LG announces future phone design contest winners

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Emily Albinski of Wading River, New York was awarded $20,000 for her design which created a concept she called CC based on the theme of connectivity. It depicted a modular 'core' phone that can be inserted into a touchscreen or netbook shell to provide nearly seamless connectivity along with flexibility to adapt to users' needs. Ms Albinski, a full-time professional freelance designer.

To check out her design and other honorable mentions please click here:

LG announces future phone design contest winners

Design Award Winners

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If you haven't taken a look at the winners of this year's International Design Excellence Awards make sure you do so now! Some of this year's award winners created products that could have a global impact. Take a look at this Business Week article for the award winners.

E-Commerce Web Design Toolbox

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Steven Snell of DesignM.ag provides a quick and easy toolbox for web designers who have been asked to create an e-commerce site or component. Snell provides great resources from shopping cart options to tutorials and links to templates/themes. We encourage you to check out this great resource.

E-Commerce Web Design Toolbox

Riding in Style in the City

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This post in the Design Blog highlights the "City Scooter", designed by Austrian Florian Wille, it provides the consumer with the thrill of a motorcycle but the convention of a compact car. This 3 wheeler features a big loading space up front which can be used to provide space for miscellaneous items that motorcycles often lack, and also serves as a crash zone offering riders more safety. Will we be seeing similar designs for these types of electric vehicles in the future?

National Design Awards winners honored

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According to the New York Times, the winners of the National Design Awards were honored at the White House by First Lady Michelle Obama. She stated, “You are scientists and artists; your work is both technical and poetic, educational and inspirational. Thank you for inspiring the next generation.”

Some of the winners included: SHoP Architects of New York for architecture; Tsao & McKown Architects, also of New York, for interior design; Francisco Costa of the Calvin Klein collection for fashion; Hood Design, in Oakland, Calif., for landscape design; Boym Partners, in New York, for product design; Perceptive Pixel Inc., of New York, for interaction design; and The New York Times graphics department for communication design.

Heinz Edelmann, art director for 'Yellow Submarine' dies

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Yesterday we were saddened to learn that Heinz Edelmann had passed away. Not only did Edelmann serve as the art director for the Beatles 1968 iconic film, Yellow Submarine, but Edelmann was one of the first to adopt graphic design into fine art. Though he is credited as the art director for the film, he is generally credited as the art director, but in fact he created a lot of the characters and was deeply involved in developing the story itself. Although the film became a staple of popular culture, it seems that Edelmann's work fundamentally changed afterwards. He often points out that he could never quite connect with the '60s mind set.

In a tribute piece by Christoph Niemann, Niemann writes:

Born in 1934 in the former Czechoslovakia, Heinz Edelmann studied art education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dusseldorf, at a time when graphic design was not really being taught. In the '50s, the Disseldorf academy was one of the most dynamic places in Germany, with Joseph Beuys as the Academy's most important figure. Since the late '50s, Edelmann has been working in design, illustration, advertising, animation and as a teacher (which he used to tell us was mentioned as an "occupation" in his passport).

He has lived and worked in Germany, in England and the Netherlands.

iPhone Apps Design Blunders

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Alexander Komarov of Smashingmagazine.com writes that, "on average, only 3% of people who have downloaded an app use it after 30 days. Why? Because the majority of iPhone apps don’t make any sense to users. The situation is similar to that of PC software a couple of decades ago. Have we not learned from our mistakes?"

Komarov looks at the reasons why many iPhone Apps just don't live on, despite being built by well-trained designers and developers.

Many applications share the same design problems that prevent customers from fully enjoying them. Recently, Komarov conducted a review of 100 apps from the App Store and identified the five most frequent iPhone design and usability mistakes, which are:

1. Over-blown visuals.
2. Neglecting technological limitations, such as slow Internet connection, slow processors and single-threaded OS architectures.
3. Confusing navigation (flow, layout and taxonomy).
4. Confusing the iPhone with a computer. Neglecting to use new iPhone interactions (fingers instead of the mouse; multi-touch gestures; turn, tilt and rotate) and technological features such as phone functions, built-in GPS and accelerometer.
5. Disregard of context. A lack of understanding of how, when, where and why the mobile device is being used.

We encourage you to check out Komarov's post as he dives into these five usability mistakes.


iPhone Apps Design Mistakes: Over-Blown Visuals

Hand-drawn website designs

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Over at the Web Design Dev, they point out that while it is important to keep up with the latest trends in web design, it is often great to set a few of your own. They then point to a few beautiful websites that were based on hand-drawn designs.

Here are a few. For the rest, check out their website.

Boompa


K4 Labs

Deborah Cavenaugh

10 Different bike designs

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At the Yanko Design blog, they recently looked a different designs that have lead to interesting bicycles. Interestingly enough, they also state that it was at the end of the 19th century that designers came up with designs that were suitable for women. See all the designs here.

Here are two of the designs:

New design for Armstrong at end of Tour De France

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According to the New York Times, Lance Armstrong will be sporting a new design as he finishes out the Tour de France designed by Damien Hirst.

When Lance Armstrong heads into the final stretch of the Tour de France race at the end of this month, he’ll have support from an unexpected fan: Damien Hirst has created a design, above, that will appear on Mr. Armstrong’s bicycle during the 21st stage of the race,

Read the full article here.

Minimzing the Damages of Castastrophic Events

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We can not control natural disasters, but now the "Esis", as detailed in this post in The Design Blog might be able to at least shelter and provide space for families in need during these times. The Esis is lightweight, compact, easy to setup, and easy to transport. The inflatable tent also serves as a flywheel generator, giving some much needed power to those that need it.

