The jury’s motivation
“Trabec takes the new generation of MTB bikers to unexpected heights. The helmet is constructed to handle tough terrains with a higher cycling pleasure. The design is challenging with high protection without compromising performance.  Trabec has a comfortable and solid touch and radiates adventurous freedom. It has already obtained an obvious place among the world’s best cyclists. The company behind this success knows how to detect trends and to turn them in to ultimate solutions for it’s target group.”

“Happy, happy, happy!
A super honor, receiving the Grand Design Prize for our MTB-Trabec helmet.
Being recognized among 70 highly relevant competitors and finally being picked as the winner, by a very competent jury is extremely encouraging for the organization. Besides the honor there was a hefty pile of money that came with the award. Money that probably will be invested in a project on how we can make road biking less hazardous.” Says Stefan Ytterborn CEO & Founder of POC.

Trabec
The Trabec in-mold helmet combines functionality and performance for single track and enduro riders who are in need of the highest degree of protection. The construction is similar to how a skeleton is built for both resistance and durability. The inner Aramid filament reinforced EPS core is tough and resilient while the outer PC shell is constructed with the seams located in the areas of least exposure. An aerodynamic channel system and 16 vent slots provides great ventilation while the fit is designed to be around the head versus on top, which promises superior protection.

More info about Trabec

More info about POC LAB

Sponsor of the award is Teknikföretagen (The Swedish Engineering Companies) in co-operation with the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design and the Swedish Industrial Design Foundation to promote business excellence deriving from consistent and competent design processing. Länk: www.facebook.com/storadesignpriset

But for those with a global audience, the weight is greater. Influence is not a thing to be taken lightly, and if you have it, you should use it as a force for good.

Keen to spark a conversation, POC Mag invited a tuned-in designer to share his ethical perspective.We all have a responsibility to protect our planet and the people who live in it. It’s not just world leaders and businessmen who have the power to create change – we’re all responsible for shaping this world; we’re all designers.

But for those with a global audience, the weight is greater. Influence is not a thing to be taken lightly, and if you have it, you should use it as a force for good. Keen to spark a conversation, POC Mag invited a tuned-in designer to share his ethical perspective.

Recently, the idea of environmentally sustainable design has become  hot topic. As industries plunder the planet’s resources, people are no longer happy creating waste without a second thought. Magazines are moving online, advertising campaigns are
going digital and materials are being chosen on their environmental credentials, not just the way they look and feel. More consideration, however, needs to be given to the
relationship between designers and clients; who they are and what they represent. Should designers feel an ethical or moral responsibility for the role they played in its market success, or are they exempt because they were simply representing their client?

Eager to find answers to these difficult questions, I started to investigate how the design industry views ethical issues. By doing so, I wanted the design community, as the interface between the client and the consumer, to seriously consider what responsibility it holds.

The idea was to consider whether or not ethical decisions have a place in the industry and how much control, if any, designers have to dictate their own ethical code. Should designers agree to any given contract or should they educate themselves about the clients and their products, before making an informed decision about whether to represent them?

Contemplating this conundrum led to a wide variety of responses. A professor of design at a highly regarded institute of education in the US suggested designers have a professional
responsibility akin to doctors or lawyers to represent their clients despite personal opinion. Others, especially designers just starting in the industry, were more ideological, believing that they had a responsibility to acknowledge the current impact of our lifestyle on the planet and actively work towards improving it in any way they could. This difference of opinion could simply be viewed as naïvety versus experience, but it could also signify a change in the collective conscience.

Many people outside the industry view designers as overpaid ad makers or visual guns for hire, but there is a swathe of subversive nonprofits
like Positive Posters – an Australian-based project that invites designers to create artwork for an annual poster competition – aiming to raise awareness about global social issues.

According to their website, “Our community was founded upon our belief in the unrivalled ability of designers to create, impact, communicate and spark revolutions.” Such designers have the education and intelligence to carry out research and filter information. They not only see the value of considered design, but also the importance of visual communication in educating those around them. These individuals will help shape how society views itself in the future; they will dictate the visual language of our generation.

