New tech from WIMM Labs could embed itself into tiny devices that you take with you everywhere you go.
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~ Friday, August 19 ~
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~ Thursday, August 18 ~
It all started with an innocent, curiosity-driven question: “Could we create a for-profit company based in Honduras that would foster a positive social impact through its business?” Chris posed that question during a work trip to Honduras in May 2006 where he reconnected in Tegucigalpa with friends dedicated to an impactful humanitarian project; seeking an answer to the question sparked the idea that became Tegu—a toy business founded to address unemployment, neglected natural and human resources, and the need for entrepreneurship in Honduras.
Tegu began with the notion that the founders—brothers Chris and Will Haughey—wanted to help a country and its people, and they quickly discovered that Honduras could be home to beautiful, sustainably-harvested tropical hardwoods. Grandchildren of an accomplished Kiwi architect, both Chris and Will grew up with a love and appreciation for woodworking, so they naturally gravitated towards the initial idea of creating high-end furniture for export. A couple months later, on a trip together in Germany, they were impressed and inspired by the classic wooden toys of Europe and started looking into the fabrication of wooden toys rather than furniture.
In March of 2007, Chris left his job with The Boston Consulting Group to found Tegu, with Will functioning as a thought partner while still working on Wall Street. Will decided to leave Goldman Sachs in May of 2008, and Tegu started to fire up. In the intervening time, as the Company moved through product refinement to marketing strategy to fund-raising to business-building, Tegu has been fortunate to attract a fantastic team to the business (see below).
In the course of 3 years since the first spark of our idea, the team has explored 4 very different and compelling product concepts. In the course of observation and ideation in a kindergarten classroom in the San Francisco Bay Area, we discovered that kids use toys to tell stories, or to help them better express the wonderful narrative at play in their heads. In that process a winning idea emerged, which evolved into Tegu’s magnetic wooden blocks. Testing the educational toys yielded great results with more kids, parents and advisors in the toy space, and since then we’ve been off to the races. Tegu is vertically integrated and is purposefully running its own shop in Honduras.
Tegu has gone from the seed of an idea (2006) to a budding sapling (2011). Now we’re watering and nurturing, so that we can see this tree flourish for the benefit of children everywhere and for the people of Honduras. These are the little toys that could…
For more info visit on Tegu & it’s design, visit: http://www.tegu.com/
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~ Wednesday, August 17 ~
ckck:
I was eating pizza the other day when my mind got to thinking about that little plastic tripod used to keep larger pizza boxes from caving in. It’s the kind of invention no one thinks about because of how simple it is, yet it’s a smart, cheap solution. After a bit of googling, I found out that it was invented and patented as a “package saver” in the early 80s by a woman named Carmela Vitale from Dix Hills, N.Y. I would’ve loved to have found more back story on how she came up with it, but the patent is all I could find.
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reblogged via 
~ Sunday, August 14 ~
~ Friday, August 12 ~
VAIO ( /ˈvaɪ.oʊ/) is a sub-brand used for many of Sony’s computer products. Originally an acronym of Video Audio Integrated Operation, this was amended to Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer in 2008 to celebrate the brand’s 10th anniversary. The branding was created by Timothy Hanley to distinguish items that integrate consumer audio and video with conventional computing products, such as the Sony VAIO W Series personal computer, which functioned as a regular computer and a miniature entertainment center. Although Sony made computers in the 1980s exclusively for the Japanese market, the company withdrew from the computer business around the turn of the decade. Sony’s re-entry to the global computer market under the new VAIO brand, began in 1996 with the PCV series of desktops. The VAIO logo also represents the integration of analog and digital technology with the ‘VA’ representing an analog wave and the ‘IO’ representing a digital binary code.
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~ Tuesday, August 9 ~
Lego artist Nathan Sawaya left behind his job as a corporate attorney to play full-time with his favorite childhood toy.
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~ Sunday, August 7 ~
Typography infographic charting the evolution of type styles.
Created for WebDesignLedger by Finer Hosting.
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~ Friday, August 5 ~
“This draft of the famous Rubik’s Cube is an attempt of this timeless toy on the Bedüfrnisse blind people adapt and they “feel” the colors to be. The idea behind it is people who do not have to give up their sight, give leave to by the colors insight how difficult it is for the blind, because this version of the cube is about as difficult to solve for the sighted, as it is difficult for the blind, to release the classic dice.”
Designer: Konstantin Datz
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Designer: Pengtao Yu
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