Davison Creators» Innovators & Creators

Honeycomb How-To Video

Joseph Warren — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:32:51 +0000

Take a look at this revolutionary structural design method of ‘board on frame’, made famous by IKEA. This smart design process has been documented so you can see it all happen in their European manufacturing facility. Enjoy!

This video is from National Geographic’s Ultimate Factories Program.

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Custom Corkscrew Cellars

Joseph Warren — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:22:10 +0000

Small spaces can engender the best of designs. So many designs have been centered around tight quarters, but not like this. A company called Spiral Cellars has found a niche market servicing the wealthy wine aficionado.

Using a cut-out hole in the floor beneath common areas in the home, these guys create spiral staircases that lead to small depths; so small in fact, that you can do no more than grab a bottle of wine. A cool factor, indeed, to have such a cool hidden cellar, but at what cost? Plenty, I am sure.

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Trick and Treat: Candy Corn Cones

Joseph Warren — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:10:00 +0000

With a sense of humor and good timing on his side, rogue artist Diabetik of Washington D.C. might be able to pull this off without any fines or arrest. He has taken the liberty of decorating traffic cones with the ever-so-popular markings of traditional candy corn. No word on whether this has been allowed by the city, but I think it is quite creative and might make a few people slow down in time for the yearly trick-or-treat rush, which could use some slower traffic.

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Package Design: Buckminster Snacker

Joseph Warren — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:12:27 +0000

Geometric package designs for snacks are coming from all directions. Doritos has had a conceptual design overhaul, making a play on its famous triangular snack shape.

Impact extrusion is used to create this new Coke can redesign. Looks cool, I just hope it feels cool and can match the structural integrity of the current can.

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Personal Shredder

Joseph Warren — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:00:17 +0000

This design is an award winner from Japan’s Ryoji Takahashi that offers a new look and feel to shredding. The tube-like paper shredder can be held over a waste basket and is less obtrusive than the traditional rectangular electric paper shredder. Seems to be a desk-friendly redesign; now we have to wait until it comes to the States.

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luxury accommodations by design

Joseph Warren — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:11:40 +0000

I saw this collapsing door design a while back, but thought it was still worth sharing. Pay attention to the final seconds of the video, as the narrator talks about driving into the 21st Century with these hide-away doors. Every time I see this design I wonder why it never made it to a major automobile market.

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The wonder Of Corrugated Cardboard

Joseph Warren — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:16:05 +0000

Scottish-born Robert Gair invented the corrugated box in 1890; that is, pre-cut flat pieces manufactured in bulk that folded into boxes. Gair’s invention, as with so many other great innovations, came about as a result of an accident. Gair was a Brooklyn printer and paper-bag maker during the 1870’s, and one day, while he was printing an order of seed bags, a metal ruler normally used to crease bags shifted in position and cut them. Gair discovered that by cutting and creasing bags in one operation he could make prefabricated paper boxes. Applying this idea to corrugated boxboard was a straightforward development when the material became available. By the start of the 20th century, corrugated boxes began replacing the custom-made wooden crates and boxes previously used for trade.
(Information taken from Wikipedia.com)

Corrugated cardboard is what Lincoln’s famous top hat was made from, along with beaver fur. Everyone has had pizza delivered in a cardboard box. Amazon’s ever-present brown box with smiling logo is corrugated cardboard at its best; shipped worldwide thanks to the lightweight design and structural integrity of this recycled paper wonder. And as you just read, invention can be stumbled upon and its effects can change industry as we know it.

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The Material Man

Joseph Warren — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:41:37 +0000

Designers often deal with materials with a ‘let’s worry about that later’ attitude. We firmly believe that in order to come up with innovative solutions it’s an absolute must to think about materials right from the beginning of projects.

-Chris Lefteri Design

I was recently introduced to the website of Chris Lefteri, known for being one of the best authors concerning new and existing materials. A great resource when considering the materials of your next design, Lefteri has published a number of PDF printable resources as well as books for students and designers.

By using strong imagery accompanied by detailed explanations of materials you may or may not already know, Lefteri makes sense of every material imaginable. He even references some everyday objects to help explain those unpronounceable materials and chemical compounds we read about but that never really sink in. Invest some time to peek into what may be one of the most comprehensive collections of knowledge concerning materials today.

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The origins of Twitter

Joseph Warren — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:26:29 +0000

According to this article, Twitter may be the great-grandchild of the Notificator, born in England in the 1930’s. This public messaging system allowed users to post messages for two hours behind a glass window for a small fee. Once a coin was dropped, a strip of paper with your hand-written whereabouts, appointments or place of destination could be left for all to see.

