3D-Printed "Jointed Jewelry" Hints at Medical Applications of the Technology | Design for Good. 3D printing is easily the biggest design futurism meme of 2010. We've previously looked at other approaches to on-demand, DIY, factory-free design objects. Now, NYC-based designer Alissia Melka-Teichroew is applying 3D printing technology to jewelry design. Her Jointed Jewels collection is a marriage of "old and new, organic and industrial," intended to transform typically separate and disjointed elements into a whole. Using a Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) machine and a 3D printer, Melka-Teichroew was able to build a ball-and-socket joint impossible to fabricate with traditional two-part mold casting, printing the jewelry in its final assembled form. But besides the aesthetic merit of the collection, Melka-Teichroew's experiment hints at an important and promising medical application of 3D printing in prosthetic joints replacing some of the most complex parts of the human skeletal system.
Via PSFK. Successful Pay-What-You-Can Model Proves Humanity Can Be Awesome | Design for Good. A year ago, Ronald Shaich, the founder of Panera Bread, one of the biggest restaurant chains in the States, decided to try something different. He opened the Panera Cares Community Café in Colorado, an establishment that looked like and sold the same things as all the rest of the Panera Breads out there.
With only one difference - the lack of a cashier. Instead there was a donation box where customers could deposit more or less than the suggested donation for each item. Or not pay for it at all. Now, everyone who says there is no such thing as free lunch should take note because it turns out that you can, indeed, have your cake and eat it too. Shaich shows us that companies' business models shouldn't be impervious to innovation and experimentation.
Shaich's plan is to open one Community Café each quarter from now on. Via GOOD, TriplePundit photo credit: Robyn Lee; Jason Tester. Zero Waste, Packaging-Free Grocery Store to Rock in Texas | Design for Good. Nature doesn't litter, people do. In the US that trash amounts to 1.4 billion pounds per day. And 40% of that is packaging. Recently, Greenpeace tried to provoke the global community portraying Barbie as a serial killer because of her addiction to cheap packaging. I personally think that villainizing Barbie, who is nothing more than a toy, totally fails to get across the idea of personal responsibility and the impact of human activity. Still, the campaign got me thinking about the billions over billions of tons of packaging that is being produced and soon after disposed of, and how horrifyingly wasteful the whole process is. In.gredients, a grocery store soon to be opened in Austin, Texas, intends to make a step in the right direction.
The store will provide all of the basic ingredients needed for a healthy lifestyle, such as meats, dairy, baking goods, cooking oils, spices, grains, and seasonal produce. Learn more from the video and give your support. via GOOD. This Awesome Urn Will Turn You into a Tree After You Die | Design for Good. You don't find many designers working in the funeral business thinking about more creative ways for you to leave this world (and maybe they should be). However, the product designer Gerard Moline has combined the romantic notion of life after death with an eco solution to the dirty business of the actual, you know, transition. His Bios Urn is a biodegradable urn made from coconut shell, compacted peat and cellulose and inside it contains the seed of a tree.
Once your remains have been placed into the urn, it can be planted and then the seed germinates and begins to grow. You even have the choice to pick the type of plant you would like to become, depending on what kind of planting space you prefer. I, personally, would much rather leave behind a tree than a tombstone. Biomimicry in Action | Design for Good. Over the past few years, designers have made significant strides on the prosthetics front, blending modernist aesthetics with state-of-the art functionality. At the same time, biomimicry – design and engineering innovation inspired by nature's systems and organisms – has been a rapidly growing area of R&D interest. Now, from designer Kaylene Kau comes a highly functional, sleek prosthetic arm inspired by the tentacle of an octopus. In her research, Kau found that a prosthetic arm tends to function as an assistant to the dominant arm, rather than a replacement that mirrors its function. In order to make the prosthetic arm versatile enough to accommodate different functions, Kau made it flexible and adjustable, allowing the user to control the degree of curl based on the task at hand.
While still only a concept, Kau's design bespeaks an intriguing direction for biomimetic research in designing for disability. HT @AmritRichmond. Soil Lamp: Grow Your Own Light | Design for Good. How about a lamp that provides you with free and environmentally friendly energy.. forever! All you have to do is water it. Literally. Soil Lamp is an invention of the Dutch designer Marieke Staps and it consists of an LED bulb planted in.. mud. The mud is enclosed in cells which contain zinc and copper that conduct electricity generated by the metabolism of biological life. According to the designer this technique offers a wealth of possibilities, because the more cells there are, the more electricity they generate. In addition to the lamp you can also get a soil powered clock as well.
