10) LED Light Bulb by Frog Design

Designed to look just like an incandescent bulb, this “Trojan” has all the goodness of an LED but wears the original design. Featuring an aluminum socket plus the same warm color of a Light Bulb, this LED gives you energy savings and a life span of 30+ years.

9) (de)light by Cristina Ferraz Rigo

Adding fluidity to light, this concept looks at pouring out the illuminant into various conventional components like the bulb.

8 ) SoundBulb by Hoang M Nguyen, Poom Puttorngul & Anh Nguyen

SoundBulb is a multi-tasking bulb. It’s got the lights to illuminate plus speakers to stream in the music. Talk about hardwork’in!

7) Sticky Lamp by Chris Kabel

Like the coconut tree nothing should go waste, all should be recycled. Sticky Lamp is just that. A creative way to illuminate your space and make use of the packaging that comes with it.

6) Flat Lightbulb by Joonhuyn Kim

This is what you get when you send a light bulb on a diet! I wonder if it was a low-carb or Atkins!

5) Vaka by Ian Bach

Silicon Lights on a post that can be twisted out and carried all over the place! Awesome fun for parties or that special date-romantic-setting when you cook a special meal for her.

4) Accustica by Altera Design Studio

Who needs to dress up the walls in pain when you can have the wild and colorful Accustica

3) Lichtinfusion by Christian Maas

A visual treat for those who like to pepper their apartments with eccentric stuff. In Red bulbs, it’s must-have for the house of horrors!

2) Lamp Globes by Veronica Eklund

Depicting a single molecule splitting into two, the Lamp Globe is as artsy as a light-bulb can get!

1) Pocket Light by Hyun Jin Yoon & Eun Hak Lee

Crazy as it may seem, but imaging carrying your light bulb in your back-pocket! This credit card-sized wonder is powered by a small cell and is simply ingenious.

I sort of knew what it took, but I never really knew what it took, until today. According to Chris Guillebeau, the man behind The Art of Nonconformity, if you want to a virtuoso, or just be really good with anything (music, sport, design etc.), you will need to invest approximately 14,600 hours of practice or training to get there.

The time cost of becoming a virtuoso—which I’m defining here simply as a measure of extremely high expertise—is about 10 years of consistent training for at least several hours a day. This is the consensus view from a wide scientific literature on virtuosos from various disciplines.

Roughly, this breaks down to 14,600 hours over the course of a decade (4 hours a day, no weekends or holidays). According to experts who study the experts, If you spend approximately 14,600 hours practicing the cello, learning to be a surgeon, playing chess, or doing any activity that has a progressive learning scale and can be evaluated by other experts, you’ll achieve the status of being a virtuoso.

Yes, there are some disclaimers, and the most important one is that you have to have somewhat of a talent at playing chess or cello to begin with. But most virtuosos are not innate geniuses; they are instead highly disciplined individuals.

Extracted from: The 14,600 Hours to Virtuosity by Chris Guillebeau.

Wow. Now you know why some designers seem to be able to sketch, CAD or even design better than others. They have invested the time and effort to perfect their art.

Why some designers are so good?

I am willing to bet that those car designers who are able to sketch or draw so well, have put in serious time into their profession. Furthermore, I will not be surprised if many of them have been already sketching cars before they even got into design school!

Therefore, if you want to be really good at something, you have to first set a goal and then put in the hours to get there.

When I started out my design career, I was an old school designer living in a transition period between 2D and 3D. I had no 3D skills and no job because all the design firms were only hiring CAD jockeys at that time. Therefore I was determined to learn 3D and be the best CAD jockey there was. I made a decision to be very good at Rhino3D, in an environment dominated by Alias and Pro-Engineer.

So I put in the hours, invested weekends, read the Rhino Manual from cover to cover (I kid you not!), and did all the tutorials. Not only that, I searched out every hint and tip there was on the web, and even participated in the Rhino software Beta feedback team. In no time I was churning out Rhino CAD files dead quick and to a quality that was even manufacturing ready!

Passion and Dedication.

Chris talks about Talent being but one of the elements in the equation. I agree, even with design, Talent is nothing without discipline. However I like to add, particularly with design, Passion and Dedication are another two elements of this equation. I find that the two are linked, if you have a Passion for something, Dedication is not far behind.

There is a clear difference with a designer that lives and breathes design vs. a designer that is “oh-hum” about design. Having Passion is not just about loving design, it is also about the dedication to get knee deep in it, and the will to be designing almost all the time. I can relate to designers like Marc Newson who always seem to be critical of their surroundings and never seem to stop wanting to improve it. I can see also passionate Designers taking part in design competitions, creating their own products, or even solving problems outside of design.

