After spending 21 months studying box fabrication and shipping, Fuseproject realized that any improvement to that already lean system would merely be incremental. So instead, the “clever little bag” combines the two packaging components of any shoe sale–the bag and the box–with high-tech ingenuity.

The bag tightly wraps an interior cardboard scaffolding–giving it shape and reducing cardboard use by 65%. Moreover, without that shiny box exterior, there’s no laminated cardboard (which interferes with recycling). There’s no tissue paper inside. And there’s no throw-away plastic bag. The bag itself is made of recycled PET, and it’s non-woven–woven fibers increase density and materials use–and stitched with heat, so that it’s less manufacturing intensive.

The impact: Puma estimates that the bag will slash water, energy, and fuel consumption during manufacturing alone by 60%–in one year, that comes to a savings of 8,500 tons of paper, 20 million mega joules of electricity, 264,000 gallons of fuel, and 264 gallons of water. Ditching the plastic bags will save 275 tons of plastic, and the lighter shipping weight will save another 132,000 gallons of diesel.

Full Story: Reboot: Puma and Yves Béhar Spend Three Years Designing Super-Green Shoebox

Puppet Warp “Sneak Peak” Video – Adobe

…will launch in the next few months as the ultimate color authority, aiming to be the “Nielsen for all things color.”

Backstory via Techcrunch.

COLOURlovers has always been fantastic. This is great news. I’m excited to see what sort of things CHROMAom brings to market (other than weirdly capitalized branding.) The current placeholder site up at CHROMAom.com certainly whets the appetite with this welcoming statement:

Color enlightenment can not be given to you. It can only be discovered on your own. With the right tools, inspiration and guidance this can be a creative and enjoyable journey. We’re here to help you reach your color enlightenment.

In his Designing Bing: Heart & Science presentation at Microsoft’s MIX10 conference, Paul Ray talked about the design process behind Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, including how the team uses data and design principles to make decisions.

MIX10: Designing Bing with Heart & Science

Being a fan of Apple products I picked up a Magic Mouse a few days after it launched. After using it for a week I was hooked on its multi-touch surface, but it was awkward to hold and after an hour or two of using it I would develop a pain in my wrist. Looking into the problem further, I found out that a large majority of Magic Mouse owners were having similar problems and all of the online product reviews I read revealed the same flaw. The Magic Mouse does not contour to the users hand. So, being a product designer and manufacturer, I decided to see what I could do to fix it.

When Apple gets a product right, they really get it right. Unfortunately this makes their goofs (pretty much all the mice they’ve made, Apple TV, etc…) really stick out. This guy took matters into his own, er, hands.

Unless you’re a vampire, chances are you have a bed in your tiny-ass apartment. (Come to think of it, interior design for vampires and their coffins seems like a pretty lucrativearea these days.) A bed is arguably the most important piece of furniture in your home. You can go without a couch or coffee table, but you’ve gotta find someplace to spend those 8 hours a night.

Storage Beds – Design*Sponge

Propaganda

Official government communications to the public that are designed to influence opinion. The information may be true or false, but it is always carefully selected for its political effect.

- American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition

Flickr Collection – Propaganda

“Shopping turned on its head” isn’t just a meaningless tagline for GAP. They literally mean it. To promote their new loyalty program, Sprize, the GAP in Vancouver, BC turned its entire store upside-down. All of the mannequins, displays and even the sign were flipped, as well as some cars and a hotdog stand outside of the store.

Emphasis is mine. I’m a pretty lukewarm GAP fan, but I like seeing them take something as tired as “Shopping turned on its head” and making it seem fresh with a real commitment to the campaign. Checkout some pictures at Design Fetish.

Color Theory For Designers from Smashing Magazine