NXT gets some coverage by Brazenworks 

MOOOOOVE.

futurescope:

The Future of Farming: GPS Sensors

via Fast.Co:

FARMERS CAN CONTROL WHERE THEIR CATTLE AND SHEEP GRAZE FROM A COMPUTER WITH THIS EMERGENT TECHNOLOGY. A recent interview published by Nicola Twilley and Geoff Manaugh profiles a USDA scientist named Dean M. Anderson, whose research focuses on virtual fencing, a concept by which farmers could control their livestock using GPS-controlled electronic sensors (a bit like an electronic dog collar). The technology has the potential to make farms more environmentally sustainable, by allowing farmers to manage where their cattle graze, and to cut down on the manual labor involved with rebuilding fences.

[read more] [interview] [photo by mac schwager]

Continuum Redesigns Audi’s Car Dealership Experience

The idea is to use the design sensibility—ethnographic field research, sketching, prototyping—to make a retail space run as smoothly as a high-performance car. “Instead of designing tangible things, it’s about designing all the interactions a customer has with the brand,” says Kerry Bodine, a vice president and principal analyst with Forrester (FORR). “One by one, brands are taking the plunge into this world, and there is a lot of hunger in the U.S. for these services.”

YESS!!!  THESE are what i was looking for. 

good:

Ask Brands to Try a Design Solution to Cut Packaging Waste
- Aaron Mickelson posted in Design, Product Design and Sustainable Design

Every year, Americans throw out 70 million tons of packaging. We can do better. Email or tweet at your favorite brand and ask them to consider one of these solutions to make packaging disappear.

Continue reading on disappearingpackage.com

nxtfuture:

#3duh

Look, 3D isn’t just here to stay – it’s EXPECTED. Technology is finally at a place where optical illusions are worth paying for and consumers, especially GenY, expect a multidimensional experience. That means sound, light, vibrations, physical models – all pushing to blur the lines between real and virtual. While the entertainment industry has been leading the way with increasingly better movies and rides, expect 3D computing to offer new ways to organize and search for information and 3D printing to make that information a reality. As technology becomes more organic, it’s only natural that it occupies as many dimensions as we do. And, seriously, why shouldn’t you be able to see Tupac in your lifetime?

“A new service called “Staples Easy 3D” will allow customers to upload their designs to Staples’ website, then pick up the printed objects at their local office supply megastore, or have them shipped to their home or business — not unlike the photo- and document-printing service the company already offers” (CNN).

“The technology has evolved so much that these celebrities have a lot of new opportunities and the audience can experience them in different ways,” Roesler said. “The technology is not only more lifelike now but it is also more cost-efficient. As it keeps becoming more of both we will definitely see more of it” (International Business Times).

“There will be an added dimension to the Queen’s Christmas speech this year after it was revealed that it will be broadcast in 3D for the first time” (The Guardian).

Implications:

How can you add more dimensions to your offering?

image via theboombox/Getty Images for Coachella

Designer Kevin Young’s sketchbook.

nxtfuture:

ROUGH LUXE

Get used to your pricey dinner being served on a scarred farmhouse table by a whippersnapper in a dirty thermal. Rough Luxe is a design aesthetic that has permeated everything from food to fashion to architecture. It places importance on good storytelling and a restrained combination of raw elements. It’s success is in it’s ability to heighten the relationships and sensorial experiences we have with objects, environments, or brands by emphasizing the original, unique or authentic elements. Elements are often repurposed while holding true to their raw character and mixed thoughtfully with unobtrusive technology. The overall experience is luxurious, as the quality and simplicity of ingredients remains thoughtful, whether it be a walnut slab or iPad checkout system.

“But collecting these old things, it’s like there is an aura attached to them. It’s not some prepackaged product being foisted on you by a big corporation” (NYT).

“The worn, vintage and unfinished look of ‘rough luxe’ is more than just the masculine side of shabby chic. It creates the kind of authenticity that is unscripted history in physical form. It reinvents the past by redefining luxury today. Here design rejects minimalism and extravagance and celebrates imperfection. It is the embodiment of real at a time when the unexpected and the surprising is valued higher than pristine and probable” (Amazon).

“It’s artful dissonance. For those who have come to think of luxury as smooth, shiny, polished, refined and expensive, rough luxe will undoubtedly come off as unfinished, unplanned and somewhat chaotic” (WSJ Magazine).

“Gjelina is one of the coolest, hippest restaurants in LA. The decor is vintage industrial chic with rustic wood tables and exposed “Edison Bulbs” dangling from weathered metal bars” (Consuming LA).

IMPLICATIONS:

How can we imbue our products with a meaningful history and help their stories be told and felt?