Design in Business

PUMA: GM and Segway's Solution for Urban Transportation

Chris Dannen — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:30:03 -0400

Every year, more people worldwide flock to cities, where congestion and pollution are becoming intolerable. GM and Segway have teamed up to build what they believe is the solution: a two-seat, two-wheeled Segway with zero emissions.

15 Japanese Designs That Could Go Global

Fast Company staff — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:15:06 -0500

Contemporary products from Japan’s 30 distinct regions recently were on display in New York as a test to see which had the mojo to make it in the West. Most of these products had never been seen outside of Japan. But the ones that garnered the best audience reception are likely to eventually find themselves on a store shelf near you. Here’s a first look.

Breaking Down Family Guy's Billions

Fast Company staff — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:15:16 -0400

The syndication fee per episode of Family Guy is $2 million. Fox, TBS, Cartoon Network, and 20 channels owned by Tribune Broadcasting all air reruns, and the estimated total revenue from syndication fees is $400 million.

Family Guy's first DVD set sold 2.5 million copies, and total DVD sales to date have brought in almost $400 million. DVD sales from the special Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story rang in almost $80 million.

BMW Gina: Shape-Shifting Car

Tim McKeough — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:46:02 -0400

It's like something out of a sci-fi flick. This BMW prototype with a flexible textile skin reflects the carmaker's new design philosophy, GINA (geometry and functions in N adaptations -- the N represents an infinite number). GINA sprang from a gamble that if BMW Group Design disregarded accepted conventions and existing car-building processes, innovation might result.

How the Aeron Chair Inspired Burton

Mark Borden — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:45:59 -0400

Office furniture doesn't usually inspire outdoor activity. But designers at Burton Snowboards saw more in the Aeron chair than a cockpit for sedentary pursuits. They found kinetics in ergonomics and high performance in space-age materials. By applying parallel design elements to the company's 2009 CO₂ board bindings ($390), Burton took imitation and flattery to a new altitude.

(A) SPINE

Biomimicry: Design Inspirations from Nature

Fast Company staff — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:30:28 -0400

Centrifugal pumps consume massive amounts of energy and generate cavitation (tiny bubbles) as they work, causing vibration that makes them noisy and inefficient. The nature-spiraled volute pump doesn’t cavitate, and thus uses 20% to 40% less juice. It’s also gentler than its old-school counterparts: “The delta smelt [in the Sacramento River] has been munched up by pumps,” says Pax Scientific CEO Jay Harman.

The Vision of John Maeda

Fast Company staff — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:30:19 -0400

Digital images from Shiseido calendar series, 2005.

Interactive graphics for Apple, 1992.

A “reactive graphic” translating between cursor motion and color, 2000.

Excerpt of cover art for the UCLA Extension School, 2005.

A New York Times Magazine cover, 1999.

Video stills of “John Maeda: Nature," 2005.

Li Edelkoort's Predictions for What's Not Hot

Fast Company Staff — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:30:52 -0400

The age of the loft is over. "We want to have space, but we don't want it to be so open."

The pumped-up look for guys is passé. "I saw a bill-board with David Beckham selling underwear. It looked so old. Men should stop working out."

Vulgar self-promotion is out. "Discretion will be the new thing. More Greta Garbo, less Paris Hilton."

Bye-bye, baseball caps. "There will be the revival of the turban."

Chicago is the Creative Capital of ohe Universe. Discuss.

Interviews by Kate Rockwood — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:08:56 -0400

"Big yes! A great creative place has to have great art, great food, and a combination of beauty and grit to be inspired by. Chicago has all of that."

Brad Morris
Second city
comedy ensemble member

"More and more people are moving to the city, and more and more people are realizing what a gem it is. It really is an emerald."

Dee Rosciolistar
of Chicago's Wicked

Are Those Rebate Checks Helping?

Ellen Gibson — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:57:14 -0400

Buffalo Bills season tickets, Obama campaign donations, cannabis indica, a "mom" tattoo, lottery tickets, two leather-bound bibles, Terminator collectibles, wedding expenses, and a divorce attorney -- all purchases people have posted on the website HowISpentMyStimulus.com, exposing what Rudy Adler calls the "idiosyncratic spending habits of the American public."

Forces of Nature

Amanda Bower — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:00:12 -0400

In 1999, the California Academy of Sciences, eager to replace its quake-damaged building, invited six architects to submit designs for a new home in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The facility had to accommodate 38,000 live animals, 20 million specimens, and 2 million visitors a year -- and meet lofty environmental goals.

Seven Concept Cars You Wish You Could Own

Sherri Smith — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:45:05 -0400

Flashy and innovative, concepts offer auto designers the opportunity to let their imaginations run wild. From beginning to end, designers can spend anywhere from six months to two years bringing a concept to market. Some have already gone into production; others we can only cross our fingers about.

BMW GINA Light Visionary Concept

Products of Brand Mash-Ups

Bill Barol — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:35:36 -0400

Reebok Kool-Aid Collection

Green Fashion: Is It More Than Marketing Hype?

