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A chair, you might assume, requires a seat. Not the LimbIC chair, which holds your thighs in two custom-made carbon fibre “seating shells”.

The LimbIC is an extreme example of a growing trend: healthy furniture. This is a chair in which “you can dance, move, stretch, relax and stay in tune with your thoughts,” according to Inno-Motion, its Swiss manufacturer. What you cannot do, however, is sit still.

The first ergonomic chairs rolled into offices in the 1970s. Since then chairs have become ever more accommodating to workers’ peculiarities. Recent research on the perils of sitting (pain, premature death) has brought calls for even healthier chairs.

Developed by Dr. Patrik Künzler at MIT and manufactured in Zürich, the odd looking LimbIC chair appears almost impossible to sit on. In concept, the chair acts as an extension of the body, adjusting subtly to the user’s movements, such as picking up the phone or using a mouse. This keeps the body constantly engaged, improves circulation, and keeps the back’s vertebrae lubricated. You can even make dancing and skiing movements while seated, if you’re feeling particularly animated.

Still, its unusual aesthetics could pose some problems for the product. The unconventional design makes it’s purpose unclear – it’s barely recognizable as something to sit on, and certainly doesn’t look comfortable. Some reviews praise the chair, but somehow I doubt it’s intuitive to use. Should something as basic as a chair require a manual for first-timers?

So far, Inno-Motion has sold about 50 chairs—mostly to customers with desk jobs, as well as dentists, athletes, and artists. At $8,500, the price makes it somewhat of a luxury item. The question is, is the LimbIC chair an investment in health, or just another pretentious design claiming to be revolutionary?

by Amalie Woldbye - DSUK Contributor

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After three years of hard work and dedication, BA Industrial and BSc Product Design Students at Loughborough University showcase their Final Year Projects to members of the public in the Degree Show that is 'Design Delivered'.

Loughborough has reputation for the unique way which the students  blend industrial design with functional engineering, which is evident by the quality and technological sophistication in the final year projects. Notable innovations included a device that turns waste paper into a cheap alternative material for domestic rapid prototyping, and a designer’s desk lamp that allows 2D and 3D scanning of sketches and sketch models.

Universal and inclusive design is a particular area of expertise within the Design School, encouraging accessibility for all delivers a message to Designers that they can use their skills to benefit others. In particular, there were a number of inclusive projects that were focused to parenting, such as a baby alarm for parents with profound deafness, and an attachment to wheelchairs allowing parents with disabilities the freedom to carry their child around with them safely.

There were also a number of consumer medical products and treatment technologies. This is an exciting area of design and is constantly developing but includes the challenges of ethical clearance for product testing. These challenges were overcome by the students through a combination of expert advice from university staff members such as sleep experts, diabetes specialists and arthritis researchers, and creative research and user interaction methodologies.

The finalists represented the diverse range of skills that are developed at Loughborough that are gained by students during their studies and work placements. Professor Tracy Bhamra, Dean of Loughborough Design School commented: "Every year the standard gets higher but this year it's been exponential."

If you did miss out on the exhibition there will be a selection of students exhibiting at New Designers in London from 3rd - 6th of July. The Degree Show book will also be made available online here http://www.ldsdegreeshow.co.uk

by Hannah Lewis and Liam-Carter Hawkins - DSUK Ambassadors for Loughborough university

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The 2013 Made In Brunel exhibition saw Brunel’s final year graduates producing another year of well thought out, innovative and fascinating products. With such a breadth of projects, many of them supported by industry, the show had a lot to offer for both the curious individual and the design professional alike.

In the heart of London’s South Bank, the Oxo Tower Wharf’s Bargehouse played host to the work of Brunel’s school of Engineering and Design. This rustic setting presented a labyrinth of projects that spanned three floors, with each room hosting a different genre of projects, from Transport to User-centred design.

The largest number of people to date from proud parents to professionals visited the show. Highlights included; Richard Coomber’s Adapt-Air - an emergency respirator system, Damion Rossolimos’ Imbali - an educational growing pod for the third world and Brunel Dragons Den winner Jeremy Ireland with his water rescue device for rural Bangladesh. Student Spolights of these coming soon!

