Rolanda Rodriguez

Drew and I were deeply saddened by the horrible news that our client and friend, Rolanda Rodriguez (Jafra Cosmetics) passed away this morning. Our thoughts and prayers are with Rolanda’s entire family and everyone at Jafra who is dealing with this sudden and tragic loss.

Design Focus: X Lighting

It’s been a long time coming, but someone has finally developed a fluorescent lighting array that isn’t completely hideous — just somewhat hideous. Shakespearian actor (see photo) Ross Lovegrove’s diabolically named System X (designed for Japanese manufacturer Yamagiwa) allows for all sorts of interesting and “artistic” combinations of the X-shaped bulbs, permitting large, linked arrangements, or simple, singular set ups… or circles. Truly a minor development in the de-uglifying of offices everywhere.

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Radar Outtakes

Innovation Focus: eTar

Budding Claptons should keep their eyes on the eTar, a sort of Internet-based guitar that’s designed to be used with the upcoming eJamming music service. The eTar, which will make a real life apperance at a design fair in Britain in July, has all the features of a real guitar like strings and a volume control knob. You’re supposed to use it in tandem with eJamming, which lets you play music with someone else across the Internet. Like the site says, hook up with a drummer in Brazil, a bassist in Italy, etc. It’s the global village.

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Design Focus: Roland Kaufmann Bike

Designer Roland Kaufmann has gone and built a bicycle out of wood. He calls this gorgeous cycle Jano, and says it’s a dual bike, equally at home trekking cross-country or taking its rider to and from work every day. But wood? Really?

This project has gone beyond some vaporware CAD drawing—he’s actually built a great-looking prototype, riding this bike around and impressing everyone in sight. Although Kaufmann never reveals the exact weight of his wooden bike, he extols the virtues of using wood for a configuration such as this:

“Did you know that wood is up to 10 times stiffer than fibreglass and nearly 6 times stiffer than a kevlar/epoxy composite? Using wood and epoxy industry created some of the world’s best multi-hulled sailboats, sprint kayaks and rowing shells. lightweights. Quicker in acceleration. Easier in manoeuvring. More convenient to carry. Straightforward to maintain and visually divine. A swan among ducks. So why not also using this material for a bike?”
He uses wood veneers glued together into a unique configuration, which he says gives the resulting frame more stability while still reducing its thickness. Cyclists, will this work? Sure looks great, an example of superb craftsmanship.

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