Is it August already? Dip into our latest monthly edit of critical research and see what we have been inspired by here at the studio from ground breaking footwear, lab-grown meet to quirky optical illusions, critical news as well as design approaches addressing climate change.👇🏻

Now let’s dive in 👇🏻

FOOTWEAR | Have you ever wondered what is running through a footwear designer’s mind? 1Granary interviews a dozen footwear designers to give some insight into their creative design process. Sustainability is a challenge that designers must consider when thinking about product development, such as, making shoes from biodegradable materials like algae, upcycling fabrics and sourcing dead-stock sneakers.

FOOD | Anyone up for some delicious lab-grown meat? Future Meat Technologies develops the first industrial line for lab-grown meat. The industrial facility produces 5,000 burgers a day at a large scale. This is a potential advancement in the meat industry, as the intensive livestock farming is a massive contributor to deforestation and may heighten the risk of future pandemics.

PHOTOGRAPHY | ‘Across the Yuni-verse with Yuni Yoshida’. Full of ‘visual coincidences and an uncompromised child-like imagination’, creative director Yuni Yoshida creates stunning optical illusions that draws the viewer’s attention at first glance, that keep you coming for more! Inspired by food, Yuni’s series displays visually stimulating imagery, changing our perspective on the way we look at things.

DESIGN | ‘Redefining the human: What is the value of design research beyond humanity?’ Illustrated by Magdalena Obmalko for Unbore, Why Man Creates is an animated documentary film set in 1968, questioning the nature of design. ‘If the human is a question mark, design is the way that question is engaged. An archaeology of design is an archaeology of curiosity.’

TECHNOLOGY | Singapore researchers have developed a revolutionary smart foam material (Artificially innervated foam), that enables robots to sense ‘nearby objects, and repairs itself when damaged, just like human skin’. This is a huge advancement for prosthetic users and it will allow them to have more intuitive use of their robotic arms.

CLIMATE CHANGE | The lungs of the earth are collapsing. Scientists have confirmed that the Amazon rainforest is emitting more carbon dioxide than it absorbs, caused by fires set to clear land for beef and soy production. This is a huge problem, as it is now accelerating the climate crisis. It is unfortunate that the government of Brazil encourages more deforestation, which has caused a huge surge in carbon emissions.

OLYMPICS | Are the Olympics accused of greenwashing? The Tokyo 2020 Olympics aimed to make some sustainable choices which included, ‘medals made from old phones, podiums made from recycled plastic and cardboard beds’. However, the University of Lausanne conducted a report and concluded that ‘the games were the third-least sustainable Olympic since 1992’.

MENTAL HEALTH | What is a week anyway? A failed soviet experiment explores today’s burnout generation and how we arrange our days, weeks and months is a parallel ‘reflection of how we aspire to live our lives’.

FUTURE | Ever thought about what the world will look like in 2031? Dazed studio has created a 2031 Future World report, sharing predictions from leaders across different disciplines. The report is planned to uncover what the influential Gen Z cares about and to explore ‘the future of identity, fashion, entertainment, commerce and beauty’. 

MARKETING & PR | A partnerships created between agencies have come together to directly address the challenge of the climate crisis ‘by promoting sustainability via every channel available to them’ including media, creative, design and PR. #ChangeTheBrief was formed to work together to make a difference to ‘attitudes, lifestyles, behaviours and our future on the planet’. 

CAREER | Need any help in establishing your strengths on your career journey? The purpose of the spikey profile is to help you identify ‘personal work-related strengths and barriers for development’. It is meant to help the employer understand your potential development and strengths.  

EVENT | The Human Scaffold: How Not to Design Your Way Out of a Climate Crisis. The Berggruen Institute is set to host a virtual series based on The Human Scaffold. The event will take place at 9:30AM PT on Wednesday, July 28th featuring anthropologist, Josh Berson, and researcher Simon Penny. The Human Scaffold offers a great starting point to the planetary and environmental crisis of resource consumption, that humanity is currently facing.