Photo by B Tal. SolSource: Sustainable Collaborative Design for and by Himalayan Nomadic Communities | Design for Good. One Earth Designs aims to ignite innovation across the socio-environmental spectrum among Himalayan agricultural and nomadic communities, working directly with local stakeholders to ensure each invention is of real practical value to the community. From portable solar stoves that keep indoor air clean to high-tech textiles that distribute heat evenly and seal it in for long cold hauls, the products OED churns out embody the organization's four core principles: Addressing immediate needs, building capacity for innovation through education, providing an incubator for technical and financial support, and co-designing hand-in-hand with the local community. SolSource was co-designed by rural Himalayan communities and embodies the future of community-centric, locally-grounded collaborative design – a true pinnacle of community empowerment through creative ownership of both process and product. via TBD.
DanKam: iPhone App Corrects Colorblindness | Design for Good. For the past year, security researcher Dan Kaminsky has had an interesting secret side project that has nothing to do with his day job: He's been working on correcting color blindness. This week, he revealed DanKam – an augmented reality app for iPhone and Android that uses unique, configurable color filters to make to make the colors and differences between colors in images and videos readable to colorblind people.
(An excellent complement to the Chrometic browser for the colorblind we featured some time ago.) The $2.99 app is based on the classic Ishihara test plates (pictured above) and the concept of "colorspaces" familiar to graphic designers: RGB (Red, Green, Blue – used for digital images), CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black – used in print publishing), and YUV (Black vs.
White, Orange vs. Blue, and Red vs. Green – a division mimicking how signals are sent to the brain via the optical nerve). Read the fascinating details here. via Kottke. Haptic Braille: A Portable, Mouse-Like Braille Reader | Design for Good. We've previously looked at several examples of Braille-centric design for the blind. Haptic Braille is an ingenious concept by Korean designer Baek Kil Hyun – a portable Braille translator and scanner. The mouse-like device is equipped with an optical character recognition (OCR) system and text-to-Braille conversion software that allow it to scan any printed surface, recognize the text characters, and translate them into tactile Braille on the surface of the device. The device is made of biodegradable plastic and could offer additional carbon savings by eventually replacing the printing of Braille materials. The project won the Design Concept category at this year's prestigious Red Dot Awards. via PSFK.
Every Person's Right to a Clean Toilet | Design for Good. It may be a bit weird to use the word 'elegant' to describe something with the name “Peepoo” but that’s exactly what it is – an absolutely brilliant and elegant solution to one of the greatest global problems – clean sanitation. 2.6 billion people worldwide lack access to toilets – one of the leading causes of child mortality in the world. Yet, access to sanitation is one of the most neglected of the UN Millenium goals. By introducing Peepoo, the Swedish company Peepoople hopes to solve the sanitation problem in high-density urban areas, slums and refugee camps. The Peepoo is a personal, single use toilet in the form of a slim, elongated bag. According to Karin Ruiz, CEO of Peepoople, Peepoo has a great potential to help solve the huge sanitation problems in the world.
Since October 2010 Peepoos are for sale in Kibera, Nairobi and Kenya. This Calendar Will Allow You to Literally Burn Away the Past | Design for Good. Have you had days that you would just like to erase out of existence? Or maybe burn away, collect the ashes and let the wind carry them as far away from you as possible? I have. Which is why I love the concept of this calendar made of matches. The Energy calendar is the creation of Ukrainian designer Yurko Gutsulyak and is one of several creative musings on the subject, such as this versatile trash calendar.
He has certainly managed to do both, but the main reason I like his product is because of the layer of symbolism found in such a common every day object. Crumpled Maps! How Come No One Has Come Up With Them Before? | Design for Good. A few days ago a friend of mine showed up carrying a city map of Amsterdam in the form of one of the simplest and smartest product redesigns I’ve seen. It was beautiful, light, and indestructible (by map standards), which meant you can just crumple it and put it away in less than two seconds. I was swept off my feet. I have folding-map phobia, which is one of the reasons I don't like to be the navigator on a trip. This doesn’t need to be the case anymore thanks to designer Emanuele Pizzolorusso of the Italian company Palomar, who conceived Crumpled City. Unlike traditional maps made of paper, these are printed on tyvek which means they are not afraid of rain, wind, or clumsiness. The maps include all the most important information about the city like monuments, historical places, museum, etc. as well as a list of “SoulSights” – places that are chosen to excite you, “filled with intense emotions that are brought to life by the people passing through or stopping off in them.”
The Eyeglasses That Could Make The World Look Different | Design for Good. There are so many global problems that we can’t even see. Like the fact that 670 million people lack access to vision correction and around 100 million children don’t have access to basic eyecare. Thankfully, there are people and organizations who not only see but also act to get these problems solved. Josh Silver is the inventor of the first self-adjustable glasses and the founder and director of Center for Vision in the Developing World (CDVW). Through his Child ViSion initiative he hopes to develop and distribute self-adjustable glasses for children aged 12-18 in the developing world and help 1 billion people see clearly by 2020.