The top floor of the Bargehouse revealed the exhibitions futuristic insights, the “Brand Futures” product concepts. These blue-sky projects were part of an exercise to assess where a certain brand may be in the future and apply their brand language to various products. These included Barclays Bank, Men’s Health and many more. Each idea is immortalised in a beautifully considered and detailed aesthetic model, which many people could be found ogling over. The Sony WondUlar project pictured left was a particularly good example of this future thinking.

Although away from the big, bold concepts that caught peoples eyes and working prototypes that astounded the inquisitive, there was perhaps a taste of things to come. Service design. This area of design is about creating a series of user touchpoints and interactions to make a service usable and desirable. Instead of product and service, the hybrid service-product is becoming key. Projects such as Amy Huckfield’s Kudo concept for children that suffer from ADHD and Josh Harrington’s mySainsbury’s app to help minimise food waste, epitomised this trend.

Made In Brunel goes from strength to strength each year, and this year wasn’t an exception. With more focus on the individuals that make up the collective, the value of the designers was pushed beyond the brand.

If you missed the show (or just want a bit more info), why not download their new app for the iPad?

by Sam Mitchell - DSUK Ambassador for Brunel

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We.Create International, proudly present Raw Talent, the first ever student-run Art Exhibition and Fashion Show at UAL which aims to create a platform for creative students to showcase their hidden talent to respected members of the Art and Design industry.

  Raw Talent will involve an art exhibition during the day, and a glamorous fashion show in the evening.  The exhibition will consist of a wide variety of artwork of the highest quality including paintings, ceramics, photography and garments from eight different universities, including and not limited to Central School of Speech and Drama and Goldsmith University.

After careful review we have selected 69 artists whose pieces are deemed to be of the best quality.  For the fashion show, we will be joined by 30 models who will bring onto the runway garments designed by aspiring fashion designers from different art colleges such as Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion.  As well as providing the perfect platform for the exchanging of artistic ideas, Raw Talent is guaranteed to be an enriching, entertaining and delightful experience, and it would be our great honour if you and your friends come and join us for the day!

Dates: Fri 28th – Sat 29th JUN 2013 Address: Hoxton Gallery, 9 Kingsland Road, London E2 8AA, United Kingdom Online Ticketing: http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/rawtalent2013/  Website: http://rawtalent2013.weebly.com/

Ticket details Art Exhibition: £4.00 Fashion Show & Exhibition: £7.00 (Note that Fashion Show is only open to public on the 29th)

Rob

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With over 50 entries and 7 amazing designs selected as finalists we are proud to reveal the winners selected by MOO.COM!

Congratulations to Karolis Jurevicius - Product Design Engineering student at Brunel University - who is the overall winner receiving £150 to spend at MOO.COM!

The team here at DSUK loved the eye catching bold style of the design, matched with a professional layout and the diamond theme being continued across both the front and back of the card.

His entry received some great feedback from the design team at MOO.COM

"Karolis' [design] is bright, fun and contemporary, with classic typography" Anup Sharma-Yun, Head of Graphics

"Karolis' [design] is eye catching and memorable. As a piece of generic branding, it's very versatile and scalable. It works well across multiple products AND other brand touch-points." Matt Grey, Director of Ideation

  The runner up is Emma Flynn - Design student at Loughborough University - who receives £50 to spend at MOO.COM

She was also the public favourite on our Facebook Page with over 40 votes!

The idea of using a word cloud was great and meant the card could be used by a wide range of individuals. The relaxed colour scheme also complimented the overall look and feel of the card.

Once again thank you for all the entries, if you want to take a look the designs of the 7 finalists can still be seen on our Facebook Page.

Keep and eye out on the Design Students UK website as we will be announcing our next national competition soon, which isn't one to be missed!

