LED artist

LED artist
Digging through my notes looking for the name of the German Austrian born artist behind some amazing work featured here. Found it, Erwin Redl.

Austrian-born artist Erwin Redl uses LEDs as an artistic medium. Working in both two and three dimensions, his works redefine interior and exterior spaces. Born in 1963, Redl began his studies as a musician, receiving a BA in Composition and Diploma in Electronic Music at the Music Academy in Vienna, Austria. In 1995, he received an MFA in Computer Art at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he now lives.

Redl’s works have received attention both nationally and internationally. With his piece Matrix VI (detail), he lit the face of New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art for its 2002 Biennial Exhibit. Works such as Matrix II, which was shown in New York, Germany, France, Austria, and Korea, and Fade I, which animated the Eglise Sainte-Marie Madeleine in Lille, France, explore volume and allow people to move through lit spaces.

Things application


Here’s a good example of ‘simple is smart’ thinking in the form of a task management solution for the Mac. I particularly like it’s iTunes like simplicity. You easily understand that ‘adding and sorting your things to do’ lives in a section called focus (where you divide and conquer) and you naturally ‘collect’ these each day (that’s your in-box for today’s work load). Familiar mental models can help a user grasp the concept quickly and have a lasting impression on what your doing and why.

During this short trial I found myself liking how ‘projects’ are those bigger goals that allow nested activities. That makes perfect sense. Added to that, you’ve got obvious things like calenders and logbook features. Apparently a global shortcut allows you to accept a variety of document references. ‘Tags’ means things can be searched under particular names. Cultured Code from Germany have come up with a smart experience.

Erik Spiekermann

Erik Spiekermann, born 1947, studied History of Art and English in Berlin. He is information architect, type designer (FF Meta, ITC Officina, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk and many corporate typefaces) and author of books and articles on type and typography.

He was founder (1979) of MetaDesign, Germany’s largest design firm with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco. Projects included corporate design programmes for Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen, Lexus, Heidelberg Printing and way-finding projects like Berlin Transit, Duesseldorf Airport and many others. In 1988 he started FontShop, a company for production and distribution of electronic fonts. He is board member of ATypI and the German Design Council and Past President of the ISTD, International Society of Typographic Designers, as well as the IIID. In 2001 he left MetaDesign and now runs SpiekermannPartners with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco.

In 2001 he redesigned The Economist magazine in London. His book for Adobe Press,“Stop Stealing Sheep” has recently appeared in a second edition and a German and a Russian version. His corporate font family for Nokia was released in 2002. In 2003 he received the Gerrit Noordzij Award from the Royal Academy in Den Haag. His type system DB Type for Deutsche Bahn was awarded the Federal German Design Prize in gold for 2006. In May 2007 he was the first designer to be elected into the Hall of Fame by the European Design Awards for Communication Design.

Erik is Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts in Bremen and in 2006 received an honorary doctorship from Pasadena Art Center. He has just been elected an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA in Britain.

Ecospace Prefab Garden Studios

Treehugger (2006) explains:
They are available in modular or “bespoke”, built from sustainable timber and sit on an adjustable bearing shoe that minimizes site disturbance. We also like the green roof: “A planted green roof system is used which was developed in Germany over 25 years ago. The green roof is ecologically sound and aesthetically reduces visual impact of the studio. It is a low maintenance roof with plants well suited to cope with a full range of conditions. Species include mosses, succulents, herbaceous plants and grasses. The Bauder green roof has a high insulation performance.”

EcoSpace UK