Digital Love

Science alert! Geometry + reactive material + energy = self assembled ANYTHING (almost)

Here is a freaking cool piece of sciencey goodness for your Friday afternoon!

Self assembly at MIT

The self assembly lab at MIT are composed of designers, scientists and engineers who have been busy working away at inventing self assembly technologies. The self assembly team have been working with other departments such as mechanical engineering, computer science, media lab and architecture.

These guys have been designing specific geometries with specific materials to respond to energy and change state - which can be anything from heat, shaking, gravity, pneumatics, electronics, ANYTHING!

The research and the practise has only become possible with the cross-disciplinary collaborations between designers, scientists and engineers.

Imagine the amazing work we could do by collaborating with other agencies on this level. _{(If only money wasn’t an issue!)}

Amazing stuff! Thanks for the share, Vlad!

More at www.selfassemblylab.net

M. x

technology robotics architecture design engineering science

1

Transitions, timing and their impact on UX

A very interesting read (with examples) on interface usability, and how it can improved with animation. Pasquale convincingly argues that animation isn’t just a tool for visual embellishment, but can help the brain understand cause and effect in an interface.

https://medium.com/design-ux/926eb80d64e3

Thanks Matt!

M. x

usability user experience design animation transition

1

Amazing wooden cabinet designed to look like an image loading glitch!

digital furniture design

1

Heineken invites you to design the future limited edition bottle. Things that are great about this campaign:

Crowdsourced design
Users can browse the Heineken library for downloadable historical assets which has an instagram-style interface as well as being able to sort and filter by colour swatch, year and featured object
A nice interface which allows users to design their bottles as well as showcasing other designs using HTML and WebGL
Users share their design as part of the entry mechanic
…All within a Facebook app!

Check it out at http://apps.facebook.com/heineken_ltded/

M. x

Facebook facebook app design beer branding crowdsource crowdsourcing

Bombay Sapphire packaging lights up when touched!

Design consultancy Webb deVlam and packaging manufacturer Karl Knauer have created a special Global Travel Retail pack for Bombay Sapphire, with an illustration by Yehrin Tong that lights up whenever someone touches it.

Design Week reports that the illustration was produced in electroluminescent ink, and a battery is hidden in the bottom of the packaging. When you pick it up off the shelf, a hidden mechanical switch triggers the electric current. This runs through different paths at different times to create the visual effect, which lasts for 18 seconds before stopping until its activated again.

Very swish!

M. x

packaging branding alcohol design technology

4

Absolut Unique - I just LOVE this!!

branding packaging art design alcohol manufacturing

1

Seamlessy transfer files in between spatially aware devices with the flick of a finger. Beautiful.

“Designer Ishac Bertran has come up with an elegant idea for spatially aware devices with a user interface that allows media to be transferred seamlessly from one device to another. A user would simply hold up their mobile device to their computer, creating a visual link that appears as a circle across both screens to show they’re connected, and then transfer content by dragging and dropping it.”

Source: PSFK

technology mobile ipad app design

Well this is just a little bit cute. Hello little printer.

design technology social media

3

The rise of Infographics

“(CBS/What’s Trending) - If you’ve been watching the web, you’ve likely seen at least a few infographics hit your stream such as Hierarchy of Robot Needs, “FarmVille” vs. Real Farms and Lost Explanation.

They’ve become so popular that there are entire columns and blogs dedicated to them, including Fast Company’s Infographic of the Day and FastCo Design, GOOD magazine as a whole and their infographics spotlight, Infosthetics and my partner Jesse’s newly minted visual storytelling blog at Forbes — just to name a few.

In fact, brands are also making serious investments in infographics and data visualization as a part of their marketing and communications strategy — from IBM’s Smarter Planet to GE’s Data Visualization blog and sponsorship of Visualizing.org (not to mention their work with my company JESS3 on infographics such as The Future of Solar).

The launch of the visualization and infographic community Visual.ly by former Mint.com super powers Stew Langille and Lee Sherman also speaks to the rise of infographics, with an apropos video documenting the explosion of and position that infographics occupy in communications. At the nexus of journalism, analysis and design, infographics are undoubtedly relevant.”

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504943_162-20064104-10391715.html#ixzz1Psj70800

infographics design data advertising trending

By Michelle..

Ahoy! I went through boxes of my old school work recently and found a couple of keepers.. Some from Art & Design, TEE Art and Visual Media (Photography). There are also a few newies in there too.

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