Historywatching

What historical future predictions can teach us now.



[ +link ]
[ +via ]

Creative Stars

"The idea is to collect websites for industrial designers who are in the beginning of their design process (Information phase and Exploration phase). The most useful websites are displayed on the homepage to ensure a quick navigation"

[ +link ]

Idée labs

"Piximilar searches through large image collections, without keywords or metadata, to instantly retrieve visually similar images.

Users can search for images by:

* selecting an existing image in your collection to retrieve similar images
* uploading their own image to retrieve visually similar images from your collection
* selecting multiple colours from a simple palette or an advanced colour wheel to retrieve images containing the same colours

Piximilar can be used in combination with keywords to refine searches on extremely large collections."

[ +link ]

newsletter material stories

[ +link]

Springwise: ideas by industry

"Springwise and its network of 8,000 spotters scan the globe for smart new business ideas, delivering instant inspiration to entrepreneurial minds."

[ +link ]

IDEA A DAY

Everyday a new idea!

[ +link ]

Board of innovation

Business & revenue model examples

"The most successful innovations are not on product or service level, but in rethinking your business model. This database captures existing and innovative business models from across the globe and across industries. Zopa, Skype, free newspapers, YouTube, RadioHead… successful new concepts are visually mapped with generic building blocks to make them easily understandable (read more: How to build any business model with only 10 blocks). Our aim is to identify the underlying innovation in the business system, and make it transferable to other industries. You can browse through our growing database, identify new monetization strategies, comment, submit new ventures for review…"



[ +link ]

Nothing is Original - Jim Jarmusch

This is the fifth rule of Jim Jarmusch, an independent film director, his golden rules:

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”

[+ link]

EXPLORATREE - THINKING GUIDES

Exploratree is a free web resource where you can access a library of ready-made interactive thinking guides, print them, edit them or make your own. You can share them and work on them in groups too.

[+ link]

Ask Nature

Nature's elegant solutions to building challenges include the Scots pine's adaptive growth, the thorny devil's passive water collection, and a leaf's on-site energy production. AskNature can help you solve your design challenges.

[ +link]

IDEO METHOD CARDS

Interactive TRIZ Matrix & 40 Principles

The TRIZ Matrix is a database of KNOWN SOLUTIONS (principles) able to OVERCOME CONTRADICTIONS.
I.e, You need a static object to be longer without becoming heavier. This is a contradiction. The improving feature is ' #4, length of stationary object ' and the worsening factor is ' #2, weight of stationary object '. Use the matrix to discover possible ways of solutions, the PRINCIPLES.

[+ link]

MOODSTREAM - GETTY IMAGES

Moodstream is a powerful new brainstorming tool. Looking for something happy? Move the slider. A bit more warmth? Tweak it again. With every adjustment you make, Moodstream delivers a new set of images, footage and music to help take your creative in inspiring, unexpected directions.

[+ link]

What does design thinking feel like?

Design thinking is different and therefore it feels different.

Firstly it is not only convergent. It is a series of divergent and convergent steps. During divergence we are creating choices and during convergence we are making choices. For people who are looking to have a good sense of the answer, or at least a previous example of one, before they start divergence is frustrating. It almost feels like you are going backwards and getting further away from the answer but this is the essence of creativity. Divergence needs to feel optimistic, exploratory and experimental but it often feels foggy to people who are more used to operating on a plan. Divergence has to be supported by the culture. ...

[ +link ]

ffffound - image bookmarking

FFFFOUND! is a web service that not only allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user's tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!!

[+ link]

Designing with your users

Human Centered Design

David Lynch on Ideas

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC - GALLERY

Dive into the national geographic gallery, those of you looking for form or color inspiration are bound to find something. Making moodboards with the life in color series is a pleasure. [Ph: by Ingo Arndt]

[+ link]

FLOKOON - FOTALIA APPLICATION

An(other) online visual search interface that represents search results for music, videos & images queries by a network-like diagram. results appear alongside related items, which can then be further refined.

[+ link]