23 July 2009

Ross Lovegrove at TEDGlobal 2009: Running notes from Session 9: Revealing Energy

Running notes from TEDGlobal 2009, Session 9.

As a young boy, Lovegrove says, he lived near a cliff shore, where the outgoing tide would reveal fossils that had washed against it. Since that age, he was driven by speculation, by thinking, and the deep inspiration of the forms of nature. Although we call him an industrial designer, his current job, he says, isn't making things, but "walking, thinking, dreaming."

Lovegrove unveils his new project, Lovegrove Genesis, which imagines combining ancient biological designs with the modern production of objects. He imagines a spherical "membrane" out of which might be born any form we want to create.

He presents a slide filled with images of ancient biological forms such as diatoms, intermixed with contemporary designs such as a briefcase or a table. By conceptually combining different forms along this grid using what he calls "neural paths," he finds new types of products that he might be able to generate. For example, a designed object might, over its lifetime (or span of ownership) change its own properties the way a living creature would.

Lovegrove seeks to create a "textural beauty" to his objects, the same kind of beauty natural objects have. There is no "unused side" to any of his designs -- you can't look at the bottom of one of his tables, for example, and find it unvarnished. He shows a video of "single-surface deformation," which shows how a simple, flat form can evolve to fold and contort into three dimensions to suit a particular need -- such as a table. Lovegrove uses computer models to test various designs.

Lovegrove shows the world's lightest suitcase. Last year, 3.2 billion seats were sold on aircraft, and so lightness of luggage is a very important factor. The suitcase has no lining, but was created as a single mold by a large Japanese company that, he found later, took interest in his project because they were interested in learning new molding techniques.

A humorous moment: "If you keep a straight face, you can get exactly what you want in Japan." When he designed JAL, he proposed putting a bonsai tree on every seat. Instead of saying no, the firms there did two months of serious research and concluded that they "could not keep bonsai trees alive in a cabin environment."

Lovegrove points out: "Our ancestors made everything." They had to make tools and objects that were light enough that they could carry them around everywhere with them. "Lightness is a human objective."

50% of Lovegrove's studio's time is spent on pure research on projects that attempt to achieve these human objectives.

Photo: Ross Lovegrove at TEDGlobal 2009, Session 9: "Revealing energy," July 23, 2009, in Oxford, UK. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson

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23 July 2009

Twitter Snapshot: Ross Lovegrove's organic, elegant designs

Industrial designer Ross Lovegrove delved into his design philosophy of organic essentialism. Lovegrove strips down his designs to their essence to create, he jokes, “good, sensible Welsh stuff”, alluding to his Welsh upbringing that emphasized economy and efficiency. Lovegrove extricates himself from the fear of failure and seeks out the impossible in his designs. The Twitter audience appreciates the simple beauty of Lovegrove’s philosophy and designs:

Ross Lovegrove is speaking freshly about his approach to organic design, at #TED Global. More captivating than other times I have seen him. -- markwhiting

"I don't know why people paint things" Ross Lovegrove at #TED - an approach I quite like. The elegance of what is there. :-) -- markwhiting

Ross Lovegrove: a bicycle called SKIN viewed from above looks like a strange insect. The bike has a cover over the open spaces! -- kokoe2

"If you keep a straight face long enough in Japan, you get whatever you want." Sounds *awesome*. -- nothingelseis

Lightweight bags that look like they have been formed by having air blown into them. Who would have thought luggage could be so cool -- WiredUK

Check out Ross Lovegrove’s previous talk on organic design on ted.com. Also, let us know how your thoughts compare on Twitter: @TEDGlobal.

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10 July 2009

Watch TEDTalks from speakers at the upcoming TEDGlobal 2009

From TEDGlobal's speaker list of more than 90 -- including 18-minute talks, demos and TED U courses -- 13 of our scheduled speakers already have TEDTalks online from previous TEDs and partners. To find them, check out our new theme, Speaking at TEDGlobal 2009, and watch archive gems from these returning speakers. All of these speakers are bringing something new to TEDGlobal 2009, exploring the theme of the conference, "The Substance of Things Not Seen."

Browse the new theme Speaking at TEDGlobal 2009 >>

See the full conference schedule for TEDGlobal 2009, July 21-24 in Oxford >>

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12 December 2005

The iPod of Toilets

The Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ) is among the world's best, and perhaps the least prone to hyperbole. Yet this Sunday's edition raved about British designer Ross Lovegrove (TED2005) and his latest project, "Liquid Space," a line of bathroom furniture and fixtures for Istanbul-based VitrA. Lovegrove fascinated us last February in Monterey, with his organic forms and high-tech materials; this new line fits right in. NZZ described Lovegrove's commode as "The iPod of toilets: so elegant, so chic, so smooth that it could easily make the list of must-have lifestyle products. Could it be a lounge toilet?" (Tip and German translation from Bruno Giussani)

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19 October 2005

Trend-spotting with Murray Moss

Whether you're surveying a new season of design offerings, or simply considering a new set of spoons, you might find yourself wondering: WWMMD? What would Murray Moss Do? Moss (TED2002) curates one of the world's great collections of inspired objets in his eponymous SoHo store. You'll get a sense of where he's heading from this BusinessWeek Online package, where Moss calls out 10 trends he sees shaping new design today. It's just one man's observations, of course. And he missed a few that would make our TED list ... for example, the trend toward organic forms, inspired by nature, which Ross Lovegrove so beautifully demonstrated at TED2005.

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