We are proud to line up a couple of new contributors to the David Report blog! Next to be presented is Alfred Malmros who is a Swedish advertising strategy student in London freelancing as a strategist, trend analyst and journalist. Currently working on projects for Lunar BBDO and YCN among others he tries to apply his knowledge in design, advertising and food on the world around him.

His view on design is much like his view on communications, function above all but beauty is what makes life worth living. The social function of design is more important than ever and in a wasteful world, questioning the purpose and the reason for design becomes crucial.

Alfred will be posting on the contemporary design scene in London, on random objects, maybe on a relevant restaurant once in a while but foremost on design that cares. 

Read his personal, more communications orientated blog here.

Andra bloggar om: bloggar, bloggosfären, bloggare, blogg

The Japanese electronic musician and DJ Captain Funk  / Tatsuya Oe recently launched Club Model Electronic to bring his creative world view more directly to his fan base.

The online shop delivers sounds and exclusive content so people all over the world can enjoy Oe’s music, as well as being the first bilingual MP3 shop in Japan. “But our goal is not to sell music, but to tell a story,” he says.

Oe doesn’t see his site as another MP3 download shop, but a ‘specialty music boutique’ in the digital arena. “I want the site to have uniqueness and depth, and to achieve a ‘one and only’ shop and community, just as if it were a club.” 

Having performed as the opening act for David Bowie and Kraftwerk and known as the Japanese Fatboy Slim, Oe designs, programs and produces his websites himself as he considers website development and branding as equally important creative and communication expressions. “The creativity expressed in the making of music should also be displayed in the distribution channels,” the DJ says.

“I think you should make your own creative world - just like you do on the album, or at a live event. I can’t understand why musicians take the situation for granted that the audience goes to mega shops like Amazon or Borders to purchase music, as these are commodity markets offering similar worlds. I’m very conscious of differentiation and thinking differently,” Oe states.

Rather than the traditional sales route, Club Model Electronic is Oe’s way of keeping his own world. A way to correctly tell his story. “Musicians need a stage to tell stories through their music. Building my own shop let’s me take back control. The distribution and sales process is too strong. Music is alive . . . it needs air to breathe . . . not to be kept in a glass box. The mega shops offer boring scenery. They’re perfect in efficiency, but that’s not enough for creativity and communication. It’s important for artists to keep their own world in all elements of music production and distribution.”

Oe says that often musicians have to obey the music industry as the system is so big, unwieldy and complex; but that social networking sites have accelerated the need for the music industry to change with the times and adapt to the current trends. “I like that today I can finish a song and tomorrow I can sell it.”

In the future Oe hopes that Club Model Electronic can be a space for customers to network and connect. Rather than a shop, he envisages the site to be more like a concierge that provides and entertains. “Like a nightclub where people are excited when they open the door wondering what type of party it will be tonight . . . what type of music will be played . . . who else will be there. It’s all about inviting the guest in, guiding them and entertaining them. A fun, real world feeling of excitement and discovery.” 

While the club and concierge feel is on the way, all the MP3 files can be purchased from the site today. All files sold from Club Model Electronic are 320Kbps (LAME encoded) - the highest quality available at present - and are all NoDRM, meaning downloads contain no digital rights management software. And that’s something we can all dance to in our living rooms around the world!

This is a post by David Report contributor Kristina Dryza.

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Andra bloggar om: dj, musik, spotify, itunes, captain funk, tatsuya oe

I’m in the jury for a competition called WOOD, PAPER, CHECKMARK: design an awareness campaign for sustainable forestry. The competition is about to create elements of a consumer call-to-action campaign to buy FSC-certified products as a means of protecting forests around the world.

It runs until January 13th. If you are interested to participate follow the link to Design 21 social design network.

No matter how chilly the morning was, Moosy and Algie felt excited about meeting around the frozen lake. Some lo-fat grass to allay from heavy dinners, lots of fresh-to-share gossip and wishes –granted by Santa, only to good girls like them – to be shown.

Moosy complained beside the Tree - filled with Tiffany Blue boxes the night before - about boredom, the yearly empty conversations around bordeaux. Algie nodded in agreement, surreptitiously stretching her neck - as only Africans seemed able to - so her necklace dwarfed her friend’s ear-goodie. Suddenly, a clear voice from the sky interrupted the show-off-the-gift contest, “Oh my god…   - cried Moosy again, pathetically trying to be back on the spotlight - His scarcity prophecies are worse than BBCsmas Specials!” 

Angie didn’t shut, to introduce a newcomer to the forest instead “Stop the chit chat! Spot up the hill!” Silence took over, the ladies shut, instantly dazzled. Never seen anything of comparable delicacy, enchanting beauty, those pearls… Turned all their goodies pale, grayed away as plastic fantastic bargains. 

So Pearly took the chance, came down and explained the reason why her astonishing presence was up for, in that particular middle of nowhere  

“No long ago, nothing seemed to fit. An overwhelming lack of meaning surrounded me.  I run into Fred - The Pelican, whose beak protected a note and this crown. Written was a Soulmates’ story, between whom the distance of time grew, across a wide ocean. Millions of tears dropped in both sides ended up crystallizing in sand grains. Threats, bumps from the harsh life in the shore made these initially faint, ordinary motes grow strengthened, with charming nacre. The tougher the wave, the thicker the shelter; the colder the foam, the brighter the bubble. Days, months and years gone by, changing saltiness provided distinct shades for these, otherwise, equal hearts.

