The Blog

Being a Gemini, I have very contradicting stances on design. Half of me is all about design democracy, and the other half is enamored with luxury. For those that haven’t been exposed to Phillipe Starck’s early design manifesto, design democracy is the idea that everyone should be able to afford and be surrounded by good design. Luxury on the other …

One of the joys I have as a professor is seeing my students win awards for their designs. This summer, one of my students, Joe Palmer (now known as “Joe Loco”), entered a the Inhabitat.com Spring Greening Design Competition with a design he completed in my Product Design II studio. Below, a write up by Michael Rall on the Appalachian …

Let me apologize for being a day late….this idea might actually be somewhat valid now, in light of the recent events in Chile. These are glow-in-the-dark sunglasses. I could not see the need for these until last week The cheap levitra tablets effect of the medicine starts in an hour and remains it for 4 to 6 hours, enough to …

What is the future of transportation? Is it the car? Or the bus? A flying car, the Segway? Or the Shweeb? Designers often address the future of transportation future as individual items for moving people. Rarely, do they look at how goods are transported. However, in my opinion, this is where innovation should occur and what should shape the future. …

What is the most annoying thing about using tea lights as candles? They run out fairly quickly, right? Then you have to get up and dig through the drawer for another. Well, I have designed and produced a better option.  These are T-lites and they come in sets of three. The stainless steel tubes are industrial in feel and look …

Brainstorming is a wonderful part of the creative process that helps stretch the search for a good idea. During a brainstorming session, ideas are meant to be free from discrimination or evaluation. In this exercise of “stream of conscious mind farming”,  ideas often spark other ideas. At the end of the session, ideas that have merit and promise are promoted …

OK, before you get too angry that your favorite chair was not included in this list, let me explain the criteria involved in this “scientific” sampling. I was sitting downtown with no references, so this is totally off the top of my head. This means, the pieces listed are the ones that have fought their way through all the other …

Recently, one of the real buzz phrases in product design has been “mass customization”. It sounds a bit like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?  How can something be mass produced and custom made at the same time? One way is to create a product, for example a table, and allow the customer to specify the width or table top color. Yes, …

With the advent and mass acceptance of recycling, the need for a huge office trash can is a thing of the past — right? I think a lowly product for collecting refuse can be a dramatic element in the office landscape. Instead of being ugly truncated cylinders that hide in the corner or under a desk, trash cans can be …

As some of you know, I teach Industrial Design at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Three years ago, a group of students came to me and asked if we could do some outside-of-class projects together. The goal was to diversify their portfolios. And so the Black Valley Design Collective was born. The collective consisted the following members: Bryce Katsahnias, …