PHONEBOO{th}KS

{WHAT}'Daddy, what are those weird cubes with a phone in it doing on the streets?' It's hard to imagine in this era, but there was a time without smartphones or even mobile phones. Nowadays the phonebooth rarely got used. The phonebooths are dying! They became useless objects on the middle of the streets. How can we give these useless objects a new function? A question where a lot of cities wants the answer on.

' they can also be a place of opportunity, something to reprogram and somewhere to come together and share a good book with your neighbors '

 - John Locke

Architect John Locke, who's behind Department of Urban Betterment, saw an opportunity and came with a project to turn the phonebooths into communal libraries or book drops. Sharing and bringing people together with books in the individualistic cities. 
Similar project with the same open-air public library formula is the outdoor library in Magdeburg, Germany by KARO. Artist Massimo Bartolini also came with an outdoor public library project for a Belgian art festival.

{WHY}People have the strong need to share everything nowadays. Especially on the web by posting/tweeting/instagraming, you name it! Because of the web we also share a lot of knowledge. Look at the DIY movies or Wikipedia. So if we can share knowledge on the web, why can't we do it in real life? Bringing the 'real' social aspect back in sharing. That's what I find so strong about these projects. Bringing knowledge TO the people by placing books on random public places.  

{FUTURE}Eventually these projects are all about bringing people together. Finding ways to connect people in the buzzy individualistic cities. Using public places to create that. Creating solidarity in the city, but where you can still be yourself as an individual. I think that the projects with that goal are going to play a big role for cities in the future. 

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SOURCE: popupcity.net

SWING OVER THE CITY

 Escape from the city, explore the city.

{WHAT}We are living in a society of materialism and individualism. Cities full of people who are living in there own little world. By the thought of bringing these people together architect Didier Faustino created 'Double Happiness', an advertising billboard swing.  By making it a 'risky' game, because your hanging round 6 meters from the ground without any safety belts, you are testing your own limits. Escape a moment from the busy city and bringing two people together by experience a new perception of the city. It makes you explore the city in a different way.  The project 'Swings Holland' placed swings on random places in Dutch cities for the same reason.  

{WHY} I loved to swing when I was younger, actually still do. Playing with gravity, the feeling of a cool breeze and hearing the wind rushing by your ears. In some way it gives you a sense of rest and relaxation. It's hard to find that in a busy city. 'Double Happiness' is a way to escape from the busy city in the city and just relax. In a way it also links to the trend Authenticity. The swing is timeless and almost everybody used to swing when he was younger. Bringing something from the past as a kid in the time where you had no worries, back to the busy now.

{FUTURE}More and more people are moving to the city. Cities become busier and louder, so it becomes harder to find your rest in the city. I think in the future there will be coming more projects like 'Double Happiness' and 'Swings Holland'. But than on higher level, for instants: on the roof of a building. 

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WEBSITE: mesarchitecture.org 
SOURCE: demilkedtestserver.manofilmas.lt

EATING PANTONE

----------------------------------------------------

"Design and food are inseparably 

connected to each other." 

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says trendwatcher Lidewij Edelkoort in a reportage about food design. The fashion, living and food industry inspire and get inspired by each other with there shapes and color use. Fluffy pink dresses that looks like sweet meringues or a chair that looks like splashed milk. These three industries are melting more and more together that you can see similarity between them. 

{WHAT} Food that's based on the Pantone colorcard. Some examples: French art director Emilie Griottes created wonderful 'Pantone Tarts' for the French food magazine Fricote. Imagen that there's a bakery where tarts are all sort on color! And the website Trendland.com has a weekly item where they creating dishes totally based on a Pantone color. Alsow a few years ago Dutch food designer Katja Gruijters created The Pantone Colour Menu, where you pick your food by the Pantone colorcard.

{WHY} You've may have noticed the color use in the fashion and living industry. That there are similar signs of color use in the food industry confirms that these three industries are melting together. On the blog of Pantone you can already see that there focusing on different industries and not only on the living industry for example.