Designers can refuse to represent clients. Despite the undeniable and unavoidable pressure that the economy places upon designers (as with any industry), this ability has been exercised more frequently in the last few years and its impact cannot be overstated. Designers have the opportunity to collaborate with industry leaders and create work that informs and educates the public in an accessible way, contributing positively to society.
Take Girl Effect, a collaboration between the Nike Foundation, the NoVo Foundation and the United Nations Foundation. Its simple yet powerful message about the transformative effects of educating young girls in impoverished, developing countries is presented
in a visually stunning, informative and memorable way, and has an extraordinary impact.

As we are bombarded on a daily basis with visual stimuli, the focus of the design industry should shift toward those with the most interesting and important message, not those with the deepest pockets. The most fascinating and frustrating aspect of ethics is that they are not set in stone. Our ethical decisions are based upon our internal and external experiences, as well as our heritage, culture and beliefs. They are an ever-changing set of standards that we apply to our lives and our profession should not be excluded from that
process. Like any skill or knowledge set, we should continually revisit and refine it. We shoild improve it, not forget it.

“It’s the second time that we are being nominated. The last time it was the multi purpose gravity sport helmet Receptor+ (it didn´t win) and this time the jury has targeted our recent MTB helmet Trabec. It´s a great prize and it´s extremely rewarding being reckognized a second time. We cross our fingers again and hope for the best and thank you for appreciating what we do” Says: Stefan Ytterborn CEO & Founder of POC

The Trabec in-mold helmet combines functionality and performance for single track and enduro riders who are in need of the highest degree of protection. The construction is similar to how a skeleton is built for both resistance and durability. The inner Aramid filament reinforced EPS core is tough and resilient while the outer PC shell is constructed with the seams located in the areas of least exposure. An aerodynamic channel system and 16 vent slots provides great ventilation while the fit is designed to be around the head versus on top, which promises superior protection.

Read more about the design nominee watch the video

More info about Trabec

The crankbrothers’ Laguna Beach, CA, design studio is unassuming from the outside and it would be easy to drive by and miss it. There are no gaudy flashing lights or huge signs announcing its presence – just a dark blue awning with a subtle white logo above the door. Yet when you step over the threshold this anonymity is replaced by a space that is personal, invigorating, and conducive to collaboration and creation. There are aluminum Apple iMacs, lockers, and fixtures softened by wooden pieces of furniture, beams and flooring. There is a bike ‘tree’ – an objet d’art that doubles as storage for staffer’s bikes – and soft couches are arranged throughout. Walk into the meeting room and a ping pong table functions as a formal meeting table.

“Crankbrothers loves design,” explains the company’s marketing manager Amanda Schaper, “but we are also very down to earth and playful, and it’s important that our workspace says the same.” Fittingly, the interior colour palette is a soft balance of white, light blue and silver, with dark grey flooring, dark brown wood and brushed metal. “It’s a clear reflection of the products we design; simple, clean, beautiful,” adds Amanda.

“We are now officially in the age of design for the bicycle,” explains crankbrothers co-partner Andrew Herrick. “This was our hypothesis back in 2002. We believed that the bicycle would enter the age of design – when major technical innovation would be [replaced by] incremental advances in great, evolving industrial design. This is exactly where we thought it would be and we are in exactly the right spot.”

Nicknamed the ‘Apple’ of the bike industry, crankbrothers has carved a distinctive niche for itself with an ambitious mission statement “to change the appearance of the bike”. Its ‘iPod’ has been the innovative ‘Egg Beater’ – a light minimal pedal made simply from a spindle wrapped by a four-sided, spring-loaded retention bar – and, in keeping with its Silicon Valley counterpart, it sees itself as “a design company that makes mountain bike components”.

