The next Starbucks

After two decades of breakneck growth, the world's largest coffee shop, Starbucks, stumbled in 2007. Company shares fell by 42 percent, and Howard Schultz, the former CEO, lamented that Starbucks had overextended itself and the stores “no longer have the soul of the past.”

Nokia 888 Design

More Nokia 888

Apple - Pro

For me, there is no better way to do your blog than using an iMac. Ok, I'm bias, but I know there are many out there who'll agree with me. If you're looking for tips on color tools, case studies, and more, go to Apple Pro.

Wooden Sci-fi sculptures make great geek art

Sculptor Michael Rea has a knack for building. But unlike most architects, he draws on an encyclopedic knowledge of geek culture and an eccentric sense of humor for his unique sculptures.

All-screen clamshell concept phone: a glimpse of the future

Cell phone designers struggle with two mutually exclusive directions: How do you make a phone with the smallest possible size, but the largest possible screen?

How do you enhance innovation?

Looking for ways to expand innovation bandwidth? Start with more playtime.

IDEA 2008 winners

The IDEA program fosters business and public understanding about the impact of industrial design excellence on the quality of life and the economy.

Contemporary airport design

Airports have become the hubs of global exchange and are seen as gateways into our world's metropolitan cities. they are architectural accomplishments which have considered environmental concerns, utilizing natural light and materials to enhance the overall airport experience.

Designboom

With more than 1,500,000 readers a month from over 165 countries, (including 180,000 subscribers to our monthly newsletter) designboom.com is the leading independent publication for key contemporary issues and the critique of all aspects of design, especially those topics which enrich the dialogue between design, creative professionals, industry and society.

MacBook Touch Mockup: Is This Apple's Top-Secret Laptop?

UPDATE (July 25): The Apple rumor mill is at it again, with reports surfacing this week that Steve Jobs and Co. are working on a touchscreen laptop to unveil as soon as the end of 2008. Good thing Glenn Derene dreamed up his own at the beginning of this year. Here's a fresh look at our would-be MacBook Touch.

Something interesting

Here are some of the most interesting designs that I've come across.

Prosthetic Limb Research Could Lead To Bionic Athletes, Gadgets Controlled by the Brain

Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh recently succeeded in implanting sensors in the brain of a monkey, allowing it to move a mechanical arm with his thoughts. This is the latest breakthrough in the field of Neuroprosthetics, where implanted chips carry signals to the remaining limbs of an amputee, guiding movement.

Senior Screen Saver

The elderly often get things wrong, from parking a car to Murder She Wrote. However, we do love them so and want to keep them around for as long as possible

Cocobello Modular Cabin With Various Purposes

Building a new house in the old fashioned way, doesn’t allow change and takes not only a lot of time but a lot of personal effort.

Changing Building Facade acts Like Pixels formed by Natural Light

When you are looking at these pictures this might look like a modern piece of architecture, but after you’ll see the video attached below you’ll see that Flare is more than that.

IDEO

Each year, the best in design is honored with the Industrial Design Excellence Awards, sponsored by Business Week and presented by the Industrial Designers Society of America.

In 2008, IDEO won seven awards and had a total of 25 finalists.

Inside Beijing's National Swimming Center

A multidisciplinary design team employed an innovative digital process to produce a surprising, highly integrated envelope-and-structure combination.

Green car concept

Royal College of Art unveils their sleek sustainable concept list of cars. Made entirely of aerodynamic glass, these cars are envisioned to answer the emission and energy efficiency issues that we have at the moment.

Think like a designer

Dan Buchner drives business results through design. But design, says Buchner, isn't just about good-looking, functional products or attractive graphics. It's about putting the designer's mindset to work throughout the organization.

The Best, Weirdest, and Most Wonderful Gadget Designs of 2008

The 2008 International Design Excellence Awards are in. These are like the Oscars of the industrial design world, taking the pulse of what's going on, highlighting tons of weird and wonderful gadgets.

Facebook puts on a new face

Applications still play a big part in Facebook's experience, but the company has done a good job of taming them with this redesign.

When is a phone not a phone?

When it's the OpenMoko, that's when. In fact, its own creators are hesitant to call it a phone, but that's been one of the easiest ways to get it into the public eye. Their plan isn't to compete with juggernauts like the iPhone, but to take a much earlier cue from Apple's playbook: the Apple I.

