Welcome to CapableDesign:
Dedicated to social and environmental reasonableness.
CapableDesign is the blog and design studio page for Amie Tara Neff (Palo Alto, CA). The image on the left is canvas supplied by a Montreal artist for the Old Brewery Mission Dream Screens art initiative. See Projects-->Old Brewery Mission for details.
Inspiring Designers and Products:
Below are links to a handful of designers and products that are doing great work. All are different, but all are practicing creative re-visioning.There is no one right way to design: Buildings have stairs, escalators and elevators because there is more than one way to get to the next level. I'll continue to add to this links page.
- Sellex Furniture--Spanish company with beautiful elegant, simple, design.
- Clei Italian company specializes in space saving furniture
- Haptic feedback: eliminates a physical feature (like another button) and is still richly communicative.
- IKEA affordable design. Ingenious packaging.
- Boat hardware. Durable and beautiful.
- Train Sleeping Cars. Compact, transformative, functional.
- Yupo synthetic paper.
- Demakervan's Lace Fence. Dutch Design company re-imagines the hurricane fence.
- Polished concrete.
- EcoFae bricks-made from cow waste. Student design project in Indonesia.
- rammed earth/adobe/straw bale.
- wine cork floor tiles.
- Mike Reynolds’ Earthships.
Currently on my bedside table:
- The Horse The Wheel and Language-How Bronze-Age Rider From the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World, David W. Anthony.
- A glass of water.
- In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed (Plus), Carl Honore.
- Downshifting: How to Work Less and Enjoy Life More, John D. Drake.
- Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely & Simply in a Troubled World, Helen Nearing (Author), Scott Nearing (Author), P. Goodman (Designer).
- Simpler Living: A Back to Basics Guide to Cleaning, Furnishing, Storing, Decluttering, Streamlining, Organizing, and More, Jeff Davidson (Author), Mark Victor Hansen.
- Stink and the Incredible Super-Galactic Jawbreaker, Megan McDonald.
- Gardening when it counts, Steve Solomon.
- Organizing for the Spirit: Making the Details of Your Life Meaningful and Manageable, Sunny Schlenger.
- The Power of Half: One Family's Decision to Stop Taking and Start Giving Back, Kevin Salwen, Hannah Salwen.
- The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma, Trenton Lee Stewart.
- Living with Less: The Upside of Downsizing Your Life, Mark Tabb.
- The Ten Commandments of Financial Happiness: Feel Richer with What You've Got, Jean Chatzky.
- Less is More: Embracing Simplicity for a Healthy Planet, a Caring Economy and Lasting Happiness, Cecile Andrews, Wanda Urbanska.
- Tis a Gift to Be Simple, Barbara Sorensen.
- Get Satisfied: How Twenty People Like You Found the Satisfaction of Enough. Carol Holst (Editor), Peter C. Whybrow.
- American Mania: When More Is Not Enough, Peter C. Whybrow.