Over fourteen years, crankbrothers has grown from the humble part-time project of two design partners and enthusiastic cyclists, Carl Winefordner and Frank Hermansen, into one of the most distinctive cycle component and design brands in the world, enjoying nine years of consistent annual growth along the way. Their influence may be far-reaching, but their home has always been in the Pacific Ocean-hugging town of Laguna Beach, where the vast majority of their thirty-strong workforce are based. “Our location is extremely important to us,” says Amanda. “Laguna Beach is an artistic community, and that helps us to really nurture the creativity that allows us to thrive.”

The crankbrothers’ studio space is implicit in facilitating their innovative work. “Being happy in our office allows us to be creative individuals,” says Amanda. “We’re inspired by our space and surroundings rather than limited by them.” With the ocean in one direction – just 200m away – and the trail-riddled hills in another, crankbrothers is centered in the perfect artisan and outdoors idyll. To compliment this, their design studio embraces ideas of space and light with an open-plan layout that should “encourage interaction and teamwork”.

But their out-of-the-box thinking has had its teething problems. When Winefordner and Hermansen were moonlighting with component design in the early 2000s, touting their telescopic Speedlever tyre lever around the industry, they were repeatedly told, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Winefordner explains: “They all declined, basically telling us that it would never work, and if it did, it would never sell.” It must have been satisfying, then, that after launching the Egg Beater pedal, crankbrothers’ business exploded? “We were drowning in success,” admits Winefordner.

Of course, it would be gratuitous to say that crankbrothers has had a flawless hit-rate. Like many mavericks, soaring highs have come with some crashing lows – the most high-profile of which, a stainless steel and aluminium-backed box-section Cobalt crankset, was just too ambitious for the manufacturing capability four years ago. In practise, the two separate halves of the crank arms de-bonded, rendering the cranks useless. “We have had plenty of swings and misses,” admits Andrew, “but that’s because we’ve taken a lot of swings. We are not interested in making products like everyone else does.”

It is not surprising, then, that many critics of crankbrothers have accused it of prioritising form over function. But crankbrothers is a company that polarises opinion – fans are devout, and critics are staunch detractors. “When we hit, we are complimented,” continues Andrew. “When we miss, we are criticised. In both cases, we can’t tie too much emotion to it. I can promise that we will continue to push new designs and styles and I expect we will continue to receive some criticism as a result.”

Currently, crankbrothers has eighty-six products in its range including pedals, hydration packs, bars, stems, headsets, and more. Its new range of premium multi-tools – the Pixl, Pica, and Pica+ – uses a unique indexing feature to click the tools into place. “Simple is far more difficult to achieve than complicated,” explains Winefordner. “The best products are simple, yet solve all the important problems. Average products solve the problems, but are complicated in some way. […] Simplicity is harder to achieve than complexity.” Indeed, as Leonardo da Vinci once wrote, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” and few other two-wheeled brands seem to embrace that philosophy as thoroughly as crankbrothers.

“We have a very unique collection of individuals and we all have a mutual respect and appreciation for what each other brings to the table,” says Amanda. “It makes for a very creative and inviting atmosphere, where people are encouraged to share ideas and make suggestions on how we can be doing things better — because we can always be doing things better.” Co-partner Andrew certainly agrees, adding: “Creative people are more creative when they are happy and this means, in our building, riding bikes and designing products.”

Although it’s at the forefront of its market, crankbrothers is not afraid to take risks. A radical approach that continues to be nurtured, perhaps, by their bespoke nest? “The very clean atmosphere allows us to be open rather than cluttering our thoughts with loud décor,” agrees Amanda. “An office located in a large, bland business park wouldn’t allow us to think outside the box and come up with the innovative ideas that define crankbrothers.” Read POC MAG

This time it’s the POC EYES Eyewear Collection and the Fornix Ski Helmet that have been awarded.

POC Eyes Eyewear: With the experience gained in goggle optics, we decided to take the next step with the conviction that we would also be able to make a difference in the field of high performance eyewear.

“it’s a line of eyewear with the focus on performance and optical perfection. The line stretches from functional performance specs, with the typology evolving from Lenny Kravitz, rather than “stupid science fiction-like blades” to off-activity, hi definition everyday eyewear”.

