

Periodically I google Cork just to see what designers are doing with one of my favourite tactile materials. I am still waiting to bump into a friendly patron-like cork supplier who wants to give me some play cork to experiment with. ![]() Jasper Morrison is a designer with a thing for cork and he has several covetable stools on the market including these little rotund earth-coloured beauties for Moooi. Up there on the left is another Jasper Morrison, this time for Vitra. Its "Stool A". On the right is a designer I have only just found - Daniel Michalik and his beautiful layered cork forms. Design Within Reach run an annual cork design competition where would-be-corkies make chair designs from a champagne cork. I am not allowed to enter because I am one of their designers - lucky because intricate craft is really not my thing! Below is the judges pick for this years Cork Competition: ![]() And click on the image here for a terrific overview from the Inhabitat site on how cork is made.
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I am currently in the Napa Valley as a guest of Mercedes, driving the SLK 350 fitted with their new myCOMAND (not a typo just an unfortunately wrong-looking acronym) social interface system. Johann Jungwirth, CEO of Benz R&D North Amercia walked us through the four social trends ID'd by his group as the keys to understanding the digital lifestyle revolution: * the constant connection that means we are "always on"; * "Simplexity" - the demand for intuitive, efficient and aesthetic interfaces - the hallmark of Apple; * "Innovation acceleration" as demonstrated by the disruptive business practices of some of Silicon Valley's best known social network phenomenons; and *social networking and the ability to effect rapid change from bottom up empowerment best evidenced by the soclal uprisings in some of the Arab countries this year. We visited Google - always a highlight! - and learned what it meant to be googly.....and with a couple of minor nav mishaps that are to be ironed out before the November launch and bunch of German journalists and I made it across the Golden Gate Bridge to Napa.
The concept of a driver being assaulted by facebook updates, diary updates, navigation inputs, video conferencing and a bunch of other informational inputs while steering a car through traffic alarms me - and the fact that technically savvy and needy San Francisco drivers (as reported by Jalopnik yesterday) have a 55% higher chance of crashing than other drivers in the USA suggests that we are already too distracted by incoming information...... This morning I plan to quiz Johann and co on how they work with the Benz passive and active safety engineers to make myCOMAND safe. Surely the answer is the Google autonomous (driverless) car? Do we want cars that are essentially mobile media rooms careening |
AuthorSally Dominguez writes, skis, designs and teaches, is curious about most things and loves Dr Seuss. Archives
August 2014
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