ScottWilson
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Minimal Studios iPod nano watch kits raise a million dollars on Kickstarter, yes, a million dollars
Well that didn't take long. Less than a month after we reported on the TikTok and LunaTik concept iPod nano watches hitting Kickstarter the company behind them, Minimal Studios, has met its goal -- and then some. Way then some. The project has clocked in nearly $1,000,000 in funding, helped in large part by a $25 pledge getting you first in line for a $35 MSRP TikTok watch kit, while $50 scored you the metallic LunaTik, which will go for $70. If you missed your chance to pile on the money you can now pre-order officially, with an expected shipment date in January. Again we're not particularly keen on the whole nano as a watch thing, but obviously ya'll have your own ideas, and we say more power to you -- and to Minimal Studios founder Scott Wilson.
iPod accessory turns up in fine art museum
I'm in Chicago right now visiting some of my friends. Yesterday we decided to go to my old workplace, the Art Institute of Chicago, which has one of the best collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in the world. Imagine my surprise when I found myself staring at a first-generation iPod shuffle accessory. Some of you may remember this accessory from back in the day when Apple made the first shuffle that looked like a white stick of Wrigley's gum. The accessory/piece of art is called iBelieve and is basically a T-shaped cap that turns your first-gen iPod shuffle into a Cross you can wear around you neck. The plaque next to the artwork reads: Scott Wilson American, born 1969 iBelieve, 2006 iPod shuffle, plastic, and fabric (including replacement cap) Before relocating to Chicago in 2006 to set up his own studio, industrial designer Scott Wilson was a lead designer at Nike and IDEO. His innovative projects run the gamut from furniture to household products to high-performance sports equipment. iBelieve is part of a series of self-produced works and was inspired by the current popularity of the iPod. The conceptual design consists of a replacement cap, or what Wilson refers to as a "divine accessory," for the iPod shuffle. When snapped onto a shuffle, the attachment creates a cruciform shape, which enables consumers to profess their devotion to this omnipresent electronic device. Conceived as a tongue-in-cheek commentary on consumer culture, Wilson took advantage of viral marketing techniques and posted the design to a blog, which received 250,000 hits in one day as a result. I've always known about the various online Apple museums, but who could have imagined that a cap for one of Apple's worst-designed iPods would some day be hanging in the same museum with the likes of Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles and Edward Hopper's Nighthawks?