{FUTURE} I think the similarity between these industries will become more noticeable and it's also a sign that design is becoming more important. The future will become more visualized to make it understandable for everybody, doesn't matter witch language you speak. And also because there is a ridicules big offer of everything, you have to be visual strong to grab the attention. 

''FOLLOW THE GREEN PATH''

"Could you show me the way to Jaujac?" 

"Just follow the green path". 

Sounds like a sentences that a gnome says to Little Red Hood, but there really was a green path. A XXXXXLong path that was 1,400 feet long made of grass!

{WHAT} The artist Gaëlle Villedary made this XXXXXLong temporary art piece, ' Tapis Rouge ', for the celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the art and nature trail program in the French town Jaujac. The unexpected green path rolls down streets, stairs, trough trees and brings you to the center of the village. Villedary hoped to create a communion between nature and man,  through art.

{WHY} This green path made me curious because it gave me a magic feeling that it will bring me to a green wonderland. All the people that follow this green path will end on the same place, so the mission of Villedary to create a communion between nature and man is completed by his art. Okay, it did not end in a green wonderland, but it did end at an event about art and nature where nature and man got connected.

{FUTURE} Bringing man and nature together is the mentality behind sustainable living. Sustainability is already a global trend but is still growing till it becomes naturally and  a basic need for everybody.  

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WEBSITE: gaellevilledary.net
SOURCE: landezine.com

turning TRASH into CLASS

{WHAT} Residents of the Chateaucreux neighborhood in Saint-Étienne, France got together and turned a wasteland into a meeting place complete with a garden, works of art and furniture. The idea for the project came from Collectif etc. 

{WHY}Giving a new function to a building/design or area is a sustainable living trend. This is a great example, because they turned a wasteland into a meeting place for the neighborhood. 'Feeling connected' is also a trend that is going on right now. They managed to combine those two trends and even build this place together with the residents of the neighborhood. 

 {FUTURE}Turning places like this from 'trash to class' is going to be functional in the future. Because of the crises we don't have a lot of money to create for example new meeting places. Because the government are doing nothing with these places, people going to start these project them self. 


Collectif etc, La place du Géant, Film time lapse from Collectif etc, on Vimeo.

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WEBSITE: collectifetc.com
SOURCE: inhabitat.com

THE LOOK OF THE NEW ARCHETYPES

{WHAT} 'Vman' magazine came with 'The Archetypes issue #23' last fall. In this issue they described 17 of mens new archetypes. You can find the looks that fits to the different archetypes as 'The Freak', 'The Narcissist', 'The Tycoon' and 'The Warrior '. 

{WHY}Every archetype you can link to different characteristics and to a different way of thinking. It's something your born with, unconscious idea patterns. In 1919 psychiatrist Carl Jung named the different archetypes as 'The Self', 'The Shadow' and 'The Animal'. It created it trough evolution. And the fact that they now created 17 more prototypes of archetypes says something about the evolution of the men.
 
{FUTURE} It's interesting and important to know how the human develop trough evolution.  It tells a lot about the humans in the future. By knowing the different archetypes we could understand what they want and need and recognize there style and behavior. Things can be created for a specific archetype.
  

( Curious about the new archetypes? Go to page 45 right a way! ) 

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WEBSITE: vman.com
SOURCE: issuu.com

ANNA..? HANNA..? SIENNA..?

{WHAT} "Hmmm... what's your name again?" Switching the names of your girlfriends? If your better in remembering faces than in remembering names, this is the perfect address book. Smythson created the 'Blondes, Brunettes, Redheads' address book where you can organize your 'girlfriends' on hair color.   

{WHY}It's something that Barney Stinson, a character on the TV serie 'How I met your mother', would buy. Surrounded by a lot of women with no obligations. A lady killer that a lot of men want to be!
The 'happily ever after' stories aren't that obvious nowadays. People don't get married round there 20st anymore, cheating and divorces already became a normal thing round celebrities and you even can find cheating tips in glossy magazines. Did we forgot the word 'monogamy'?
 
