Help support the Butterfly Conservation Society Ghana with their new t-shirt in a bottle initiative.

.:bcghana.org->

i-genius in partnership with British Council hosted a teleconference seminar in London, UK, and Guangzhou, China, on Thursday 3rd of June. The seminar explored how social businesses support disabled access in public service areas such as education, employment, healthcare, transport and sport. Participants met and communicated online by using CISCO’s cutting-edge Tele-Presence facilities.

.:i-genius.org->

Could you please describe the concept behind the Mag+?

This is one of several prototypes we’ve developed with our design partner Berg, based on our vision of future digital magazines that can be consumed on e-readers, smart phones, netbooks, etc. It’s a work in progress. We think there is a big focus on technology and e-readers but in the end, it’s about creating a product that is so good that people are willing to pay for it. But I should emphasize that this is a product designed for e-readers and not primarily for the Internet.

Who was behind the development of the Mag+?

Bonnier R&D and design partner BERG.

Where are the limits when reading into what the “magazine experience” is?

As our partners at BERG like to say: “The Mag+ platform is not a wrist screen running clock software… it is a watch.” The user doesn’t need to look through the device at the content. It is an immediate experience of the content. It will never feel like you’re working through the screen, it should feel like you’re touching the actual product. It is about body language, a natural interface, rather than a set of computery buttons.

: Continue on to the interview :

Mass Media meets Mass Production: New works by Chicago natives Hebru Brantley and Christophe Roberts will be presented at Lyons Wier Gallery in concurrent exhibitions that blur the boundaries between fine art, social commentary and consumer products. Each artist will present a body of work that engages and navigates contemporary urban realities with critical wit, precision, agility, and vision.

Journey of a Thousand Eyes 2010, Mixed media
38 x 38 x 24 inches

Amongst the Hustle 2010, Mixed media and collage
57 x 67 inches

: Images courtesy of the Lyons Wier Gallery :

Aneesh Chopra was sworn in by President Obama in May 2009 as the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer.

Chopra has sought to use information technology to raise public awareness about President Obama’s policies on health care, energy and the environment. Chopra discusses how investing in technological innovation is a crucial aspect of job creation, reducing health-care costs and protecting the country.

.:fora.tv->

The Windy City Times recently talked with Aldo Castillo, Associate Director of the Miami International Art Fair, which happens January 13-17, 2011, about closing the award-winning gallery bearing his name and now identifying with a larger world. Below is an excerpt from the interview:

The art fair you’re becoming director of takes place in January?

Yes, Jan. 13-17. That’s the one I’m directing, but I’m helping, shaping the fair so it becomes competitive. Because the gallery behavior has totally changed-you don’t see that many customers walking by into galleries anymore. Galleries are facing new challenges and they have nothing to do with the economy, they have to do with technology. Galleries now depend on their websites for people to know where they are or what they do. Many people who like art like to go to art fairs because it’s like a little museum coming to you for three days or four days. When it comes to the business of people looking at art, art fairs are the prime today the main venue for selling art.

Why did you decide to keep your gallery here online?

Because I am considered one of the main voices for Latin American art. I have studied the movements in Latin American art, what sells, what doesn’t sell, the prices, the authenticity of the work, so I am a key person that is knowledgeable about that. When I decided to close the gallery, all these people advised me not to do it-to keep the name alive. It’s better to keep what I have done open.

.:windycitymediagroup.com->

Chile has become the first nation to officially put net neutrality principles into law. In a vote by the Chilean legislature, the new law won a near unanimous vote, according to local media.

The new law forces ISPs to “ensure access to all types of content, services or applications available on the network and offer a service that does not distinguish content, applications or services, based on the source of it or their property”.

.:elpais.com->

“Smile, breath, and go slowly.”

less TV, more reading

less shopping, more outdoors

less clutter, more space

less rush, more slowness

less consuming, more creating

less junk, more real food

less busywork, more impact

less driving, more walking

less noise, more solitude

less focus on the future, more on the present

less work, more play

less worry, more smiles

breathe

.:startupceo.co.za->

It is routine to hear tutors and studio heads bemoaning the amount of time students and designers spend gorging on the numberless websites and blogs devoted to the visual archaeology of graphic design. If you dig deep enough online, you can pretty much guarantee you’ll find every significant piece of graphic design ever made. If it’s not onFlickr, ffffound, Grain Edit, or one of a thousand other sites, it will be soon.

This super-abundance of visual material floating untethered in the frictionless wastes of the internet has had two profound side effects. The first is on the sales of graphic design books. I recently interviewed Marc Valli, the astute co-founder of Magma Books, the mini-chain of UK bookstores known intimately to all British designers. He told me that there is a sardonic mantra regularly exchanged by book buyers: “5 is the new 50.” Where once a buyer would take fifty copies of a title, they now take a paltry five. “Do not believe anyone who tells you that people are buying the same amount of books,” says Valli. “They’re kidding themselves — or they’re lying.”

.:observatory.designobserver.com->