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Tide X Otter: Beautiful, Sustainably Designed Surfboard
We were lusting after this beautiful surfboard at first sight and then we discovered the wood was sourced from sustainable woodlands and we fell in complete love. As part of a workshop to design and make his own surfboard, Martin Spurway worked with Otter Surfboards in Porthtowan, UK to make a wooden surfboard sourced from sustainable woodlands. The board is designed to mix traditional surfboard construction techniques similar to Tom Blake in the 1930's with a modern design aesthetic. Thanks to Spurway, we're able to showcase his entire design process from preparation as well as the 5 day workshop at Otter Surfboards. To finalize this beautiful project, Spurway partnered with Diplock Phoenix in Wadebridge, UK board to finish and glass the board. Surfboard Design process The workshop consisted of 5 days which started with the inside frame of the board, which was glued to the bottom skin. On the second day and third days the rails were built up from a series of strips. By the end of the third day the top was glued on. From there on it was shaping and sanding the rails of the board and blending in the nose and tail. The top and bottom skins and rails are made using Western Red Cedar wrapped over a poplar hollow frame. Since the board was custom designed, I also wanted to create a bag which not only complemented the design and quality of the board but was also perfectly tailored to fit it and removed extraneous elements of traditional board bags. The bag not only protects the board when travelling with its 10mm padded walls but I wanted to emphasise features such as the fin slot which reflective polyethelene in contrast to the 600 dennier recycled polyester. Extra protection was also added to the nose and tail which is also distinguished with a gloss finish. The board was made by Whasup Custom Board Bags. Via Behance
Product Design: Bringing Back Humanscale Manual from the 1970s
As of late, we've have published a series of revisited things from the past on ABDZ coming from manuals, branding items and more. It's somehow quite interesting because the things are stuff that we haven't even known its existence. It's kind of where I am heading with this Kickstarter Campaign of the Humanscale Manual originally created in the 1970s. To be specific, it was created by the team of industrial design pioneer Henry Dreyfuss and now back by the folks over IA Collaborative to publish the reissue. Give it your support! Behind this project, we have IA Collaborative is a global design and innovation consultancy based in Chicago, IL, USA. Their field of work is all around User Driven Design with research, strategy, prototyping, product development and more. Definitely check out their site to learn more. In their words These iconic, beautifully designed, and visionary tools to design for people are still so relevant today. Published between 1974 and 1981, the materials have been out of print for decades and fetch extremely high prices on the used market due to their scarcity. After finding so much value using Humanscale during the prototyping process in our own design work, we wanted to make them available at a reasonable cost to people everywhere. Photo Gallery Humanscale was published as three separate sets––Humanscale 1/2/3, Humanscale 4/5/6, and Humanscale 7/8/9. Each set includes one booklet and three two-sided selectors. More Links Learn more about Humanscale Manual: humanscalemanual.com Follow Humanscale Manual on Instagram Learn more about IA Collaborative iacollaborative.com
From Waste to Wearables: Sustainable Bamboo Slip Ons
If you've ever had the great opportunity to visit Hong Kong you may take quick notice of the iconic skyline and the amount of cranes constructing yet another skyscraper. In fact, Hong Kong boasts the most skyscrapers in the world surpassing New York and Dubai by far. You may also notice the bamboo scaffolding that looks more like an art display than a centuries-old building technique that locals celebrate. Bamboo scaffolding was first introduced into the building industry in Hong Kong immediately after colonization in the 1800s and widely used in the building of houses and multi-story buildings prior to the development of metal scaffolding. You may also be surprised to learn that most famous landmarks, most notably The Great Wall of China, were built using bamboo scaffolding. Each year, more than five million bamboo rods are used by the construction industry. However, due to safety reasons, most of them go straight to the landfills only after one building project. Enter Erth Company who was inspired to make a difference in turning this so-called waste of recycled bamboo rods into the insoles of today's most earth friendly, sustainable slip on ever. The Erth team collect bamboo rods from the construction sites in Hong Kong. They are then cleaned, disinfected and laminated into the insoles transforming "waste" into a sustainably designed shoe you can look good and feel good wearing. They've launched on Kickstarter and introduce two colorways of their bamboo and canvas slip on perfect for summer - Chalk and Uprush. Check out The Erth Company's site to learn more and be a part of the change.
Thoughts on: What should be my design title?
