Reincarnated good

Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.

Reincarnated good

There are no wise newborn eyes, or flashbacks of life as a Celtic warrior, but you can still tell Nicola McKenzie’s creations have been here before. We even know what they were: kimonos. These days they embody the form of bags, diaries, text-books and pens—all part of the born-again-ware revolution that you should know about. Read more here.

Rolling shoes

Walk to work or bike? Eco-friendly transport choices are rarely exciting—except when someone invents a way for you to choose both. The Walking Bike has sneakers where you’d expect to see wheels. While it’s not for speed seekers, if it’s just a bit of garden-variety car-crashing attention you’re after, this is your bike.

Stories that go the extra mile

We’ve got one step closer to the day when books will be un-burnable. Penguin’s six-part We Tell Stories series uses web-based interfaces to capture readers’ imaginations—or, in the case of Charles Cumming’s The 21 Steps, turn them off completely. You don’t need much creativity, after all, to picture scenes that are literally right before your eyes, courtesy of Google Maps. Then again, you need a bit too much brain interaction to read the series’ current instalment, Fairy Tales, which makes you write the book as you go without so much as a whiff of a royalty cheque.

No need, no want, funny anyway

When you bring together 700 exhibitors from 45 countries at the world’s largest innovation symposium, you’re guaranteed to get a few WTF?s. The 36th International Exhibition of Invention in Geneva didn’t disappoint. Calorie-counting plates, cervical stretchers, self-making beds—even real-life emoticons—the event was all your Freudian nightmares come true.

The very best bad idea

If you thought Crocs were the worst idea of last summer, welcome to Winter 2008. When Crocs Mammoth introduced fur, leather and suede to sherbet-coloured plastic all components ran away screaming. Which is pretty much the reaction you’ll get when you wear these plastic shocktastics anywhere. But, with new additions to the Crocs at Work line, maybe that’s the response you are going for.

Cheers, big ears

First there was the literary question, still largely unanswered, Why Cats Paint, now there’s a similar problem to ponder: why do elephants pick up brushes? Probably because they’re very fond of the bananas and sugar cane they get after a job well painted, but still, watching this elephant contemplate the next stroke of his self-portrait is scarier than a 62-year-old Rambo. Available for sale here.

Giveaways

Win!A six-pack of Epic beer and a Goodnight Kiwi T-shirt goes to Tania McGillivray, who tells us she has her very own Goodnight Kiwi in the furry form of a confused cat. Tania send us your size. And the rest of you can tell us why your mum deserves an Olga Berg bag, Dyrberg Kern atelier earrings and a Sarah Priddy skin pack for Mother’s Day. The giftpack is from Neelear Nomad, the site where you can show the depth of your love by sitting on the couch and making a series of well-intentioned clicks.

It’s all about you

Or you could say ‘stuff you Mum’ (under your breath of course) and just nab yourself a free gift—a free download of Recloose’s ‘Deeper Waters’ from Music Connects, courtesy of Nokia and your friends at Loop.

Poor fortune

What’s Ray Avery doing when he’s not inventing ways to save the third world from hunger and being shortlisted for the Saatchi & Saatchi World Changing Ideas Award? He’s speaking at the next AUT-Idealog Event Series. Catch his story—from orphan roots to running his own medical device company, striving for success and humane service—on May 7 at Auckland’s St Paul Street Gallery.

Fame is HOURS away

Registration for 48HOURS opened 24 hours ago, so you better get serious if you want to secure your place in New Zealand’s largest filmmaking contest. But not too serious—remember last year’s grand winner was a musical about unemployed flattingdom starring the Shortland Street serial killer.

Quote of the week

“Sustainable design, and the re-design of products, opens up areas of creativity that can take you to absolutely amazing places you never would have thought of otherwise”

—Andrew Withell finds new inspiration

More at Idealog online

Read more on our website: web exclusives, opinion, Idealog IP, the Idealog blogs and the Idealog podcast. See you at idealog.co.nz.

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