Cryptex Phone Concept Makes Calls a Puzzling Experience

Sometimes I pick up my phone and say to myself “Gee, this communication device just isn't cryptic enough. It's too user friendly and not enough like a puzzle out of the Da Vinci Code.” Apparently designer Marc Schömann was listening in, because he's now created a baton style mobile that forces you to twist sections of it to make calls.

When you design, think different

Design site of the week

With almost 20 years of experience in information design, information architecture, and user-centered design, Peter J. Bogaards, is a recognized leader in the international information design community. Prior to founding BogieLand, he worked for the InfoDesign & Usability Group of Razorfish Europe and was information and user interface designer of Informaat.

Like Peace Corp for designers

Many of us pursue design partly because we wanted a life of creativity, and partly because we had our dreams of being a doctor crushed out of us by the first chemistry class in college. That nagging desire to do good in the world doesn’t have to go unfulfilled just because we chose to push around pixels and prototypes for our professional career. These organizations do a good job of helping designers find out how to do the right thing, by connecting them to causes and people in desperate need of a little design. Check them out, then use your creative powers for good.

http://www.designcanchange.org
http://www.design21sdn.com
http://www.themightyodo.com

Thoughts on design thinking

A powerful methodology for marrying creative right-brain thinking and analytical left-brain thinking, design thinking doesn’t prefer one method of thinking over another but rather, it blends the positive aspects of both.

Oriens Glider

This stunning energy-efficient glider recently took top prize in the Lucky Strike Junior Designer Competition for its innovative re-envisioning the life-cycle of the airplane. Designed by Roland Cernat, the Oriens Glider is constructed entirely of recyclable materials, runs on clean energy, and boasts a sleek translucent shell finished with glossy organic contours. Read more.

Mowercycle!

Behold the mowercycle! Is this an awesome DIY design or what? This ingenious bicycle-lawnmower fashioned by an unknown suburban lawn owner out of an old bicycle and a broken lawnmower, is a testament to the creativity of the human spirit.

inhabitat

Inhabitat.com is a weblog devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and home design towards a smarter and more sustainable future.

Japan's New Green Car Push

Detroit will have to work hard to catch Japanese automakers in the race to produce hybrids, electric cars, cleaner diesels, and fuel-cell vehicles.

Swedish ski helmets and body armor rock.

With the spread of global information networks that tie everyone together over time and space, it is amazing what small companies in distant parts of the world can create and sell. POC is a tiny, new Swedish company that is designing protective gear for racing in X games at skiercross, advanced freeskiing or any other type of extreme alpine skiing. 

Dan Buchner on Impacting Global Issues By Design

Some of the world’s most significant problems can’t be solved with products alone, no matter how well designed they may be.

Richard Sapper: Fifty Years at the Drawing Board

At 75, design pioneer Richard Sapper continues to push his craft in new directions.

Selling P&G

P&G's chief marketing officer talks about the power of the Pampers brand--how strategic design moved the brand from "just" a product to an emotional experience between an infant and parent.

Design Collaborative: Back to Basics

Too many people can unfortunately relate to the following experience: You go to sit in a chair but you can't easily find or operate the controls to adjust how you like to sit. If you've experienced this scenario—or your customers have—then Allsteel's new Acuity chair should definitely be considered for your future projects.

Web 2.0 and the new role of Information Architects

In the world of Web 2.0, the role of Information Architects are getting more important and complex than ever.

Table of Contents: Creative and Beautiful Examples

Table of contents is often considered to be one of the most unspectacular design elements ever invented. Because of its simple, usual form, table of contents is often not given the attention it may deserve — after all, it is just a list of the parts of a book or document organized in the order in which the parts appear.

Future by Design

Future by Design presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. There are many people today who are concerned with the serious problems that face our modern society: unemployment, violent crime, replacement of humans by technology, over-population and a decline in the Earth's ecosystems. As you will see, Future by Design is dedicated to confronting all of these problems by actively engaging in the research, development, and application of workable solutions.

Segway CTO is riding away to Apple

Segway, the manufacturer of the scooter-like device that was supposed to change the world, is losing an early employee. Doug Field, the company's chief technology officer, is leaving the company to become a vice president of product design at Apple.