What should be my design title? This is a different approach from our usual inspirational features, hope you will follow along. This question was brought up by a good buddy of mine on what should be his design title? It wasn’t a question of “Fake it till you make it” but mostly what are the industry standards nowadays in terms of what is my title and what are my roles? For this article, let’s go deeper for the case of what are the differences between a UI/UX Designer, an Interaction Designer, and a Product Designer. Shall we? I took this comparison's case because it has been brought up many times during the course of my career and the last few years with the popularity rising of the UX. Whatever if you are a beginner, professional and even if you’re a freelancer. Let’s be honestly, most of us who comes from a background of graphic design and we aren’t being called graphic designers anymore. I know some people who still hasn’t done this switch in their careers and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. As long as you love what you do, nothing else matters. One thing to remember though is there is no ultimate goal in our field, everything depends on what do you wanna do with your career. Image by Ruthson Zimmerman What is UI and UX? Here we go! In the simplest explanation, UI is about what you see and UX is all about what you feel as a user and user experience. This role means that you’re juggling between both what’s visual and the overall experience. It’s one big giant role to be in and some companies do in fact mixed it all up (between UI and UX) which is not always right. From creating your visual path for each screen, page or elements and by the same time following what has been done on the UX side of things. On top of that, you’ll be working at creating style guides and ensuring a design language across the board. Image by Andrew Welch What is an interaction? In my opinion, during the course of a project; this is usually worked near the end from the design process. It’s basically animating all the static design into a fluid transition across the product. Sometimes it can be done for a certain element in particular but overall it’s always been figured it out as we go along. For example, what happens the interface does after a user clicks on this button. How the content appears? What transition effects to use? Motion becomes the main part of the interface by providing visual guesses as to how to use the product. Image by Carl Heyerdahl> Product Design We often say that UI/UX designers do become Product Designers and why is that? In my opinion, it’s an all-inclusive term of being a designer who is involved in every step of the process including what you see and feels but also conducting user research, design UI interfaces and create UI assets. Their understanding of the user and the product itself goes beyond since they have the capabilities to select the problem and address it with either prototyping and even front-end coding. Their role involves also testing in generating solutions to problems. This is the role that we keep hearing about since companies tend to hire designers that understand the user experience, research and visual elements. Voilà! This is what these roles meant to our industry, hope these were helpful during the course of your research or growth perspective. One thing to remember though is there is no ultimate goal in our field, everything depends on what do you wanna do with your career. If your goal is to be that catch-all designer, then you have to step it out so you can understand every single compartment of a product or keep crafting your skills in your desired role. We are lucky to be in our growing community that is not shy to share knowledge or even skills. Hope you have enjoyed this read. More Links Follow my tweets @aoirostudio Follow my pictures on Instagram
Product Design: Wrist Watches
Some people love their wrist watches. I usually don't use one, but I sure enjoy a well designed clock. When it comes to the product design of clocks, we can find thousands of models online and it's just a matter of taste to find the perfect fit for you. Here I've selected some awesome pieces of product design for you. Some are quite different, and it's great to see the variety of details in each one. Don't forget to tell us on Facebook what's you favorite from this list, or any other watch you might want to share. I hope you enjoy this selection. Cheers! ;)
Gather by Ugmonk: Minimal & Modular, your Next Desk Organizer
Your desk, is it organized or just a cluttered mess? Most desk organizers on the market always on either ugly, badly designed or/and cheap-made. Well, our good friend Jeff Sheldon over Ugmonk is introducing Gather. A minimal, modular organizer that cuts clutter and it's amazing. We've been fans of Ugmonk for a long time, we always admire his avant garde entrepreneurship and his care of good design. This time, it's a beautiful and useful product design currently live on Kickstarter, we would like to congratulate Jeff on getting it funded in less than one hour. What a milestone of something that has been in the works for the last 3 years. Behind Gather, we have Ugmonk also known as Jeff Sheldon is the face behind the brand. A designer based in Downington, USA who has been creating products, moments and stories for the last 7 years. What is Gather? Your browser does not support the video tag. GIF Action Why Gather? (In Jeff's Words) Clutter. You don't want to think about it, but it always creeps in over time, making it impossible to find things when you actually need them. As a designer, I spend most of the day working at my desk and reach for the same things over and over. I try to stay organized, but by the end of the day my desk is a complete, cluttered mess because there's no central place to put everything. I searched for a product to solve this problem, but all I found were ugly, cheaply-made organizers. What I wanted was a beautifully-designed, minimal organizer. Something to gather all of my essentials into one central place. So I designed Gather. Gather adapts to your workspace and workflow to make sure the tools you need are always within reach. Product Shots & Prototypes For the past 3 years, I’ve worked through dozens of prototypes and sketches to dial in every detail. I went from chopping up rough foam models with a pocket knife all the way to working with industrial design engineers to produce 3D-models and technical drawings that are ready for mass manufacturing. More Links Support Gather on Kickstarter Follow Ugmonk on Twitter Follow Ugmonk's pictures/stories on Instagram
Mumu: A Set of Play Toys based on Taiwanese Cultural Lifestyle
With the era of how technology has evolved, young kids have started to be pretty familiar with our smart devices and companies have started to build smaller and yet more interactive things. Well, Dualai Studio had another concept; setting aside our smart devices and introducing Mumu. Inspired by Taiwanese Cultural Lifestyle, it's a set of play toys to build their own little house structure with magnetic interchangeable parts by trigging their freedom and joy to simply play. Behind Mumu is the work from Dualai Studio. Dualai is a design studio based in Taipei, Taiwan, they have been focusing their work on multiple areas of design including: Industrial Design, Product Design, Interface Design and more. You should give them a follow via Behance. There is a tremendous variety of pretend play toys in Taiwan’s market, however, the customers are disappointed because of a lack of choice which demonstrates the Taiwanese lifestyle they are familiar with. The lifestyle in Taiwan has its own uniqueness, and it is worthy to be cherished. We aim to make mumu a hub which connects the collective memory of families through play.
