Feb

Bike Designs Shine with Creative Imagination

by Janine Boylan on February 5, 2013

different bikes, illustrating bike designs with creative imagination

So many different styles of bikes!
© Thinkstock

A good bicycle is such a clever, simple vehicle.

I was appreciating the brilliance of bike designs as I was riding the other day. That is, until my chain popped off. And my back started hurting from bending over the handlebars awkwardly.

Oh, I see! Time to get a new bike!

So with this opportunity, I went online to investigate the possibilities. Obviously, a bike should be designed so it is comfortable and easy to use, but it should also reflect creative imagination.

Here are a few I’ve discovered.

A Creative and Flashy Design

Ben Wilson, a designer in the United Kingdom, playfully combined a push-pedal bike with a simple car-shaped neon outline to create this Articar.

Articar by Ben Wilson, showing bike designs with creative imagination

Ben Wilson’s Articar
© Ben Wilson

I like that you can recline instead of lean over the handlebars.

I also like its unique presence. I wonder—Is the light powered by pedaling?

Too bad this is a one-of-a-kind design.

A High Tech Design

This amazing urban concept bike was designed by Chris Boardman, MBE-R&D Director and company founder of Boardman Bikes.

Boardman's concept bike, showing bike designs with creative imagination

This spoke-less bike has a computer “brain,” which counts calories and plays music. It even uses fingerprint recognition to unlock it! The tires are airless so they will never deflate or pop. On top of all that, it has a solar-powered motor for when you’re too tired to pedal anymore.

Unfortunately, this one isn’t within my price range.

A Simple Design

And then there’s this one. It was the winner in a contest of bike designs from Google engineers, and it is what Google employees pedal around their large campus. This bike looks, well, ordinary (except for its distinct Google color combination).

Beautifully simple Google bike, an example of bike designs done by creative imagination

A brightly-painted but beautifully simple Google bike
© Janine Boylan

It has a basket, chain guard, and back fender to keep water from splattering the rider. And it has a bell—very important for navigating through crowded sidewalks of people.

David Fork, one of the designers of the bike explains, “Our design motto was ‘Build a user-friendly, safe and reliable, low-maintenance new GBike.'” He and his teammates worked on several different ideas with various types of brakes and gears. They even tried airless tires, like Boardman’s futuristic bike concept. But they found that the most comfortable ride was with this simple design.

Oh, I see (again). Sometimes creativity’s challenge is to achieve simplicity. As Steve Jobs said, “Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.”

Now, if I want to ride a simple bike like the GBike, all I have to do is use my creative imagination to get a job at Google.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Janine Boylan 6 Comments

The World's Art & Design

Jan

Funky Furniture Maker Nails The Creative Process

by Janine Boylan on January 14, 2013

Apple cabinet, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Apple cabinet © Straight Line Design

Judson Beaumont Thinks Outside the Box

Wooden furniture. It is solid, smooth, rigid. It may have level-straight lines or gently carved curves.

An inner voice reasons: There are limits to what you can build with wood, right?

Not according to Judson Beaumont. In fact, it appears that you can take a bite right out of his funky furniture.

Beaumont, owner and designer of playfully-named Straight Line Design, oozes with creative thinking. He learned early in his experience that you don’t have to do something just because it has always been done that way. Describing his creative process, he says, “I love it when someone tells me that ‘You cannot build that’ or ‘No one would want that.’ These words only encourage me more.”

His imaginative furniture certainly defies expectations, and it appears to defy physics.

But there are things you can’t do with wood. For example, everyone knows you can’t fold solid wood like an accordion.

Accordion cabinet, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Accordion cabinet © Straight Line Design

Oh, I see. It looks like you can.

Beaumont’s creative process begins simply with this: question the ordinary. While he ensures that each of his pieces is functional and may be based on some elements of tradition, he certainly is not bound by what has been done before.

Becoming a master of a craft is no small task, but pushing the limits to become uniquely creative takes his skill to a new level.

Ha! A new level! That sounds like furniture levitates or something!

Little Black Dresser, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Little Black Dresser © Straight Line Design

Oh, I see. It does. This Little Black Dresser seems to hang in space.

Beaumont had to learn to create furniture with dove joints and perfectly fitting pieces. But then he challenged himself to try unconventional, unexpected angles and figured out how to make a wooden cabinet appear to bend, fold, or explode.

Explode?

Boom Cabinet, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Boom Cabinet © Straight Line Design

Oh! I see. Cabinets can explode!

Beaumont tells more about his creative process, “My rule is: if you can draw and design it, you can build it.” And he has. His clever sketch became a canned bench.

Peel furniture sketch, showing role of design in the creative process

Peel furniture sketch © Straight Line Design

Canned bench, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Canned bench © Straight Line Design

Every one of Beaumont’s designs is functional. And beautiful. That’s what makes them doubly inspirational.

Furniture is functional. And solid. I know that furniture is solid.

Hollow chair, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Hollow chair © Straight Line Design

Hollow chair and friend © Straight Line Design

Oh, come on. How is hollow furniture possible?

Beaumont’s mantra for getting creative ideas: “Be influenced and inspired by the norm, and then challenge it, change it, melt it, stretch it, alter it for the better.”

Well, no matter what you do to it, one thing is certain: you can keep furniture in the house.

Bad Table, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Oh, I SEE! This Bad Table has to stay outside!

OIC that imaginative results come from a creative process that knows no limits.

What funky furniture would you have Beaumont design for you? Leave a comment below!

VIA Laughing Squid

Inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Janine Boylan 3 Comments

The World's Art & Design

Jan

Creative Ideas: Dishes Feed a Community Art Project

by Janine Boylan on January 6, 2013

Belgium tree, showing creative ideas for a community art project

Belgium’s Porcelain Tree of Taste

In the back of my cupboard, I have a few dishes that don’t match the rest of my set. One plate was a gift from a relative, another was from a garage sale, and a third came from my travels. I never use them, but since I can’t seem to part with them, they continue to occupy space in the cupboard.

From Unused Dishes to a Creative Idea

Like me, Inge Vanluyd and Stefan Vanbergen of the creative agency mooz noticed that they had a small collection of unused dishes in their cupboards. But, unlike me, they had an inspiring OIC moment.

For the holiday season, they decided to create a stunning porcelain tree in their city of Hasselt, Belgium. A tree decorates the town square every year, but instead of cutting a live tree this year, Vanluyd and Vanbergen created the tree as a community art project.

They asked local residents to donate old white plates and cups (blue or gold trim was acceptable, too). Collaborating on the creative idea, three thousand people contributed about five thousand cups and plates.

close up of Belgium tree, showing creative ideas for a community art project

The resulting tree took about a week to construct. It stands almost thirty feet (9 meters) high and almost twenty feet (6 meters) around.

Showing yet another creative idea, the designers decided to call the creation a “Tree of Taste,” a nod to the city’s culinary title, “The Capital of Taste.”

A Little Gift Goes a Long Way

Hasselt’s tree was on display until January 6, the end of the holiday season. While some residents missed a traditional holiday decoration, others noted that the sculpture was more environmentally-friendly than killing a live tree.

Continuing with more creative ideas in an environmental theme, the plates will be reused as part of a permanent mosaic in a community parking area in the city.

Oh, I see, a little gift goes a long way! Alone, the plates would have continued to gather dust in the cupboards, but together, they became a tree of solidarity. Many members of the community gave a little of themselves, and the result was a large gift for the city.

If anyone is inspired for a community art project for next year, let me know. I may have some plates I can contribute!

VIA Designboom