http://www.psfk.com Your Go-To Source For New Ideas And Inspiration Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:15:17 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.psfk.com/2009/01/emtpy-seats-travelling-reconsidered.html Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:04:35 +0000 With the economy in decline and peak oil in the back of our minds, many of us are rethinking the way we travel. While some are rediscovering the amenities of train travel, others are warming up to the idea of sharing their sacred car space with others, even if it means losing some convenience or privacy. The system of ridesharing has a long history of its own in Germany, where the first national rideshare institutions were established in the 1950s. Over the course of time, posts within all major cities’ central stations and universities evolved where rideshares could be arrangedRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2009/01/transmediale09-deep-north.html Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:43:46 +0000 The city of Berlin is preparing for this year’s transmediale.09, an international festival of Media Arts established in 1988. In good tradition, transmediale kicks off with a grand opening on January 27th, just shortly before the opening of the Berlin International Film Festival. This year, the curators have taken on the theme “Deep North,” looking at the broader scape of human interaction with global systems. Their site reads: In the context of climate change, transmediale.09 reflects on the urgency to read global events in fundamentally new ways, developing new cultural vocabularies factoring the autonomous and critical nature of art intoRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2009/01/gudberg-5-released-nylon.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:50:43 +0000 Gudberg is a free design mag born in Hamburg, Germany, that’s gained international recognition since its humble beginnings in September 2007. Behind the magazine is a creative agency collective called Gudberg that mainly works in publishing, illustration and web design. They curate and design four issues a year, each with a major editorial topic. Gudberg can be found in select galleries, bookstores, design offices, agencies, cafés or hotels. You’ve got to be quick though- as they only print 2000 copies of each issue, and they’re usually quickly snatched up. Two of their issues have recently been recognized at the GermanRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2009/01/nothing-to-say-nothing-to-sell.html Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:55:12 +0000 Flickr user/nightlife fiend Spanier has put together a nice set of photos showcasing empty billboards in Hamburg. He shares his observations and writes: I don’t know why there are so many empty billboards right now in Hamburg. Maybe some of the companies placing billboards went bankrupt, maybe it’s just because it’s January and they all spent so much money on advertising for Christmas, or maybe it’s this financial crisis making some companies seriously rethink the way they advertise. Well in any case, every empty billboard is a beautiful one. Maybe it is time to start using them for our creations.Read more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2009/01/location-based-collaborations-from-unlike-city-guides.html Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:21:05 +0000 Unlike Media, the creators behind unlike city guides, recently announced a couple of interesting collaborations. Apart from a series of crime novels with the aim to “explore the urban terrain through historic landmarks and hidden spots”, the company also established a partnership with international film festival Berlinale for its forthcoming 59th edition. According to the Unlike blog, this Berlinale application will premiere in mid-January and offer a customized site featuring the entire Berlinale schedule as well as film-related guides around the city or special 25hours compilations curated by film stars. The first installment in the novel-series Pulp is set inRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/12/book-review-data-flow.html Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:49:17 +0000 Berlin-based Gestalten Verlag have just released a new book that takes a deeper look into data visualisation in graphic design. Data Flow is a 256 page compendium of various outstanding projects in the field of information visualisation. The book’s intro offers some nice thought starters on the subject: “We live in a world where every idea has been thought of before, and it becomes too easy to use the Microsoft template for presenting our data. The visual form we adopt becomes driven by the tool or the topic we are presenting, rather than the usefulness of the data or theRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/12/un-studios-latest-piece-time-out-of-scale.html Mon, 15 Dec 2008 18:03:30 +0000 Amsterdam-based creative hub UN Studios, famous for their signature architectural creations like the Mercedes-Benz Museum, have recently revealed their latest spatial project: Time Out of Scale, a work commissioned by Motorola as part of their PR efforts for their new Aura handset. The folks over at UN Studios constantly aim to push boundaries with their cross-disciplinary projects that blend the worlds of design, technology, knowledge and utility. Time Out of Scale represents different instances of its subject, ‘time’: in rhythm with changes in both images and sound, visitors can immerse themselves in the installation, comprised of a white space withRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/12/psfk-germany-presents-music-is-okay-recap.html Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:38:39 +0000 Every two months our Hamburg-based German office curates panel discussions on topics from the fields of society, arts, media and culture. The first panel in our new event series kicked off November 20, where we discussed the state of digital music culture around the overall theme ‘Music is Okay?!’