If progress is to go beyond the banal indulgences that give rise to a never-ending array of car shell designs then we need to analyse our present time with regard to its aesthetics and its media.

Watch Bruce Sterling's keynote on Atemporality at Berlin's Transmediale.

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Kim Asendorf, an interactive artist from Kassel, Germany, has just released the first version of ONull, a new tool for vectorizing raster graphics.

The software, written in Java with a Processing core, works by changing pixelized color information into a halftone pattern, much like The Rasterbator. The difference is that ONull's halftone pattern is highly customizable, allowing you to choose from a wide variety of vector pixels—circles, square, triangles, X-shapes, etc—and adjust opacity, stroke, rotation, and amplification settings until you get the image you want. One can even import a custom vector pixel, resulting in effects like this:

We're especially excited for the next version of ONull—it will include vector sets and triangle fields, further increasing the transformative, graphic properties of this vectorizing software. For a preview, check out MJ below.

Download the first version here, or click through for more examples.

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Swiss designers Zmik have a knack for the highly detailed execution of simple concepts. This is demonstrated especially well in their two latest projects: Nafi and Anna.

Nafi, pictured top, is a new interior for an existing hair salon, dividing it into two zones that contrast in their function (waiting room vs. working area) as much as their atmosphere. The first section of the deep rectangular space is seamlessly papered with photocopies of Vogue magazines on brown packing paper, furnished opulently, and lit warmly, creating an intimate space for discussion and rest. This butts abruptly into the second segment, designed for working—it's brightly lit and bare, with nothing to distract the stylist.

Anna (pictured second) is an interior treatment for Iart Interactive AG's new office space in an old building. Anamorphosis is used to visually enlarge narrow corridors. From 5 fixed positions, the wireframe drawings reveal imaginary spaces behind the walls, appearing as abstract, graphic lines otherwise.

Many more shots of both after the jump.

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We know, we know, another stacking, modular furniture set? Still, this one's pretty nice, nesting closely for storage and expanding into a brightly colored shelf, sideboard or room partition when offset. We suspect that one might also be able to flip a module over to create a recessed coffee table, though its hard to tell from the pictures.

Steckbar, which translates to "snap" in German, was designed by Ismail Özalbayrak, a student at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg. Our only regret is that the shelf is only a computer model. Get that thing prototyped!

Several more shots after the jump.

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That's designer Gilles Belley's Energy Saver power strip, which "glows to show the wasted energy your gadgets eat up when they're plugged in but not doing anything." Belley and nine other designers are slideshow'd in William Bostwick's Fast Company piece "Are These Ten Names the Future of Industrial Design?"

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Maison & Objet's product design trade show Now! Design a Vivre, design-world godfather Philippe Starck and Intramuros editor Chantal Hamaide chose 10 rising French stars to usher in a new decade of design. Fear not, Francophobes--these guys actually epitomize all the current trends whizzing around the design world--warts and all--from environmental commentary to DIY grunge to blog-friendly wit. It's a perfect picture of product design today--but is it a pretty one? Get to know these names and decide for yourself.

Check out the slideshow here.

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Switzerland-based designer Barbara Bona just sent us "Waterfall," an LED-lighting concept that intends to "transform night into day" by bouncing the focused light of the LEDs off the reflective, translucent fabric of the curtain and into the surrounding space. The project transforms the unfriendly light of LEDs into atmosphere and suggests that a room be lit from its window instead of point sources on the ceiling, wall or floor.

We spent some time poking around her site and found a few more blog-worthy projects. Though never groundbreaking, each one exhibits a level of clarity and execution that we can get down with. A favorite is Twisted Chips, pictured above, where Bona created new ways to prepare and present potato chips, reminiscent of Kenya Hara's pasta re-design project and Guixé's Meta-territorial cookbook.

Below, see her temperature reading teacup and lightweight, collapsible stepladder for the closet.

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This entry will only appeal to the manufacturing guys at your firm, but hey, engineers are people too. Israeli CAD manufacturer Cimatron, which specializes in CAD for mold, tool and die makers, has developed a new tool which enables manufacturers to "simulate and analyze the injection molding process from within CimatronE," CimatronE being their CAD program.

The Moldex3D eXplorer add-on is activated with only a few clicks in CimatronE and requires no additional training or CAD conversion. A report generator enables users to provide relevant feedback to their customers.

A free trial of the Moldex3D eXplorer can be obtained from CimatronE service providers worldwide; please log on to http://www.cimatron.com to find your local branch.

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Copious documentation accompanies ID student Maximilian-Peter Von Speyer's ID thesis project, his personal mission to "design and develop the best downhill frame ever made in Chile, by combining various rider's experiences with my own into sophisticated technologies software adopted from the aerospace industry." Called the Norland Cycles Project, Von Speyer draws upon both his love of bicycles and fascination with military airplanes in hopes of perfecting his design.

Luckily for Von Speyer, a Berlin-based German downhill bicycling club saw his work and has offered to build multiple prototypes for him for free, for simultaneous testing in both Germany and (Chilean-German) Von Speyer's home base of Chile.

The final design is still some time away, but you can see tons of his ideational CAD work here.

via pink bike

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You might remember the BakerTweet from last year, this video just surfaced from Webby Night Berlin featuring Nicolas Roope cram a 10 minute presentation into 5 to explain how that project and a couple other examples define POKE's belief in creating "things" to communicate a brands message rather than traditional advertising. The lip-syncing is messed up but essential viewing for anyone looking for tips on successful story telling.

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The entries are continuing to roll in for our current 1 Hour Design Challenge: Emergency Shelters. We're still a good 20 days away from the February 28th deadline, so you've still got some time to enter your own. Core77 will donate $500 to Architecture for Humanity's Haiti Earthquake Support Program in the name of the winner.

We've picked a couple more highlights to share with you below.

From Atohms: "I did another one...Got inspired by the HESCO-system I posted earlier and the other container ideas I saw in this tread. Basic Idea: A big coiled wrapped in fabric (similar to the collapsible bins you find everywhere for putting your laundry in) So The coil is compressed in a container (regular shipping?) And the tube (shelter) will pop out as soon as the doors open. Like a devil in a box."

From steveboynton: "Credit is given to the American Indians TEEPEE design for it's durability, portability, and responsible use of natural resources. In this concept the material (tarp, canvas, gore tex...) would be provided to skin the frame. The units cold be set up alone or combined to form multi-room living spaces."

Look over the rules and guidelines here, and remember: simple and clear!

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