3 Contemporary Recycled Rings

The contemporary eye combines objects and material of the present with objects and materials from the past, not because of fashion but because of one's own knowledgeable eclecticism - the result of one's own varied experiences and cultivated taste.

Interior Designer Eleanor McMillen Brown

German jewelry designer Iris Merkle created these recycling rings for her label Fingerglueck. The rings are made of chocolate paper and silver and they really do look great.

A one-of-a-kind orginial design by Belcher this very comfortable ring is made from used bicycle inner tube cut up and sewn into a ring with yellow stitching for decoration.

Often, attempts at making eco-jewelry can be a tad too juvenile. But Italian artist Maria Cristina Bellucci makes playful rings out of old colored pencils that still manage to be chic and sleek. By attaching fragment pieces of colored pencils, the rings reveal both the color and natural wood base.

Divergent Creative Thinking

Investigate a different concept. Look into contrasting notions. Consider conflicting objectives. And generate creative ideas by examining many possible solutions. Be spontaneous. Draw unexpected connections. Be a non-conformist. Curious. Persistent. And willing to take risks. Create lists of questions. Set time aside for thinking. And brainstorm. Embark on a spot of bubble mapping. Meditate. Keep a journal and fill it with sketches and stream of consciousness writing.

When porcelain artist Aleksandra Pollner and woodworker Emmett Smith combined their disparate skills to create something totally new they came up with a rugged but sophisticated Porcelain and Wood Axe. A beautiful design object; whether you've got wood to chop or not.

Generative Creative Thinking

Cause something, bring about change, create, make, produce and provoke by embarking on a spot of brain writing. Record all your ideas on a page and then exchange ideas with a friend. Who uses them as a trigger for new ideas or variations on the theme.

Look into morphological analysis and explore all the possible solutions. Identify attributes and values andepeatedly combine selections generated. Forcing all items together to build a creative solution.

Explore shaping to make ideas more specific and practical. So think of any constraints that might interfere with the execution of your idea. And shape the idea to fit within these constraints.

Brainstorm ideas with a focus on quantity. Remember to withhold criticism. While embracing the unusual and combining and improving ideas.

Or use SCAMPER a general-purpose checklist to  spark your creativity. First define. Then substitute. Combine. Adapt. Magnify. Put to other uses. Eliminate or minify. And rearrange or reverse to come up with innovative solutions.

Fung Kwok Pan conceived the idea for the Fluid Vase without any consideration that it can exist beyond a design experiment. But thanks to 3D printing technologies using a web interface the user can now freeze any part of the process of pouring water into a vase. From which the physical object is produced on demand. Thus the user can influence and observe the formation of the Fluid Vase.

Audacious Design Fiction

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

American Computer Scientist Alan Kay

Be presumptuous. Cheeky. Or defiant. And take surprisingly bold risks by designing a magical product with no concern of actually producing it. Embrace the impossible. Aim for an ideal goal. Disregard reason. Ignore feasibility and have fiction foreshadow fact.

Fusing the worlds of fashion, technology and the body, Lucy McRae's Swallowable Parfum is an artistic provocation. Working from the inside out fragrance molecules are excreted through the skin’s surface during perspiration leaving droplets on the skin that emanate a unique odor; thus enabling the skin to become an atomizer.

Make a Perfect Rose

Learn to create an exceptional rose by following Violet LeBeaux's gorgeously illustrated tutorial. Using only a ribbon with a needle and some thread. Then brainstorm. Come up with fifty innovative uses for your ribbon rose. Make it miniature. Enlarge it. Translate it into another material.  Or photograph it. But make it unique.

Design Inpsired by Grandma

Remember the stand-out white crochet lacework doilies that decorated sofa arms and coffee tables. during the 50's. Australian Designer Henry Sgourakis' Nook chair has forever changed the perception of cheap and tacky doilies with an inventive approach to furniture design and an original take on the contemporary armchair. The Nook is both functional and beautiful. The flexible fiber molds to the body to create a comfortable armchair which can withstand all weather conditions.

So identify a technique. Perhaps something old. Almost extinct. Translate it into a contemporary material and create something modern. Unique. And comfortable.

9 Origami Inspired Product Designs

Origami is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding which dates back to the 17th century AD and has since evolved into a modern art form. Origami transforms a flat sheet of paper into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques without cutting or gluing. The principles of origami are also used in stents, packaging and other engineering structures. Explore the world of origami. Incorporate some folds. Or translate it into another material.

Innovation at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Stop being blinded by the status quo. Default consideration to design only for where the money is blinds you to a multitude of possibilities. Designing at the Bottom of the Pyramid limits your resources, promotes efficiency and genenerates a new way of seeing. Which engenders new thinking and results in innovation.

Watch the WAKAWAKALIGHT movie to experience the power of change of this remarkable solar powered LED light.

Whimsical Innovation

Change the stakes, adjust the terms, or modify the rewards of the problem solving process. And make things neat. Make things fun. Make it wonderful to look at. Beautifully balanced. Delightfully functional. Make it the stuff stories are made of by adding a touch of play.

Subversive furniture maker and master craftsman. Jake Cress delivers a range of cheeky, unusual, yet brilliantly-made pieces. His limited edition "Oops!" mahogany #10 of 10 embodies a whimsical touch of cultural mischief.

Product Innovation that Intrigue

Design a product that tantalize, torment and tease; with the sight or promise of something that is unobtainable. Innovate by exciting the senses or desires. By suggesting that a solutions exists without proof.

Multidisciplinary New York designer Niko Econodmidis is as interested in the form and function of a design as he is in the emotional attachment and meanings created by the design. His focus is to create designs that speak on many levels: designs which is functional, but also tells a story.

His Folded Bowls deal with the reexamination of objects. And furniture. And our relationships to them. Emotion and wit are central to his work.

Growing Jewelry - Hafsteinn Juliusson

Growing jewelry is Icelandic product designer Hafsteinn Juliusson's redefinition of modern values. Described as a clash of jewelry and gardening: couture and organism, rowing jewelry has become the ultimate metropolitan accessory. An experiment in drawing nature, the presupposition of life, toward man. This hip micro garden needs tending and watering to be sustained.

So make a presumption. Come up with an assumption. Create a preconception. Hypothesis. Theory. Or postulation. And turn it into product.

From Electrical Wire to Upcycled Ring in Ten Easy Steps

 

Try your hand at innovative MIY, and wind. Twist. And pull reclaimed electrical wire. into a unique ring with the help of only pliers, cutters and a mandrel; or similarly shaped object. With this easy to follow tutorial from GRAIN.

Innovation Inspired by Nature

Nature as model, measure, and mentor.

Innovation Consultant Janine Benyus

Growing Garments

Looking to nature for design solutions, Suzanne Lee grows her own “biocouture”. Using  vats of green tea, sugar, bacteria and yeast; fibers are  coaxed from this microbial soup.  These coalescing thin, wet sheets of bacterial cellulose are then molded into shape.

Overlapping edges “felt” together as the sheets dry out to become fused seams when dried. The fibers develop a tight-knit papyrus-like surface that can be bleached or stained with fruit and vegetable dyes like turmeric, indigo and beetroot.

To experiment with  your own Kombucha culture; pour a bottle of organic raw Kombucha and sweetened tea into a glass jar. Cover it with a towel and let it sit. In time a thin film will appear. which will start to thicken up, enabling you to start your exploration.