17 Cool Speakers Designs that Look Better than They Sound

Home audio speakers are designed to sound great, but many designers take it to the next level and create something so sexy that people can’t help but stare.

10 Gonzo Machines From Rogue Inventor Buckminster Fuller

The late, great architect and inventor brought us the geodesic dome, but Buckminster Fuller’s often twisted, often brilliant vision extended far beyond air-conditioned sporting arenas.

Innovation Doesn't Need Best Practices. It Needs Weird Practices!

Today innovation is no question the hottest topic but executives are generally disappointed in their ability to make innovation work or making tangible outputs or results.

Designing for mobile people not mobile devices

We must focus on mobile people, not mobile devices. In other words, we are not merely shrinking in size a Web experience, but creating an entirely new platform for communication and interaction.

Link Child Locator

Link is a product that a parent would use to help locate or keep track of a child in a crowded environment such as an airport, mall, or busy street. > More

IDEO Method cards

IDEO helps companies innovate. Key to their success as a design and innovation firm is the skill from understanding people and their experiences.

Designed to Win

Beyond the double glass doors, out past the marble fountain burbling near the Tiger Woods building, a billion perfect blades of grass stood at attention. Songbirds twittered....

Five points about the aesthetics of interaction design

In interaction design, we are not doing visual art. The user's aesthetic experience lies in the interaction, the way in which the system behaves and responds over time in interplay with the user. To put it simply, when we talk about aesthetics we need to talk about look and feel, not merely about look." (Jonas Löwgren)

Designing better services

Read this great summary about Service Design and how it can help address some key challenges facing organizations today. Down the load the PDF.

CNET's new, improved design

After more than a dozen years of bringing you content surrounded by yellow and green, CNET is getting a new look. As you'll see below, the carnival of colors is being replaced by a cleaner look that pivots off their updated, red CNET logo and our content.

Plug-In Hybrid Leads Toyota's Drive Beyond Oil

Toyota, rightly or wrongly, is widely considered the greenest automaker, and the company hopes to solidify its hold on the title and move beyond oil through a sweeping plan to produce cleaner, more efficient cars -- beginning with a plug-in hybrid it will produce by 2010.

Indie video game designers break through

In the second grade, James Silva didn't just play "Mario" and "Zelda" on his Nintendo but drew pictures of new levels and cooked up ideas for future games.

Coffee Carrier Bag

If you're stepping out to grab a coffee, decency requires you ask your co-workers if anyone else wants one. But on the way back to the office, you curse your own decency as you juggle multiple hot cups and the phone rings or you need to pull out your keys.

Here's a smart solution: A nifty solution is this carry-bag for coffees!

An elegant way to carry coffee and the carrier could be reused over and over again. Definitely a hit for coffee addicts and maybe our environmentalists as well!

Masters of Collaboration

The 21st century design environment trades individual stars for teamwork uniting designers, engineers, anthropologists, and others.

Herman Miller's Clinical Trials

Herman Miller took the office by storm with an ergonomically correct chair. Now it's trying to build up its hospital business.

Inventors

Inventors are a breed apart, a special kind of people who imagine what does not yet exist. Here are some great ones: Segway inventor Dean Kamen, Forrest Bird who invented the respirator, and Woody Norris, creator of the Air Scooter, amongst others.

Re-Thinking Digital Design: How To Feel Your Way To Innovation

Innovation can be defined simply as “introducing something new for the first time”, according to The Myths of Innovation author, Scott Berkun. Innovation is something that companies struggle to foster because it is seen as a key to differentiation, market leadership and therefore more customers and larger revenues. Read article here.

How To Deliver A Great Plan

Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services, processes - and even strategy.

ICON A5 Folding Plane Looks Like Sportscar, Costs as Much as Maserati

Loaded with features like folding wings (so you can keep it in your garage) and seat belt-like parachutes (so you can ease the whole thing down to the ground), ICON Aircraft’s new light sport airplane (LSA), dubbed the A5, might just be the ultimate joyride.

Crowded House

A firm based in Rotterdam solves the problem of too many people on too small a planet by tunneling down, packing tight and making pigs fly.