Fornix Ski Helmet: The challenge has been to manage the contradiction between super light, well ventilated in-mold helmets and a solid, safe and durable construction.

“Thanks to the innovation of POCs Aramid Bridge, the challenges were overcome and we are proud to present the Fornix helmet, the next step in in-mold helmets”.

Quotes by: Stefan Ytterborn CEO & Founder

For more info on Red Dot

Don’t miss your chance of winning a skiing holiday for your family to Åre! Åre is famous for its alpine feeling and friendly character! You can ski right down to the village centre, to taverns that tempt with good food and espresso. That is one of the reasons for being a fun, international meeting point for families, skiers and boarders.

We bet you have loads of nice POCito photos from your skiing vacation that you would like to share with us!

Enter the competition by submitting your best “POCito memory” photo (featuring a POCito product) by clicking the link below.

Thanks to Åre resort the winning family will be able to enjoy free lodging, ski rental and ski passes for one week. Make sure to enter your name, address, phone nr and email so that we can get in touch with you if you win. Final entry date: 30 April 2012

For details of participation, click here ››
For more information about Åre, click here ››

Check out the competition here!

“Once in a while I’m asked the question – How do you make the safest helmet there is?

The answer´s easy – just make it incredibly big, with decimeters of shock-absorbing material. The downside is that they would be hard to sell and seriously limit movement” Says: Stefan Ytterborn Founder and CEO.

We constantly try to come up with new concepts to increase protection and safety, whether it´s a matter of material, construction, design or other practical issues. With a large group of POC users taking big risks, challenging steep and icy slopes to gain perhaps a hundredth of a second, we have been looking into ways to improve the performance of helmets. These improvements include its capacity to better absorb energy at far greater speeds than what they are tested and certified for.

When we started looking at this specific case 18 months ago, we were humbled to realize that there are numerous improvements that can be made to a helmet, and that these improvements need to be made alongside other aspects, such as ensuring the athletes´ physical stamina, the length, steepness and quality of the race line, the netting, equipment improvements, etc, etc. We are very aware that launching the new POC DH and SG helmet is only a small step among numerous improvements that will need to follow within the helmet industry to promote the safety of athletes.

But this first step from POC is an initial effort . One small effort that can make a huge difference. By adding around 6 millimeters (around 30%) to the thickness of the helmet,

We have been able to add the same measure of shock absorbing Expanded PolyPropylene inside. The additional give of this extra thickness provides a more gentle stop and allows the head more travel in high speed impact.

By analyzing serious crashes in Downhill racing, we have found that the speed of impact between the helmet and the ground may be much higher than is stipulated in helmet testing. Our first eye opener was Scott Macartney’s accident in Kitzbühel where our initial analysis showed an impact velocity close to 4 times the velocity tested for in normal ski standards. When looking at other, similar accidents, we could see speeds anywhere between 20%-300% higher.

Theoretically, assuming that a helmet is perfectly constructed, a 5-6 mm thick helmet could pass standard ski helmet testing, assuming that the helmet is capable of allowing an ideal constant deceleration of the head, and at the same time only barely passing the standard. We know that no such helmets exist in reality, and most race ski helmets are at least 20 mm thick (4 times thicker than in the ideal theory). However, applying the same kind of theoretical thinking to the serious DH accidents analyzed by POC, the helmets would need to be between 20-45 mm thick. Continuing this same relation between theory and real life, this equates to a real-life thickness of 80-180 mm. That definitely raises some questions.

Testing of the new POC Skull Comp DH helmets has been performed at speeds higher than those in normal testing, and shows that the extra thickness is well suited to decreasing impact violence at higher speeds. When the helmet was dropped from a height raised by an average 30% compared to normal ski helmet testing, the average decrease of impact violence was between 25-30% in comparison with our normal thickness race ski helmet.

