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This past Thursday we celebrated the launch of Issue 10 at Adaptive Path.

Check out pictures from the party on Flickr!

Issue 10 is all about the design of Getting it On, from salacious to more PG-13 explorations of sex in design, including “Sex Goes to the Museum,” “Ups and Downs in Zipper History,” “Free As In Love,” “Getting it On Gets Faster,” “Vibrators,” and “How Desire Drives Design.” Hugh Musick, Jennifer Stroud Rossmann, James Biber,  and many others contribute.

Visit Ambidextrous to peek at issue 10.

Come celebrate with us at Adaptive Path this Thursday during our launch party!

Ambidextrous profiled Amanda West in our Fall 2006 Picking Things Up issue (”Creating a Healthy America, One Hamburger at a Time” by Angie Heile). At that time she was just in the planning stages for a feel good fast food restaurant experience.

Now her vision has become a reality. Open about two months, Amanda’s Feel Good Fresh Food Restaurant is in Berkeley on Shattuck Avenue serving burgers and baked french fries and apple fries.

It’s a result of applying design thinking to the fast food/dining experience. From the article:

West’s simple plan to feed Americans better burgers reminds designers of the compromises struck between what’s best for the people who use their products and what most people really want in their hearts: the same old junk they’re already grown to love.

I just want a better burger — and the Garden of Eating blog has a nice review of Amanda’s.

Bon Appetit.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

The Monterey Bay Aquarium opened 24 years ago today. I grew up in a neighboring town and our family were charter members. I like to think that the aquarium’s hands-on learning approach was a bit formative in me becoming a designer.

In issue #1 we profiled their  exhibit development process (”Message in a Museum:  A look into exhibit design at the Monterey Bay Aquarium” by Charlotte Burgess Auburn).  Wired has a slideshow of behind-the-scenes photos of a day at the aquarium.

The aquarium has balanced education and conservation. Their Seafood Watch program expands Oct 22 to include sushi.

And who could forget the aquarium’s starring role in the 1986 Star Trek IV The Voyage Home as the Sausalito Cetacean Institute?

There was a great article in the New York Times about Digital Designers now turning to hardware for inspiration.  Instead of simply prototyping in the virtual world or pushing pixels around, the trend is now to think with your hands.  So take a break, get out from behind your computer, bust out a soldering iron and get to work!

The article also quotes former Ambidextrous contributor Mike Kuniavsky, who hosts an annual Sketching in Hardware workshop.  Find out a bit more about what happened in July at Sketching in Hardware 2008, hosted at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Preview issue 9, up at Ambidextrous

In this issue, learn about the design of stoves for the developing world, as well as why you should be wary of design for the developing world. (We thrive on studied controversy.) And, since inspiration comes from random places, indulge in the inspiration of competitive beard growing.

Issue 9 launches at Stanford d.School and the Flickr photos are up!

Ambi staff with MIT Media Lab professor Hiroshi Ishii, whose talk was the Ambi pre-party ;) (kidding, kidding)

Come talk about The Artifact’s Place in Design * Design in Developing Countries * Pimp My Workstation * Stoves for Darfur * Style * Competitive Beard Growing * Design Process * The Next Big Thing in Design

There will be tasty treats to snack on, food for thought to munch on, and the best company the Bay Area’s design community has to offer.

The AMBIDEXTROUS launch party will be immediately preceded by a talk hosted by the d.school by Professor Hiroshi Ishii of the MIT Media Lab from 6:30-7:30pm. You are invited to that as well!

RSVP and get directions

A while ago, we posted about Victimless leather, part of MoMA’s “Design and the Elastic Mind” show.

Well, Paola Antonelli had to put the victimless leather coat to death when it started to grow too quickly and outgrew its test tube. While the thought of killing a living product makes us sad, it’s an interesting site for feeling out what reactions might be to futuristic living materials we might imagine around our homes or on our bodies.

RIP, fleshy leather coat. We barely knew you.

Ambidextrous was at Maker Faire this weekend. We’re not sure how many attended, but they ran out of parking and 101 and 92 had tons of traffic, so we take that as a sign of its popularity.

Check out photos of Ambi’s magazine-making and mechanical dissections: