Leica M7 Edition Hermes

 We've coveted many a Leica in the past, and when the company pulls out the stops for a limited edition you can bet that it will be quite lust-worthy -- and quite expensive. The M7 Edition Hermes sees the classic M7 35mm camera get a silver chrome finish and a choice of either orange or etoupe calfskin leather. On top of that, your purchase includes a Leica SUMMILUX-M 35 mm f/1.4 ASPH wide-angle lens, a matching classic round lens hood, a LEICAVIT M rapid winder and a leather carrying strap, and will arrive at your doorstep in a linen-covered, silk-lined box. But you'd better jump now, 'cos only 100 of each color will be produced. Available in the UK this December from authorized Leica dealers and at the Mayfair Leica Store for a mere £8,550 (about $14,250). PR after the break.

Yamaha EC-F Electric Motorcycle

We’ve see plenty of great green concept cars at this week’s Tokyo Motor Show, but Yamaha might take the prize for the best-looking two-wheeler with its new EC-f electric motorcycle. Designed to make motorcycling attractive to riders of all ages and experience levels, the vehicle features  a lightweight aluminum frame, a long-lasting lithium ion battery, and a 0.6 kWh electric motor.

Perfect for commuting and short urban jaunts, the EC-f features a built-in charger that can be plugged in to any standard outlet. In order to make the EC-f even more enticing for potential riders, Yamaha has partnered with major Japanese motorcycle manufacturers to lobby for more free motorcycle parking spaces and easier access to licenses. Admirable goals for car congestion-plagued Japan, but just because a motorcycle looks like fun doesn’t mean it’s easy to ride!

YAMAHA

Solar Traffic Light

By now we've all seen our fair share of green energy cars and devices, but there remains a dearth of public works-centric green tech innovations. Helping to fill the void of cool green-tech-meets-public-works design ideas, Taiwanese designers Cheng-Tsung Feng, Yao-Chieh Lin and Bo-Jin Wang created this solar-powered traffic light that easily could have emerged from the labs at Cupertino.

The traffic light uses a discolor LED that allows the red, yellow and green signals to all occupy one space rather than the traditional three-tiered design we have on today's streets. The trio won this year's international Lite-On Award (Silver Level) for their striking design which hopefully will inspire cities around the world to adopt this kind of green-centric infrastructure in the near future.

Via Yanko Design

3D Power Socket

One plug is not enough. In the USA, two is not enough. Everywhere in the world, basically, more power plugs are needed. So what did ArtLeb do? They built it into the plug itself, rather than relying on the ever-present power strip. And it’s got blue on it! And it uses the Art Lebedev logo on it! I’m pretty excited by it. I’m gonna need it in three-prong, please.

Hiding in the wall until the right moment to strike, the Rozetkus sits flat unless more than one plug is needed. And look at the concepting! it goes all over the place! Normally I’m not into building everything all at once into the base product, aka I love extensions. But this is the right stuff.

The right stuff!

Artistic Director: Artemy Lebedev
Art Director: Timur Burbayev
Designer: Anton Schnaider
Industrial Designers: Allan George and Alexei Sharshakov
Modeler: Alexander Pozdeyev
Visualizator: Dmitry Dolgikh

Woodway Bicycle

Arndt Menke-Zumbrägel | Produktdesign

"Good morning. Check out this killer wooden bike." Lance Armstrong on Twitter.

Berlin designer Arndt Menke-Zumbragel is the creator of this unique bicycle made using wood. the project began by investigating the use of wood as a construction material, paying close attention to its particular considerations. The result is a fully functional bike that weighs only 2.3 kg. with some special metal parts and carefully constructed wood pieces, Arndt has created a bike that blends new and old together into one unique package. Make sure to check out the bent wood detail on the rear support.

www.arndtmenke.de

Void Record Player

Inspired by the Vinyl Killer, which is currently the smallest record player in the world, Korean designer Rhea Jeong's "Void" LP player would have records spinning in midair above it.

Here's the plan, according to Designboom, who Jeong sent the design to:

The record player uses a carrier and dock outfitted with a magnetic and auto-calibrating control system which carries the LP into thin air as it is playing music. A self-running record player shaped in the form of a red sphere, contains a needle, amplifier and speaker, spins around the record, bringing the music to life.

There's even a control on the player's base to control how high the record spins. It's a wild design, for sure, but one that we hope becomes a reality one day. Oh, how we love us some things that levitate.

 

DVICE

SmartSpace Dry Food Dispenser

By securing the dispenser to the wall, you can create additional storage without having it getting in the way on the countertops. Plus, the dry foods inside are now easily accessible with just a twist of the handle. Only one twist dispenses 1 ounce of product perfectly portion-controlled every time! The included measuring cup that fits on each canister makes it easy to work the wall-mounted SmartSpace Dispenser into your cooking routine. This dispenser is a space-efficient accessory for every kitchen.

Product comes with 3 dispensers as shown.

Features

· Space-saving, contemporary design makes it perfect for the smaller kitchen
· Suitable for a wide variety of dry foods (cereal, trail mix, candy, granola, nuts, beans, rice)
· Convenient storage and portion control each quick twist dispenses approximately one ounce
· Designed to preserve freshness for up to 45 days
· Ideal for parents (promotes growing independence as children learn to serve themselves)
· Ideal for health- or weight-conscious consumers
· Each canister holds 13 ounces of dry food

 

 by Zervo 

 

VIDEO 

Incheon Stadium

It’s an exciting time for sports fans everywhere as cities around the world unveil the incredible stadiums that will host the events of tomorrow, and the designers and architects of Populous have them in spades. The latest competition-winning proposal from the HOK offshoot was recently selected as the primary stadium for the 17th Asian games in Incheon, South Korea. The adaptable stadium creates an abundance of green space within the city that will serve as a public park when not in use.

