Category Archives: Dynamite Designs

These designs for book covers, posters, inventions etc.. will blow your mind!

Colorschemedesigner- Endless Eye Candy Combo’s

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Don’t tell me your good at matching colours because you aren’t, so read on my chroma-hanpicapped friend. I recently traveled to New York to visit my cousin a couple of weeks ago, to which he introduced me to a collection of fantastic sites to make my life a little less complicated; Colorschemedesigner.com was one of them.

Colours can make you feel anxious, scared, happy or calm; they can be the catalyst to opening you up to a range of feelings and if used in the right way can be ascetically pleasing to the eye, so it’s important to master them. Experienced designers can intuitively tell what colour works well with another (they can smell them) and can also understand the relationships between the many different tints in a spectrum. Using complex algorithms, colorschemedesigners can choose perfect colour combinations for you, or to give you a general idea of what goes well with what- so take that you experienced colour expert people!

The image you see above is the result of me choosing the colour red after clicking the triad button; it instantly chooses two other colours to complement the one I have selected. Underneath you have a choice of picking out a preview of what the colours might look like on a webpage, you have two choices: The light page preview has a white background to it and (you guessed it) the dark page has a dark back drop to base the website on.

 Here you can see that i’ve chosen the light background and have been given an example of what it might look like on an actual web page, pretty cool no? You also have the choice to change the secondary colours by clicking the example webpage to get feel of what you want. You can apply this site-tool to numerous things: interior design, posters, screen prints, websites or (if you don’t have a fashion sense) selecting your own clothes. If your interested in checking the site out click on the link:colorschemedesigner

BioLite- Innovations for the modern wild man

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‘We need to talk’ is possibly the most dreadful foreshadowing of badness one human can throw upon another, but what about the less traumatising yet equally ominous ‘low battery’ shootout from your technological devices? I could argue that the latter is miles worse just because a fully functioning phone (gps, light and what have you) could mean life… or death. Lucky for us that problem can be addressed with some technical ingenuity- so without further adieu, let me introduce you to BioLite.

The five designers of BioLite have mated together a portable stove the size of a bottle with a gadget charger that utilises the excess heat from a fire. You can burn anything from sticks, twigs, pine cones and other renewable resources you have available; these fuels are a much better alternative to petroleum gas, and brings water to a steaming boil in practically no time at all.

The additional containment of the fire helps capture wasted potential energy and lessens the toxic smog an open wood fire creates due to incomplete combustion. The carefully designed stoves that implement fans to blow air into the fire can significantly improve combustion, but unfortunately such stoves require small amounts of electricity to power the fans, which sucks if your out in woods. BioLite however, resolves the problem by converting a fraction of the fire’s thermal energy into electrical energy, powering the fans and the devices you attach. Costing only $130 it practically sells itself but if you’re still not convinced watch the video below for more information. If you are interested in buying the product click on this word.

Neverwet- Scare liquids away from your shirts, shoes & everything else

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Don’t you find it funny that people 500 years ago would have uttered such things to each other as “thy flying machine wilt nev’r happen, thou bro” when today we laugh at their lack of imagination and primitive tech. So now guys, when i tell you about this new product that actively repels water off of any surface, (meaning you can coat it on your phone and take a call underwater if you wish) don’t you say ‘Silly, that will never happen’ or cough ‘impossible’ because it’s happened! Ross Technology who faced the challenge of stopping undersea pipeline rust discovered this silicon-based spray, which they smartly realized can be applied to an infinite number of things; thus NeverWet was born.

Basically NeverWet works by harnessing the power of fear, or rather, angled microscopic nanoparticles to force the water to cluster together into a droplet. The angle of the nanoparticles is all important, and is what divides the waterproof or water resistant from the super-hydrophobic. For a surface to be hydrophobic it must have a contact angle of 150 degrees- NeverWet has a contact angle as high as 165 degrees. The benefits are not only dryness and saving a killing from laundry costs, but also improving ones own health since bacteria thrive in watery conditions. Superman can ricochet bullets but really, who needs that power when you can deflect deadly stains, spills and warmongering bacteria? I’ve laid out below a few videos which better explain the effectiveness of  NeverWet, and a link to the site where you can get this miraculous product: http://www.neverwet.com/

Lego espionage- How to break into a building

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Are you some sort of bad ass spy or at least think you are? Here is one highly original way you can break into a building to steal whatever documents or cigars you need- all with the amazing versatility of Lego’s! This scene was taken off of a 1979 Danish movie called The Olsen Gang Never Surrenders, click on the title if your interested in knowing more.

