Problems with Education

I had a lot of trouble in school growing up.  Being "educated" the standard way just really didn't work for me and I got in trouble a lot because of it.  This is pretty interesting to hear and I hope something could even be done about it.

Artful Skateboarding

For real, this, is some artsy shit.  Thanks DVS. 

check out the obstacles, very sculptural and very cool.

Colour Lovers Blog

I Recently came across this blog, Colour Lovers and I'm really blown away.  I have so much trouble with finding interesting color combinations.  I really need to spend more time studying color and getting it down properly.  This is going to be a huge help to me and hopefully I can get a better grasp for how to make a proper color scheme in the future.

"Cheetah Ultra Sports"

So over on Core77 I saw a post for a "Radical new snowboard design"  Core 77 says that

"The thing we most like about this product--or news of it, anyway, since we haven't ridden one--is that it was clearly designed by an enthusiast combining direct experience with a clever understanding of materials. The Whip is made from a combination of wood, plastic, steel, and carbon composite."

First off, about every single snowboard is made from wood, plastic, steel, and carbon composite.  The snowboard industry is a beautiful thing with a lot of innovative minds behind it.  There is a reason why people enjoy flat based boards and things like Palmer Plates never stuck around.  Is this concept "CLEARLY" designed by an enthusiast, or some lame old man with too much time and money, and not enough real snowboard sense, so he tries to develop a completely new snowboard concept titled "The Whip"

That name, "The Whip" first of all is referencing fast zippy cars that get all kinds of corny modifications just to make a lame person feel better about themselves.  Does that belong in the fun, no bullshit, progressive sport of snowboarding? No sir.  I know the cost of snowboarding generally attracts a lot of yuppies, who may HAVE corny desires for things such as 

"Our artistic inspirations-
F-117 Stealth fighter, Leonardo de Vinci, Batman, and the Lamborghini Reventon."

I can appreciate the de Vinci refrence, and the Batman refrence.  But what relation does the military and the Lamborghini Reventon have with snowboarding?  I'm a huge fan of a new design concept bringing on it's own life and creating it's own lifestyle apart from anything else which the snowboard industry is finally doing.  Of course it had to rip off the skaters for a while, but the skateboarders had to rip off the surfers.  Now each sport has it's own lifestyle and different images that are unique to each discipline.  A skateboard T-shirt, a snowboard t-shirt, and a surf t-shirt, while of course have very similar roots, the inspiration and love of their sports all will graphically represent the differences between the sports and their communities as they evolve.  

They attack the snowboard industry with 

"No urban graffiti. No Andy Warhol. No Playboy Magazine"

I'm the first to call out how dumb those things are as well, but snowboarding has a vast youth sort of "rebellious" and "artistic" following and that is what appeals to them.  And all three of those concepts can be found almost exclusively in Burtons lines.  Here here and here.  K2 is even doing collaborations with Claw (nyc graff artist) and Mishka (Brooklyn based, graffiti influenced streetwear company.)  Those things are probably just as irrelevant to the snowboard world as a F-117 stealth fighter, but at least they mean something to the youth market that grows up actually pushing and innovating the sport!  Snowboard is young, maybe about 30 years old now, and it's been going through very obvious and sometimes awkward changes throughout those decades. 

It all started with a single snowboarder's desire for a better snowboard. Eventually, that desire, plus the appalling lack of innovation in snowboard manufactureing business, led to the invention of The Whip and finally to the establishment of Cheetah Ultra Sports in early 2008.
Our Philosophy-
Functional, innovative, technologically advanced design over pretty graphics

Our design direction-
Form always follows function. The resulting form, however, must stand alone as a work of art, rather than a platform to showcase other people's works of art.

If this man had any knowledge he would realize all the changes happening in snowboarding.  From Gnu engineering trees, urethane sidewalls, reverse camber, and Magne Traction.  The graphics on the snowboard are 2-D representation of the culture that pioneered the snowboard in the first place.  The interior composition of the board is what the rider notices as they pull in and out of turns, ollie, or press the board.  The sidecut as well is a very important factor which decides how easy the board will go on edge, stay on edge, and make an easy transition into the next carve.  I feel this company is very naively trying to shift snowboarding in a very terrible direction... 

As scary as this new concept may be, i'm pretty confident it will flop.

Volkswagen "Biorunner"

So I am really into this Volkswagen Biorunner concept I found on Carbodydesign.com.  It's not necessarily  the most unique concept, in my opinion, but it's very solid in it's execution.

I'm currently in a very conceptual/experimental transportation design class and I have a very high appreciation now for just how hard these concepts are to come by sometimes.

The aesthetics of the vehicle are very cool, every part seems to have a reason and a function, and through that sort of extreme "function" based design it looks very cool.  I'm especially a fan of the wheels, VERY intriguing.  The integration of the helicopter into the concept is just awesome, at every view it's a dynamic drawing and design.  I'm into it.

the redbull shit is kind of corny, but why WOULDN't redbull sponsor something like this?