design

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BlackBerry Maker Faces 'Storm' of Criticism

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

(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...

Watchmaker's Anti-Fakery Technique Is So Money
Watchmaker's Anti-Fakery Technique Is So Money
GLOSSIES
Oct 24, 2008 6:23 PM CDT

Watchmaker's Anti-Fakery Technique Is So Money

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

(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...

Green Housing: From Good Idea to Good Business

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

(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....

Arms Smugglers Had Nuke Blueprints
Arms Smugglers Had Nuke Blueprints
Jun 15, 2008 11:02 AM CDT

Arms Smugglers Had Nuke Blueprints

Design could have been passed to any 'treacherous regime'

(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...

Iconic Sign Is Fabulous Indeed
 Iconic Sign Is Fabulous Indeed 
Jun 14, 2008 10:25 AM CDT

Iconic Sign Is Fabulous Indeed

Nearly 50 years later, designer discusses her creation

(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...

Architects Vie for Best Wobble
Architects Vie for Best Wobble
Jun 7, 2008 5:28 AM CDT

Architects Vie for Best Wobble

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

(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...

Vuitton Refuses to Be Accessory to Genocide

Luxury firm sues over fundraising T-shirt

(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...

Phone Makers Chase Fickle Customers
Phone Makers Chase Fickle Customers
Feb 29, 2008 11:15 AM CST

Phone Makers Chase Fickle Customers

Execs obsess over consumer wants, 'subliminal' needs

(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 ever-faster...

Tiger Designing First Golf Course
Tiger Designing First Golf Course
Aug 15, 2007 5:20 AM CDT

Tiger Designing First Golf Course

Champ plans challenging game in Blue Ridge Mountains

(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...

Product Design Gets Wilder, Faster
Product Design Gets Wilder, Faster
Aug 10, 2007 2:55 PM CDT

Product Design Gets Wilder, Faster

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

(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...

Bill Targets Designer Knockoffs
Bill Targets Designer Knockoffs
Aug 10, 2007 8:34 AM CDT

Bill Targets Designer Knockoffs

Copycat clothes would be blocked for 3 years

(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...

The 10 Laws of Design Simplicity
The 10 Laws
of Design Simplicity
Jul 14, 2007 1:01 PM CDT

The 10 Laws of Design Simplicity

MIT expert reveals the secrets of great products and services

(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
  4. Learn:
...

Liz Claiborne Dead at 78
Liz Claiborne Dead at 78
Jun 28, 2007 5:03 AM CDT

Liz Claiborne Dead at 78

Designer was first woman to found Fortune 500 company

(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...

Fashionista Ferre Dies at 62
Fashionista Ferre Dies at 62
Jun 18, 2007 5:13 AM CDT

Fashionista Ferre Dies at 62

Italian was known as the "architect of fashion"

(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...

'No Go to the Logo,' Say Londoners

Olympics logo is making people not only furious but physically ill

(Newser) - Londoners loathe the logo unveiled Monday for the 2012 Olympics so much that 30,000 have already signed a petition demanding a new one. The jagged pink-and-orange rendition of 2012  took a brand-consultancy firm $800,000 and more than a year to design; Olympics organizers, calling it "dynamic" and...

Stories 21 - 35 | << Prev