Adding an element of handcrafting to the mechanical process of printing, thehumanprinter is a group of people that translate and hand-render images in the style of a digital printer.

According to the site:

“Throughout the printing process, thehumanprinter assumes the role of the machine and is therefore controlled and restricted by the process of using CMYK halftones created on the computer.”

You can choose between full cmyk color, spot color, or black and white prints.

Also, each “printer” has an individual style that is listed here with a photo. For instance- one is “steady and reliable” while another is “fast and inaccurate”.

[via Boing Boing]

By Jim Moscater | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Arts & Culture, Electronics & Gadgets, Web & Technology and

IDEO has developed a free guide tailored for NGOs to develop solutions to social programs. The Human Centered Design Process Guide is over 150 pages of case studies and step-by-step instructions on how to develop innovative solutions to pressing problems.

It’s broken down into different phases and comes with a set of Aspiration Cards. What’s interesting about this free-source is how in-depth it is, and how much it reveals about the company’s internal processes.

You can download the complete guide here.

By Francisco Hui | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Arts & Culture, Design, Education, Environmental, Media & Publishing and Design, Education, Environmental, freesource, human centered design, ideo, methodology

Twitter, though useful, has become fraught with deafening levels of hype, spam-like fake followers, and many “get a lot of followers quickly” schemes.

Enter TidyTweet, a Twitter filter by Rockfish Interactive (now in private beta testing) that can help manage your feed, and keep out spam, profanity and disingenuous followers.

Features include a customized word filter to keep embarrassing or unsavory posts at bay, a filter for posts with multiple trending topics, and an embeddable widget that helps you keep an eye on how your feed is holding up.

[via Mashable]

Related Links

Twitter:

Twitter Feed Augmented Reality T-Shirt
Social Collider: Watch Ideas Spread on Twitter
Street Meat Gets Even More Mobile on Twitter

Information Filtering:
It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure.

Spam:
Spam, Big Waste of Time and Energy

By Jim Moscater | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Electronics & Gadgets, Entertainment, Environmental, Fashion, Web & Technology, Work & Business and tidytweet, Twitter

PSFK is proud to announce news that we will host a Good Ideas Salon with YouTube next month. On 6th August 2009, PSFK and YouTube will host a Good Ideas Salon in the Bay Area. For the event, Mia Quagliarello (Product Marketing Manager - Community YouTube) will moderate a panel of community experts — Jen Burton (Senior Community Manager, Digg), Heather Champ (Director of Community, Flickr) and Matthew Stinchcomb (VP - Community, Etsy) — to discuss what can be learned from the passionate people who visit these sites, how relationships are fostered at scale, ways to engage with users, and the amazing creativity that can come out of vast online audiences.

It is a free event and more information can be found on the Good Ideas Salons website.

By Piers Fawkes | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Advertising & Branding, Featured Articles, Gaming & Social Networks, PSFK Conference, PSFK Specials, Web & Technology and Community, digg, Etsy, flickr, good ideas, good ideas salons, Google, salon, youtube

Image credit:  85178088, arturdebat.tk, Flickr

In a recent interview with Fast Company, Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard offers his thoughts on running an environmentally conscious business and what is on his mind - the “myth of sustainability”, an ideal he sees as a path rather than a destination. Though this last statement is bit too zen-like for our tastes, Patagonia does have a number of thoughtful green initiatives in place, particularly their 1% for the Planet project and product life-cycle studies, that can serve as valuable models for other corporations to follow. Chouinard feels that companies need to move away from thinking about saving the planet in terms of philanthropy and adopt the attitude that these are the new costs of doing business.

One company that has sought Chouinard’s advice and is poised to put it into action, is Wal-Mart, which will be announcing its plans to unveil a “sustainability index” for every product sold in its stores. A bold move for the world’s most powerful retailer that can potentially transform the entire retail landscape for both consumers and manufacturers. As Big Money explains:

For the index to work, consumer-goods makers will need to understand the origins of everything they put into their products. Wal-Mart has talked about assessing sustainability in four broad categories: energy and greenhouse gas emissions, materials, natural resources, and “people and communities,” which will attempt to measure social impacts. Right now, most supply chains are opaque: Try tracing a hamburger to a particular cow.

But given the leverage of Wal-Mart alone, not to mention its consortium that includes competitors, Kroger, Costco and Target, along with a number of large manufacturers like Unilever, General Mills and Proctor & Gamble, among others, one suspects that they’ll find a way to develop a methodology. And while this may sound good in theory, if this consortium is in charge of the analysis, isn’t it in their best interests to simply feed the public a bunch of phony results?