Rob

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Aston Martin Oil Can Concept

Using a unique Visual Deconstruction Research tool to create a concept oil can for the luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin - visual branding takes on a whole new form. The aggressive Vanquish, the clean cut One 77, the classic DB5 and DB9 provided the ultimate resource for visual inspiration for Will Broadway, First Year Industrial Design Student studying Industrial Design Studies 1 at Loughborough University. Will extracted the distinctive graphemes, the shapes and forms that evoked the 'muscular-elegance' of Aston Martin, to create a form that truly embodied the brand 'DNA'. "I just sketched hundreds of concepts every day, I didn't want to go for anything too wacky as Aston Martin has a subtle elegance to it, instead I sketched several iterations of similar ideas, but maintaining the same attention to detail as the car designs themselves such as a 2:1 ratio to every shape."   "Once I'd settled on a form, it was really important to receive feedback from those around me, we all worked in groups on the same brand so we could bounce ideas off one another and rank our designs." – Will Broadway  Through in depth research into the brand and collaborative working to produce a more grounded design, Will was able to create a form that reflected Aston Martin's unique brand aesthetic.  Even the oil cap itself which uses a valve system to aid pouring the oil so that the user does not get their hands dirty - quality was considered at every design decision. This project proves that Designers are invaluable to businesses, as they can provide creative solutions to marketing and visual branding in new and innovative forms.

Take a look at the project on Behance, or watch the project video.

by Hannah Lewis and Liam Carter-Hawkins - DSUK Ambassadors for Loughborough University

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The James Dyson Award is once again open for entries, and with £30,000 going to the winner you can’t afford not to enter!

The UK has a shortage of 40,000 science and engineering graduates. In a tough economic climate, it is more important than ever for young people to get to grips with design engineering and create money-making big ideas.  James Dyson, one of Britain’s most iconic inventors, is using his success story to inspire a new generation of designers and engineers.

His charitable trust, the James Dyson Foundation, runs an annual competition to find the best problem solvers in the world. Last year it was Dan Watson from the Glasgow School of Art with ‘Safetynet’ – an ingenious idea that helps to make deep-sea fishing more sustainable.

“Winning the James Dyson Award has given me the money to further develop my invention but possibly more importantly it has raised awareness about what I am doing. Since winning the award I have received calls from organisations who are interested in testing and helping me bring Safetynet to the market.”

– Dan Watson, designer of Safetynet 

The brief asks you simply to ‘design something that solves a problem’, which gives you plenty of room to submit any of those ingenious ideas you’ve been having!

£30,000 is up for grabs, with another £10,000 going to your University department; it’s not an opportunity to be missed.

To enter:

Submit footage, images and sketches of your ideas to www.jamesdysonaward.org by 1st August 2013, along with stories detailing your design process and inspiration. 

Who can participate?

Any university level student of product design, industrial design or engineering, (or graduate within four years of graduation) who is studying or studied in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK and USA.

Good Luck!

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The Ceramic Stereo may be the future of tabletop music systems for mobile phones.

The audio system, designed by Victor Johansson an Industrial Design student at central St Martins, makes walking in putting your phone down and listening to music easier than ever. Your phone wirelessly streams music to the stereo using bluetooth which is great in itself, however the ingenuity is actually within the control interface. The system operates by using three NFC ‘hot-spots’ that are triggered when the phone is placed on different points on the stereo’s surface. Two of these act as play and pause controls and the final switches the source to the radio - when activated subtle glowing text shows what that positions does.

Victor tells us a bit more about his thinking behind the project below:

Connected Interactions - Seamlessly merging the physical and digital to create interactions with improved sensory richness.

“This project is looking at the two main discourses of interaction-design; screen-based and object-based, and positions itself in the gap between the two. It questions whether or not it is possible to combine the two and create products that take advantage of both the flexibility of screens and the tactility of tangible interfaces.

By combining the physical with the intangible this project tries to tame the technology beast. Making technology, connectivity, functions, and actions more graspable and relatable without losing out of the function-rich screen-interfaces. Seamlessly integrating interactions with the digital world into mundane scenarios and making sure that technology becomes in tune with people and our environments, not the other way around”

Overall we love the simple appearance of what is a very complex product. Victor has reduced what was a complex set of tasks into a single, immediately understandable interaction.

Take a look at the video of the stereo in action here.

And see Victor’s other work on his website.

  Rob

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Apple has recently embarked on a complete overhaul of their iOS user interface system, with Jonathan Ive overseeing the user interface design.  The software may now incorporate a flat design which is a complete contrast to their current skeuomorphic approach, but what’s caused the shift?

