The movie “Epic time-lapse map of Europe” fast forwards a map from the year 1000 AD until 2003 to reveal the dynamic nature of Europe’s borders, alliances, unions, territories, and occupied lands.

An alternative movie takes a bit longer, but contains useful textual annotations such as the actual year that is shown and the events that occurred.

Both movies were made with “Centennia Historical Atlas” by Centennia Software.

Check it out.

via information aesthetics.

Design is clearly not just a marketing thing, but a “genuine source of competitive advantage, customer and employee satisfaction, and a route to higher profits“. It is moving in a new direction leaving the era of design thinking.

Nowadays we have an increased demand for more transparency and active participation – in politics, the economy, actually everywhere – paired with an increased familiarity with the use of the technological tools that enables us to connect, share, collaborate, and communicate in new ways – and have our voices heard.

What we are seeing is a growing shift in the balance of power in what we value and how we demonstrate our power by investing in what we value.

With the current changes in the world, it is possible that we are entering a completely new paradigm of change in how we do things, in how we conduct business, and in how we live our lives. Whether in the face of systemic, organizational, or lifestyle changes, framing our decision-making processes around the idea of past, present, and future states of existence provides a new way to think about things. It also allows us to identify opportunities for design and explore how design could respond to these different dimensions.

Good design generates social and economic value, makes the world a better, more interesting place, and enhances the quality of our lives.

Increased debates around the role of design moved the position of design beyond questions of style and aesthetics to the design of the process, the design of the experience, design as a catalyst for innovation, and design as an enabler of cultural change.

Design as an approach can help identify a different, or better, way of doing things, of reconnecting everyday life back to what people really value and, ultimately, back to our own core human values. In this way, design is a people-centered transformational process, one that can move mindsets from a traditional, to a transitional, to a transformational way of seeing things.

The links among design, creativity, and innovation were framed in the Cox Review, which envisions securing the place of design in future debates on creativity and innovation:

• Creativity is the generation of new ideas – either a new way of looking at existing problems or the discovery of new opportunities.
• Innovation is the exploitation of new ideas.
• Design is what links creativity and innovation – it shapes the ideas so they become practical and attractive propositions for users and customers.

It is design’s ability to present attractive, practical, and aspirational propositions that can help change people’s decision-making processes, behaviours, and mindsets. The application of a “designerly” way of thinking and communicating could be very timely now in stimulating both new value propositions and more human-centered strategies for growth and development – all within our rapidly changing, increasingly sustainable, post-consumerist society.

Design helps us embrace change.

Audi will be presenting its performance electric bike for sports and trick cycling at the Wörthersee Tour in Austria. Even there are already lots of e-Bikes and e-Bike concepts out there, this one really feels like the future.

Weighing only 46.30 pounds with a power ratio of 19.84 pounds per kilowatt, the bike has a 2.3kW electric motor that uses a lithium-ion battery with a 2.5 hour quick charge-up time. Its 26-inch wheels feature Audi’s “ultra blade” design for optimized power transmission to the pedals, and an electronic control system allows connectivity with a smartphone and five modes for aiding balance, training and performance.

This powerful e-bike assists in performing stunts, tricks and increasing pedaling speed, while its touchscreen computer interface helps ensure that all your Facebook friends get to hear about it.

Check out the video below.

via Hypebeast

We Are The Future – a projection on what the media landscape could be like in 10 years based on what we are seeing now.

So true, it hurts.

The Guardian has a hilarious ad based on none other than the Three Little Pigs.

It envisions how the paper would cover the story of the Three Little Pigs in print and online. The spot follows the developing story of the pigs’ arrest for killing the Big Bad Wolf.

The whole thing promotes the paper’s concept of “open journalism” and multimedia platforms, which was put in place just recently.

It’s really good – you should watch it above.

How could Instagram be worth $1 billion? See the animated GIF infographic above.

via Fast Company

To launch the high quality TV channel TNT in Belgium there was a a big red push button placed on an average Flemish square of an average Flemish town. A sign with the text “Push to add drama” invited people to use the button.

See what happened next in the video above.

Being four-eyed has never been so cool.

In a YouTube video Google unveiled its augmented reality eyeglasses, a pair of spectacles that interacts with what you’re seeing and acts as a smartphone, day planner, turn-by-turn navigation system, camera and more.

A glance at the near future. Awesomeness!

A short film that tells the story behind the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster. Its origins at the beginning of World War II and its rediscovery in a bookshop in England in 2000, becoming one of the iconic images of the 21st century.