Thursday, November 29, 2007

BA Upgrade - Christmas Design Competition

Hi guys,

I just wanted to let you know about a nice online initiative for young
designers.

British Airways is looking to update the introduction page of its
Upgrade site, (http://www.upgradetobritishairways.ba.com) and is
inviting young designers to submit their own Christmas themed design
ideas. A winning design will be selected and will become the new face
of the intro, and its creator will be accredited on the home page.

It is a big opportunity for young talents to get some recognition and
even traffic to their own portfolio site. So spread the word. But they
need to hurry. Deadline is Sunday the 2nd at midnight.

More information on how, where, when and what to submit are available
in the Terms and Conditions.

Thank you.


Terms and Conditions

1. Send all entries to christmasupgrade@agency.com by 02
December 2007 (midnight) with your full name, contact number and email
address.

2. Please send in your ideas in the form of a flat visual
(384x384) in JPG / GIF format with any key notes.

3. The winning designer will be notified on 03 December 2007.

4. The winning designer will need to submit a PSD file
containing all relevant assets by 6pm on 03 December 2007.

5. Illustrator version of the British Airways logo is attached
for your reference.

6. There must be a 20 pixel border around the speed-marque (BA
ribbon). Please refer to the attached JPG visual as a guide for the
treatment of the logo.

7. The design must be on a white background with the
speed-marque (BA ribbon) in the middle.

8. The design must encapsulate and express the British Airways
brand values of Safe and Secure, Responsible, British, Professional,
Warm and Thoughtful.

9. The winning entry will be applied to the end of the flash
intro only and will be live from 6 December 2007 until 4 January 2008.

10. The winning design will be applied to both flash and HTML
versions of the site.

11. There are no fees involved.

12. By entering the competition you grant British Airways with a
license to use your design on the Upgrade site or to promote it;
however you will still own the intellectual rights to your design.

13. By entering this competition you confirm that you hold all
required copyrights for all material you enter, excluding any British
Airways proprietary material.

14. The winning designer will be accredited on the site.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Alight Kitchen by Altera Design Studio

Altera Design Studio's innovative kitchen Concept Alight Kitchen is awarded with merit certificate at Incheon International Design Competition 2007 and will be exhibited at Incheon International Design Fair on December 2007.

The project proposes a global shortage of clean water, food, material resources and habitable areas in the future. We may consume water just for drinking; eat food just for meeting our physiological needs; produce products just with recyclable materials; live in limited volumes just for sheltering and meeting our personal needs. In such an alarming scenario, what is the role of us, as designers? It is an unavoidable fact that innovational systems and products should be designed in any sections of life for the entirely sustainable future of our planet.

Design Description: ALight Kitchen is a system composed of integrated product designs to provide an entirely-sustainable kitchen concept for the limited conditions of future life.

In the system:

- Only ready food & beverages is consumed in sheet-metal packaging. So that people will be concious about what and how much they eat. Moreover lots of food & time will be saved by avoiding individual food preperation at kitchen.

- Food & beverages packs will be kept inside the cooling unit of the system. It enables storing no more than the amount of 3days' food. So that energy will be saved with a compact solution.

- Smart oven is located to the system to warm up the food in packs with a user friendly way. It arranges the ideal time and temperature for the packs by reading the exclusive barcodes on them.

- There are 4 hollow plates located on the main body. Each of them can rotate on its center-axis by an electric engine. So that you can eat on the other side of the plate while the rotated side is being washed.

- On the center of hollow plates there is a cutlery station. A piston moves it up and down for serving to table & washing inside the main body.

- Washing process of the plates & cutlery is done inside the cavity of main body. It works with the same principle as a washing machine, however consumes the same water again and again. To do that, a biological solution of waste water filter is consumed to clean up dirty water to be used in the next washing process. On the table, there are two lids for detergent and capsules of filtering solution. There is also a lid under the table for changing water after several usages.

- There is a container holding extra metal plates & cups located to main body.

- All of the food and beverages packs are made of sheet metal which is easy to collect, store and recycle after usage. In the system there is a unit called pack-back to load used packs and compress them easily by stepping down its handle. The storage box is mobile and can be carried out to unload compressed metal packs.

Advantages of design:

It brings an innovative kitchen concept against the mass of today's kitchens, eliminating;

- waste of time while preparing food at kitches.

- waste of water while preparing food and washing dishes at kitches.

- waste of food while individual food preperation at kitchens.

- waste of energy consumed for refrigerators dishwashers and kitchen appliances.

- waste of several non- recyclable food packaging materials.

- need of big spaces for kitchen furniture and equipment.