The Plastiki has completed its 15 000km voyage from San Francisco to Sydney after 130 days at sea. The catamaran cradle to cradle design uses over 9 000 plastic bottles and recycled materials for sails and the mast. The Plastiki has ingenious features such as solar panels, water catchment cabin top, a trailing sea turbine and bicycle generators to make it completely self sufficient. Even the emergency engine runs on bio-diesel. 

The Plastiki aims to create an awareness of sea pollution by sailing through the Pacific Garbage Patches, illustrating the harm done by plastic garbage and illustrate solutions to the problem. Illustrations by Andrew Rae. 

Marc Newson has already designed business class sleeper seats, aircraft interiors, onboard products, and airport lounges for Qantas, now he is helping to improve the check in experience with The Next Generation Check-In. The key to improving the service is the new Qantas frequent flyer card which features an 'intelligent Q' smart chip and will act as a permanent boarding pass, the card will be used at various points throughout the experience including at check-in, bag drop and to board the aircraft.  Newson’s association with Qantas began with the award-winning Skybed International Business sleeper seat in 2003. As Qantas Creative Director, Marc oversees all Qantas product development, including aircraft interiors, onboard product and lounges. Image credit: Qantas.

From DesignBoom comes the story of 2 Swedish design students Tor Palm and Mattias Rask, who collaborated with South African companies Furntech and the Potters Workshop to create unique products for their final exam project. The final outcome was a number of prototypes: a stool and a sideboard, both knock-down, and a number of hand-decorated ceramic lamps aimed for the European market but with a distinct South African feeling. Image credit: Contemporist.

News last week of the $35 ‘laptop’ from India’s Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Siba is seen both as a miracle of low cost design and an impossible engineering feat. But even if it doubles in price like other education devices and manages to roll out in India the implications are enormous.