New Look for buchwald.ca

With help from Elegant Themes, charlesbuchwald.com has a brand new look, feel, and functionality! A new template for the site, with some custom, in-house modifications, now provides for a cleaner, more functional experience. An associated Flickr photostream is now...

HangBoard Hangs On

The HangBoard project continues to hang on… a new user manual has recently been added to the offerings at hangboard.ca and there are other minor additions or changes to the site. The YouTube videos continue to rack up views and comments. Are you still intrigued by the...

Designer: Paul MacCready

 Paul MacCready is one of the most creative and inventive designers I know. Well, I don’t know him personally, but I know of some of his projects, and one of my favorite stories is his leadership of the development of the human powered aircraft in the Gossamer...

Paola Antonelli: Design and the Elastic Mind

  Paola Antonelli offers some interesting insights and perspectives on design, and the way designers work, and see the world. If you have 17:40 to spare, check it out… Paola Antonelli: Design and the elastic mind. In her own words, she hopes “the...

Those DAM Tools

Digital Asset Management (DAM) tools are an emerging category of software made for manipulating collections of rich media files. Rich media file types can include photos, illustrations, video, audio, fonts, and desktop publishing files from applications such as Adobe...

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

This exceptional video story has been online for several months, but it takes on new meaning in light of the current financial distress here in North America. Ms. Leonard has a particularly clear take on the system of consumption that is gobbling up our resources at an astounding rate. This has broad implications for our society, and especially for the field of design.

The Zen of Sherlock Holmes

I found this fascinating blog a while ago, with simple variations on David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) philosophy. The Sherlock Holmes Guide to Recovering Your Stolen Identity isn’t really about design… unless maybe you consider it as an aspect...

Update: Cannondale’s Folder Keeps Getting Closer

I wrote about this beautiful folding bike a while back. Then, reading through the latest issue of Outside Magazine, I saw it again… with a claim that it’s headed for bike shops next year. Checking in, I see than C’dale says it’s getting closer to...

Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests

Mere words cannot describe the magic beauty of these kinetic sculptures. Dutch artist and inventor Theo Jansen has brought sticks and string and pipes to life as these creatures that walk along the sand of the beach, powered by the wind. The simple leg mechanism is...

Building Boats… in 2 Hours or Less

This is something of a ‘blast from the past’. A few years ago I competed in the (then) annual Sea Capers Build-a-Boat Challenge. The rules were slightly different every year, but the gist of it was to design and build a boat for less than $100 (Canadian,...