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“X” Marks The Spot! #24
By Le Vin Chin
With our remit to inspire you by reporting on all the trends and news stories from the world of design, getting our hard-won news and articles out to you, our designer-readership, is our greatest joy … and our greatest challenge. This is why we put out our newsletter every month. And this is why we’ve now also launched our new page on Facebook called – wait for it – XYMARA.com! For up-to-the-minute news on our XYMARA articles, as well as a wide selection of photos from XYMARA events that we couldn’t fit into our articles, go to our page on Facebook and become a “Fan”!
Meanwhile, new ways to network are also among leading design thinker and writer Alice Rawsthorn’s list of new types of innovation which are providing real benefits to our crisis society. Check out her article “Reinventing Innovation”) from the New York Times.
If you’re looking for more clues into the megatrends of today, Core77 has neatly summarized the seven macro-societal trends recently posited by international entrepreneurial branding and design consultancy Dragon Rouge.
Continuing our discussion on the evolution of the function of design in today’s world, John Hockenberry’s article: “Within the Product of No Product” (in MetropolisMag.com) discusses the impact of a society where the consumer aspiration is nothing less than not to buy. “How might designers participate in an economy of no product?” he asks.
This fits neatly with a fascinating article by Ann Thorpe: “The Context of “Low Product”: How designers can help articulate a new social language”, which summarizes various current arguments and lays out a new social paradigm in which design can play a key role. She looks at the development of shared and civic spaces as a counterpoint to individualistic consumerism and how “a non-purchase solution doesn't have to mean a non-design solution”.
Some news about old XYMARA friends winning prizes! Martin Oeggerli, “Micronaut” and artist of the microscopic world, has been named as a runner-up for the prestigious Lennart Nilsson Award for 2009 (NB. this year's details are not yet up on their website). The award, named for the Swedish photographer who famously pioneered photography of in vivo human embryos, honors “beautiful, unique and powerful” scientific photography. Also, we only just heard about it, but Soner Demirel, the winner of our XYMARA Design Award last year, got an honorable mention for his Topography sofa at the Design Turkey 2008 Design Awards last year. Congratulations to them both!
Every year, Information Architects maps out the trends, driving forces and movers and shakers of the internet in their Web Trend Map. Every year it gets bigger, more complex (and more interesting) and looks snazzier … This year’s is no exception. Mapped onto the Tokyo subway map, all the major websites, players and connections of theme and influence are featured in one place in an image you can happily pore over for days. Check out the large size version of it and the Trendspotting commentary on it.
Lastly, some event news. Coming up in July on the 15 and 16 is Latin America’s largest coatings event, the Latin American Coatings Show 2009. It will be held in the World Trade Center in Mexico City, with 100 exhibitors anticipated. This is the original and main coatings event for the Latin America region, showing raw materials, test equipment, plant & machinery and paints. Alongside the exhibition is a two-day technical conference and visitors will have the opportunity to find solutions to technical problems, find out about industry changes and meet industry experts.