Enjoyed a quick visit to the Brooklyn Brewery for a peek behind the scenes into beer making. Check out those shiney shiney steel tanks, mmmmm, and this new filtration system. This multilayer accordion-looking structure is composed of cellulose pads, which are responsible for fine filtration after the beer is centrifuged, to remove any particulate after fermentation. Cellulose (C6H10O5)n is a naturally occurring polymer, seen in plants, paper, even cleaning sponges. After use the exausted (read: congested/full) filter pads can be composited for disposal, nice. This additional filtration system just came online so look forward to even clear-er beer at a Brooklyn bar, or bottle, near you.
Enjoying the gorgeous fiber art By Eric Reiger above the bar at the Williamsburg Hotel Bar. This explosion of technicolor tensile texture is made from 655,240 yards of string.
Ceci n'est pas une chandail
Enjoyed the wonderful panel This is Not a Sweater: Smart Garments & Functional Fabrics, at Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator. An insightfull view from designers and engineers at the forefront of technology integration in soft wearables. The panelists addressed a range of topics surrounding development, application, and demand.
The challenges facing the advancement of this industry are manifold, but the two largest hurdles both concern design. Firstly, products need to address both needs and desires of consumers; answering the question of “why wear”. Currently many products fall into a category of novelty rather than functionality. Secondly, there are significant design challenges in the integration of hard and soft components in a single unit. These are exacerbated by the varied expertise needed, often coming from experts in diffferent disciplines.
With technological advancement as well as shifts in design this area is poised to expand into a “$38 billion industry by 2022″ (estimated). Shifts in application from sports to healthcare are predicted, with a focus on increased remote outpatient monitoring. This type of usage is particularly compelling as it addresses many of the current challenges facing smart garments: cost, production volume, and aestethics. Most importantly it offers a compelling and messureable benefit; reducing hospital stays while increasing data collection and patient care.
Where will the industry go next? What will be the break-out commercial product? Time will tell, but many companies are working hard to be that leader and their moment is aproching quickly.
Thanks Atlanta, for a lovely departure from the ordinary airport experience. Flight Paths an immersive installation by Steve Waldeck -between terminal A and B- features a pixilated tree canopy which creates shifting light qualities and shadow, paired with sounds of the forest. The sculpture is constructed with industrial materials and techniques, the installation is composed of approximately 24,000 LED lights interspersed into a canopy of over 4,000 laser cut 4′x4′ sheets of aluminum.
Exciting designs aren’t limited to the outside of the package, Italian formulation company Tre Effe packed punch into their pressed powders (on display at MakeUP in NYC) with multi-color combinations, using side-by-side and mixed color options, even laser etching to bring a whole new level of detail and style.
Kawaii! Super adorable packaging options that put cartoons into your hand! From unicorns to lollipops there is no end to this parade of cute from Taimeng Beauty.
Tools are as important as formulation at MakeUPinNYC, with many booths showing their newest developments for the popular “beauty blender” style applicator. A wide range of materials are being leveraged in these hand-held tools, from sponges and foam to molded silicone.
Innovation filled day at MakeUP in NYC. Exciting packaging developments at the Yonwoo booth, check out this pump system that sprays powder!
I am both scientifically impressed and personally concerned (though only middlingly) by what I know to be the complete accuracy of this assertion.
Mmmmm, fresh street paint!
This is often my exact example when I explain retro-reflectives, street paint. Daytime shows a white line, but darkness and directional headlights reveal: Shine! This is accomplished through the use of retro-reflective micro-spheres, high strength glass spheres that have be half coated in aluminum. As light enters through the clear hemisphere it is reflected off the aluminum coating on the other side, bouncing back toward the light source at a slightly different angle.
The application technique is interesting as well, carefully optimized for maximum durability and reflection. First a hot fluid polymer is layered down in a given pattern or design by a spigot on the back of a truck, think tar. Next a worker with a bucket full of microspheres and a broom pours the spheres onto the design and brushes them over the surface of the setting paint. this maximizes surface coverage, and ensures that the spheres don’t get masked by the paint. Safety First!
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