characteristic in which a shape is built up of parts that are identical to the whole or to each other. The whole is just a mosaic of smaller versions of the parts.

Many objects in nature, such as coastlines, are self-similar: parts of them show the same properties at many scales. Self-similarity is a typical property of fractals.

Natural forms of self-similarities are the result of the process, which is called recursion. This recursive loop results in subtle variations in form, but each time in a bit different variation of the still recognisable basic shape.

M.C. Escher “Smaller and Smaller”

The ubiquity of self-similarity in nature points to an underlying order and algorithm. The aesthetic composition of nature inspires us to use in our work already created forms. A nice example of the self-similarity of form and function are the arc structures of ancient Roman aqueducts, works of M.C. Escher and Robert Silverberg, and a Shepard tone in music, which is self-similar in the frequency or wavelength domains.

Design Tips
The reuse of a few basic shapes to create many Meta levels mimics the tendency of nature to sobriety and redundancy. Investigate the use of elements with self-similarity and design ordinances interesting at many different levels.

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Why work with us?
Every design studio has its own character and competences. The core of our studio and how we work lies in the following points.

1. strategic creativity
The concepts we design are meaningful and serve your strategic goals: better user experience, enter new markets, raise margins, improved usability and interaction, quicker product introductions, create intellectual property, design your brand promise.

2. one-stop product design
Product development is complex and you do not want to find yourself in between parties. Therefore we take care of the whole process with our design team: industrial design, 3d engineering, interaction design, electronics design, industrialisation and production support.

3. human oriented
We are specialized in designing products that need special attention in terms of ergonomics, interaction and usability. In our team we have knowledge and educated persons in psychology, so that we can design the human aspect of products in a thoughful way. We love designing products that improve human life and health, like in care, medical and sports.

4. fixed fee and risk reduction
We run projects for a fixed fee, which does not change as long as the scope of the project stays the same. We use risk assessment, validations, balance sheets and other tools to reduce your risks as much as possible.

5. international
To a large extent we work for international (large) companies and also our own team consists of different nationalities. We are used to run projects successfully in cooperation with international teams of our clients.

6. relation
We are most interested in running a successful design project if we would work with you. We are used to think along, reflect, present alternative solutions and take care of every detail. We like to keep grip on the matter, from idea to production, so that high quality and a meaningful product are the result.

Watch our work on bluelarix.com /

Maria S.C. lamp

The Maria S.C. lamp, designed by Pani Jurek, looks like a crystal chandelier but is actually made from chemistry test tubes placed into circular plywood bands. The design gives users the flexibility to fill the test tubes with colored liquids or flowers.

Manifold Clock

Inspired from the mathematical notion of Riemann surfaces, the two hands are connected with a flexible sheet of Tyvek that is moved in space by the circular motion of the hands. The result is unpredictable at first and the clock changes appearance every minute.

A kitchen whisk

A kitchen whisk is a great tool for mixing everything from pancake batter to plaster, but cleaning the gunk off the insides of the wires can be a real pain. Kwon Hansol’s divisible whisk solves this problem. The handle is made of two magnetic halves, each containing opposite ends of the wires, so after use you can straighten the entire thing out for easy cleaning.

March 26, 2012

March –

In this issue: Piccolo, Bokeh Kit, HUM, Bracelet Key, Borsalino helmets and more.

Bokeh Kit

Bokeh (“blurred” in Japanese) is that beautiful out of focus blur that appears when your lens is set to a shallow depth of field. The Bokeh Kit actually turns those out of focus lights into any shape you place over your lens. It’s a whole new way of harnessing night-time light.

The eggs from Grom

It is a fragile and precious Art. Slovenian artist, Franc Grom uses an electric drill to pierce shells and make his works even more sophisticated. The eggs that Grom creates have approximately 2,500 to 3,500 holes.

swissRoomBox

swissRoomBox, the world’s smallest removable motorhome setup composed by intelligent modules made by high-quality materials and fully equipped. It’s an amazing piece of engineering that provides an endless amount of useful features and neither tooling nor tuning is needed. Thanks to Chris Alpaerts for sharing with us this great product! swissRoomBox /

HUM

For information storage.

SAVE:US

An emergency drop-down light consists of a canister light that serves as everyday overhead lighting, but drops down in a crisis, just like the oxygen masks that deploy from the ceiling in airplane emergencies. The removable light then can be used as a flashlight, and also has an embedded GPS unit so evacuees can be tracked and located.

External airbag for pedestrians

New Volvo car features an external airbag for pedestrians Swedish auto maker Volvo has just announced that the new Volvo V40 will have an external airbag on the front of the car designed to help protect pedestrians in the event of a collision: “Nobody should die or suffer serious injuries in a new Volvo car by the year 2020.