Firstly if you don’t already know, a skeuomorphic UI tries to recreate textures and features we come across everyday digitally; apps such as ‘find my friends’, calendars with faux leather and book cases with false veneers are all perfect examples. A flat design instead strips away all unnecessary distractions resulting in a minimal, two dimensional interface.

The shift came about as of early 2013 with Apple removing Scott Forstall (the senior vice president of iOS Software), and putting Ive at the forefront of the redesign. Ive’s influence so far has begun manifesting itself in the revamping of icons, pushing aside any skeuomorphic graphics and aiding the integration between the software and hardware teams, which apparently used to work in isolation. This would suggest that Ive will push for a flatter and simpler UI for iOS 7 – Haven’t we seen another big software company make the same move…?

That’s right, Windows 8; many software companies are now bucking the skeuomorphic trend and are jumping on the flat UI bandwagon, with Windows being one of the first with their Windows 8 phone/desktop, which uses flat design with 3D hints in transitions for a graphical and easy to use software. Apple haven’t exclusively revealed anything certain about iOS 7 as of yet though, so who’s to say how dramatic the shift will be.

By Luke Pennifold, A Level Student Contributor 

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“Fixperts” from Brunel University re-think feeding livestock, with Sheep Snacker. This low tech and highly effective solution exposes the advantages of working closely with your client. 

Back in 2012, James Carrigan (co-founder of Sugru) and Daniel Charny (curator of Power of Making) started Fixperts. Since then, the design methodology of fixing problems people face everyday is becoming a mainstream trend.

Recently, a group of first year product and industrial designers from Brunel University undertook such a project. Through close observation, the team gained insights into the problems their client faced. They re-designed how the farmer, Craig Langton, feeds his sheep, with a device that connects to the back of his utility vehicle. The system is both easy to transport and effortless to operate. Once full of feed, it drops an optimal number of ���sheep snacks” every two metres.

So, as well as making dinnertime a bit easier, how does this really benefit Craig? Well, it eliminates the need for feed troughs, which keeps the land in better condition. This reduces water logging, which has been known to spread disease between animals.

“Now the sheep get fed much better, with less stress for the sheep and certainly less stress for me” – Craig Langton, Farmer

“Working with a client on a one to one basis was both enjoyable and rewarding. It reinforces what is expected of you, as a designer, and the close interaction with the client makes their needs clearer.” - Dominic Harker, Brunel Fixpert

The Fixpert initiative highlights the effectiveness of design for the real world. Although, some may consider the time demands on both the designer and client, as a drawback. It requires a degree of sensitivity when working so closely with your client, but shows how successful co-design can be.

Check out the team’s video here!

by Sam - DSUK Ambassador for Brunel University

  Designers:

Dominic Harker Adam Joques Amy Langton Jeavan Tagger Rachel Tinkler Dan Towns

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Adobe just had its yearly ‘Max’ conference in LA and amongst other items of big news they announced their first venture into the world of hardware design.

This comes in the form of 2 products the ‘Mighty’ and the ‘Napoleon’. In effect the Mighty is a responsive digital stylus designed to be used on an iPad, and the Napoleon is the accompanying ruler - but there is more to these products than initially meets the eye.

The mighty works largely as you would expect. It allows you to draw on your iPad’s screen and integrates pressure sensitivity through a bluetooth connection to the iPad. However it does come with a few tricks up its sleeve including a cloud based clipboard, a useful shortcut button, integrated memory and some software tweaks that sets itself apart from other products. This is all pretty cool, but nothing that special.

The Napoleon on the other hand is something truly ingenious. The ability to use a ruler on a touchscreen has never seemed so appealing and Adobe’s execution of this is astounding. The Napoleon works by ensuring any line you draw on the screen is parallel to the rule’s angle irrespective of where you do that in the workspace (this is made a great deal more clear in the video). This allows for a huge amount of flexibility and creates an extremely fluid workflow.

The industrial design of both these products is fantastic and will compliment iPads extremely well. In particular the Mighty has an extremely attractive twisted triangle cross section that looks great to hold, and the Napoleon’s touch sensitive buttons look great.

When used together, these products will be a huge development in the growing world of touch screens as they truly bridge the gap between the physical and digital. It is quite amazing that something like this hasn’t been made before!

