Archive for the ‘designswarm’ Category

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to&fro

October 10, 2007

Since I’m involved with way too much technology, leading activities for tinker.it! in London, and helping out Tom with thinking about the future internet of things, I suppose it’s only normal I’m also spending time on technology-light projects as well.

I worked on to&fro(muji) with Dave last August and we submitted the idea to the Muji Award 02. The second edition of this international conference, the theme this year was “re”. Re-do, re-use, re-think etc…

We focused on reviving a lost art of letter writing. Taking the idea of RE-spond, RE-use and RE-think, we wanted to inject this activity with some of the components of it’s more modern counterpart: email.

The reversible envelope allows you to write the name of the sender and receiver once. As you write your letter on the perforated letter-paper provided, you can choose to tear the leftovers after you’re done (leaving no space for a reply if it’s a “dear john” kind of letter :) ) or not. Put your letter in and fold up the envelope and make sure your “to” will match the adress you’ve written down. Put a stamp on the right hand corner and send it.

The person who receives it gets to open the envelope and reply with the space you’ve left, deciding whether to keep your letter or not. He/she simply reverses the envelope (as the adress turns from “from” to “to”) includes her reply and sends it along.

Check out the Flickr set for this project.

Enjoy!

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Topoware @ London Design Festival

September 16, 2007

(Yes, I know this is starting to be boring :P )

If you’re in town this week, well you’re probably going round the London Design Festival. Topoware will be part of the Designboom exhibition hosted by designersblock 10th anniversary show so come on down!

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Page 85

September 7, 2007

London design festival guide 2007. Tee hee.

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Good Night Lamp: progress

August 24, 2007

Some great progress lately on the Good Night Lamp, go check out the new site with some more details and new fab images.

A reason for the update: yours truly might appear in the Annual design review of Surface magazine this fall. Yes, old media! I’m excited nonetheless.

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About definitions

August 23, 2007

Must be the weather. I’ve changed the blurb on my website for the first time since I started freelancing.

Before:

This is the online portfolio of Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, freelance interaction designer. I am interested in the way service design ties product design and interaction design together to create meaningful experiences for people both in the virtual and tangible worlds.

After:

This is the online portfolio of Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, industrial and interaction designer. She designs technology-enabled and socially-aware creative solutions to problems. From product design, service-based experiences, mobile-based interactions as well as play experiences, what binds her work is a holistic approach to problems, a keen interest in the user and collaborations with partners and clients from around the world. She now freelances in London, UK.

I like it, what do you think?

Update: ok here’s the final version in light of comments :)
This is the online portfolio of Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, industrial and interaction designer. She designs technology-enabled and socially-aware creative solutions to problems. She takes a holistic approach to problems, a keen interest in the user and collaborates with partners and clients from around the world. She now freelances in London, UK.

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Hungries out of the box

August 23, 2007

I’ve had the pleasure in the past few years of working on a number of great projects with some fabulous people but The Hungries really does hold a special place in my heart. This is why I’m glad to say we‘ve finally launched the website and are looking into making these wonderful creatures more than just a prototype. Can’t say much more at the moment but go and check it out!

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Topoware update

July 25, 2007

Quick update on something else that keeps me busy :)

I’m really happy to announce that Topoware will be part of Designboom’s “Handled with care” exhibition as part of the London Design Festival, hosted by designersblock in Shoreditch.

Additionally, it is being featured in the Stanford-based design magazine Ambidextrous 7: Food.
Download the article here (pdf)

Karola and I are looking into selling the china collection as of September, so stay tuned!

Update: Thanks to Mark from Experientia for featuring Topoware on core77.

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Apologetic press release

July 25, 2007

Ben often says I speak “europanto”, that has its disadvantages too.

Got a lovely email from Barbara at Vonen highlighting the fact that I often make spelling mistakes in this blog (“its/it’s” in a sentence, etc.) I’d like to apologize to my readers for that. I never did learn English grammar properly (learnt it in an American school in Kuwait at age 5 for 2 years before moving back to Paris for 14 years and picking it up again in Saudi Arabia) and my mother tongue being French, I think it sometimes takes over some of my sentence structure and writing. Will try to do better…

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Public service announcement

July 22, 2007

Sorry about the lack of news, but I’m in the middle of the Hardcore Hardware Hacking weekend I’ve put together for tinker.it. Lots of fun! Wish you were here!

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Young 20something looking for reasons to stay busy.

July 4, 2007

Unbelievable but true, I have now settled in London permanently. After an exciting month catching up with the Montreal crowd and working on “Looking for Design” I have come to appreciate immensely coming back to the cut-throat beat of this city. Montreal shares the same mellow beat as Amsterdam but for this girl, it simply won’t do. I’m too much of a procrastinator already :)

So now I have to figure out how to live in the greatest and most expensive city in the world while keeping myself sane with insane amounts of projects and work…hmm promising set of constraints.

So if you’re looking for a freelance interaction/smart-products/blogger/web2.0/strategic/ohmygawdshessohollistic/ designer, what a coincidence, i’m looking for work! :P

You can always contact me at alex care of designswarm and if you’re not interested, well forward it to someone who might! we all have friends ;)

(yes i’m authorised to work in the UK)

While I look for new opportunities, i’m keeping myself busy by being digital webmistress and agent to Karola Torkos (im diving into Drupal for this one at the moment, ouch), organising a super hardware hacking weekend for Tinker.it , trying to find a way to do a small production of Topoware and juggling with a mobile application idea i had a few months ago that could run well as an add-on to Dopplr users.

Not enough hours in the day.