What Women Make » design

Design Mind Julie Taraska – Part I

Chauncey Zalkin — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:31:59 +0000

Julie Taraska, senior design editor of Gilt Home + a design & culture journalist you should know

I had a three hour (THREE HOUR!) conversation yesterday with Julie Taraska, design and culture journalist and interesting person extraordinaire . She was funny, kind, and not just kinda funny, a lot of both; it was a good time all around. I’ve just transcribed my manic notes during our conversation which covered everything to cost of living in London vs. New York to molecular food to how to pull people off the mass consumption train wreck – and then she followed up with amazing lists of helpful information from her ample experience writing for Metropolis, Details, Fast Company, the New York Times, Icon, Men’s Vogue, I.D. and so on.

GO TO her “Store-y” to see the interview and slideshows on both her favorite New York stores and companies as well as her top 10 NY designers to watch.

It was really a woman who

Chauncey Zalkin — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 13:49:39 +0000

Mary Anderson invented the windshield wiper in 1903.

Invented the windshield wiper:

Charlotte Bridgwood upped the ante going electric in 1917. She’s the inventor of the windshield wiper in its modern incarnation. Other inventions by women in the way of cars, that most manly man of manly arenas include the carburetor, a clutch mechanism, an electric engine starter, and a starting mechanism. I read that on about.com. And from an interview with Ethlie Ann Vare who wrote Mothers of Invention — From the Bra to the Bomb, Forgotten Women and Their Unforgettable Ideas, I learned that:

“It was a woman, Lady Mary Montagu, who first cured smallpox.
It was a woman, Gladys Hobby, who first purified penicillin.

It was a woman, Gertrude Elion, who cured childhood leukemia.

(It was also a woman) Stephanie Kwolek (who) invented Kevlar (bulletproof fabric.)” -America.gov

I got to all those nifty tidbits after reading that it was a woman who designed the paper bag, an article related to the exhibit Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen showing at the MOMA which sounds really cool (if I was in New York and not Barcelona I’d go to it.) I read that although it was popularly attributed to a man by the name of Francis Wolle (This kind of thing happens all the time, every day. Like didn’t it happen to you sometime this week?), it was really a woman, Margaret Knight (not pictured left, this is a ‘factory girl’), who invented the square bottom bag, the paper bag we know today, and developed the machine to automate the making of it. Ms. Knight was also the first female to be granted a U.S. patent.

So this Sunday, light a little candle (and stick it inside a brown paper bag – as in here, from our wedding walk) to Margaret Knight.

Inspired Monday: Two Visual Visionaries & A Young Playwright Who Stole the Show

Chauncey Zalkin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:46:47 +0000

Meet 28 year old Katori Hall from Memphis. She won Best New Play at the Olivier awards. The Mountaintop is an imagined account of Martin Luther King

Pauline Van Dongen 3-D Printed Shoes. Featured on Fast Company. (later part of our What Women Make – Women in Design 1st edition show at the London Design Festival, autumn 2010)

Shanan Campanaro surface design reminiscent of Rorschach test

What Women Make: Snapshots of Greece

Chauncey Zalkin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:29:00 +0000

*lead photo by Venia Bechrakis

With Greece making the headlines for its economic woes, I was inspired to go on the hunt for modern female talent from the birthplace of democracy and give it some positive attention. Some of my picks have been around awhile, some are fresh on the scene. They come from sculpture, photography, fashion, jewelry, and of course there’s that one certain Greek media mogul who’s in a class of her own. Also check out TEDxAthens and the accomplishments of Katerina Aifantis who at 24 has already been called a rising star with the potential to be a world class scientist. Then on the lighter side is Greece is for Lovers worth checking out for their fun, cheeky design products.

Photographer, Venia Bechrakis, (from the lead photo of this post) is a native of Athens and received her MFA at NYU. “Whether in a grocery store, the airport, the subway or on a Manhattan street, the artist’s portraits remind us of women’s work and that ever-tenuous balance between one’s private and public life.” -Holly Block, Director Bronx Museum for the Arts

Mary Katrantzou , fashion designer from Athens “is among the second wave of breakout stars of the digital print revolution that has been sweeping London.” – Style.com”

Alexandra Bletsas’ prize-winning cityscape rings.

Aspa Gutmeni’s post-it note interior design. She is the leader and sole female designer at a firm called 3ducci out of Athens.