Sculpted guitars

Sinuous Guitars has three goals in mind: “ergonomics; strengthening the intimate relationship with the player and the instrument; and how to create something special and truly authentic.”

Scaling Fallacy
Description: A tendency to assume that a system that works at one scale will also work at a smaller or larger scale.

The conflict makes mental processing longer and increases the risk of errors. There are two types of traps: assumptions about the capacity and assumptions about interactions.

An assumptions about the capacity takes place when a designer customizes a design by a certain factor and thereby assumes that the workload can be adjusted with the same factor. For example, an ant can carry the load of fifty times its weight, whereas a human being can carry only a half of his weight. The standard argument is that an ant scaled to the size of a man-to-weight would be preserved its qualities. The effect of the force of gravity on a small scale is minimal, but the effect is exponentially increasing with the increasing mass of the object.

Assumptions about interaction design take place when a designer adjusts and thereby thinks that the interaction between people and systems on other scales remains the same.

At very small and very large scale, the fluttering to fly is not a practicable method. At very small scales, the wings are too small to effectively move air molecules. Air plankton is floating on the air, small spiders use their web as a parachute, insects and birds flutter to fly, but people can flutter, but do not fly.

Design Tips
Minimize incorrect interaction assumptions through careful research of analogous designs, and monitoring of how the design is used once implemented.

Why work with us?
Every design studio has its own character and competences. The core of our studio and how we work lies in the following points.

Watch our work on bluelarix.com /

Borsalino helmets

Originally best known for their fedoras and hats made of felt and straw, they now make a motor helm translating their special knowledge, creativity and quality into aesthetical pearls.

Taga Bike

A stroller and tricycle in one, Taga Bike a feat of engineering genius that converts from child-toting tricycle to stroller in 20 seconds flat.

Piccolo

It is a pocket-sized stand-alone CNC platform. The kit provides a platform for experimenting with 2D or 3D digital fabrication at a small scale. This open-source design emphasizes simplicity, and is entirely composed of digitally manufactured components and inexpensive off-the-shelf hardware. More information about Piccolo

Delfts Porcelain Pattern Toasted on Sandwich

Minale Maeda wanted to give you the impression that food carries the dish. The “Table Manners Collection” is a clever exploration of the intersection of formal dining and fast food. Toasted directly onto a grilled sandwich, the porcelain pattern lends the refinement of fine china to eating on-the-go.

Bracelet Key

Bracelet Key is designed to solve the problem of lost keys by providing an easy way to keep that one crucial key on you at all times.

March 26, 2012

February – Derringer Bespoke Collection

In this issue: Interference effects, Swell Panik boards, The Derringer Bespoke Collection, Folded Paper Boat Candles, Jamie Beck, .care?Cutare and more.

The Derringer Bespoke Collection

A modern interpretation of the board tracking racing motorcycles of the 1920s, Derringer cycles capture the simple, pared-down, aggressiveness of early motorsport while delivering an intricate level of personalized customization. Like their owners, no two Derringer cycles are the same.

Sticker Phone

Instead of letting all the sunlight go to waste, use it to charge our Sticker Phone.

Swell panik snowboard

Swell Panik custom boards are known for there incredible sensations while going off-piste. Not more than 100 of these pure powder boards are home made per year. More information on Swell Panik website /

Almost@home

Almost@home Lounge from SSP Finland is a peaceful waiting area for unwinding or catching up with work while waiting for your flight. “When you set off on or return from a trip, you are physically and mentally far from home. We offer as homely an environment as possible, seasoned with unforgettable service and products. Almost@home is truly a lounge where you can make yourself at home! You can slip off your shoes, put on some woollen socks and flop onto the sofa. You can immerse yourself in work in this peaceful, cosy office. The real heart of the place is the kitchen, where you can get delicious food and drink to suit the season and time of day”.

Lunch Book

Lunch Book from Alessandro Garlandini and Sebastiano Ercoli is a recipe book made of paper dishes, which can be used to taste the food during the exhibition. Each dish shows a recipe from a different country. Paper dishes are 100% recyclable and compostable.

Interference effects
Description: Interference effects appear when two or more processes of different mental systems (perception and cognition) come into the conflict with each other.

The conflict makes mental processing to take longer and increases the risk of errors. Some examples of interference effects are:

Stroop interference – an insignificant aspect of the stimulus creates a mental process which begins to interfere with another mental processes with a relevant mental stimulus. For instance, look at the picture bellow and read aloud the words, then try to name the colors of the words.

You will notice that even when you can make the tack accurately it still takes a bit longer to fulfill.

Garner interference – a variation of a stimulus begins a mental process, which interferes with another mental process with a significant aspect of a stimulus. If you have once learned well that green means “go” and red means “stop”, the incongruence between the color and the label-icon results in interference.