The ‘Notificator’, as it was known, seems a lot like what people are doing today; short messages, set behind glass, left for all to see. What a clever invention of its time and a funny thing to know, that Twitter is a little older than we may have thought.

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Johnny Strategy: Designer Interview

peggy — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:34:45 +0000

Johnny Strategy is the pen name of the author of Spoon & Tamago, a Tokyo / New York based design blog. Raised in Tokyo and educated in New York, Johnny holds a unique design perspective and shares it with viewers by providing a collection of beautiful and inspiring images from Japan, the United States, and across the globe.

It is easy to see that you are influenced by your upbringing in Japan and your higher education in the U.S. What was your first impressionable moment that involved design as a child? I was never that into art or design as a child, at least not consciously. It wasn’t until high school that I took a ceramics class with a really inspiring teacher, Mr. Nimori. That was when I first really discovered the Japanese aesthetic and everything about it suddenly made sense to me. He set me up to do a mini-apprenticeship with a Japanese master and even sacrificed a weekend to take me into rural Chiba to introduce me. That was an amazing experience.

What is it that you wish to bring to your American viewers that can only be found in the Japanese culture? I guess I’m just trying to share high-quality undiscovered work that I’m sure would inspire people around the world. It would be rad if someone saw something they liked and decided to incorporate a certain theme or concept into their own work.

It can be difficult to scour the online design world and find content worthy of blogging about. How do you seem to find a selection of such interesting finds for Spoon & Tamago? It is a difficult task and I couldn’t do it without my wife. Ninety percent of what we write about comes from our own independent research. We have an extensive database of designers, design shops and art galleries whose websites we frequent. And everything is so intertwined now that one thing usually leads to another. We are also associated with boheme, an artist collective based out of Tokyo, who we talk to occasionally and exchange information.

Are there designers who you work with or know in Japan that use your blog as a catalyst to their cross-cultural work? There are a couple gallerists and design collectives that we talk to, but we don’t work with anybody. However, designers have contacted us after we wrote about them, telling us how previously they had close to zero exposure and now have a couple interviews lined up with magazines. Correspondence like that has been one of the more rewarding things about running Spoon & Tamago.

What is your view on cutting-edge design in the United States compared to the work of Japanese design? I believe that the success of a designer lies in their ability to grasp and understand the future needs of people. And to look into the future one must first turn to the past. Therein lies the advantage of Japanese designers. An accumulation of culture and tradition rests in the past and is an immense resource for creativity and innovation. Their land is overflowing with stories of the past. There are arts and crafts, skills and techniques, religions and practices, all of which have been passed down from generation to generation. Some have complete historical records while others are known only in their current state. Nonetheless, they are all tools of the designer.

Blogging can be a great release for writers who need an artistic outlet or a great way for designers to share inspiring and creative work. What is Spoon & Tamago for you? It started out as a journal; a tool to catalog everything that I liked and was inspired by. If you go back to my earlier posts you’ll see there is much less geographic bias. However, my blog eventually took on a life of its own. I began to understand that I could really add value and make meaningful contributions because of my background in art (I majored in Fine Art, minored in Art History) and from growing up in Japan. I was able to place these designers in context and that’s when people really started to respond to my posts. And that’s when I started writing not only for myself but for others, as well.

Who or what inspires you to create and drives you to discover new things? I’m inspired by a lot of things. Lately I’ve been inspired by literature. I’m also inspired by food and the presentation of it, nature photography, animals, rust and other forms of deterioration, just to name a couple. I’m also inspired by my wife and two kids. Having kids has been great because they pull you into their world and you’re able to reunite with your childhood imagination; the stuff you thought you misplaced many years ago.

Is there any genre of design that interests you more than others – product design, fashion, photography, architecture? I suppose my background in ceramics inclines me towards sculpture. Industrial design, as well, because of the sculptural characteristics.

I can imagine that seeing art and design firsthand is more fulfilling in person than clicking links and searching online. Do you travel much from Asia to the States for your work? I do. I travel to Japan at least twice a year. And I’m always making new discoveries. During my previous trip to Japan I found myself in the corporate headquarters of a company in Shinjuku and I saw they had a small museum. Not thinking much of it I decided to kill some time there. As I was concluding the tour I arrived at their prized possession, which turned out to be the original Van Gogh “Sunflowers” painting! It’s been hiding there for the last 20 years. I thought that was pretty crazy.

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