PHOTO 1   PHOTO 2   PHOTO 3   PHOTO 4   PHOTO 5

Designed by Populous (formerly HOK Sport Venue Event) and Heerim Architects and Planners, Incheon’s new stadium is designed to hold 70,000 people for the Asian games in 2014, after which it will downsize and transform into a 30,000 seat stadium and public park.

The elegantly sloping structure is meant to reflect the traditional Buddhist ritual Seung Moo dances. According to architect Daekwon Park, “In architecture, as in dance, dynamic movement creates form, but can also be recognized by the space voids created around its form. The yin and yang of complementary opposites within a greater whole are represented inside the form of the master plan of the stadium, and the left over space around that form, becomes the main access to the building.”

The stadium has been described as promoting “a new era of designing sustainable venues for major events”, however the project’s sustainable features have yet to be disclosed. Ensuring environmental responsibility in a structure designed to draw thousands of spectators is a challenging goal, and we’re interested to see how populous plans on pulling off the feat.

For now Populous has said “The key to its success will be linking it into the surrounding parklands, to make it an open, accessible building for its people. It will be smaller, easier to operate and more usable by the community, securing its long term sustainability and providing a true legacy for the people of Incheon.”

Location: Link

Recyclable Paper Laptop

Recyclable-Paper-Laptop-by-Je-Sung-ParkLaptops these days never seem to last that long. I tend to go through a new laptop every couple of years and when I get new laptop I always have the issue of doing something with the old one. Over the year this adds up to a lost of waste for me and im sure millions of people around the world have exactly same issue.

This big issue is something computer companies are always trying to rectify. Designer Je Sung Park has now taken the idea of a recyclable computer to new heights. His Recyclable Paper Laptop is made from pulp and reprocessed materials, and would be broken down into the same when all is said and done.

@ DVICE

JVC Bonsai Speakers

 JVC recently unveiled a beautiful line of bonsai-laden Kirikabu speakers at this year’s Tokyo Designer’s Week. Created out of eco-friendly plastic, the conceptual series of speakers can be assembled into different shapes, and each contains a small compartment perfect for planting a tiny bonsai tree!

Each mini modular Kirikabu resembles a tree stump with three horizontal stubs – two of them hold speakers, while the third is a terminal. The fully featured speakers come complete with bass-reflex ports and a sub-woofer. Each stump is made out of “eco-plastic”, which is a bit of a vague term – we’re guessing it’s a plant-based plastic. The units can be connected with one another to create a larger speaker, and each module houses a small pot, where bonsai and other plants can be grown.

"Funktion-One" - 3 new products

UK - Loudspeaker manufacturer Funktion One has announced that it will introduce three new products at this year's PLASA Show (13-16 September, Earls Court, London).

The F101 loudspeaker enclosure comprising 1 x 10" bass/mid driver and 1" high frequency device is a larger version of the successful F81. It offers exceptional clarity and imaging with a sensitivity of101dB for 1 watt at 1 metre which is unprecedented for this class of loudspeaker. The F101 neatly fills a niche between the F81 and the Resolution 1 being ideal for anything from a Studio reference monitor to AV presentations and theatre.

The Resolution 3 is an all in one 3-way enclosure comprising a special horn loaded 18" bass loudspeaker with 5" voice coil, a new Axhead loaded 10" loudspeaker for midrange and a 1" compression driver for high frequencies. The mid/high section can be rotated to facilitate horizontal installation. It produces exceptional SPL for its size with very convincing bass rendering additional sub bass unnecessary. "You could say it is a Resolution 2 on steroids," the company says.

Also new from Funktion One, the ASPC1 audio system polarity checker is a tool for live sound and installation engineers to ensure the optimisation of high performance audio systems. It is light, compact and supplied with belt pouch for easy accessibility.

Visit Funktion One at PLASA09 - Stand 1-F36.

http://www.funktion-one.com/

Confrérie Horlogère La Clef du Temps Tourbillon

The La Clef du Temps watch actually allows the user to control the pace of time by modulating the speed of every passing hour through the crown at 9 o’clock. Aside from featuring technical triumph, it returns luxury timekeeping more importantly to all range of users. These 24 watches of different time zones of the world surely stand a chance to be a great collector’s choice. The weird symbols of the watches can be revealed by close examination and no matter how long you misrepresent time on your watch, you can return to the standard time anytime by simply movingthe crown at 9 o’clock. These watches would be quite expensive, only a prototype of such a watch fetched the 2nd highest price in a recent watch auction at $410,000.

From the website:
LIMITED EDITION OF 24 PIECES
An exceptional mechanism created by Mathias Buttet – founder of Confrérie Horlogère – for the Only Watch 09 auction: an event that takes place every two years and is aimed at raising funds to help children affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Touched by the devastating effects of this disease, Mathias Buttet has developed a Vertical tourbillon watch which features a hand-wound mechanical movement able to make the time last longer for those who don’t have much of it. Moreover, the prototype developed has been enriched with a further function allowing users to shorten the time if they so wish.