Proactive interference – existing memories interfere with learning. For instance – learning to write with opposite hand or in opposite direction, learning a language with a very different grammatical structure.

Retroactive interference – learning interferes with existing memories. For example learning to work with Mac OS and forgetting how to operate Windows.

Design Tips
Try to avoid the interference effects through creating clear design, without conflicting combination of stimuli. Think about right grouping and encodering of visual information, provide a good presentation.

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Why work with us?
Every design studio has its own character and competences. The core of our studio and how we work lies in the following points.

Watch our work on bluelarix.com /

Jamie Beck

Beautiful animated photos by New York photographer Jamie Beck. By converting her images into gifs, she makes some of the details of the photo moving which creates an amazing effect of an animated picture. A cloud of dust blown up, hairs blowing in the wind or eyes that move. site of Jamie Beck /

.care?Cutare
.care?Cutare is a Romanian brand, created by designer Alina Dobre, striving to create her own brand keeping her aesthetic creed and the liberty to approach design without limits.

Prosthetic arm built from LEGO

A LEGO robotic arm has been created by American student Max Shepherd. The prosthetic limb and digits have been formed entirely from LEGO and serves as a model to accurately replicate a full range of human-like motion, powered by pneumatics.
video/

January 28, 2012

January 2012 – Valkee

In this issue: Valkee, Kinoshi, Wired PAS, Little Printer, Raspberry Pi, The Spiral Burner and more.

Valkee

Valkee substitutes the mood-elevating effects of the sun, by channeling safe bright light directly to photosensitive regions of the brain through the ear canal. It increases energy, and can act as a preventative or treatment of mood swings.

It helps to fight the winter-blues, because not only your eyes need light, your brains need light.

Read the scientific evidence /

The Spiral Burner

A real feature of the design lies in the double knobs, a gas control knob for adjusting the flame size and a burner control knob for adjusting the spiral burner size. With that unique design, you can get a better control of the fire during cooking and thus to save fuel at the same time.

LED Tape

LED Tape harnesses solar energy to power its inset LEDs, creating a versatile visual warning accessory. The black areas are solar panels. They power the LEDs that are set within the yellow areas. Thus, at night, the tape becomes an illuminated warning sign with no need for the input of electrical energy.

Food Filter

This strainer that attaches to any pan or dish at its rim and drains off the liquid without letting any solids slip away. Crafted from silica gel, the Food Filter comes in different sizes and drains, fitting almost any size pans and for multiple purposes.

Number Pad Film

Number Pad Film for Touchpad is this sticker and program combo that turns your regular touchpad into a makeshift number pad. Install the program and select the hotkeys and you are ready to go.

Little Printer

It is a compact, inkless, thermal printer which can produce receipt-sized miniature newspapers, notes, or images directly from a cellular device. Through the custom-designed BERG cloud program, the printer connects wirelessly to any smartphone with zero configurations.

Raspberry Pi

An computer for 25 dollars? Yes! The Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Scheduled for public release in January 2012 the foundation plans to release two versions priced a $25 and $35. It is intended to stimulate the teaching of basic computer science in schools.

Gravity Dices

French artist Suzy Lelievre made this beautifully designed analog dice for a digital world.

Weakest link
Description: designing intentionally a weak element that will fail in order to protect other elements in the system agains harm or damage.

It is said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. This suggests that the weakest link in a chain is also the least valuable and most expendable link, a liability to the system that should be reinforces, replaces or removed. However, the weakest element in a system can be used to protect other more important elements, essentially making the weakest link one of the most important elements in the system.

Examples
Electrical circuits are protected by fuses, which are designed to fail, so that a power surge does not damage the circuit. The fuse is the weakest link in the system. As such, the fuse is the most valuable link in the system. The automotive industry uses special weak zones in the front and back of cars that will absorb as much energy as possible during a crash, and thus will try to protect the passengers. The newest cars have special deformation zones on the hood of the car to protect pedestrians in a crash, also an example of the weakest link.

The weakest link in a system can function in one or two ways: it can fail and passively minimize damage, like the fuse. Or it can fail and activate additional systems that actively minimize damage, like in a sprinkler system, where a solder link will fail under the heat and activates the sprinklers.

Design Tips
Applying the weakest link principle involves several steps: identifying a failure condition, identifying or defining the weakest link in the system for that failure condition, and assure that the weakest link will only fail under the appropriate, predefined failure conditions. This principle only works in systems in which a particular failure condition affects multiple elements in the system.

The weakest link in a system always exists by design or by default. Therefore use the weakest link principle to shut down the system in a controled way or activate protective systems. And perform adequate testing to make sure the weakest link only fails under specified conditions.

