bike storage solutions

ingredients:

- 4 x 2.1 m lengths hardwood

- 1 x 1m hardwood

- some kind of rectangular base, i used a bbq table from the naturestrip

- woodscrews

- varnish or oil

- hanging hooks

- pva glue

- drill, saw, screwdriver

- time

the hooks are spaced 30cms apart, and 15cms from each end, and could possibly go a little closer together, though there may be pedal interference resulting.

Design of the Times lecture notes

here's my lecture notes for the talk Liane Rossler gave at ACCA on Monday night. ^^^

Rossler is one of the founding members of the company Dinosaur Designs, one of the best examples of an Australian design or craft business progressing from a small craft hobby, to international fame and fortune, without compromising key principles or product. Initially the business made 'funky' resin jewellery that they sold in markets, their current range incorporates homewares as well as accessories made from a range of materials including ceramics, silver and resin. Their product range is now retailed around the world, with flagship stores in Sydney, Melbourne and New York. 

The talk was billed as  an opportunity "to learn more about what artists, designers and creative visionaries can do to be art of a design solution to the crisis of climate change" That seemed like a big call, so i was very interested in hearing what I could do. 

I was surprised to find the talk was essentially one and a half hours of climate change slides with data from 2005, measurements in Fahrenheit, and generally  well meaning stories about polar bears and penguins. The information provided about Dinosaur Designs environmental policies was less detailed then that available from their website, and the recommended measures we could take to save the planet included eating less meat, rainwater tanks and buying carbon offsets. 

Undeniably true statements, but not ultimately new advice, or specifically relevant to the design profession, and that was the problem with the talk. I was disappointed...

wassup

I've been pretty lax with this document. not that i think anyone reads it, but it's a good record of what i'm supposed to be doing. I've got some quality posts in the folder, but i'm too lazy to finish them off, so pre-work ramblings will have to do.

Took my beard brooches out into the world for the first time last saturday, for Craft Victoria's craft hatch, I volunteered myself to keep Brittany company, and sidejacked her table. Interesting experience, I didn't sell any, spent much time watching Charlton Heston driving through the streets of NY in a convertible in Omega Man on a laptop (it was in a librar


y with an extensive dvd collection), and probably not enough time starting discussions with casual shoppers. It was interesting to see that when people knew they were made from vinyl

records, they were much more interested. Like always, it's the story that sells these items. spiel to sell.

pics of stall, and products. finally got the rubber stamps cast. looks diy, which was kind of the aim. works pretty well, I draw in plasticine then cast in high temp liquid latex to create a male stamp to print with.

I've started enquiring into possible internships with companies i am interested in. Most haven't said no straight out, but folios are required, and mine needs a few weeks of fine tuning..

I'm thinking of making a stool and light for the launch pad competition.
Entries close first of may, and they accept up to three items from each designer. I will refine some stuff i did for my grad project, I have been thinking of ways to make them better, and now i have a decent camera i can snap some good photo's.
State of Design is coming up soon, they are running a number of things i will try and remember to get involved in, they're looking for various volunteers at the moment. Also, Designboom is running one of their Designmarts. as part of DesignMadeTrade at the old exhibition centre. There was one in Sydney last year which i was planning to try to get into. I will enter my beardbrooches and modified mugs, and see if they want them. DesignMadeTrade is an interesting event, really nicely designed, great logo and bags, the booths were made from cardboard construction, and were recycled after the exhibition, unfortunately, it felt a little empty, there was a huge amount of space available, and a decent amount of local designers i was familiar with, but not a lot of visitors.
from memory i visited on an industry day, and i can only imagine that most local design industry professionals would already have been aware of most of the designers there, and not felt the need to visit. Thus the Designmart will be a very good addition to the mix, with it's range of international designers selling products direct. It may also engender a shift in focus, and perhaps more direct sales by other stallholders as well, in order to compete.
Most stallholders were setup as showcases, rather then shops last year, and this may change, or perhaps we will see showcases during the industry days, that change to shops on the public days.

Lightcycle is also running again this year, I entered it a couple of years ago, with a knitted fluorescent bulb cover, that I though was pretty good, but didn't win anything. Unfortunately the wool i used had a small proportion of synthetic material that wasn't labelled, so it wasn't as heat resistant as it should have been... I'll make something less crafty, and more designery this time. though as one of the main aims was to be environmentally friendly, i'm pretty sure my design was superior to 90% of the other entries, being totally biodegradeable, and not requiring large scale industrial processes, as well as being upscaleable for mass production.

In closing, here's a new Bouroullec Bros. product video for Vitra, showing their visualisation process for their Vegetal chair in an interesting flash progression. I can see similarities with the way i work, sketching and prototyping, and we are interested in the same sorts of ideas. they're using fractals? to create the seat of a chair, and i am planning to use fractal patterns to make the support structure for a stool. At first from the description given on the blog i got the link from, i thought they were actually growing plants into the chair shape, but it is a fair bit more simple then that, just another designer lawn chair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsmwRbC9NEU


and here's the spider i found behind my clock when i changed back from daylight savings last week. i left him there to eat insects.