Boys and Their Toys explores the close relationship that designers have with technology. Every piece constructed varies in production from digital cameras to laser cutting and CNC Milling machines to subverting software programs. The show is a mixed media exhibition showing the work of emerging architects and designers from around the world, curated by nous founder Melissa Woolford and presented at LOT. The show will be on view until November 8, 2009.

Binaural is an attempt to ‘visualize’ and physically manifest, aural information. The intent was also to draw attention to opportunities that may lie within a domain of digital design.

The music file used: ‘reflection’ by Jan Hiddink a custom-coded ‘audio node’ enables playback of audio and extraction of audio information including frequency spectrum, amplitudes, beats etc. Aural information being sharply punctuated needs some amount of ‘smoothing’ to be applicable to geometric operation. This ‘smoothing’ of frequency spectrum is achieved and visualized by storing information as color and standard color-interpolation methods. this ‘smoothed’ data is then used to generate / deform geometry.

The creative geniuses of GoldSpun present the first image of their Fall 2009 collection. After visiting their former showroom last week, I was captivated in the material and precise attention to detail from the garment designs by Creative Director Marck Marcellus. GoldSpun uses the most premium of raw materials and rich color of G7-Dye found on Earth in their collection to make their design classical timepieces with contemporary updates.

The PuraVida launch party at Duravit NYC

Through its continued collaborations with internationally renowned designers, Duravit has remained at the pulse of innovative design for over 20 years. The company’s latest collection, PuraVida, exemplifies just that - it is their second collaboration with award-winning Phoenix Design, created in cooperation with Hansgrohe.

PuraVida brings poetic purity and clarity of form to the bathroom, fusing minimalism and elegance to create a sleek, yet gentle, flowing and graceful look. According to Tom Schönherr of Phoenix Design, “Everything about this range is completely subtle, nothing is excessive, nothing is pretentious.”  In designing PuraVida, Schönherr and partner Andreas Haug sought to modify pure geometry in order to create a sense of soft movement. To that they added emotion, based on Schönherr’s sense that, “In the future, there will be a need for a new form, for new emotion. Everything will become more joyful and more lively.”

By using the strength of emotion as the platform for their design, Schönherr and Haug created an entirely new, boundless and feminine look for the bathroom: soft, pure, natural forms that embody sleek timelessness.

Hailing from Lagos, Nigeria, he was a revolutionary and Africa’s musical genius, the creator of Afrobeat - a genre combining traditional African highlife, jazz, James Brown funk grooves and Latin rhythms into a unique, toxic mix that is wholly his own. Fela’s politically inflammatory songs laid bare the corruption, violence, and greed of the ruling regimes across the continent and world. Fela was arrested over a hundred times by the Nigerian government. Ultimately 1000 soldiers invaded and destroyed the Kalakuta Republic – Fela’s living and performing compound that he shared with his 27 wives and mother – sending nearly all of the inhabitants to the hospital, or worse. Despite the death of his mother in the siege, Fela never stopped fighting the powers of imperialism, colonialism and racism. As the legendary Fela Kuti put it: “MUSIC IS THE WEAPON.”

Sara McBeen and Sara Dierck of Coroflot were amongst a group of designers that traveled to Guyana to partake in The Guyana Project. Here’s what they experienced.

The Guyana Project is made up of 11 young designers. As a group, we are united by an interest in sustainable materials and ethical working environments. Inspired to learn firsthand how our concepts become products, we traveled to Georgetown, Guyana in May of 2009 to work in the Liana Cane Factory, which uses only non-timber rainforest products (NTRP) and is run by local activist and entrepreneur Jocelyn Dow. This same factory welcomed designer William Gordon, whose experience in social entrepreneurship was featured on Core77 in December of 2008. Our trip was organized by Pratt Institute’s Rebecca Welz, a design instructor and artist, and designer Patty Johnson, of the North South Project.

In Guyana we met and collaborated with factory workers and indigenous artisan weavers from the Wai Wai tribe. For over 8 hours each day we steamed, bent, cut, sanded and wove alongside the men and women of Liana Cane. At each step of the way, our designs were also shaped by the material constraints and constant direction of the skilled workers, whose knowledge of this process greatly surpassed our own.

“You have to take pride in your work and know good measurement,” said Shawn Singh, who has been working at the factory since it opened in 1993. “The hardest part about the work is finishing. First you have to rough sand, then another sand with another grain of sandpaper, then you apply sand sealer, maybe twice, and then you sand again with a finer grain of sand paper. And then finally, you apply the lacquer.”

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This October, Eindhoven presented the 8th edition of Dutch Design Week, the largest design event in the Netherlands. Around 1500 designers from home and abroad showed their work in more than 60 locations all over the city, representing the full array of design disciplines. In typical Dutch style, visitors were given insight into the entire development process from concept to product. Here is a selection of the best work from the Eindhoven Design Academy graduation show, the Designhuis, the former Philips complex Strijp-S, and more.

Did you really think the New York Yankees were not going to win? C’mon, we’re New Yorkers, losing has never been a option, that’s how we gain the reputation we have now. In a amazing game, defeating the Phillies 7-3 for the 27th World Series title at the new Yankee Stadium, the same title we won at the first stadium. We give special thanks for Hideki Matsui for MVP for putting in amazing work, he truly deserved it.

To all the fans and 5 boroughs… STAND UP AND MAKE SOME NOISE!

The Insidehouse & Outsidehouse designed by Takeshi Hosaka Architects is a private residence in Tokyo, Japan. The two-storey wooden structure consists of two independent units which complete the home. The house is constructed in a way which allows fluid movement from indoor to outdoor spaces, as well as between the two structures. The smaller structure is considered the ‘outdoorhouse’, while the ‘indoorhouse’ is the larger unit of the two.

The outsidehouse has a small study which opens up onto a roofless courtyard which can be accessed from the insidehouse via the open walkway which runs between the two buildings. Using a built-in ladder, one can climb to the outsidehouse’s second floor which consists of two open balconies.

Though the home isn’t physically connected, large glass windows and cutouts in the courtyard wall facing the insidehouse provide transparency within the home, allowing one to easily look from the insidehouse to the outsidehouse.

If you can’t make this show, there are 3 others (check them out here)!

1050 N. ORANGE DRIVE / HOLLYWOOD / CA ( Google Maps )

OntFront presents its upcoming collection for spring/summer, entitled Tonight is the Knight. For the collection, OntFront created a 60 piece capsule, inspired by the bold iron armor of the middle ages. “Tonight is the Knight” is designed to catapult the bold sophistication of the valiant medieval knight into comfortable gallantry for the modern-day street cavalier.