The itching question remained. Is it worth? It made no sense to his eyes to keep on with the struggle, regardless of this exultant charm that came in return. So, by twisting a branch of gold that would never break but forever stay, he tied them, with a hope in mind: Beauty, to be louder than words, stronger than circumstances, to make minds realize that hearts could be right, to draw soulmates across this never ending sea, back together, to the small sunny island. As it had always been, as it should be… Just in time before it was, too late.”

Princess Pearly apologized and left: Her gauntlet could no longer be on hold! Just before, she offered the greatest present in the humble shape of words “Next time, I’d love to hear about your errands.”

Silence took over, the inner questioning about motivation stabbed hearts, distressingly encountering nothing. The girls realized that it was more a personal rather than a matter of context: Christmas was not the wand to turn people repetitiously vain, but bare minds to have the respective impact on the season… 

By the way, how was your dinner?

This is the first post by the new David Report contributor Claudia Muñiz García.

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Andra bloggar om: jul, julen, julfirande

Claudia Muñiz García lives and works in Stockholm, striving to change her young life in the design direction.
A self-taught writer, designer and trendspotter while educated on branding and telecommunications, she sees on design the key for evolution thus, the chase the opportunity to jump into such an amazing world is ongoing.

Now we welcome her as a new regular contributor to David Report.

I wish you all some relaxed and peaceful holidays and a prosperous 2008 with less but better products and a sustainable design thinking based on thought through design solutions. Love and peace!

Jeffrey Gerlach is an Industrial and Interaction Design student at Syracuse University in the USA. Together with fellow design student Andrew Stanley, they have been designing around themes of urban life, DIY, and sustainability. The images show their DPW ADK furniture.

It’s born from a spontaneous need and evolved from a simple vision the department of public worth adirondack chair is true upcycling a modern and sustainable take on the classic adirondack chair all that is needed is the rearranging of some nails when we don’t have much we make much more of what we have now go show your public worth.

Andra bloggar om: design, möbler, hållbar design
 

As 2008 is coming to an end, we are saying Good Bye to the promises of a prosperous future and – once again - Hello to uncertainty. Our world has been filled to the brim with artefacts and architecture celebrating the euphoria of a new millennium but often they speak the language of a past time.

When in these calm days of Christmas we see an Aston Martin Vantage or a Rolls Royce Phantom on the streets, these proud cars – the gleaming aspiration of many of our investment banker friends - are suddenly surrounded by an air of melancholy and nostalgia.

What only yesterday looked much like the tangible future of every ambitious and self-respecting individual today seems – together with the vivid day-dreams they incorporated – much like something from the history books.

Nobody knows for certain how the future of the American auto industry – or any auto industry, or any other industry - will play out exactly. The promise though – the so-called ‘market confidence’ – that some gifted designers had so eloquently carved into steel, is gone.

“One gets no credit on the past” Karl Lagerfeld says in a recent interview. And he continues: “When the global economic crisis is gone, we will see that Europe and North America will finally be the old world… China, India and the Gulf States will be the new.”

Well, today at least we can say that this old world has produced some damn fine design in those recent golden years. Design in fact that – if one looks closely – has often had its home much more in fairytale-like narratives than in the challenges of the real world.

One gets no credit on the past, but a lot of fragile warmth and a lot of love springs from the dreams one once shared.  – Many of the products designed, many of the buildings built, much of the art collected speaks loudly of these dreams. Together they mark the cornerstones in a map for a world that had never really been and that was never quite really about to come.

It is with some profound relief that we can now find the likes of those beautiful Aston Martins freed from all their full-mouthed and half-hearted promises. And finally we can send them off into the realms of poetry where they have always belonged. – Stripped from even the faintest vulgarity and dressed in noble nostalgia they will also have never looked better.

These are days in which the future ages quickly. One cannot but love our times for this.

This is the first post by the new David Report contributor Jens Hilgenstock.

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Andra bloggar om: framtid, design

I’m happy to announce Jens Hilgenstock as a new contributor to David Report. Jens works as Design Management Consultant. He lives in Madrid, Spain.

In the next day or two you will be able to read his first post named The future ages nicely.

December 6th saw the opening of Gestalten’s one month only pop-up store in Berlin’s Mitte district. Due to overwhelming feedback, Gestalten Temporary will keep its doors open for another month. They’ll kick off again in the New Year on January 2nd and be open until January 31st. Gestalten Temporary offers an exciting range of Gestalten products including inspiring books on design, architecture, graphic design, contemporary art and a collection of designer toys. The store opening also marks the debut of Gestalten Art Editions. They’re collaborating with the best young artists and designers to offer artworks featured in their publications as high quality Art Prints produced with state-of-the-art digital LAMBDA technology. 

Andra bloggar om: design, konst, bok, böcker, berlin