. Panelists included Oke Göttlich (CEO Finetunes), Eric Wahlforss (Co-Founder of SoundCloud), Ruben Jonas Schnell (CEO ByteFM) and Ulrich Stock (Die Zeit). Big thanks go to our Partners and Sponsors: creative agency G2 Hamburg and publishing house Gingko Press. The next event is scheduled for February 2009 where we will showcase newRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/12/wake-up-call.html Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:13:11 +0000 We came across this billboard on the streets of Hamburg today: Volkswagen has launched their latest campaign introducing their efforts towards building a new driving concept for the future. The headline reads “Volts turn into Kilometers” – followed by “Our new drive concept for tomorrow’s mobility”. Well, as it’s almost 2009, Volkswagen and the rest of the German automotive industry are not really in the position to claim that they are ‘driving ideas’. Just a reminder: The first series of the Toyota Prius was released in 1997. That was 11 years ago.]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/12/dj-dsl-2009-calendar.html Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:00:00 +0000 Apart from his great work as a producer and DJ, Hamburg based multi-talented DJ DSL has just released his latest piece of work: a 2009 wall calendar. Renowned for his signature club-flyers, Football Wallcharts and sleeve designs, DJ DSL this time applied his hand-drawn style to the year ahead. The wallpaper sized calendar costs 20 Euros + shipping (in a box), measures are 118,9 x 47,7 cm / 46,8″ x 18,8″ so all your dates and friends’ birthdays can easily fit. Update: NYers can buy their copy at fabulous Turntable Lab in the east village or use their worldwide shippingRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/11/interview-with-david-l-sifry-from-offbeat-guides.html Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:35:17 +0000 PSFK Germany recently had the chance to talk to David L. Sifry – whom many of you probably know as the founder and CEO of Technorati. His most recent venture is Offbeat Guides, an online service for producing customized travel guides. Offbeat Guides’ simple process for building your own travel guide is based on answering five quick questions about the excursion: destination city, your current city, your name, traveldates and where (e.g. in which hotel) you will be staying. The site then renders an individual guide containing all the information based around your answers. Maps are custom-centered around the locationRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/11/%e2%80%98music-is-okay%e2%80%99-interview-with-ruben-jonas-schnell-from-bytefm.html Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:29:40 +0000 Our new event series checkdisout for PSFK readers in Germany kicks of this Thursday, November 20 in Hamburg. As of today, the very last ticket for the premiere ‘Music is Okay?!‘ can still be purchased if you want to be part of the insightful evening about digital music culture. Our third interview in our panelists series is with Ruben Jonas Schnell, Founder and CEO of ByteFM. We briefly wrote about ByteFM’s launch earlier this year: ByteFM is a free to listen radio station from Hamburg, Germany, that aims to provide a high quality musical broadcast, put together and moderated byRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/11/%e2%80%98music-is-okay%e2%80%99-interview-with-oke-gottlich-from-finetunes.html Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:41:04 +0000 Our new event series checkdisout for PSFK readers in Germany takes place next Week, November 20 in Hamburg. Tickets for the premiere ‘Music is Okay?!‘ are almost sold out, so be quick if you want to be part of an insightful evening about digital music culture. In this second interview in our series with the panelists we spoke with Oke Göttlich, General Manager at Finetunes. We recently wrote about Finetunes’ legal move against Last.fm’s un-licensed usage of various artists in Finetunes roster. For more than four years, finetunes has been a pioneer in creating opportunities for independent labels in theRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/11/music-is-okay-interview-with-eric-wahlforss-from-soundcloud.html Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:56:32 +0000 Our new event series checkdisout for PSFK readers in Germany is quickly approaching. The first installment, ‘Music is Okay?!