Resources
Welcome to the Design Droplets Resources section.
What is this?
The Design Droplets Resources section is the beginning of what we hope will become a very useful set of living and evolving resources gathered from every corner of the world wide web. As new ones appear we’ll endeavor to add them. If its worth a gander then its on our resources page! If it’s not on here yet then send it to us so we can add it.
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Discussion Boards
Core77 – if you are interested in Industrial Design and don’t know Core77 then get out of your cave more often. A North American creation its the Premier industrial design supersite with almost everything on it. They also have a great blog.
IDAsia – “IDAsia.org is a collective and network that represents the best multi-disciplinary Industrial Design talents in Asia. Our main focus is to foster, promote and incubate the best and brightest in the Asian design scene.”
Product Design Forums – Another long established forum, PDF has the largest Industrial Design forums on the net (around 22,000 users)
Love Industrial Design Forum – This is a small forum started by a lecturer from Massey University in New Zealand.
Industrial Design Linked in on Ning – a small forum/social network of Industrial Designers who use linkedin.
Blogs
Creative Seeds – By the coroflot team. This blog is “dedicated to creative work: How-to’s on finding design work and creative recruiting, advice on what leading designers are looking for, and showcases of great work from Coroflot portfolios.
Design Sojourn – an always interesting read. Insights into industrial design or as he puts it “teach[ing] you how to do good design and create clever products.”
The Design Files – Run by Lucy, who works as a props buyer / set dresser in the film and TV industry in Melbourne, Australia. She collects and shares all the creative people/places and products that inspire her
metacool – run by Diego Rodriguez from IDEO, metacool is his “thoughts on the art & science of bringing cool stuff to life”
Innovation Playground – run by Idris Mootee, its all about “business strategy, experience design and disruptive technologies.”
NotCot – “a visual filtration of ideas + aesthetics + amusement”.
Love Industrial Design Blog – The blog that accompanies the Love Industrial Design Forums.
Design Thinking- A blog by Tim Brown of IDEO.
Design Management – A blog by Ralf Beuker. Ralf is an active member of the Design Management community.
Faint Voice -This is Soumitri Varadarajan’s blog on Design, Social Innovation, Service Design and marginalised things and aspects of our lives. Here he collects interesting material that arrives at his desk via alerts and RSS feeds. Every so often when he has time – he writes a bit.
Hatch That – Weekly entrepreneurial conversations
Just Creative Design – If you need a graphic design fix then chek out Jacob Cass’ blog. Its easily the best graphic design blog on the net.
bplusd – A blog by Jess McMullin on business and design.
Rob Jensen Design – A new ID blog that’s worth a look.
Design Websites
Concept Salad – into cars? Concept salad is “a site aimed to showcase and promote student and professional car design concepts, as well as to be a valuable source of information for car design students and professionals around the world.”
Sidelong – “Sidelong a magazine about design that is not a design magazine. The magazine is about designs, designers and design issues such as emerging designer’s work, cross-disciplinary work, design methodologies plus the critique and satire of design.”
car design news – “Car Design News is the leading online magazine for automotive design industry professionals, transportation design students and design enthusiasts worldwide.”
DesignBoom – ” is the leading independent publication for key contemporary issues and the critique of all aspects of design, especially those topics which enrich the dialogue between design, creative professionals, industry and society.
Yanko Design - Yanko Design is a web magazine dedicated to introducing the best modern international design, covering from industrial design, concepts, technology, interior design, architecture, exhibition and fashion. It’s about the cutting edge and the classic, the new and the rediscovered. It’s all about the best.
Portfolio Hosting
Coroflot – “Coroflot is a career and community site for creative professionals. Coroflot hosts individual creative portfolios and a database of job and project openings.”
Behance.net – A Creative Professional Network to Showcase your work, Gain exposure, Discover job opportunities, Connect and Collaborate and Share tips and access resources.
Carbonmade – The team at Carbonmade built Carbonmade because they needed something that would organize thier own work. The application turned out so well that they decided to share it with everyone.
Fig Dig – Showcase your portfolio in HD and get noticed.
Directories
Core77/BusinessWeek Design Firm Directory – Core77 has partnered with Business Week to produce the Design Directory, a comprehensive database of design firms, launched in conjunction with the release of the new Design and Innovation Channel on the BusinessWeek.com website.
Podcasts & Vodcasts
Videos & Podcasts Power House Museum – various videos and podcasts of interesting lectures and events from the Power House Museum in Sydney
Icon-O-Cast - A podcast on design by Lunar Design
Books
Design Sketching – Produced by 24 students at the Umeå Institute of Design, it is a sketch technique book that is a highly regarded resource for designers, students and Universities throughout the world.
Get a Design Job – A FREE online book you can download. Its all about how to land that ultimate design job. Its produced by RitaSue Siegel and the IDSA.
Magazines
Curve – Curve is an exclusive design magazine for professional industrial designers and manufacturers developing products. Published quarterly, Curve features the latest design projects and innovations in design and manufacturing.
DVD’s & Videos
The Gnomon Workshop – They sell a whole heap of DVD tutorials on everything from Photoshop to Maya.
Product Design 2.744 Notes and Media – A gathering of notes and videos on various aspects of Product Design.
TED – Inspired talks by the world’s leading thinkers and doers.
Journals
Design Management Review – Put out by the Design Management Institute it “is devoted to articles and case studies exploring how design – in products, communication, and environments – is an essential resource, a component of every organization that can be effectively managed to make important contributions to the bottom line and to long-term success.”
Groups
The Hive - “The Hive is networking for entrepreneurs. We get together to share advice, talk and hang out. Membership is free and easy, and everyone’s invited. If you have an idea and want to launch a venture or are already in business then make sure you come along”
Organisations
The Design Management Institute (DMI) - The DMI “is an international nonprofit organization that seeks to heighten awareness of design as an essential part of business strategy.”
International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) – ICSID “is a global not-for-profit organisation that promotes better design around the world.”
Design Institue of Australia – The Voice of Professional Design in Australia.
Design Victoria – Is a new Victorian Government initiative designed to increase industry awareness and utilisation of Victoria’s world leading design capability to grow their business, improve competitiveness, find new markets AND Increase the competitive skills for Victorian designers to succeed in local and global markets.
IDQ – Providing a link between business and design in Queensland Australia.
National Design Centre - The Hub of Australian Design @ Federation Square Melbourne.
Design Festivals & Events
Melbourne Design Market – As one of the most highly-anticipated events on the Melbourne International Design Festival program, the Market is always a fun-filled, family-friendly, design-drenched day.
Saturday in Design – Is an annual trade event for the design community, taking place on alternative years in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
State of Design – The State of Design Festival is Victoria’s peak design event. The Festival covers many cross-disciplinary design agendas relating to the profession of design and the marketplace that it provides to.
Fringe Festival – A design & Arts Festival that occurs in every state of Australia. Melbourne. Adelaide. Sydney. Darwin. Hobart.
Universities offering Industrial Design
RMIT – “One of the oldest programs in the world, dating in its present version from the 1950s but in an earlier form from the 1880s, the Industrial Design Program at RMIT is unique in that it preserves much of what has been good in the design profession in the past century, while providing opportunity for both the critique and inclusion of the many developments in Industrial Design research and practice in the current global context.”
Swinburne – Swinburne Industrial Design is “a three-year degree with an optional fourth-year for Honours.”
Monash – “The course offers a program of education in the discipline and professional practice of industrial design. It is intended for students who wish to seek professional or executive employment in the field of industrial design and related areas of design or industry and commerce.
Is there something we’ve missed? send it to us via the contact page.
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