design

Last night I was among the attendees at the New York City chapter of Social Media Club, and there was arguably one star of the evening: Squarespace, a home-grown Manhattan start-up that claims to offer a content management system for small Web sites that can do more than, say, WordPress or MovableType.

Here's the raison d'etre for Squarespace. There are plenty of small Web site owners out there, both businesses and individuals, that are yearning for more than a blog but don't have the technical know-how to do it themselves. Maybe they'd like a few extra … Read more

General Motors will be keeping us busy this week as we report live from the exhibit floor of the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show. Over the weekend, GM announced that it would be debuting two production hybrids in addition to its already substantial offering of new model releases and special editions.

The 2008 Buick Enclave, the 2008 Saturn Vue, and the 2008 GMC Acadia crossovers were on our radar already, but the General has thrown in a couple of extra debuts in the shape of the Saturn Aura Green Line, a hybrid version of Saturn's Euro-inspired sedan that makes … Read more

ConceptShare is a new service, close to being released, that gives creative pros an intuitive way to share their work with clients and coworkers. Essentially, it's just a repository for images that people can add notes to, but it's focused and straightforward, it has a very clear interface, and it's unlikely to confuse clients.

The Flash-based interface makes it very easy to switch between different images (or "concepts") and see the notes that people have left on each. You can toggle quickly between different images and easily spot small tweaks between different concepts. Designers can … Read more

Imagine if you decorated with speakers and it didn't feel like a bachelor pad. Impossible right? Not anymore.

This miracle has been achieved with SoundArt's speakers that double as wall art. One or two of the speakers plus a subwoofer box hook up to any MP3 player, home stereo or digital radio.

The speakers look like a canvas hanging on a wall, and the art can be anything you want: a black-and-white cityscape, an Andy Warhol soup can, a photo of your cat wearing a birthday hat, or a post-modern smearing of colors. You can choose from what … Read more

Why can't every dull domestic task involve a ridiculously cute appliance like this one?

I would actually look forward to pulling on the gardening gloves and clogs if I had this shiny white toy to play with. I mean, it's an electric lawnmower-slash-mulcher shaped like a bubble. With neon green accents! Sigh.

Alas, the Droplet Electric Mower/Mulcher is but a prototype created by Australian designer Ashley Marsh-Croft. Ash-Design.com says the Droplet is designed with small spaces in mind and meant to improve the gardening experience. Check aaaand check. I'm sold. Can they just please make … Read more

This gravity-driven "car" (top photo) took the prize for "Best Design Exploration" at the Unlimited Derby car race, an event sponsored by IBM at the Industrial Designers Society of America conference in Austin, Texas.

It was designed by ID-One, a creative services company of engineers, industrial designers and graphic artists. (We wonder if they had been flipping through the Tiffany's catalog at the time--see the sterling silver baby rattle below.)

The race is akin to the Boy Scouts' Pinewood Derby in that entries must be gravity driven and fit specific size parameters. Unlike the Pinewood … Read more

Good morning, Cravers. (Or good afternoon, or good evening. The Internet is a global phenomenon, after all.) I'm here to ask you all if anyone else has come to the same conclusion I have: that there has been a disturbing influx of color-changing devices that give off "a soft glow," or maybe "ambient light," or even a "Zen atmosphere." Anyone else notice that? These things are all over ThinkGeek, and now I'm seeing another variety (pictured) showcased on the Sci Fi Tech blog. Not to mention those penguins.

I trace this all … Read more

Bargain laptop hunters, do not read this blog.

Dutch company Ego-Lifestyle has brought its latest high-end luxury laptop, the Tulip Ego, to the States just in time for the holiday shopping season. Barneys New York will be the first U.S. retailer to feature the handbag-shaped laptop and its corresponding interchangeable "skins," which are available in a variety of designer fabrics and finishes. And all this can be yours for a mere $5,000.

The laptop, first introduced at Milan Fashion Week in the spring, has a 12.1-inch screen, an AMD Turion processor, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and … Read more

Check out that picture. That's my cube at CNET's office! Isn't it nice?

Just kidding. My cube actually consists of a huge mess, a mini cactus, some pictures, a huge mess, a Nalgene water bottle, and a huge mess. I was going to take a picture of it for this post, but I was too embarrassed and just couldn't bring myself to it. Good thing there's this new book that I read about on Gearlog. It's called "Cube Chic," by Kelley Moore, and it has 22 ideas for office cube decoration themes, … Read more