The aesthetics of everyday objects can be a tricky one to get right, particularly when those objects have technical specifications that impact their overall design. I personally can spend a lot of time researching said technical specifications only to be disappointed by the aesthetic qualities on my shortlists.
In recent years, technological advances have enabled easier and more open connections between the digital and physical worlds. As a result we’ve seen a host of amazing products that have capitalised on the ability to be ‘connected’.
For anyone with an eye on current activity in the technology world, it will come as no surprise that the legendary Nokia 3310 ‘feature’ phone has been relaunched by Finnish tech company HMD. In what has been called a ‘bold’ and ‘clever’ move, the launch comes nearly 17 years after the handset’s initial release. Mobile phone users of a certain age (myself included) may have owned one, and will almost certainly be aware of – or wasted many hours playing (myself included) – the now cult game Snake.
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Interaction 17 conference in New York with some colleagues from Clearleft. In the interest of documenting and moving any record of the good-times out of my camera library, I shot and edited a short film using the 8mm Vintage Camera iPhone app. Whilst the app footage has a definite style (the hint is in the name), it makes for a great tool to shoot multiple scenes in differing light and circumstances – the result is a reasonably unified output, perfect for a quick edit. Plus, what New York scene wouldn’t look even better in Super 8?
Enjoy, we certainly did.
It seems increasingly that when we talk about design, we also talk about technology playing an integral role in that design. Well, never more so than with the new Adidas Futurecraft Biofabric – a new prototype performance shoe that has an upper made from 100% Biosteel® – a nature-based and completely biodegradable high-performance fibre. In layman’s terms – biodegradable artificial spider silk that will fully decompose in your sink once you’ve finished running them down. Amazing.