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Why work with us?
Every design studio has its own character and competences. The core of our studio and how we work lies in the following points.

Watch our work on bluelarix.com /

Design News
Wired PAS

Bluelarix designed the Wired PAS for Niko, a medical alarm system, where the user can call for assistance in the hospital or in care homes. The rubber strap is designed in such a way that while the patient is sleeping and turning in bed, the cable can never become dangerously attached around the patients neck.

Kinoishi

Philosophical toy for children and adults from Taku Satoh. With this unusual project he was involved in charity fair, all the money from which went to a fund to help victims of the accident at Fukushima. Translated from the Japanese Kinoishi means, literally, “wooden stones” than they are, in fact, are. Another undeniable plus philosophical toys Kinoishi is that there are no rules. So, no losers – every player in his own winner.

Tagg

The Tagg pet tracking system uses advanced GPS tracking technology to allow you to see where your dog is and receive a notification if he or she wanders off. The lightweight tracker attaches to your dog’s existing collar, and is designed to be worn at all times, even while swimming.

January 28, 2012

December

Number 12 | December 2011 International Version 2012
Fukushima, the very last flight of a Space Shuttle, Arabic spring, Steve Jobs, banks, the Euro… But also a deaf woman that could hear for the first time in 29 years thanks to an implanted hearing device and a baby that got saved days after the earthquake in Turkey. It was exciting in 2011 and it probably will be in 2012. On a human level beautiful things are happening and we want to celebrate and support this. We wish you great holidays.

About us
Bluelarix Designworks is a flexible and highly creative design studio, specializing in product design and product development, with a strong focus on user experience and design strategy. We believe industrial design can have a large positive impact on your business performance. Therefore we use design for a specific goal, so that it will give measurable results.

This design resource is published by Bluelarix Designworks in the Netherlands. Read why our clients work with us /
See more of our work /

January 28, 2012

November: Moses Bridge

In this issue: Never wet, Swallowable Parfum, Cement Pearls, Quickfix and Foldnfix, The Moses Bridge, Victoria and more.

Moon

Moon is a contact lens carrier. Beverly Moon notes that this unassuming product is ritualized in “a routine that many of us go through at least twice a day, occupying a prominent place on the bathroom sink.” She explains /

NeverWet Coating

NeverWet is a truly amazing “superhydrophobic” coating that, once applied, completely repels water. It makes things super-easy to clean; it completely prevents rust, as water never actually comes into contact with the surface of the material; it prevents ice from sticking to things like power lines or airplane wings; it even reduces friction of water flowing through pipes coated with the stuff, meaning less energy would be needed to pump that water. NeverWet /

The Moses Bridge

Netherlands-based architecture firm RO&AD devised an unobtrusive structure that’s being cheekily called the Moses Bridge. Constructed of engineered wood produced by Accoya, which uses nontoxic treatments in their processes, the watertight bridge is Cradle to Cradle Gold Certified. A series of moats and fortresses were built over the West Brabant Water Line region of the Netherlands during the 17th century in order to provide protection from invasion by France and Spain. Fort de Roovere was surrounded with a shallow moat that was too deep to march across, and too shallow for boats. In turn the earthen fort had remained protected –until now.

From afar, the Moses Bridge is invisible to the eye. The flow of the moat appears continuous, as the water level remains at the same level, reflecting the surrounding foliage. As visitors approach the fort, the bridge appears as a break in the water with its sloping walls containing it.

Victoria

Ian Mahaffy is concerned with user behavior and the practical needs of fashion-forward female rider, a worthy cause insofar as user experience is as important as infrastructure when it comes to alternative transportation. Enter the “Victoria” saddle bag: “By initially observing how women carried their bags while cycling and the problems associated, along with the problems of using existing saddle bags in inner city environments. We started to think about how a bag could be more integrated with the bicycle, make for an easier ride and be easy to add and remove…”

Cement Pearls

These cement earrings from Metsa are modeled on classic pearl studs. Each concrete sphere is cast by hand and set onto a sterling silver post. With wear, the colour of the earrings will deepen as the concrete is exposed to the air and the oils from your skin.

Tools for business
How can you systematically design a new business model for a new product? One of the greatest handbooks for visionaries, game changers and challengers is from Alexander Osterwalder and Ives Pijneur.

Disruptive new business models are emblematic of our generation. Yet they remain poorly understood, even as they transform competitive landscapes across industries. Business Model Generation is a practical, inspiring handbook for anyone striving to improve a business model – or craft a new one.

We have found this book very inspiring. It is useful when you want to set up a new business around a new product, but also can be used to change present product / service business models or change to a more sustainable product / service model.

