Core77

This is Kit, my one-year-old Shiba Inu.

Why am I showing you my dog? To tell you that this little 25-pound hellion sheds enough fur in a week to clog up a HEPA filter. He generates such an astonishing amount of fur, I can't help but wish it was a resource and that I could do something with it.

Well, apparently I can! If I'm willing, that is, to wear a sweater made out of my own dog's fur.

Here's a link to stories of people who specialize at turning your dog into a sweater generator. Well, not really--the process is super-labor-intensive, so it's not like Fido's gonna be cranking out sweaters like a Gap factory. But it is possible to turn that fur into something useful over time. Says dog-sweater-wearer Betsy Willis:

We found out from the breeders we got the pups from that it was possible to use their coat for clothes. It is the most amazing stuff. It's like mohair but more lightweight and more soft, and the more you wash it, the more soft and fluffy it gets.

...People are surprised when they find out we're wearing dog wool clothes. Some think it's disgusting and ask how we can do it, but it seems very normal to us.

There's also a book out called Knitting With Dog Hair, with the amusing subtitle "Better A Sweater From A Dog You Know and Love Than From A Sheep You'll Never Meet."

If a sweater's too much for you, a company called Pet Yarn Chic will spin your pet's fur into yarn that you can use to make smaller things, like hats, scarves, or if you're really creepy, a little sweater for your own dog. Which would be kind of gross, like a cow wearing a leather jacket, or you and I wearing, well, never mind.

Anyways if you see me wearing a Kit-colored sweater in six months' time, you'll know what happened.

via if it's hip, it's here

Celebrating Lego's 50th anniversary, the world record for the tallest tower made of Lego bricks was broken (by 7 inches) in Vienna. Designed to represent a Viking longboat mast, the tower stands 96.7ft tall and took almost 500,000 bricks to construct.

via dvice

This sounds kinda awesome:

Lextant's Lauren Serota and Dan Rockwell have recently launched a weekly series of forty minute design-related conference calls. This week's topic is Design Hacks.

Hacks are all the rage lately. You can never have or know about too many good hacks, we got DIY hacks, programming hacks, weight loss hacks, what are some design hacks?In this call we'll talk and share our own design hacks, tips, shortcuts and workarounds to attain great design. These could be new and unique methods, such as the use of online tools, and or new techniques with participatory design, ethnography, contextual inquiry, data analysis and more.

Core friend Steve Portigal is the guest for this week's call, Wednesday at 12 EST. To participate, you've gotta pre-register here.

By now most of you have seen the Flatshare Fridge designed by Stefan Buchberger, but have a look at the other winners of the 2008 Electrolux Design Lab. From a basket-style washing machine to a toaster that burns the day's weather forecast into the bread, the entries are far-reaching, varied in concept, and presented with a pretty high degree of polish.

via appliancist

FreeDesigndom 2008 is the first edition of a new annual design and fashion event in the Netherlands, with four-week program of festivals, exhibitions and symposiums including Experimenta Design, Hacking IKEA, Sustainable Design Collective and Red Light Fashion in the heart of Amsterdam.

>> view gallery

John Chris Jones, Welsh designer and author of the book, Design Methods, wrote these 2200 words in 1981. Timeless advice, they are still worth a read over 17 years later. Here is his introduction and the questions he covers, go read the rest,

The real difficulty in design is the designer!

(I remember Charles Eames saying that in a lecture.)
[...]
What follows may seem elementary. It is - but it is more difficult than it looks. To carry it out requires some modesty and a willingness to learn, to change, and to share your thinking with others. Though the text is addressed to an individual most of the methods are intended for collaboration.

1. designing your design process

2. what to do first?

3. what if I can't think of a solution?

4. what if I have too many ideas?

5. what if my ideas seem good but do not fit 'the problem'?

6. what if my perception of the problem changes?

7. what if I get into a muddle?

8. how can a first attempt be improved?

link thanks to Victor Lombardi

A bite-sized list of what's happenin' now:

sun 2 surf
Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport to "be recreated as a contemporary icon with an awe-inspiring design"

realwire
Samsung Tops Table of 22,000 Products for Best Design

bym product and industry news
Seatec 2009 to host fifteenth Targa Rodolfo Bonetto boat design awards

marketwatch
Aqualux Drains Wasted Time out of Shower Design with SolidWorks

green building
Today is World Day of Architecture

pr canada
Canadian Design-Build Award of Excellence

industry week
Taking a Quality Lifecycle Approach to Avoid Product Pains

Now in its sixth year, The London Design Festival offers a great array of creative events, attracting everyone from consumers and professionals to students and all those with a keen interest in design. Check out the diverse range of talents, from established innovators to rising stars.

>> view gallery

>> view all London Design Festival 2008 posts in one place

Seth Weintraub sheds some light on rumors of "The Brick," a code-name for a secret product to be released on Oct. 14th. Apparently it may not be the name of a product at all, but rather, the production method they use to produce the new MacBooks:

The company has spent the last few years building an entirely new manufacturing process that uses lasers and jets of water to carve the MacBooks out of a brick of aluminum.

...What advantages are there to manufacturing with 3D laser and water jet cutting?

- Carving out of aluminum eliminates the need to bend the metal and create weak spots or microfolds and rifts.

- There are no seams in the final product, so it is smooth.

- Screws aren't needed to tie the products together.

- The shell is one piece of metal so it is super light, super strong and super cheap.

- You can be a whole lot more creative with the design if you don't have to machine it.

As Peter Oppenheimer said at the recent earnings call, this innovation is something "Apple's competitors won't be able to match" for some time to come. We expect the process to drive down the prices of MacBooks over the next few years and at the same time allow Apple to continue to lead in the innovation department. Design changes should come much more rapidly with rapid prototyping.

via 9to5 mac

It's a beautiful thing when good design is the byproduct of finely-done mechanical engineering. If all engineers had an eye for aesthetics, yes, we ID'ers would be obsolete; but we could live with that if the world was filled with objects such as this.

The Curta Mechanical Calculator had 605 parts and required no electricity; it operated by means of a handcrank at the top, earning it the nickname of The Pepper Grinder Calculator, and made a pleasing mechanical purr as the parts moved.

It was designed by Curt Herzstark while he was a prisoner in a concentration camp; read the fascinating story here.

via drb