‘, will take place on November 20 in Hamburg. It will tackle current topics surrounding the state of digital music culture. The premiere event will take a close look at the status of digital music, 10 years after the introduction of music-sharing service Napster, apart from the major labels’ mourning and lack of creativity. To kick things off, we interviewed Eric Wahlforss from Berlin-based startup SoundCloud, a new music sharing and distribution platform. SoundCloud is aimed mainly at music professionals who wantRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/11/urban-screen-creative-use-of-media-facades.html Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:05:28 +0000 Click to play Urban Screen are a creative collective based in Bremen, Germany. They create interactive installations and performances using facades and architecture as their stage (or screen if you will). The above video shows their approach towards involving architecture. The group usually builds their artwork for a specific building, so they can customize their projections and staging to the given conditions. Their first step is to measure the outside of the building along with its windows, billboards or any other add-ons. Then the group builds an exact replica of the facade as their stage, and with the help ofRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/10/psfk-germany-presents-checkdisout-music-is-okay.html Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:06:40 +0000 PSFK Germany is proud to announce checkdisout, the first installment in our new panel series. Every two months our German office based in Hamburg will curate panel discussions on topics from the fields of society, arts, media and culture. Our local partners for this venture are the publishing house Gingko Press, well-known for their select design and arts titles from the likes of Shepard Fairey or Marshall McLuhan and the creative agency G2 Hamburg. The first event ‘Music is Okay?!‘ will take place on November 20. It will tackle current topics surrounding the state of digital music culture. The premiereRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/10/designboost-2008-long-live-the-city.html Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:58:48 +0000 We are delighted to be participating in this year’s Designboost conference in Malmö, Sweden, taking place from Oct 15-17. Designboost is a knowledge company that aims to share design knowledge through their different events and publications. Since 2007 David Carlson and Peer Eriksson have been the heads behind the designboost conference. David is also the publisher of David Report, where he regularly compiles a bulletin covering the intersection of design, culture and business life. Designboost gathers creative thinkers (or Boosters as David and Peer prefer to call them) from all over the world to workshop, lecture and discuss one currentRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/10/gps-gaming-with-wolves-and-sheep.html Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:17:41 +0000 This year’s Ars Electronica Festival showcased some great interactive artwork, games and applications. One of our favorites was Wolves and Sheep, a multiplayer location based game involving GPS enabled handsets and tangible interfaces. The game uses the familiar set-up of a hungry pack of wolves chasing after a sheep herd. The sheep are  placed on a map that can be walked by the pack leader and his pack who are each equipped with a GPS phone provided by Nokia. The players can use both a virtual map displayed on their phones along with sound feedback through  headphones. The pack ofRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/10/90-mobiles-in-90-days-the-aftermath.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:24:18 +0000 Mobile design strategist Rachel Hinman took a creative recovery from her job at Adaptive Path to conduct an ambitious project: protoype 90 mobile related ideas within 90 days. The project site is a great documentation of all ideas and sketches she had been working on during the three month project, initially started in June 2008. With the project timeframe come to an end, Rachel puts the whole process under review on her site, with some remarks on how she found inspiration and how difficult it was in the beginning to create ideas and concepts on a daily basis: In theRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/09/muxtape-forced-to-realign.html Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:05:20 +0000 During the end of this Summer Muxtape, one of the nicest music applications on the internet, had to shut down its service. Muxtape allowed anyone to create a virtual mixtape along with its own unique URL (with the limit of 12 tracks per tape). One of the neatest things about it was the the care with which you had to curate your list of songs – bringing back the fun and challenge of creating real mixtapes, figuring out the best way to squeeze your favorite songs onto a 60-minute cassette tape. Of course, from the beginning, Muxtape’s future was uncertain,Read more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/09/labels-call-lastfm-to-order.html Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:05:58 +0000 Hamburg-based finetunes, one of the leading independent European distributors for digital music and audio content, have just called Last.fm to order. The obvious reason given is copyright infringement. Although we are generally big fans of the idea behind streaming radio services such as Last.fm, it seems a resolution to these ongoing issues between music makers and providers has yet to be reached. Last.fm has been using music from the finetunes catalogue for their streaming services without permission or dealing with the issue through a local music royalty collecting entity. This stands in apparent contradiction with Last.fm’s stated policy that theyRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/09/giant-robot-san-francisco.html Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:58:45 +0000 During our recent stay in San Francisco we had to drop by the wonderful Giant Robot store, just around the corner from Haight Street. The shop still is a reliable source for great books, graphic novels, T-shirts, plastic toys, artist prints