Brilliant design is when you can take a waste product and transform it into something badly needed.In 1989 Phil McCrory, an Alabama hairdresser, was shampooing a customer's head. The TV in the salon was on, and news footage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill was being broadcast. As Mc … | Continue reading
Hasbro's line of G.I. Joe action figures was a tremendous hit in the '80s. The largest toy they produced in the line-up was this USS Flagg aircraft carrier, which was the size of a coffee table:Image: Internal Confusion 9 The monstrous toy's original 1985 commercial:Last week som … | Continue reading
This Pivot Arc Lighter provides the reach of a wand lighter, but comes in a more portable form factor: It can be folded in half when not in use. It's made of die-cast zinc and finished with a brass coating. The juice comes from lithium-ion batteries, recharged via the USB-C port … | Continue reading
From an environmental perspective, responsibly managed wood is undoubtedly the best building material. It literally grows out of the ground, it stores carbon, and it can be endlessly regenerated.That being said, there's a lot of waste created in timber production. Not every tree … | Continue reading
Resurfacing a highway requires shutting down lanes, and this creates disruption. The Swiss don't like disruptions. Thus the Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) hired Marti Technik AG, a construction firm that specializes in cutting-edge technology and special equipment, to design … | Continue reading
Etienne Constable of Seaside, California is a boat owner. It's parked on a trailer in his driveway, in plain view. The city government informed Constable that this was illegal; the boat would need to be visually concealed behind a six-foot visual barrier.Constable complied and ha … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:Industrial Facility designed this Powerbox mobile charging system for Herman Miller. How architects could help custom fab shops: Let them sell products from projects.Fantastic Industrial Design student work: Charlie Humble-Thomas asks "How l … | Continue reading
These days an ID firm might be called on to design a system, rather than a product. Package Solutions is a company seeking to solve the problems of delivering packages to multi-resident buildings and student housing. They hired Formation Design Group to work out the solutions."Th … | Continue reading
I wear a face shield in the mornings. On a farm, when you're blasting out muck buckets with a hose, you only have to get liquid feces up your nose once before you seek solutions.The face shield I've got is the polycarbonate 3M kind that you'd wear if using a lathe. It's overkill, … | Continue reading
These MagPower Tables were designed by Carl Magnusson. The legs feature one USB-A and two USB-C ports.You may be wondering where the power comes from. In Magnusson's sketch, we can see where the power cord would be plugged into the back of the leg: However, there's also an optio … | Continue reading
In the 1950s, German manufacturer Hailo produced step trash cans.Nowadays trash cans (at least in Europe) are no longer standalone items in kitchens, but are hidden within cabinets. Keeping pace is Hailo's modern offering, the Libero. It's a super low-profile hands-free cabinet d … | Continue reading
This Help Universal Light is by German industrial designer Rupert Kopp. A sort of task lamp for everyday life, the graphic, playful shape is meant to encourage you to jury-rig it into places where you couldn't get an ordinary lamp.The dimmable LED puts out up to 1,900 lumens. The … | Continue reading
Remember the package-design-egg-drop challenge they make (or made) ID students do? Civil Engineering students at the Technical University of Munich face a similar challenge, except the egg is their professor.In order to pass TUM's Design & Construction 2 course, student teams eac … | Continue reading
As European cities increasingly ban cars and trucks, delivery by bicycle is growing in popularity. But cargo bikes can only carry so much. That's why Cityshuttle, an urban mobility company, is taking a page from the trucking industry's book. Cityshuttle's ePack is essentially a t … | Continue reading
Here's an unusual furniture niche: Powered behind-the-sofa consoles. Michigan-based builder Mitten State Woodworks specializes in them, offering depths as narrow as 3", and as wide as 11". The other dimensions are up to you and the size of your sofa. A built-in outlet provides tw … | Continue reading
"I struggled to work with my cats nearby," writes inventor Scott Salzman. "They interfered with my work, stepped on the keyboard, and interrupted business." Salzman then designed this Desk Nest Cat Bed: It's basically a monitor arm, a small pet bed, and a mating mount. It's also … | Continue reading