{FUTURE} If I look at the relationships of this era, I think the new generation will grow up in a welfare of open relationships and more than one mother/father figures in there life. Getting married and becoming official life partners becomes secondary importance. If this is going to happen in the future, how does the 'normal' standard of a family going to look like? A kid with 2 mom's and 3 dad's?

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WEBSITE:  smythson.com
SOURCE: mrporter.com

''SORRY KATE, YOU'RE NOT URBAN ENOUGH''

Believe it or not, but even Kate Moss wasn't born with a household name.

{WHO} In 1994 the Dutch photographer Dana Lixenberg was commissioned to shoot her for Vibe magazine, an urban/hip-hop magazine. It was a rainy day and the then 20-years old Kate came on set with nothing more than a plastic bag with her things in it, no entourage, no paparazzi. The idea of the shoot was to make a simple portrait of her. But at the end Kate was 'not urban enough' and Vibe magazine actually never published the photo's. 

{WHY} I found it an interesting and inspiring story about the supermodel Kate Moss we all know. Not particularly because she didn't got the job, cause that happens in the beginning of your modeling carrier, but the fact that she came on set with nothing more than a plastic bag with her things in it. That she was a pretty down to earth girl. And I think that's one of the reasons why she became a fashion icon, because you can see that 'down to earth' back in her fashion style. 

{FUTURE} On that moment she had future potential. Look how she became a supermodel and fashion icon. She's definitely someone they can find back in the 'fashion' history books over hundred years.      

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SOURCE: vsmagazinelive.com // theimagist.com

BÊTES DE MODE

Artists HELMO created this serie ' Bêtes de Mode ' (Fashion Animals) for the Lafayette Galleries on Haussmann Boulevard in Paris.

Do you remember those 3D glasses with a red and a blue glass? HELMO used the same technique for this serie. In the windows of the Lafayette Galleries they placed red and blue foil in front of the image. So when you looked trough the red one, you saw the animal and though the blue one the model. They did the same inside the building, but than they used red and blue lights instead of foils on a scale of 5x8 meters. 

Love the technique they used and the whole atmosphere of the serie. I'd try to find what there inspiration was and what the story is behind this serie but couldn't find anything. Do they try to say that fashion brings up the animal in us?, something I'd like to know. To bad that I can't visit it anymore because the serie was shown in 2008/2009 at the Lafayette Galleries.

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WEBSITE: helmo.fr
SOURCE: vi.sualize.us // neublack.com

SUPER SIZE magazine

{WHAT}Visionaire magazine came with the "Larger Than Life" issue #61, in an unusual gigantic size. They created the world's largest magazine with the measures of  57.48 X 79 inches.

{WHY}Have you've ever seen a magazine this large? With a magazine in this size, you can see much more details and have the feeling that your sucked in the magazine. It's an exclusive issue, because they only made 250 copies of the exclusive edition. You only have to pay $1,500, so skipping your meals for 6 months is no big deal. 

"Life should be Larger Than Life. Size is important to escape normalization."  
- Karl Lagerfeld

{FUTURE}I think Karl is right. Because where living in a buzzy society, people have more needs to escape from normalization; escapism. The size has influence on how we experience things. For instance, a life size statue of a dinosaur has more impact on you than a small dinosaur toy. I think that in the future they will use extreme sizes to make the experience bigger. 

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WEBSITE: visionaireworld.com
SOURCE: vmagazine.com

ALL OF THE LIGHTS

I've never really noticed that Eindhoven was such a creative and innovative city, till last month. First the Dutch Design week, than GLOW festival and this week
STRP festival. 









{WHAT}At 6pm GLOW festival turns the city center of Eindhoven into a glowing city, a festival where science and art meets light. A special GLOW route, brings you to amazing light artworks spread all over the city center. 

