10 months ago
Bringing light where there is no power - using coke bottles, water & bleach
In a great piece of sustainable design, a Philippines charity is installing power-free “lightbulbs” made of empty Coke bottles across the shanty towns of Manilla.
The plastic litre bottles are filled with a mix of water and bleach, then stuck in the tin roof of these off-the-grid homes. They provide the light equivalent of a 60 watt bulb, and last for five years before the water needs replacing.
You can see a video about the idea here. Thanks to Fast Company for the story - we read it first here.
1 year ago
In another nod to Ireland’s current state of election branding, here’s a brief video for all parties to peruse:
Scott Thomas (aka SimpleScott) on designing the Obama Campaign.
(Source: vimeo.com)
via creativeinspiration
1 year ago
This isn’t a design or branding topic - but it’s definitely Creativity with Purpose:
Embrace is a low-cost infant incubator for use in developing countries. About 20 million low-birth-weight and premature babies are born every year around the world. Four million die annually, and one of the biggest problems these babies face is staying warm, because they don’t have enough fat on their bodies to regulate their body temperature. As a result, many babies die or grow up with severe lifelong health problems.
Temperature regulation is the primary function of a traditional incubator, but incubators can cost up to $20,000. They require a constant supply of electricity, they’re difficult to operate and you’re not going to find them in rural areas where many of these babies are dying.
Enter the Embrace Infant Warmer. It incorporates a phase change material — a wax-like substance — into a sleeping bag design. You heat this pouch of phase change material, and then once it’s melted, it’s able to maintain a constant temperature over the next 4 to 6 hours without the use of electricity. You place the pouch of phase change material in the sleeping bag, and it creates a warm microenvironment for the baby. They’ve gotten the cost down to less than one percent of the cost of a traditional incubator, and are currently in the process of testing the device. The whole team moved out to Bangalore about a year ago.
via evangotlib
1 year ago
How (and why) to think & act like a designer
If you have 10 minutes to spare on a sunny Friday, check out this presentation by Fred Durst from design practice IDEO. He makes an evangelical (and witty) case for the power of design to change behaviour, and how we can all “think like designers” to create a better world.
(I’ve made it sound irritatingly smug; just trust me - it’s worth a look.)
Thanks to Tumblr-pal creativeinspiration: for the find.
via creativeinspiration
