Clare Brass presented a very interesting system design concept that she worked on with students from the Royal College of Art and from the Imperial College of London. The is system is called ‘food loop‘ and it is about solving the urban food waste problem. They are thinking on creating a ‘food waste machine’ that can collect and compost all the food waste for the soil to grow new plants for food. It’s a very exciting cyclic system.

My other favorite presentation was by Maria Sebregondi about the future of Moleskine. From the perspective of Moleskine it is a very interesting question how they see and will reflect to the trend of digitalization and the grow of the social media as they producing something 110 percently analogue product: notebooks. Sebregondi told that the grow of the digital age won’t question the presence of notebooks. Those books are to give space for talents. And the digital/social media can give the space for sharing talent. You can watch all the speeches here.

After the conference and some free time in the town there was a great cocktail party for the representatives of the BE OPEN and the finalists at that same University. We had a great time!

The bamboo made ‘Flow’ lamp has been selected as a finalist at BE OPEN design award. Ten people passed through the finals. The final round will be held in Milan were all the finalists must shown and present their work. The final round will be together with the BE OPEN Conference where leading professionals of the design field will make presentations such as Paola Navone, Gaetano Pesce, Alberto Alessi etc. The organizers will pay all the expenses of this 5 day travell (from April 16 to 20) of the finalists. I will write every day about my experiences during the week…

Light is a childish, playful creature: airy, natural and free. The light of stars spreads in the universe with the same ease and freedom. It extends to infinity without any effort or obstacles. There is a kind of unbelievable silence in light. One observing this unbelievable deep silence formed by light may be struck by the same silence like the soul of a child playing and listening. This ease, this silence and this entirety that is so natural for a child, is beauty itself. Observing the silence of light one can experience this beauty.

The object created by us is the impersonation of light. Light is materialized as it erupts from the lamp-shell and starts it journey. To actualize this in an object a technique was developed. With this technique we are able to create forms that strain on objects like a light and slim foil, yet maintaining a strong and self-maintaining structure. Hence an airy and insubstantial material is created being really suitable for actualizing the above philosophical object. The dematerialized kind of the foil is the materialized visualization of light. We did not form the object that spreads light. We formed light.

However, we would not be able to achieve this purpose without the present technological levels of light sources. LED allows us to put the light source at a place where it is not visible. Therefore the where about of the light is not perceived creating an effect as the light was materialized in itself. In addition, it is small and light enough to hold the LED technology, moreover, it does not heat up so much to melt the foil-like material. The plasterwork is made of a system of polymer and glue, which decomposes in nature and fits to the biological cycle.

credits:

Designers: Alberto Vasquez, Peter Toronyi

About the Google Lunar X Prize and Puli Space Technologies

The goal of the competition called Google Lunar X Prize is to give inspiration for developing new technologies on the field of space research. The grand prize will be won by the team – financed by private equity – which can first accomplish the given criteria that is to send a spacecraft to the Moon until 2014. 26 out of 33 participants are still in the competition in the project also known as Moon 2.0. One of them is the Hungarian Puli Space Technologies.

Puli Space Technologies came to the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design to organize a 5-day-workshop to design a Lunar Rover. The aim of the workshop was to help the Puli Space Team’s work at the competition with finding new solutions and ideas for the spacecraft that will be sent to the Moon.

The concept   I   3-wheel-set-up

A 3-wheel-construction was created during the designing. With this construction we wanted to place the wheels as far as possible from the box containing the cameras and the instruments. Hence we have a relatively big spread and the Lunar Rover will be more stable underway. At the same time we tried to lift the whole structure as high as possible from surface to prevent the solar panels and the instruments from the ascending dust. The other advantage of the construction is the adjustable height of the rover which is possible with pulling together or releasing its legs. Therefore when small stones and swells come across underway, it can change to standing position, so the obstacles can fit between the legs and there is no need to bypass them. Moreover, this helps in case of panorama pictures, giving extra height to the camera in standing position. The adjustment of the control and the spread work with the sedentary rotation of the wheels, depicted in the picture.

Tetrahedron shape

The 3 wheel structure is embedded into a tetrahedron shape, allowing the rover to be compactly folded, while the sides holding its legs give plenty of space for solar panels and advertising slots. The tetrahedron shape is able – similarly to the also tetrahedron shaped lander, transporting the Mars Rover – to tilt to its bottom from any position by splitting, and then install itself. In addition this creates the opportunity to the landing unit and the rover to be one structure, therefore allowing the rover to have a greater size, to contain more instruments and to execute more duties. In this case, the rover lands with the airbag method.

Placement of the wheels in folded position inside the tetrahedron shape

Wheels

The spiral structure of the wheels is responsible for shock absorption and for being able to be wrapped up to very small size. The spiral frame is covered by a canvas layer to avoid dust getting into the wheel spokes and to reduce the possibility of digging itself into Moon dust while turning. The loose stretch of the canvas on the wheels allows them to slick to smaller obstacles, resulting in a stronger grip on them. Therefore the rover is able to climb 30-degree inclines more effectively.

Sponsors on the Moon

According to the tender of GLXP, the main sponsors must be displayed on the Lunar Rover, and pictures have to be taken with the sponsors and the surface of the Moon visible in them. An appropriate surface could be the triangle shaped leg component. In addition, an alternative solution has been worked out for displaying the sponsors. According to our concept, a projector will be installed on the rover next to the cameras. Therefore the logos of the sponsors will be projected on the Moon surface, even in such sizes, that a unit orbiting around the Moon could take a picture of them. In displaying there can be new possibilities, such as animation or the display of the complete cast.

credits:

MOME project

designers: Alberto Vasquez, Csaba Kálmán, Gyula Bodonyi, Lajos Juhász

design consultant: Balazs Lenkei

A report has been shot at the office of Akiyai in Bucaramanga, Colombia about the new social network for Colombians. The report has been broadcast in chanel Caracol in Colombia. I’ve also been interviewed about the design of the website.

You can watch more photos about the shooting in the rest of this entry.

Design concept:

It was an important aspect that the design must fit in the local culture. Colombian people are very sensitive for their cultural identity. Colorfulness basically characterize this culture through its architecture, textiles and crafts so it was important to display it in the identity.

The typography of the logo is based on the visual language of a local native tribe called Huitoto. The mascot figure in the logo had been chosen from Huitoto signs and had been redesigned.

First lunch of the site in 2009

The site view in 2011

Akí y aí screen when the server is overloaded

credits:

client: Empresa Akiyai

designer: Alberto Vasquez

practices:

graphic design, complete corporate identity, system design, brand building

The bamboo made Flow lamp has been selected as a finalist at the Victor Papanek Social Design Award. The winners and the finalists are exhibited now at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (November 10, 2011—January 31, 2012) and later at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and/or the Austrian Cultural Forum New York (March 6—June 17, 2012). You can read an article in detail about the competition and the results at Core77.

The finals of the Bosch design competition have been broadcast on the Heureka show at DunaTV hungarian channel. Our design called Molnárka have won the competition. The program is in Hungarian, but you can download the video with english subtitle from here.