And from an exhibit in Holland where eleven Greek jewelry designers showed their work there’s Marina Zachou roses and thorns bracelet.

and Marina Gouromihou on the Greek jewelry design site MyPrecious.gr”

In a class of her own of course is Greek-American Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post. Here she is at 24.

When Women Make Fashion with a Future: An A/W 2010 Review

Chauncey Zalkin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:10:46 +0000

*lead picture, Lou Doillon in Anthony Vaccarello on StyleBubble

I haven’t been to fashion week since 2005. And that was after more than ten years of attending the New York shows. The biggest reason for stopping: I was bored. Mostly the fashion press is what really pushed me over the edge. But now I realize, fashion is a little bit like god and religion. I believe. But inundate me with too much proselytizing and I forget the main act. In other words, whimsical and masterful fashion design is something truly beautiful and even more so when everyone sort of shuts up, folds their hands in their lap, and looks on in respectful silence at the mastery of the production.

Here are my picks:

1. The GreenShows in New York. Designers Samantha Pleet, Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart / Vaute Couture, Melissa Kirgan & Xing-Zhen Chung-Hilyard / Eko-Lab, JoAnn Berman, Lizz Wasserman / Popomomo.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WQrkWsSmV4

Tesco (UK grocer) joins with Florence & Fred fashion label to launch line of recycled clothing - (read more on the Guardian)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxZ-uhVDfIs

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhrkzl88ICk

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvIzBTrrFvE

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liKu3G0kDHQ … noting Cassette Playa’s ‘enhanced reality’ specifically here and not so much the clothes themselves. push envelope push.

: Louise Goldin’s A/W ’10 geometric shapes.

Dorothee Hagemann & Annalisa Dunn make up Cooperative Designs

< about Cooperative Designs on Grazia.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS93VRMPcpg

Ada Zanditon website

TreeHugger covers all the ecofashion from the week with a salute to designer Ada Zanditon.

and last but not least, the Times Online addressing the feminist issue in Fashion after Miuccia Prada calls herself a ‘former’ feminist.

To see some really funny cool fashion week coverage in London (lets face it, this is mostly London) check out Amelia’s magazine. Reminds me a little bit of vintage Girlonthestreet.

What Women Bring to the Table: Designers, Artists, Thinkers, & Inventors to Start the Week

Chauncey Zalkin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:46:48 +0000

Ideas and Design on my radar right now. An eclectic bunch.

Cutaway vase by Polish designer Edyta Cieloch

Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei of Iran, awarded a CAREER award in 2003 by the National Science Foundation, is the inventor of a new tough metal foam material that will have a huge impact on life saving devices such as car bumpers. “inserting two pieces of her composite metal foam behind the bumper of a car traveling 28 mph, the impact would feel the same to passengers as impact traveling at only 5 mph”-LiveScience.com

Swedish designers Sofia Lagerkvist, Anna Lindgren and Charlotte von der Lancken make up “Front Design” on StylePark.com (and everywhere else!)

Capsters: Dutch designer Cindy Van Den Bremen invented an elastic flexible sports hijab that guards against harsh noises. The product, approved by an Imam and now with worldwide sales, addresses complex aesthetic, social, and religious issues where they intersect in the real world.

Lynn Jackson’s art on Mocoloco

Yin Xiuzhen. Portable City: Melbourne, 2009 from her “Portable Cities” series on Space & Culture.org

Frog Design’s blog posting on how James Cameron and Steve Jobs vision of the future might not be the best or most cutting edge citing articles by Annalee Newitz (below)

Dr. Annalee Newitz of Technosploitation and now of Gawker Media’s io9.com. An academic-cum-journalist, she writes kick ass cultural criticism like “When Are White People Going to Stop Making Movies Like Avatar” quoted on the Frog Design blog.

Frozen Lamp from Frozen series by Wieki Somers of Rotterdam. Also love her “mattress stone.”

Ethnography: Immersive, Dynamic, and Unscripted

Chauncey Zalkin — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:58:40 +0000

Image by Swedish Illustrator, Linn Olofsdotter

Some of you are curious about the foundation of what I do aside from my passion for innovation and writing about women who create. I’m an ethnographer. I was an ethnographer long before I even knew the term. When I ended up in advertising, I would get frustrated with highly regimented approaches to understanding consumers (people basically, consumers makes me think of lever pulling and manipulation which I am dead set against).

