SoVibrant Opinion8: February 2011

25 February 2011

Design Classic No.88 - The Egg Chair

The Egg Chair was designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958 for the Radissen Hotel in Copenhagen.

Manufactured by Fritz Hansen, the Egg chair became an instant design classic. The rear portion can just be covered by a single cow hide avoiding any joints, although fabric versions are available.

The cost used to make the chair pretty exclusive, however you can now cradle your bottom in one down at your local Maccy-d’s! Hopefully this won’t affect it’s iconic status.

SoVibrant design 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

24 February 2011

Beautiful Science

The BBC has published a fantastic range of scientific photography entered for the Annual Wellcome Image Awards. Well worth checking out.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12538048

22 February 2011

R2-D2 becomes a reality

This one is for all you Sci-fi geeks out there. It has been 34 years since the Star Wars saga began and inspired inventors and engineers around the world create to some of the key technological advancements of our time. From Ipods to hands-free kits, they all first appeared in any number of sci-fi films before gracing our lives. There was a time when people couldn't imagine living away from our planet, yet the international space-station orbits our planet with resident scientists all year round!

On the 24th of February at 4:50 PM EST (USA time) the first fully automated humanoid robot, code named R2, will launch from Cape Canavarel to join the crew of the international space-station.

R2's first stage will be to familiarise its self with the space station. It will be required to help the astronaughts cooking meals, finding & fetching equipment and making repairs to the exterior of the space station. Once R2 has settled in, its next task will be to work and assist in the with research tasks in the science labs aboard the station.

It’s truly amazing to think that we have become advanced enough to trust a fully automated Droid to safely work on and fix a piece of hardware costing $100 Billion.

To keep up to date with R2's experiments, he will be tweeting (apparently by himself daily). Check out his twitter page at: http://twitter.com/robonaut2

For more information and pictures check out: http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp

Sovibrant

16 February 2011

The Shard v Tour Hermitage

New London office building The Shard is officially the tallest building in the UK.

The Shard London Bridge has now surpassed One Canada Square in height and become the UK’s tallest building.

Once completed it will stand at 310 meters tall making it the tallest edifice in the EU.
The French however would argue about this, with the spire of the Tour Eiffel being at 324m.

To make sure the Brits don't have this crown for too long, work has just began on 2 new towers just outside Paris. France's very own 'Twin Towers' namely the Hermitage Towers, and that they are to be higher still than the Shard at 323m. Norman Foster a British Architect is helping the French win back the title, with the 2 residential towers at La Defense.

The Shard in London will contain 586,509 square feet of office space, residential apartments, retail space and restaurants. The top of the building will have a 15-storey public viewing gallery which is expected to attract over 2 million tourists a year.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop have been responsible for the design of the building.
They have made use of expressive and angled panes to reflect the natural light and patterns in the sky.

The shape also helps maintain views to St Pauls, something London planners are very passionate about.

For me the building may have lost out on the height battle, but wins hands down on the design front.

You may also be interested in my blog on the competition to be the world's tallest building.

Images courtesy of Google images

Architecture and Design

www.sovibrant.co.uk

15 February 2011

Is This Design For Designs Sake?

The company that has set the benchmark for style, technology and popularity is Apple. It wasn’t going to be long then before new gadgetry was designed around the deity of the techy world, to make the already usable iPod even easier to live with. Introducing the iRing, a Bluetooth ring concept that you wear on your finger to control the playback functionality of your iPod… and to show everyone around you just how tech-savvy you are!

Its wireless connectivity means that skipping that one song that you hate on your favourite CD no longer warrants you rummaging through your handbag, or risking cracking a vertebrae as you twist around for your iPod in your back pocket. You no longer even need to jostle the people around you on the ever-crowded bus, just subtly press on your ring and be in total control of what you listen to.

The iRing’s functionality is every bit as cool as the iPod’s. To adjust the volume, you simply need to slide your finger across the touch sensitive surface of the ring. To play or pause songs, just tap the apple icon on the ring and to skip tracks you need only touch on either side of the icon depending on which direction you want to go.

The initial question with this gadget now rises: with a touch sensitive face, isn’t there a chance of constantly tapping the ring by accident? Well this worry has been taken into account with a lock function incorporated into the design. Simply bend the finger that the ring is on to squeeze two rubber pads on the underside of the ring, and you can listen to Sarah Blasko all the way home without interruption.

The iRing is USB powered and comes with an equally stylish cradle for you to keep the ring safe or (as I would!) display it proudly on your coffee table. The cradle is also used to recharge the iRing through a USB connection.

Some people may think that while the the ring looks good, it wouldn’t match every outfit. All I have to say is that I never thought white earphone wires would take-off in the fashion world either and yet you see them everywhere. People dressed in business attire, sportswear, clubbing outfits all have these same white wires running from their ears to their pockets. It has become a statement in itself, of being cool and being up to date with technology. It won’t be long then for sleek white or black rings to be adorning the fingers of everyone in the street.

7 February 2011

Design Classic No.43 - Concorde

Concorde, also known as 'le Concorde', was developed in the mid 60's as a joint venture between Britain and France.

With its beautiful delta wing design and distinctive droop nose section, Concorde became an instant design classic. The supersonic passenger plane could cruise at Mach 2.04 (1350mph) and managed to cut London to New York flight times in half, once recording a staggering 2 hours 56 minutes.

The horrific crash of flight 4590 in 2000 led ultimately to its retirement, however the instantly recognisable design will ensure Concorde’s place in aviation design history.

SoVibrant Design www.sovibrant.co.uk

2 February 2011

We love HTC

I have just recieved my brand new HTC HD7 with Windows 7 O/S. After being an avid Apple iphone user for the last two years I was getting a little fed up with being prescribed to in how I use my phone and where I acquire content for it. I have really enjoyed my iphone but its limitations have really begun to frustrate. In key areas such as use of personal files, lack of flash compatibility, (lets be real HTML 5 is hardly mainstream yet!) being handcuffed to itunes, lack of access to generally useful software for those of us who are also PC users I have found the iphone really wanting. People always say - oh but you are designers, surely you love Apple. Yes, we love the styling, but equally as designers we like to be different and I for one am also getting slightly bored of having the same phone as everyone else out there. I am sure I am not the only person who feels like this!!

When I got my HTC I had a feeling of dread because I worried that a windows phone just wouldnt be as good as my iphone was. I had ebay on stand by....

How wrong I was. From the second the phone loads up it has a beautiful tiled interface that is really easy to use and generally I was amazed to find myself preferring the aesthetics of my new phone to my iphone. The device is a really slick design and looking slightly different to the iphone, I have lost that "mainstream malaise" I was developing. The menus are beautifully animated with a really crisp contemporary aesthetic. The screen is huge and the phone has a great addition of a stand that allows you to watch movies with the phone supported in position on its side. Gone are the days of trying to make the crease in your bag hold your phone.

As good as the iphone is, having a few extra buttons also does really help!

Social media is well integrated within the phone with all your contacts also showing facebook feeds, posted photos and the like without going into a facebook app or online.

The apps hub is lacking at the moment, but hey its taken Apple a good 3 years to build up a great range of apps and I am prepared now to give the benefit of the doubt and wait and see if it develops successfully.

Watch this space to see if the enthusiasm lasts, but on day 2, I have not given my iphone a second thought and I am really pleased with my HTC HD7.

It's about time the boat was rocked..... Apple are far from the perfect provider for everyone and it is great to see a genuine rival coming to the fore.

FEATURED POSTS