Freitag is well known for their messenger bags up-cycled from the tarps used to cover trucks in Europe. They have a very clever web-based design application that allows you to custom-design a bag from the tarps they have in stock, even accounting for the pieces that have already been claimed by other customers. It’s a […]
Author Archives: leo
computer aided re-design
Posted in environment, fabrication, futurecraft, marketing, materials, product design, supply chain, visualization
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cast local
Thinking about bamboo? Think again: most flooring made of the eco-friendly material is imported from China – meaning it travels at least 500 miles by truck, over 7,000 miles by container ship and another thousand or so miles by train to make it to the US. This means that even pouring a concrete floor is […]
Posted in energy, environment
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paper maker
With a recent announcement of the first in-office paper recycler, it seems like localized life cycles are finally here. According to Treehugger, their process (which only requires tap water) is comparable in efficiency to industrial paper recycling, without the need to ship heavy paper to the recycling plant, to China and back. Plus it’s billed […]
Posted in environment, materials, supply chain
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trash trailer
The MIT FEMA Trailer Project considers how the nearly 150,000 temporary houses deployed to Hurricane Katrina victims in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas could catalyze positive change as opposed to the social and health risks they are associated with. They have initiated a call for proposals for the FEMA Trailer Challenge, seeking to prompt innovations […]
Posted in possessed products
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news filter
Now that it’s over I can finally look back at the very special re-interpretation of the presidential debates by Boston Data Jockeys sosolimited performed live at the ICA this past September. They re-mixed the live television footage through computer vision and custom-made algorithms that analyzed the closed caption text in real time. The results are […]
Posted in blogogracy, visualization
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ecographics
While struggling to illustrate complex environmental phenomena this weekend I stumbled upon this great life-cycle diagram by Mats Ottdal – a cover graphic for a Vector Pollution Library (something I would love to buy).
Posted in 2d, energy, environment, visualization
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improvised devices
While visiting the spectacular Alexander Calder: the Paris Years at the Whitney last weekend I came across a book on his ‘devised objects,’ namely the household devices that he improvised with the same whimsy of his wire-and-found-object sculptures. Just as he was capable of making kinetic toys and figural sculpture from bare wire and trinkets […]
Posted in art, fabrication, futurecraft, product design, upcycling
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