360 DEGREES Weblog

The ’systemX’ fluorescent lighting system was created by Ross Lovegrove for yamagiwa Lighting Design and is really a unique and interesting twist on standard fluorescent tubes. The system is composed of modular ‘X’ pieces made of plastic and aluminum that each contain 2 T4 21W fluorescent bulbs. These ‘X’ pieces can be combined in different geometric layouts including large planes for lighting up an entire office space or smaller circles for illuminating a more intimate dining room table.

If anything the systemX lights definitely have more visual appeal than the standard fluorescent lighting setups I’ve worked under in the past. And thanks to “state of the art electronic technology” the systemX modules can even be configured with dimmers allowing you to create different lighting moods.

Window shopping just got pricier: Ralph Lauren launched a 24-hour interactive window in London on Wednesday, giving customers the opportunity to shop by touching a wide screen monitor outside the company’s flagship London store.
Models in Ralph Lauren outfits are projected onto a 78 inch (200 centimeter) lightweight touch foil screen applied directly to the glass.
Boris Becker, Ralph Lauren’s brand ambassador and Wimbledon tennis champion, demonstrated the “window shopping” screen, which guides shoppers through the brand’s Wimbledon line and shows video tennis clips.

(USA TODAY)

A city stripped of advertising. No Posters. No flyers. No ads on buses. No ads on trains. No Adshels, no 48-sheets, no nothing. It sounds like an Adbusters editorial: an activist’s dream. But in São Paulo, Brazil, the dream has become a reality.
In September last year, the city’s populist right-wing mayor, Gilberto Kassab, passed the so-called Clean City laws. Fed up with the “visual pollution” caused by the city’s 8,000 billboard sites, many of them erected illegally, Kassab proposed a law banning all outdoor advertising. The skyscraper-sized hoardings that lined the city’s streets would be wiped away at a stroke. And it was not just billboards that attracted his wrath. (BUSINESSWEEK)

Forget about the $350 stilettos. Shoes with status these days come with $1,000 price tags. And $600 handbags have become so bourgeois. A-listers don’t want to be seen with anything costing less than $5,000.
It’s no secret that luxury sales have been booming over the past six years. But at a time when the average American is grousing about meager wage growth and feeling strapped by a 30-cent spike in the price of gas, splurging by the wealthy has risen to gaudy proportions as the super rich seek new heights in pampering, price tags and one-of-a-kind items that set them apart. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Philips has reportedly developed a 20-inch LCD “designed to increase brand awareness and attention value of products at point-of-sale locations,” and is showing off the (literally) eye-popping effects at this week’s InfoComm. Of course, this rendition seems to be aimed at businesses rather than consumer applications, but we’d expect to see more where this came from as the WOWvx-equipped lineup expands. The newest duo consists of a frame-mountable 20-3D2W01 (pictured above) and a more decorated 20-3D2W04 if you’re wanting a bezel and stand.

If you always fumble around in the morning to find your alarm clock, this is probably the best invention yet. Not only does it display the time in the middle, you turn off the alarm by firmly planting both feet onto its carpety exterior. Just make shure your partner doesn’t have to get up first!

The Remote Controlled Floating Serving Tray ($50) is the lazy man’s water butler, bringing up to five drinks and 16 oz. of snacks to you and your floating pals, Billy Madison-style. The remote has a range of 25′, and the tray can move left, right, forward, backward, and even rotates 360 degrees at the touch of a button — super-handy if your beer is on the other side of the tray.

Cartier is very deliberate when it comes to business and expansion, making strategic appearances at art shows, parties, and various red carpet events in order to promote the upscale Cartier name. And the latest effort is one we haven’t seen from them in awhile, a line of luxury handbags. The ‘Marcello,’ pictured here, will be debuting in a bold set of seasonal colors generally uncharacteristic of Cartier, but that they hope will help project this day-to-evening bag to “fashion staple” status. We think Cartier has it all to become once again the next hot fashion brand.

Shek Kip Mei Estate, Hong Kong’s oldest public housing estate, is composed of 100 rooms, each closet-like in size at only 100 square feet and built in response to a devastating fire in the 1950s that left thousands homeless. In a new series of photographs called “100 x 100,” Michael Wolf captures the residents of this housing complex who are almost enveloped by the diminishing space around them, their belongings stacked to the ceiling.

As in Wolf’s earlier images of Hong Kong called “Architecture of Density,” this series presents an alternate and more human perspective on the socio-economic state of Hong Kong. The repetition of each resident’s expression mirrors the repetition of the building and the city itself, where people struggle for space in an overpopulated urban environment and redefine the notion of “modern living.” An interesting view for those of us living in large cities that require residents to live in smaller and smaller spaces.

Roadside billboard ads set out in consecutive order to deliver their message are nothing new. However when the message is as poignant as this campaign, drivers sit up and notice.

Using the old flick book art form of animation and motion the individual images create a fast moving clip to a driver speeding by them at high speeds. Quite literally, for a speeding driver life can flash by them in a split second.

Thanks Coolhunter