Facebook Shoes

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Are you obsessed with social networking? Now you can take it to a whole new level of creepy- no, not by stalking more friends or subscribing to unknowns, but by representing Facebook or Twitter as a fashion statement. Check out these concept shoe designs for Adidas by Gerry Mckay, unfortunately the MySpace editions had to be discontinued haha.

The fresh new Adidas Facebook Superstar’s come in a bright FB blue and even features the networks logo on the heel and tongue. If your unsure of what the slogan is, I’ve got it for you here: “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you.” The Twitter design comes in tame Twitter colors, with the twitter bird logo chilling on the heal. I love Adidas but this would just diminish their reputation, they would loose a Facebook friend if they followed this to the end.

I wonder though, do the shoes tweet the number of steps it’s taken or check into the places it’s gone (In David’s garbage with empty coke can and old toothbrush) to? The real question is: How did it get this far?

Collectionnaire Storage Unit

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Check out this inventive space friendly creation for organizing fun by Mieke Keukelier. Here we have a wall hung storage and display design that utilizes multiple grids to hang a series of boxes- sounds pretty standard (boring), huh?

Coated with a simple solid oak cupboard look it might not seem all to impressive but when it opens up “like a triptych” you will get your friends saying “whoa, did that seriously just come out of that?! Your an efficient, well organized beast bro! “

The entire layout is completely customizable  since the boxes are interchangeable, so go ahead and shift them around until you feel satisfied.

If you like what your seeing, go check out this site for more info.

Solar Highways

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The Solar Roadway is a series of structurally-engineered solar panels that are driven upon. The idea is to replace all current petroleum-based asphalt roads, parking lots, and driveways with Solar Road Panels that collect energy to be used by our homes and businesses. Our the ultimate goal is to be able to store excess energy in or alongside the Solar Roadways. This renewable energy replaces the need for the current fossil fuels used for the generation of electricity. This, in turn, cuts greenhouse gases literally in half. A brilliant idea by Solar Roadways, go check out their site!

A Japanese Future

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Japan is one of the most technologically advanced cultures on the planet and have been blessed with insanely creative minds and a spirit of perseverance which pushes them forward to a brighter, robotic driven future.

Living in this highly traditionalist culture, where masking and controlling emotions seems rational for a people so cramped together; Why show your anger when you can mask it? this makes citizens more abiding and lets society smoothly function as a whole. Since their external world is so controlled it’s no wonder their imaginations are so unbelievably powerful!

They don’t hold back on anything, crazy or practical, they just produce what the subconscious mind boils up to the surface and they stick with it. Here you can see some 1930-1960s futuristic illustrations from the country of “unlimited dreams and super-charged imagination”- who knows, maybe in the future these designs will emerge from paper into a physical reality, lets just hope they’re the peaceful ones.

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Air Swimmers

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Haha, i just had to share this, the kid in me kind of wants this. It’s a floating shark/clownfish which swims through the air using it’s back fin to propel itself forward, left, right, up and down. Motorized propellers are overrated, this design has an organic motion to it that is captivating for viewers and controllers alike. If your scratching your head wondering what to get your kid for Christmas i’d defiantly recommend this as a present.

Lytro

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Discovered this piece of tech today and after some research i’ve concluded that this will either be the most overhyped piece of camera technology in modern times or the start of something utterly revolutionary- let’s hope it’s the later. Lytro announced four months ago that they were building a consumer digital camera and stated that it “will be the biggest technological jump since we started talking megapixels over 20 years ago.”

This nifty pocket-sized camera flaunts capabilities never before seen, allowing the user to focus on a picture after it’s taken, no It’s not some wizards trick or some time traveling feat, but implement a new way of capturing a picture.

These new devices are called light field cameras and can absorb light from the entire scene, which means when you take a picture during a party, you can not only see your friends goofy dance in the background but also all the other ridiculous stuff happening throughout your shot; as opposed to most camera’s which only allow you to focus on one humiliating bit of debauchery. Steve Lohr from The New York Times says, “For a photographer, whether amateur or professional, the Lytro technology means that the headaches of focusing a shot go away.”

Accompanying the Lytro super camera is the desktop application, a free software download that can easily import pictures from the camera to the computer. The application lets you view (of course), organize, share and most importantly interact with your pictures.

