Catering to design-conscious urban cyclists who'd rather not sacrifice style for safety, a group of Danish designers has created a bicycle helmet with interchangeable covers.
Copenhagen-based Yakkay sells a simple shell helmet (dubbed "Smart One") that's tucked away under one of ten different covers. The helmet retails at DKK 599 (EUR 80 / USD 120), and the covers are sold for DKK 299 (EUR 40 / USD 60). While chin straps betray their true nature, the helmets otherwise resemble hats and caps worn for fashion, not protection.
Yakkay states that the number of seriously injured cyclists with head injuries is around 2,500 per year in Denmark (on a total population of under 5.5 million). And that's in a country where motorists are accustomed to cyclists, and where most roads have separate bicycle lanes. As more consumers across the world hop on their bikes to reduce their gas bills, carbon footprints and waistlines, the market for innovative cycling products and services should grow at a healthy pace. One to tap into! Easy way to get started? Ask Yakkay about regional distribution opportunities. (Related: Stylish fire protection kits.)
Update: please don't email Yakkay about international distribution. They wrote to tell us that they have a plan in place for their international launch and are currently receiving too many distributor requests.
Website: www.yakkay.com
Contact: info@yakkay.com
Spotted by: Lori Webb
Last year, we wrote about Ponoko, an innovative company from New Zealand that turns two-dimensional designs into three-dimensional objects by way of laser-cutting plastics and wood products. Besides creating products for themselves, users can also sell their designs through Ponoko, with the company handling payments and shipping.
Ponoko was recently joined by Shapeways. The Dutch venture, which is part of Philips' Lifestyle Incubator, lets users upload 3D designs and have them produced on one of Shapeway's 3D printers. Customers can currently choose from four different types of rigid and flexible plastic, and their object is shipped to them within 10 days of ordering. Costs depend on size and mass, but smallish items are priced around USD 50–150.
Since users need to have access to CAD software and be able to design an object in 3D, Shapeways isn't as widely accessible as Ponoko, which allows users to create items based on 2D vector images. On the other hand, this is one of the first initiatives that makes 3D printing widely available to consumers around the world, at a relatively low cost. Creative people who love to design in three dimensions finally get a chance to turn those computer screen images—of toys, tools, art—into tangible objects, a desire that drives the make-it-yourself trend.
Website: www.shapeways.com
Contact: www.shapeways.com/contact
Spotted by: RK
On a sidenote: while Ponoko and Shapeways focus on remote printing, Japanese Tsukulus lets customers print 3D figurines on the spot in their Tokyo showroom (see Akibanana for a summary in English). One for Disney, Mattel and friends to look into? Ready-made figurines are one thing. But let customers change a character's clothes, accessories and pose, and then manufacture their own unique rendition on the spot, and you've turned a product back into an experience.
When we wrote about crowdsourcing product-improvement site RedesignMe late last year, we wondered how ideas generated by users of the site would get translated into real-world products. Well, now we have an answer: last week the Dutch company announced a new program by which users of the site get paid for their input on new products.
How it works: product manufacturers pay RedesignMe to establish "RDM Challenges," through which a new product concept is presented and the site's 1,000 or so active members are asked to react to it. Currently on the site, for instance, is one from the international DECT Forum, a group of wireless communications companies that are seeking product ideas based on CAT-iq (short for Cordless Advanced Technology - Internet and Quality). Beginning with an initial proposed concept, users are free to modify the current design or upload their own ideas, using any combination of comments, sketches, pictures, mood-boards, movies, prototypes or total redesigns. In exchange, they are rewarded with RDMs—RedesignMe's online currency, which is convertible into products in the online RDM Shop such as mp3-players, game consoles and gift cards. RDM Challenges can be open to all users or only a select few. Ideas generated on the site are then used as input by the manufacturer's R&D team or professional designers, who decide on the final concept. Ultimately, the companies hope, the result will be products that are better aligned with what consumers really want.
