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Design Economics Innovation Trend Watching

Watch Bjarke Ingels’ “3 warp-speed architecture tales” talk at TED

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels rockets through photo/video-mingled stories of his eco-flashy designs. His buildings not only look like nature — they act like nature: blocking the wind, collecting solar energy — and creating stunning views […]

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Design Economics Innovation

Design in Brazil: overcoming exchange rate pressure and increasing exports with innovation

Despite the devaluation of the dollar is affecting the competitiveness of Brazilian industry — especially manufacturing — companies such as Marcopolo, Anatomic Gel and Inova Electronic Systems have managed to maintain their level of exports and to increase sales to other countries to invest in innovation, refinement and reduction of production costs […]

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China Economics Trend Watching

Living in China: Beijing more expensive than Paris

Beijing is the most expensive city on the Chinese mainland for expatriates, ranking the 20th highest in the world for costs of living, according to an annual report released by Mercer, a US-based consulting company […]

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China Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

China, Socialism & Consumer Behavior: Super-rich in growing passion for investment

Demand for art, watches, rare wines, vintage cars and other offbeat investments expanded in 2010 as the world’s super-rich rebounded from the financial crisis, according the latest World Wealth Report […]

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Consumer Behavior Economics Trend Watching

Watch Joseph Pine’s “what consumers want” talk at TED

Customers want to feel what they buy is authentic, but Mass Customization author Joseph Pine says selling authenticity is tough because, well, there’s no such thing. He talks about a few experiences that may be artificial but make millions anyway […]

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Innovation Readings

Watch Derek Sivers’ “Weird, or just different?” talk at TED

“There’s a flip side to everything,” the saying goes, and in 2 minutes, Derek Sivers shows this is true in a few ways you might not expect.

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China Economics Trend Watching

Architecture & Urban Planning in China: BBC highlights the rise of the Asian megacities

Three decades of sustained economic growth, concentrated along the booming coast, has lured millions from the impoverished Chinese countryside. This great migration – unprecedented in human history – has put 46 Chinese cities over the one million mark since 1992, out of a national total of 102 […]

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Design Economics Innovation Trend Watching

Watch highlights from “Reimagining Manufacturing: The Technologies Driving the New Industrial Revolution” during Autodesk [IDEAS] The Innovation + Design Series

As concepts like mass-customization, personal manufacturing, and the Maker movement go mainstream, a new set of questions is forming about what this manufacturing transformation really means […]

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Design Innovation

Watch Ursus Wehrli’s “tidying up art” talk on TED

Ursus Wehrli shares his vision for a cleaner, more organized, tidier form of art — by deconstructing the paintings of modern masters into their component pieces, sorted by color and size […]

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Design

Watch Janet Echelman’s “Taking imagination seriously” talk at TED

Janet Echelman found her true voice as an artist when her paints went missing — which forced her to look to an unorthodox new art material. Now she makes billowing, flowing, building-sized sculpture with a surprisingly geeky edge. A transporting 10 minutes of pure creativity […]