Mujjo is bringing its Full-Grain Leather Case for the Samsung S8/S8+
With the arrival of the newly Samsung S8/S8+, Mujjo is bringing its full-grain leather case for the occasion. We've featured them before and now they are back with its unique case to the market. With a super slim fully leather-wrapped silhouette, you'll have an interior lined with the finest Japanese microfibre. Last but not least, you'll have enough chamfer for effortless use of fingerprint sensor. Coming from the mighty folks from Mujjo, they provide leather tech and travel accessories from Netherlands. As I quote from the Co-Founder (Remy Nagelmaeker): "Part of what makes the cases so unique is the premium quality of the materials and design which is at once simple and elegant." You should definitely check out their store. Part of what makes the Mujjo leather cases so unique is the premium quality of the materials and design which is at once simple and elegant. After the massive success of Mujjo’s iPhone cases, and with Samsung’s release of the S8 and S8+, we feel now’s the time to bring our renowned cases to Galaxy.
Industrial Design: Disney Camera Concept
Let's take a look at this colourful industrial design by Soo Mok of a really kid-friendly design of a camera for kids by Disney. The idea/concept behind this design is quite fitted for kids as I quote:"The Dream Camera aims to make kids’ get-a-way in Disneyland more ideal." It's a really cute MOD design where I can see kids using and looks pretty solid, wouldn't be worried if it would fell on the floor. What strikes me the most is the different colour scheme that would represent some of your favourite characters! Which is your favourite? Published on Behance, we are following the work of Soo Mok who is an industrial designer based in Seoul, Korea. It's nice to see Soo getting out of his comfort zone from his latest designs, definitely worth checking out his work. According to the veteran photographer, David Hurn, photography is a perfect tool for overcoming shyness. In this sense, if some kids feel shy or even afraid of uncomfortable circumstances, e.g., confronting characters, a camera could be a highly useful icebreaking tool to overcome barriers in their mind by letting children taking pictures. There is no need to pose Then when you come home they will still have a picture to remember meeting the characters but don’t have to pose for a photograph.
Industrial Design: AE1 Hand-made Premium Film Camera
AE1 is a concept industrial design and product design project created and shared by Jun Semin on his Behance profile. The beauty of this project in my opinion, lies on the pursue of a classic and premium look resulting on a super clean product. It brings a lot of references in terms of style and aesthetics from Leica, as you can see from the images below. Jun even uses that as reference during his design process. Jun Semin is an industrial designer from Seoul, South Korea. His design work is a think tank wrapped in the “Idea” & “Story” with the simplicity and exclusivity as well as humor not seen in the conventional commercial design elements. Listening to user's story and learning from their experience is crucial that when designing a new product – not to mention that it’s very interesting and fun. Not only he provides you with a logical, reasonable and systematic approach, it also brings you the most eye-catching objects. AE1 have created the look of a hand-made premium film camera. The detailed finish and smooth lines look great with the interior decoration of every car. Classic black and mystic colors satisfy the sophisticated tastes of urban car drivers. Industrial Design
Industrial Design: L-Rod Monitor for your Laptop
Being on-the-go is something we all strive for and being able to be mobile for all occasions is an addition as well. Imagine having a portable screen? We are taking a look at industrial design of a monitor concept named: L-Rod. Coming with a minimal bezel and a curved display, this concept is aiming with a single USB-C cable to both be used as power and image data. It’s an interesting approach for an external screen, what do you think? Designed by Hyunsu Park, he is an industrial designer over at the Kookmin University, Seoul in Korea. Hyunsu focus his work also in product design and UI/UX. Let’s keep an eye on him for his future projects.