Self-refraction and self-adjustable glasses are an innovative new method of providing low-cost glasses. The original self-adjustable glasses, known as Adspecs, contain special lenses – two clear membranes filled with silicone fluid – that can be adjusted when more or less fluid is pumped between them. Learn more here or make a donation here. via GOOD. Is That a Light Bulb in Your Pocket? | Design for Good. Yes, it is a Pocket Light, and you could actually keep it not only in your pocket but in your wallet as well, next to.. other useful items handy for engaging in romantic activities. The concept was originally created by Ryan Harc who was inspired by the blissful moments with his beloved and decided that in unexpected situations even a little lamp can be moving.
Of course, the little lamp can be used in not-so-romantic unexpected situations too. Pocket Light looks like a card almost the size of a credit card. When it is folded up it provides mellow light, thanks to a cell at its back providing power. Apparently, there is some Pocket Light controversy, since the concept was stolen by another brand that decided to produce it. "Thanks" to that, however, now Pocket Card Light is actually available for purchase and is waiting for fun ways to be used. The Noun Project: A Global Database of Visual Literacy Symbols | Design for Good. Visual literacy is an essential necessity of modern life.
But some of the most widely recognized symbols of visual language are wrapped in a surprising amount of historical and contextual obscurity. This is where The Noun Project comes in -- a wonderful effort to collect, catalog and contextualize the world's visual language. The site offers an ever-growing range of diverse symbols available for free under a CreativeCommons license. Though many of the popular symbols – from No Parking to Trash to the familiar directional arrows – were designed by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1974 with the explicit intention of being in the public domain, finding free, high-quality versions of them online is still a pain. Each symbol on The Noun Project, by contrast, is downloadable as an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file, the most flexible open-standard format available. Sola Road: Dutch Town to Cover Cycling Path with Solar Panels | Design for Good. Peep Wireless: Peer-to-Peer Mesh Networks for Developing World Cell Phone Users | Design for Good.
Warning Signs: Clothing That Detects Carbon Monoxide | Design for Good. A Plate That Tells You if Your Food is Safe | Design for Good. Let The Deserts Power The World | Design for Good. ZeroTouch: The Invisible Touch Screen | Design for Good. Post Some Chocolate, Make Someone Happy | Design for Good. Forget Good vs. Evil: Manage Your Talent to Create Added Value | Design for Good.
Breathing Walls For Your Well-Being | Design for Good. Interior Design Spacehacking: Chair Made of 8,000 Chopsticks Unfolds Into Sofa | Design for Good. Spring Wood: Dutch Designer Invents Flexible Wood | Design for Good. Vibro-Wind: Turbine-Free Wind Power | Design for Good. Jelloware: Biodegradable, Vegan, Edible Cups | Design for Good.
Word Lens: Real-Time Translation via Augmented Reality | Design for Good. Element S(urvival): A Coat-and-Sleeping-Bag-in-One for the Homeless | Design for Good. Celebration of Creativity for Creativity’s Sake: The Happy Machine | Design for Good. Ecobricks: How Sand and Bacteria Could Save 800 Million Tons of CO2 Annually | Design for Good. Harvesting the Fog: Would You Like a Glass of Mist? | Design for Good. Mozilla's Privacy Icons: A Visual Language for Data Rights | Design for Good. DOSTI: Empowering Afghan Women via Soccer Balls | Design for Good. USPS Commemorates the (Male) Pioneers of Industrial Design | Design for Good. Concrete Canvas: This is How You Pitch a Building | Design for Good.
Spread Some Random Happiness | Design for Good. Something Good, Something Fun, Something Smart: Three Interesting Designs | Design for Good. Crowdsourcing Iceland's New Constitution | Design for Good. Community-Sourcing Solutions: By the City/For the City | Design for Good. Breakdance as a Tool for Social Change | Design for Good. PeaceBOMB: "Buying Back" the Vietnam War | Design for Good. You Don't Need A Toothbrush | Design for Good. Baking for Good: A Little Sugar Goes a Long Way | Design for Good. Design for Education: 7 Innovations for the Developing World Classroom | Design for Good. TerraCycle Turns Waste into Useful Eco-Products, Donates to Charity | Design for Good. .wwf: The Tree-Saving File Format | Design for Good. Access to the Web is a Human Right: How to Make It Happen | Design for Good.
If You Liked the 'Bios Urn,' You'll Love 'The Spirit Tree' | Design for Good.