Designed Matt 12 Apr 2006

28 comments Latest by omit

Hanging Fish Pod

io brush

rims

Samsung P300

bird feeder

heineken light

28 comments so far (Jump to latest)

Luis 12 Apr 06

As a fan of beer…the Heineken bottle is tops. Beautiful design…simple and clean.

Is this a concept, or real?

Mark 12 Apr 06

No way is that real. Far too phallic with the placement of circle stamps and logotype.

f5 12 Apr 06

Phalic worked for Joe Camel. Well…I guess it didn’t really work in the end.

Joe 12 Apr 06

At first glance, that yellow hub looks like a boot.

Cliff 12 Apr 06

Click on the images, guys.

The videos of the paintbrush and hubs are pretty wild.

victor 12 Apr 06

i don’t like heineken (i’m into heavier belgian/dutch beers), but the beautiful bottle would even make me buy one.

but i wouldn’t consider that design. for me it is styling (actually the industry term for what other people call car design when it is about the way it looks)

in my opinion, (good) design goes further than making it look good. it makes it work better, faster, smarter, among other things (as some of the other examples show).

jake 12 Apr 06

hey, that’s my phone!

Charles 12 Apr 06

@victor - I disagree about the Heineken bottle, I think there is more than just styling at work. It’s good to note the bottle is for Heineken **Light**. Everything about that bottle says light to me, especially compared to the bottle for the regular brew, which seems a bit heavy to me.

Good design solves a problem, not necessarily a physical one, but potentially (as in this case) a marketing one as well.

Hmmm 12 Apr 06

You say ‘designed’. I’d suggest ‘styled’…

ionfish 12 Apr 06

That fishbowl reminds me of Captain Picard’s one in TNG…

Eric 12 Apr 06

Design this; A great article about rube goldberg inventions

Mersmann 12 Apr 06

Seems to me that brush could be radically improved simply by making it eliptical, since orientation appears to be fairly important, especially when painting with pattern or movement.

Natalie Ferguson 12 Apr 06

Stuffing animals into tiny places and calling it design? It’s called cruelty, no matter how nicely it is disguised.

Randy J. Hunt 12 Apr 06

I saw bus shelter ads featuring the bottle in NYC today, so it must be the real deal.

street 12 Apr 06

yup, thats the new heineken light bottle - I have a 6 pack in the fridge waiting patiently. The Bass bottle’s we’re mocking them for being so metro.

btw, they taste pretty much like regular Heineken.

Natalie Ferguson 12 Apr 06

I went to bonsai kitty years ago… I’m just amazed that people still think it’s ok to use animals as art! I don’t think ‘less is more’ as far as that goldfish is concerned when it comes to a living environment. Not a good one.

Su 12 Apr 06

Natalaie? That fish is clearly a betta, for which the bowl is plenty big.

Mark 12 Apr 06

Totally not offended at all. Just surprises me that they are expecting the vast majority of beer drinking men, that have been pushed the sexy=beer=sex equation for so long, will jump at the chance of sticking that in their mouth. Don’t get me wrong. I love the idea of using the bottle as a landscape instead of a portrait, I’m just intrigued that this is the one they chose to go with. I’d love to see the other options that were in the running.

Henry 13 Apr 06

.


I wanted to get more information about the Basecamp API, so I went to http://api.basecamphq.com/ and found a non-37signals web site.

How strange.


.

Jay Reding 13 Apr 06

Natalie: That is indeed a bettas - which are highly territorial fish. If anything, I’d say putting one in an enclosure that large isn’t good for one. Bettas normally live in very small pools and get stressed in larger spaces.

Mersmann 13 Apr 06

Just to add to the fishbowl debate, a friend of mine has a betta in that exact bowl, and he nests regularly (lining the surface of the water with small bubbles) - which I’ve been told is a sign that he is comfortable and happy with his surroundings.

Jay Reding 13 Apr 06

It depends on the fish. Bettas normally live in small marsh pools in Thailand, so they tend not to like direct sunlight or large spaces. A bowl like that might work, but I can’t imagine that the poor fish likes being directly in the light and not having an plants in the aquarium…

Mark 14 Apr 06

Postmodern Pets wins “most ironic brand name”, i think.

Pimp star rims. Wow. Can’t say this is the first time I saw the video, though. Also can’t promise I won’t vomit the first time I see them in real life. Hopefully someone will come out with a wireless hack for those so I can turn them off remotely as I pass by.

Isn’t light beer just watered down beer?

See Century of the Self for a rather complete history of phallic and other sexual imagery used to sell products.

Anindya 14 Apr 06

I have never ever heard a single word about design of dress (I m not talking about designer dreeses… here I mean daily-use wears) from 37signal guys… I think all will love to know what Jaosn and other guys like about daily-wears and what they will find “simple and beautiful” :D

omit 14 Apr 06

The Heineken bottle design was ruined for me when I discovered it was a stick-on decal (not sure if all bottles are like that).