RedesignMe founder Maxim Schram explains: "In response to the launch of our website last year, a lot of manufacturers called us to ask if we could help them get input from consumers. They wanted to ask the community questions and were willing to pay for it. A couple of months later we did a pilot with Vodafone Group where we asked our members to redesign a mobile portal. The results were spectacular. Back then we gave away prizes for the best designs, but now with the RDMs we can reward even the slightest creative input."
This is where Generation C(ontent) becomes Generation C(ash), and it's where crowdsourcing will reach its true potential. Companies benefit from the wisdom of the crowds, the crowds benefit with rewards and better products—and sites like RedesignMe benefit from facilitating it all. One to emulate on a niche or localized basis!
Website: www.redesignme.com
Contact: info@redesignme.com
There may be thousands of fonts available online, but for truly dedicated members of Generation C—who live to create their own, fresh content—that's sometimes not enough. Luckily, help is now at hand in the form of a do-it-yourself font-building tool from digital type retailer FontShop.
FontStruct, which was opened to the public in April, is a free, online tool that lets users quickly and easily create fonts by arranging geometrical shapes in a grid pattern, much like tiles or bricks. Working one letter at a time, users add and remove shapes including blocks and dots to achieve a look they like. Once they're done building, FontStruct generates high-quality TrueType fonts, ready to use in any Mac or Windows application. Users can keep their "FontStructions" private, or they can share them with the FontStruct community for discussion, rating and downloading. They can also display them on other websites or blogs through the FontStruct widget. Several Creative Commons license options are available to allow varying degrees of sharing. The site is supported through links to San Francisco-based FontShop for sales and downloads of its professional, non-modular fonts.
There's no end in sight to the customer-made trend, and legions of prosumers out there are eager for fresh new ways to express their ideas. Give them the tools they need as a token of your free love, and they just may love you back!
Website: fontstruct.fontshop.com
Contact: fontstruct.fontshop.com/contact
Spotted by: Dana Pizzolato
When it comes to entertaining and special occasions, eco-minded consumers can be torn by two apparently conflicting desires: the need to be green and the easy clean-up made possible by disposable dishes. Thanks to a new innovation from VerTerra, however, that conflict can finally be put to rest.
New York-based VerTerra offers a collection of single-use dinnerware including plates, bowls and platters made from pressed fallen leaves. Originally inspired by a technique used in rural India, VerTerra's dishes are 100 percent renewable and made entirely from compostable plant matter and water, with none of the chemicals, waxes or dyes found in disposable paper and plastic options. VerTerra products are made in South Asia, where it ensures that employees have fair wages, safe working conditions and access to healthcare. After collecting the fallen leaves, the company applies steam, heat and pressure to transform them into products that are durable and versatile, and can be used in the microwave, oven or fridge. They biodegrade naturally in two months. Sold in packs of 10 or 12, VerTerra's dishes are priced at roughly USD 1 per dish.
Not only does VerTerra's innovation solve a real consumer problem and protect the environment, it's also a beautiful example of an eco-iconic solution that helps consumers spotlight their "greenness" for all the world to see. As we've said before, when it comes to green, subtlety is not a virtue—make it bold, make it different, make it obvious!
Website: www.verterra.com
Contact: michael@verterra.com
Spotted by: Claudia Allwood
There are numerous sites out there for crowdsourcing graphic design, including SitePoint, which we featured last year. A new entrant into the space, however, is adding a slightly different twist by having bidding designers submit completed concepts rather than just proposals in the competitive process.
Launched earlier this year, Chicago-based crowdSPRING is an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of all creative services. Buyers that need a new logo, website, marketing materials or other creative content post what they need, when they need it and how much they'd like to pay. They also deposit their payment up front into an escrow account with crowdSPRING, where it will remain until an artist is chosen. Designers, illustrators, writers or photographers around the world can then work on the project and submit their creations for review. Buyers can sort, rate and give feedback on the designs they like until they find the right one. Once that happens, rights to the work are transferred, crowdSPRING takes a 15 percent fee and payment is made. crowdSPRING offers a money-back guarantee so that if buyers don't get at least 25 entries, they can walk away with a full refund; creatives, meanwhile, are assured that their projects won't get cancelled or abandoned for no good reason. Every transaction is protected by a free, customized legal contract with digital watermarking, as well as being automatically filed away in an intellectual property vault with IP Registry at no extra cost. Community tools available on the site include public profiles with feedback, ratings and stats; private messaging; portfolios; and creative community forums.
