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Leave it to Studiopepe to turn something as ubiquitous and commonplace as silos containers into a source of inspiration for a collection that is so elegant, youre surprised to learn of its origins. Unveiled earlier this year at Milan Design Week, the Silos Collection is a collaboration between Studiopepe, a Milan-based multidisciplinary agency founded by Arianna Lelli Mami and Chiara Di Pinto, and Uniqka, a modern design brand from Istanbul. The designers recalled the grand and sculptural volumes of industrial silos and translated their features into a family of charming low tables.Photo: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterSilos is memorable for its generously sized legs that unmistakably recall the tall and wide forms of silos. The legs are wrapped in vegetable-tanned leather and support tabletops made from various materials, including luxurious travertine, supple leather, warm wood, and powder-coated steel. Because of the curved features of the legs, the tables create an interplay of light and shadow that change throughout the day. Available in three sizes, Silos is flexible in where it can be placed, whether by the bed as a nightstand, casually in a lounge space, or spotlighted in the center of a living room. The collection, though modest in inspiration, exudes an elegance and simplicity that transcends time and temporary trends.Photo: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Emre DorterPhoto: Stefania Zanetti and Matteo BellomoPhoto: Stefania Zanetti and Matteo BellomoPhoto: Stefania Zanetti and Matteo BellomoPhoto: Stefania Zanetti and Matteo BellomoPhoto: Stefania Zanetti and Matteo BellomoPhoto: Stefania Zanetti and Matteo BellomoPhoto: Stefania Zanetti and Matteo BellomoPhoto: Stefania Zanetti and Matteo BellomoPhoto: Silvia RivoltellaTo learn more about the Silos Collection by Studiopepe for Uniqka, visit studiopepe.info or uniqka.com.

The author finds his daughter drawing on the wall. Hes both appalled and interested. Consequences and conversations will follow. Credit:Me.The quest for workplace clarity.My wife and I have three kids. And being a parent has taught me a lot about life: they really do grow up fast, you can never pack enough goldfish, and dear God in heaven, please do not wake a sleepingbaby.Ever.One of our primary functions as a parent is to create boundaries for our kids. We create rules and structure to keep our children from hurting themselves, hurting others, and to prevent my wife and I from going completely insane (partial insanity is just going tohappen).A few years ago, I realized something. All the rules and structure that my parents gave me; 1hr of daily screen time, 8pm bedtimes, getting to ride in the front Monday / Wednesday / Friday (because I had to share it with my little sister), etc. Its all arbitrary.They arent real rules. There is no universal, scientific law of front seat privileges. My mom made that rule up on a Tuesday morning to keep me and my sister from screaming at each other when we needed to go to the grocerystore.But, just because the rules arent real, it doesnt mean they arentgood.My parents created those rules to help me. They created structure to give me an understanding of how to operate in the world. They were trying to build a framework I could use to understand what success lookslike.Well Hopefully, thats what they were trying to do. Maybe they just wanted a little moresleep?Success doesnt have a clearpathThe problem that I experienced (and maybe Im not alone here), is that when I graduated college and went out into the real world, I had an expectation that it operated on a framework. All I needed to do was figure out what a companys rules were. If I could abide by them, I could be successful.That was a hugemistake.Im about 15 years into my career. Heres the thing that Ive learned: clarity is a luxury. More often than not, I have entered into a work situation where there is no structure, there are no rules, or key performance indicators. No one I was working with understood how to define success. All I had was a job with an unclear description, and a mandate to do it so that my family didnt live under the nearestbridge.This was incredibly frustrating. How was I supposed to get an A+? What did I need to do to get more responsibility, a raise, or even a promotion?Unless I had an excellent manager with a ton of time on her hands, I had very little to draw on. And while I could blame my boss, the company culture, or executive leadership for not creating rules that teach its people how to be successful, thats a terribly unproductive use oftime.Complaining never gets anyone veryfar.Create theclarityIm a design manager who has been leading teams for the last 6 years. Do you want to know what the main difference is between a Product Designer and Senior Product Designer? While a little different everywhere you go, theres a single common trait that becomes more and more pronounced as a designer advances in her career: solving problems independently.As a designer, learning to be competent at your work is the goal. You want to learn the necessary skills to execute all the tasks that are delegated to you. But once youve achieved mastery, and you understand your companys process, if you want to grow in your career you must identify new problems and solve them without being asked. That may mean that you redesign an inefficient process used on your team, repair a library that youre using in your designs, or meet with your project stakeholders to align on the basics goals of the project youre collaborating on.You need to be the one to create clarity and cast vision for yourself, your work, and potentially yourteam.If your work environment doesnt have structure, make it. Dont leave it up to your coworkers or your manager to define what success looks like. Use the companys framework (if they have one), so that youre speaking the same language as your coworkers. But make sure that you are not waiting on someone else to cast vision and translating that vision intotactics.What are we really trying tosolve?Several years ago, I worked at Blackboard (now Anthology) designing educational software. At the time, I was working on improvements to the WYSIWYG editor in our content creator. The product manager I worked with explained that customers were asking Blackboard to add custom HTML/CSS to oureditor.That was my goal; design the custom HTML/CSS button in our editor and how it would function. But as I drafted my design brief, I realized that we didnt truly understand the pain points that we were solving for ourusers.No one askedwhy.Instead of jumping right in, I asked if we had time to perform user research. We did, and had several instructional designers who would be very excited to speak with us. I asked them a series of research questions as they walked through how they create lessons in Blackboard. What our research showed us, was that our users actually needed more custom options for building their lesson content. But they assumed the only way they could do that was by inserting custom HTML/CSS. So, thats what they askedfor.In the end, we design more features for the WYSIWYG editor than just HTML/CSS. We added more option for typography, color, andcontent.I created clarity on that project and in the end, we were able to solve our users real problem. Thats what you need to be doing as a designer.Three tools for creating clarity and castingvisionI have three tools for you to help you create more clarity and structure in your work, particularly when things feel a littleopaque.Tool #1: Ask dumb questions If youre new to the company, or new in your career as a designer, this is your power move. Always be asking questions (Forbes has a good list). You dont know anything, and people expect you not to know anything. So, you can ask whatever youwant.Are people throwing acronyms around like they own the place? Bang! Question. Does everyone assume we all know what the projects goal is? Bang! Question. Does a project stakeholder have unrealistic expectations for designs role in a project? Bang! Question.Its always been startling to me how many assumptions that we all make when creating software. This is especially true when youre working with people who possess different specialties. We assume that the things we know well, other people also know well and that creates an entire world of confusion.Questions, even seemingly dumb questions, cut through that confusion.Here are some of my favorite questions:What problem are wesolving?What do you mean by [bizarre code name or weird acronym]?Who are ourusers?Why is this [thing/feature/product] important?What does success looklike?Are there any constraints we need to consider?Can you explain that in simplerterms?What are the potential risks?Whats the timeline for thisproject?What are the key assumptions weremaking?Who will maintain this afterlaunch?Tool #2: DesignBriefsIf youve had any formal design training, youve learned about design briefs. Weve been using them in architecture, design, and agency work for decades. Theyre a tool for translating business needs into creativework.Too often I have seen designers working on a feature without any kind of brief that brings together the details of their project. Theres no single document that provides context, illustrates the pain theyre trying to solve, and defines what success looks like for their work. This is a bigmistake.Whenever you start a new project, create a brief. There are some really great resources to help you make thishappen.This document can be used for a lot of things. But it is especially great at aligning stakeholders on the goal of a project. Too often, everyone working together on a project makes assumptions. Leverage your design brief to strike those assumptions down, dead in theirtracks.Heres how I typically organize mybriefs:Design BriefProject Overview Begin with the title of the project, followed by a brief description outlining the projects primary goals and objectives.Background Provide context and history leading up to the project, as well as relevant market analysis highlighting current trends and industry information.Objectives Clearly state the primary goal of the project. Additionally, list any secondary goals and the expected benefits of achieving these objectives.Target Audience Describe the target user in detail, covering demographics such as age, gender, and location. Include psychographics like interests, behaviors, and lifestyle. Identify the user needs and pain points the product aims toaddress.Scope and Deliverables Define the project scope by outlining what is included and excluded. Specify the key deliverables, detailing the specific outcomes and products to be provided upon completion. Potentially break deliverables intophases.Technical Requirements List the functional requirements, detailing the features and functionalities needed. Include non-functional requirements such as performance, usability, and security considerations. Address technical requirements, specifying the necessary platforms, technologies, and integrations.Timeline Provide a timeline with key milestones and deadlines to keep the project ontrack.Stakeholders Identify the project team, detailing roles and responsibilities for each member. List key stakeholders, including both internal and external parties involved in theproject.Research and References Include links to any previous research performed. Summarize insights from user research and feedback. Include examples of similar projects or designs that can serve as inspiration or reference points.Success Metrics Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the projects success. Describe the evaluation methods that will be used to assess whether the project meets itsgoals.Risks and Assumptions Identify potential risks and challenges that could impact the project. List any assumptions that the project is based on, ensuring they are clearly stated and understood.Tool #3: Workshop FacilitationThis is a skill every designer should learn. Its an incredibly useful tool for aligning large groups of people towards a common goal. There are some amazing resources you can take advantage of to start learning. AJ & Smart, a design agency in Berlin that works exclusively in workshop