Simian Mobile Disco – Audacity of Huge from ISO FILMS on Vimeo.

The red P*PHONE appears in this video 1 minute in. Made by the lovely and talented Kate Moross

In Praise of Shadows is a one week show at the V&A’s Jones Gallery and runs until the 27th September

Inspired by the EU directive to phase out low efficiency light bulbs by 2012, this display explores the designer’s response to lighting, shadow and efficiency. Drawing together works by designers from across the EU, this project brings humour and beauty to the challenge of energy and light efficiency, and explores the potential of alternative energy sources

Our PLUMEN 2 low energy light bulb design concept has been included in the show so you can see it at the V&A until the 27th September

The exhibition was covered on Friday’s Channel 4 News – see it here

We’re very happy to present our brand new PAPPA*PHONE, the world’s first wooden VoIP phone. Made from sustainable American walnut and brass, the PAPPA* is HULGER’s first new phone design for almost three years.

PAPPA* is hand crafted in Canada by Furni from one piece of wood, so that the rich, natural grain can be seen to flow from the handset to the base, interrupted only by the solid band of brass that covers and compensates for the material lost in the cutting process.

Not a single button is found on the slender, angular form. The reason? You don’t need one. The computer interface of a mouse, screen and keyboard can manage the call much better than a fiddly on-phone button constellation. Skype’s MAC or PC software interface is a lot more efficient than the usual clunky VoIP-phone screen menus. That’s why we’ve cut out everything apart from the fundamental phone function, that of speaking and listening. Without the need for buttons the materiality and form can sing.

Like all HULGER products, the PAPPA* has been designed to “wear in” not “wear out.” The materials selected can be continually restored so that the phone becomes more individual and personal with age.

HULGER launched the ZIRICOTE* concept design made from an African wood of the same name in 2006. The design received a very warm reception which spurred us on to create the PAPPA, a design more suited to production.

The PAPPA* is now available to order from our online store at Hulgershop . Visit the site for prices in your region / currency. We now ship from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Japan.

Read on to see how we made the 3D movies on HULGER.TV

We shot the 3D footage using these identical Sanyo Xacti HD (VPC-HD2) video cameras. It is important to use exactly the same model so that the image quality is an accurate mirror as possible so there’s nothing to tell the brain that what you’re seeing with each eye is not ‘real’.

When filming each sequence a click of the fingers in front of both cameras then made it easy to sync the two sequences together in the edit. Each clip needs to run in precise parallel as again the brain needs to ‘believe’.

We used After Effects to composite the two clips together. I’m not sure what other software would allow this but I’m sure there are many examples (please comment if you can suggest one). The size of the videos could have been bigger but after some tests it seemed that putting the clips side by side in a 640 X 360 frame worked best (half resolution of the 1080 X 720 res of the camera). It took a bit of playing around to work out what each eye should see for the optimum effect. The frame you see is a crop of the original frame and this allowed some scope to find the optimum balance between what the left eye and right eye should see.

Vimeo accepts different resolutions, although you need to edit the embed code if you want it to play back at the right size. It’s obvious enough where you need to make those changes in the code.

The card stops each eye seeing the other frame so after a while the eyes start to think they’re seeing true 3D.

You have to focus beyond the screen to get the effect. The eyes start to wander and usually fall onto references in each of the frames which start to tell the brain it’s seeing a real scene, despite it being presented on flat screen.

The effect would be stronger with a medium format lupe but it’s a bit of a hassle and cost for a one off 3D hit.

We’ve also considered recording the 3D audio environment for full sensory immersion. All we’d need then is a scratch & sniff card to evoke the olfactory ambiance of the scene.

The short demo video and the 3D videos can be seen at their optimum size at HULGER.TV

UK based designer Vladimir Rachev sent us this Iron Phone concept. Here’s his full product portfolio.

Sit back in the comfort of your computer chair and enjoy Hulger in glorious 3D. With the aid of a piece of A4 card it’s like Hulger’s sitting on your lap. All at www.hulger.tv

Our friend Lotte Van Laatum has just launched these cool lights that incorporate a bespoke CFL bulb design. The best production low energy light design we’ve seen so far.

See Also Hulger’s Plumen CFL Low Energy Lightbulb Concept

Our inbox has often pinged with requests from disc jockeys seeking old-school Hulger handsets to switch with their all too common headphones. All we ever needed was a special DJ adaptor which we’ve now sourced. Simply plug your wired Hulger handset in and you’re ready to monitor

Pictured are the lovely Brokenhearts girls who were appointed the official DJ-adaptor-testing-team. Four thumbs up from them so the product is now available to buy in The Hulger Shop

UPDATE!
See the Brokenhearts in FULL MOTION 3D on HULGER.TV

Some shots from the Design And The Elastic Mind Show at MOMA in NYC. Both the phones and Plumen bulb concept made it into the show alongside what looks like a fascinating and thought provoking collection.

Thanks Glen Jackson Taylor for the images

Design and the Elastic Mind at MOMA New York runs from February 24–May 12 and features amongst other things Hulger’s Plumen CFL and a selection of our phone designs. The show is curated by the illustrious Paola Antonelli

From the show’s synopsis:

In the past few decades, individuals have experienced dramatic changes in some of the most established dimensions of human life: time, space, matter, and individuality. Working across several time zones, traveling with relative ease between satellite maps and nanoscale images, gleefully drowning in information, acting fast in order to preserve some slow downtime, people cope daily with dozens of changes in scale. Minds adapt and acquire enough elasticity to be able to synthesize such abundance. One of design’s most fundamental tasks is to stand between revolutions and life, and to help people deal with change.

Here are some photos