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The Vancouver Olympics begin this Friday and will welcome some 2,500 athletes.
It’s true, they won’t be quite the design extravaganza that London 2012 will be–but there’s still going to be hundreds of millions of dollars in design on display, everywhere from the uniforms to the buildings to the branding. Fast Company provides a slideshow that gives an impression at the design elements you can expect to see flitting across your screen, in between shots of athletes.
Even though the Apple iPad won’t be available for another 60 or 90 days (depending on the model), Apple already has its official iPad website up and running.
In addition to showing off some of the applications, features and design and technical specifications, the website also features an eight-minute video with Apple’s design and development team discussing the device and showing it off. If you love Johnny Ive and well-produced promo videos, you’ll want to check it out!
You can watch the video over at Apple.com here. Please also find a NYTimes article on how “The iPad: A Media Machine That Opens Up a New Front” here.
Tomorrow, Apple is likely to unveil its long-rumored and much anticipated tablet device.
Speculation about the Apple Tablet — its pricetag, its function, and its impact on computing — has been flying around the web for years. Mashable has gathered all the pertinent news, rumors, and discussion about the fabled device in one place.
McGraw-Hill’s CEO Terry McGraw told CNBC this afternoon that Apple will make a Tablet announcement tomorrow. He thinks the tablet will be “really terrific” for e-books in the higher education and professional markets, two industries that we’ve long suspected the Tablet would target [Source].
The daily Telegraph reports on “Five ways the Apple iTablet could change our lives” here.
Follow live coverage of the DLD in Munich, Germany, a gathering of 800 entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, scientists, artists and creative minds from around the world.
With global diversity in attendees and an interdisciplinary perspective of digital, media, design, art, science, brands, consumers and society, the conference is known as the European forum for the “creative class”. Follow live coverage here.
DesignBoom listed some remarkable tube station designs from across the world.
It has collected nine outstanding examples. For example: Shanghai’s Bund Sightseeing tunnel, a 2,100-foot stretch of tunnel that connects The Bund–the city’s famous waterfront–with Pudong, it’s high-tech business district, which has sprung up from swampland in a mere 15 years.
Other master design works are the stations in Stockholm’s subway system, designed by Per Olof Ultvedt in 1975. There are literally hundreds of art installations, strewn throughout the city’ 100 stations. As DesignBoom points out, many take advantage of the natural rock faces found through the tunnels, which give the entire thing a primordial feel unparalleled in the world
Fast Company has made a list of the top ten creative people in architecture. Two Dutch architects made it in the top ten including two architects from the Asian continent respectively South-Korea and China. You can find the top 10 list here.
Imagine a crazy wonderland where most of what you learned in business school is either upside down or backward. A land where customers control the company, jobs are avenues of self-expression, the barriers to competition are out of your control, strangers design your products, fewer features are better, advertising drives customers away, demographics are beside the point, whatever you sell you take back, and best practices are obsolete at birth. Meaning talks, money walks, and stability is fantasy. Talent trumps obedience, imagination beats knowledge, and empathy trounces logic.
If you’ve been paying close attention, you don’t have to imagine this scenario. You see it forming all around you. The only question is whether you can change your business, your brand, and your thinking fast enough to take full advantage of it. Read more.
Five years ago, Coca-Cola’s design chief was told: “We need to do more with design. Go figure it out.” Now his labors are bearing fruit. Read more.
Who knew that good old GE was into developing Web2.0 applications? Well, I suspect they’re not, but they have created this awesome online collaboration tool. You can use it with others to work on designs, and it is incredibly nifty, my favourite feature being the chat function that goes with it. This means you can chat at the same time you’re creating something on the workscreen. Try it out, preferably with a friend so you can see the full thing in action. Doodling… I love it! Now, if they only add functionality so you can import images, that would make this a supertool.
BusinessWeek’s section “Innovation” features a report on architectural wonders around the world. You now may wonder what Design has to do with business? Well, increasingly “design thinking” (user-centred approach) is becoming the centre of stage to evolve the customer experience. Even during the last World Economic Forum designers were invited to emphasise on the connection between business and design.
Here a short overview of the architectural wonders as highlighted by BusinessWeek:
The prospect of hosting the 2012 Olympic Games have created an explosion of new buildings and dynamic renovations in The City of London.
From times immemorial, Italy is know from its innovative structures, built during ancient times, whose design still inspires plenty of architects. Currently, many high-profile architects are turning their sight on Italy which results in new contemporary architectures across Italy.
As oil reserves are shrinking, Dubai is shifting its focus from an Oil power to a hot spot for tourism. To become a highly attractive tourist destination Dubai is building new breathtakingly architectural tour the forces. Including many world’s first seen architecture as well, such as an underwater luxury resort.
As China climbs up the economic ladder and the Being 2008 Olympics and the 2010 World Expo are in foresight it is steadily working on its appearance before the global audience tunes in during these two events.
More information on business in relation to design is written in the article “The Power of Design” by the FastCompany and “The Creative Corporation” by BusinessWeek. A podcast on this topic can be found here. For now, keep in mind that “design” goes far beyond letterhead.
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