»Envision conscious design!« is the theme of the new Braun Prize 2009. The internationally recognised design competition is open to young industrial designers who are still studying or who have graduated within the last two years.

In the coming days, some thousands sets of competition documentation will be sent out to design schools,
universities and design studios all over the world.

Closing date: January 31, 2009

Current industrial design students as well as recent graduates have until January 31, 2009 to submit their product concepts to Braun (the participation is free of charge). The total prize money amounts to EUR 36,000. The winner of the BraunPrize will receive EUR 12,000 in prize money and a (paid) six-month internship in the Design Department at Braun. The other finalists will each receive a prize of EUR 5,000.

The remaining prize money will be distributed in the form of special recognition awards at the discretion of the jury. More on the BraunPrize website.

hotel furnishing in Bulgaria

I cannot imagine that New York City is a good spot for cycling through the city, but it seems that the administration is promoting cycling as a »mainstream transportation option«. But as cars, bikes also need space to park them when they are not in motion. NYC is looking for new bicycle racks and that is why the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), in partnership with the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the support of Google Inc. and Transportation Alternatives announces the »CityRacks Design Competition«:

The purpose of the competition is to develop functional, well-designed sidewalk racks and to generate new concepts for bicycle parking inside commercial and residential buildings. These two initiatives, in addition to NYCDOT’s commitment to increasing the number of miles of bicycle facilities, providing the City’s first sheltered bike parking stations and creating more bicycle parking at transit stations, will raise the profile of bicycling as a convenient mode of transportation in New York.

Although bicycle lanes are the most noticeable element of the City’s cycling infrastructure, access to parking is also essential. Indeed, a study conducted by the Department of City Planning found that lack of access to secure bike parking was the primary reason cyclists did not ride to work. The current standard fixture for bicycle parking consists of variations of a fabricated square steel tube called the “CityRack” that is mounted on sidewalks. These fixtures occupy little space on the sidewalk and do not obstruct the flow of people or goods. New York City currently has thousands of CityRacks within its five boroughs and plans to add thousands more in the foreseeable future. The CityRack design, however, has been in use for over ten years and does not fulfill the potential to be an icon for New York City cycling.

The City intends to use the winning sidewalk rack as its new standard for bicycle parking. The design for the in-building rack will first be installed by Google in its New York City headquarters. It may also be used by City-owned buildings in the future, when possible.

Design for public spaces is always an interesting and challenging task as so many people get into contact with the object. This requires special materials but also a gestaltung that goes d’accord with a broader common aesthetics. And: what could be more bootlicking to see your design in New York City used by millions?

Picture by Flickr user Fußgänger. More information on the competiton here. And an intersting book about the subject of public design, called »Designing Public. Perspectives for the public.«

Again there is an interesting competition – details can be found on the website of »Stiftung HfG Ulm«. But here already some details:

Title: Designing Politics – the Politics of Design
Host: IFG Ulm GmbH a company of HfG Ulm foundation
Subject: Design
Aim: Encouraging the political, cultural, social and human responsibilities of designers
Funds: 50,000 Euro
Eligibility: Applicants from the fields of: Design, Architecture, Communication, Town Planning and Urban Development, Human and Social Sciences, Politics, and others.
Submission: Deadline for submission is 10th May 2008.

Competition details: Ulm has set itself the task of conducting a discourse on the social responsibility of designers to promote the democratic quality of design.

More on the website of Stiftung HfG Ulm.

The Kyoto Design Declaration was signed in Kyoto on the 28th of March 2008 by the Executive Board of Cumulus, President Christian Guellerin, Past President Yrjö Sotamaa, Rector Kan Shimamoto, Kyoto Seika University, and Industrial Designer Takuo Hirano from Japan, representing the 124 global members of Cumulus. The Declaration received support from ICSID, BEDA, AIGA and EIDD.

By signing the Kyoto Design Declaration, the members of Cumulus committed to sharing global responsibility for building sustainable, human-centred and creative societies. The whole declaration can be read on the homepage of Cumulus.

Guter Konsum – böser Konsum

David Carlson has been working with design as a competitive weapon for twenty years. With design as an added value the Swedish designer helps his assigners create attractive brands ready for the challenges of the future. His assigners include Absolut, Level Vodka and Sony Ericsson to mention a few.

Since 2005 Carlson is sharing his thoughts on design in a quaterly report, called the »David Report«. The latest issue »I shop therefore I am« is about our consumption. Sponsor is the vodka brand »Absolute« from Sweden. The report consist of his thoughts and insights on consumption and also has an interview with Mathilde Tham, a professor of Beckmans College of Design and features Kristina Dryza, a trend forecaster and Sante Poroma, a Zen teacher from Stockholm.

[…] maybe it’s time to divide our consumption into good and bad consumption? […] we do have the opportunity to, through our consumption and our choices, create a better world (one mustn’t forget that the power of the consumer is enormous). It is all about WHAT Continue Reading »

Here is a fantastic idea for those nerds that completely organize their social life in virtual networks like facebook, studivz, myspace or else: With this shirt that shows a QR Code containing your profile ID, you don’t even have to talk to people on streets anymore. They can just take a picture of your code with their mobile phone and will then be directed to your facebook profile.

This is quite clever as it redirects more sociality to the internet and away from our public areas. How boring to see people communicating in cafes or on down in the street. Moreover it offers completely new ways for stalkers – they can now easily track their object of desire. And our governments will also be happy to be able to observe and allocate people more easily. There’s a lot of advantages for sure in this brilliant idea! Reminds me a bit of convicts wearing their registration number. Really a fashion for passionate Continue Reading »

From Studio Düsburg, a studio for experimental architecture, comes an interesting architecture project that deals with the re-intergration and transformation of former industrial areas into modern lifestyle and culture.

The “Autobahn 59″ is a highway built in the sixties and connects parts of the Rhein-Ruhr-Area in North-South direction. Even today it is a construction of high technical standard, because a lot of parts of the highway are bridges. Near to the exit Duisburg-Marxloh there used to be a railroad bridge. When the railroad track went out of use they reconstructed Continue Reading »