From the Dezeen website as they have referred from IDEO:

The Aquaduct is a pedal powered concept vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water for the developing world. The functional model was designed and constructed over a three week period for the Innovate or Die contest hosted by Google and Specialized.

The vehicle seeks to address the two main challenges with water in the developing world: sanitation and transportation. Water-related diseases kill thousands of people each day. Moreover, water sources can be miles away from the home, and women must walk these distances carrying heavy water vessels. The Aquaduct is designed to allow a person to sanitize and transport water simultaneously.

Read the complete article here.

Dave over at Communication Nation, picked up on an interesting point saying,

Stop searching for God and just sit!

You know it strikes me as interesting that when businesses want to see more innovation, they talk about creativity. They hold workshops on how to be creative. But when you talk to most creative people — like artists, inventors, and yes, bloggers — they don’t talk about creativity, they talk about process.

Is it possible that the reason we creative types talk about processes is because once the processes are taken care of, we have more time to spend dreaming – hence more time to spend being creative?

Wonderful, real-world, open-source, innovative and useful design.
Via the Canadian Design Resource.

Manufactured by Design for Development.

Here’s an article on Basement.org that talks about how Video iPods are cool but not useful. It draws on the Nielsen study that says that video use on iPods is very low.

I personally can never imagine spending more time than it takes to cast a cursory glance to view a video on the video iPod. Especially not for interesting content – I might use it to view some lectures from Stanford [ where the audio is important than the video and the only reason I might view the video is because there might be a PowerPoint presentation in the background ].

I own a U2 edition, 20 GB, black and white audio iPod.

I have also now managed to launch my personal blog and website at www.nainaredhu.com where the main aim is to create awareness about my art [ which would fall under the category of Indian contemporary art since I'm in India ] and hopefully create a market for the same.

“Basically, everyone said we were crazy,” recalls Zeitz (CEO of Puma). “But if you want to change the industry and do something completely new and innovate, research is a bad tool because all you will get fed back is perception today and not tomorrow.”

“I always describe working for Puma as, ‘They give you all the rope in the world to hang yourself with,’” chuckles Bertone (Brand Director of Puma). “Your job? Don’t hang yourself.”

Paula Scher : When you’re feeling stale, she says, the best thing you can do to shake things up is to “look at what you’ve been doing for the past five years–and stop. The thing that’s most to be feared is doing the same thing over and over again.”

Most organizations, she says, rely on a process of checks and balances to ensure that the design adheres to some particular corporate strategy–that’s the language MBAs understand. Trouble is, graphic design is inherently subjective. Who can say that one font is quantifiably better than another, or that one shade of Pantone green will lead inevitably to the destruction of your brand? Without a passionate advocate, a strong initial design may be nibbled away by bureaucrats, each eager to prove his worth with a tweak here and a nip there. Scher’s ability to persuade, she realized, rested on two things: “I would have to be perceived, first, as an absolute authority, and second, as the most powerful person to approach about design.

The above from the latest version of FastCompany articles (1) on Puma, (2) on Paula Scher and (3) on Ziba Design.