Moving transportation shelter

August 19, 2010 at 10:13 am
Filed under Transportation

“This bus station is installed at the Seoul Train Station Bus Transfer Center, and it is a public structure realizing over-scaled media by embedding about 36,400 LEDs in-between a pair of transparent glasses. There are 12 bus shelters, each 8mX2.5m, and the walls and ceilings of all these bus shelters are correlated with moving images and display of low pitch pixel media.” — A.M.

Shcool’s in

August 11, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Filed under Humor, Signage, Transportation

SEGDster Sue Gould points out, “And we think the only problem is layout and specs.”  There’s always room for error. — A.M.

EGD finally gets some street cred on Snopes

August 9, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Filed under Graphic Design, Humor, Transportation

The tagline of the Snopes website is “Rumor has it;” they’re all about debunking urban myths and legends.

One recent entry actually found claims that “Photographs show an airliner with a ‘Flying 101’ exterior design.” to be true, noting that “Kulula is a low-cost South African airline that doesn’t take itself too seriously.” — A.M.

Food, on a roll

July 14, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Filed under City Happenings, Food, Graphic Design, Transportation

“Food trucks, the next step up the evolutionary ladder from the traditional sidewalk food cart (trucks are generally larger, more tricked-out, and self-propelled), aren’t exactly new. Trucks serving pizza or halal chicken and rice have fed midtown office workers and outer-borough revelers for years. What is new is the elevation of the form—the quality, variety, and sheer number of the things have never been greater.”

Thanks to Jill Ayers for the tip on this entry! Join her for a pizzacone. — A.M.

Silly public works

June 25, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Filed under Architecture, Transportation

“Some of us simply have trouble accepting things as they are. Apparently I do. There is hardly any sight in Northern California more beautiful than that of the Golden Gate Bridge. With its distinctive orange-vermillion paint job, faithfully maintained year after year, it can be seen for miles. I have no problem with the bridge as it is; I love it. But sometimes I get an urge to see what something might look like if it were different. In late 2007 I began to redesign the Golden Gate Bridge. I tried various schemes, and prepared enough drawings to satisfy my curiosity. I had fun, but my designs were pretty ugly.” — A.M.

Design on wheels

June 16, 2010 at 9:39 am
Filed under Arts and Crafts, Transportation

“Tires are boring. Except for the occasional horror experienced when one bursts or hits a nail, they’re simply an additional expense for your car. It’s amazing then, to see how many uses, both functional and aesthetic, that hard rubber can be bent toward.” — A.M.

Shapes help color-blind drivers

June 9, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Filed under Color, Industrial Design, Symbols, Traffic, Transportation

“For the greater good of mankind I’m willing to do my bit and learn new traffic rules. If it saves a life or time, then why not! What Uni-Signal here is saying, that we have been using round traffic lights for ages now, with only the red-amber-green-colors for aid. How about prepping the system and broadening the spectrum of usage (by colorblind people) and change the shape of the lights! Triangle-Red-Stop, Rectangle-Amber-Stay, Round-Green-Go! If nothing else, it looks swanky and now we can teach tiny-tots shapes and colors in one go!” — A.M.

Massimo’s Metro

May 13, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Filed under Designers, SEGD Conf + Expo, Signage, Transportation

With its grand, vaulted stations and Massimo Vignelli – designed graphics, the Washington, D.C., Metro is considered a classic. But how does a public transit system — even a much-beloved one like DC Metro — survive more than three decades of use, abuse, changing ridership needs, and system growth?

Massimo himself — along with facilitator Michael McBride, Metro’s manager of art and environmental graphics — will be on hand during the 2010 SEGD Conference + Expo to field that question. The SEGD Fellow and design laureate will share his design intent, talk about his collaboration with Metro architect Harry Weese, and shed light on how the graphics he envisioned more than 30 years ago are just as timely today.

Meet Massimo and Michael at the DC Metro “Workshop on Wheels” on Saturday, June 5. SEGD’s signature behind-the-scenes tours provide an indepth look at EGD projects — in situ and hosted informally by designers and clients. For more information on the SEGD Conference + Expo and other Workshops on Wheels, click here.

Eyeballing it

April 24, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Filed under Transportation

SensoMotoric and the Free University of Berlin have developed a technology that allows you to control your car with the motion of your eyes. — A.M.

Mobile confessional

April 23, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Filed under Architecture, Industrial Design, Interior Design, Transportation

“The M. Confessional combines churchly tradition with modern mobility…[offering] people the opportunity to talk to a priest, to get pastoral advice and, if desired, to take the sacramental confession.” (The video alone is worth the price of admission.) — A.M.