Watch the Business Model Generation video /

Download the Business Model Canvas /

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Why work with us?
Every design studio has its own character and competences. The core of our studio and how we work lies in the following points.

Watch our work on bluelarix.com /

Design News
Imaging phone

Designer Hiroshi Nakaizumi realized that there might be a future for small camera phones that project images instead of showing them on a screen. The idea is that we select which photo or film we want to show using a trackball on the end of the phone, then simply point it at any surface and view the projected image.

Quickfix and Foldnfix

These are portable, snap-on bicycle mudguards, unlike conventional mudguards, the pieces affix universally across almost all bikes and require no tools to install.

Swallowable Parfum

Swallowable Parfum is a cosmetic capsule that enables human skin to emit a genetically unique scent about who we are and how we perform our identities. Once absorbed the skin becomes a platform, an atomizer. A biologically enhanced second skin synthesized directly from the natural processes of the body, redefining the role of skin. Swallowable Parfum

Brinca Dada

Blocks from Brinca Dada may be unlike any other set of wooden blocks you’ve ever seen. Because each piece is unique and doesn’t always fit cleanly with the others, they are a bit more challenging than traditional block sets, but also more satisfying.

Watch the Business Model Generation video /

Download the Business Model Canvas /

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Receive our free white papers about design and the positive influence it can have on your business. Every month a new white paper with valuable new insight and knowledge.

Why work with us?
Every design studio has its own character and competences. The core of our studio and how we work lies in the following points.

Watch our work on bluelarix.com /

Design News
Imaging phone

Quickfix and Foldnfix

These are portable, snap-on bicycle mudguards, unlike conventional mudguards, the pieces affix universally across almost all bikes and require no tools to install.

Swallowable Parfum

Brinca Dada

October 25, 2011

October: Norwegian coffee machine

Linje Espressomaker

The result of a Norwegian approach to coffee – a world by and large dominated by Italian influences. By defining the core values of Norway and Scandinavia, and transforming these values into a design language the result is a truly unique product.

Be2

Be2 is a visual communication device, an attempt to look into the future. It works like a video call except that you can make the call from literally anywhere since the device is portable and projects the images on your wall with its inbuild projector.

Matteo de Colle’s Upcycled Lighting

Well, using and reusing objects does not demand a great deal of creative thinking and skillfulness, but doing it in truly original and elegant way – does.
“Opening a recycling bin for plastic reminds me of a soap opera: familiar characters, different combinations each day. In fact, most of the plastic bottles you see in a bin are very common: you are well acquainted with them from countless occasional encounters. Seeing them down there, in the dark, still beautiful and ripe with possibilities”.

Fishscape

Aruliden introduces the Fishscape, a reinterpreted design of the classic fishbowl with the glass transformed into a mountain range.

Fully Open Shoes

Fully Open Shoes have been designed to solve all problems we might be dealing with when we put shoes on our feet. According to these industrial designers, putting on shoes is a whole body movement, such as bend over, squat or use our hands. Well, if the problem of putting them on is solved, lets consider another one – taking them off.

Hugo

Hugo is a robot tea infuser. For people who like robots and a good cup of tea.

Kniggerich Cheat Sheet Placemat

Kniggerich placemats are a modern tool of teaching table etiquette. Designer llot llov has designed these placemats to show how to place dinnerware on the table properly.

Development cycle

There are four creative phases that ideas have to go through to become successful products: requirements, formation, development and tests.

Requirements

The traditional procedure to collect information on this topic is to use old rules and tools like marketing investigation, feedbacks from existing clients, focus groups and so on. But even better insight is to get trough constant indirect observations and regular interactions with you target group.

Formation

That is where the requirements get transformed into specifications. User research, regular brainstorming sessions, tests with various prototypes and multiple adjustments mainly result in some strong concepts, where just a few could be the winners.

Development

That is where the concepts start to get the form of a real product. There are two important strategies to follow: reduction of variations in materials and parts and simplification in the design for manufacturing and assembly of parts. Throughout the development process the specifications need to be verified.

Tests

During the test phase the product is tested against the design requirements and specifications formulated earlier and through user research. Many issues need testing: usability, quality, producibility, functionality and many others.

Although progress in the development cycle is sequential, it can be implemented in a linear form or iteratively. The iterative model is preferred in many cases.

Design Tips

Gather the requirements through both regular interaction with target groups and indirectly through observations and human factors tools again and again. Use research methods, prototyping and iterative ideational design to find a way to the optimal product concept. Test all the aspects of the product, optimize and test again.

Concept Design @bluelarix

We are responsible for our clients disruptive new products.

We create game changing product concepts and our knowledge of design, interaction, technology, manufacturing and electronics transforms them into great new products, ready for manufacturing.

