2010 IDEA winners... In case you missed them

I tried to search the blog for any posts linking to Co-Design, but found none.

2010 International Design Excellence Awards are annual product design awards, which Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) organizes. In case some of us missed them.

Here is an alternate link to same content on the IDSA domain.

One of the best in show is also my favorite; the Slingbox 700U. New Deal Design cleverly made the aluminum exterior, which is also the case, the heatsink to dissipate heat very attractively.

Not only do I want one, but its a silent ingenious solution. I would gladly have more noiseless, fanless entertainment electronics.

GOOD IDEAS

Just saw this on Seth Godin's blog and thought it was appropriate to share with the classes, especially while you are coming up with crazy ideas for your last assignment!

Good luck with the project and i am looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Where do ideas come from?

1. Ideas don't come from watching television
2. Ideas sometimes come from listening to a lecture
3. Ideas often come while reading a book
4. Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them
5. Ideas hate conference rooms, particularly conference rooms where there is a history of criticism, personal attacks or boredom
6. Ideas occur when dissimilar universes collide
7. Ideas often strive to meet expectations. If people expect them to appear, they do
8. Ideas fear experts, but they adore beginner's mind. A little awareness is a good thing
9. Ideas come in spurts, until you get frightened. Willie Nelson wrote three of his biggest hits in one week
10. Ideas come from trouble
11. Ideas come from our ego, and they do their best when they're generous and selfless
12. Ideas come from nature
13. Sometimes ideas come from fear (usually in movies) but often they come from confidence
14. Useful ideas come from being awake, alert enough to actually notice
15. Though sometimes ideas sneak in when we're asleep and too numb to be afraid
16. Ideas come out of the corner of the eye, or in the shower, when we're not trying
17. Mediocre ideas enjoy copying what happens to be working right this minute
18. Bigger ideas leapfrog the mediocre ones
19. Ideas don't need a passport, and often cross borders (of all kinds) with impunity
20. An idea must come from somewhere, because if it merely stays where it is and doesn't join us here, it's hidden. And hidden ideas don't ship, have no influence, no intersection with the market. They die, alone.

Transparent Punch

Simple but brilliant idea to create a transparent punch that is visually appealing as well as functional. I remember myself punching holes on a paper several times before I got it on the right place. This transparent punch solves that problem right away- just what I was looking for. Great stuff.


Designers: Kisang Yoon and Kyubok Lee
http://www.notcot.org/
http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/10/29/no-guessing-only-clear-punching/

Connecting Products, Youtube Research, Justin Bieber

I was at a design company today sitting in on a brainstorm session their design and engineering team was having. Weirdly enough it's the first time the company has done anything like it in ten years. Twenty people sitting around a table sharing their ideas. Some good, some awful. It felt exactly like our classes. Some people had sketches, some power point, some nothing more than a verbal explanation. The one thing I noticed was that everyone was not only very receptive to every idea ( even though some were clearly not great ) they were also quick to jump on a twist or improvement to make the product better or different. If an idea sucked, they would tease the person, but then analyze the strengths that made the person think it had some merit in the first place - trying to relay those strengths in to a different product line or idea. Then the chief designer made an observation and request: he wanted his designers to start drawing out products, using language or pictures, side by side, and have them try to find links to connect completely opposing or different genres or product lines to try to come up with new niche ideas. The following is a link to something sent out by one of them after the meeting. It's a couple of guys who decided to make the old video game Tron in to a real life scenario using bikes. Make a computer game real. New game? Why not? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb1Z9VU_Yco Another interesting thing was that they all seemed to research new technologies and ideas using Youtube. Everyone had a Youtube link to support their research and express or explain an idea.