The '$100 laptop' may be a glimpse of the future

You've no doubt heard of the "$100 laptop" project. The idea is to help poor kids around the world by providing them with simple, durable, usable and wireless laptops for downloading and using textbooks and educational software, playing games and communicating.

Web Design Inspiration

Here are some web design sites that lend themselves towards great design.

BMW Builds a Shape-Shifting Car Out of Cloth

A concept car that stirs the imaginations of car enthusiasts and vandals alike. Pictures are abundant, but be sure to check the video to see how cool this really is.

Something new

You may have noticed that Google has a new favicon, the small icon you see in your browser next to the URL or in your bookmarks list.

From Mind-Blowing to Mockery — The iPhone 2 Mocked Up

The creative types that make up Apple's fan base have been busy dreaming up the ideal iPhone, Version 2. (Steve Jobs is expected to introduce the real thing on Monday.)

T-Shaped People

Interactive Marketing needs a holistic approach to creativity that blends big ideas with simplicity....

You’ve probably heard of the term “T-Shaped People.” Not sure who exactly coined the phrase, but the first time I heard it was from IDEO’s Tim Brown.

The notion is simple—cultivate people on your team that have a core competency, but can easily branch out (like the shape of a T). They ideally possess traits such as curiosity, empathy and aren’t afraid to ask why. And there is a distinction between this type of individual vs. a “jack-of-all trades.” The core competency and branches are complimentary, with the branches being secondary strengths. It represents breadth and depth of skills.

Design Companyof the week: Continuum

Continuum is a design and innovation consultancy. We are a group of design strategy, brand experience and product innovation experts.

Heat Sensitive Wallpaper

As the temperature rises, flowers bloom on the vines.

Extravagant Designs by Luigi Colani

Luigi Colani is a legend among industrial designers (see both his sites 1 and 2). His radical-looking Colani trucks, and his streamlined piano, but now - thanks to the photo material provided by Roger Todd, exclusively for DRB - you have a glimpse of his other designs.

State of the plumbing art: 10 examples of cutting-edge bathroom design

Check these radical designs in bathroom fixtures.

Rebuilding America

The country's infrastructure is crumbling, but PM examines promising solutions with a year-long investigation, plus video, audio, animations and podcasts.

100 miles per gallon or bust!

Carmakers are already charging batteries, tuning engines, and inflating tires to get ready for the Progressive Automotive X Prize contest, which will deliver $10 million to the winner whose car can exceed 100 miles per gallon.

Touch Screen Turntables

The ATTIGO TT was created by Scott Hobbs, a student at Dundee University studying innovative product design.

Evironmental Headquarters

What does one of the largest independently owned oil and gas companies do to turn over a more sustainable leaf? Well, in this case, EnCana hired green-tech architecture firm du jour Foster + Partners to design their new, environmentally sustainable headquarters in Calgary, Canada.

Industrial Robot

Robot trained to dance, paint, and...write the bible!

Beautiful And Original Product Designs

An overview of some beautiful and original product designs which will hopefully make the cut and will be available in the next years. Some of them are already available today.

Nubrella

April Showers Bring Nubrella's Hands-Free Weather Protection (and Thumbs-Down From the Ladies)

42 Awesome Business Card Designs

In today’s tech-oriented world of short attention spans it is more important than ever to make a compelling first impression. A brilliant business card that speaks to your profession, serves some unusual function or that transforms into something else can be a great way to grab attention and inspire those you meet. Organized by category here are 42 extremely creative business card designs.

Yamaha Branded Motorcycle Exoskeleton: A Segway on Steroids

Art Center Pasadena student Jake Loniak has taken everything that is cool about exoskeletons and motorcycles and crammed it into this Yamaha-branded Deux Ex Machina motorcycle.

The Most Incredible Parking Garages

The architecture and design of these buildings is as sophisticated and intricate as the cars they were built to house.

Autodesk at TED2008

At this year's TED2008 conference, Autodesk not only participated as a major sponsor, but hosted a lunch on Sustainable Design featuring Autodesk CEO Carl Bass and IDEO CEO Tim Brown as well as demonstrated a technology experiment called the BIGVIZ.