I have always approached insights and strategy/concept building with honest, open curiousity and interest – and I’d like to think a strong dose of savvy from weaving in and out of different social and cultural situations. I studied Cultural Studies and Semiotics in school and then attended the school of life where I set out to find the patterns and rhythms of New York City’s inhabitants. Then I went deeper. And I went broader as I worked with diverse clients with subtle nuances and micro-cultures that required abandoning all preconceptions. (and moved country. twice.)

The basic questions that make this work worthwhile are: What do people want and need? How can we make manifest products and services that will make lives better/easier/more pleasant/more connected? How can we bring ideas and the narrative of business’ social role to life in ways that matter and are sustainable? How can we add instead of take away, drain, deplete? And how can we surprise?

I gave a one day workshop hosted by a consulting firm in Barcelona called Brain Ventures. Antonio Monerris, the partner in the firm who approached me about the project, is just one of those people on this earth that keeps growing, evolving, learning, always with an open mind and an eye on the future. Among those present were representatives from Pan Rico (bread), Gallina Blanca (soups), and Chup Chups (candy). Here’s the gist of the presentation part.

Ethno One Day Workshop

View more documents from Chauncey Zalkin.

‘Ethno day’ can also work in two to three day workshops where we roll up our sleeves and go deep into your brand/product/service/business model – not just looking at the consumers but the folks that make up your company. That’s where the real work begins.

If’ you’d like to know more, contact me and check out the ‘about’ section. Here’s the slide show from the Ethno One Day Workshop. Enjoy!

The Forest for the Trees: 2 Women Leading Biomimicry in Design

Chauncey Zalkin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:17:07 +0000

When I was in the thick of my New York life and not taking many vacations out in the greenery, I was invited to go white water rafting. My main occupation at the time was observing street style and finding order and meaning in all of that gritty gloriously imperfect urban beauty. Mid-afternoon, we pulled our raft into a cove and sat in silence staring up at the stone walls covered in a vivid algae. The colors, the shapes, the water, the rock, the trees, it all took me by surprise. It felt like the first time I’d ever seen such a thing, a beauty that doesn’t need any explanation. A perfection that is plain for everyone to see. Without nuance in the sense of a warbled connotation but at the same time bursting with subtlety.

Is it possible that somewhere along the lines we forgot to look to nature? The ecosystems that spin, thread, swim, and fly around our planet, that make up life as we know it, are the ones that have fixed their bugs and adjusted their processes so that they could survive, sustain, and thrive. Nevermind the fact that we are hellbent on destroying them. What can we learn from them?

Dayna Baumeister

That’s exactly what Janine Benyus knew and evangelized in her book “A Biologist at the Design Table.” Biologists, meet designers. Designers, meet biologists. I found Dayna Baumeister her partner at the Biomimicry Guild (having not even heard of Janine) and set up call to find out more about these visionary women and how they use biomimicry to educate design leaders and find solutions for design questions.

First of all, from their site:

The Montana-based Biomimicry Guild is an innovation consultancy providing biological consulting and research, workshops and field excursions, and a speakers’ bureau. The Guild helps designers learn from and emulate natural models with the goal of developing products, processes, and policies that create conditions conducive to life.

Janine Benyus

Looking at Janine Benyus ideas and talking to Danya, I found a few ideas worth repeating here. One is that we can learn an idea from an organism and apply it to design. Nature is perfect. Humans tend to put things into silos. In nature, there is no lack of integration. There is no lack of information in the natural world. We can redesign the human world by taking cues from the natural world. Right now we use ‘heat, beat, and treat’ to make things. We take a natural element and we heat it up (like metal) than we pound it into a shape, and treat it with chemicals. We should ask ourselves: How does life make things? How does life make the most of things? How does life make things disappear into systems?

And here are a few quick lessons from nature that you can look up to learn more

1 ) Self-assembly (shells are self-assembling)

Mercedes-Benz bionic car skeleton

2 ) CO2 as feedstock (plants do it)

3 ) Solar Transformation

4 ) Power of shape — to inform energy efficiency (whale fins beveled shape are now informing aviation wing design) to make objects self cleaning (the shape of a leaf makes it self-cleaning), to create color without pigment. (Playing with light to produce color instead)

5 ) Quenching thirst (drawing water out of air and fog)

6 ) Metals without mining (microbes do it)

7 ) Green Chemistry (use a smaller subset of the periodic table)

8 ) Timed Degradation (mussels in the ocean. Their threads dissolve after two years.)

and so on. Take a look at these ‘coolest cases.’ Now onto the interview.