facilitation for its clients, has put together a really useful guide to workshopping.What makes this skill so valuable is that it creates structured, productive conversations in a very efficient way. Instead of just having a discussion, you create a series of exercises that outline problems, identify success metrics, and assigns ownership to each person involved. Ive also written a lot about workshop facilitation in a previouspost.Heres a Project Kick-off Workshop that I would run if I were starting a new project with a group of stakeholders. If you want detailed descriptions and FigJam layouts of some of my favorite design thinking exercises (including these), check out this linkhere.Project Kick-offWorkshopHopes and Fears The Hopes and Fears exercise aims to surface participants aspirations and concerns regarding a project or initiative. The goal is to address potential obstacles and align expectations early in theprocess.Stakeholder Map A Stakeholder Map identifies all individuals and groups involved in a project, highlighting their interests, influence, and relationships. The goal is to understand stakeholders roles and how they affect theproject.Problem Statement The Problem Statement exercise helps articulate a clear and concise definition of the problem to be addressed. The goal is to ensure a shared understanding of the problem, guiding the team towards focused and effective solutions.Assumption Collecting and Mapping Collect assumptions from your project stakeholders regarding what you think might be true about the project. This exercise gets everything out in the open. Youre going to realize how misaligned everyone is and have several conversations to work throughit.Hypothesis Statement The Hypothesis Statement exercise is aimed at formulating clear, testable statements that articulate assumptions about the project, its users, or the problem being addressed. These statements guide the design and development process by providing a foundation for experimentation and validation.ConclusionI hope you find these tools helpful and empowering. You dont need to wait around for someone else to provide structure. Bring clarity to your work. Invite others into it. Make things that start conversations. Other people arent going to do it. You needto.ResourcesUnderstanding design levels: Junior vs Mid-level vs Senior UX DesignerUXCareeersTen Questions to Ask Your Manager When Starting a New JobForbesCreative BriefWikipediaThe Project BriefToolkitFacilitation 101 byAJ&SmartHow to run your first workshopAJ & Smart YoutubeChannelGame Storming by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and JamesMacanufoHey yall! Im Trip Carroll, a design leader at Cisco and aspiring cartoonist.I write and publish a new articles on design, leadership, and software development every other Monday. You can see more of my work on my website, check out my drawings on Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter on Substack.Lets make workgreat!Draw your own maps was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you pay for YouTube, you have another feature to add to your Premium benefits: The company is currently testing an in-app sleep timer you can use to stop playback after a set amount of time. If you're someone who goes to bed in total silence each night, it might sound weird for a service like YouTube to add a sleep timer. You watch YouTube videos when you're awake, not when you're going to sleep. But listen: Some of us actually need somethinganythingplaying in the background in order to fall asleep each night, and YouTube is kind of the perfect tool for that. The service has a virtually unlimited supply of long, monotone videos to play to help lull you to slumber. The problem is, some are so long, you run the risk of waking up to the video after an hour or two if it's still playing. That's where a sleep timer can be helpful: If you know it takes you about 20 minutes to fall asleep, you can set your sleep timer for 20 minutes (maybe a bit more to be safe): Once the timer's up, your playback stops, and you can keep sleeping uninterrupted. Using YouTube's built-in sleep timerPremium subscribers can try out this feature right now by heading to YouTube's experimental features page. You can also find it in YouTube's settings on your smartphone under "Try experimental new features." Once enabled, you'll find the sleep timer from the settings gear on any video you play. You can set the timer for 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, or 60 minutes, or until the video ends. YouTube says this feature is available until Sept. 2. It's not clear whether it will go away entirely after that date, or whether YouTube will take the feature out of testing and roll it out to all Premium subscribers by default.How to use a sleep timer without paying for YouTube PremiumYou don't need to pay for YouTube in order to use a sleep timer, though. If you have an iPhone, you have a built-in sleep timer you can use for any media playback. To use it, open the Clock app then tap the Timers tab. Set your timer for any length of time you want, then tap When Timer Ends. Scroll to the bottom, and choose Stop Playing. Start your timer, then play a video on YouTube. Once your timer runs out, your iPhone will stop playback and lock itself, so you won't wake up or lose extra battery life.If you're on Android, there isn't quite the same built-in equivalent. Your best bet may be to download a third-party app designed for the task, such as Sleep Timer from Kuczera. If you have a Samsung device, this Reddit post also walks through a possible automation you could set up to stop playback after a certain period of time:Open Modes and Routines.Tap Routines in the bottom-right, then choose the plus icon in the top-right.In the "If" section, choose the "Start manually" command.In the "Then" section, add the "Wait before next action" command. This is where you can choose how long the timer will last.Back in the "Then" section, add the "Close an app" command, then select the app you want to close. In this case, that's YouTube.Name the routine, then hit Save.Whenever you want to start the timer, hit Play.