Thoughts on Interaction Design

Interaction Designers are the shapers of behavior. Behavior is a large idea, and may, at first blush, seem too large to warrant a single profession. But a profession has emerged nonetheless. This professional category includes the complexity of information architecture, the anthropologic desire to understand humanity, the altruistic nature of usability engineering, and the creation of dialogue. These topics are discussed in the four sections of this text.

Bezos On Innovation

Amazon.com's founder discusses his approach to innovation—both how to do it and how to stay focused when critics question high-risk projects.

A Zero-Emmissions Moto-Unicycle

The Uno accelerates with a simple lean and turns like a street bike on side-by-side wheels.

Yahoo! Design Pattern Library

Welcome to the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library. They're thrilled to be sharing patterns and code with the web design and development community.

Inside Steve's Brain

Lots have been written about Steve Jobs and Apple. Leander Kahney’s book, though, runs the full gamut on sharing the business mindset that drives Jobs and drives Apple to succeed. You’ll learn insights into developing new products, designing the customer experience, fostering an innovation spirit, hiring top talent, and sharing passion to “… put a ding in the universe.”

It’s a worthy read.

Sample some of INSIDE STEVE'S BRAIN...

| View | Upload your own

Improving Interface Design

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Joshua Prince-Ramus: Designing the Seattle Central Library

With beautiful visualizations, architect Joshua Prince-Ramus deconstructs the collaborative process of building the Seattle Public Library, hailed by critics as one of the masterpieces of contemporary architecture. Watch the YouTube video above [20:43] http://www.ted.com With beautiful visualizations, architect Joshua Prince-Ramus deconstructs the collaborative process of building the Seattle Public Library, hailed by critics as one of the masterpieces of contemporary architecture. He also offers a sneak preview of his works in progress (The Wyly Theater in Dallas and Museum Plaza in Louisville, Kentucky). Prince-Ramus is principal of REX (Ramus-Ella Architects), and was previously U.S. Director of Rem Koolhaas's Office of Metropolitan Architecture. (Recorded February, 2006 at the TED Conference in Monterey, CA.) More TEDTalks at www.TED.c

Innovation and Control

Navigating the complicated space between creativity and control in medical device design.

Luke Wroblewski on Web Form Design

Check out the podcast, where Luke answers a variety of questions such as:

• Why web form design is important.

• If form design is everywhere and easy, why are there so many bad forms?

• What are some of the common mistakes web form designers make?

• What are the Top 3 tips for improving web forms?

Inspirational PDF Magazines

Numerous visual arts publications from around the world are available for you to draw inspiration from. PDF magazines serve as excellent sources of both conceptual and visual.

Meet the real Iron Man

While audiences flood theaters this month to see the comic-book-inspired Iron Man, a real-life mad genius toils in a secret mountain lab to make the mechanical superhuman more than just a fantasy with the XOS Exoskeleton.

Using the tools of design to solve business problems creatively

Read the article, then visit the website.

Forest Fire Clear Cut Robot

The forest fire prevention robot by Jordan Guelde is an advanced robot designed to clear large areas of foliage from around a forest fire to help stop the flames from spreading.

Revolutionary Minds

Design & Architecture. Read Seeds first online Revolutionary Minds which feature profiles thinkers from the forefront of science-inspired design and architecture.

The tallest building in the world and still growing

When complete next year the Burj Dubai will stretch half a mile into the sky over the United Arab Emirates, taller than three Canary Wharf towers balanced on top of each other.

The 36th International Exhibition of Invention

More than 700 exhibitors, from 45 countries, are presenting at the 36th International Exhibition of Invention – the world's largest expo devoted to innovation. Here we present a selection of the inventors and their contraptions.

Longhand goes digital

The Livescribe Pulse Smartpen turns a sheet of paper into a computer interface. Write down an equation, and the solution appears on the pen's screen. The pen has a built-in audio speaker: record a lecture, and by tapping the pen on a line from a page of handwritten notes, you can call up the corresponding section of the recording. The pen's computational features work so long as the user writes on paper printed with a special pattern, which is read by camera's in the pen's tip.

Check out the YouTube video:

The Little Engines That Would

These new vehicles are zippy and green, but are American drivers ready for cute?

10 trends that will define logo design in 2008

It's important to be at the center of all design trends, because most clients want to be at the hype. And the hype for trends right now are pretty cool. Some have been out there for some time now, and others are somewhat new. Check it out.