When I ask about their partnership, Danya replies:

“Janine is the noun and I am the verb. I answer the question, how do you do it? I build content out of the raw material. The easiest way to think of our approach is to think of function. We ask what do you want to do rather than what do you want to create. We don’t start with words like ‘can opener’ or ‘knife’. We learn that you want a widget to open cans. Or a widget to cut. You don’t want to paint something red; You want to communicate danger. We look at the function first and then examine how that’s done in nature.

How do you work with designers?

We ask a LOT of questions. (laughs). We have a speakers bureau. We go to conferences. We go speak at Universities and companies. We talk to business managers to create better communication systems. We consult from our area of expertise to inform process, product, and system design.

How did these two world come together?

Biophilia is affinity with nature. Nobody looks at nature and says, ew that’s an ugly color. There are stories in nature we can adopt for our own needs. There are strategies used in nature that we can mimic. I got a doctorate in biology but I minored in fine art. I wanted to design a wall that breathed like skin. I was looking into sick building syndrome. How can we build a wall that can get rid of its own contaminants, buildings that renew themselves the way plants do. That’s how I discovered Janine.

How can designers plug into your research? Is there ready access to what you know or do you have to go and present a seminar, work as a consultant in organizations?

We have a non-profit organization and a for-profit consultancy. We created a website called AskNature.org which makes biology more accessible. It is full of examples of how life does it. We have had 2 million unique visitors from 188 countries. Also, we suggest that designers just spend more time outside. Absorb it. Ask yourselves what is nature doing better?

Are there any dangers involved in imitating nature so precisely?

When you’re involved in nanotechnology, working on such a small scale, yes, possible, in that case tinkering at the cel level, we can mess with life. You just have to be aware. L’Oreal for example, became interested in structural color but is it safe to apply tiny objects to your eyelid? I’m not sure.

Talk about why this is relevant now.

We need to learn how to fit in again. In the past, life forms with maladapted strategies have become extinct; We have maladapted strategies. We need to recognize that we are interdependent. We have to find ways to fit into the larger system. We need to stop speaking in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’ and integrate with each other and back into nature again.

What are your thoughts on being women in a field on the verge.

There is a place at the table for everyone to be involved in biomimicry. An engineer may be inspired by the hinge of a dragonfly wing but it is part of a system. Designs are in context. They are in relationship which is very in line with a way a woman’s brain works. This is really an interesting opportunity to really resonate with women. We are entering a male dominated space (engineering particularly) but we can show our hearts in the matter and bring the hardcore science. We can show that it’s okay to be a woman in this field. Most of the people coming out of graduate programs now are female but mid and upper management is still predominantly male – but we give these men permission to get emotional about their work.

"office life in a qatar cactus"

There certainly is some ‘green washing’ but we vet that out. We are trying to merge innovation and sustainability and a lot of people are interested. People don’t want to go to a job every day that has no meaning. WalMart is doing a lot in this area, for example, and yeah its for the money probably, but they’re really doing it. It’s not just talk or for PR. They’re very active.

How do you imagine the world in 10, 20, 50 years if you have a say in it?

My ideal world would be absent of vibration, of mechanical noise. The way we take care of our needs would be silent. There’d be less drag. Wee’d have different fuel systems. Systems over all would supercede the people in them.

Who are three women you admire?

Janine. I feel graced to have worked with her for the past eleven years.
Sacajawea – the only woman on the Lewis and Clark expedition. She was also the only Native American. It was a two year expedition during which she had a baby and led them, all eleven men. She crossed gender, cultural, and ecological boundaries. She showed resilience and nurtured a child through it all.
The female octopus. They guard the nest. They are fluid and adaptable. Graceful.

Sacajawea

Want more? Here’s a great feature on TreeHugger and this, Better By Design pdf.

-Chauncey Zalkin

What Women Make » design

Design Mind Julie Taraska – Part I

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It was really a woman who

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Inspired Monday: Two Visual Visionaries & A Young Playwright Who Stole the Show

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What Women Make: Snapshots of Greece

*lead photo by Venia Bechrakis

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When Women Make Fashion with a Future: An A/W 2010 Review

*lead picture, Lou Doillon in Anthony Vaccarello on StyleBubble

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What Women Bring to the Table: Designers, Artists, Thinkers, & Inventors to Start the Week

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Ethnography: Immersive, Dynamic, and Unscripted

Image by Swedish Illustrator, Linn Olofsdotter

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The Forest for the Trees: 2 Women Leading Biomimicry in Design

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