We make a big effort in Vostok to choose our clients wisely and there’s a reason for it: when you work with people you admire you work better and quicker. Like a well-oiled machine. There are pros and cons, true, but they’re worth it. Basically because you have days like today.

Today Minube and Ducksboard are taking two important steps forward. For one, Ducksboard has launched. If you haven’t checked out the pretty awesome video yet, do. We made the video with the Riot Cinema team.

Next in line is Minube. After winning Apple’s Spain’s best app of the year award and the App Date [links in Spanish] award a few days ago, they’re organizing a pretty cool event today to celebrate the launch of their social traveler guides on iPad.

All in all, a pretty good way to begin closing 2011.

Jean Prouvé was once quoted saying: never design anything that cannot be made. Part designer, part architect he always conceived himself primarily as a craftsman, a builder. In Norman Foster‘s own words, in Prouvé’s work “technical imagination is placed at the service of function and economy”.

And that’s infinitely apparent when you understand the thought process behind his first attempts at prefabrication. How to produce furnishings and components that were simple to ship and easy to erect? How to create structures that were both solid and adaptable; temporary and long-lasting? Simple: modular design. His structures tended to be light, flexible, and even mobile, combining traditional building materials with aluminum and steel.

At the time, Mr. Prouvé was revolutionizing the concept of construction so he went back to the basics. He kew that if he was to create a new language, he first needed to devise an alphabet and that’s what he did, he created “L’alphabet des structures”. Because once you devise the basic elements of a system, it doesn’t matter what the future holds; you’ll know what to do, how to react.

Most of the problems we face as designers today aren’t new so it’s always refreshing and inspiring to see how others have tackled them before. And then it’s just a matter of learning, adapting and applying.

If you have a chance, Industrial Beauty (though I like the name in Spanish better, Belleza Fabricada), is an exhibition at Ivory Press Madrid of some of Prouvé’s most significant work, including drawings, sketches and furniture. It will be open until November 12th.

For an overview of some of his work, this Flickr compilation is a good start.

The expo was huge. We were mostly for the interactive and mobile stuff although you could find many other design areas represented by all sorts of products: cars, domotics, furniture, pottery, home appliances…

After overlooking the whole expo we headed to the mobile design stands. I have to say most of what we saw was not surprising at all: tablets and phones whose only difference was exterior styling (shape and color) but were the same on the inside: android. Perhaps the most interesting was the IIDA infobar, designed by Naoto Fukasawa and Yugo Nakamura. The Infobar has a complete different approach both on UI and exterior design. Also, its marketing campaign is very intense, focusing on the personalization factor. Check the commercial:

I confess I was a bit deceived with the whole thing. Well, I’m an iPhone user, therefore I will judge anything up to those standards. But isn’t IIDA’s Infobar competing with the iPhone after all? There is one thing that really impressed me, though: it’s lightness. It looks heavier than it is. That is a good thing but the counterpart is that It’s not as solid as one might expect.

But the best piece of the whole expo, as seen with interaction design eyes -Eri and I agreed on this- were the vending machines, which happened to be working by the way. A big crisp, colorful touchscreen to chose your favorite beverage. Motion, layers, and directionality all very well applied. Check it by yourself on this video (sorry about the quality, I think I messed up with the frame ratio):

Overall it was a very interesting visit. We are looking forward to come back next year and perhaps display some of the products we’ve designed during this last year at Vostok Studio.

PS: check this post for more info on the Good Design Award and this other post for pics and more info on the expo (in Spanish)

Are you attending it? Any very good recommendation on who to watch there?

We hope you’ve all made good use of those Filmin codes and that you’ve liked the experience.

If you understand Spanish you’ll enjoy these promotional videos for the event. They are made by the guys at Riot Cinema. They rock too!

Spot 1

Spot 2

When: Thursday April 23th, 19:30h.
Where: Medialab-Prado. Plaza de las Letras, C/ Alameda, 15 · Madrid (map)

As you may know, Vostok is pretty involved in this initiative which we mentione a few posts earlier. We hope you find it as exciting as we do.

RosaJC tuvo el detalle de grabar casi toda mi charla, donde hablo de la metáfora del fregadero y la fuente en los lectores de feeds (además de algunos otros conceptos).

Autobombo aparte, las jornadas estuvieron francamente bien. El público era jovencito, casi todos estudiantes de comunicación y a pesar de la edad se les notaba un nivel alto de “avispamiento digital” y bastante madurez a la hora de hablar de ciertos temas tecnológicos. Supongo que el mérito de esto es en parte por la labor de los profes de Comunicación de la UCAM.

También me gustó que el nivel de palabrería dospuntocerista estuviera controlado. No se habló de modelos de negocio, de inversiones ni de emprendimientos y eso contribuyó a mi paz de espíritu.

Yo fui ilusionado por poder oir a gente con mucha experiencia como Chiqui de la Fuente o Georgina Cisquella, pero también disfruté de las charlas de Rosa Jiménez Cano o de Juanlu Sánchez, por mencionar algunos, o de las conversaciones con el resto de ponentes, alumnos y la gente de la organización que estuvieron muy atentos con nosotros.

Andrew Baron
Andy Budd
August de los Reyes
Brian Suda
Eduardo Manchon
Felix Petersen
Geoff Marslett
Joshua Kaufman
Julian Bleecker
Leonel Moura
Manuel Lima
Mark Wuben
Nick Cristea
Nick Weldin
Sanky (Simon Sankarayya)
Stephanie Booth
Stowe Boyd
Tara Hunt
Tijmen Schep

The price is also affordable (240€) and there are discounts for flight tickets and something else I don’t recall now. Let me know if you plan on attending.

1. There is a world out there, go reach it.
2. Your shit is someone else’s food (metaphorically speaking, ok?).
3. Own no more than 5 things you use, or else things will use you instead.
4. Leave your shit behind, it will serve others and make you more free.
5. If you reinterpret space and use it in non-conventional ways you are on advantage.
6. Courage is one of the most important things in life.
7. You can design your own life.
8. Do-ers are better than thinkers (in case you had to chose).
9. Conferences on a far away city are great for putting thoughts in order.
10. Web2.love is still the only strategic approach that makes sense when creating things.

I would love to see some more of these shared by other atendees. Please, let me know if you happen to post yours.

I made a few decisions while here in CPH. First one is going back to posting in English. I feel sorry for those who prefer Spanish. I know the blog may lose a bit of freshness (if it ever had that) but hey, the world is huge and ther are so many amazing people out there who I couldn’t reach otherwise.

Personal stuff may come in Spanish sometimes, so don’t expect too much consistency. As chaotic as life, I guess.