Warner Bros. Discovery has pulled Cartoon Networks entire website from the web, which means that you can no longer access free episodes and other interactive content. Instead, visitors to CartoonNetwork.com are redirected to the channels section on the subscription streaming network Max, Variety reported.The Cartoon Network website offered full, free episodes and clips of some of its most popular shows including Adventure Time, The Amazing World of Gumball, Teen Titans GO! and Steven Universe. Now if you need a quick fix of those shows, youll have to get on Max, pay for them on another digital streaming service or dig up a copy from your stash of old Blu-Rays and DVDs.A spokesperson for the Cartoon Network told Variety its refocusing its efforts on shows and social media where we find consumers are the most engaged and there is a meaningful potential for growth. The decision to take down the website will not affect the networks cable TV programming.The demise of Cartoon Networks website comes a week after Warner Bros. Discovery announced the end of its classic cartoon streaming service Boomerang. Warner Bros. Discovery announced that the network for fans of classic cartoons like Tom & Jerry, Wacky Races and the original Looney Tunes shorts will end its operations on September 30. Subscribers will be added to Maxs ad-free tier for no additional cost.In June, media giant Paramount, too, pulled down some of its cable channels old show episodesincluding The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report from the Comedy Central website as well as free content from other channels websites such as TV Land, CMT and the Paramount Network.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/warner-bros-sends-cartoon-networks-website-to-the-digital-graveyard-174502048.html?src=rss

Blender is to support online asset libraries. Future versions of the open-source 3D software will also come pre-configured with a remote library of CC0 brushes, materials and meshes to enhance the 'out-of-the-box experience'.More details: https://www.cgchannel.com/2024/08/blender-will-support-online-asset-libraries/

ICYMI here are the biggest tech news stories from Google, DJI, Disney, and more for August 10, 2024.

In a 10-page letter to Tesla's chair on Thursday, Elizabeth Warren asked the automaker's board if it's monitoring Elon Musk's activities at his other ventures.

I dont know about you, but with the many national highs and lows of the past few weeks, Ive experienced an almost impossible range of emotions. At moments, I have felt hopeful, even euphoricbut at other times, I have felt more unsafe, uncertain, and fearful than I can remember in my adult life. As various news alerts have blown up my phone, one after the other, Ive sometimes found myself in a panic, doomscrolling on social media, feeling an almost childlike sense of powerlessness. Gun violence, tech disasters, climate crisis, not to mention a roller coaster of an election season that could change the trajectory of our country. What do I do?Its a question thats straining every single person across the countryso much so that studies show weve reached record-breaking levels of anxiety. And while it affects everyone, it disproportionately impacts women, people of color, the LGBT community, and other marginalized groups, including in our work lives. This collective angst has been felt since the early days of the pandemicand for many, long before thenbut whats different about it now?Were pretending that were holding it together even as we can all see how much were falling apart.For too long, we have lived in a culture of keep your head down, keep your chin up, just keep moving, where resiliencedefined as how well you can push through and pretend everything is okayis whats rewarded. And we see the next level of this ethos at work.But the reality is, weve all gone through trauma in some shape or form, whether in early life or as an adult. It could be the death of a loved one or a divorce, health issues, job insecurity (or like me, a combination of all of these.) Most of us have trauma that we may not really acknowledge, much less take time to process. To say nothing of how weve all been impacted by the collective trauma of pandemics, economic distress, global injustice, and political polarization here at home.And instead of honestly facing the reality of all of this and growing through it, weve been socialized to ignore the trauma and keep carrying the load. Many of us try to handle it by treating the symptoms (Gummies, anyone? Or is it wine-oclock yet?) but we dont cure the real problem, no matter how detrimental it is to our emotional and physical well-being.If this all feels depressing, I have good news. There is a solution, and it starts with all of us. On my new podcast America, Who Hurt You? we talk about how our politics and our trauma are driving each other, making us all less productive and more fearful in work and life in general. But we also talk about how, if we focus on healing our personal issues and our politics, our livesincluding our workplaceswill automatically improve.If this sounds too good to be true, heres an example. I was recently part of a group of creatives and media business owners strategizing around weathering the downturn in the entertainment industry. Our goal was to support each other and share best practices and strategies. However, a disagreement around leadership threatened to derail the whole group. Then