Design Classic no.199: lenticular clouds

Check out these awesome rare lenticular clouds see over various parts of West Yorkshire yesterday:

Contrary to modern meteorological theory, these clouds were not actually formed by ‘stable but moist air that had travelled over the Pennines causing a standing wave to be established’. No, these were from space.

They are watching you.

SoVibrant. Design and paranoia. www.SoVibrant.co.uk

357 and counting

Following on from our blog about the new Apple store at Grand Central Terminal, I found this link with all the previous 356 stores.
Thomas Park has compiled a gallery of all 357 of Apple’s stores from all over the world. 
He has compiled the images directly from Apple’s own website and include information about where the store falls among the 357, where it is located and when it was opened.

Park’s initiative was sparked by the desire to detect the evolution in Apple’s strategy of storefront design.
The stores have a simple, crisp and sleek design that aim to mirror the products they sell and give off the same feeling of reliable design.

For me the concept has hardly changed in 10 years, with only the decision to lose the black shopfront cladding used on some earlier stores, and stick with the silver panels from then on.

My 2 favourites are the well known Apple glass cube in New York and a similar approach in Shanghi China, only this time with a glass tube leading to the glass spiral staircase.
Take a look at the link to see all 357 stores in their minimalistic glory.

applestorefronts.appspot.com

Architecture - Interior Design

www.sovibrant.co.uk

Merry Christmas from SoVibrant!

Merry Christmas to all our blog readers.

This year seems to have flown by but it has certainly been a busy one for us here at SOV.  We're definitely ready to take a break, but just a short one as we have some fantastic projects and exciting developments lined up for 2012.

Many thanks to you all for your support this year.  We look forward to seeing you all in 2012.

Merry Christmas!
The SoVibrant team x

www.sovibrant.co.uk
Christmas

High Flying Design

Being an ex-RAF pilot myself, I have a keen interest in anything to do with the world of aviation. I absolutely love this new flight simulator in Stuttgart, Germany and would love to have a go if anyone would like to pay for me to go out there!

The simmINN Flight Simulation Center is the brainchild of architect of Frankfurt based architect Boris Banozic who dealt with the concept, interior and graphic design.

You can fly either a Boeing 737 or take the controls of a Leerjet 45x all from the safety of the ground without ever having to leave it.

A sleek and fresh take on flight simulators.. Let us know what you think.

www.sovibrant.co.uk
Interior Design

SoVibrant appoint Cicada for PR services..

We are delighted to announce that we have appointed Harrogate-based Cicada communications to handle our PR services.  Exciting times..  Press, online, publicity stunts galore, we can't wait to see what the magic they can work on our already fantastic story. Cicada begin work on January the 3rd, so we are looking forward to a regular slot, replacing Grand Designs on Channel 4 by January the 5th.

Anyone interested in PR we recommend you check out Cicada..


http://www.cicada-comms.com/




Happy Christmas everyone!

Trillion frames per second camera

Hi everyone,

Here at SoVibrant we are always on the look-out for cutting edge technology that strives to be at the head of its industry. In doing some research into current and new technologies we came across the link below.

The link explains how the guys over at MIT have managed to create a camera that can track the fractional movement of light. This is a first and there is nothing else that currently exists capable of displaying anywhere near this type of information.

Visit the link below (Courtesy of BBC News) to read more about it and view the video they have created to demonstrate the technology.

Click here for the link to the MIT light-tracking camera


3D visualisation
http://www.sovibrant.co.uk/

National Business Accelerator

Yesterday I presented along with our investor, mentor and general SoV sage, Alan Kitching, at the regional finals of the National Business Accelerator Award. The award has been set up to provide £15m of free advertising to a range of entrepeneurial, fast growth companies, with the overall winner receiving a years mentoring from Deborah Meadon of Dragon's Den fame. An amazing number of companies entered and we are down to the last 6 in our region, with 3 going on to the national finals early next year.

It is a real accolade to have made it this far and we are proud to be flying the flag for Yorkshire and the North of England and proving that the recession doesnt have to be all doom and gloom.

