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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: design

design stories: 21 news summaries

1 - 20 of 21 Stories | 1 2 Next >>

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 The Most Stylish 
 Cities in the World 

Paris, Milan top Forbes list

Jul 1, 09 2:22 PM CDT
(Newser) - Weighing everything from fashion to architecture to street life, Forbes rates the 10 most stylish cities in the world. The best of the best:
  • It doesn’t get any more chic than Paris
  • Milan: “flashy” fashion and cool contemporary design
  • New York: a shopping spree from Brooklyn to
... More »

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fashion • London • New York • design • Rome • Donatella Versace • Paris • Milan • style • Hermes • Roberto Cavalli • Chanel • fashion designer • La Dolce Vita • Jay-ZTV • Charlotte Gainsbourg • Villa Borghese

Users Prefer Bing to Google But Won't Switch: Study

Focus group users prefer design, organization of Microsoft search engine

Jun 26, 09 3:10 PM CDT
(Newser) - Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, impresses users—but not enough to make them switch from Google, TechCrunch reports. Asked to rate Bing’s features, users in a study by the Catalyst Group thought Bing beat Google in almost every category, including visual design, organization, and filtering options. The exception... More »

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Google • Microsoft • study • design • search engine • focus group • Bing • Catalyst Group

(Newser) - A new wave of jewelry designers is ditching pretty gemstones for cutting-edge commentary, the Economist reports. Using mainly found objects, plastic, recycled junk—and some precious metals in unexpected forms—jewelers are rejecting social-status-bling for designs that tell stories or question values. Dutch designers lead the pack because they “... More »

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design • jewelry • necklace

(Newser) - Comic Sans is a lighthearted font, easy to read and very popular. Too popular, if you believe its legions of detractors. Like many other comics-related entities, it even has a sworn enemy—the 10-year-old Ban Comic Sans movement, which compares misuse of the typeface "to showing up for a... More »

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Microsoft • design • font • typeface • Comic Sans • graphic design • typography

GLOSSIES

 Ariz. City Gets a Do-Over 

Officials annex extra 5 miles for Mesa's new downtown

Dec 7, 08 5:00 AM CST
(Newser) - Mesa, Ariz., is getting a do-over. The financially battered city experienced explosive growth for more than half a century, and municipal leaders hope to recover that vitality, reports the Economist. Their solution? Start building, but not in the strip-mall-and-tract-home model so familiar in the Sunbelt. The city has annexed 5... More »

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technology • Arizona • design • airport • urban planning • city parks • Mesa

Barbies of the Future May Grow on Trees 

Researchers use wood and wax to make biodegradable alternative

Dec 6, 08 2:31 PM CST
(Newser) - Wooden toys may not be so 1850s, scientists say. A bioplastic made from trees has been used to make everything from golf tees to car parts in recent years, but its sulfurous stink kept it out of the toy market. Now a sulfur-free version of "liquid wood" is available,... More »

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trees • science • plastic • design • toys • nature • Barbie • inventions • Lego

BlackBerry Maker Faces 'Storm' of Criticism

Bugs and design flaws in newest, much-anticipated model irk dedicated users

Dec 4, 08 4:08 PM CST
(Newser) - BlackBerry’s newest model, the Storm, has provoked frustration among users over bugs and bad design choices, MSNBC reports. Though the phone gained favorable early impressions for its “clickable” touchscreen, BlackBerry-related websites have recently been buzzing with criticism, as many have found writing email on the screen to be... More »

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iPhone • Research In Motion • design • BlackBerry • bug • accelerometer • tech review • BlackBerry Storm • touchscreen

GLOSSIES

Watchmaker's Anti-Fakery Technique Is So Money

Vacheron Constantin uses methods used to foil counterfeiters on new $50K line

Oct 24, 08 6:23 PM CDT
(Newser) - A Swiss watchmaker has broken new ground in the effort to fight fakery, Portfolio reports, using techniques designed to foil currency counterfeiters on a new line of timepieces that run to $50,000. Vacheron Constantin uses laser engraving on tiny components, and coats dials with transparent film printed with tiny... More »

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design • watches • high-tech security • counterfeiters • Vacheron Constantin

Green Housing: From Good Idea to Good Business

Architects, not automakers, have the power to halt global warming

Jul 15, 08 11:56 AM CDT
(Newser) - With US homes on average twice as large as they were 50 years ago—and, of course, dwarfing those in all other developed countries—rethinking our idea of "home" is as crucial to cutting global warming as switching to a smaller car, says architect Edward Mazria in Fast Company.... More »

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environment • sustainable living • architecture • green building • sustainable development • design • green technology • green home

Arms Smugglers Had Nuke Blueprints

Design could have been passed to any 'treacherous regime'

Jun 15, 08 11:02 AM CDT
(Newser) - Smugglers who sold weapons parts to Libya, Iran, and North Korea also had blueprints for a compact nuclear weapon—plans that could have been sold “to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," warns an upcoming report by American and international investigators. The device could be... More »

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Iran • North Korea • nuclear weapons • design • missile • smuggler

