We can now breathe a little easier; no more hours of angst trying to construct the perfect paper plane. Three students at Leeds University have applied their education and skills to solve the dilemma of the perfect paper plane and have come up with Avenger. Academics have evaluated the Avenger to combine aerodynamics with ease of manufacture.

The next time you’re trapped in a soporific meeting, all you need is an A4 paper and impeccable folding skills to obliterate boredom.

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Ultimate Paper Plane

The Interaction Design Institute Ivrea presented Exit – 19 projects that exhibited exciting future scenarios in interaction design. Exit celebrated and saluted the work of students that arrived from over ten different countries to study at Ivrea.

For their final year, the students designed projects that took cues from audio, products design, mobile and wireless technology, fashion, film sports, graphic design and even theatre. The students designed innovative working prototypes as part of their year-end thesis. Among the many products was a combined holistic health monitor and advisor that dispenses tea appropriate to one’s current health and Design Improve – a service to be used by design companies and their clients to facilitate the design process.

One of my favourites is Pronto, a navigation and communication system for car drivers that would be exceedingly handy during the traumatic rush-hours in Dubai. Pronto not only plans the entire route but offers traffic updates as well as regulates its communication channel to prioritise the destination contact, scheduled contacts, and the frequent contact list. The current interface includes a touch-screen, ‘head-up’ projection on the windscreen, and a dashboard-mounted progress-bar display.

Steven Blyth’s The Social Fabric would thrill any social butterfly. The Social Fabric is a representation of one’s social world, displayed as a single visual array on a cellular phone. While no alternative to an address book or calendar, it subtly updates you on which relationships are thriving in your social network, which are being neglected as well as and the overall state of your social fabric.

Also Tazaki’s InstantShareCam merits a mention. Combing hardware specification and a software application, it permits groups of people armed with a camera to shoot and edit videos on the fly. An on-screen intuitive interface together with uncomplicated controls, offers each group to see what the others are shooting and help decide which video-stream takes precedence, etc.

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Ivrea Exit//End of Year Show 2005

Design Innovation Awards (DIA) is an independent Russian award granted for outstanding projects in the field of innovation design and architecture.

The Awards aim to discover contemporary trends and representation as well as detect innovative and exciting projects. Annually, three designs are selected in each category and luminaries in the design & architecture world judge the finalists.

Syringe Button (link)

The winner was Vladislav Kropachev’s the syringe-button which serves as a DIY injection. Once, placed on the skin surface and pressed, the needle penetrates the protective film and pierces the skin. The piston then moves further down and the reverse end of the punctures the medicine capsule. Simultaneously the air-bubble inflates and presses the medicine capsule immediately releasing the medicine through the needle. The size of the capsule along with the length of the needle can be dependent on the course of application. The syringe-buttons have a massive mass-product potential and can mimic pills by having the dosage prescription and name printed on top.

Roman Kriheli’s Phone (link)

My favourite piece (primarily because I am shopping for new phone) is Kriheli’s mega-sleek #1 Phone. The phone’s entire surface is a colour sensor display 4.2 inches in diagonal (a TFT-matrix of 700 × 266 pixels) protected with a 2-mm transparent plastic shield. The buttons are 13 mm in diameter and additionally the telephone is equipped with a metal joystick. The phone can be used vertically or horizontally. The telephone will support GSM networks (900, 1800, 1900) as well as the 3G networks (the third generation). A wireless data exchange feature (Bluetooth 2) enables synchronisation with a computer.

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Design Innovation Awards 2005

If your penchant for the occasional bottle of plonk leads you to amass wine bottles, here is something you can finally do with those discarded bottles. AD have created candles pertinent for those empty wine bottles. Instead of rummaging for your de ri·gueur candles, why not plop one of these into the bottle and burn, baby burn.

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& Design

The Road-Witch Trial is a series of experiments exploring creative ways to repurpose roads as enjoyable public living space and reclaim them from what they call ‘petro-bigots’ who conduct their reign of terror by speeding through. Some of these imaginative experiments include dressing up like santa and asking motorists to stop and donate their speed for charity, have a junk sculpture made from old bicycles and slowly wheel them through the streets or, much recently, move your living room into the street so you can remind motorists that you live here and they had better not speed.