It is Passion that is the fuel that keeps the fires burning and the designers going in the wee hours of the morning.

Being a “Jack of all Trades” is Only the Starting Point.

I like to close this discussion up by addressing a big complain I always here from Industrial Designers. That is we end up being “Jack of all Trades, and Masters of None”. Yes and No. The nature of the industrial design profession requires us to cover a lot of ground at school. However learning does not and should not stop when you graduate. When you do graduate, it is now up to you to focus on areas you are either interested in or perhaps areas you want to improve. For example if you start clocking just a few hours a day in sketching, you will soon have 10 hours a week, 40 hours a month and 480 hours a year etc. You see, you don’t have to put in that 14,600 hours to be a Virtuoso (unless you want to!), but anybody can start being better in something when the time is invested in doing so. Best of Luck!

———-

Brian is a multidisciplinary strategic industrial designer leader that goes under the pseudonym of The Design Translator. He muses about strategic industrial design at his website Design Sojourn. He often laments the lack of good soya mochas and Italian Pizzas with Rocket and shredded Parma ham in Asia.

The car is meant to seat 2 people in a 1+1 in line seating arrangement, or 1 person with luggage. This is coz Adam believes that mostly people commute alone in the city (say to work) and rest of the space in the car is wasted.

Practical, viable or simply OTT; I reserve my judgment on that, but I kinda like the cozy appeal that it has.

Designer: Adam Palethorpe

Designer: Gabriel Contino

In the future we can see this technology being explored in the arena of dance, music, computer interfaces, communication and medical devices. It even has a special place of contention in areas where wires are cumbersome. The Ink per-se is temporary, non-toxic and water-soluble and is composed of non-metallic conductive particles suspended in food and cosmetic additives. Thus it is safe for skin application.
The circuitry between the ink and the electronic device is completed when the small electrodes are placed directly on to the skin, which in turn transmits the data.

The Music Box seen here was an experimental performance that involved simultaneously choreographing dance and composing music using Bare as a conductive medium. A professional dancer was invited to perform in the box, and as different parts of her body touched its surface, musical notes and patterns were created. The result of this direct interaction between movement and sound was a unique and compelling performance.

Designers: Bibi Nelson, Matt Johnson, Isabel Lizardi & Becky Pilditch

The Main Features:

• A sliding counter-top surface hides prepping sinks when closed, maximizing space and creating an area for either food prepping (sink open) or an entertaining area (sink closed).
• The two smaller prep sinks make it easier to segregate raw meat from vegetables, reducing the risk of cross contamination. In addition, a larger primary sink is in the center of Pelago providing an area for storing dirty dishes.
• Multiple sized drawers house different kitchen utensils, tools and dishes.
• A hands-free opening garbage drawer prevents the spread of bacteria.
• Opposite the sink station is a kitchen bar counter that is part of the island. Seating for two

Designer: Curtis Ma

The target user for this vehicle is a “vibrant eco-minded young individual.” Speed on! It’s half the size of the “regular high end motorcycle,” and it’s full name is Halb Organismus.

Wild enough?

Also it’s electric powered. The front wheel is stationary, while the back… tail… turns left to right. It’s like flying an X-Wing! Or… like a motorboat! Or… anything with a stationary front end!

Designer: Pierre Yohanes Lubis

Future Duo-Wheel Transport BMW Halbo Pierre Yohanes Lubis

Designer: Cesar Estrada

By “Taking advantage of the exoskeleton  and nanotechnology evolution, we can create a potential energy source and produce a new generation of human powered vehicles: faster and stronger.” Inspired by sports equipment, footwear design and human instinct, this design uses the owners own kinetic energy to power your way down the street. Though it is not quite clear if Andrea is talking about pedal power or full body motion, this design not only re-imagines power train options but also makes us look deeper into the obvious inefficiency of modern human conveyance systems. No wonder GM is having a hard time finding a buyer for HUMMER.

Designer: Andrea Mocellin

When this system starts, the smoke is filtered by the arm top  where low-pressure air is generated. The “air wall” (a transition between low air pressure and high air pressure) keeps the smoke within it. Then the purified fresh air is sent out to the center of the booth from the lower part of the arm. The smoking space is therefore created by this invisible spherical “air wall” through which the travelers can walk conveniently in and out of.

D.K. Wei was a finalist in our RELAX furniture design contest and received honorable mention for his Cloud Sofa. Open Smoking Booth is I.D. Magazine’s Annual Design Review 2009 winner. Congratulations!

Designer: D.K. Wei