Crowd Sourced Visual Story of Grand Rapids (or any city)

Crowd Sourced Visual History/Story of Grand Rapids (or any city)

Historically the GR Press has been the source for capturing the day to day history of the city.

Most of what the press captures is written stories…resources and the print medium limits visuals.

There is a limited amount of visual history of the city captured, which is frustrating b/c the city is a living being constantly changing, constantly in flux.

Today there are over 270 million cell phones in the US, 90% of those have a camera.  Those cameras get used like crazy…there have been over 10 billion photos uploaded to facebook.  2-3 terabytes of photos are uploaded every day.  Those cameras are being used!

Photographs are a powerful medium.  They evoke emotion, record history, they are a window into our lives, they tell stories.  There is strong desire in all of us to view and share photographs.  Facebook is proof of that.  Why are we limiting the story of our city to mostly written words and minimal pictures?

Let’s put all of those cameras to use for our city.  Let’s crowd source a visual diary of Grand Rapids!

It’s like a living time capsule for the digital age…

These cell phone cameras offer a great opportunity.  They offer a nearly endless supply of photographers who are willing, able and connected.

Imagine archives of photos of people, streets, building, city events, holiday celebrations, construction projects, sporting events, what rolled off of the production line, what is being sold at a retail shop, and so much more…all visually documented by the public and uploaded to a website database.  It would create a searchable visual diary of the city of Grand Rapids. 

Imagine searching for a specific day in history and receiving a flood of images documenting that day!  How cool would it be to instantly turn back the clock and see our community 5, 10, 20 years ago?

We could partner with the GRPM to help archive and filter the photos.

Facebook captures the story of an individual.  Let’s capture the story of a community. Help us document Grand Rapids legacy for future generations!

Baseboard Cleaner

Baseboards in many homes are painted white.  They get dirty very easily.  Other than getting on your hands an knees to clean them there is no good method for cleaning them.  The baseboard cleaner had an "L" shaped cleaning head and an extendable arm. Disposable wet clean pads attach to the cleaning head.  There are a handful of disposable options to fit different base board styles.  With the cleaning disposable attached the user can scrub and clean the base boards from a much more comfortable standing position.

Maddox Elle

Pencil Portrait of Maddox Elle

Know Your Portion Food Trays!

Economists and Designers?

My Brother-in-law lent me his copy of Super Freakonomics.  I had never seen a connection between industrial designers and economists.  When I heard "economist" I always thought of a Macro economist (someone who deals with the performance, structure, and behavior of the economy of the entire community, either a nation, a region, or the entire world).  But Super Freakonomics is written by micro economist Steven D. Levitt and writer Stephen J. Dubner.  A micro economist focuses on understand why people make choices i.e.purchases, behaviors, etc.The studies they perform and the insights they discover are increadibly interesting.  It is a unique perspective on the driving factors behind human behavior.  A skilled micro economist coould be a great addition to a design team.

Incheon International Design Awards

Local Plate by Dave Veldkamp of Velde Studio finishes 3rd in the Incheon International Design Awards and exhibited at Design Korea 2009 in Incheon, Korea.

Local Plate Concept Description:

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Department, food production accounts for over 18% of green house gas emissions in the world. It is second only to electricity production (20%) and is more than transportation (17%). There have been many efforts dedicated to reducing electricity production’s impact (clean electricity, more efficient devices, usage reduction programs, etc.) and transportation’s impact (hybrid and electric cars, bio-fuels, etc.) on the environment. But what is being done to reduce food production’s environmental impact? Studies led by Rich Pirog at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University have shown that meals prepared with food from local sources produce 4 to 10 times less greenhouse gases than meals prepared from the average supermarket (less processing, packaging, shipping, etc.). That means eating locally can drastically reduce ones carbon footprint. The LOCALPLATE is a reminder that simply eating local food, even if it is only a fraction of the meal can have great impact on the environment. If 1/3 of the meal is from local sources that meals carbon footprint is cut by 25%. If 2/3 is from local sources the percentage jumps to 50%. If all of the meal is from local sources the carbon footprint is reduced by 75%! These are big numbers. Let’s put them into perspective. If 1/3 of the world ate local food 1/3 of the time over 120 million tons of greenhouse gases would be eliminated. Changing 1/3 of every meal to local food has the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions reduction as switching to a hybrid car! Imagine the impact of eating 2/3 or all local food. You could have 2 to 3 times the impact of a hybrid car from eating the food on your LOCALPLATE! What other simple act or device can have such a powerful impact? In addition, LOCALPLATE adds to the dining experience. Foods come in an array of fun colors. Your dinnerware should be fun too! LOCALPLATE offers a variety of colors to fit your tastes A logical line extension would be a biodegradable LOCALPLATE. Eat local food on the go! It’s perfect for any meal away from home.

Also see Designboom for more info.

Velde Studio Sample Work