This striking ANC stool……was CNC-milled from an aluminum slab. Once the parts are folded, the diamond-shaped key is bolted into place, holding it all together. It was designed by Swiss design consultancy Panter & Tourron. The motivation behind the piece is somewhat paradoxical:"A … | Continue reading
If you watched the recent Shogun remake, you might have wondered why the samurai, fearsome warriors that they are, had such goofy haircuts.I'd asked a teacher about this when I was living in Japan. The two-part answer had to do with the helmets samurai wore in battle. 1. The top … | Continue reading
Working with cutting edge technologies to create innovative products, experiences and spaces is a dream job for many of today's designers. Ideally, these designed experiences deliver delight to the intended audience, with interactions that are as clear, understandable and enjoyab … | Continue reading
In 2000, architect Mario Botta was commissioned to design the Centre Dürrenmatt in Neuchâtel. Built around 20th Swiss century author/painter Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1952 residence, the Centre is a showcase for his work, managed by the Swiss National Library.After two decades the C … | Continue reading
Based in Munich, Marcus Götschl is a Master Cabinetmaker who also holds a degree in Product Design. Götschl shows a little outside-the-box thinking with his New Gen bed:"The focus is on minimising resource consumption and using replaceable components, challenging the culture of d … | Continue reading
As someone who reveres timber framing, this is kind of painful to see. However, I suppose it's better that the pieces are seen and used as street furniture rather than discarded.These are public benches outside a train station in Otsu, the capital of Japan's Shiga Prefecture. "In … | Continue reading
This Slittino bench, made of Maple, is by Geneva-based designer Léa Debernardi. Debernardi sought to meld CNC fabrication with traditional craftsmanship:"CNC machine tools prove to be the most widespread digital tools in Swiss carpentry and cabinetmaking," she explains. "However, … | Continue reading
Sponsored and conducted with Advance Design Division of Honda R&D Co., Ltd., in partnership with Pratt Institute, La Fonte Co., Ltd. and Core 77, the Design Schools Workshop will take place for the first time as part of WANTED during ICFF at the Javits Center, May 19-21, with a w … | Continue reading
May the 4th is probably an exhausting day for Disney lawyers, as they hunt down unauthorized Star Wars celebratory products being sold. Apparel company BustedTees may have found a loophole with their Imperial Officer baseball caps:The row of red and blue tiles visually indicate, … | Continue reading
This incredibly ambitious and thoroughly-executed project is by Charlie Humble-Thomas, done while pursuing his Masters in the Design Products program at the RCA. Called Conditional Longevity, it asks the question: "How long should objects last?" Seeking the answer, Humble-Thomas … | Continue reading
It's not uncommon for architects to design not just a structure, but the fixtures that will populate it. The manufacture of these smaller pieces is outsourced to custom fabricators.One such fabricator is Totetsu, a Japanese ironworking company. "Many of the products created by ar … | Continue reading
The Powerbox is the latest addition to Herman Miller's OE1 Workspace Collection. Like the other pieces in the collection, it's been designed by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, a/k/a Industrial Facility; however it's not a piece of furniture, but a portable charging system meant to enabl … | Continue reading
To celebrate the launch of the newest Star Wars Original Series, The Acolyte, as well as the designers and makers who have worked to create distant worlds, creatures and—yes—the droids we all love, Autodesk and Disney invite you to join their ranks by entering a Droid design comp … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:A good example of improving an existing product's UX by listening to customers' pain points: Star-M's special Raceway Bit speeds installation times for electricians. Milwaukee's alternative designs for vacuum-based drill dust shrouds.Elements Ed … | Continue reading
"We are completely revolutionizing air conditioners," writes startup Transaera, "with advanced materials that remove moisture from the air before cooling it. Then we use the heat generated by the air conditioner – instead of wasting it – to dry the material for the next cycle. Th … | Continue reading
This is an interesting furniture form, designed for the masses, and always poorly executed. (I have a hard time admitting those two qualities are now permanently linked.) Aimed at the outdoor grilling crowd, it's a height-adjustable outdoor side table with a cooler in the bottom … | Continue reading
