Posts in Industrial Design

Images From Where? and By Who? Part. IV

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Here is the 4th installment of “Images From Where? and By Who?” So we all download and save images of items, graphics and photos from the internet daily and some of the time you have no idea where to give credit besides maybe the guy that posted it first or second randomly on a blog. I ‘d like to get some answers on a few of these but also just post some interesting pieces that we come across that might have been sitting on our drives for awhile that are go to for inspiration or just found randomly on a forum with no info attached and just look great. Either way hopefully the point that gets across here is that they are inspiring in some sort of way to you as well.

The first one has to be my favorite album cover of all time but only when someone takes a photo of the vinyl sleeve and it catches this pearly yet worn look and then a slight hue of yellow over the whole thing. Who ever thought of the idea of simply just photographing this white helmet but having that mirrored visor wins an award in my book.

I remember finding this NASA illustration and it inspiring me a lot for awhile for Moodgadget material, I could of gone without the blue and orange crayon background.

I am pretty sure this “cubes on a waterfall” was an advertisement and if it was i’ll buy whatever they’re selling…especially the cubes.

1970’s Apartment

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Follow up on Jakub’s 1970’s Shopping Malls – check out this apartment! Love the built-in calculator.

Further reading: Nakagin Capsule Tower on Wikipedia (Thanks keoshi)

1970’s Shopping Malls

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Some people that you randomly come across like Jason Cawood just go around and collect, take, and share great vintage images that i’ve probably had on my computer for awhile now and I don’t know which images are his or if they’re from someone else, either way these 2 from shopping malls always caught my eye. I feel silly tagging this post “1970s malls” hah! if someone actually searched for that i’d be pretty amazed, now the ISO50 blog has that covered. On a side note, I never remember Fairlane looking soo impressive.

Nissan Cube vs Moodgadget Logo

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The other night i’m sitting on the computer and Mux Mool sends me a picture and starts laughing and talking about how there’s a Moodgadget car driving around. In my mind I always thought if I get enough money together one day I might buy a white Honda Element and turn it into the Moodgadget Logo. I might even put the generic man as a tint on the window but now no need because the Nissan Cube came into play. LOOK AT IT! I mean WHAAUUUT IS GOING ON!? who does that with a back window? only the Moodgadget logo.

Let me give a little background about the Moodgadget logo, a lot of people call it MOONgadget maybe because it looks like something that would land on the moon or I can’t pronounce my D’s because I might mumble sometimes but really its a dreamt up idea I had that involves my obsession with pods and early early Radiohead covers, the old Royksopp video, and those cube shaped rooms that take you up a mountain that are used mostly by tourists. The Moodgadget logo was designed by 3 friends of mine: Adrian (Creative Director of the silhouette iPod commercials), Danny (Art Director at Ghostly), and Adam (co-owner of Moodgadget) and the idea came from a dream that I had about these white pods what were controlled by these generic business men sitting inside them that floated almost assembly line style out of a glass dome flying by these row of trees and straight into the sun except for one that was in color meaning still black and white but the glass window was light blue and the guy inside had pigment to his skin. This guy wasn’t in the assembly line he was floating around exploring but not too smart of a fellow because he always questioned everything since it was all new to him and he was just overall really curious. I think that dream of the logo kind of symbolized the music industry back then for me which was a lot generic music and compilations that we’re very specific and what we do at Moodgadget is kind of break down those barriers that were up and share music that is all over the place but still catchy in a way, kind of like the music on the blog that we pick but still educates hopefully and makes you want to try listening to something new.

Let’s get back to the Nissan Cube, not my style because of how bad their commercial was for it which if I remember correctly was probably geared toward break dancers that pop n lock in their cars, people that love glowing LEDs filling their stereo screens and those people that go out to the club with a fedora hat on tipped to the side because they’re soo “street” it hurts. To be honest Nissan should of hired on a creative like Scott or some of you that send in great pieces that Scott reposts and not this Mitsubishi Eclipse regurgitation of a car commercial that probably could be sold to people like me if it was delivered to us in a way that doesn’t make me feel like a soulless 20 year old that can’t speak for himself and wants to dance to Soulja Boy or whatever ringtone Rap is popular now(the stanky leg? I dunno i’m so lame when it comes to the hot tracks on the radio) or Tiesto talentless trance music thats played in the bigger metro clubs around the world.

Either way, I’d like to see a song off this blog make it onto the next Nissan Cube commercial, maybe we’d post the commerical and the 4th generation Nissan Cube get a little help from a design firm from Sweden and we might sell a few of these cars.

Braun Nizo

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I had no idea Braun ever produced a camera, but here it is. And of course, it’s incredibly well designed. Honestly, if Canon would just package a modern $800 HD camcorder in this sort of form factor I would gladly pay a premium. Then again — if you can put up with film — the Nizo probably destroys any modern camera in terms of output.

The slightly intense guy using the Nizo in the last shot is director Tad Fettig. Top two shots are from this (ended) eBay auction. The Advert is from mrfoxtalbot. Many more Nizo images can be found here.

Update: Vegard sent in a nice example of the Nizo’s output which he has posted on Vimeo:

Leaked Shots: Vintage Styled Olympus

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These leaked shots of Olympus’ new, vintage styled, micro four thirds shooter popped up on Engadget today. Pretty slick, with the old school range finder and everything. Looks like the body might be plastic though, would love to see this in black aluminum with the tan grip.

The Colour of Maths

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Things to Look At has a great post on Vintagecalculators.com. They’ve got plenty of adverts and pictures of old school adding machines. I have an old 70’s TI from my dad I should get it out and dust it off. Jakub also has a couple if I remember correctly.

Triennale Design Museum

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I recently visited the Triennale Design Museum in Milan and saw some nifty little things. The exhibit was dedicated mostly to Italian industrial design from the 50’s/60’s. Some of my favorites are pictured above; a Ferrari P6, Olivetti Lettera 22, Brionvega TV and radio, and a Zanussi Refrigerator which looks like a time travel device. Unfortunately, I missed Design Week by a few days, but the museum was a decent substitute. It wasn’t very big at all—took only about 15 minutes to walk through—but it’s always nice to see a dedicated design exhibit.

Rams for Gillette

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Faasdant has some nice shots of the [possibly] Dieter Rams designed Gillette (Braun’s parent company) Supermax Pro 1300 hair dryer. Very 80’s, in the best possible way. I remember my mom having a similar model, but cream with black type. Now they all look like a prop from a bad sci-fi movie.

Recession Purchase: Chill Pill

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I’m not sure how well they sound walking the streets but they might be worth(15 USD price tag) checking out if you have a few minutes to kill and your ears hurt from headphones, seems like the good guys at Turntable Lab enjoy them…

From the makers of the bestselling Chill Pill speakers comes the Rapcap Mini iPod Microphone. This genius gumdrop-sized device allows you to record crisp, clear audio onto your iPod simply and easily (just plug into your iPod’s headphone port to switch on recording mode). A durable, ultra-compact design and plug-and-record functionality make this device an easy addition to your daily digital life. Use it to record memos, field samples, music sets, and more. The mic itself is wind-resistant, optimized for voice recordings and saves files in easy-to-edit WAV format. Works with iPod nano4G, iPod classic 120GB, iPod Tough 2G/3G, and iPhone 3G. No batteries required.
15 USD @ Turntable Lab