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Nissan Design America (NDA), known for such cutting-edge vehicles as the 350Z and Titan, has used its automotive design acumen to build a sleek and silent race car, known as the Nissan Gravity Racer. Nissan and five other automotive manufacturers will compete for charity at the fourth annual 2004 Extreme Gravity Racing Series, Saturday, Aug. 21 at Premier Automotive, 1 Premier, Irvine, Calif. Racing begins at 10:00 a.m.
Nissan's participation in the event supports America Works for Kids, a charity organization founded to provide paying jobs for foster kids as well as help to develop their professional skills and introduce them to the field of car design.
A team of designers from NDA's La Jolla studio sketched out a sleek, 8'x3'x3' aerodynamic racing machine built strong enough to compete on the 75-foot wooden ramp and 200-foot straightaway. After months of concept work and design renderings, designers built the lightweight Nissan Gravity Racer composed of carbon-graphite tubing and covered with a translucent canopy, leaving nothing hidden on the frame, including the computer-generated CNC milled aluminum knuckles. In an innovative approach, the racer features wheelchair racing wheels complete with smooth bicycle tires inflated to 160 psi to optimize rolling resistance and reduce friction.
According to Ray Devers, ND
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Italian designers have pulled out all the stops with this revolutionary tricycle design. New to the US market, the "OKO Tricycle" brings together design, comfort, safety, and ergonomics to satisfy difficult-to-pleas e 2 to 5 year-olds - and their even more difficult-to-pleas e parents.
"This is one of those rare products that will completely change the way we look at the category" says Maine-based direct marketer and dad, Mark Eidsness, founder of sparkability.com, a website selling toys and modern furnishings for kids. "OKO is going to do for trikes what the Bugaboo did for strollers or what the Aeron Chair did for task seating."
The "OKO" conforms to European and American safety standards with features such as a 3-point harness safety belt, lever brake on the front wheel, and 45-degree right and left topple-proof steering stop. All this guarantees even more safety for your child. The nine adjustments for the seat and handlebar guarantee an ideal position for children. The seat adjustment follows a 45-degree inclination to provide versatility and comfort. The unique positioning of both the handlebars and pedals, which are not on the front wheel, allow comfort for the biggest or littlest of riders.
The OKO project was conceived from a study of child ergonomics. The cradle shaped frame helps mounting because there is
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The Grand Rapids-based design company that put the spring in many popular mesh office seats claims Knoll Inc. left it hanging after it created the fabric seat and back for a new Knoll chair.
Dahti Inc. is suing Knoll in federal court for breach of contract over designs for Knoll's Monte chair, a product that has not been released.
Dahti claims it created the fabric seat and back system to be used for the chair, and Knoll backed out of the deal.
Knoll told Dahti it backed away from Dahti's design for good reason, according to the lawsuit.
Knoll, which has a plant in Kentwood, is worried the fabric design infringes on a patent recently issued to Herman Miller Inc. for its mesh chairs. The company reworked the fabric configuration and wants Dahti to pay $1.4 million to reimburse them for the trouble, the lawsuit states.
Dahti says the Herman Miller patent includes its technology, which renders the Herman Miller patent "invalid and unenforceable." Dahti has not sued Herman Miller and has no plans to do so, said company President Dan Clark.
Knoll spokesman David Bright said its company does not comment on pending litigation.
Clark said they want the court to sort out the contract disputes.
"We're an awfully small company," he said. "But we feel that Knoll decided to change their plans because of someth
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Nissan is celebrating 50 years of design and is showcasing in Tokyo the historical achievements of its design department over the past 50 years, as well as its future design vision.
Nissan has established itself as the creator of a bold, extensive model range reaching the four cornerstones of the world’s customers with its range of passenger cars, commercial vehicles, sports cars plus a full line of 4x4s.
From the Datsun roadsters, compact pickups and the 510, to the Z, Patrol and the powerful Skyline GT-R, for over five decades Nissan has made a lasting contribution to the advancement of automotive design. During this time, Nissan has propelled its image to new heights by bringing innovation to reality with a number of vehicles, making Nissan one of the world’s top automakers.
All Nissan designers explore a common philosophy to be clear, creative, consistent, yet use their experience of regional cultures and their market’s unique preferences. Of its six worldwide design locations, the establishment of the latest studio in Paddington, London in January 2003 demonstrated Nissan’s commitment to design for the European market. With over 50 designers and modellers, the state-of-the-art facility at Nissan Design Europe has recently introduced the latest in presentation technology through a ‘power wall’ whereby life-size, t
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Dustin Smith loved DJing at his friends' parties, but his MP3-filled computer just wasn't rugged or portable enough to haul across town. When Smith found a vintage OshKosh makeup case, a light went off. After buying a bunch of electronics components and making a zillion trips to the hardware store, he was done: Smith had crammed an entire computer inside the retro case. "There's a real design aesthetic to it," he says, "but I also wanted something really functional."
When I first saw Smith's tricked-out machine, I immediately wanted one to call my own. The makeup-case computer is an example of a "casemod," a modification of an interesting shell—a coffee maker, a typewriter, a chrome box—so that a computer fits inside. It used to be that people didn't design their own everyday stuff—partic ularly not work-related tools like computers. When was the last time you trimmed goose quills to make a pen? The genius idea of industrialism was the concept of the Model T: In exchange for something cheap and well-made, we'd forgo unique, lovely design.
But the Model T is old news. Nowadays, people want consumer goods to have serious aesthetic appeal. If they can't find what they want in stores, they'll build it themselves. You could call it "grass-roots industrial design."
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