CANARY SMART SECURITY

About a week ago Canaryreached out to Anh and I and sent us their first product to use. It's a smart security camera that connects to your network and let's you keep an eye on the things via the app. In our case the home office and dog Bentley. The camera is marketed as a home security camera but Its great for a mini studio or a small startup space.

Thanks for the hook-up, Canary team. Special thanks to Brittany of the marketing team-I won't put your full name here so you can avoid any potential stalkers, unless you want me to. Then send an email stating so.

A little background on Canary: They're a startup based in New York. I like their modern approach to security cameras by adding smart sensors that provide me data such as: Air Quality, Temperature, Motion, Humidity, Night Vision, Audio, Siren & Cloud Storage. These features are all valuable. I thought I was just receiving a internet-connected camera. Sorry Dropcam! You've been beat.

The packaging is impressive and made really well. Can someone over at the Canary HQ please let me know who produced your packaging? Because it's nicely executed, and the soft-touch paper and the folded box are great design decisions. My favorite part of unboxing the camera is the tasteful pops of Canary yellow at unexpected moments.

The camera is nested nicely in a paper pulp tray and properly protected. I'm shocked to discover how small the device is. I was imagining something twice as big. It's a bit taller than my iPhone 5s. BTW! if you're reading this Apple, I'd love to get my hands on an iPhone 6 or 7 - I'm familiar with how Industrial design works.

The setup was a breeze, it literally took me 5 minutes. The toughest part was probably downloading the app. I forgot my iTunes password.

I'm super stoked about this camera, the live stream is crispy and high def, and most importantly I can see what Bent's up to when I'm gone. Recently he's discovered a way to get onto the kitchen counter. . .

PS. I've started a personal blog called HOBO. I wrote about the canary there too, check it here.

Lumix 12-35

As you know we recently picked up the new BlackMagic Pocket and super excited about using it for our future projects. Now if you're in the same boat as us and looking for an affordable video camera packing some major heat, this is your camera. We picked up the Lumix 12-35mm 2.8 lens last week and I think this will be our main squeeze for the type of video work we do. So if you mainly shoot interview style and process type videos this lens is fully capable and exceeds expectation. It is equivalent to a 24-70mm when locked onto a Micro Four Thirds. The process video shot for Baker's Son, if scroll up to the next post, was shot with this lens.

LET'S DO MAGIC

For a while now we've been shooting all our videos with the Canon 5d Mark II. Unfortunately our equipment was stolen about two weeks ago setting us back a bit with our projects. We can't really do anything about it now so let bygones be bygones. Moving forward we're excited about this Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera (What a long name.) Because we mainly shoot videos anyway, replacing the 5D would be quite spendy and unnecessary for features we will be using very little of. If you're wondering "What about photos?" We still love our Lumix GF1 and it performs stupendously well. The BMPCC will suits our needs for video and we can share lenses between the GF1 and the Blackmagic. The best part is it is half the price and a third of the size of a 5d. Win. Win.

Although the packaging & design isn't anything to call home about I really like the build of the camera. The body is solid and constructed of an aluminum frame, black anodized display plate and a silky soft touch front. The camera is heavy but the type of prestigious & quality feeling heavy. The Grip is really comfortable to hold and you can imagine the dynamic shots allowed with such a small camera.

Here is our first test shot in RAW. I think I'm addicted to color correcting its such an art form but I've got a lot to learn. (excuse the short/quick goofy edit.)

GAMESTICK HAS ARRIVED

When I first laid eyes on the original GameStick concept I immediately knew I needed this game system in my life. My 100 dollar contribution to this Kickstarter project soon meant nothing since "Playjam" went on to raise more than 600k on kickstarter.

I was pleasantly surprised coming into the office this morning and receiving a package from GameStop and not knowing what was inside. I will not be doing a review of this product because I'm sure there are a ton on youtube. I will share with you what the final design looks like though.

For now here it is laid out neatly:

What are your thoughts about the original and the finished design?

Impatiently waiting

One of many Kickstarter projects we"ve funded is this "GameStick" So excited about the companies progress and can"t wait to get a hold of ours.

Kickstarter Page

Caselogic Ag++ (arrived)

I've been anxiously waiting on this Caselogic "Ag++" case for about two weeks now. Surprisingly when you order from their online store, all orders are fulfilled in Hong Kong so shipping takes longer. I would imagine them having a US presence and shipping be a bit faster (unfortunately not.) I actually stumbled upon this case by accident looking at various ID work on Behance. (great site for those of you looking for inspiration or to hire) The case is designed by Andrea Ponti check out his Behance here.

UPDATE: Lighter Koozie

UPDATE:

We're working on filming a short video of the process of making this lighter koozie. Instead of writing an excerpt on this I think you will enjoy the video. Enjoy the photos for now.

LAMPFIRE

The fire is the main comfort of the camp, whether in summer or winter, and is about as ample at one season as at another.  It is as well for cheerfulness as for warmth and dryness.  ~Henry David Thoreau

It used to be each summer a group of friends and I schedule a summer camping trip at the Oregon Coast, generally this lands mid to late August while summer is at it's best. If you're an Oregonian you know we are dark, cloudy and rainy about 85% of the year so we take advantage of the good weather when the opportunity is there.

Now the complications of growing up are that people move away, we become busier, we start families, our schedules and lives are based around timely factors.

Driving to work one morning two miles of my commute is graced with vast plains of grass and greenery. With my window down the crisp air brought back nostalgic memories of my used to be yearly camping trip. Late evenings around a campfire; yelling, joking, eating, telling stories, pure joy, fear, excitement ... insert emotions. This is natures invitation to bond, to come together, to surround ourselves with loved ones and get lost. At this very moment these memories converted into a design, a design with meaning, something to capture the essence of a campfire.