When looking at specific properties in a ski helmet and optimizing it for higher speeds, the problem is the contradiction between high velocity performance and performance at more moderate speeds. This is also a likely accident scenario. The risk if optimizing a helmet at a given thickness for one situation is that you lose performance at the other end of the scale.

People might feel odd about wearing a bigger helmet. As a first step we’re talking about a 6 mm radius increase. We ask ourselves – Can someone afford to be vain at 150 Ks down an icy slope?

IMPORTANT: Current POC Skull Comp helmet also complies with the new FIS regulations, with a maximum of 230 GS, when tested according to the CE-Standard.

WORDS: Steve Yates                      

“Are you ready for an interactive e-motion picture?” asks the man in the top hat and cane to a rammed Hoxton Square Bar And Kitchen in Shoreditch, London. People are more than ready. Ever since Janelle Monáe’s beyond-stunning appearance on David Letterman – in which she channelled the ghosts of James Brown, Michael Jackson and a thousand Broadway stars into a performance of her song ‘Tightrope’ that left Madonna looking lethargic and Lady Gaga uninspired – the buzz around her has grown closer to a nuclear hum.
Sat in a Mayfair hotel the day before the show, Janelle Monáe exudes quiet confidence. “I’ve been performing for over half my life, the stage is my home,” she says in her soft, smoky voice. “I wrote plays and musicals growing up and that kept me alive, kept me out of trouble. I could’ve been doing some other creatively mischievous things.” Born in 1985, Monáe’s been a hot ticket for a while now, winning talent shows all over her native Kansas as a child (providing valuable supplementary income for her working-class parents), making a splash on OutKast’s Idlewild album and so impressing Diddy with her self-released digital EP Metropolis that he snapped her up for his Bad Boy record label and billed her as “perhaps the most important signing of my career”.
Metropolis was the first of a four-part concept piece based on Fritz Lang’s movie, in which Monáe, cast as her “muse” Cindi Mayweather, returns from the future to lead a fight for android rights. She explains: “The android represents the new form of ‘the other’ – something I can relate to and I feel a lot of people can. We’re going to live in a world of androids anyway, I do believe, because of the rapid speed of technology, nanotechnology becoming smaller and faster every two years. So I pose the question: ‘Are we going to fear the android and treat them inhumanely, treat them like slaves?’”
Monáe has stated such views so earnestly it’s led some critics to ponder whether she’s an android herself. But the new album, The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III), lists human inspiration for each track.

From Princess Leia’s ‘cinnamon buns’ hairstyle to the cover artwork for Stevie Wonder’s album The Music of My Mind, a kaleidoscope of influences inform Monáe’s unique vision. She says she sees music in terms of colours, dabbling away at a track until it’s the right “shade”. Yet her clothing is monochrome, a pattern of self-designed black and white suits that are strikingly androgynous, a suggestion she swats away imperiously. “Fashion is something you do, you don’t talk about it. I don’t even think it’s that important, I don’t believe in menswear and womenswear, it’s just a uniform paying homage to the working men and women. For me there’s just no grey area, it’s either black or white.”
Now located in Atlanta, Georgia, with her Wondaland Arts Society – a collective of “graphic novelists, performance artists, actors, musicians, screenwriters, you name it” – Monáe is serious about her art. She retains full control over her music, clothes, hair (a spectacular pompadour), choreography – “not that I really choreograph anything, but if I wanted to, that would be up to me” – and believes fully in the transformative power of music. “We [Wondaland] are all using our unique gifts to help preserve art and use music as our weapon. We have the right to our imaginations and are unapologetic,” she states with the determined familiarity of a manifesto.
It’s this desire to share her gift with the world that led Monáe to quit New York’s American Musical and Dramatic Academy and abandon her plans to become a Broadway star. At least for now. “I still love and respect it and I want to see ArchAndroid on Broadway,” she says, “but I had to leave to get into contact with the things that made me unique as a writer and as a performer. I didn’t want to be too influenced by anybody’s standardised teachings. I have to be involved in the creative process to be connected to it. That’s the only reason I didn’t stay in New York – I wanted to create my own New York.”