I.D.milano Product Development I.D.milano Product Development Product Design blog that is part of the website of an Industrial Design company in Milan, Italy. Off-topic entries about humour, environmental issues, ,and engineering pop up frequently. Articles
London 2012 Stadium
2007-11-07 14:36:00 The design for the London Olympic stadium for 2012 was unveiled today. London received quite a bit of criticism for its uninspired logo and would probably prefer to avoid a repeat performance. However, it looks like they are expecting trouble. Even the architect, Rod Sheard, is downplaying the design, saying “This is not a stadium that’s ... More About: Design , Stadium , Adium
Alibaba IPO
2007-11-06 18:10:00 Alibaba, the sales portal to the Chinese market, went public today. Shares are now trading at 300 times earnings and the company raised $1.5 billion in a wildly over-subscribed public offering. Alibaba claims this is the biggest technology IPO offering since Google. Anyone who has used Alibaba will not be surprised by the manic interest in ... More About: Technology , Company , Alibaba
Solar Energy or Giant Laser Weapon?
2007-11-02 15:26:00 A couple of weeks ago, the U.S. Deparment of Defence released a paper called “Space?Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security“. They propose spending billions of dollars of taxpayer money to send enormous solar arrays into space. The energy would be beamed down to earthy by laser or microwave and thus the department ... More About: Technology , Laser , Energy , Green
2008 Planning
2007-11-01 21:22:00 Halloween has already come and gone. The shops are now in the process of putting up their Christmas decorations. At the moment I am struggling to find time to write blog entries because we are in that hectic period towards the end of the year where we are finishing up a few projects this year ... More About: Company , Planning , 2008
Golden Age of Design?
2007-10-30 11:50:00 We get a lot of job applications from hopeful, young designers who are about to graduate. While it might seem like its a difficult profession to break into, its really worth looking back to realize how fortunate all we are to be involved in Design during the current period. Its really quite easy to argue ... More About: Company , Golden , Golden Age
Ergonomics for Designers
2007-10-22 11:31:00 Whether you’re an Engineer or a Design er, there’s a good chance that you spend all day sitting in front of your best and worst friend, the computer. At the moment, you might be focused on getting a particular job done, but what are you doing to ensure that you’ll still be able to use the ... More About: Technology , Designers , Ergonomics
The Hidden Dangers in Learning a Foreign Language
2007-10-17 16:54:00 I get quite a few emails from native English speakers who think that it must be absolutely wonderful living in Italy and speaking Italian? Well, let me tell you, its not all peaches and cream. In fact, for me there are a couple of negatives I must report. Of course, I should clarify that the ... More About: Language , Foreign , Learning , Hidden
Cersaie 2007
2007-10-10 16:19:00 I.D.milano partners were amongst the 92,000 visitors to Cersaie last week. Cersaie is the massive ceramics and bath fair that takes place in Bologna, Italy each year. The size of the show is quite mind-boggling. There are over one thousand exhibitors offering every variation in tiling immaginable. This is the second year that I.D.milano has ... More About: Design , Company
Mosquito Killing 101
2007-10-09 13:05:00 This is my suggestion for killing mosquitos inside your house. For some reason, at this time of the year, they seem to go a bit crazy, attacking in a desperate, almost suicidal fashion. The usual approach is to swat at them with whatever comes to hand, a newspaper or magazine. Typically, this is a hit-or-miss approach. ... More About: Italy , Mosquito , Killing
Negative Rendering
2007-10-08 19:51:00 Within the Design field, everyone knows the power of 3D and in particular 3D rendering. Unfortunately, not infrequently, it is used to push weak designs on none-the-wiser managers. In the hands of a skilled designer, an average product with cool lighting and materials and seen from an interesting but unrealistic perspective can easily look like ... More About: Company , Modeling , Negative , Erin
Ciao
2007-10-01 10:48:00 Its well known that Italians love life and they love to talk. As part of their linguistic arsenal, Italians are great with greetings. If you are visiting Italy , be prepared for more than a simple “hello” or “goodbye”. They have words like “auguri” for general greetings. They have verbs like “salutare” for giving greetings ... More About: Silly , Ciao
Successful Designers
2007-09-19 16:12:00 If you’re in the Design field, you will probably know that successful designers tend to have distinctive personalities. I am trying to encapsulate this by making a list of the characteristics of designers who are at the top of their game. Maybe there will be another list later with characteristics of unsuccessful designers. So far, I ... More About: Designers
Design Briefs
2007-09-18 18:47:00 Who needs design briefs anyway? There are some creative designers who balk at the idea of being constrained by a tightly written design brief. By contrast, here at I.D.milano, we love them. But why? Our job is to make the client happy. If the client writes the brief, we know precisely what we need to achieve ... More About: Design , Company , Briefs , Brief
Italians peeing
2007-09-17 09:53:00 Firstly, I should issue a word of warning: this post was part of the reason that our engineering newsletter was banned at Motorola. Each month, the engineers at the Milan Design Centre (us) would create an information-packed product development newletter that we called MEN for Milan Engineering News. This post concerns Italians and pee! Italian men ... More About: Italy , Silly
Telsey Products Page Update
2007-09-13 09:38:00 Telsey Spa have just been showing their latest IP and multimedia products at IBC in Holland. I.D.milano was responsible for the design and execution of one of the prototypes shown. Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to show you this just yet, but we have put together some photographs of the work we did with Telsey for ... More About: Design , Products , Company , Page , Update
Flying Cars! Oh My!