The session yesterday was very much a Dragon's Den style arrangement with 5 dragons representing leading blue chip companies,  cameramen, a darkened room and questions thrown at you from all angles. Anyone who knows me will know I get off on challenging situations like that, so I very much enjoyed it! Hopefully we have done enough to progress to the next stage! Fingers crossed.

Winners are announced on January 13th in the Yorkshire Post.

Wish us luck!

Banksy does it again..

Some lovely new exterior wall decorations from Banksy...  How anyone can call this vandalism is beyond me. Satirical, well executed and a touch of humour for your stroll to work. Love it.

Leeds Train Station gets a New Entrance

Finally, for all those commuters and office workers living and working on the south side of the River Aire, a new entranced is planned for construction in 2012.
The proposed scheme for a new southern entrance to Leeds station will include new lifts, stairs and escalators and exiting onto Granary Wharf.

The curvaceous structure has been described as a new “door’ for the city." and has been passed by Leeds city planners.
Hopefully the scheme doesn't get watered down in the construction phase, as the curved design with a curved glass balustrade should look very striking.

With existing pedestrian links to the southern end of Neville Street, office workers around Holbeck, Bridgewater and Asda house are sure to benefit.
As well as all the bars and restaurants around Granary Wharf, as people stop off for a cheeky pint if they accidently miss their train.

Design Classic no. 30: British Road Signs

It's official - Britain's road signs have been recognised as 'design classics' by the Design Museum.

Created by graphic designers Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert in the mid-sixties, the entire language of the signs we see today was standardised from what had previously been a haphazard assortment of confusing and dangerous symbols, colours and lettering.

New fonts were created and most importantly, upper and lower cases combined to enable place names to be read by shape as well as lettering. For more on this story follow: more....

The signs are so recognisable they can be considered as art in their own right. Tim Blackhouse, sick of cars speeding past his house, decided to paint a giant 30 in an attempt to slow drivers down. It looks brilliant:

Which reminds me a bit of this 'deface-your-own-home' British eccentricity:

SoVibrant - design classics - www.SoVibrant.co.uk

Related Links:


Design Classic No.007: Aston Martin DB5 
Design Classic No.28: The Triumph Bonneville

Design Classic no.30: British Road Signs

Design Classic No.38: AEC Routemaster Bus
Design Classic No.43 - Concorde
Design Classic No. 65: Penguin Book Covers
Design classic No. 74: The Telephone Box
Design Classic No.88 - The Egg Chair
Design Classic No. 111: The PH Artichoke pendant lightfitting
Design Classic No.122: The Sony Walkman
Design Classic No.145 - The London Underground Map
Design Classic No. 166: The Supermarine Spitfire 1936
Design Classic No.234: Sinclair C5
Design Classic No.243: The Anglepoise Lamp
Design Classic No.246: Ferrari Dino
Design Classic No.300: Mercedes 300SL Coupe
Design Classic No.325: Ferrari 512 S Modulo
Design Classic No.412: BMC Mini
British Design Classic Stamp collection...
Modern Design Classic No. 71: The Balzac Chair

Fords on Film/TV

50 years of Ford Cortinas

Classic car of the week - Mark 1 Lotus Cortina

CryEngine 3 & Crystal CG

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to post up some news I found recently when browsing the usual 3D visualisation community sites. The link below is courtesy of CGArchitect and is a very interesting step forward in the CGI industry.

Real-time visualisation giant Crystal CG has recently licensed CryEngine 3 from Crytek GmbH (Crytek). CryEngine 3 is one of the leading real-time game engines on the market today and has taken realism in the gaming industry to new heights. With this convergeance of talent and technology I am sure we will be seeing some amazing real-time visualisation coming from Crystal CG in the near future.

The link below is to the CGArchitect post and is a very good read for all of those out there with an interest in real-time visualisation.

Click here for the CGArchitect article


3D Visualisation
http://www.sovibrant.co.uk/

The Future of Home Cinema

15 years ago the "big thing" was “virtual reality”, a phrase that seemed to be applied to anything from enormous monitor wielding headsets, to almost everything interactive. Thankfully the buzzword has been buried with cyberspace, Y2K and Dirty Den, however that doesn’t mean the ideals and notions have gone away. Instead, now they’re actually possible, they have less ambitious and more meaningful names like ‘Personal 3D Viewer’.

