Watch TEDTalks:  Smart people will distill their life’s work down to 20 minutes for you.

This is advice from David Eagleman, neuroscientist, New York Times bestselling author and, himself, a TED Fellow.  TEDTalks actually started back in 1984, just two years before George Davison started work on his toothbrush sanitizer that, ultimately, led him to found Davison Design.  [TEDTalks] brought together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment and Design. They were started by Richard Saul Wurman, who, at the time, saw a convergence between the three fields.  Originally, the talks were heavy on technology and design, evidence of its Silicon Valley roots.  Today, the talks span the worlds of science, medicine, art, design, invention, transportation, music… the list goes on and on.

Recently, Adam Savage, of Mythbusters fame, gave a talk entitled, How Simple Ideas Lead to Scientific Discoveries, in which he discusses some of the most important scientific discoveries of all time and how they were arrived at through simple, creative methods that anyone could have followed.  Let’s start at the beginning or at least the beginning of simple solutions being posited as the most effective ones.  In [a] 14th century England town called Occam, lived a logician Franciscan friar named William, who has most commonly become associated with the law of parsimony.  He wrote the following:

     – Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate [Plurality must never be posited without necessity]
     – Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora [It is futile to do with more things that which can be done with fewer]

What it boils down to is: other things being equal, a simpler explanation is better than a more complex one.  And, sometimes, that’s just what the problem calls for.  In Arvind Gupta’s TEDTalk, Turning Trash into Toys for Learning, which I recommend watching, he demonstrates how the problem of providing educational experiments for children in developing countries [could] be solved with trash and things found around the house:  rubber tubing, matchsticks, drinking straws, stick pins, bicycle tubes, even a pencil.  Simple items can be used to teach scientific principals, physics or mechanics.

TEDTalks continue to be a driving force for creative thinking in innumerable fields. Their over 1,000 videos have been translated to 86 languages, with another seven in [progress].  They can be viewed for free at any time throughout the world, on any number of mediums:  the TED website, YouTube, iPhone or iPad, or any Android/Google device.

Maybe you’ll find inspiration for a simple idea that can change the world.

– Lucky
[Sources: BoingBoing, Wikipedia, Stanford, University of California.]

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As consumers, we are cognizant of the design of certain objects and products:  cars, electronics, appliances and even food.  But, [there are] some things that we use in our daily lives that we would never give a second thought to the design of; because, they’re so commonplace, so utilitarian, that it seems they must only exist in one color or one shape.  For example, the clothes hanger. 

Sure, they range in material from wood, to wire and plastic; but, whenever we think of a hanger, we conjure up the same image of a triangle with a question mark at the top.  The design hasn’t changed much in the last 100+ years that the hanger has been around, which is why contemporary designers are looking at new ways to improve on an old solution and even solve a problem [that] we didn’t know we had.

The Paperclip Hanger by Japanese designer Jaehyung Hong takes the common material and construction of the wire coat hanger and the paperclip, and melds them into a multi-function clothes hanger.  Usually used to bind together sheets of paper, the Paperclip Hanger neatly holds pants, unmentionables, and smaller garments that would usually fall off traditional hangers, while functioning as a normal hanger.

Italian design company Almove specializes in products made from lightweight materials that fulfill a single need, while adhering to clean lines and essential forms.  For their contracting coat hanger, they’ve kept the question mark, but replaced the triangle with an accordion form.  This allows for the hanger to be easily packed in an overnight bag, suit case or even a briefcase.  It also prevents the user from having to insert the hanger from the bottom of the garment, allowing it to fit through the neck. 

Stretching out the neck of a garment to fit the hanger in the top is something we’re all guilty of and a big problem for those who don’t have the time to insert the hanger from the waist:  people who are impatient, retail workers and those in the garment industry.  A lot of time can be saved by being able to quickly insert a hanger.

This is why we have Pinch:  a simple solution to a problem we know existed, but [may have] never really cared to solve.  A mixture of injection-molded Polypropylene and Elastomer, the product functions by doing what its name tells you to, pinch. 

By performing this simple and intuitive gesture, it bends the arms down, allowing you to comfortably fit the hanger inside the garment, without damaging the fabric.  For someone who uses a lot of hangers, this can save a lot of time… and a lot of collars.  Let’s hope this one makes its way to market!

PINCH – Easier way of fixing clothes on a hanger from Jaineel shah on Vimeo.

Source: Yanko Design, Cool Hunting, Coroflot

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