 Iconic Sign Is Fabulous Indeed 

Nearly 50 years later, designer discusses her creation

Jun 14, 08 10:25 AM CDT
(Newser) - It's been nearly a half-century since the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign went up on the Strip, and Betty Willis is still as sharp as she was when she designed it, Las Vegas Weekly reports. Willis created the neon design back when the Strip still intersected dirt... More »

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architecture • Las Vegas • design • Nevada • icons • Las Vegas Strip

Architects Vie for Best Wobble

Abandoning profession's firm foundations, designers cook up gelatin gems

Jun 7, 08 5:28 AM CDT
(Newser) - Don’t accuse them of playing with their food; the finalists in the 2008 London Festival of Architecture’s Jelly Design Contest aren’t fooling around. Using what Americans would call gelatin, “a vast range of architectural motifs and techniques have been used to spectacular effect,” an event... More »

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food • architecture • England • design • sculpture • University College London

Vuitton Refuses to Be Accessory to Genocide

Luxury firm sues over fundraising T-shirt 

May 13, 08 4:37 AM CDT
(Newser) - A Danish designer hoped her T-shirt featuring a starving child tricked out with Paris Hilton's favorite accessories—a Louis Vuitton handbag and her tiny dog Tinkerbell—would highlight the media's distorted priorities and raise money to fight genocide in Darfur. The French luxury brand, however, was not amused, and has... More »

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Darfur • Louis Vuitton • Sudan • design • T shirts • handbag

Phone Makers Chase Fickle Customers

Execs obsess over consumer wants, 'subliminal' needs

Feb 29, 08 11:15 AM CST
(Newser) - With the cellphone industry increasingly hit-driven, phone designers are plumbing the consumer psyche through cultural experts and focus groups, reports the New York Times. "Our job is to be behaviorists and psychologists," says an exec. Competition has heated up as consumers buy—and discard—phones at an... More »

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cell phones • iPhone • Apple • design • Nokia • product design • cell phone industry • LG Electronics • consumer psychology

Tiger Designing First Golf Course

Champ plans challenging game in Blue Ridge Mountains

Aug 15, 07 5:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - Super champ Tiger Woods is ready to hit the greens again—this time with his first-ever design for a golf course. He's planning a whole new 18 holes on a scenic spread in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains. Describing himself as a "minimalist," Woods said he'll rely on... More »

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golf • Tiger Woods • design • North Carolina • Jack Nicklaus • PGA Championship • Blue Ridge Mountains • The Cliffs • golf course

Product Design Gets Wilder, Faster

Today it's round Kleenex boxes; tomorrow, talking ones

Aug 10, 07 2:55 PM CDT
(Newser) - Commercial product design is being overhauled faster and faster as brands compete in a fragmented market. The Internet and cable TV have diluted the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, and companies are spending more money on engaging design to win customers: Pepsi, for one, is rolling out a new can every... More »

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media • advertising • shopping • consumer • design • product design • Internet advertising

Bill Targets Designer Knockoffs

Copycat clothes would be blocked for 3 years

Aug 10, 07 8:34 AM CDT
(Newser) - Capitol HIll is considering a bill that would place fashion designs in the same league as a work of art that can be copyrighted, protecting designers from cheap knockoffs for three years. Currently, designers can copyright logos and names, but manufacturers can legally replicate their creations stitch for stitch—and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
fashion • design • copyright • Narciso Rodriguez • clothes • knockoff • fashion designer

The 10 Laws
of Design Simplicity

MIT expert reveals the secrets of great products and services

Jul 14, 07 1:01 PM CDT
(Newser) - In an interview with John Maeda, NPR correspondent Ira Flatow questions the MIT Media Lab designer about his new book, "The Laws of Simplicity." The 10 laws are:
  1. Reduce: Remove functionality
  2. Organize: Organization makes a system of many seem fewer
  3. Time: Savings in time feel like simplicity
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
technology • iPhone • MIT • design • list • John Maeda • Media Lab • simplicity

Liz Claiborne Dead at 78

Designer was first woman to found Fortune 500  company

Jun 28, 07 5:03 AM CDT
(Newser) - Designer Liz Claiborne, whose styles aimed at career women revolutionized everyday fashion sense in America and brought feminine new looks to the workplace, is dead at 78. She was the first woman founder of a Fortune 500 company. Claiborne died Tuesday in New York, after a lengthy battle with bone... More »

MORE ABOUT:
fashion • women • bone cancer • design • obituary • Liz Claiborne • Ellen Tracy • Dana Buchman • Juicy • Fortune 500 • clothes • fashion designer

Fashionista Ferre Dies at 62

Italian was known as the "architect of fashion"

Jun 18, 07 5:13 AM CDT
(Newser) - Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre died in Milan yesterday of a brain hemorrhage, at age 62. Ferre became the top designer for Parisian fashion powerhouse Christian Dior, an honor almost exclusively reserved for French designers, in 1989. He left Dior in 1996 to build his own lines, which became some of... More »

MORE ABOUT:
fashion • design • obituary • Donatella Versace • Gianfranco Ferre • clothes • Christian Dior • Milan • fashion designer

1 - 20 of 21 Stories | 1 2 Next >>


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