September: Evolta robot race

Evolta

Panasonic has just announced its plans to compete the evolta robot in the 230 kilometer ironman triathlon. The race entails a 3.8-kilometer swim in open ocean, a 180.2 km bicycle segment through volcanic rocks, and a 42.2 kilometer run through central kona, each completed by a slightly modified version of the robot, which is powered by 3 rechargeable evolta batteries.

Watch the video /

Family Matters by Noa Dotan

Family Matters is a family of toys for family therapy. Born from her love of toys and inspired by the need for 3D objects in the professional therapy environment, Family Matters is a series of relate-able objects for both therapists and patients. In designing the characters, Noa made sure that they were vague and abstract, but yet still were recognizable as animals. The colors are vibrant and neutral with different textures to help convey specific emotions.

Onedown

Onedown is a humane rat trap, working on the BOP toy principle, it creates a new visual association to the usual rat trap. The trap rests precariously in a horizontal position on a circular foot. Bait inside would lure the rat into the trap, a metal insert in the base coupled with the weight of the rat will tip the trap and bring it to a vertical position indicating that a rat has been trapped. Now you can bring it back to nature.

Lien

Lien is a redesign of the Taiwanese practice of burning joss paper to honor the deceased. It offers a zero-waste, all-inclusive package that fulfills the cultural needs of traditional, 49-day funerary rituals. The modern joss paper is produced by soaking furniture manufacturing byproducts in nitric acid – really unhealthy stuff. The belief reinforced by funeral homes and temples is, “The more you burn, the more you care.” This led to the idea of a zero-waste, all-inclusive package that limits excessive behavior . The idea of a burnt tea leaves are often used to enrich soil in traditional Chinese farming came as inspiration. The new joss paper uses tea leaves instead of heavy metal seals to give the paper symbolic monetary value. When burned, the ash becomes fertilizer, rich in potassium.

4th Amendment Wear

Now there’s a way to protest those intrusive TSA X-ray body scanners without saying a word. Underclothes printed with the 4th Amendment in Metallic Ink.

Super-Elastic Plastic

The plastic pictured is incredibly soft and stretches to about eight times its original size. It is a very durable material that stretches easily and can be injection molded to any shape. It has a remarkable combination of being incredibly elastic and easy to stretch, yet very difficult to rip.

Performance Load

The greater the effort to perform a task, the less likely that the task will be successfully completed.

Performance load is the degree of mental or physical activity needed to achieve a goal. If the performance load is high, the performance time increases and so does the number of mistakes. The chance to achieve the goal successfully decreases. Performance load works twofold: kinetic and cognitive.

Cognitive load

Cognitive load refers to the amount of mental activity: perception, memory, problem-solving. In the first computer users had such a range of commands to remember and type in a special way.

The number of commands to remember during the task is the cognitive load for the job. The introduction of graphical user interfaces helped users to perform using menus, without remembering commands. This drastic reduction of cognitive load has helped computers to grow into a mass product.

Kinetic load

This refers to the degree of physical activity needed to achieve the objective: the number of movements or the amount of force. In the past people had to telegraph for example letters, one at a time, transferring from onesequence of taps on a mechanical device. The number of taps to communicate a message is the kinetic load for that task. Samuel Morse developed the Morse code to reduce the kinetic load by giving the simplest codes to the letters most used.

Design Tips

Reduce the performance load in designs as much as possible. Reduce cognitive load by omitting redundant information displays, by chunking information, by providing memory aids. Reduce unnecessary tasks kinetic load reducing the total movement and energy required to reduce by automating tasks that are repeated.

Bluelarix works for Decathlon!

Bluelarix Designworks started to work for the French multinational Decathlon about one month ago.

The contents of the project is confidential, but very exiting. We will publish more information once the product gets into production. Read more about Decathlon /

Quickstart

Did you not work before with a design studio? Or do you like to try out our way of working, compared to your partner design office?

Then the Design Quickstart is an excellent project, offered to you for reduced rates. Read more about a quickstart project /

Turn-key product design

Design News

Daylight

Impressed by the natural daylight Norwegian designer Daniel Rybakken explores the stimulating effects of daylight through the use of artificial lighting. Having studied carefully the principles of daylight designer has examined through intensive research the “signs” which natural lighting provide to the human mind.

Glocke

Glocke, inspired by the Korean Buddhist Bell, works on the principle of resonance and amplifies sound, spreading its outreach. So when you dock the MP3 player on this device, it amplifies the low sound using the glass cylinder and glossy plastic body to full effect. The LED lamps glow according to the volume of the music.

RedBlueCNC

Interesting attempt to minimize complex CNC machines to simple modular units that more people can comprehend, with Gerrit Rietveld as inspiration. This would allow people to experiment with different setups, they are no longer restrained by how the machine is designed by allowing them to redesign the machine quickly and easily.