Sadly there is no date or price available currently, but take a look at the video below, and let us know what you think.

By Rob

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Glass is one of the most fascinating pieces of wearable technology coming to market, but in the midst of all the hype over micro wearable computers, what do users have to gain over the latest smart phone?

Many critics say a major problem with smart phones is that users have to look down or through your phone. Watching your favourite band play via the lens of a device, for example, breaks the experience and thrill of the moment. Glass allows users to capture those moments in a way, and with a design, that gets out the way and sees the world from your point of view, instead of vice versa.

Some experts believe that at the moment Glass isn’t aesthetically humanised, they look too futuristic and would need to be integrated with current fashion trends such as the ‘hipster’ look for people to actually want to wear these glasses. Google are currently working to build an ecosystem around Glass in terms of both software and style – simply removing a small screw allows the frame to be swapped out, potentially opening up the market for consumers if big brands embrace the technology. 

Another concern is advertisements, and whether Google could use the platform for mass advertising. For now that’s not an option (thankfully!) – Google have put a blanket ban on advertising through Glass.

Glass is a big step in wearable technological innovation, meaning that a future where biologically embedded technology planted into our brains is that bit closer. However, for me Google would need to work closely with designers to help integrate the futuristic aesthetics with current fashion trends to produce stylish glasses that simply look good, if they want it to work.

By Luke Pennifold – A Level Student Contributor

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We are excited to announce our first national competition specifically for design students!

We have partnered with MOO.COM to give you the opportunity to design a business card. Not only is there a chance to have your design used by them, the winner will also receive £150 (and runner up £50) to spend at MOO.COM.

To enter download the following files and send us your final designs (from your university email address) by 1st June 2013 to info@design-students.co.uk

COMPETITION BRIEF

BUSINESS CARD TEMPLATE 

(Be sure to select the business card template before sending us your final design in a JPEG format under 500kb)

If you have any questions, get in touch with rob@design-students.co.uk

Good luck, we are really looking forward to seeing your designs!

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DSUK recently had the opportunity to interview the main designer behind Lowdi - a premium bluetooth speaker created by the agency Momkai.

Momkai is an award winning digital creative agency based in Amsterdam with clients including Nike, G-Star and Adobe - Lowdi is one of their latest projects, their newest brand and most importantly: their own startup. We were lucky enough to interview Harald Dunnink, Momkai's founder and lead designer, in the design studio in Amsterdam.

The bluetooth speaker has an attractive minimalist design that can link up with any bluetooth enabled phone and can even be used as a handsfree speakerphone. Of course the main focus of the product is the design and every aspect of this has been considered in great detail including the brands image, simple instructions on the base and the overall look and feel of the product. As you can see from the images Lowdi sets itself apart from the rest of the bluetooth speaker crowd, and after reading the interview below you will see how this happened.

  How did Momkai start?

Momkai was founded by Harald 10 years ago straight after leaving University. He wanted complete freedom for his creativity and knew starting his own company would give him this, and that he would learn a vast amount more that continuing to study further. Over the years it has continued to grow and now has 21 individuals in the team, with the majority of the design being done by Harald and Martijn van Dam. Their focus has always been producing the best possible work, and words cannot express his passionate belief that what he does speaks for itself, not the awards or client list you have. His focus is on creating quality, and with a quick look at their website you can see this.

  How did Lowdi come into being?

Harald regularly mentioned how he wants to be pushing boundaries with his work and always wants to try new things out of his comfort zone - and for a digital design agency, branching out into product design is exactly that. The project began when, whilst working with a company that produced USB peripherals, he was presented with a shell of a product and was told it could become a speaker. Even though initially hesitant Harald fell in love with the idea when at the following meeting the shell had become a speaker that could be connected to via Bluetooth. At this point he become full enveloped into the project and seized the opportunity of being able to design every feasible part of a product, from its brand right through to the physical form.

  How did the brand develop into the product it is now?

