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“X” Marks The Spot! #9
By Le Vin Chin
It’s been the talk of the blogosphere: Splinter, the super sports car … made out of wood! A graduate project from students at North Carolina State University, in which they try “to explore materials, learn, teach, share ideas, and stimulate creativity”, Splinter is all about the considered approach to using materials. Wood doesn’t dissipate heat so well, so the exhaust is on top of the car rear, springy wood used for longbows was used for the suspension, the position of the passengers in relation to the engine and suspension are all adjusted to ensure maximum performance from the twin supercharged 600 hp V8 engine – capable of 190 mph! Truly a project to challenge the boundaries of conventional approaches and thinking!
The winner of the Electrolux Design Lab 2007 was announced recently, but all the shortlisted nominees for the prize were spectacular. Electrolux challenged designers “to come up with environmentally-sound, commercially viable products and solutions that would enable consumers to live in greater harmony with the environment,” and each and every one of the finalists delivered designs which were eco-conscious and beautifully designed, striking the perfect balance between form and function. You can see full details of all the candidates at the Design Lab website.
Where can designers find the most suitable, the most innovative, the most fascinating, the most beautiful materials? Starting off a new series in “X” Marks The Spot!, this month we highlight Materialworks. Materialworks’ online library currently contains over 1,800 examples, and you can also obtain physical examples grouped into themed “Material Editions” boxes from them as well. You may recall we featured Materialworks’ Paper Lab installation at the Design Annual this year, and their dedication to the exploration of similar “curated” themes in their collection is one of their strengths.
“X” Marks the Spot! on …
… the ground
Ask anyone about Switzerland’s premiere design magazine and they will tell you it’s Hochparterre, a hip and worthy compendium of what’s new and exciting in the Swiss and international design scenes. What fewer know is that their website runs blogs on architecture, design, art and culture from seven major international cities: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dubai, New York, Peking, Shanghai, and, of course, Zürich.
And now some updates on some of the trends we’ve been talking about over the past few months. The UK’s Guardian newspaper reports that metallics are continuing to be a feature on the catwalk – and you know where fashion goes the rest of us follow! Meanwhile effect whites, mirrored-metallic colors and – yes - orange, continue to be strong fashion shades in the automotive industry, according to DuPont’s Global Color Popularity Ratings for Vehicles, published this month, as well as from various leading lights of the coatings industry in the pages of Paints and Coatings Industry (NB. You need to register onto the site to see the article). Good news for our Primary Optimistic Energy and Dynamic Pleasure stylings!
This month’s blogs are a trio of linked sites, dedicated to fashion and color palettes derived from fashion. First of all, the Sartorialist finds sartorial wonders on the streets of … wheverer he is. The Sartorialist – Scott Schumann – has become quite the internet phenomenon as an early indicator of color and style trends. His photos are then analysed on wear palettes to find the underlying color schemes behind a specific outfit’s success. Finally, COLOUR lovers is a blog open to all lovers of color, in which the contributors can post and comment on and rate color palettes. But that’s not all. COLOUR lovers also contains in depth articles on the symbolism of different hues, the origins of many of the associations we make with certain colors, and so on …