Design

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Cake kibb 7

Cake, a company known for making electric bikes, just announced The Kibb is an all-electric ATV.

“The modular body of the Kibb will have different attachment points to allow for compatibility with a wide variety of ATV accessories. The Kibb will be a multifunctional battery-powered ATV capable of operating with or without a human driver,” the company announced. The Kibb electric quad was conceptualized by Fanny Jonsson, a Swedish transportation designer from the Umeå Institute of Design. Jonsson who interned with CAKE.

Now that is a very cool-looking vehicle and proof that modern design can be applied to improve even the most basic of things.

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I came across an article about a Rado watch designed by British-born and London-based designer Tej Chauhan. Rado watches are not to my taste. But his approach to design caught my eye.

It combines our visual language with an optimised functional experience; the way we use form, colour, and material to elicit joy in broad audiences. It’s specifically designed to engage people, and to invite interaction.

The PORT Magazine. 1

His comment made me wonder — isn’t (or shouldn’t) all design by emotive and do all the things he aspires in his work. Still, I couldn’t help but notice how his time at Nokia might have influenced his design philosophy. His work has that typical Finnish design appeal — unhurried, non-fussy, functional minimalism.

While you are checking out Tej’s work, I encourage you to listen to this album from a decade ago. Have a great weekend.

March 6, 2021, San Francisco

  1. PORT is a British Magazine, hence British spellings[↩]
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Design isn’t alone in its lack of quality content—the web, by and large, has become a dumping ground for garbage. Most design content has become poor quality, surface-level content marketing that does more damage than good, because it offers over-simplified, misinformed perspectives dressed up as guidance. When the experienced don’t write, grifters step in, feign expertise, and sell it. 

Frank Chimero’s blog

I have been reading Frank’s blog for a very long time. He writes about design, but when extrapolated it applies to the web culture and the Internet as well. When reading his latest post, I couldn’t help but nod my head in agreement. You can replace “design” with “venture capital,” “startups,” “marketing,” “fashion,” or just about anything, and the core message won’t change. More often than not, you will find much of this fluff on Medium or some copy cat version, like Forbes.com. Obviously, you know how I feel about content & marketing.

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Design’s grand opportunity to change everything

Minimalissimo has a wonderful interview with uber-designer Karim Rashid. His definition of design and what it can achieve resonated with me.

Humans touch an average of 600 objects a day and the potential for them to help us or bring us joy is huge! The big challenge of design is to create something that, although accessible to all consumers, touches people’s lives and gives them some sense of elevated experience and pleasure and is original. Designers have the power to shape a better, smarter world, to simplify yet inspire every individual, to make well-made and beautiful products accessible to all.

Read article on Minimalissimo

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Steve Jobs’ legacy & The iPhone X

If you total up the energy spent debating the merits and demerits of the Apple iPhone X event and various devices announced today, odds are that you could actually power another keynote, one where the basic question is why: why does the iPhone X matter? Why it’s even possible and where it could lead us – and why Apple is best positioned to lead us there.  Continue reading “Steve Jobs’ legacy & The iPhone X”