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The Road Witch Trial
BBC: Driving the argument home (tip: Bushra)

For anyone who has felt the dispassionate and lacklustre embrace of the commonplace airport, a (somewhat whimsical) scheme is here to change things.

Stuart Sproule takes up the quest to reclaim the title of Worlds #1 Airport for Schiphole Airport (Amsterdam). Building upon his usual theme of turning urban areas into playgrounds he proposes turning the whole experience into a game to be navigated. Instead of experiencing time slow down while waiting endlessly, he encourages airports to provide incentives for passengers to realise the ‘world of opportunities’ awaiting them. How? By creating a real life video gaming experience complete with levels, extra points for difficult stages, miss a turn, and even pause game. Whilst surely there exists an already healthy level of competition between commuters, this is one way displacing it, possibly by publishing leader board scores.

The less energetic passenger might be more interested in Sproule’s Treasure map, “to inspire people to discover beautiful and small secrets throughout the airport … there are so many things to see and enjoy along the way, but the passengers are so focussed on the goal of boarding that they don’t even think for a second to enjoy all the moments in the process.” And even if you don’t have time to waste, your dash to the checkout could be brightened up by random giant inflatable objects.

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We can’t get enough of soop-group’s quirky products and the Plate is for Pea is a great post-prandial entertainment. The plate is simplistic and has numerous grooves with ‘scores’ for you to sink your peas into by flicking, swirling or even spitting, if so inclined. The accompanying booklet contains extensive tips and tricks to trounce your opponents.

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Soop: Plate is for the Pea

Erich Ginder takes a mundane coat rack and turns it into a political statement. “How can I use my furniture to make a statement about industrialization and the rapid depletion of natural resources without having to buy an armchair made of cardboard?”

Answer ladies and gents: The Ghost Antler Coat Rack

Its available for $ 230 from Design Public where you even get some Freudian encouragement at the checkout to help you part with your cash. While your there you might also want to check out the Mansion Chandelier. Constructed from laser-cut aluminium and halogen lamps, it will add chic grandeur to you antlers.

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Erich Ginder (via)

The Duncan Mug is a whimsical way to enrich the cuppa experience. Each Duncan Mug conceals ceramic biscuits inside. Biscuit aficionados can choose from (or surprise themselves with) a shortbread, custard cream or jam sandwich – all fabulous, non-calorific teatime treats!

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Soop: Duncan

Angular curves and striking subdued lighting… these contradictions coalesce in the Trilight by Buro Vormkrijgers. It can lie on one or two of its legs, or can be hung from the ceiling to provide retro ambient lighting.

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Joost van Bleiswick has designed jigsaw-esque furniture called “No Glue No Screw” that slots together without the need of glue or screws. His sideboard no1 and dresser no1 have a sculptured quality and beautify minimal lines and symmetry.

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The latest posts from our sister site, Wrist Fashion:

Digital Inspired – &Design, a Japanese design quartet, donned their hoods and raided digital iconography for their two concept watches – Icon and LED.

Philippe Starck + Richard Mille – Philippe Starck teams up with Richard Mille for his first foray into the haute horlogerie category.

Only Watch 2005 – 34 of the world’s celebrated watchmakers produced 34 original first edition watches for a charity auction at the Monte Carlo Yacht Show.

Whip me up a cosy chair drawls Laurence-Llewelyn Bowen. Handy Andy jumps into action and … tada Is there anything that MDF cant do?

For our non-GB audience: a comfy chair constructed from 7mm plywood, juxtaposing the hard 2D of the material and the contoured design of the human behind.

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Toda: Topos Chair

If lying under the sky staring at the clouds is your favourite pastime, then you can bring it indoors with the Nimbus light shade. It mimics sunlight shining through a cloud. Mosleymeetswilcox have created a new lightweight material for the purpose by mixing polystyrene balls with resin.

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Mosley meets Wilcox