2007-09-05 10:44:00 I watched with some doubt as the BBC news reported last week that “within a few months” the Moller flying car would be flying and available to the public. This is the very same flying car shown here from a 1974 brochure. Dr. Paul Moller has been working on these “futuristic” designs since the 1960s ... More About: Design , Technology , Cars , Flying
The Power of Design
2007-09-04 08:57:00 Yesterday, Boris Johnson threw his hat into the ring to be the next London Mayor. There was one element of his campaign speech that grabbed my attention (and also that of many reporters). Boris is promising, if elected, to bring back a modern “iconic” version of the Routemaster bus. Of course, Boris is Boris and ... More About: Design , Power
Global Warming hits Italians
2007-07-16 20:57:00 In Italy , as you might expect, tradition is everything. Italians eat together, shop together, have coffee together, visit graveyards together and, incredibly, everyone goes on holiday together! Basically, the whole nation takes off to the beach during the month of August. The main focus of the holiday period, Ferragosto, occurs on the 15th of ... More About: Global Warming , Global , Hits , Ming
Milkfloat update
2007-07-02 16:39:00 When writing about green issues, inevitably one becomes a bit gloomy. Unless you’re a hopeless optimist, the enormity of man’s mistakes with respect to nature create a heavy burden. So, it is with little reluctance that I echo the copy of Sainsbury’s Marketing department and their electric delivery vehicle announcement. You may recall that back in ... More About: Technology , Green , Update
Having a Baby
2007-06-18 15:18:00 What’s so Great about Product Development? Over the years I’ve worked on some pretty sad, poorly-managed, product development programs. Chances are that if you’ve been involved in product design for over 5 years or so, so have you. As customer requirements are changed, programs are reset, and complex CAD models are rebuilt. My biggest difficulty ... More About: Baby , Design , Company , Ving
6 phases of Product Development
2007-05-31 16:19:00 Chances are that if you’ve done Product Development in a large company, you’re familiar with the 6 phases of product development shown below. While not acknowledged or endorsed by major corporations, it rings true because the combination of big business and stressful situations tends to bring out the worst in people. 1. Enthusiasm 2. Disillusionment (confusion) 3. Panic 4. ... More About: Company , General , Silly
The End of Point & Click?
2007-05-30 14:43:00 Microsoft launch their “Surface” computer today. Even though the respect we have for Microsoft is less than zero, it must be said that this is a significant development. Their Surface computer is essentially a “Multi-touch” computer interface that looks like a small coffee table and runs Windows Vista. So what is “multi-touch”? Multi-touch is cool! Its ... More About: Technology , General , Click , Clic , Point
Hot-water Frogs & other Myths
2007-05-28 11:02:00 Finally rented “An Inconvenient Truth” last night. Quite a sobering piece of film that everyone should see (and maybe keep watching until something changes). I couldn’t possibly say anything to dispute the science behind Al Gore’s presentation, but I will nitpick over the very small issue of the frog in hot water. I’m sure most ... More About: General , Green , Myths , Water , Frogs
Happy Birthday Plastic
2007-05-23 14:02:00 The Science Museum in London opened a new exhibition yesterday entitled Plastic ity – 100 years of making plastics. Like the light bulb and the telly, plastic is a British invention discovered by Sir James Swinburne. However, some Belgium upstart named Leo Baekeland was faster on his feet to the patent office and Bakelite was born ... More About: General , Happy , Birthday , Materials
How to get ahead in business
2007-05-18 12:51:00 If you’re just starting out in a big corporation, you’ll soon find out that to get ahead, what’s critical is not all the good work that you do. What’s important is getting noticed and giving the appearance of doing good work. Here are some useful tips to help you get promoted… 1. Always carry some ... More About: Business , Ness , Ahead , Sine
Second-hand Fumes
2007-05-16 15:25:00 The waves of tobacco legislation sweeping Europe regarding the rights of non-smokers should come as no surprise considering the wealth of data we now have regarding the impact of second-hand smoke on ones health. But how about the rights of pedestrians, cyclists, or “clean” drivers to breath reasonably unpolluted air. Now, I’m not talking here ... More About: Green , Hand , Econ , Second Hand
Pro/E Work/Life Balance
2007-05-14 17:38:00 I found this quite witty Pro/Engineer article from last year in Profiles Magazine. There’s a couple of caveats here. Firstly, if you don’t use Pro/Engineer software, it will appear to be absolute gibberish. Secondly, when I say “witty” this is from an engineer’s perspective. If your not an engineer, substitute the word “boring”. Well done ... More About: Life , Work , Modeling , Balance , Alan
?Great? Britain
2007-05-13 08:44:00 I received an email recently from a client who was curious to know how “Great ” Britain came to get its name. I did a quick survey and found that there are a large number of people who don’t know of the reason for the “greatness”. In the process, I heard numerous suggestions, but no correct ... More About: Great Britain , General , Silly
Quiksilver Design Contest
2007-05-11 17:21:00 Fancy yourself as a Design er? Its a nice career, but not quite as easy as it might look. Why not enter a design competition and find out for yourself. You might also win some money. Of course, manufacturers don’t create competitions out of the goodness of their hearts. They do so partly to seek innovative ... More About: Contest , General , Contes
CeBIT 2007
More articles from this author:2007-03-15 09:27:00 Its that time of year again. The worlds largest technology showcase, otherwise known as CeBIT, is upon us in Hanover, Germany. Over the past few years, we have worked on a number of products that have made their debut at CeBIT and this year is no exception. Over the past few months we have been ... More About: Company , General 1, 2, 3 |
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