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“X” Marks The Spot! #18
By Le Vin Chin
What role does design play in a corporation’s activities, values and worth? What role should it play? The XYMARA.com readership needs no convincing that good design creates value for products, differentiation for brand image and a better quality of life for “users” and society in general, but just in case you’re not lucky enough to work in a company that appreciates all that, Business Week recently ran an article – “Designing the Future of Business” – which outlines the essential importance of design in corporate strategy. You may like to circulate it freely among your colleagues …
One key example may be Coca-Cola. We already featured the company’s bottle designs to commemorate the Beijing Olympic Games in “X” Marks The Spot! # 16 and here is another article in Business Week (“Coke’s New Design Direction”)on how design fits into that company’s strategic approach.
| This month’s professional color trending agency is: Global Color Research Limited, who also provides trending and design services and publishes a bible of regular trend and design information, the mix FUTURE INTERIORS magazine (which we already mentioned in “X” Marks The Spot! #8. We’d also highlight WGSN, a website filled to overflowing with trend reports from WGSN-contributors across the globe – surely the most comprehensive source of up-to-the-minute trend information going! | “X” Marks The Spot! in ... "... London" |
It’s always nice when people we’ve been talking about do well! Martin Oeggerli, whose art pieces – based on SEM photographs – we featured earlier this year, has won not just one, but the two top prizes in this year’s “Bilder der Forschung 2008” competition, as organized by news magazine FOCUS and the German Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Companies!
“X” Marks The Spot! in ... "... Micronaut.ch" | In the category “Fascination of research”, Oeggerli won both 1st place with his photo of Caulobacter crescentus water bacteria and 2nd place with his photo of the eggs of the Brazilian Deltoid Moth, Caligo memnon. Have a look at the winning picture – and many more – on Oeggerli’s Micronaut website. |
Obviously we’re very partial to our Fixed-Gear bikes – as seen at the recent 100% Design in London (and thanks to Stylepark and Core77 – but the Biomega bamboo bike has to take the lead in any race. An idea as simple as it is ingenious – bamboo is perfect for bike frames after all with its tough material properties and ready-made tubular shape! – the design by Ross Lovegrove has form, function AND sustainability in one package. Originally launched in 2005, a new version of the bike will is being released.
| We’ve talked about the symbolism behind colors before. Now, a new site, Cymbolism is attempting to use the reach afforded by the internet to collaboratively evaluate which colors communicate which moods and feelings. Visitors arriving on the site are immediately drawn into allocating colors to specific words, but the fun is seeing which ways certain words bias. Who would have thought, after almost 300,000 votes cast, that “agile” would best be symbolized by a pale blue? | “X” Marks The Spot! in ... "... Fixed-Gear bikes" |