Leica’s pixel dog

If I had a dog, it would absolutely have to be this breed. [Via Core 77 and Comunicadores]

Philippe Starck: “design is dead”

It kind of bums me out to hear Philippe Starck proclaim the death of design, even if it is merely sour grapes from a master designer whose time seems to have passed. No wonder he seems so bitter: “But the thing one needs most, he added, was the ‘ability to love’.” Indeed. But maybe I just find this tidbit depressing because I wonder if he isn’t somehow right. Via Kottke.

Found: original (machine-translated) piece. Thanks Niall!

Who’s got a good, modern desk?

Time for a lazyweb: who makes a good, modern desk? I currently use a Fritz Hansen Plano (trés chic) but it’s not exactly built for use — it’s kind of a showpiece. I’ve had my eye on the classic Eames Desk Unit (in natural, above) for quite some time, but I’m really open to suggestions. I need something decently sized (so the Nelson Swag Leg is out), reasonably durable, and, well, not ugly. I guess I could rock it Ikea style like in the old days, but isn’t there anything else out there?

Getting a Takumi TO:CA wood clock!

Ever since I first wrote about Kouji Iwasaki’s TO:CA wooden block clock by Takumi, I’ve really wanted one. That was in 2004, and I guess I’ve finally landed a TO:CA of my very own! V just got it for me as a late Christmas present (they were all out around holiday time), I’m totally stoked. I don’t know what it is about designer digital clocks that gets me so hot under the collar, but I’ve already got a nice spot picked out for it.

Engadget redesign: it’s done! And just getting started…

On June 8th I was looking at Engadget for the eight hundred thousandth time and decided we had to a change. We all know great content is what it is, but there were just so many things about Engadget that wasn’t working. Comments were unwieldy and user un-friendly, the pictures were just too tiny, and the whole thing felt like 2003/2004. It was a great site in need of some real love, and I’ve got a lot of love to give. Not that it’s any surprise, but we realized all this a long time ago; Engadget was actually redesigned Engadget back in late 2004 by its original designer, Jill Fehrenbacher, but because of some platform changes and an acquisition, the new Engadget never actually saw the light of day.

So on June 8th I sent an email rallying our tech team and the execs (if you really want to call them that); a call to arms to reinvigorate Engadget. Three months and eleven days later, I’m proud as a gadget blogger can be to present Engadget 2. I’ll save the bitching about how much work went into this thing — namely because it’s not done yet, not by a long shot — but we have tons more new features to add (my list is dozens long), and loads more improvements we’re rolling out in the coming months. Hope you guys like what we’ve come up with!

And, as always, much love for our tech team: Brian Alvey, Mike Propst, Gavin Hall, Alex Rudloff, and Celly!

A (short) open letter to the industry

Product distribution, marketing, and design management of the world — especially the consumer electronics industry — take heed. Your insanely difficult to open plastic packaging / blister packs, while excellent theft-deterrents and somewhat economical, are incredibly anti-consumer and irritating as all get out. There are few things as big a bummer as getting a new product home and straining to cut off the sides (see right), slicing up one’s knuckles on the rigid plastic really bad every time, and possibly even damaging the package’s contents trying to get inside. If I had more time I would march on, well, “the industry” to freaking quit it already, petition, complain, etc. It’s bad for the environment and stuff. And especially bad for people trying to get at whatever it is contained therein you’ve just sold us for probably too much money.

Yours,
Ryan Block, consumer

Cathode Corner’s Scope Clock

And here I was thinking a nice Nixie was about the sweetest geek chic / modern design nostalgic throwback timepiece around. I’d drone on about how much I want one of Cathode Corner’s Scope Clocks (as spotted on Eng JP), but they’re all out — and if they weren’t, I probably wouldn’t be able to afford whatever it is they charge anyway. A aesthete gadget dork can dream though, can’t he?

2005 Taiwan International Design Competition

Evan at Engadget wrote up the Blowfly last week, which won third at the 2005 Taiwan International Design Competition — but there’s a ton of other really beautiful objects over at their site that are completely worth your time in checking out. Clockwise from the upper left is the Unity Phone by Jonas Bylund, Andreas Enqvist, and Bjorn Ogren (Sweden); Watch in TRAN by Abhishek Sahu (India); Minder by Huang Shao-wei (Taiwan); and Frame, by Kil Ki Narm (Korea). You know, I’ll be realistic: it costs a more to hire good designers, and I can only imagine what a pain it must be to properly integrate them with engineering, marketing, and production teams. But you know what? There’s a reason the RAZR, by all accounts a very crappy phone, moves more units than most any other phone out there, especially those similarly priced models (and it ain’t the Moto brand, let me tell you).

Iannone Sanderson’s Mod coffee table

Somewhere in between Scrapile, Zebrawood, and bisected plant-cell diagrams lies the Mod, table made from a bonded wood-alternative of horizontal cuts of scrapped sorghum plant stalks. I think this might make number eleven on my wish list this year, since my current coffee table is on its, um, last legs. Ahem.

[Via MoCoLoCo]

Virgin Galactic spaceport to be designed by Phillippe Starck

There’s nothing much I hate worse than being late to a story (can you possibly imagine why?), but I didn’t get the chance to write about Phillippe Starck’s deal for the Virgin Galactic spaceport in New Mexico until late last night. Anyhow, unfortunately the buzz on this one is making it difficult to tell what’s really going down, but stories from various news sources cite the site as costing between $20 and $220 million, and that Virgin Galactic is slated to begin construction of the spaceport in early 2007, with flights departing off Starck’s runway by 2009. But the 38,000 some-odd people who’ve signed up to take the $200,000 ride into space don’t interest me nearly as much as the completely trite and admissibly delectable combination of modern design and space travel, together again. Kubrick would have been proud, Mr. Branson — despite the fact that you’ve probably pissed off a lot of Scanadanavians with this. Here’s to hoping it turns out more Saarinen / Terminal 5-like, and less like, um, what’s pictured right by Starck (which, I concede, is still better than anything Gehry).