I am always fascinated by the design the Olympics. From the environmental graphics down to the tiny icons of each individual sport they all have a special relationship to every host city. The 2010 winter games in Vancouver do not disappoint. See the design process of the first sustainable Olympic medals made from electronic waste.
In the fall I took my nephew and niece to Ganyard Hill Farms to pick pumpkins, get lost in the corn maze, and go on a hayride. An unexpected bonus of the trip was the corn husker. I grew up in New York City and had never seen one before, and I thought it was the coolest device ever – just a few moving parts were enough to get the job done.
One medical brand incorporating good design is Help Remedies. The simplicity is genius. The greatest feature of the medicine is no use of excessive fillers. What stands this product out even more is the packaging. Its main message is how it can heal me. What I like even more is that the packaging can go in the compost. Does your Advil do that?
In-Store Display
What a great meeting at the TriUPA & HFES Carolina World Usability Day event. HumanCentric had the opportunity to present our new recycling solution to this year’s design challenge. It goes without saying we were the clear winners in the design challenge (well… we were the only entry, but let’s not get caught up in the details…). The audience was very receptive and had lots of great questions about our process, information graphic and in-home bin prototype. Click here to view our presentation.
Many audience members wanted our solution implemented across the Triangle to jump-start awareness and increase recycling. HumanCentric is very excited about the community support and would love to have our vision for a better recycling system become a reality. If you would like to join our campaign for a greener Triangle please contact Alexander Hussain at HumanCentric. HumanCentric’s next steps are to connect local government officials to present our improved recycling solution.
Over the past few years, we have had great success in generating design concepts and refined concept renderings using only Adobe Illustrator. You can develop certain techniques in Illustrator that let you create incredibly detailed and visually appealing product renderings in significantly less time than it would take to accomplish in other programs like Alias or SolidWorks. In the long run it ends up saving the client time and $$. The image above is a rendering that I did a while back using only Illustrator. If you really want to have your mind blown away, check out some of the work that Yukio Miyamoto has done.
Interview Project is a road trip documentary presented by David Lynch and directed by his son Austin.
It’s hard to listen to traditional media outlets and not be inundated with the doom and gloom of our current economic condition. I was listening to new albums in the car for a few weeks and I almost thought the recession was over, but then I switched back to NPR. And it wasn’t. However, in all the reports I’ve heard, one piece of info stands out. It said, historically, recessions and depressions are times of drastic social and economic change.
Perfect.
I don’t really collect anything. When I was a kid, I collected baseball cards, but so did everybody else. I do, however, have a growing stack of NYRB Classics at my house. What are NYRB Classics? They’re books. Specifically, they are “discoveries, the kind of books that people typically run into outside of the classroom and then remember for life.” Why do I have so many? In part, because the books are often fascinating reads. But mostly because I love their design.
It’s been quite some time now that I’ve been following the development of outdoor solar lights. I have always been drawn to them because of the amazing fact that they are not only off the grid but also extremely low maintenance. I’ve been waiting eagerly for a company to take advantage of this technology and integrate it into a beautiful packaging. Then along comes the Soji Modern lanterns which have made a clear statement that solar doesn’t mean techy and it doesn’t mean cheap. Solar lighting can be just as soft and delicate as tealights and even more daring because there are no open flame restrictions to deal with. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of possibilities for solar products that are beautiful and inspiring. Let us know if you find more!
In the Editor’s Letter of this week’s New York Times Magazine, Gerald Marzorati talks about the magazine’s recent redesign of their print edition. At the end he writes, “don’t hesitate to e-mail us your review.” Why e-mail it when you can post it on your blog?
HumanCentric provides design solutions with.a focus on products, users and goals. Our process brings designers and researchers together to implement a customized approach for user and business needs. These are our thoughts on process, practice and life.
200 MacKenan Drive
Cary, NC 27511
P 866.356.9023
F 919.481.0310
www.humancentric.com
info@humancentric.com
