I just followed a visitation URL back and discovered something interesting: The Design Association (Link). No surprise this has appeared on the scene. Anyone who has spent time on the Core77 forums has seen plenty of threads on the topic of professional accreditation.

The question is: Will this or any organization succeed? I don’t know. There is perhaps a need for the public – which is increasingly becoming aware of the occupation – to be educated in what we actually do (no, Industrial Designers don’t design industrial facilities). And small companies looking for professional design services could certainly use some help avoiding scam artists. But who sets the standards? And what qualifies them? Industrial Design is full of gray areas. It’s not a simple thing to draw a line on the marker pad.

I think I’ll drop this on the Core forum and set off some fireworks. Be right back…

… okay. Let’s see what develops (Core thread – Link).

For anyone who hasn’t discovered the Interactive Architecture blog (Link), I just wanted to point it out. Even though I don’t call out “architecture” as a subject (and perhaps I should), many of you have doubtlessly noticed that – relative to product design – I post quite a few entries on architecture. I’d like to post more on product design, but the truth is I don’t see many (any!) products that are pushing the envelope in the areas I discuss here. I’m sure that will change, but being an impatient person, I’m more than happy to watch and be impressed by the developments being made in the architecture community. I only wish I’d found that blog earlier.

Here’s one that slipped off the radar. A few months ago on the CGTalk forum I stumbled across mention of a modeler called Loq Airou associated with a VR system called Uni-Verse. I probably have a couple of forgotten links floating around, but I was reminded of these two, related applications by a post over on the Second Life forum.

Well, after posting a short comment I decided to go looking and sure enough, it’s the polymesh modeler I recall. More interesting however, is that the first binaries have been released (I suspect I saw the November CGTalk thread, noticed that I’d have to compile my own binaries, bookmarked a site and moved on). From the Uni-Verse website press release (PDF Link):

The first set of tools in the Uni-Verse project is now released at http://www.uni-verse.org/Downloads.58.0.html .

The project supported by the European Commission develops open source software based on the Verse protocol, which connects 3D graphics and audio applications over the Internet in real-time.
…
The most important software in this release is the Verse server and the native Verse 3D modeler Loq Airou. Included is also a simple rendering client, the Verse data inspection and manipulation tool Connector and an advanced scripting environment for Verse called Purple. Most tools are available in binary formats for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

Maybe I’ll find some time to play with this. Maybe. I still want a feature-based, parametric modeler.

Via a MoCo Loco entry (Link) I happened across the “Art-o-mat” website. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of this before; probably via MSM. But that might have been a while ago. Besides, this seems so much more applicable now when you consider a potential mash-up with a site like Etsy (which I happened to be surfing through yesterday evening – check out the “precious metal clay” jewelry of Sue Quigley – Link). Funny how this reminds me of vendors in Second Life. Kind of.

Maybe what we’re witnessing are the emerging pieces of the system that will eventually give physical birth to William Gibson’s virtual pop star. Hmmm. What if the physical form it takes is based on an urban vinyl? or a furry? “Gooood Evening, JF!“. I can see it now: Vending Machine Buddies.

{Image Copyright © Artists in Cellophane}

Well, this comes as no surprise. In my ongoing attempts to explain to the “Free Everything” crowd that their position has undesirable consequences, I’ve urged them to give their attention and their business to the non-corporate entities; unsigned bands, indie filmmakers, niche product companies, aso.

What happens when you don’t? What happens when you try to screw The Man, not by diverting attention but by focusing attention on all the free goodies available online? This is what happens: Branded Bands.

From a post of this news over on PSFK (Link):

Advertising agencies in the UK are creating their own bands in order to sell brands. GUM@Saatchi (Saatchi & Saatchi’s brand content arm) have created an urban pop group from scratch in order to capture the youth market.

What did you guys think the suits were going to do? I guess now instead of songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” we can can expect songs about (insert product here).

Hey, hey, you’re the Monkees.

via TP Wire Service