Lowdi is a personal story and everything about the product shows that. The whole design is seeping with personality and energy and every aspect from receiving the packaged Lowdi to turning it on for the first time being meticulously considered. Even the logo is representative of Harald's own hand writing. It is a wholly connected, instantly recognisable product brand family. This is what separates Lowdi from other similar products, it is a labour of love not a product merely created to make money. It is designed to not only be the best but also to be affordable for every person. Harald expressed how since a young age he wanted only a well designed and perfectly built car and waited years so that the first car he owned was the one he dreamed of, in Lowdi he wanted everyone to have this feeling. Distilling a level of affection into a Lowdi that a sports car designer would be proud of, but making the price point something everyone could reach.

  What were the biggest challenges of moving from digital into physical?

When working in digital design everyone is focussed purely on the appearance and how it works, yet with the move into product design Harald then had to work with marketing/sales departments. And as their focus generally lies with profit margins, sales statistics and exponential curves it became a challenge to show that the design really does matter. Of course the main difficulty lies with manufacturing, production and shipping, all of which practically don't exist with digital design. Working with teams in China Harald explained how the most effective way of design communication was to keep it simple. They sent over countless mood boards and sketches with quite literally happy and sad faces next to them to convey exactly what they wanted. This may seem rudimentary but, as you can see from the final product, it works extremely well. The other big change was adapting to the length of timelines. Digital product can go from receiving a brief to delivering the design in a matter of months. But with the complexity of physical design, endless testing, problem solving and the occasional manufacturing issue product design time lines can really drag out. This can become even more taxing when it takes weeks waiting to hear back from people within the supply chain itself.

  What is the future of Lowdi

Momkai aims to continue with the Lowdi brand, making small affordable products that combine the digital with the physical to make your life more enjoyable and fun.

  What is your advice for design students?

Always aim for highest quality, you may not always get there as everyone makes mistakes, but continually focus on quality.

Don’t work purely for the deadline. Alongside money, the client and your team it’s just another part of the frame that defines your playground. Everything within that frame is up for grabs and can be designed which ever way works best, do what you like to do in that space and enjoy yourself.

  If you want to see more of Lowdi - please head over to the website www.lowdi.com we are also excited to announce there may be a design competition with Lowdi in the near future!

Rob

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Wearable technology isn’t a new concept, but Google Glass is one of the latest pieces of innovation that has the potential to make a significant impact on society. These smart glasses use a heads-up display to create a futuristic experience by overlaying digital images onto reality. But how do they work?

At the hub of Google Glass there is a micro computer embedded into the frame, connecting directly to a glass prism that cleverly diffracts a light beam directly onto your retina - enabling the user to see what’s on display by casually glancing up and right at any time. Glass also incorporates a camera, microphone (for voice activated control), GPS and uses bone-induction for sound (meaning when it reads you the weather forecast, you’ll be the only one who hears it!). Voice recognition is used to control the device; you say ‘OK Glass’ to navigate the menu which includes taking pictures, videos, messages, video conferencing or even getting directions. For all those moments when saying ‘OK Glass’ loudly might be slightly embarrassing, however, there is a touch sensitive pad on the frame.

Most of this functionality is extremely intuitive, which Google has done very well to achieve. They have been able to combine technological innovation with a streamlined interface that is so simple to use, it’s almost as if it isn’t there. In addition, the use of voice-activated control has enabled Glass to move one step closer to total integration with our daily lives – which is either very scary, or very exciting!

Check back this time next week for Part 2, when we’ll be discussing whether Glass will take off like Google hope!

By Luke Pennifold – A Level Student Contributor

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Do you want to be a part of Design Students UK as it grows to be a key link between students and industry?

  DSUK are looking for University Ambassadors to help promote the brand, it’s competitions and find talented young designers for us to feature. 

If you’re currently studying design at Brunel, Loughborough, Bournemouth or Northumbria and think you’re up for the challenge, send us an e-mail at info@design-students.co.uk before Friday 26th April with who you are, a CV (if you have one) and a three sentence description of why you would be best for the job. 

For more information download the official job description, or pop us an e-mail. We look forward to hearing from you!

The DSUK team

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The Designs of the Year awards is now open at the Design Museum in london. The show houses projects from all creative fields which were nominated and then judged before being accepted. The best of the best is on display and as usual is an eclectic mix of architecture, product, fashion and more.

A truly inspirational show, this is one of the year's must-see exhibitions. 

Open from the 20th of March to 7th of July.

Designs of the Year

- George Smart