Some designers may balk at the idea of creating a full-fledged work before having a guaranteed buyer. On the other hand, by allowing both established creative professionals and talented newcomers to compete based solely on their creativity and the quality of their ideas—rather than bids, proposals or portfolios—crowdSPRING could also level the competitive playing field for creative people worldwide. To wit: when the site launched into beta in March, it posted just a stark website and asked the crowd to redesign it for a winning prize of USD 5,000. A few weeks later, a student in the Netherlands beat out 80 creatives and 337 other entries with a winning design. Lesson: never underestimate the power of the crowds!
Website: www.crowdspring.com
Contact: www.crowdspring.com/help/contact_us
Spotted by: Pete Burgeson
Kids today often associate batteries with fun, thanks to the legions of battery-powered toys out there. The unfortunate result is not just a waste of power and an environmental hazard but also a danger to health, as thousands of kids each year end up swallowing the tiny devices. Michigan-based Zen Design Group aims to change all that with a new line of toys that's powered by kids' own energy instead.
Launched last fall, SEE Toys (short for "safety, ecology, economy") are electronic toys that never need batteries. Instead, they feature a hand crank that provides 15 minutes of fun in exchange for 60 seconds of cranking. Each toy makes its own, themed sounds to encourage kids to keep powering up—the Dynacar, for instance, makes engine sounds when its crank turns, while the Dynatiger makes a purring sound—and super-bright, colour-changing LEDs light up the action. Also included in the line are the Dynadolphin, the Dynashark and the Dynafly, a buzzing, giggling electronic bug that won Creative Child Magazine's Seal of Excellence Award last August. Pricing on the toys ranges from USD 14.99 to USD 19.99.
While it would be a stretch to call these plastic toys eco-friendly, there's no doubt the eco trend is building momentum (see trendwatching.com's May briefing for more on that), and bringing that green focus to kids' toys as well makes good sense. Besides the obvious environmental benefits, green products also tend to bring greenbacks for their makers—or the currency of their choice! ;-)
Website: www.zendesigngroup.com/seetoys
Contact: info@seetoys.com
Spotted by: Bill McMahon
People have used dark-lined writing paper since medieval times and over the years, a lot of bleach has been used to provide a contrasting white background. Swedish Whitelines, on the other hand, makes carbon-neutral writing paper that uses white lines against a light grey background.
Traditional dark-lined paper not only depends on the use of bleach for a contrasting background, it also can conflict with lines and letters drawn or written on its surface. Dark lines show up on photocopies too, often making for muddy, difficult-to-view copies. Stockholm designer Olof Hansson came up with the idea of Whitelines as a way to eliminate those problems. With a focus on the environmental consequences of its operations, the company tracks and labels its own carbon footprint in collaboration with NEWA, the North Environment & Weather Agency. Through a partnership with paper producer Stora Enso forged just last month, meanwhile, it uses a carbon dioxide-neutral paper as a base for its products. Whitelines now offers pads of its patented paper with a variety of bindings, including spiral, glue and saddle stitch, through select retailers in Canada, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
Whitelines was named Innovator of the Year by ALMI Stockholm last year, and in January it was nominated in the New Product Innovation and Emerging Vendor categories at the European Office Products Awards in Frankfurt. With its paradigm-busting appearance, Whitelines' eco-iconic qualities are sure to appeal to the rapidly growing eco-minded masses. Remember: it's not enough to be green; you have to help consumers show the world that they are, too. Think green, think different, think iconic!
Website: www.whitelines.se
Contact: info@whitelines.se
Spotted by: Johan Lofmark
