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NYC’s New Taxi Topper

Bluemap Design in collaboration with Show Media, Inc. and Distec GMbH present a brand new billboard box for the tops of New York City taxi cabs, that never-ending sea of yellow, black, and white on wheels. For many years there’s been a triangular plastic box up there and heck, it’s time for a change. This new box is sleek, simple, metal, LED lit, recyclable, makes the ad easier to view and read, and will be fitted to cabs across the city starting as soon as the end of September 2010.

Designer: Bluemap Design

The Hypersimplification of Coinage

When you look at all of the things Mac Funamizu has conjured up, you notice a lot of tech going on. If you are a Mac connoisseur, you’re in for a treat: an utterly analog coin design. This project is based on the idea that it’s a challenge for people who travel to figure out the coin-and-note system of money in each new country they’re in. Solution? Pie chart coins!

Designer: Mac Funamizu

Going On A Carbon Diet

Eco2 Widget is a mobile and desktop app to get your carbon eating habits under control. Sure you don’t gain weight from carbon but you do harm the Earth and we all agree – the Earth is in dire need of a carbon diet. Like all diets, it requires a lifestyle change. The Eco2 widget not only monitors carbon affluents between all your devices but also educations and recommends little things you could do to help Earth get slimmer cleaner. There’s even a reward system built-in for digital money and to plant trees.

Designers: Jinok Kim & Sanghee Ryu

Livestrong Nara Newson Hirst

Since Lance Armstrong with Livestrong put their finger in the light socket that is the art world, there’s been wild electricity. This year sort of got started with the Livestrong x Shepard Fairey collaboration. That was fire. These are definitely hot. Designer Marc Newson, the childlike artist Yoshitomo Nara, and the most expensive artist in the world Damien Hirst. I’ve got butterflies!

Designer: Trek Bikes, Damien Hirst, Marc Newson, and Yoshitomo Nara

Intelligent Wristwatch Gaming

It is only every few years that a new hand-held video game system gets invented. They keep getting smaller, having better graphics, and being basically the same amount of weird and bulky to carry with. What Wilson Song was tasked with doing was making a gamer that not only utilized the best in chips for graphics, but also stored a pen, earbuds, and had the ability to become smaller for easy carrying. Peel and see!

Designer: Wonjune Song

Lucky Russian Trolly Ticket Cookies

Mouthful! Believe it! These cookies were designed by returning Yanko champions at Art Lebedev Studio for the Russian Ministry of Transport. In Russia where bus, train, and trolley tickets run rampant, superstition also flows freely. The Russian ticket trick is the following: when the first three digits added up equal the last three digits, the holder should eat the ticket for good luck! Design has made this luck devouring much less ink-intensive. Yummy lucky cookies!

Designer: Art Lebedev Studio

When France Gives You Champagne, You Make…

Beauteous industrial designs. Below check out three top amalgamations of the eco-friendly totally-new Veuve Clicquot champagne box. Devour the color of this “Design Box,” first of all. Look at that yellow! Or is it gold? With red accents. Oh then also it’s made of paper. Paper only. Less than 5% coverage with inks, glues, and solvents. And no plastic film. And micro-grooving is used to reduce the amount of paper in the packaging. AND the paper is FSC approved. What’s that mean?

Designer: Veuve Clicquot featuring Front Design, Tom Dixon, 5.5 Designers

Legally Paint Freely on Any Wall You Wish

So your desire is that of a villain. So you want to do the painting version of killing a puppy. So you like graffiti. You’re gonna have some opposition, and you’re gonna have it immediately. If you want the good walls, you’re gonna have to earn em. And you’re gonna need a plan. Most hott and amazing graffiti writers plan beforehand. Here’s the tool. Here it is. This is the one you need. This is the graffiti writers fun book. You’re still writing in a plain ol’ sketchbook? Get ‘atta here.

Designer: Sherwood Forlee

Surreal Becomes Real With Toys And AR

Kid = Never ending Demand For NEW Toys! This equation holds true in all homes, however designer Frantz Lasorne has an excellent project for us that gives a second lease of life to the existing toy collection. Called Augmented Reality, the project combines the joys of virtual reality, imagination and tangible toys.  Using Augmented Reality Tangible User Interface (AR TUI) via head-mounted glasses, loads of imagination and old toys, a new environment is created that allows a child to live his fantasies.

Designer: Frantz Lasorne

3D Software and You!

One of the most important tools in a designer’s arsenal is software. We receive loads of questions about what software to use but like any other tool, it’s only as good as its master. There are a number of industry standards but we want to hear from you – what 3D modeling/rendering solution do you use? I started with Lightwave 3D in the 90′s, then took on the daunting task of learning Maya. Today I use Modo exclusively. Most of these packages have free learning editions students can download. What about free open source solutions like Blender? Any others?

Two Faced Art

Lenticular printing is a technology in which a lenticular lens is used to produce images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles. Most of us have seen postcards printed in this fashion and though it is a rather old printing technique, we all still seem to be fascinated by the effect and often stand slack jawed as we shift the image back and forth.

Designer: Drzach & Suchy

Comical Surroundings

The 1960′s saw some truly amazing design, both graphically and industrial. Along with Roy Lichtenstein, famed Italian artist Guido Crepax is considered one of the fathers of the graphic pop art movement. His most famous character “Valentina” was a massive comic success and it’s title character is a sexual icon and his most famous creation.

Designer: Canevese Giuseppe