and also has a gallery space with changing exhibitions. For all of those who don’t know about the shop: Giant Robot’s range includes curated products from Asia as well as local US artists and designers. They’re known for their thoughtful choice of product offerings, and one featured artist that particularly caught our eye was Nikki McClure. Several of herRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/08/psfk-germany-at-ifa-berlin.html Fri, 29 Aug 2008 09:40:48 +0000 PSFK Germany is holding a series of short lectures on “Family and Media” at this years IFA in Berlin. IFA is one of the world’s leading trade shows for the general public and the CE industry’s number one venue for doing business. The PSFK lectures are part of a special exhibition called Family Playground: The IFA Playground is a meeting place for the family, where children, their parents and grandparents can find out about media innovations in a fun environment. Find out what these new possibilities have to offer as they bring people closer together, and look forward to goodRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/08/thoughts-on-dells-digital-nomad-campaign.html Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:58:05 +0000 Bedouin Workers, Digital Bohemians and Digital Nomads are all terms more or less widely used to describe the same phenomenon. People all over the world tend to work less in a fixed-contract and fixed-workspace environment. Instead, they explore new ways, networks and spaces to work in. How we work, especially in the creative sector, has changed radically within a few decades. People are either forced or rather choose to go into less constricted work relationships. The manifestations for this are e.g. the emerge of the Third Place, a space that is separate from the two usual social environments of homeRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/07/we-are-numbers-global-photo-project.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:26:53 +0000 We Are Numbers is a fashion/art project initiated by Twan Verdonck, a young designer based in Antwerp, Belgium. It aims to celebrate being different by basically numbering ‘anyone’ or at least as many people as possible. Hereby Twan attempts to ‘recreate a new culture’. He says: Why is this fashion system so f4ck3d up? And why are we so stupid to keep following it? With We Are Numbers I’m trying to investigate how to create an improved fashion culture. Where the company (me) is creating only one (1!) design and tries to keep that innovative and exciting for as longRead more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/07/picnic08-collaborative-creativity.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:13:30 +0000 PICNIC is a three day gathering of creative people in Amsterdam. The event is in its third year and brings together some of the most interesting media entrepreneurs, thinkers and creators to share their experience and stories. The conference has a neat design which is kept in an all-green picnic style, about 1,500 delegates from all over the world are attending. There are also PICNIC Specials: seminars, lectures and round table discussions that follow each year’s theme deeper. Practical workshops are part of the PICNIC Labs and help refine ideas or come up with creative business concepts. Their site says:Read more...]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/07/hms-summerstore.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:51:24 +0000 Once again, the clever Marketing Folks from H&M have put up the H&M Summerstore at one of Hamburg’s oldest Beach Clubs- Strand Pauli. Backed by a huge H&M Blowup, the store fits nicely into the Beach Clubs architecture and design. It gives all the beach bums who forgot to bring their Bikini for a spontaneous sun-bath the convenience of a cheap buy. More photos can be found on this Flickr Set.]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/07/the-front-row.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:47:07 +0000 A recent edition of Süddeutsche Zeitung‘s highly awarded SZ-Magazin features a brilliant photo series of music fans in the first row. The photographers visited a total of 23 concerts featuring the likes of Shakira, Marilyn Manson, The Sex Pistols, Rod Steward and more. Any guesses on who these guys are trying to impersonate? The Front Row]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/07/tour-de-france-live-tracker-2008.html Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:16:54 +0000 Our friends over at Ubilabs have put together a new version of their Tour de France Live Tracker application. Features include improved performance of the map interface and a neat Streetview implementation showing the riders’ POV. You can follow select riders from Teams such as Milram, Columbia, Gerolsteiner and CSC/Saxo Bank. Tour de France Live Tracker 2008]]> http://www.psfk.com/2008/07/virtual-lanlords-and-free-wifi.html Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:11:58 +0000 Joanne Lee from the Singapore based The Straits Times comes up with an interesting term that complements some of the experiences Team PSFK encountered during some recent travel (- and we’re thinking we’re not the only ones). Joanne has coined the term “Virtual Lanlords” to touch upon the issue of limited access to free wifi and the decision whether or not to share it. Joanne writes: There aren’t very many unsecured Wi-Fi networks out there. For all the talk of the Internet having revolutionised the world, Wi-Fi still has us all trapped in a feudal system where wireless surfers areRead more...]]>