What are some examples of companies that are manufacturing innovative products like these to help people through natural disasters?

Innovative Flux Chair Design

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I came across this innovative concept for a lightweight portable chair on The Design Blog. Not only is the seat comfortable to sit on, but it folds flat for easy storage as well as for transportation. The Flux Chair, as they call it, assembles in about 10 seconds and can literally fit anywhere. Take a look at the video below.

Flux chair from flux chairs on Vimeo.

Future Trends LinkedIn Group Announcement

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If you haven't already, we invite you to join our Future Trends LinkedIn group. This group has quickly grown in size and has industry leaders across a diverse platform of industries, including design and innovation. Come join us to network, share your business and learn more about what's really ahead.
__________________________________________________________________

Here is our announcement from this week.

Already at over 12,000 members, Future Trends has grown to be a powerful resource for forward-thinkers looking to share knowledge and network with the best. We encourage you to continue your thoughtful posts, here are few that we wanted to share with you:

Agree or Disagree:
The Two Pathways to Innovation by Dr. Phil Samuel: http://bit.ly/T8I91

The Evolution of the Media…What Do You Think?: http://bit.ly/RbgwM

Accuracy percentage: http://bit.ly/1rNMFH

Join us this November 2-4 in Miami for Future Trends '09 and gain the insights and knowledge you need from industry leaders, corporate visionaries, trendsetters, and marketing and branding revolutionaries. Buying trend reports simply is not enough - FT'09 has the answers and real conversations to apply the RIGHT trends to stay ahead.

Event Website: http://bit.ly/1h7xkN

Keynote Highlights:

• Jane Buckingham, Trend Forecaster, discusses the trends affecting the future generations, http://bit.ly/BoJLN

• Dean Harris, Former CMO of Kayak, tackles wildcard trends

• Michael Rogers, Author and MSNBC Columnist shares how he sees "virtualization" evolving over the next 10 years

• Colin Beavan, Author, Blogger, Activist, No Impact Man discloses how delivering happiness and a higher quality of life is the way to attract customers
• PLUS 35+ Additional World-Class Speakers - Download the brochure for the complete speaking roster and session descriptions

Download the brochure for more information: http://bit.ly/46Ywfr

Register by July 17th and save $800 off the standard conference pricing! Register Today: http://bit.ly/11iYse

As always, thank you for being a part of our group.

Cheers,
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Future Trends 2009,
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Learning from Apple's Design Consultant

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You may not recognize his name but you'd know Hartmut Esslinger's work everywhere, from Apple to Vuitton.

According to Wikipedia, In 1982 he entered into an exclusive $1,000,000 per year contract with Apple Computer to create a design strategy which transformed Apple from a "Silicon Valley Start-Up" into a global brand. Setting up shop in California for the first time, Esslinger & frogdesign created the "Snow White design language" which was applied to all Apple product lines from 1984 to 1990, commencing with the Apple IIc and including the Macintosh computer. The original IIC was acquired by the Whitney Museum of Art in New York and Time voted it Design of the Year. Soon after Steve Jobs departure, Esslinger broke his own lucrative contract with Apple and followed Jobs to NeXT

Now Esslinger has a book out, A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business in which he discusses his design strategy and personal career trajectory.

Reena Jana of BusinessWeek writes that the book is meant primarily for corporate execs, so designers may not garner much from his book. According to Jana, he doesn't go deep into design process.

Still, there would be a lot of interesting information from a man who has had such direct influence on design.

Need a new interior designer?

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According to ABC News, Keyshawn Johnson has entered the field of interior designing. He'll be hosting a design show on A&E titled, "Keyshawn Johnson: Tackling Design." After years of having interior designers do the job for him, Johnson then decided to build his own home in Los Angeles and do all of the designing for it. Read more about his design efforts here.

Oakley Stealth Watch

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Here's an interesting deisgn for a stealth watch/text messaging device from Oakley that I came across in this post in The Design Blog. It seems as if we are beginning to eliminate traditional gadgets and replacing it with multi-functional devices like this one. When will a watch/music player/phone/computing device be released?

Leaked Case Designs: iPod Nano/Touch Camera?

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Wired reports that an iPod Nano and an iPodTouch camera just may be in the works over at Apple. Though we should warn you that this may be a hoax as Apple is notoriously secretive on their designs.

Wired writes, "It was a sure thing, based on designs of silicon cases leaked by a third party manufacturer. Oh, wait. No it wasn’t. The fire of speculation licked higher as the gasoline of rumor was sloshed and splattered around the internet, only to fizzle under the halon blanket of Apple’s silence. This time the silicone points to cameras in both the iPod Nano and a new iPod Touch (yes, cameras in iPods — yet another recycled rumor). The Touch case looks accurate enough, with a gap for both the lens and the Wi-Fi radio to peek through. Otherwise, the case designs of the iPods themselves do not vary."

So will we be able to take pics with the Nano and Touch?

'Hartford Courant' Goes Back to Traditional Design After Reader Complaints

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The editors at the Hartford Courant thought they'd move into the 21st century with a winning page one design. Everyone thought this was a great and brilliant plan until the reader complaints started to come in...and in...and in. So without much hoopla, the publisher of the Connecticut paper broke down and reversed the design back to something a bit more palatable for the readership.

Joe Strupp of Editor and Publisher reports, "One of the things we heard was that the traditional loyal audience did not like the change," Rich Graziano, who became CEO, president and publisher of the paper March 30 said Wednesday. "The feedback was that they didn't like the change on the banner." The Courant's redesign was implemented in September; it reverted to its original format on Monday.

Should Grazino and his staff have changed the design back to its original look?