Tue, Jun 22 2010
Testing the competition for Product 49 is a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.
With all the World Cup excitement going round, I figured I’d follow up with something timely. Check out this video showing how Adidas makes their 2010 Jabulani World Cup ball.
Hello Quirks!
My name is Gaz and I have just had the pleasure of joining the Quirky design team. I hail from the fair country of England and grew up among the sheep and cows of a little town called Malvern. Wooden sports cars and the spring water the Queen drinks originate there, along with my good self…
I’ve been working as a designer in NYC for close to a decade now, and can’t wait to get stuck in helping to shape our Industrial Design capabilities. I am working with a skilled team of designers here and along with Bertha and the amazing Quirky staff I know we are going to go to great places. We’ll also be constantly investigating ways to get you guys involved in the design process too, so watch this space!
Fun facts about me:
Won the Design and Technology prize at Primary school two years in a row, ages 9 and 10
Played Cello (badly) in a Manhattan-based Community Orchestra a few years ago, need to start practicing again though… :-0
Got bitten on the face by my previous boss’s Pitbull, needing 35 stitches… not that fun really
Outside of work I am a full-time janitor (on my own ramshackle house which I share with my wife and two cats)
Yesterday was a sad day for design. Conceptual artist Tobias Wong died, cutting short a prolific career as one of the world’s top young designers. We hope his work will inspire you!
For more, visit: http://www.brokenoff.com/
In addition to late weekend nights tending to Bertha, one of my favorite weekend activities is walking around the MoMa design store in Soho. It is, after all, only a six minute walk from the office.
As you probably know, I am not a designer or engineer, operations is more my jam, but throughout my experience working at Quirky and being surrounded by so many awesome products that we make ourselves, it is quite inspiring to see what the MoMa sells.
Here are some of my favorite MoMa products that I use daily:
Muji Calculator – it’s beautiful and functional!
Daily Cereal Bowl – high rim keeps me from spilling milk on my computer! (yes, that happened before I started eating out of this bowl)
Nesting Bowls – Awesome cooking bowls and cups. They store compactly inside one another!
I won’t bore you by showing you my entire MoMa collection but I will mention that every time I walk around the store, aside from being tempted to buy more, I wonder when (not if) one of Quirky’s products will hit the shelves at MoMa.
We KNOW we will get there.
So Quirks, do you think our MoMa-worthy product has already been made, or is it yet to come?
We’re super excited to welcome Jane to our team of design interns. She’s tooling away on some preliminary sketches… can’t wait to see what she cooks up!
Name: Jane Song
Hometown: Ellicott City, Maryland
School: Pratt Institute
Your Quirks: I have a dinosaur pet Tamagotchi!
Aaron and Aron are our new design interns. The whole same name thang gets a little confusing, so we’ve affectionately renamed them “Utah” (for Aaron’s homestate) and “Han” (he likes being called by his last name ’cause he’s cool like that). Say hello!
Aaron Saxton (a.k.a. Utah)
Hometown: Alpine, Utah
School: Brigham Young University
What makes him quirky: Hmmmmm….what makes me quirky? I have a trademark silly face, appropriately named, “badger face”.
Aron Han (a.k.a. Han)
Hometown: Republic of Korea
School: Parsons School of Design
What makes him quirky: I grew up raising cows and chickens, and I went to a farming high school. Now I work in high-tech industrial design — very different!
In my last post I highlighted a few awesome trade shows that can help motivate and inspire your design ideas. This past weekend, I hit up one of those shows: the BKLYN Design show.
Here are a few pics of my favorites from the show. (Check out that ant farm!)
If you are looking for a movie to watch this weekend, I recommend Gary Hustwit’s Objectified. This is the same director who also brought you the font-focused documentary, Helvetica (2007). Objectified, released last year, is a walk through the world of product design/manufacturing, punctuated with interviews by design practitioners like Chris Bangle, Mark Newson, and Karim Rashid (to name a few). Along with the famous faces in the design world, this movie also shares the thoughtful commentary of design critics like New York Times columnist and author, Rob Walker.
Objectified provides a quick/entertaining overview into the system(s) of creating products and our complex relationship to them. This movie can serve as a good starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about design and get aquainted with some of its notables and topics. For more information about the film, check out this review posted last March on Core77.
This time of year, there are some big design shows, and to continue in my series on Design Inspiration, I thought I’d highlight some.
ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) – NYC, May 15-18
ICFF is the US’s biggest design show of the year. Each year furniture companies and design companies big and small pack into the Javitz Center here in NYC to display their latest and greatest. The best part about this is that it brings the entire design industry to one city for the week, so there are tons of spin off galleries and parties all around town where you can talk with different designers.
BKLYN Designs – Brooklyn, NY, May 7-9
BKLYN highlights the best of NYC’s most artistic borough. This show is much smaller than ICFF, and acts as a prelude to the bigger show for NYC. My favorite part about BKLYN is that most of the exhibitors are entrepreneurial designers who are very willing to talk with all show patrons about their work and their careers.
Salone del Mobile (aka Milan Design Week) – Milan, Italy… last week
Ok, so we all wish we could have spent the week in Milan, and I hope I can make it to this show someday. The Milan show fills the entire city with furniture and designs from all around the globe, and like ICFF it boasts spin off galleries and parties. If you missed out like I did, check out Core77′s coverage of the show here: http://www.core77.com/blog/milan10/default.asp.
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