Ged Carroll

Category: design | 設計 | 예술과 디자인 | デザイン

Design was something that was important to me from the start of this blog, over different incarnations of the blog, I featured interesting design related news. Design is defined as a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, interfaces or other object before it is made.

But none of the definition really talks about what design really is in the way that Dieter Rams principles of good design do. His principles are:

  1. It is innovative
  2. It makes a product useful
  3. It is aesthetic
  4. It makes a product understandable
  5. It is unobtrusive
  6. It is honest
  7. It is long-lasting
  8. It is thorough down to the last detail
  9. It is environmentally-friendly – it can and must maintain its contribution towards protecting and sustaining the environment.
  10. It is as little design as possible

Bitcoin isn’t long lasting as a network, which is why people found the need to fork the blockchain and build other cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin uses 91 terawatts of energy annually or about the entire energy consumption of Finland.

The Bitcoin network relies on thousands of miners running energy intensive machines 24/7 to verify and add transactions to the blockchain. This system is known as “proof-of-work.” Bitcoin’s energy usage depends on how many miners are operating on its network at any given time. – So Bitcoin is environmentally unfriendly by design.

On the other hand, Apple products, which are often claimed to be also influenced by Dieter Rams also fail his principles. They aren’t necessarily environmentally friendly as some like AirPods are impossible to repair or recycle.

  • Hacknet + more things

    Hacknet

    Some Australian developers have made an immersive game about hacking that will be distributed on Steam when released. It’s called Hacknet and here’s the trailer.

    Roger Linn

    Great panel discussion with three great designers of electronic music instruments: Roger Linn (LinnDrum, Linn 9000, Akai MPC originator), Dave Smith (Prophet 5, MIDI inventor) and Tom Oberheim (Oberheim Voice synthesisers). The LinnDrum

    The Latin Rascals

    Great early mix from The Latin Rascals who were influential remixers, influential producers of freestyle tracks and makers of epic tape edits back in the mid-1980s. The Latin Rascals did amazing remix work, even for the likes of Bruce Springsteen, the Force MDs, the Pet Shop Boys and Duran Duran. They influenced and eventually worked with Arthur Baker and Civilles and Cole. One of the Rascals Tony Moran still produces and DJs.


    Canadian Caper

    Amazing psychadelic artwork drawn by Jack Kirby, that was used to sell in Argo to the Iranians and everyone else for that manner. Argo was a science fiction film project that the CIA used as a cover in order to get diplomatic staff out of Iran during the revolution. Kirby’s drawings were supposed to be concept art and the escapees were pretending to be location scouts. This operation went to be known as the Canadian Caper. It was adapted into a film featuring Ben Affleck called Argo. The original space opera envisioned by Jack Kirby never got beyond the artwork that I have linked to. You can read more about the Canadian Caper as the operation has since been called here.

    Syd Mead inspired animation

    Amazing Mobius / Syd Mead inspired animated video. More design related content. The vivid world that the animator creates is nothing short of stunning. The use of flat colour gives a kind of ‘anti-anime’ feel to the video. Instead it feels like I am looking at a Mobius graphic novel and hallucinating the movement on the page.

  • Daihatsu + other news

    Daihatsu

    Daihatsu Releases 3rd Model of Copen Sporty Minicar – Nikkei Technology Online – the Daihatsu customisable car, with manufacturer kits to change the vehicle appearance dramatically. Daihatsu is one of Japan’s smaller manufacturers with budgets dwarves by Toyota and VW, so this move makes a lot of sense

    Culture

    Chevrolet Issues Press Release Written Entirely in Emoji | Technabob – nice gimmick

    Design

    How It’s Made Series: Beats By Dre — Medium – pretty damning. What is particularly disheartening is the weights to make the headphones feel like they are of a higher quality than the really are. More design related content here

    Beats By Dre Teardown Finds Metal Included to Add Weight | Digital Trends – not terribly surprising but interesting analysis on the product.

    Media

    WPP, Daily Mail and SnapChat launch content agency Truffle Pig | Campaign – its like war, pestilence and famine coming together to form an agency. I would imagine that it could be a struggle to sell into clients, at least in the UK

    The Mayor vs. the Mogul – POLITICO Magazine – challenges of ethics that Bloomberg faces

    Security

    Why We Encrypt | Schneier on Security – another good read by Bruce Schneier

    Software

    The Web is getting its bytecode: WebAssembly | Ars Technica – interesting asm.js is actually a subset of Javascript than something completely new

    Technology

    Google opens up on its SDN | Network World – what might suit Google. won’t necessarily work in the enterprise data centre or the telecoms network. Organisation optimised products do inspire more general purpose open source products and this might be no exception.

    Web of no web

    Enter the video helmet – a 130 inch world of your own | TelecomTV – interesting product in terms of immersion. If this was fictional, one would have to ask if this was part of the ‘deck’ used by console cowboy Case in William Gibson’s Neuromancer?