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2005 IDEA Awards
prostoalex writes "Every year Industrial Design Excellence Awards are given to the products in such categories as Business & Industrial Products, Computer Equipment, Consumer Products, Design Explorations, Design Strategy, Digital Media & Interfaces, Environments, Furniture, Medical & Scientific Equipment, Packaging & Graphics, Research, Student Designs, Transportation. Business Week is running a 158-page slideshow that features 2005 IDEA recipients."
I have admired the almost Mac-like look of the Netgear routers and noticed that they were a 2005 gold winner. However, I'm not really crazy about Alienware design and they won a silver.
Was anybody else wondering why swedish furniture companies were giving out awards when they first read the headline?
"" How about taking the safety labels off everything, and let the stupidity-problem solve itself? """
The item earning this fine praise - a showerhead!
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The Mac Mini is a nice design, no arguing there. But to call it powerful is a joke. 2 year old Pcs have more power and it pales next to the cheapest IMac, which, except for expandabilty is a really nice design.
I agree, the Alienware design is just... Ugh.. It's bulky, unnecessarily imposing and basically blobby. Still there might be some under the hood engineering which warrants its medal. Nonetheless, I'd refuse to have a computer that looked like that, I'd feel like a Boy Racer.
I wouldn't have been too surprised if IKEA would be giving design awards though (it has been widely spreading design furniture to a wider audience) , if it wasn't for that the company is as cheap (as in won't spend money on something that's not entirely necessary) as possible. Ingvar Kamprad has even once said "If I'm worried some one will copy our designs? Nah. If someone thinks they can beat us on price, they are very welcome to give it a try..." :)
I have a really elegant proof for Fermat's last theorem. If this sig was only a bit longer...
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/06/idea2005/s ource/22.htm :P
The description writes it out as jellyfish looking, all I can think of is the connectors that plug into peoples backs in the matrix
IDEA 2004 or 2000? anything in production or in the shelves?
IDEA Awards? as in CIA Agency?
That is the first mistake. You are not supposed to plug anything into it. You certainly don't want to sully the pristine and elegant experience with such things as I/O.
Where were you when the voynix came?
Take a look at item 135. From the article:
" Desiring to enter the consumer showerhead market, Moen knew they needed a concept that set them apart significantly from existing offerings. In order to successfully meet this challenge, the designers developed a research process that would enable a creative team to gain a deep understanding of what people experienced in a shower, a process that would ultimately lead to the successful Revolution Showerhead. This research enabled designers to have a deeper understanding of the many aspects of the showering experience, including extensive observations of people showering , the physiology of the showering experience, people's perceptions about showering and point of purchase decisions made about showerheads. "
Beats the hell out of other forms of research, I would say.
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I browsed through the furniture awards expecting to find goofy couches and uncomfortable chairs when I was surprised by a very cool toilet. http://www.idsa.org/idea/idea2005/g53.htm/
What a sleek looking throne, I'm sure everybody here is jealous. No tank? Doesn't plug? CAN BE PLACED ANYWHERE????? Sounds like my dream toilet.
Before I got this, I felt human, mortal and weak. Now I'm part of a powerful collective that assimilates all resistance and destroys entire dimensions.
OK, I've been totally unfair to this product; anything that helps people to breathe and sleep is a good thing, even if it makes you look monstrous. I just wish the designer was less inspired by the work of H. R. Giger
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
Yes, for instance, #13 is the Samsung M40 laptop which is "the slimmest and lightest 17-inch laptop currently available (less than 1.5 inches high" -- light years beyond the 1 inch Powerbooks that Apple has been selling since 2000.
i rephrase my question. student projects?
s ource/135.htm
some of these sell quite sucessfully
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/06/idea2005/
this one - I used this 'concept' at least 20 years ago. It really works, all you need is a wool thread.
You can't handle the truth.
Was it really necessary to show the Vicks Digital Baby Rectal Thermometer IN USE??!! I think we could have gotten a nice appreciation for its design without an action shot.
I personally dislike NetGear. Their designs are cool, but their functionality is less than satisfactory, to me anyway.
Interesting webslideshow, but often trying to figure out what a product does is next to impossible given the marketing claptrap that serves as the text. Like this:
This product family of commercial HVAC sensors and room controllers was designed in response to the company's identified need for a new product line that conveys quality, reliability and accuracy and is suitable for use in both the American and European markets and a wide array of commercial applications. Following extensive research, the design team succeeded in developing an innovative new line that offers greater accuracy, improved response times, a simpler and more intuitive user interface, quicker installation times, backwards compatibility, improved reliability and a thinner form factor.
What manufacturer of control equipment does not seek to improve quality, reliability and accuracy? In what way is the new interface more intuitive? From the picture it looks like a knob that can be turned clockwise or counterclockwise.
But that that mean it's more "intuitive"? What if I have to go left, right, right, left, push, left, left, right, push to program a setting? That's not intuitive.
But the article text is just a bunch of feel good fluff words that give me no information about how this new control device is supposed to be better than the keypad based devices it replaces.
I haven't lost my mind; it's backed up on a CD-R somewhere
If IDEA stands for Industrial Design Excellence Awards, then they giving away the Industrial Design Excellence Awards Awards. Nice design work there.
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With the contenders being mostly of the ones with minority counts of parts made in North American/EU countries, I'd still have to say the entire computer category has greatly lowered their standards to the point where even a Chinese Government run/funded company such as Lenovo can get in there with something that has an abysmal build quality at best. If only they'd separately considered North American/EU mfg's (that have used less than 40% of Asian designed high level and low level parts), then I'd give these awards some merit.
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I wish they'd give more consideration to functionality for these awards. Don't get me wrong, I like things that are visually pleasing, but when something sacrifies functionality for asthetics, it's pretty lame.
s ource/109.htm
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/06/idea2005/
I was at the design museum, and while there's definitely some awesome things there, this staircase bothered me. It looks cool, but the steps are very dark, and I watched several people trip on their way up in the few minutes I was in the lobby. It's pretty easy to get hurt falling on stairs, so why give a design award to something that increases the danger for users? If they would improve safety and make it look better, that would definitely be deserving of an award.