This great piece of industrial design managed to fly beneath the radar for some time - beneath mine at least. Last summer Dell launched their stylish and environmentally conscious Studio Hybrid. Designed by San Francisco-based New Deal Design this is one of the first non-Mac computers that I’d actually consider putting in my living room - or anywhere for that matter.
A few weeks ago Fast Company released their annual Fast Company 50, The World’s Most Innovative Companies. I’ve always liked how they included agencies in their list — this year The Barbarian Group, TBWA\Worldwide, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky. IDEO of course is always a staple.
They also include top 10 lists by industry. I was surprised to see Pentagram on the design list. There’s no question that they’re an amazing design firm, but I’ve never thought of them as innovative, nor have I ever heard any other design professional classify them as that as well.
Which brings me to the one thing that about the Fast Company 50 that irks me: they don’t reveal their methodology — if in fact there even is one. But I guess that would only really matter if anyone really cared. Do they? Does the Fast Company 50 carry any clout? Are there any other innovation lists out there that matter?
At any rate, as humans we love our lists ... so enjoy.
Bittbox has aggregated 17 Flickr groups that collect type and design specimens.
A few months ago I was listening to an episode of Business Week’s Innovation of the Week podcast where David Turner from the branding agency Turner Duckworth was talking about designing the packaging for Metallica’s Death Magnetic CD. Yes, I just used the words “innovation”, “branding”, and “Metallica” in the same sentence.
Turner Duckworth is an agency that is based out of London and San Francisco and boasts the revamp of the Coke brand amongst recent projects. It’s interesting to hear how Metallica was savvy enough to not only look outside the music industry for inspiration, but turn to a branding agency of all places.
The concept as described on the podcast sounded a bit uninspiring to be honest. But I recently saw the execution and think that it’s quite beautiful.
Check out the podcast: Business Week—Innovation of the Week
There’s a whole host of sites out there that let people share bookmarked imagery from around the web. These sites are great for creative inspiration, or for just wasting time. Recently launched Elements, doesn’t seem to add anything to the mix. FFFFound! and vi.sualize.us are two of the better ones that also seem to have the most critical mass.
Source: Mashable