Category: Uncategorized

Writer

“The key to good writing is not that magical glass of Bordeaux, the right kind of tobacco or that groovy background music. The key is focus.”

iA recently launched the excellent iPad app Writer. No autocorrection, no scroll bars, and no cut and paste. Just you and the text. A Focus Mode blurs out everything except the current three lines of text you are working on.

The monospaced font Nitti Light, created and optimized for iPad by Bold Monday, text size, column width, leading and contrast are carefully set for the best reading experience both in portrait and landscape mode.

Available in the app store for $5.

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Exhibition- Less and more: the design ethos of Dieter Rams

Less and more: the design ethos of Dieter Rams. More than 500 exhibits on 1000 square meters of exhibition space in the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany.

An important focus of the exhibition is context, the historical context as well as the design context of Rams’ oeuvre, and an overview of the concepts of 20th century design with a balance of aesthetics and functionality. Among others, work from Hans Gugelot, Peter Raacke and Richard Sapper are on view. The exhibition does not only want to provide an overview of the work of Dieter Rams, but is also devoted to the future of product worlds.

Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany.
Until September 5, 2010.

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The Genius of Everyday Things

The Vitra Design Museum has decided the world has enough of “Design with a capital D.” and newness.

“Hidden Heroes: The Genius of Everyday Things“ is a new exhibition, at the Vitra Design Museum, from  August 20 – September 19, 2010, in Weil am Rhein, Germany. It pays homage to 35 mass-produced objects that have become classics. Some of these common objects, Kleenex and Post-it notes are now generic words in English.

So what’s the appeal? A simple equation: practicality, simplicity, and sustainability. The modesty of these objects can inspire designers to endorse the “less is better” philosophy.

According to Jonathan Ive, “There’s an applied style of being minimal and simple, and then there’s real simplicity.” There is something here—and maybe hardly noticed and taken for granted objects, we use unconsciously, can be authentically cool.

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How is this for a definition of minimalism?

For the past few years, I’ve been collecting notes and quotes on minimalism, and with those trying to sculpt a new definition of minimalism. The one Wikipedia uses (‘the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features’) is just too loose for my liking. Minimalism and its extensions are so diverse, that it has proven [...]

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11

These days, football stadiums are built to become city landmarks in their own right. Luckily, the good people of Dutch design firm GRO design set out to design an equally spectacular and memorable foosball table. A team of designers (Graham Hinde, Roland Bird, Roger Swales, Paul-Etienne Mélinge and Frank Heijlighen) put their minds together, and gave us 11. Wow. We [...]

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Bucefalo

Meet Bucefalo, a dauntingly dark sofa by Italian designer Emanuele Canova. Inspiration came from the figure of Bucefalo, a legendary black horse which only Alexander The Great succeeded to tame. The sofa has multiple functions: it allows you to sit, to lounge, and to store your books or design objects (thx, Lorenzo).

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Music To Blog To: Minimalissimo’s Mixtape

Do you know The Mixtape Club? It’s a great initiative by designers Micah Panama and Brian Thomas. Each month, The Mixtape Club publishes ten mixtapes from ten different contributors on their (lovely minimalist!) website, with the purpose of finding and sharing great music. And you get it: This month, they’ve invited Minimalissimo to submit a [...]

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Inside Minimalism: Rocha Tombal Architects

Minimalissimo asks well-known and not-so-well-known designers, architects and artists about their personal views on minimalism. As a result, we should be able to compare views – and you can form your own. Today: Rocha Tombal Architects.

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5 concepts for the Melbourne Minimalism Festival

Minimalissimo reader Stijn tipped us about the work that designer Jess McGeachin did for the Melbourne Minimalism Festival 2009. A festival on minimalism! Yay! After some digging, I learned that the MMF was actually an imaginary festival, part of a university project for RMIT students in Melbourne. Their assignment: to create the festival’s visual identity. I [...]

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QlockTwo

A great alternative to numerical clocks is this worded clock by Biegert & Funk.

Called QlockTwo, this clock tells the time using words highlighted by LEDs. It is available in numerous colours and languages.

I like how the smooth design and structured typographic grid compliment the illuminated words and make it stand out.

You can purchase the QlockTwo in various colours and languages via Biegert & Funk’s online store.

And there’s also an iPhone application available!

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