Bones orthopedic cast

Pedro Nakazato has designed Bones orthopedic cast with sensors to capture the muscle activities around the fracture area and stimulate the full recovery time of the patient.

September 29, 2011

August: extrimity MRI concept

Extremity MRI concept

Why do we still put an entire body into a magnetic field to scan an arm or a leg when the magnets in magnetic resonance systems are becoming smaller? That was the spark behind the Extremity concept. The fully adjustable chair moves to meet the magnet, so only the area that needs scanning will be scanned. Plus, the unexpected reference to furniture with use of ash wood and light strips help put patients at ease. Design by Lionel Wodecki of GE Healthcare (France)

pico collection for mutina

French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have developed the ‘pico collection’ for Italian ceramics company Mutina. Composed of compressed sand and mixed minerals, this series of tiles maintains the rawness of handmade cement and traditional earth floors, letting the materials convey their natural characteristics.

Omhu Cane

The Omhu Cane is a walking stick with attitude. Inspired by Scandinavian furniture, bicycles, hockey sticks and skateboards, this joyful design brings style and performance to mobility aids. The generous birch handle has grip strips for better hold, and doesn’t slip when leaned against a wall.

Kicker Tea Tumbler

Kicker Tea Tumbler is a combination of tea kettle and pot where water heats on the bottom of the device while tea leaves are placed into an infuser at the top. User can heat the water up to the desired temperature for the type of tea and flip the pot over to let the water lands on the tea leaves. Once the tea is done steeping, the user can flip the pot back over.

WS1204

The WS1204 is an innovative system specially designed for wheel-chair bound patients. It consists of four low profile wireless weighing pads. Weighing is simple; a weighing pad is placed in front of each wheelchair wheel. The wheelchair is rolled onto the four pads, and the pads send data wirelessly to the remote display where the patient’s weight is calculated and stored.

Masterpieces

“Masterpieces” is a string art kit from MO MAN TAI Design based on famous paintings.

Performance vs Preference

Sometimes the best products and business models do not win in the market, while lesser products get the triumph. The well-known QWERTY-layout from the keyboard was designed to prevent that the mechanical parts would grab each other during typing on old typing machines. The efficiency of typing and its connection to the place of the letter on the keyboard was not considered as a priority that time.

The Dvorak-layout, which is not that broadly known anymore in our days, on the contrary was based upon deep research and has shown good results in improving the speed of typing. The results of a comparative test show an improvement of 30% in terms of efficiency of work. Nowadays computers do not have those mechanical parts of the typing machines, so you would say, the Dvorak-layout would be the first choice layout for most of the people. But where the Dvorak wins in terms of efficiency QWERTY wins in terms of preference.

This great example teaches us a good lesson: obvious improvement of performance does not give a guaranty for success. People make their choices and build preferences upon many factors, and most of the time unconsciously. What you think is good for people, it is not necessary the same what people would find themselves best for them. Even more: people very often do not go for the good thing. More often, they go for a feeling-good experience.

Design Tips

The best way to find a balance between performance and preference is good observation. Do not trust only what people say, watch them doing things. Make conclusions, create design, and test it, observe and improve again.

Quickstart

Did you not work before with a design studio? Or do you like to try out our way of working, compared to your partner design office?

Then the Design Quickstart is an excellent project, offered to you for reduced rates. Read more about a quickstart project /

Turn-key product design

Design News

Amphibian Inspiration

Named after it’s inspiration, the Auratus chaise lounge by designer Wilson Niño mimics the form of a poison dart frog and has brilliant coloring to match.

Finest paperware

The paper cup from Rebecca Wilson’s “Finest paperware” is a transformation of the ultimate throwaway into a “cast paper”, an art object.

SavePaste

SavePaste is a new toothpaste packaging design has a three-point agenda: to eliminate the hard-to-squeeze dead space, minimizing toothpaste residue left inside the container and reduce two packaging to one.

Musical gloves

Developed specially for the musician Imogen Heap, these gloves are equipped with an accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope, wireless mics and a bunch of other sensors. It’s making music just out of the hands.

Jewelry

These series of accessories don’t include jewelry. Anything you find and put up becomes your own “Jewelry”. Find wonderful jewelry in your daily life.

July 26, 2011

July 2011 – soundLens, Y1, the egg holder,

The Leverage Freedom chair

The Leverage Freedom chair is designed to give wheelchair users the same access to the woods, trails and difficult terrain that mountain bike riders have. Its twin-lever drive and bicycle-style drivetrain gives riders the increased leverage to get over obstacles and climb steep grades.