Gloria Sin — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:05:04 -0400

The zebra-like, black-and-white, elongated shrug keeps disappearing from the rack at the flagship Barneys New York store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. To customers, the incredibly soft and warmer-than-wool sweater is a must-have, even though most have no idea what the hangtag means by "Alpaca" or "Rogan."

How The Fashion Industry Is Greening Its Operation

Rachel King — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:25:04 -0400

"Fashion is a tool for cultural creativity, innovation, self-expression and connection," says Sasha Duerr, founder of the Permacouture Institute through the Trust for Conservation Innovation in San Francisco. "Over-consumption, with limited understanding of where our materials come from or where they go is a huge issue in our modern times. We need to close the loop through practice and education."

Global City of the Year: London

Alice Rawsthorn — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:06:10 -0400

It's shockingly expensive. The roads are jammed with traffic. The subway system's hopeless, and the buses no better. There's a surveillance camera on every other corner, and the sidewalks are strewn with litter. The biggest airport is a joke. The richest residents are fleeing or threatening to; the poorest have been chased out into the suburbs by soaring property prices. And the weather sucks.

U.S. City of the Year: Chicago

Alex Kotlowitz — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:09:51 -0400

In the bottom of the ninth inning of the 2005 World Series, as the long-suffering Chicago White Sox were about to win their first championship in 88 years, play-by-play announcer Joe Buck waxed eloquent about Chicago's South Side, where the Sox play. He described it as "a collection of neighborhoods...Irish neighborhoods. Italian neighborhoods. Polish. Lithuanian. Firemen. Policemen. Schoolteachers. Stockyard workers." Stockyard workers? The last stockyard closed in 1971. Irish, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian?

The Power of the Prize

Anya Kamenetz — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:46:42 -0400

They gave the world guns and butter -- specifically, the AK-47 and margarine. They sent Charles Lindbergh's The Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris and Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne almost 70 miles above the earth -- twice.

Créme de la Curator

Danielle Sacks — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:46:24 -0400

Henri Scars Struck is holed up in the attic of a building in Manhattan's Flatiron District. The bald French composer is cornered by electric guitars, a grand piano, and a blue Moroccan mandolin -- only a fraction of the instruments he used to orchestrate his latest opus: a 24-hour track that syncs a mélange of sounds, from galloping horses to an Indian sitar.

Hustle & Flow

Dave Demerjian — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:55:07 -0500

It's Wednesday morning at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and the United Airlines check-in area is a mob scene. Passengers queue up in a line that runs the length of the counter and doubles back. Customers waiting for agents block the self-serve kiosks. Finished passengers must push through the crowd again. Average check-in time: 25 to 30 minutes.

Keeping it Cool

Tim McKeough — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:35:20 -0500

Mari Balestrazzi

Vice President of Design
Morgans Hotel Group

Mari Balestrazzi, the former director of design at Aero Studios and St. Regis, now leads the design team at Morgans Hotel Group.

Another Inconvenient Truth

David Roberts — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:35:15 -0500

You can't swing a dead hippie in a big-box store these days without hitting some sort of green boast on a label. Partially recycled. Energy efficient. Eco-friendly. Natural!

Off the top of your head, how many of these claims do you suppose are bogus or misleading in some way? A quarter? One-half? Try 99.9%.

That's the startling conclusion of research from TerraChoice Environmental Marketing. Of the 1,018 green-advertised products it reviewed last fall, all but one committed one of the "six sins of greenwashing." Yikes.

Can Green Homes be Mass Produced?

Kermit Pattison — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:28:30 -0500

Michelle Kaufmann wants to take green living into mass production. Kaufmann is part of a new generation of architects who are elevating modular homes into icons of good design and environmentalism. Her quest was borne from a frustrating personal experience. Kaufmann previously worked as an associate for architect Frank Gehry. After moving to the Bay Area near San Francisco, she and her husband searched for homes and found little that met their needs.

CSI: Construction

Fast Company staff — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:05:18 -0500

Water Damage The black layer is a peel-and-stick waterproof membrane. The blue layer is the stainless-steel outside cladding of the building. The metal skin is applied directly over the waterproofing, whereas there should be both space and insulation between them. This causes condensation, which erodes the wall.

Fishmouthing In the upper-left-hand corner, where a wall of windows meets another wall, the waterproof layer appears to be wrinkling. That's "fishmouthing" of the membranes, caused by inexpert application, which lets in moisture.

Loco Motion

Diane Mehta — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:05:08 -0500

In the sculpture garden of New York's Museum of Modern Art, director Mathew Cullen takes in his surroundings, assessing light and shadow. Cullen, cofounder of Motion Theory--the production company behind some of the most remarkable video work around, including Hewlett-Packard's "Hands" spots and the music video for Beck's "Girl"--is tanned, round-faced, cheery. But behind that chipper exterior, a complex apparatus is whirring away. "My father was a mathematician," he says, "so I was always drawn to a visual aesthetic of science and technology and numbers.