For the skeptics out there, the short answer is a resounding yes, but ultimately, Wal-Mart doesn’t want to own the index, but merely get it off the ground. Once underway, the project will most likely be handed off to a non-profit that will receive funding from a combination of retailers and manufacturers. In the interim, the project will led by the University of Arkansas and Arizona State University, which will provide scientific research to support the effort. A number of unnamed academics, environmentalists and government officials have also been invited to take part.

On the other side of the aisle, we were struck by a recent piece in the Atlantic that endeavors to put the streamlined, Scandinavian design of IKEA in its proper place as, according to one EPA endorsed activist, “the least sustainable retailer on the planet.” It’s interesting to note that early on in the article, author Ellen Ruppel Shell makes the point that, “IKEA passes as the anti-Wal-Mart: a company where value and good values coexist,” which in light of the Wal-Mart’s initiatives, raises interesting questions about consumer perception.

Despite IKEA’s outward appearances at being eco-friendly - reusable blue bags, flat-packed trucking and partial use of renewable energy - on larger issues, the opposite might actually be true.

By some measures the world’s third-largest wood consumer, IKEA proudly employs 15 “forestry monitors.” Eight of them work in China and Russia, but illegal logging is widespread in those vast countries, making it impossible to guarantee that all wood is legally harvested. (The company declines to pay a premium to ensure that all timber is legally harvested, citing costs that would be passed along to the consumer.)

And no one can argue that IKEA’s furniture, while aesthetically pleasing and certainly sturdy enough, is designed to be handed down through generations. A function not only of its construction, but perhaps its lack of story as well. A fact that points to our own level of involvement with most of the things we buy.

Of course, no label, no matter how much information it contains, is going to singlehandedly transform our relationship with the objects that clutter our lives, but it’s a good a place as any to start, if only for their ability to make us stop and think. After all, we’re all on a journey, right?

Fast Company: Patagonia’s Founder on Why There’s “No Such Thing as Sustainability”

The Atlantic: Buy to Last

The Big Money: Wal-Mart To Become Green Umpire

By Scott Lachut | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Environmental, Featured Articles, Retail and ikea, Patagonia, Retail, Sustainability, sustainability index, Wal-Mart

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham will be examining how the motion-controlled Nintendo Wii remote can be used as part of a PC software based program to help teach CPR. The American Heart Association has already pledged $50,000 to help fund this promising student program. Though nothing has been said by Nintendo in regards to the idea, it’s hoped that they’ll pick it up as an official application.

[Popular Science via Neatorama]

Related Links:

Wii TV - Centerpiece Of The Living Room?

Your Next Doctor Appointment, On the Wii Fit

“Doctor Internet” & Health Privacy

WiiSpray - The Video

By Dan Gould | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Education, Electronics & Gadgets, Gaming & Social Networks, Health & Beauty and cpr, Learning, wii

Now that designer style has become so accessible, thanks to fast fashion knock offs, everyone looks the same. In his book Paris New York Shanghai‘, Dutch conceptual artist Hans Eijkelboom intricately proves that although people perceive themselves as being very independent, they actually look very much alike.

Which is what’s so disappointing about designers like Christian Lacroix and Martin Margiela throwing in the proverbial shoulder pad. While I’m all for fashion democracy, the loss of transgressive designers inches us even closer to cultural mediocrity.

I’ve been egged on by the brilliant BBC2 series British Style Genius, specifically the interviews with Westwood and McLaren about the rise of their anarchy, and the historical camaraderie of various sub-cultures who were united by a look.

In tracing back through vintage fashion culture, it’s easy to spot that fashion sub-cultures don’t exist as they used to. Who stands out in a way that really impacts culture these days, like the mods, punks and dandies did the first time round? I’ve been searching for people who don’t look like a hipster, or the Connecticut housewives version of a hipster as styled by Vogue, but even hip-hop is more like hipster-hop these days. Which is creatively depressing to me because fashion has become more like a commodity.

Where’s the attitude and energy that pioneers like Westwood and McLaren created? Where are the extremes that make fashion and the culture it creates exciting and inspiring?

Image credit: 82173221, Ryan McVay, Flickr

Is Creativity is Still Alive?

Of course there are brilliant designers creating unique clothes and creativity, I put Gareth Pugh at the top of this list, but something’s getting lost in translation, and when we’re done mixing and matching, the result is, well, beige. We end up looking the same.

