Nice combination of typography, graphic design and thought-provoking data in this poster from designer Ervin Esen.

(via Under Consideration)

Today in The Thought Kitchen, we sit down with our Director of Design Peter Kallen to talk about the new Shroud of Purrin jackets and blazers. For the complete Design Eye series, click here. [http://blog.nau.com/?s=design+eye+peter]

The Thought Kitchen: Nau has a lot of unique fabrics, but the Shroud Of Purrin is particularly special. What were the design goals you had in making it?

Peter Kallen: We created this fabric to up the ante of the softshell world by merging the softshell concept with a beautiful, ‘luxxy’ interior—The Shroud of Purrin has this soft, kitten-like fur feel on the inside. So it’s ideal to take that fabric and apply it to these two new styles, which definitely blur the boundaries between urban and outdoor.

TTK: What makes this fabric appropriate for an urban, fashion forward style?

PK: The intent behind softshell is just that: a soft shell. What was rigid and hard and crunchy about a hardshell wasn’t very approachable; it was always treated as something for protection first. What this does is to soften that; it just becomes this much more refined jacket with a softer hand and a much more refined drape to it, as opposed to the crunch bend that a hardshell would have. The combination of softshell technology and distinct tailoring make these styles the perfect application of beauty and performance.

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Great post over on the landscape architecture blog Inspiration Wall from a tour of several of Seattle’s Green Roofs. If, like me, you don’t have access to a well-planted roof in your urban dwelling, it’s enough to make you, well, green with envy.

More, though, it’s good to see this concept taking off. Personally, every time I’m on top of a high building, I can’t help looking around and marveling at all the wasted space—who wouldn’t want a beautiful rooftop garden? Hell, just take the roof of any urban office building, plant a few square yards of green and perch an MCH (Micro Compact Home) on it, and you’re probably sitting on a few hundred grand worth of real estate…

(via Inspiration Wall)

Today is primary day in Colorado. That might not seem related to bikes in Copenhagen, but while those of us with a pound of brains and an ounce of forethought draw encouragement from the example of European cities that are leading the way in embracing the freedom and livability of bike-friendly streets, some in the Governor’s race perceive a hidden agenda in the growing bike movement to spin the US toward UN control and socialism (yes, seriously.)

This film, by Streetfilms’ Clarence Eckerson (whom you might remember from his “Bike Move” film, featured on The Collective), offers a comprehensive look at what bike utopia looks like. Separated bike lanes, dedicated bike signals, considerate drivers: the cycling infrastructure of Denmark’s capital makes Portland look like L.A. And the proof is in the numbers: one counter erected on Copenhagen’s busiest bike street clocks over 30,000 riders per day. Per day.

It’s a model that allows children to ride to school and adults to leave the Styrofoam headgear at home. And best of all, it’s a local solution that each of us can help implement in our own towns and cities. So watch the film; then find your local bicycle advocacy group and get involved. (Or, if you’re in Colorado, go vote). Because, whatever one candidate for Governor might say, that’s how democracy works.

“Dangling”, by Amy Casey

Writing for the New York Time’s Opinionator blog, our friend Allison Arieff recently wondered if, in the wake of the housing bubble’s bursting, we can begin to think of a house more as a home, and less as a resale value:

When did “rm w/a vu” turn into Viking range, cathedral ceiling, granite countertop and four-car garage? At what point did the house become more about the future tenant than the current resident?

It’s a good question, and one that goes to the heart of current home design. Do you really want to lounge in your dressing room? Or is that just something that looks good on the MLS search? McMansions, Arieff suggests, might not be so much a result of people’s bad taste as of the real estate equivalient of ‘teaching to the test’: architecture designed to sell, not provide comfort.

Allison—a GOOD contributor, Refresh Project Ambassador for Food & Shelter and editor emeritus of Dwell—writes regularly for the Opinionator, and is well worth a follow. Check out the article here.

Here in The Thought Kitchen, we talk a lot about the power of good design to create positive change. But what about bad design? Can an inconvenient, awkward, unsightly idea help create a better world?

That was the idea that RISD ID grad Erik Askin wanted to explore with his project Design To Annoy, in which he created a cigarette packet so impractical that it would discourage smokers from ever picking up a pack, let along offering a cigarette to a stranger.

Designed for difficult access, poor ‘pocket fit’, inefficient shipping, concealed branding and awkward sharing, its design is so elegantly bad, it’s good. Check out all the design drawings, and other ideas for inconvenient packaging, at the Design To Annoy website.

(via FastCoDesign)

While I’m a sucker for good infographics in any context, they’re particularly powerful when employed to give perspective to an issue as critical as education. For this trailer to Waiting For Superman, an upcoming documentary from the director of An Inconvenient Truth on the need to reshape education in America—animator Jorge R. Canedo Estrada of Buck engaged with some pretty sobering statistics. The results are powerful.

(via Vimeo).

In my continuing fascination with small space living, I’ve lusted after the design efficiency of the 72 square foot Micro Compact Home, dreamed about on what remote patch of land I would plant an itHouse, and lingered over the pages of Tiny, a picture book of homes under 1,000 square feet. But in all those clever uses of space, I’ve never seen one that takes advantage of rotation like the Roll-It house, a project by students at the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design [ITKE] at the University of Karlsruhe.

While I might not want to live there full time, the spinning bed-to-desk component is pretty damn cool, and something that could easily be incorporated into other small spaces. Check out more pictures, and details, at Arkinet.

(via notcot.org)

Following up on last week’s post on the graphic representation of data, it’s interesting to note that while we often overestimate the quantity of natural resources at our disposal, we tend to underestimate the damage that we can do to those resources.

From IfItWasMyHome.com: A scale graphic overlay of the BP oil spill over Nau's hometown of Portland, OR.

Case in point: The BP oil spill. We’ve all seen the live video streams from the well, and the photos of oil-covered pelicans. But to truly grasp the scope of this disaster, visit IfItWasMyHome.com. A simple google map mashup, it allows you to overlay a map of the oil spill over your hometown. Here in Portland, the spill would extend from Mt. Bachelor outside of Bend to beyond Mt. Rainier, and well out into the Pacific. Sobering stuff, but sometimes that’s what design is for: to give us needed perspective as we consider how to we can, and must, change.

(hat tip to Otis)

Apropos of Nau’s recently launched Travel categories (and an early shipment of bags and accessories that have favorites like the Billfold and Fluent Stash back in stock), Coolhunting pointed us to this cool design project, the Masters Thesis project of Stockholm design student Magda Lipka Falck. I’d love to get my hands on a printed copy, but from the images it seems to be a good reminder that travel doesn’t have to take us far from home: an unexpected exchange might just be waiting around the block if you know where to look. Or have the right card:

(via Coolhunting)