Either the Thunderbird or the Beetle had to go.

With a baby on the way and two vintage cars in our garage, one a red 1963 VW Ragtop Mike’s owned since age 15 and the other a champagne 1963 Ford T-bird, a tough decision had to be made. One of them had to be replaced…

The year was 2006, and, believe it or not, these old-timers were pretty much the only cars we’d ever owned. With our purchase of a new car that winter, we made a 43 year leap in automotive technology overnight.

We quickly realized, however, that despite 43 years of automotive progress, with its advances in safety, efficiency, and manufacturing, the driving experience remains basically the same as it was in 1963.

After experiencing this somewhat disappointing time warp, we wondered how we could contribute a new point of view and perhaps spark more significant progress for the next 40 years.

The current climate gave us the final push–with the car industry lost, an urgent focus on global warming, awareness of oil dependency, and the economic down turn, the stars had aligned. It is time to sow seeds, to experiment. Armed with a small design studio, we set out to design a concept car in search of an optimistic new future. And it quickly became clear to us:

A shift must take place from styling cars to redefining them.

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CLICK HERE for the full post!

Apple's design chief, Jonathan Ive, was honored at the Royal College of Art's "Innovation Night" on Tuesday, where he took to the stage. The event was closed to the public and much of the media, but geek.com has provided an account of Ive's talk--as reverse-engineered from Mozilla consultant Pascal Finette's Twittering of the event! Oh, the times we live in.

Here's a rather interesting excerpt:

Ive: My drawing skills are terrible... and I'm a lousy presenter. So I focus on designing instead. :)

Not sure if the smiley icon is Finette's addition, or if it's meant to represent Ive smiling after his statement. What is the Twitter transcription protocol? :)

Click here to read more, including Ive discussing some of Apple's design process.

Produced by Nidecker in partnership with Core77, the Nidecker Snowboard Competition invites designers to create custom snowboard graphics for Nidecker boards. There are 10 days left, so enter now!

The Grand Prize winner will receive $2500 and be included in the Nidecker 2010/11 line, and the Top 4 will be produced in a limited run and receive a snowboard with their own design. They will also all be displayed at the international SIA Show in Orlando and at the ISPO Tradeshow in Munich in February 2010, along with profiles of the winning designers. And...the designer's name will be featured on the side of their board!

Design Brief
For this competition, Nidecker is challenging designers to create the next generation of snowboard graphics. Designers can submit designs of any style or content, and participants have the entire topsheet of the board as their canvas. Just download the templates and create!

Competition Deadline
July 12th, 11:59 pm EST

10 DAYS LEFT! REGISTER NOW!!

I was proud to present at this year’s Compostmodern Conference in San Francisco, and prouder still of the student work I was able to share with the attendees. Now the videos of the day’s presentations are up on the site, and the talk I gave, “Denting an Impossible Design Problem in 10 Sustainable Steps” is there to share.

The presentation centers around a 10-week project my graduate students in the SVA Designer as Author program completed around “designing a prosthetic arm,” and we were incredibly privileged to have Aimee Mullins, Frank Wilson, John Kunniholm, and Elliot Washor come in as guests. Diana Lui shot portraits of the students at the conclusion, and I have to say that this was an incredible teaching (and learning) experience. Humbling, daunting, and elating at every twist and turn.

One of the students, Jackie Lay, is completing the project website which will include way more info on each of the student’s work than I could include in the talk, but catch this video in the meantime for the story on the genesis, design, and development of the whole thing. I’ll post a link to the project site as soon as it’s up. Thanks again to all the students who made this happen–it was an incredible experience to be a part of.

Be sure to check out all the Compostmodern videos here.

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Weekly finds from the 3D world.

SolidWorks
SW Labs releases SustainabilityXpress — Life Cycle Assessment software
Tutorial: Different ways to mate with a slot
Tutorial: The Hinge mate and SW Motion
Tutorial: Better bolt circles with Curve-Driven Patterns
Using SW for graphic design (!)

