Cool Hunting

Green Concept Cars by The Royal College Of Arts
Design with no regard to plausibility is always fascinating, especially when applied to the sense of fantasy and freedom inspired by cars. But what happens when you introduce a limiting (and very real) factor to the project? Featured in Wired, the Royal College of Arts (RCA) recently unveiled 10 progressive automobile designs that all take into account our current limiting factor of petroleum and...

Fairpack
Fairpack is Central Saint Martins student Mark Hadfield's Master's thesis and plan to reinvent the shopping bag as we know it. Still in development, Hadfield's project tasks designers with creating a graphic to adorn biodegradable plastic bags, recycled paper bags, and cotton bags as low-cost replacements for standard less eco-friendly sacks. His mission fuses ethics, design, and environmentalism to "unbrand" the common grocery bag,...

Element Carbon Fiber and Helium Skateboard
Element Skateboards furthers the evolution of the skateboard deck with their new Push Construction Positive Negative Series. The Push Deck is a skateboarding paradox. Lighter than any other deck, it's also more durable. This innovative structure is a result of the combination of the responsiveness and power of carbon fiber with the durability of Element's own featherlight helium construction (i.e. there's air inside). The...

Local River
French designer Mathieu Lehanneur (featured in the recent Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit) has taken the locavore concept to a practical level with his Local River exhibit at Artists Space in Manhattan. The concept is a small aquarium stocked with freshwater fish that feeds off a small vegetable patch. The plants extract nutrients and purifies the water for the fish; similar techniques are...

The Future Network: The Magazine
There's something refreshingly compelling about The Future Laboratory's latest publication, simply titled The. A "younger sibling" to their house publication Viewpoints, the quarterly is a straightforward look (read: no cheesy color-themed layouts) at current products, people, ideas and events, serving as a cultural thermometer aimed at an audience of marketers, creative directors, designers and the like. While the unfussy approach of The is part...