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Architecture competitions throughout the world

India: Stainless Innovation Award

Submission Deadline, January 7th, 2012

USA: Pruitt Igoe Now Ideas Competition

Entries due Friday, March 16, 2012.

USA: eVolo 2012 Skyscraper Competition

Late registration deadline, January 17, 2012

USA: ENYA Competition 2011

Submissions due Jan 16th 2012

Australia: The WSUD 2012 Design Competition

Closing date for submission & registration: 5th December 2011

USA: SolidThinking Design Competition 2011

Deadline for submissions is November 30, 2011

Article

Industrial Design and Human Factors:

Design Style, ergonomics, and solid engineering must be forged together when designing power tools

-an article by Richard Babyak, Appliance Design

"Power tools must perform tough tasks; designing them is a tough task, too. There aren't many products where bad design can actually hurt the user, so good power tool design is more than just a desirable option, it's an absolute necessity (Richard)...

..."The consumer power tool market is much more open to new ideas, innovations, trendy styling and colors, much like the consumer electronics market, where it's all about having the latest new thing," says Paul Hatch Chicago.

"Professionals don't want in-your-face styling. The aesthetics require a certain understatement. And professionals don't want gimmicks, either. For example, we came up with an idea for a magnetic plate to go on top of a drill-driver to hold screws and bits, because we'd observed people sticking these things in their mouths as they climbed ladders and so forth. It was a useful idea, but the professionals found it too patronizing and gimmicky. The idea eventually ended up on a Skil cordless drill, though. So it was a useful consumer idea, but not for professionals." In a nutshell, the designers have learned that, while the consumer will buy revolution, the professional prefers evolution.

...In this field, a product can live or die by its handle. It has to provide a good grip and a good fit, but, not too good. Hatch notes that features such as finger grooves that allow the hand to perfectly fit a handle may seem like a good idea at first glance, but can turn out to be a mistake if they dictate how a tool should be held.

“We’ve noticed that, when people start using a tool with one grip, within 30 seconds, they will slightly change the position of their hands or fingers,” Hatch says. “They do it instinctively to avoid cramping. So the danger of finger ridges is that they can be too confining, prohibiting hand shifting, and possibly causing cramping. Another reason is that people need to grip a handle differently for different angles and positions. You need to preserve that flexibility.”

India : Best retail brands come together at IRF meet

India Retail Forum (IRF) is a three days event hosting seminars, conferences, workshops, exhibition and Images Retail Awards. It is the most substantive unraveling of intellectual and information exchange for the retail business in the Indian subcontinent.

The forum presents the business of retail in the region to a global audience, with the express aim of facilitating, understanding about and encouraging investment in this massive market place.

At India Retail Forum it is a congregation of some of the best retail brands, companies and minds from across the globe, from diverse retail related segments – from retail real estate and design & architecture, to visual merchandising, retail support and technology.

Over a thousand head honchos representing brands, retailers, chain stores, department stores, franchise networks, hypermarkets, institutional investors, retail consultants, service providers, mall and shopping centre developers, real estate firms, architects & designers, and logistics and technology support vendors attend India Retail Forum.

The seminars are addressed by speakers from India & abroad representing big organizations in the field of fashion & lifestyle, food and grocery, entertainment & leisure, health & beauty, Consumer Durables, catering services, retail real estate, retail technology and retail support

In essence the forum takes India to the world – and gets the world to understand and appreciate the fastest growing consumerist region of modern times.

Brand Differentiation through Design Details

Chicago's Paul Hatch was one of the speakers at the 2003 Housewares Show. His presentation focused on the importance of creating a recognizable Brand Identity across a product line, and how this can be achieved by the use of styling details on the products themselves.

Very often 'Brand Identity' gets mistakenly limited to just the color and graphics of products. Paul Hatch explained in his presentation about how fine design details can radically change the appearance of a shape, and how these can be combined to create a recognizable brand identity throughout a family of products.

Paul’s presentation demonstrated how common physical details (such as use of grooves, edges and radii, etc.) can give a better emotional attachment to a whole brand, while also refining the aesthetic appeal of individual products. These details were identified and explained, and shown in context on existing products. Many products were shown with and without such defining detailing. The difference is stark; a ‘naked’ product (one without such attention to detail) suddenly looses its identity and cannot retain its emotional connection to the user or to the brand identity.

His presentation explained ways to remedy this ‘nakedness’, and how to revitalize a full product pallet, thus strengthening an entire brand.

"The strengthening of a brand through its products is fundamental to the survival of a company in the new marketplace. Industrial design can be the key to cost-efficiently boost the sales power of any product, and thus should be used with regard to the entire brand. Companies offering a cohesively designed product pallet have the ability to become a major presence in their market, an effect that has long-term rewards."