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

Story Telling and Design

I recently read The Story Factor by Annette Simmons. It is a must read for industrial designers. It is common for designers to have to tell the development story of a product. Which is why story telling needs to be embraced and taught in design education. It is a powerful tool of influence. A designer who can combined story telling with amazing visual material will have great success pushing their ideas through the development pipeline.

In addition, once products are released a creative narrative will develop increased emotional responses to the product. Story telling can build a stronger and more complex relationship with customers. The stronger and more complex the link to the customer, the longer lasting the customer loyalty will be. Every successful product has a successful story whether we are aware of it or not. Some designers tell stories naturally while others struggle. I would suggest that story telling should be a required course in design education. It would enhance presentation skills and increase design's influences in the business world. If I were a student looking for an elective class I would highly recommend a course to improve your story telling.

I am interest to hear others thoughts on this. Perhaps there are d-schools already requiring story telling? Perhaps there are other books or articles covering this topic?