Product Design: Anicorn Hidden Time Watch
I think most of us shared our love for gradients. As a designer, I do! What if it shares the time through a gradient on a beautiful watch?! This is the product design we are sharing today named: the Hidden Time Watch. It’s a play on the colour contrast of the gradient to tell the time, it’s quite a genuine concept. It almost feel like an optical illusion and I think it’s such a cool factor. Currently on Kickstarter, the watch is unisex and comes in three colours including rose gold, black, and white. Published via Kickstarter, this is a design by Jiwoong Jung and according to him: "“My research on how to naturally pass time began with how hiding occurs in nature, which led me to one of the best known examples––the chameleon’s protective color. Their defense mechanism is a kind of optical illusion, but a simple and effective way to have two things together naturally when superimposed". Hidden Time's watch face features a beautiful gradient display under a crystal covering where numbers are firmly printed. As hours pass, the hour gradient disc rotates and “hidden time” is revealed.
Product Design: The Grid Game
We would like to share this product design by Estudio Victor Alemán about a simple but fun game for your events and parties. In line with yesterday’s article going too digital, it’s nice to put our smart devices on the side and just have fun. As it’s mentioned, let’s bring back the ritual of board games. The starter edition starts with 50 tiles and can be played with 5 players. You should definitely check out their Kickstarter Project. Currently live on Kickstarter, the Grid Game a colorful board game that creates beautiful patterns as you play it. Based on the rules of the Dominoes, it is a mix between a puzzle and a strategy game. The objective is simple, play your tiles before everyone else, do it strategically to prevent your friends from using their tiles, for this to happen you can use your black tiles and lock parts of the game. A new game designed by Estudio Victor Alemán for LEFT fully funded at Kickstarter in five days.
Product Design and UI/UX: iPhone 8 Concept
It’s that time of the year where a lot of tech blog/news would share their rumours about the next iPhone. With the fact that Apple is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, most of us are kind of eager what they will come up with. Bezels? Tiny bezels or none? Let’s take all the features aside, let’s take a look at this product design by Moe Slah’s iPhone Concept and what was his direction for the UI/UX. I really enjoyed his refined design with an updated iOS 10 UI and think it will be greatly received by everyone. In all honesty, I wish Apple will come up with a total overhaul of their iOS that gotten quite old to use every single day. Published via Behance, Moe Slah is a digital creative director based in Alexandria, Egypt. With more than 10 years experience in the design field, Moe has also a background in business administration and management information systems. He wears also many hats from also being a Behance Ambassador and worked with International companies in USA, Canada, Australia and more.
Product Design: Kontrol Editing Tablet
We’ve seen tools like the Wacom and even the Touch Bar from the MacBook Pro to somehow increase our productivity and workflow. They both have their pros and cons but I would an issue I had with the Wacom for example was its size especially when you think of working on-the-go or in a coffee shop. How about we rethink it a little. Let’s take a look at this editing tablet product design concept named: Kontrol by Jonny Tran. With a minimal approach, I can’t help to enjoy the idea of having your tablet separated in different components. It’s quite neat! Published via Behance, this is the work from freelance designer named Jonny Tran based in Jönköping, Sweden. There isn’t much more information about Jonny but we know that he’s studying in Industrial Design and we shall look forward to see more of him in the near future. Kontrol is a sketch tablet that is designed for video and photo editors in mind.
Product Design: Whym - Seamless Instant Interpretation App
Whym - Seamless Instant Interpretation App is a product design project shared by the Netguru Team on their Behance profile. As the name suggest the idea is simple, you have an app that provided you access to a live interpreter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Simple ideas tend to be the most difficult to execute well but, visually at least (I have not had time to download and play with it yet) it looks quite beautiful. This project covers some of the main user journeys like: onboarding, call and connect with an interpreter and purchase more minutes. It is a quite good example of product design presentation. Use case Imagine your worst travel nightmare. You’re in a car crash; you’re rushed to hospital; your travel companion has been arrested by the police. Then imagine you can’t speak the local language. You can’t understand what’s being said; you can’t get people to understand you. What’s wrong? What’s everyone saying? Now imagine you have immediate access to a professional,live, human interpreter in your pocket. You’re still in a stressful situation, but there's an interpreter by your side to explain what's going on. Product design solution About Netguru Netguru is one of Europe’s fastest growing mobile and web development groups. We’ve helped partners scale existing projects and build MVPs. For more information check out: http://netguru.co/
Industrial Design: Nintendo Switch VR Concept
Recently, we witness the launch of Nintendo’s latest with their new console named: Switch. With the trend about VR, what if Nintendo took the turn into this technology? What it will look like? Will it stand against the competition? Well, Antoine Beynel took a stab at a industrial design concept and let’s give it a look. Inspired by the Nintendo Switch, we can see how this could actually work with what will be on the market soon. What do you think? Published on Behance , we are taking a look at the work from Antoine Beynel. He is an industrial designer currently based in Seattle, WA, USA. He specialized his work on industrial design, product design and branding; his work has been recognized by many awards like the CES innovation award and more.