Category Archives: Inspiration

Every January, over 140,000 people converge on Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. While CES caters to the suppliers, buyers, and technology geeks, there is still plenty of fun to be had for a designer like me. After four years of attending, I finally discovered the best ways to make the most of my [...]

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I was at a gallery opening a few months ago, serving wine at the bar. The gallery was a non-profit and so there was a requested donation for the alcohol. One of the guests became very angry about this and responded aggressively. The gallery director came up and placed her hand on his shoulder to [...]

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At Kicker Studio, we’re interested in the idea of physical interface. We’re interested in discovering how we can take technology off the screen and make it become an additive that can be embedded into any product to make it stronger, smarter, and more powerful. Technology needs to respond in ways we understand. Technology needs to [...]

Filed in Gestural Interfaces, Inspiration, Interaction Design, Product Design 2.0, Technology, Theory | Comments (0)

GOOD and the City of SF challenged Kicker Studio to make use of the abundance of data feeds available through the SF Department of Technology. We developed a solution to help people make better transportation choices. Here is the video of Jody’s presentation on ForaTV.   Please note: we were misinformed about the availability of [...]

Filed in Concept Projects, Events, Green Design, Inspiration, Interaction Design, Kicker, Press, Product Concepts, Projects in Process | Comments (0)

What does it mean to “make tech speak human”? With the emergence of new technologies like touch and gesture, technology needs to learn how humans use those methods to communicate with our world. Let’s look at gesture, for example. When we talk we use our hands to emphasize and illustrate what we are trying to [...]

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Kicker Studio marked our 3rd Anniversary on August 8, 2011. To celebrate, we hosted the Second Annual Device Design Day at the San Francisco Art Institute, Jody’s alma matter. It was a great success thanks to inspiring speakers and involved attendees. Couldn’t make it? Don’t worry, we’ve posted videos of the talks for you to [...]

Filed in Device Design Day, Events, Industrial Design, Inspiration, Interaction Design, Product Design 2.0, Products We Like, Speaking Summaries, Technology, Visual Design | Comments (0)

Kicker Studio marked our 3rd Anniversary on August 8, 2011. To celebrate, we hosted the Second Annual Device Design Day at the San Francisco Art Institute, Jody’s alma matter. It was a great success thanks to inspiring speakers and involved attendees. In order to continue the conversation about people, devices, design, and the future, we’ve [...]

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I’ve always been really bothered by the term ‘form and function’. It somehow implies that form is outside of function. As if they are two completely separate things. In fact, I think form and function have a relationship that is a lot more blurred. That in fact, form is part of function.

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Most of the design books you read, including my own, are about how to be a good, competent designer. They are about how to make strong, reasoned design decisions and about design methods and tools. But what they won’t—can’t—teach you is how to become a great designer.

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I went through two years of studio critiques while getting my Master’s degree in design, and have been through dozens of them in the five years since then, but I can honestly say I’ve learned more about how to appropriately give design criticism from Tim Gunn, one of the hosts of the US television show Project Runway.

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