You've seen pit stop footage with crew members zipping tires on and off. But you may not have seen this thing being swapped out:That's a bottle filled with water, usually mixed with some combination of vitamins, minerals and/or glucose. Races can be long and grueling, and drivers … | Continue reading
SHFT is the handle of a South Korean product designer who produces objects in sheet metal. Their m.o. is to post shots of prototypes on Instagram to gauge feedback, then batch-produce the things people like. One such object is this stainless steel Fold B clipboard for sketching, … | Continue reading
This Ourou shelving system employs an unusual wood joint. It was developed by French industrial designer Guillaume Bloget, working with craftsman Antoine Rivie`re."I wanted to make a wooden shelving system, without nails or screws, completely removable so that it could be stored … | Continue reading
Standard Equipment, a Toronto-based furniture startup, is producing this unnamed seating system framed with 5mm aluminum sheets. It ships broken down, and you bolt it together. The cushions are foam, upholstered in Olefin canvas.It's available as a one-seater club chair……a two-se … | Continue reading
Responsible furniture designers use sustainably-sourced and certified wood. However, not all of that wood goes into the pieces, of course; there are offcuts and scrap. These high-quality pieces of wood, which have had the bad luck of occupying the negative space of a design, are … | Continue reading
When I was living in the city, I wore out the ass of a pair of Carhartts just by sitting on stoops and concrete. Bummed me out as the rest of the pants were still good. If only NYC was bedecked with these: That's the Corner bench, by Norwegian industrial designer Lars Tornøe. The … | Continue reading
For building durable structures and outdoor furniture, tropical hardwood Ipé is a gift from nature. Unfortunately, we've taken too much of it, devastating the tropical rainforest to produce boardwalks, decks and flooring for yachts.A more sustainable alternative to Ipé has been d … | Continue reading
This elegant portable lamp, called Salt, is by German lighting manufacturer Grau. Made of powder-coated aluminum and with a rubberized base, it features a touch-sensitive top that allows you to dim the LED, which maxes out at 450 lumens.While the lamp's form is stark and technica … | Continue reading
If you're designing steel outdoor furniture or infrastructure, your go-to material would be stainless steel—if your client has deep pockets. If they don't, you'd step down to galvanized steel, which adds a protective layer of zinc, offering the corrosion resistance at a lower cos … | Continue reading
These elegant, double-walled Cilindro oil cruets are by Italian industrial designer Corrado Dotti. They're handmade, out of borosilicate glass.There's also a Cubo version… …and finally the Sfera. (The vessel without a spout is a salt shaker.) They're also available with tinted … | Continue reading
These Vök trays are by Icelandic industrial designer Dögg Guðmundsdóttir. The name makes immediate sense—if you speak Icelandic:"Inspiration and the name for these trays were found in the cracks and holes in ice that are known in Iceland as vök." "The Vök trays are three asymmet … | Continue reading
Most power tool manufacturers you've heard of, and some you haven't, offer some form of vacuum-connected dust collector for drilling. The lamprey-like devices use the vacuum's suction to stick to a wall or ceiling, while a hole in the middle admits the bit. Milwaukee has two alte … | Continue reading
This Space-Frame series of furniture, by Berlin-based architect Gustav Düsing, was designed over a decade ago as an experiment. It's a pity it wasn't pursued further. Made of Baltic Birch plywood, the pieces could conceivably be cut on a less-than-full-size CNC mill and would obv … | Continue reading
It's been two years since we first saw the 2x2 Ultra Bike prototype, which had electric motors—and gas tanks!—in each wheel.Produced by Russian company Robo Systems, it's now being offered for sale through mobility company TheArsenale. The current version of the bike looks like r … | Continue reading
A company called Elements Eden is taking square aim at the "design lover's" crowd with their repurposed airline galley carts. The staged photographs present them as Mac workstations, Monocle storage units and shrines-in-waiting to Dieter Rams. The company says these are designed … | Continue reading
I don't know whether to be impressed, terrified or skeptical. This is startup Astribot's eponymous robot competently performing domestic tasks: Tidying up a worksurface, preparing food, vacuuming, ironing, folding clothes, etc., purportedly without being teleoperated:My kneejerk … | Continue reading