Category Archives: Design
September 17, 2011 Ambient and Angle
After I decided to start publishing my music, I thought about how would I tie all the pieces of music together visually. Would I use the same set of fonts all the time, one specific color, would I create a Raindropper logo and plaster it on all the record covers?
Those all seemed too constraining, thus I opted for a more subtle idea: angle. So, let’s sneak one specific angle in all the images from now on.
The angle ended up being 53 degrees. To my eye, it just seemed the most pleasing one. The bonding angle of hydrogen atoms on a water molecule is roughly twice that (circa 104,45) so my eye missed the target with a degree or so.
Oops, here’s Void Saturday with a slightly skewed angle…
September 15, 2008 My Second Photosynth Experiment
At our Deomo booth on OLO.MUOTO trade fair here in Finland – I took several pictures with the Canon Ixus 950 camera, and photosynthed them:
Do remember to set the Photosynth viewer to full-screen mode (icon on the bottom right), it’s much better that way.
Regarding the Photosynth tech, I learned the lesson that one needs to change the camera angle and position only a slight amount between pictures. Otherwise, the end result is too jumpy as the Photosynth algorithm leaves too many images without context.
And yes, I’m bloody proud of the booth we did with my wife, Nina. 🙂
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- Posted under Design, New Tech, Photosynth, Technology, Web
June 9, 2008 Cybertecture Apartment in Dubai
It’s always interesting to follow what they are up to in Dubai. The developments there are just amazing. According to some info, one fifth of world’s cranes are there in gigantic 100 billion dollar construction project.
One particular building caught my eye: The PAD, also known as iPad. The tower is…
…targeted at switched-on, creative and hip business executives to whom we refer to as “the digital generation” or apple brand lovers who are constantly mobile and connected.
Every apartment will be intelligent and have its own cybertecture to provide a unique experience. Everything from communications, entertainment, health and shopping is covered by the cybertecture of the apartment.
Among the usual household stuff like colour changing tiles are the iFeatures. The iFeatures list contains: iReality (a virtual reality projection wall), iHealth (monitors residents health), iRotation Rooms (rotate your lounge), iArt (project a painting from a server to a wall), etc.
In Dubai, science fiction really becomes a reality. I commend their bold adventures in architectural design and pushing the edge of technology in living spaces. Oil money well spent.
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- Posted under Design, Globe, Life, New Tech, Technology
June 4, 2008 Something Wet Is Out! Really Wet…
It’s quite natural for a guy nicknamed raindropper to create a book covering all aspects of water, don’t you think?
So, point your browser to The Book of W and start exploring. There will chapters and postings about science, business, arts, cultures and religions – all of course water-related.
It looks like a mish-mash of blog postings and book chapters. But there’s a simple, common theme underlining all of those – and it’s clear as water. 😉
August 19, 2007 Introducing Deomo TV/HIFI Unit
You know the thing with home audio and video electronics these days: too many boxes, too many cables, hard to keep clean and in order. They are messy looking, you can not put those in to a modern living room.
We couldn’t find a solution in the market for our needs, so I (with my wife) designed a TV stand that solves our storage issues. I gave it a name Deomo.
Magic is in the mirror – you really have to see it to believe it. More pictures in Deomo.com – currently in Finnish only.
If you are interested in manufacturing/distributing/marketing it, drop me an email (tomi.itkonen@gmail.com).
[Update 10.9.2007] An additional pic added of Deomo TV stand:
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- Posted under Design, Idea, New Tech, Technology
May 30, 2007 Jumped From Sculpt 3D to Blender – I’m Hooked
In the late 80s, most of the neighbourhood bitboys had an Amiga 1000 or 500. Some of us were interested in 3D rendering with Sculpt 3D or Imagine software.
Raytracing took a long time with a CPU running at 7.1 MHz and 1 MB of memory. So, I left the Amiga run its raytracing overnight – in the morning I would check how the picture turned out to be. Heh, I did not even have a hard disk, so I must have been a patient guy.
Now, I’m amazed about the quality of the open source Blender software. I added YafRay renderer, and I’m hooked. Check out those galleries…
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- Posted under 3D, Design, New Tech, Science, Technology
April 20, 2007 Jaguar Design Briefings
Jaguar Cars provides a breathtaking and informative set of presentations covering the design decisions behind the C-XF Concept and future Jaguar models.
“Jaguar Design Briefings are a compilation of online videos, photography and words that capture various themes of the future design direction for Jaguar.”
If you are interested in design, cars, or … then take a look.
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- Posted under Cars, Design, New Tech, Technology
March 11, 2007 Design – Transferring Energy
I can not remember who said that “design is about transferring energy”. Anyway, take a look at the lines of the new Maserati GranTurismo. I feel energized just by looking at it.
Here are some Geneva pictures of that beautiful car styled by Pininfarina.
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- Posted under Cars, Design
January 12, 2007 Nokia, LG and BenQ Touchscreen Concepts
With the religious Apple worshipping come boost and attention to entire mobile phone industry.
It is always interesting to see how original a new product is, and what the other manufacturers have previously demonstrated.
Through the hectic iPhone conversation on Scobleizer’s blog, Lance gives links to:
Nokia Aeon concept phone with a touchscreen,
[Update 18.1.2007] Other concepts on Okan Vardarova’s iPhone blog. Apple fans have sent several cool looking designs.
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- Posted under Design, New Tech, Technology
January 10, 2007 Apple iPhone – Looking Very Good
Get the QuickTime plugin and jump here to see the demos:
The user interface is looking very good indeed. All the unnecessary junk is removed letting the user concentrate solely to the task in hand.
There’s not too much data visible at one time, only the context.
Small visual cues like horizontal scrolling and zoom effects aid the user in keeping track of his/her location in the UI. They keep the experience flowing and seamless.
They’ve even added sensors for determining the device’s position. Very clever.
This is how technology should work; quietly and hidden in the background.
If it all functions as advertised (do they ever?) and the batteries last, it will be a damn good device.
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- Posted under Design, New Tech, Technology
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