Andrew Burroughs, an IDEO engineer has created a cool little backpocket book about objects, their design and creation and their deterioration over time. Mini-essays on topics such as craftmanship, interfaces, elegance, and materials are lavishly with photographs. Beautiful - read more.

Product designers should read this Fast Company article about Designer Yves Béhar, founder of San Francisco design firm Fuseproject, and how companies that develop fully integrated design strategies tend to outperform those that do not (10 to 1).

Béhar is "the man behind Aliph's best-selling Jawbone headset, Herman Miller's groundbreaking Leaf LED lamp, a line of lifestyle goods for Mini, the reinvention of Birkenstocks, a bench for Bernhardt's Global Edition, a chandelier for Swarovski, and the news-making $100 laptop with MIT's Nicholas Negroponte."

[ via engadget ]

Carmakers in Japan gear up for the upcoming 40th Tokyo Motor Show by showing off a new generation of concept cars. Pink Tentacle has gathered together a few of the more interesting designs from Toyoto, Honda, Suzuki, and more.

[ via Treehugger ]

The heading at the top says "USB ne-ku-ta-i - ku-ra" (necktie cooler).

[ via plasticbamboo.com ]

"A girl floats inside a sphere on a river on the outskirts of Beijing on May 3, 2007. The ball-shaped device enables people to "walk" on water surfaces. China is celebrating a weeklong Labor Day holiday, when millions of Chinese people travel to major cities to enjoy cultural attractions or return home to visit relatives and friends."

In today's New York Times, How to Improve It? Ask Those Who Use It., exhorts the notion of user-driven innovation for being able to come up with ideas that product manufacturers never dream of. Examples of citizen product design cited in the article include Burton Snowboards, which evolved from modifications that Jake burton Carpenter made to the Snurfer.

The author points to Denmark with its focus on "janteloven," a particularly Danish philosophy of social equality, as a possible hub for the rise of user-innovation. He also notes a current cultural resurgence of D.I.Y. mentality (see review of D.I.Y. - Design It Yourself) as one of the forces driving the adaptation of democratic design.

www.foldschool.com gives you easy to print and follow plans to build simple cardboard furniture for kids. Wait till they start doing adult-sized furnture! Bye bye, Ikea!

[ via core77 ]