Link About It: This Week’s Picks
Futuristic workwear in Milan, London’s new Serpentine Pavilion, electronic sign language and more in our weekly look at the web
1. Painting Mutant Bugs
Cornelia Hesse-Honegger is a researcher who is attracted to bugs—especially the malformed and mutated kind. Looking at the insects through a microscope, she takes days or even months to paint their texture, color and measurements as precisely as possible. As many scientists are quick to judge art as subjective, her piece for Nautilus discusses the unique perspective she’s had as an artist in observing nature, like the deformed insects she found in Sweden and Switzerland—demonstrating that even at such a distance from Chernobyl, relatively low levels of radiation are still impactful.
2. Brands React to the World Cup Bite
The world erupted when Uruguay’s Luis Suarez bit Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini during their recent World Cup match. Fortunately, so did a lot of quick-witted brands, utilizing the social media moment for some clever commentary and self-promotion. Naturally, food companies chimed in offering up alternatives to the Italian’s shoulder—but even Listerine and JC Penny had something to say. They’re all rapid-fire testaments to the age of internet advertising.
3. Electronic Sign Language Translator
When a film appeared online demonstrating that a team of young Swedish engineers were working with Google on a wristband that could translate sign language into spoken word, everyone thought, “Well, that’s a genius idea.” Unfortunately, the video was the creation of advertising students and the concept isn’t actually under development. That said, one of the students noted that Google does believe it’s technically possible—maybe there’s a future for Google Gesture after all.
4. Making of Luca Nichetto’s Tea Set
Designed for Toronto gallery and shop Mjölk, the Aureola Tea Set by
Luca Nichetto and Lera Moiseeva is a beautiful example of conscious
design combined with natural materials. The set approaches tea drinking
as a communal ritual that’s both familiar and new. To learn more about
the multi-use set and the approach to “slow food” through design,
nomadic living and prototyping, MOLD recently interviewed the
celebrated designers.
5. The Future of Workwear
Milan’s Triennale Museum delves into the future of workwear with a new
exhibit curated by Alessandro Geurriero. The design prompt tasked 40
international creatives from the fields of art, architecture, design
and fashion to create uniforms for a job that will, or should, exist
in the future. As you may expect, the results are much more
interesting than the average blue jumpsuit.
6. The Maracanã Blow
Brazil’s gut-wrenching 1950 World Cup defeat at Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro has stayed with the country in the form of “The Maracanã Blow.” With sound effects, chirpy music, gorgeous photos of various places in Brazil and lots of sweet and moving illustrations, Christoph Niemann personifies the Maracanaço for the New York Times, telling the story of the historic final match and the legendary but tragic tale of Moacir Barbosa, Brazil’s goalkeeper on the day that “all of Brazil cried.”
7. The Serpentine’s Unearthly Summer Pavilion
For well over a decade now, London’s Serpentine Galleries have annually commissioned a different architect to create a temporary structure in the famous Hyde Park space, and this year’s concept from Chilean designer Smiljan Radic presents what’s sure to be the project’s most obscure offering to date. Radic’s cocoon-like alien structure presents a great juxtaposition of materials and textures; massive boulders strewn about set the foundation for a light, almost brittle structure. Highly conceptual and visually striking, the installation is on view everyday for free through 19 October 2014.
8. TrapCrunch
Following the launch of Buzzfeed parody site ClickHole by The
Onion, this week we saw the introduction of TrapCrunch, a new satire site taking aim at TechCrunch. From Tim
Cook leaving Apple for G-Unit to Elon Musk giving public access to his
Facebook account, the cheeky site is filled with hilarious
faux-innovation stories and impossible products, making it as clever
as one would hope.
9. Google’s New Language
At the recent Google I/O conference, the tech giant previewed their new design language, Material Design, which will be used to unify their apps and devices. As the designers were inspired by real life movement, expect to see a more tactile interface featuring bright colors, intuitive transitions and a feeling of more layers and depth.
10. The Perfect Burger
In a new video from the New York Times, Senior Editor Sam Sifton shares the secrets to whipping up the best burger possible at home. His top tip happens to be a prevalent one that always needs reinforcing: cook on a heavy pan or griddle. From there, Sifton delivers a bevy of valuable bits of advice and information from burger aficionados nationwide. In the midst of grilling season, it’s all very handy.
11. Netdiver’s Return
This week marks the return of longtime digital design publication Netdiver. With a knack for showcasing some of the most visually appealing design work since 1998 (the dinosaur age of digital media for those keeping score at home), the site’s return is a welcome one. One quick scroll through the homepage reveals the editorial team hasn’t missed a beat: the site greets new readers and dedicated fans with largely little-known but inspiring, bright design work, making an excellent source of information and worthy of a bookmark to be sure.
12. The Panic Button App
While there’s been an increase in personal safety apps like Kitestring and bSafe, the Panic Button app—from Amnesty International—is the first safety tool that’s aimed specifically for activists and journalists on the brink of danger. Simply press the power button to send an alert with your location to pre-set contacts. Panic Button was a result of the Open IDEO challenge that saw over 300 designs that used technology to help protect people from being unlawfully detained, abducted or tortured.
Link About It is our filtered look at the web, shared daily on Twitter and published weekly every Saturday morning.
