Tag Archives: environmental designer

This hydrogen fuel based pod is the vehicle of choice for a green future!

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We all once believed flying cars would be the future for the auto industry. Then cars started driving themselves, so that future was left up to the designers to decide. But never has the future weighed so heavily above us than it has in 2020. Globally, designers are utilizing this moment to construct what they believe the future of the auto industry will and, in some cases, should look like, including Moscow-based, Nikita Konopatov who recently conceptualized a hydrogen-fueled car for the future, called Future Center Europe. The fuel-cell vehicle design would move on two cylindrical barrels with a bubbled body, an image representative of molecular hydrogen combustion. The decision to construct a new automobile fueled by hydrogen is both feasible and deliberate. With the frequency of road transportation decreasing, and therefore air pollution, as a result of travel restrictions due to the pandemic, many of us have consciously shifted toward greener alternatives. Fuel cell vehicles indicate one green alternative since the electric vehicles use generators to turn hydrogen into electricity, providing energy.

Hydrogen fuel is produced once hydrogen reacts with oxygen to make water. Since hydrogen is an energy carrier, which means it transmits energy from a primary source, such as solar energy or coal, it can be used as fuel for cars. Extracting hydrogen from compounds can be tricky, but it is possible through electrolysis, which is the most popular, ecological, and efficient option. Konopatov describes his design as “atypical,” but it is also so utopian, it discredits any possibility of a future doomsday. With columnar wheels and panoramic windows, this design could inspire sci-fi anime or become one. Who wouldn’t take a drive? On paper, this design points out our seemingly new reality and how we interact with it. Globally, we’re embracing simplicity, sprucing up our own corner of the world, and modifying our lens for alternative living in order to meet it halfway. Similarly, Nikita Konopatov’s fuel cell vehicle nods towards a simpler, albeit faraway future world, where cars might not fly, but breathe like us.

Designer: Nikita Konopatov

This transparent pen design crystalizes tree branches to make empty pens memorable!

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When it comes to stationery, it often seems that demand overshadows artistry. Noisy, plastic pouches lined with ten or more plastic pens fill the bags of shoppers who just need something to write. That’s why Geonwoo Kim conceptualized the IceN pen. Specifically for pen-users who tend towards plastic, wasteful writing tools, the IceN reimagines an ecological alternative. Before putting pen to paper, Kim took and studied photographs of tree branches frozen over with ice in order to conceptualize the pen’s design authentically and to send home his dedication to conservation. In many ways, this pen represents a marriage between environmental consciousness and the human pursuit for reusability. This design makes sense of human waste by returning to nature. This sentiment is emphasized with Kim’s remark, “I wanted to show that there is still beauty inside the empty, transparent pen.”

While the icy pen is still in its design stages, Geonwoo Kim plans on the manufactured product being made up of resin and ink. By meticulously constructing the pen in harmony with mother nature, the final design comprises a work of art that’ll be sure to take up prime real estate in either your home office or pencil case. Unlike other transparent pens, you won’t want to throw this one away. But of course, ink runs out. As this stationery design hasn’t reached its production stage, the question of refilling the pen lingers. One possibility, echoing nature’s inimitability, would be to 3D print refills, so that each resulting ‘branch’ inside the pen is unique. Lost wax molding, centering a hollowed out ‘branch’ in transparent resin to then fill in with ink, could be an efficient and successful choice as well. With a few possibilities considered, the prospective solution will likely reflect Kim’s environmental commitment.

The beginnings of Geonwoo Kim’s pen design literally symbolizes a root and branch undertaking. The final visual design, in both its complexity and simplicity, is a visually pronounced declaration of environmental awareness. Geonwoo Kim realizes the contemplative connection between the written word and the beauty of nature. The possibilities of merging design with the natural world, or, “man-made nature,” as Kim refers to it, are unveiled with IceN’s artful ode to mother Earth, bringing with it, winter’s textured and fallen branches, crystalized forever in ice.

Designer: Geonwoo Kim

YD JOB ALERT: Join Fuseproject as an Environmental Designer

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fuseproject, a studio started by Yves Behar, is looking for an Environmental Designer to join their team in San Francisco, CA. fuseproject has been responsible for the designs behind many winning brands like Jawbone, Sodastream, Tile, WD, Paypal, August Systems, and many more. With their signature approach to design intervention, fuseproject has been one of the most influential design studios the world has ever seen, providing award-winning services that span across innovation, strategy, industrial design, brand design, and even digital design!

THE OPPORTUNITY

We are looking for an Environments Designer who really knows their way around a sketch pad, model shop and computer. You should be up to date on the latest trends and styles. You have a passion for unique contemporary solutions. On top of having the design chops, you have strong communication skills, proven collaboration skills with large project teams and the ability to collaborate in order to deliver exceptional results.

Founded in 1999 by Yves Béhar, fuseproject is an award-winning, integrated design agency. Taking a long-term approach to developing products, experiences and brands, fuseproject works globally and across a wide array of industries as diverse as technology, furniture, fashion, environmental design, and consumer goods.

We fuse together design disciplines including design strategy, industrial design, brand, packaging, experience design (UI/UX), and environmental design for corporate clients and startups such as Herman Miller, Samsung, USAID/DFID, PayPal, Movado, Kodak and many more.

In order to apply you MUST submit a portfolio.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Deliver core interiors and environmental design expertise to multi faceted design projects at a world-leading product design, strategy and brand-building firm.
• Support the delivery of comprehensive design submissions to clients in a timely manner.
• Present to client and internal stakeholders with full confidence and knowledge of project scope and direction.
• Demonstrate creative abilities and applied problem-solving skills.
• Self-manage and demonstrate high level of professional maturity.
• Be quality minded and self-motivated.
• Partner with Strategy, Industrial, and Experience Design teams within fuse to execute and deliver uniquely strong, world-class, game-changing designs, and outcomes.
• Assist in the development of designs, immerse yourself in project development and the production processes, and have an ability to work cooperatively within the design team.
• Ability to travel internationally on a regular cadence.

REQUIREMENTS

• A degree in Architecture or Environmental Design.
• Experience in retail, environmental design, pop-ups, commercial interiors, or trade shows.
• Demonstrated experience interfacing with contractors and fabricators; experience overseeing custom fabrication and on-site implementation.
• Minimum three years practical experience across all phases of design: conceptual design/sketching, schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration.
• Excellent 3D Visualization skills.
• Experience integrating merchandising, signage, video, and print graphics into environmental design work.
• Contemporary, internationally-savvy design sensibility.
• Strong portfolio of completed, well-documented projects.
• Proven collaborator on large project teams. The ability to ‘lead and follow’ within internal project teams.
• Strong organizational and communications skills. Excellent client presentation skills, experience presenting to senior clients and groups, and ability to assemble visual presentations.
• Leonardo Da Vinci-level sketching abilities.
• Software skills: e.g. Sketch-Up, InDesign, AutoCad, Keynote, +Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Rhino, Keyshot, V-Ray and 3DMax, core business productivity suites.
• Ability to deliver against aggressive deadlines, on-time.
• Understanding of building, fire, and life-safety codes.
• Understanding of typical fabrication detailing and processes.
• Proficient in researching and proposing FF&E and sustainable selections while working within budget limits.
• Expert in CMF (color, materials, finishes).
• Knowledge of current vendor resources in floor and surface materials and finishes, glass systems, lighting systems and controls, fabrics and coverings, seating, desking and offices systems, furniture, A/V integration.
• Uncompromising passion for unique, crisp, and distilled contemporary solutions.

LOCATION

San Francisco, USA.

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

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