Raoul Shah, the CEO of Exposure, an interactive communications, reassures me that, “Creativity is still alive and well in every corner of our planet. It’s just harder to spot”.

It’s harder to spot because the business savvy of H+M, Target and Top Shop etc, who commercialize the talents of niche designers, is so overpowering. I seriously question the millions of dollars spent on consumer research that claims today’s fashion conscious consumer is independent and in charge of their own unique identity, and Eijkelboom’s work proves it. The influence of creative extremes is being watered down to lowest common denominator before it’s had a chance to challenge us, and it’s culturally stifling.

Fast Fashion

Julie Ragolia, City Magazine’s Fashion Director doesn’t think the fast fashion houses are to fault for such a hegemony. “The issue is more sociological as people look to less varied sources for fashion inspiration. Fast fashion retailers offer styles that easily support individuated style, but that consumers should opt toward the same racks is curious to me”.

Rather than pushing varying shades of beige, the goliaths of fast fashion have the power to inspire sub-cultural identities with a more diverse fashion democracy, but crucially, without biting the hand that feeds.

Simon Doonan, creative director of Barney’s says, “Today’s fashion landscape is vast. The old frameworks no longer apply. We need to approach it without any preconceived ideas”.

The challenge for fast fashion is to evolve beyond the tired capsule collection marketing machine, that keeps us stuck in this cultural rut. Jimmy Choo for H+M, (sigh).

John Lee, publisher of Theme magazine points out that fast fashion brands may churn clothes out quickly, but they’re slow to step up their marketing game. “If they were really smart, they would use their re-invention opportunities to create content which break them out of the rest of the mainstream, (and I’m not talking streetwear collaborations, or large music sponsorships)”.

According to Shah, “smart entrepreneurs are still ready to back new ideas”.

Whoever proves to be the smartest entrepreneur, better do it fast.

Gill writes about what’s happening in the business of fashion for the fashion trend forecasting site Mudpie.co.uk. If you’re not a paid up subscriber of Mudpie, you can now read her musings here on PSFK.

Gill is the co-founder of The Joneses. Contact her at Gill@thejoneses-nyc.com

By Gill Linton | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Advertising & Branding, Fashion, Featured Articles, Work & Business, Youth and barneys, Fashion, Fast Fashion, gill linton, Jimmy Choo, John Lee, Julie Ragolia, Simon Doonan

We spotted the renowned Brazilian twins that work under the name Os Gêmeos completing a large art piece on Houston in New York this morning. The piece replaces the Keith Haring reproduction of a famous outdoor work from the 80s.

For their work in New York, Os Gemeos bring their beautiful whimsical style to create a carnival dream emerging from New York’s subways.

When we asked, they told PSFK that it should be ready by tomorrow (Thursday). Get down there and check it out (corner of Bowery) - we’ll definitely be taking Cy along to check it out.

By Piers Fawkes | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Arts & Culture, Featured Articles and Graffiti, new york city, nyc, Os Gemeos, street art

Image credit: 86274725, Joshua Yetman, Flickr

Touted as the ‘Craigslist’ for creatives, Creative Caravan is an online house swap / temporary sublet listing service strictly for those working within the areas of advertising, media, fashion, art and design. Created by Sydney-based photographer Rebecca Wolkenstein and a “family of international creative jetsetters”, the service is designed to give commercial creatives a cheap accommodation alternative when traveling abroad.  Creative Caravan is completely free to list and find potential sublets.  Believing that tenants with common interests are the key to successful house swaps, Creative Caravan moderates each listing and checks every creative’s credentials.

Creative Caravan

By Claudia Cukrov | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Advertising & Branding, Arts & Culture, Global Community, Home & Garden, Media & Publishing, Transport & Travel, Trends in Australia, Web & Technology, Work & Business and classified ad, craigslist

Ghana-born artist El Anatsui’s works have been centered around the use of many different kinds of found materials which join together to form pieces that address topics such as consumerism, globalization, waste, and post-colonialism in Africa.

The metal fragments that act as the base of his sculptures: aluminum wrappings from the tops of bottles in local distilleries, rusty metal graters, used printing plates, are gathered locally in Nsukka, Nigeria, where Anatsui has called home for 28 years.

The National Museum for African Art site has a gallery of his works, along with his commentary on selected pieces. For more of an in-depth look, check out T Magazine’s profile of El Anatsui from earlier this year.

