businessweek has a slideshow on the 2009 winners of the ‘plagiarus award’.

action plagiarius "grants this negative award at the annual ambiente trade fair, given to manufacturers and distributors found guilty of making or selling ‘the most flagrant’ (design) imitations. … the aim of action plagiarius is to inform the public about the extent, damages and dangers incurred by fakes and plagiarisms."

some of the knock-offs are truly unbelievable, with not the smallest attempts to add or change any design details to hide their origin. and of course, several pieces that solely copy the outer appearance, while choosing cheaper or non-effective materials for the actual construction. and that’s without even mentioning the disregard for all the work and intellectual efforts that went into designing the original pieces.

moq7 is a ‘discount pre-seller of next-generation products‘. it pre-sells items prior to production. this allows manufacturers to raise the necessary start-up capital while ensuring required sales numbers. (moq stands for minimum quantity order, the number of units that must be sold before the product goes into production.)

some overlap with similar ideas by quirky and joy de vivre, which were mentioned here previously.

a web site dedicated to constant updates and reviews of new (and sometimes old) design books. areas covered include 2d, 3d, interactive, motion, photography, research, and business.

a list of nearly 50 books related to design thinking.

the latest issue of frog design’s design mind magazine is now available online. the theme of this issue: power.

“… written by frog designers, technologists, and strategists, design mind articles provide the design and innovation community with perspectives on industry trends, emerging technologies, and global consumer culture. design mind also features interviews with high-profile thought leaders, along with contributions from external writers, designers, and photographers …”

a free preview of the latest issue of ambidextrous, stanford university’s journal of design, is now online.

via [putting people first]

another site that uses crowd sourcing for product development.

(more…)

good advice in 6 easy steps.