You can send off your uber pictures to Lytro.com to be shared via Facebook, Twitter, email or on your blogs. Cool thing about these pictures are that once they’ve been shared they can be explored by anyone, allowing the viewer to live in the moment. If you don’t believe me, go see Lytro’s picture gallery so i can say i told you so. The camera comes in two models: a 8GB $399 Electric blue/Graphite one or the 16GB $499 in Red Hot. They will be shipping out in 2012, if you want to learn more go click on these links: The New York Times and NPR.

Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera

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Sorry i’ve been neglecting the blog, exams are coming up and essays need to be written! I’ll be updating the blog every couple of days; today being one of those days. I found this mega awesome invention yesterday, designed by a frustrated panorama photo stitcher named Jonas Pfeil. No longer will you have to link together individual pictures- which can take quite some time- now you just throw and BAM the panorama deed is done. Unlike most panorama shots this one gives you a complete spherical outlook of the world, you can see just about everything. The only draw back are the cameras that are housed within, they’re not very high end but i’m sure in time you’ll be able to get the HD version. If your interested in more check out the link!

Peter Chmela

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Peter hides his message within these pictures, look carefully and you might notice the word captured within the picture. He is currently living in Slovakia and does design and typography, which lead him to creating a book to house his works, check out more on his site! I’ll do an update with more info soon, promise.

For you slightly less perceptive folk, it says “Don’t Judge People According to Their Appearance.”

Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man as Industrial Palace)

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The video above is by Henning M. Lederer and was based off of a 1927 poster by Fritz Kahn, who uses visual metaphors drawn from society (assembly lines, internal combustion engines, refineries, dynamos, telephones, etc.)  to describe the inner workings of the human body. Brilliant idea, i know that i have a hard time visualizing biological processes that occur under my skin, but by transforming those complex systems to things that i can relate to, and are practical to my world i tend to learn much more effectively. Someone needs to look into this and make it big, you’d help visual learners like myself a billion fold. A perfect mixture of art, science and technology, i thanks Mr Lederer for animating the piece. Below are some examples i found of Fritz Kahns works.

 

CineSkates Camera Sliders

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I’m a sucker for innovative ideas like this one, absolutely brilliant. I have friends who work in videography and i know how tough it is to capture a scene without shake while fluidly moving the camera. This genius simplified the entire process of placing rails or bulked up iron and steel monsters to capture stabilized shots with a device that is light, portable and versatile! Now, your probably thinking it’s going to cost me my left nut and or boob, but don’t worry, your genitalia are kept intact with its cheap price of $150 dollars! If your into film making preorder one, you’ll not only help your videos but help launch the company itself. Id invest too if i were you… If your interested click on the link!

Ben Jones- double take book covers

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Here’s one imaginative guy birthed with a pencil in his hand and an idea to color on paper. He told me in an interview that “Drawing became my passion when I started to read comic books. I remember being 9 years old drawing X-men characters”, i know what my future children are going to read, lets just hope i have some artistic flair in my genome.

As Ben grew up so did his inspirations, moving from comics to mythology, folk tails and classic literature, which is obvious in his work. It takes a lot to design a catchy book cover, you need to know the emotional tones of the book and the underlying story without revealing the entire plot, keep it simple but attractive enough to seduce the wandering eye, Jones had done just that; his 1984 piece winning the ’50 Watts’ Polish Book Cover Contest’!

Using a masterful mixture of collage pieces and his birth given talent to draw, he fuses the two to form his work, awesomely done. It’s nice to know though that artistic people are also average people; I asked Ben what he liked to do on his down time to which he responded “I love to watch live music and try to go to as many gigs as i possibly can, I’m also an avid fan of films. Yeah and a massive geek, playing probably too many video games”, i too play video games but unlike Jones i don’t get a creative kick out of  them, instead i just get good at procrastinating.

If you like Bens covers check out more of them here!

Here’s to you Mr Jobs- A visual legacy

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A collection of pictures summarizing Apples history, in memory of Steve Jobs-One of the greatest entrepreneurs/innovators that has ever lived.

Technology is the symbiotic manifestation of human creativity and intellect. It is the most tangible expression of our conscious evolution, and Steve Jobs was its most favorite conduit. Thank you Steve for your contribution to the world and our future. Rest in peace.

~ Christian Jackson

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