[via Everyday Trash]

By Jim Moscater | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Arts & Culture, Design, Environmental, Trends In Africa and recycling, Sculpture, Trends In Africa, Upcycling

A few photos of street art in Africa have appeared on the web with the speculation that the pieces are the work of reknowned British artist Banksy. Some of the images have been painted in Mali and were painted “from Bamako to Timbuktu” says one commenter on Flickr.

It’s likely they are the work of the artist as PSFK found that they also appear on his website.

Banksy

[Via kitsunenoir]

By Piers Fawkes | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Arts & Culture, Featured Articles, Trends In Africa and afric, Banksy, mali, street art, Trends In Africa

Green space in Japan in fairly hard to come by but architects at Suppose Design Office have completed a residence in Nagoya that brings the yard inside. The house is located on a narrow lot and didn’t have any extra space for a garden. The client really wanted to have plants in view. SDO created an interior “garden room” that wraps around the living space and connects the lower rooms. The airy design blurs the perception between inside and outside.

[via dezeen]

By Dave Pinter | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Architecture, Home & Garden and

The Vienna based architectural duo Marie-Therese Harnoncour and Ernst J. Fuchs, or The Next ENTERprise Architects are the creators of a new open-air concert hall in Austria. Build on the same grounds as Garfenegg Castle, the pavilion’s senior of 250 years, it blends in surprisingly well.  Holding close to 2000 seated spectators in the auditorium and on the lawn and with a stage accommodating 200 hundred performers, the venue is bound to offer stunning performances during the summer months.The Cloud Tower, as it’s called, got its name from the high-reaching stage roof, made of glass and steel reflecting the surrounding trees and the sky above.

[Via: Dezeen]

By Ebba Akerman | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Architecture, Design and austria, concert

The Owl Project is the brain child of a group of Manchester based artists creating wooden instruments that critique human interaction with computer interfaces and society’s increasing appetite for new and disposable technologies.

With a love for electronic noise and a sense of humor, they build devices similar to our familiar laptops and iPods.  Although, the Log1k is not a laptop - it’s just a log. Being build from a fully circled section of the log it requires approx. 24 AA batteries to generate signals, make noise and let its fluorescent lit screen glow.

The iLog, on the other hand, is a stand alone noise generator which allows you to enjoy the sound of light.  It’s wooden display offering “amazing grain quality” and available in “five eye-catching wood types, iLog is stunning all around.”

[Via:  Neural]

By Ebba Akerman | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Arts & Culture, Electronics & Gadgets, Music and iLog, Log1k, Owl Project

Image credit: 85576190, Grant Faint, Flickr

Considering the increasing number of activities that we’re able to complete online from shopping and entertainment to research and communication in various forms, it’s not a far stretch to believe Sir Nicholas Serota and Neil MacGregor, two titans of the British museum world, when they say the future for these hallowed institutions lies online. With the constant connectivity and immediacy provided by the internet, the two men see museums transforming into multimedia organizations, serving the public as both publishers and broadcasters.

Given the changing dynamics between visitors and institutions, the main challenge becomes how best to involve the audience in the ongoing conversation while maintaining some semblance of control over the user experience. A process that requires curators to balance their role as exhibit architects with a level of smart crowdsourcing.

Image credit: dv6260111, Ron Dahlquist, Flickr

As important as building a strong digital presence that merges notions of interactivity with global community might very well be in preserving a museum’s relevancy and longevity, its true influence still rests in the power of its physical collection. And no matter how far our technology evolves, it will never be able to replicate the sense of awe one feels when standing face to face with something truly beautiful.

[via Guardian]

By Scott Lachut | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Arts & Culture, Education, Web & Technology and curator, digital presence, future, multimedia organizations, museums

Here’s a video about the transcription services:

And this video describes how Google will route a call to a certain number:

The phone system seems to be web driven. Free calls are made by dialing the dashboard and then the system will connect you (for free in the US) by ringing your phone then the phone of the person you are dialing.

Google Voice

By Piers Fawkes | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Telecom, Web & Technology and Google, google voice

Ed Cotton points us to a beautiful package design for a Red Bull Cola promotional piece. Using a sturdy wood box, and real samples of the 17 natural ingredients of the cola, Design Friendship created a striking presentation of the unseen raw material that goes into the drink. And in our increasingly virtualized-digitized world. the display is a great testament to the commanding presence of physical objects.

[Lovely Package via Influx Insights]

By Dan Gould | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Advertising & Branding, Design, Food & Drink and Analog, infographic, package design, physical, Red Bull

Getty Images has partnered with Flickr to create “The Flickr Collection” - a collection of images that reflects the passion of a community of photographers worldwide, featuring uniquely personal images with an authenticity rare in stock photography.  The featured Flickr photos cover a range of subject matter and are available in rights-managed and royalty-free licenses.

