Tag Archives: design

Bittium Designs Wearables at WTS

March 30, 2016fitness, Interview, Special Media, sport, wearable, Wearable Technology Showactivity tracker, Adidas, Bittium, design, fitness, Interview, sport, wearable, Wearable Technology ShowAndrew

Let’s say that you are a major manufacturer of sportswear and you need an activity tracker to keep up with the market. You’ve no experience in electronics or wearables, so what do you do? If you’re Adidas, you turn to Bittium and get the professionals on the job. Martti, Senior Specialist at Bittium, takes Andrew through the company’s offering.

Finnish firm Bittium are a technology design house, specialising in connectivity solutions, from 4G base stations to mobile phones, IoT and wearables. Bittium will take an idea for a product and develop it to a finished product, including physical design, hardware and software.

Here’s the tracker that Bittium did for Adidas, the MiCoach Smart Run. It’s a few years old now (2013) but it’s interesting to hear the development story.

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Pantone Color of the Year 2016

December 13, 2015Information2016, Color, colour, design, pantone, rose quartz, serenityAndrew

Pantone has announced its Color of the Year for 2016 and for the first time ever, the chosen color is a blend of two, Rose Quartz and Serenity. “Why two?” you might reasonably ask….

Pantone says, “As consumers seek mindfulness and well-being as an antidote to modern day stresses, welcoming colors that psychologically fulfil our yearning for reassurance and security are becoming more prominent. Joined together, Rose Quartz and Serenity demonstrate an inherent balance between a warmer embracing rose tone and the cooler tranquil blue, reflecting connection and wellness as well as a soothing sense of order and peace.”

By choosing the combination of girl pink and boy blue, Pantone is making a socio-political statement too.
“In many parts of the world we are experiencing a gender blur as it relates to fashion, which has in turn impacted color trends throughout all other areas of design. This more unilateral approach to color is coinciding with societal movements toward gender equality and fluidity, the consumer’s increased comfort with using color as a form of expression, a generation that has less concern about being typecast or judged and an open exchange of digital information that has opened our eyes to different approaches to color usage.”

For the graphic artists and web designers, Rose Quartz is Pantone 13-1520, #F7CAC9, and Serenity is Pantone 15-3919, #92A8D1. The full colour standards are available from Pantone.

For fashion aficionados, Pantone has prepared a series of desktop wallpapers so you can really show off your cool color credentials.

As ever, we can expect to see these Rose Quartz and Serenity incorporated into fashion and design over the coming year, though given the similarity to baby colors, it will be tricky to spot the real trends. Last year’s color, Marsala, is now officially out of favour.

PicLab HD: Spice Up Your iPhone Photos

August 9, 2015application, iOS, Photography, reviewart, design, photographyStacey Hall

Like many photographers, I’ve spent countless hours experimenting with a seemingly endless stream of photo apps for iPhone. While Photoshop is great for hardcore RAW editing on a desktop, sometimes you need a quick and simple solution for editing photos on the go. The latest addition to my mobile photo arsenal is a beautiful little tool called PicLab HD.

PicLab HD is a powerful design studio that enhances your photos with a plethora of effects and overlays. Just import a photo from your photo library and browse through the extensive catalog of filters, moods, stickers, and overlays. You can also perform basic adjustments such as contrast, brightness, saturation, and blur.

The cool thing that sets PicLab HD apart from other photo editors is its wide variety of text and artwork overlays, all created by professional designers. You can customize the size and color of the overlays to create the perfect addition to any picture. The $1.99 app includes several collections of these stickers, and you can purchase additional packages for $0.99 each, or purchase the entire catalog of artwork for $2.99. THIS TO THIS The free version of PicLab doesn’t include as many features as PicLab HD, but it’s a good place to start experimenting with what the PicLab ecosystem has to offer. You can upgrade from within the free app to access the features of the HD version, or download PicLab HD directly for $1.99 in the App Store. If you’re a serious photographer/designer/artist/enthusiast, I recommend making the plunge and buying PicLab HD– it’s most definitely worth it!

Anglepoise Type 75 Mini Desk Lamp

December 4, 2014InformationAnglepoise, design, lighting, Type 75Andrew

There are many products and brands that claim to be iconic but there aren’t that many with the design credentials to back up the claim. The British lighting design company Anglepoise easily falls into the iconic category with the smooth multi-angle balance mechanism from the 1930s embodied in the 1227. I’ve always wanted an Anglepoise lamp and when a Type 75 mini desk lamp appeared in Amazon’s Black Friday deals, I clicked on “Buy”. Here’s the unboxing.

Contrary to what the label says, there was a bulb in the box – it’s in the bubble wrap at the top right.

Assembly is easy – pop the spigot into the base and secure with a grub screw, then hook the springs over the bars.

I guess these are the money shots – the balance mechanism.

Overall, I’m delighted and loving it on my desk at work. So much so, I’ve put a 1228 with a mid green shade on my wishlist but Santa will need to be especially generous this year.

December Wallpaper Calendars

December 3, 2014Informationchristmas, design, desktop, Smashing Magazine, WallpaperAndrew

Continuing the Christmas theme, Smashing Magazine have a bunch of unique festive wallpapers for your desktop and other backgrounds needs. Part of their regular monthly programme, the December wallpapers function as calendars too, with dates embedded in the wallpaper, which is pretty handy anyway – no need to start up an app to check the date.

All the heavy lifting has been done too with a range of resolutions for different monitors and desktop sizes – I use them as backgrounds on my tablet and smartphone. The only difficulty is choosing the best. I’ve included a few below but check out over 20 others at Smashing Magazine.

Flowering Lamp

December 2, 2014Informationdesign, lighting, Science MuseumAndrew

The in-house inventor at London’s Science Museum, Mark Champkins, has created this fantastic lampshade that opens like a flower when the light is turned on. The lampshade is made of polypropylene petals and six bi-metallic strips which open up the flower when heated by the light bulb. The flower shade takes about 5 minutes to open up from closed. It’s an ingenious design which doesn’t rely on a complicated motorised mechanism to open the shade.

The photo below shows the lamp from closed to fully open. A cluster of these flower lamps would look great as the they open up.

Manufactured in the UK by a precision sheet metal works, the lamp is exclusive to the Science Museum shop and costs GB£60. Pricey enough if you want four of them, but it would be pretty unique.

Pantone Colour of the Year 2014

December 10, 2013Information2014, Color, colour, design, pantone, Radiant OrchidAndrew

With the last month of 2013 upon us, it’s time for Pantone to declare its “Colour of the Year” for 2014, which this year is going to be…..wait for it…..Radiant Orchid, “An enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm.”

Also known as Pantone 18-3224, Radiant Orchid “reaches across the colour wheel to intrigue the eye and spark the imagination,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. “An invitation to innovation, Radiant Orchid encourages expanded creativity and originality, which is increasingly valued in today’s society.”

The colour data for Radiant Orchid is here, giving RGB and CMYK values for ultra-chic illustrators and designers. Web gurus should note that the HTML value is #B163A3. There’s a video discussing how the Colour of the Year is selected too.

Pantone have the usual range of complementary accessories in the Pantone Universe (seriously!) including these fun Chip Drives, and the Spring Colour Report will feature Radiant Orchid prominently.

2013’s Colour of the Year was Emerald, “A lively, radiant, lush green, a colour of elegance and beauty that enhances our sense of well-being, balance and harmony” and 2012 was Tangerine Tango, “a spirited reddish orange, [which] continues to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward”. Honeysuckle, from 2011, is a distant memory.

Perhaps Todd should incorporate Radiant Orchid into the next GNC redesign. Green is so last year.