Designed to work with the Playstation 3, Sony’s Personal 3D Viewer dispenses with the futurisms, to provide a viewing experience that often fail to leaves most company’s concept departments. When worn, the device provides two 720p OLED monitors, one for each eye, replicating the 3D cinema experience and proving ideal for 3D movies and gaming. Costing around £700, the headsets aren’t cheap but for those with plenty of disposable cash, this surely has to be the ‘must-have’ gadget of the year.

3D & Media
www.sovibrant.co.uk

Design Classic no. 28 - The Triumph Bonneville

The Bonneville range of Triumph motorcycles easily finds a place in our series of design classics. The Bonneville was made in three different production runs from 1959 to 1983, and 1985 to 1988, by the now-defunct Triumph Engineering in Meriden; and since 2001, by Triumph Motorcycles in Hinckley. It is named after the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, where Triumph and other motorcycle companies made attempts on motorcycle speed records. All share a parallel-twin four-stroke engine configuration. The current version, produced since 2001 by the modern successor of the original company, is a completely redesigned and re-engineered evolution of the original design (text courtesy of Wikipedia 2011).

Incidentally, the bike Steve McQueen rode in the infamous Great Escape film was a another Triumph, this time a TT specialist 650, made to look like a war time BMW. Steve was way too cool to ride a BMW. There. I said it.

SoVibrant design www.SoVibrant.co.uk

Related Links:
Design Classic 246: Ferrari Dino
Design Classic 325: Ferrari 512 S Modulo
Design Classic 28: The Triumph Bonneville
Design Classic 007: Aston Martin DB5
Design Classic 300: Mercedes 300SL Coupe
Design Classic 38: AEC Routemaster Bus
Design Classic 234: Sinclair C5

Design Classic 412: BMC Mini

Design Classic No.243: The Anglepoise Lamp

Design Classic No. 65: Penguin Book Covers

British Design Classic Stamp collection...

Modern Design Classic No. 71: The Balzac Chair

Design Classic no. 30: British Road Signs

Design Classic No.122: The Sony Walkman

Design Classic No.88 - The Egg Chair

Design Classic No. 111: The PH Artichoke pendant lightfitting

Micaël Reynaud - Awesome animated Gif's

Loving these clever animated Gif's from Micael Reynaud. Enjoy!

A day in the life of a New Yorker

This day for me was 19th November 2011, my 40th Birthday, spent with Mags experiencing what all New Yorker's have right on their doorstep.
With an early start to beat the queues, we arrived at the Rockefeller Centre at 8.30am to buy a double trip up the elevator to the the 69th floor.

It was a beautiful day and a great way to see New York with the Empire State on one side and Central Park on the other.
The perfect start to build up an appetite for a New York Diner ‘monster breakfast’ which basically keeps you full all day.

To walk off our triple eggs and bacon brunch we headed for Central Park and museum mile.
After escaping the perils of ice skating, to make the most of the unusually mild sunny weather, we hired a rowing boat at the boathouse, how romantic !

Next for me was the pinnacle of my trip and top of the list of museums and experiences I had in mind - The Guggenheim, a Frank Lloyd Wright Masterpiece.
We walked in the door with excited eyes only to be met with the biggest installation of Italian tat strung haphazardly from the oculus of the Guggenheim’s rotunda.

Maurizio Cattelan an Italian artist based in New York was exhibiting virtually everything the artist had produced since 1989.
He is known for his satirical sculptures, particularly La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour), depicting the Pope John Paul II struck down by a meteorite.

However the one piece that got my goat was a massive marble scoreboard of England losing every football game to a host of countries (see photos)
Well Mr Cattelan your pieces may be satirical but they hid to much of this beautiful building for my liking.

We ended our day with a sunset up the Rockefeller and a visit to the unspoilt Grand Central Terminal and drinks at the famous Oyster Bar.
Lucky for me it wasn't the 'Blue Oyster Bar'