something surprising happened. The two disputing leaders sat down with a third member to get to the bottom of the issue. They agreed to set aside their grievances for a one-hour active listening session, mediated by the third member. Almost like a therapy session, they were given equal time to share their perspectives and committed to staying constructive, nonjudgmental, and supportive of the groups goals. By the end, they had opened up so much that they each discovered they were both experiencing trauma outside of work that they werent talking aboutone was in the middle of a painful divorce, and the other had been diagnosed with a serious illness.Sharing their vulnerability helped bring them back to the table as partners and inspired the rest of the group to rally around them. Watching these two strong-willed leaders go from the brink of harming the whole group to courageously facing their individual issues to benefit the greater good was powerful for me. Ive also watched their ongoing growth (including in their businesses) as they continue to let their guard down with our group, which has buoyed all of us at a time when we need it most.Inspired in part by experiences like this, every week on America, Who Hurt You?we look at how unresolved traumafrom our childhood wounds to our current strugglesimpacts not only our ability to lead healthy lives but to be the leaders we need as a society. And in talking to our guests and experts, from Jane Fonda to Laverne Cox to Ai-jen Poo, we find healing and even humor in the lesson that, paradoxically, unhealed trauma causes us to stay in fear mode, where we make the very mistakes were most afraid of. That causes us to avoid our vulnerability, empathy, and smart risk-taking, where our most creative ideas, innovation, and leadership come from, whether in our households, at the community level, on our teams at work, or in the boardroom.Regardless of where we sit in an organization, we know its no longer sustainable to just go through the motions at work, robotically enduring Zooms and in-office days, or worse, watching our business decline, all while everyone feelsbut never acknowledgesthe continuous onslaught of challenges around us and within us.Suppose we instead create space for the reality were all experiencing and prioritize focusing on healing at a human level. In that case, it will enable us to lean in and face our fearsindividually and collectively. And the best news is we can start anytime, from right where we are. We invite our podcast listeners to engage in simple prompts at the end of each episode. For example, deep breathing to get out of the stressful fight-flight-freeze mode most of us dont realize were in all day long.We get to start small and dont have to do any of it alone, or perfectly. Im not saying its easyfacing our anxieties and the trauma underneath them can be difficult work. But its also how we can all find the true home of the brave within, and thats not just good for business, its how we build the more just America we all deserve.

This week on Dezeen, Michael Green Architecture unveiled plans for a 55-storey skyscraper in Milwaukee, which would become the world's tallest mass-timber building if completed.Set to be built alongside the Marcus Center in central Milwaukee, the multi-tower scheme will include a 55-storey skyscraper made principally from mass-timber elements, which would make it the tallest engineered-wood building in the world if completed.An air-conditioning "debacle" is taking place at the athletes' villageWhile the Olympic Games takes place in Paris, we continued our Olympic Impact series with an opinion piece focused on the air conditioning row in the athletes' village."The Paris Olympic Village air-conditioning debacle is a perfect illustration of the barriers to climate action," wrote Smith Mordak.In a feature published as part of the series, we spoke to experts who said that the "destructive" Olympics should be shrunk to save carbon.Paris Olympic cauldron designerMathieu Lehanneur spoke to DezeenWe also spoke to the designer of the Paris Olympic cauldron,Mathieu Lehanneur.The French designer told us that his "flying" Olympic cauldronmay become a permanent Parisian landmark.The Intuit Dome reached completion in LAIn more sports news, the first images were revealed of the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, which was designed by international firmAECOM as the home of the LA Clippers NBA team.According to the studio, the stadium is topped with a roof informed by a basketball "passing through a net". The arena will be one of the venues to host events at the Olympics in 2028.We rounded up eight contemporary houses in HawaiiWe also rounded up eight contemporary houses in Hawaii that are designed in response to the island environment.Large overhanging roof eaves and homes with multiple volumes are featured on the list.A Mexican house was one of this week's most popular projectsPopular projects on Dezeen this week included a Mexican house arranged around interior courtyards, 6 Columns house in London and a "living laboratory" in Natural History Museum gardens.Our latest lookbooks featured offbeat red-and-green home interiors and wooden kitchens.This week on DezeenThis week on Dezeenis our regular roundup of the week's top news stories.Subscribe to our newslettersto be sure you don't miss anything.The post This week we revealed plans for the world's tallest timber building appeared first on Dezeen.