We’ve used the term ‘minimalist’ a fair amount before, but these futurist body forms by digital artist Dxmiq take the meaning to a new level. Using soft angled shapes and soft, faded gradients, the forms are recognizably human, but also supremely simplified and streamlined.
Shared without further explanation, we like to think of the forms as futuristic iconography or signage, like way-finding designs from 2035 or so. Pretty cool work, via Behance:
There have been a number of electric-car startups in the last decade, yet the only established new brand is Tesla. That means most of the others either went bankrupt, or are still toiling away at the complexity of building a new car company.
Rivian, a company that has been in ‘stealth-mode’ for the last nine years, has finally broken their silence, unveiling the R1T pickup truck, and the R1S SUV at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The sleekly-styled vehicles are filling a hugely important gap in the market, where trucks and SUVs loom large, but currently no electric options exist. Rivian’s hope is that their vehicles hit the road at the end of 2020, with a similar rollout to Tesla, releasing their higher-spec version first, and the lower-priced versions later.
The vehicles are bristling with technology, including cameras, as well as LIDAR, radar, ultrasonic, and “high-precision” GPS technologies, which should allow for self-driving capability.
We are excited for new, zero-emission options in the SUV and truck realm, especially since those existing vehicles are among the dirtiest on the planet.
The Rivian truck has three tiers of electric range, with pricing accordingly. The price for the R1T truck starts at $69,000, and the SUV starts at $72,000. Learn more on The Verge:
All three versions of the truck have a top speed of 125 miles per hour. The midrange battery pack version is the quickest, according to Rivian, hitting 60 miles per hour in three seconds flat, thanks to a total power output of 562kW (about 750 horsepower). The 400-mile battery version of the truck sends 522kW (about 700 horsepower) to the gearbox and will hit the 60 mph mark in 3.2 seconds. The cheaper short-range version will go from 0 to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds, with 300kW of power (about 400 horsepower) on offer.
Uber has seen better days, what with their scandalous former CEO, and their recent lawsuits with Waymo, not to mention a fatality with their self-driving cars. However, the company presses on, with ambitious concepts that they say are going to transform the transportation landscape that we depend on everyday. Their most glamorous new project is UberAir, which they hope will be in full operation by 2023, and will transport passengers on 50-100 mile trips, using small, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. This plan doesn’t try to compete with traditional airlines, but rather to provide much more efficient travel in congested urban areas. The diagram below shows a typical route by car between San Jose and downtown San Francisco. Cars and taxis take well over two hours on busy weekdays. UberAir promises this 43 mile trip in 15 minutes, dramatically speeding up travel. Costs would initially be more expensive than the taxi ride, but are expected to drop quickly as the system scales up. It’s hard to argue with those numbers. Let’s just hope they thoroughly test their systems for safety. Initial systems will have human pilots, but the company plans a fully autonomous operation in the coming years. Flying cars might be closer than you think. More via Uber and Uncrate:
Claire&Max are a filmmaking duo from Paris that have a knack for the strange and artistic. Their latest film, Two° NYC takes a deeply unsettling look at what the global rise of two degrees celsius would do to the biggest city in the USA. The result? An inundated, flooded metropolis, scenes of streets devoid of people, but filled with water. Times Square, the marquees reflecting into the flooded streets below. Police cruisers half submerged in water, wreaking havoc on the ability for law enforcement to do anything. The effects are simple, yet realistic. This somber video paints a picture that may be at our doorsteps before we know it…Via Sploid:
It’s well known that Sequoia’s are some of the largest and most impressive trees on earth. Their size is legendary, and some can live to be thousands of years old. In a strange concept that borders on science fiction, Evolo talks about merging man with nature, with their Giant Sequoia Skyscraper Concept. Imagine a man-made structure carefully built inside of a failing sequoia, a tree that is dying either to age or pests or fire damage. The skyscraper-like form factor would allow for many stories of habitability above ground, as well as below, utilizing an underground built space as well. The idea is strange and fascinating, a concept that investigates our relationship to nature, our ability to harness it, but also to potentially prolong it’s life. Learn more on Evolo.
DesignBoom has a look at NASA’s prototype greenhouse, developed at the University of Arizona, which may travel to Mars in the near future and help astronauts farm their produce on the Red Planet. The structure is a cylinder in shape and can deploy quickly once at it’s destination. It uses both LED and natural light to grow, and has a sophisticated support system:
The 18 X 7 ft deployable greenhouse can also be used for air revitalization, water recycling or waste recycling. The idea is for carbon dioxide exhaled by the astronauts to be introduced into the martian/ lunar greenhouse, which is then used by the plants to photosynthesize and generate oxygen. the whole process is called a bioregenerative life support system.
Projection mapping, the art and science of precise projected artwork, is coming into it’s own. Take the newly opened Sagaya restaurant in the Ginza neighborhood of Tokyo. It’s diners are greeted to a table that reacts to the plates set on it, so each course is a new and beautiful experience. Butterflies flit and fly around a plate of delicate vegetables. Leave your hand still on the tabletop, and a digital bird may land on it, just to take flight when you move it. Created by art collective Teamlab, the restaurant looks delicious and an experience not to miss. Via DesignBoom:
With a growing number of companies on the verge of sending private citizens into space on rockets, there’s a movement to send people to space on a….slower pace. World View Enterprises has plans (and a high tech balloon) to start sending people on commercial flights to the edge of space starting in 2018. With a mission to give people a true “global perspective” on our planet, the experience sounds like the ride of a lifetime. Check out this fascinating video on their mission to take people over 100,000 feet above Earth. Via Mashable:
I’m a sucker for artistic interpretations of the future, and Microsoft has a pretty compelling look at computer interfaces that may appear down the road. Now like most of these visions, the squeaky-clean, sanitized future and utopian-factor is cranked pretty high. It would be amusing to see more of a “used future”, as in Star Wars, with worn in surfaces, messy desks, etc. However, as a designer, I enjoy seeing clean interface design and ideas for improving communication and learning.
Whether or not this interpretation is accurate, it’s nice to see people working on imaginative and sleek designs. No doubt that the future we live in will be one of incredible technology.