Hypershot
Bunkspeed introduces HDR image library
Hypershot 1.9 preview webinar tomorrow (July 2)

Inventor Fusion
Video Tutorial: Fusion for simulation users
Develop3D’s exhaustive review of Fusion, with loads of screenshots, video and commentary:Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

PTC
PTC ranked #1 in Aberdeen PLM AXIS report
Cadalyst’s report on PTC/User 2009

Luxology
User content sharing site for Modo

Alias
Tutorial: Wheels, part 3 (pictured above)
Video Tutorial: Layer Symmetry

Rhino
Rhino 4.0 SR6 Release Candidate 2 available
New Wenatchee (OS X) build available

Autodesk
New Beta website is up
Interview with Autodesk’s ID product line manager on the Mac platform

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This DSLR battery clip charges via any USB source (like Energizer’s own portable battery pack) and clamps on to “any” digital camera or camcorder battery. The compatibility list is probably high, but we’re unsure if any actually means any, so check out the site before buying. The entire Energi To Go line will be available next month. [Gearlog via Oh Gizmo]

when it comes to gardening, i’ve got a pretty black thumb. so i’ve always been intrigued by the idea of terrariums- those little glassed in worlds where plants seem to thrive within their own self-contained environment. but after a few unsuccessful tries, i gave up on being able to create and sustain my own indoor terrarium. that changed a few weeks ago when i received a beautiful terrarium as a birthday present. i was hell-bent on getting this one to work so i headed straight for the experts- sprout home. i’ve been a fan of sprout for years and was thrilled when tassy from the brooklyn shop (click here to see her lovely bklyn home) offered to share her easy how-to tips for creating and managing your own terrarium.

not only was the process easy, but once i saw someone break everything down, i realized that this was THE perfect project for anyone who wants a little green space in the city. terrariums are inexpensive, easy to manage and, if you know the right steps to making one, perfect for anyone with small spaces- or a black thumb like me.

thankfully tassy invited me back to film the making of a terrarium from the ground up, and shared her expert tips for terrarium creation and care. i hope you’ll enjoy her how-to video as much as i did, and that you’ll be inspired to pick up your own terrarium and try one at home. if you like the vessels you see in the video you can buy them right here (scroll down for all the options shown in the video), or try creating your own using a found vessel or something you have laying around the house.

thanks so much to tassy and everyone at sprout for their help with this video. and to julia for the birthday gift that inspired this project!

*if you have any questions for tassy, please leave them in the comment section below. she’ll answer them as a group later today!

music from the video: “at the beach” by the amazing avett brothers. if you haven’t checked them out, click here. they’re fan-tastic.

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Check out London-based Adam Schacter's CarGo Urban Delivery Vehicle concept on Coroflot:

Urban traffic congestion is an increasing problem which affects countless delivery companies every day. The unique "CarGo" concept addresses this issue with its variable track, wheelbase and load carrying configurations.

Primarily designed for small, inner city deliveries, the battery powered CarGo's innovative design allows the driver to quickly adapt the vehicle to suit both traffic conditions and load volume/type.

On the other end of the size spectrum is his all-terrain Amphibious Rescue Craft:

The A.R.C. (Amphibious Rescue Craft) is a rugged all terrain vehicle that can be used to deliver vital aid and supplies anywhere required including flooded areas which are inaccessible to most other vehicles. Variable height ground clearance combined with large wheels and all terrain tyres provide excellent off road capabilities, whilst a boat hull and retractable wheels enable the A.R.C to plane at high speeds across water with minimal friction and uncompromised performance.

It’s certainly not the most practical thing in the world, but the Design Martus Stump and Ottoman set looks like the furniture you’d build if you were trapped in the woods with nothing but a two-man lumber saw. And aside from those polyurethane wheels, it’s about as eco-friendly as you can get.

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