{WHY}Most of the visual artworks on GLOW are enhanced by sound, so you
experience the artworks on a different level. It's an exposition that is shown in the open air, it's like a walk trough the Dutch "City of Light". Because everybody walks the same route and because of the whole atmosphere, the festival also create some kind of solidarity feeling. To get an impression, watch the video of the "Burning Museum".

{FUTURE}GLOW shows the newest technological developments on light. There was a lot of "mapping" (light projections on buildings), and I think that has a lot op future potential. For instance H&M used it for there store opening in Amsterdam and Ralph Lauren even made a 4D experience out of it. 
  

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WEBSITE: gloweindhoven.nl

SOURCE: Own visit

ECO WITH A CLICK

 

Did you know that a simple search at Google uses as much energy as a 100w lamb that's on for an hour. 

{WHAT}A search for something on the web, became a daily routine.  ECOSIA is an eco-friendly web search engine that works together with the rainforest protection program by the WWF. With every search click on Ecosia.org, 80% of the income goes to the WWF. This way you can safe 2 square meter of rainforest, with just one simple web search.

{WHY}It's a simple and actually a lazy way to help making this world a bit greener. If you can do that from behind your computer, so why not?

{FUTURE}If we could link every daily routine to an eco-friendly goal, theres still hope for this world. Okay, it's not that bad, but I first had to shock you to make you think about the environment. What if we could do the same with facebook posts or tweets?

I don't think we can live without Google, but just try Ecosia first before you use Google or any other web search sites.

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WEBSITE: www.ecosia.org  

SOURCE: Happinezz Magazine

BLOG, BLOGGER, BLOGMATIC

WHAT? When you look at the most blog pages, you can see like 10 posts on one page all underneath each other. Older posts you can find in "Archive", but most of the time those posts got forgotten. 

BLOGGER introduced DYNAMIC VIEWS. Seven new Pages that makes it easier to discover older posts by a visual blog history. It gives blogging a whole different look. Next to the the "original" view you have:


* FLIPCARD

* MAGAZINE

* MOSAIC

* SIDEBAR

* SNAPSHOT

* TIMESLIDE

WHY? Blogging isn't just blogging anymore. You can make a professional looking blog even when you have zero experience with blogging. What I like about this new Pages is that it's organized and older posts don't got forgotten all on a new visual way. 


FUTURE? Although I was pretty exited about this, there are some things that I'm missing. The options to customize your blog are very limited with Dynamic Views. For now you can only change the background and widgets won't work. So I'm looking forward when they going to introduce, customized Dynamic Views.


WEBSITE & SOURCE: www.blogger.com

VIDEO FILTER

YouTube, Vimeo, Ted & other video sites ON 1 WEBSITE!

WHAT?  You may know or use websites like Google Reader, Delicious, Diigo etc. You can bookmark websites, get the latest updates of you favorite websites & share your list with friends. And that organized all on one website. So you don't have to check out all of your favorite websites every day for the newest updates.
 

VIDQUE is something similar but than for online videos. Because this world is overloaded with YouTubers and Vimeos, it is hard to find high quality videos. VidQue is a platform that separates the quality from quantity. You can search videos, make a collection of your favorites, follow video posting of your favorite websites/blog/twitter & organize it in different categories. And that all on one website.  

WHY? Personally I get annoyed by videos in bad quality. So when I search a video with VidQue, I know it is a HQ video and you'll get the video results of YouTube and Vimeo. It makes online video searching a bit easier. The web is all about sharing now. Because you can follow not only your friends but also other users with the same interests, you'll discover new videos. 
 

FUTURE? I think it has future potential, because searching on the web don't have to be complected. You don't have to be a whizzkid anymore to find something on the web. And I think they are still developing the web to make it accessible for everybody and less complicated.
 

WEBSITE: www.vidque.com 
SOURCE: About.com