This collection is geared towards creative professionals who rely heavily on imagery for their daily work. PSFK has partnered with Getty Images and will be testing their new Flickr Collection during the months of July and August.

We will be featuring images from the collection in our posts, looking for beautiful photos to help tell our stories. At the end of this test run, we will share some candid comments on our experience.  Specifically, we will cover functionality, quality and breadth of the collection, and some insight into how the images performed on our site.

Stay tuned for the results post in August, and we hope you enjoy the images along the way!

By Jeff Weiner | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Advertising & Branding, Arts & Culture, Gaming & Social Networks, Media & Publishing, Web & Technology, Work & Business and crowdsourcing, flickr, getty, photography

Using over 2,400 different graffiti tags from all over Paris as raw data, artist Evan Roth photographed, tagged and sorted each piece by letter, creating am archive cataloging the stylistic diversity found in the city. This fascinating study is now on display at Foundation Cartier’s Born in The Streets exhibition. Watch the video below to see an overview of the project.

[via Wooster Collective]

By Dan Gould | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Arts & Culture, Design, Trends In Europe, Web & Technology and Evan Roth, Graffiti, Paris, street art, taxonomy

The piece I posted last week in reaction to Levi’s Go Forth ad campaign generated a lot of commentary. Beyond whether people agreed with my thoughts on advertising or not, the post created a heated discussion about race in advertising. Here are some of the comments made:

Christine Huang thanked us for striking up the conversation and said:

As you aptly put it - the campaign just fails to reflect the America - country of “pioneers” and fearless individualists - it’s claiming to represent. It just fails to connect. Perhaps WK was going for timelessness, but all I see is irrelevance. Today’s “Pioneers of America” aren’t shirtless waifs walking into the sunset, and this ‘new world’ is a lot more interesting, and built on much more heritage, than these empty images communicate.

It’s interesting to see how some people are reducing the issue to one of race-blindness vs multiculturalism. I don’t think anybody is saying all ads needs to have a multicultural message - but one that purporting to celebrate the American spirit - in this day and age - arguably should.

Greg Rollet shrugged:

Honestly, the ads aren’t terrible and they will get some attention. I do agree that they missed the boat on culture and the “new America,” but hey, its just to sell some jeans.

Kenzonian made a point about immigration:

except for groups who were brought here forcibly, most large migrations came to this country because of the promise of a better life. Many of those groups — Chinese, Mexican, Filipino, Irish, Italian — have walked off the boat into virtual enslavement. These people have provided the bulk of the muscle which has built this country. In fact, in all of history, the only great monument that was built by people who were working on their one free will, is the Acropolis.

I actually think [the Levi's advertising] suffers from trying to be more then A&F. A&F makes no bones about what kind of people it is trying to attract. It doesnt seem like a good strategy in today’s market, but that’s them.

GW said it’s not Levi’s issue to get involved with race politics:

In my opinion this post is blowing things way out of proportion. I don’t believe advertisers have an obligation to “connect with the great things that are happening in this country, the radiant mix of cultures evolving within it”. Doing so could possibly increase their sales, as it would make their brand more relevant to more people, but I don’t think that it is their duty to do so. They exist to sell a product, not to provide sociology lessons.

J sided with Christine:

I agree with Christine. Levi’s was a great brand. And quite sadly it seems to have missed the boat. And I’m not just talking about America. In Europe, Asia etc. youths don’t go for Levi’s like we used to. As for the campaign, while it looks rather modern, the idea and messages is shockingly backward. Feels like a 40 year old gatecrashing into a rave/indie party.

ABarber gets too the point:

I bet all of you who don’t see what the big deal is about these ads being so White are, well White. Which is exactly the problem with the today’s advertising industry as well as corporate America. The fact that in this day in age any brand, or ad agency, who is attempting to sell products to US citizens at large, would not think to include a single person of color is ridiculous and completely offensive.

If you’d like to add your opinion, please add a comment to the original post here.

(Photo is of a promotion outside Abercrombie & Fitch’s new Hollister Store in NYC’s SoHo which mentally prompted me to look at the comments again)

PSFK: Levi’s Does An Abercrombie & Fitch

By Piers Fawkes | © PSFK, 2009. | Article Link | Comments | More stories in: Advertising & Branding, Fashion and abercrombie & fitch, Fashion, hollister, levi's, multicultural, race