Meeting Bedded Knife Set

DEGLON
This innovative and stylish design by Mia Schmallenbach nests four kitchen knives in a single block: one utility knife, one slicing knife, one 15-cm kitchen knife and one 20-cm chopping knife. Highly stylised, this set is a very attractive decorative object in its own right, but one that is also a very useful tool in the kitchen. All Deglon's knife-making expertise is combined with the essence of technology to make this set a product guaranteed for life: high-quality stainless steel, laser cutting, heat treatment in a hydrogenated atmosphere.

This innovative and stylish design by Mia Schmallenbach nests four kitchen knives in a single block: one utility knife, one slicing knife, one 15-cm kitchen knife and one 20-cm chopping knife. Highly stylised, this set is a very attractive decorative object in its own right, but one that is also a very useful tool in the kitchen. All Deglon's knife-making expertise is combined with the essence of technology to make this set a product guaranteed for life: high-quality stainless steel, laser cutting, heat treatment in a hydrogenated atmosphere, etc. The meeting knife set was awarded 1st prize in the 5th Bourse Européenne de la création coutelière, a major international competition open to all young European designers.

Audi e-tron

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_YsVF9taSs&feature=player_embedded



It's official. The Audi R8 e-Tron Concept has finally been unveiled and we have plenty of details on the powertrain and other information. With the other two premium-segment Germans presenting their own interpretation of the electric super car, Audi would not be left behind.


Ingolstadt's ace up the sleeve is this all-electric R8 which is set to take on anything from Tesla or any other ‘green' supercar. There are no sneezing V10 engines here and certainly no big exhaust pipes at the rear. Instead the e-Tron has four electric motors, one for each wheel, driving up to 70% of power to the rear wheels. They offer a total system output of 230kW (313hp) and maximum torque of 4,500Nm. We have triple-checked and yes, it says 4,500Nm (3,319.03 lb-ft)! These figures translate to a 0 - 100km/h time of 4.8 seconds, a top speed of 200km/h and a range of about 248km on full lithium-ion power.


Recharging the 213kg battery pack at the back to full capacity requires six to eight hours on a normal 220V outlet while a 400V plug will do the job in about two and a half hours.
As far as its looks, the e-Tron's appearance is fronted by the slit-like LED headlights which are complimented by the wide single-frame grille and additional air intakes. It is 4.2m long, 1.9m wide and 1.23m high. Body mass is said to be 1.6 tons thanks to the liberal use of space frame aluminium technology and reinforced plastic for the body.
Now we wait and see which of the Germans puts their electric supercar first on the road and how close they stay to their concept.

BMW 2015 Concept Car

The final projects of the Transportation Design students at Turin-based IED (istituto Europeo di Design), developed in partnership with BMW with the goal of creating a car for 2015 interpreting the language evolution and the brand’s philosophy.

MAG Magnetic Vehicle Concept

Winner of the unseen technology award at the Interior motives design award 2007, the MAG magnetic vehicle concept from Slovak designer Matúš Procháczka showcases two special technologies in one vehicle. Using magnetic power, the vehicle uses an electric engine that has a polarity which is the same as in road. Of course this will also require the roads to be made of huge concrete panels with magnets formed in them.

Urban Tribes

My target audience for this project are successful businessmen of generation X aged between 35 and 40 years old. He makes a very good living of between $200,000 and $300,000 a year, and is not afraid to spend it on the best brands of clothes, cars, accessories, furniture and technology. He drinks coffee to keep him going and his phone never leaves his side. He works and lives in the city, but likes to drive to work when he can to show off his expensive taste in fast cars and to take advantage of the private parking spot he rents out for a pretty penny.

He only really has one passion in life and that is cycling. Every morning before work he goes for a ride. He finds this as an escape from his busy life. Of course he has the best bike and gear money can buy. It is really the only recreation he does apart from the odd golf game with clients. He wines and dines his clients at the best restaurants and bars around Sydney. He doesn’t find much time for reading, apart from the financial review that is on his desk every morning. His weekends are filled with more work and cycling, taking the occasional business trip which he likes to mix with events such as formula one racing or v8 supercars.

Mood Boards:

Video Reflection

Paul Bennett- Design is in the Details

This video explored the way that designers in todays society need to focus more and more on specific details to produce a complete product for the consumer. For example the designers put themselves into the shoes of the consumer thay are designing for to fully understand their task and therefore create something that ticks all the boxes. This was shown well with the data information mechanism for the nurses allowing them to get data as well as hold the hand of the patient whilst in surgery.
They also managed to tick all the boxes on their water pump. It is lightweight, is transportable by bikes and can be used by anyone. They focussed on every aspect that is important to the consumer and focused on the details to make it the best possible design.
this is important to us as designers as we need to learn to take our time do the necessary reasearch and focus on all the little details. this way we are able to design something that is just another product but something that improves the consumers interaction with the product.

Video Reflection

DESIGNING DREAM MACHINES

Dick Powell and Richmond Semore, both british designers, in this video offer a unique insight into the processes and design practices that are relevant to our industrial design course.
They used many great examples of design to show how important finding the x-factor in their designs is. the batman motorcycle for example showed a great insight into the development, and thought processes that go into the concepts of the bike. the amount of time and hard thought that went into that bike is quite amazing and is a good indication to us as designers of how much dedication to the product is needed.
it also showed the importance of brainstorming as the frist step. also sketching is a major part of their process as the pen allows you to create so much more easily than a computer does in the early stages of design.
also because the designers worked hand in hand with engineers, they were able to create a design that is both technologically correct and advanced as well as aesthetically pleasing and enjoyable for the consumer.
it is important for us as designers to design products that cover all the areas of design so that the product is a complete one in all areas.

Treasuring Time

Bad Design

For this project i chose the on and off button on my mobile phone. When i first got the phone i thought that the green button shown below on the phone was the on button. i got this idea because of the misleading design cues it was giving me. first of all it is green, a colour that represents "go" and "do" and second of all it looks very similar to the actual on button which is the red one across from it on the key pad. this misleading button confuses the user as they are unable to turn on the phone by the button they think is the on button.

To improve this design so it is less confusing to the viewer i decided i would change the appearence of the green button so it didnt look like a generic power button. i decided i would remove the right semicircle and dot from the green button so all that is shown is the green phone sign.

Postal Presents

For this brief i decided that i would design a cd rack. current cd racks i feel lack a connection to music as they are mostly just metal towers or plastic stands that have no link whatsoever to what they are storing; music. with that in mind i wanted to design a rack that had this connection. i came across my mothers vinyl record collection and realised that it was exactly what i was looking for, both a flat packable material and a material that has a direct connection to music. From this i wanted to folllow the curve semi circle shape of the record so designed it so the cd's would follow the angle of the curve. this i feel adds movement to the design and creates something quite aesthetic. i used alluminium as the base material becasue it is both light and strong whilst looking sleek against the matte black of the record. it also makes a great gift.