The egg holder

This egg holder from Eva Valicsek is made from natural mikrowaved carton and as a complementary material rubber and consists of one piece. It is open from the top, but if its turned upside down, it will still hold firmly the eggs, they will not fall because of the elasticity of the rubber. Besides its special aesthetics the packaging has a very clear functionality: and it can be stored in piles, you can get the egg without having to open it, it is easy to produce and to recycle. That is how packaging should be.

Y 1

Espresso coffee machine Y1 offers the coffee connoisseur an entirely new approach to enjoying the culture of preparing and drinking coffee due to the device’s well-balanced functionality and language. This coffee machine is based on cubic shapes and is reminiscent of the early days of modern twentieth-century architecture. It thus pleasingly differentiates itself from the familiar shapes and generic materials used for other coffee machines. Well thought out, technically functional, highly compact, as well as user-friendly and self-explanatory.

The Dentris mobile

The Dentris from Clemens Aueris a mobile dental treatment system, the complete dentist station is packed into a lightweight, robust case that includes all the necessary tools for cleanings, fillings, and other operations.

Paper Punk

Paper Punk is a system of paper blocks that allow you to create spectacular looking paper toys and art forms with a few simple folds. Consider Paper Punk as building blocks for your imagination. It’s easy to use (everything you need is included) and very educational (spatial and dimensional thinking, motor skills, math, science, etc.)

Toyota window to the world concept

Imagine when a journey from A to B is no longer routine as your car in the near-future encourages a sense of play, exploration and learning. This is the image engineers and designers from Toyota Motor Europe (TME) and the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) had of Toyota’s “Window to the World” vehicle concept.

The ‘window to the world’ concept envisions the interior of the cars of the future as an interface for young passengers to learn and be creative. The concept converts backseat windows into transparent touch screens, providing users with games and educational tools as well as information about landmarks and other objects visible from outside.

the concept is composed of five parts:
- ‘drawing in motion’, in which the window is used as a canvas for passengers to draw on with their fingers;
- ‘zoom’ that lets passengers zoom-in on objects visible through the window;
- ‘translation’, in which riders can click on an object visible through the window and see and hear a foreign language translation for it;
- ‘augmented distances’ that estimates the distance between the vehicle and an object viewable outside;
- and ‘virtual constellations’, in which the car’s panoramic roof can display stellar constellations and information about them, using the actual sky as a backdrop.

Watch the video /

Design Tips
A cross disciplinary approach has a lot of advantages, it could create the possibility of knowing how to dream like a child, observing the world with a great portion of curiosity and admiration and not letting the word “impossible” to enter the brain too fast. Following the latest technological achievements and seeing unusual ways of application – it is a great part of a successful design business strategy.

New team member

Bluelarix Designworks has enlarged her design team. Hillar Roos supports the team with electronics design. He has a strong university background in computer systems design, electronics design and software development for embedded system, and nine years experience in the field.

We develop embedded systems: electronics and software for products, both consumer products as well as products used every day by professionals. Our electronics design is driven by the need to design a good experience for the user. Whether we design schematics, layouts, pcb’s or prototypes, the basis is always obtained by observing and studying consumers and users. Read more about our electronics design services /

Quickstart

Did you not work before with a design studio? Or do you like to try out our way of working, compared to your partner design office?

Then the Design Quickstart is an excellent project, offered to you for reduced rates. Read more about a quickstart project /

Turn-key product design

Do you want to realise a turn-key design project from plan to production? Do you need extra knowledge or capacity for your product development? We love to work with your team and take care of your concerns.

Design News

Hart

Hart’s Framing Hammer saves you some hassle with both the side-pulling nail capability and a side-strike.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

An awesome tale of an old classic. The Tale of Peter Rabbit is the first installment in the PopOut! series of unique interactive digital books. In spite of sometimes being old school people, who cherish a good paper book above anything digital, we truly feel in love with this one. A book, a game, a story and a whole experience.
Watch the video /

Transparent LED Film

Embeds lights without visible wires. It is generally difficult to embed electronics into glass, but this process makes it easy. The sheet with embedded electronic devices is thin and lightweight enough to be rolled up and shipped to a glass laminator near the product’s final destination.

Cheerful seats and tables

Joel Escalona based in Mexico has designed a cheerful collection of outdoor seats and tables. The synthetic fibers are resistant to UV, and all kinds of outdoor environments. The fibers used are a non-toxic and 100% recyclable.

SoundLens

SoundLens opens up completely new possibilities for hearing with and using such a device. It is invisible and is “made to measure”, because it is designed for each ear individually, other people are unaware of it.

The FireText

The FireText has a GSM SIM card on board that allows you to send fire-related texts to up to four cell phone numbers. Great idea. Say you left the stove on before running out to work. Or something’s burning while you sleep. Your alarm will let you know, either directly or through a friend, that there could be a fire.