This is the "LampFire"

Check out our full process album via FACEBOOK

The Stars might be aligned for COMET

This past weekend I checked my spambox because often emails get lost in the spam filter and I fail to reply to emails whom needs immediate response. To my surprise I was hit with an email from a giant beauty/health appliance company inquiring about my design the "Comet" (click here to see comet)

As of right now I'm not sure what to expect, I'm curious as to what the conversation with this gentleman will be about & what it should lead to. Its really exciting and hopefully it'll lead into an opportunity to have this design produced.

To be continued...

Attention to Detail

A bit of VERY useful information shared by my coworker this morning it all came as a surprise to me since I had no idea of this kind of detail. So if you already know then good FOR YOU - but if you don't know the arbitrary lines on the side of the Solo cups aren't arbitrarily place after all. They are hidden detail that SOLO carefully designed in their cups as measurement lines. So now you know! CHEERS

Graphtec Plotter

Looks like this pick up will be a fun tool to have around the office. The Graphtec cutting plotter is our new used vinyl cutter.We're so excited for you guys because we're going to start sending out Creative Session vinyl for your: Laptops, Cellphones, Cars, House, Dogs, Cats, Girl Friends whatever you'd like to use it for. Stay tune for some designs for now we'll be going with our simple "CreSes Medallion" and the "CrewerC" stickers.

Here are a few photos of the plotting beauty queen. Feast your eyes.

Aviator Travel JIB

I've been learning a bit about making short videos based on all trial and error. Within the last few months I'm investing more time into learning about equipment that can help me capture better videos in which will give me a more dynamic range of shots to edit with. I just found this project on kickstarter and am really interested in having one check em out.

That NEW OLD penny skateboard

Remember these?

Well we've picked one up for the office. This thing is fast and zippy, I"m sure the updated board has better bushings and the barring are a lot smoother then what you bought back in the 70's but this board is small light and super fun to skate around town in.

They have so many color ways! http://www.pennyskateboards.com/home.html#!prettyPhoto

Refreshing the OLD

Being an industrial designer I like to celebrate the products I buy by not covering it up with fancy protective cases. At work I spend so much time articulating geometry in hopes of creating a sexy, pleasing, awesome design so why cover it up! With my Iphone I never got around to protecting the sucker cause I really like the thinness and the choices of material apple chose for the design.

A few months back I dropped my phone while exiting my car, most of us can relate to this cause I foolishly left my phone on my lap while driving, forgetting it was still on my lap as I left my car I was quickly found out the hard way why everyone's paranoid about protecting there phone. Luckily it made a tiny, tiny crack on the glass on the lower right side of my phone. Over time I guess the tiny crack gain momentum and shattered. This is the result... :(

Now that I have a reason for a replacement housing! I decided skip the white or black case since everyone have those! Lets play with something interesting. My initial thought was I really like the translucent iPhones that have been floating around the tech blogs.

Doing a bit more research the transparent case turned out to be quite fragile and easily comes apart. Doing more research I found china has iPhone housing in tons of colors. Chrome, matte even metallic you name it. I settled with RED. check it out.

Back by popular demand

So awhile back Keith one of CS's member branched out to look for a fashion design job. He wanted to leave a copy of his resume to the employer but not leave sheets of paper. We designed this thumb drive for him to save his portfolio and resume behind, this left a lasting impression to Gap Co. -- I been quite busy with life and regular work that I haven't had a chance to update the design. Here is the final and it's being shipped to Crown Molding tomorrow to be analyze for manufacturing. This is very exciting for us @ CS.

Nixon "The Minimalist" Concept Watch

Nixon pioneers some of the most aesthetically interesting watches to us. They are a brand we've continued to follow and be inspired by. We're quite positive a percentage of you have friends whom own at least one or more purely because of how well designed these watches are. Here at the CS lab we are more than familiar with the Nixon brand, the recent Tone on Tone Ad by Nixon is something we reference and keep on being influenced by. With this said we're giving it a go, here is our own spin on a Nixon watch called "The Minamalist"

"simplicity is the new black."--creative session

"The Minimalist" is a design inspired to be pure simplicity. Our goal is to design a watch that equates to "Less but Better." The question we asked our selves was; How do we make something more meaningful by taking away? We understand as we continue to grow expectations began to pile up, with more expectation we require more time. "The Minimalist" is our attempt in removing the anxiety to our constant battle with time and disguising it subtly. Designing the watch we redirected the focus to the hour hand of the watch, by doing this - the initial read should give the watch bearer the approximate hour of the day and not be distracted by the minutes left within that hour. The minute hand is designed to be a secondary focus. With the "Less but Better" philosophy we also wanted to focus more on the materials and design but less on the overwhelming graphics most companies add to their watches.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Tha Business project, a little light on Wired.

HERE IS THE LINK TO the WIRED write-up. click on the image below.

A little reminder of the project.

Google Magnify

"Google magnify is our attempt at design an object removing it self of clutter. It performs one specific task & the task well." - - Anh Nguyen

Google Magnify is the latest concept to be created by Anh Nguyen. This concept began with a funny email that he had been going around the office at his work. He went up to their intern, who just happened to be from France, before realizing that he would have a tough time reading it. After a little bit of confusion, the intern just copy and pasted the entire email into Google Translate and was cracking up just like everyone else after reading it.

Then the idea started to percolate in his mind; what if there was a device which was basically a window to the world, where everything would be translated into the language of your choosing? A modern take on the magnifying glass, which hasn't been updated much in its 800 years of existence. With a flip out handle, triple cameras, and text recognition software running through the Google Translate engine, the device just needs to be held in front of any text to be translated on the spot.

Just think how helpful this would be for tourists, students abroad, even our parents; the world wouldn't seem like such a scary place with help from Google Magnify.