This month LG showed off a prototype of their stretchable display, which can be expanded up to 50%, stretching from 12" to 18". The micro-LED display has a 100ppI resolution and displays RGB.The company was able to achieve the feat by using silicon substrate and a proprietary wir … | Continue reading
Material science combines with fear-based marketing in this Armor-Tex jacket. The Chinese-made garment is said to be stab-proof, and needed because "violent crimes are lurking in the hidden alleys of society." The nondescript black windbreaker features an intergrated 3.9mm-thick … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:Luxury screwdriver, anyone? Arrowmax's designey hand tools. The Brabus Big Boy 1200, a luxury motorhome, is vanlife for the 1%.The Bikerguard: a windshield wiper for motorcycle helmet visors.Silence Corner's versatile Mambapod is a mini trip … | Continue reading
Here's something all of us could've used at ID school: This Sherman Backpack, by industrial designer Fernando A. Robert (a/k/a StudioFAR) was designed to carry odd-shaped objects. Our drawing boards, acrylic sheets, portfolios, blueprint tubes etc. would've fit perfectly in here. … | Continue reading
Got an idea for a tiny home? Kingspan, an Irish company that specializes in insulation products, is sponsoring a design competition for a home no larger than 269 square feet. The MICROHOME Kingspan Edition 2024/25 invites participants to conceptualize an off-grid modular dwelling … | Continue reading
"If we succeed in finding solutions that correspond to each material, it will result in completely different design methods and formal characters."Those words were written by Willy Guhl, one of Switzerland's first industrial designers, in 1950. He backed up that philosophy with a … | Continue reading
Videochats have become indispensable for businesses, but they're no substitute for a face-to-face meeting. The lack of accurate eye contact is jarring, and it's a lot harder to read visual cues when staring at a tiny head in a laptop screen. Additionally, Steelcase learned during … | Continue reading
This little Corky gizmo was designed for cyclists with drop bars. It's so named because you install it by "corking up" the end of the bar, and now you've got a handy rearview mirror (polycarbonate, not glass) you can flip out. It's attached via a ball joint, so you can dial in th … | Continue reading
We don't get many softgoods case studies, and here's a great one: Nike's Elite EasyOn backpack, originally designed for Paralympians. When Richard Ramsay was a basketball-obsessed teenager, he remembers how his dad would periodically chase him down the court during games to help … | Continue reading
The work of long-time Core77-fave NOOKA—founded by Matthew Waldman—is the subject of a newly-released book, Designing Time, a lavish and time-travel-y chronicle of the brand's evolution and its efforts to make us rethink how we perceive the formal intersection of time and design. … | Continue reading
A motorcyclist riding through rainy weather might coat their visor with a water repellent spray. However, they then have to travel fast enough for wind resistance to blow their visor clear. At slower speeds, their visibility remains compromised.This Bikerguard invention, created … | Continue reading
Today Otherlab, a sort of incubator/skunkworks, unveiled this aluminum-framed Lightfoot scooter. It's got a 48-volt, 1.1kWh battery that provides up to 37 miles (60 km) of range, and which can be charged at a standard wall socket. But as you've undoubtedly noticed, the scooter ha … | Continue reading
For those of us who can't afford to fly Business Class, design studio JPA has designed a better Premium Economy seat. The new design takes cues from a wingback chair, providing greater privacy on either side of your head. A nice, unexpectedly elegant design touch is this reading … | Continue reading
Sruli Recht, the Reyjavik-based industrial designer with a penchant for the unusual, may have topped himself. His ATOR scarf, made of spider silk, was created with the help of both a spider and a goat:"Our knit originates from the silk gland DNA of a spider, carefully placed in t … | Continue reading
This Mambapod was invented by Taiwanese photography accessory company Silence Corner. It's a mini tripod that can also be used on non-flat surfaces, thanks to an innovative feature in one of the legs. Two small jaws can be unfolded from the leg, and dialed towards each other by … | Continue reading
German company Brabus provides aftermarket upgrades to Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, Porsche and Rolls-Royce vehicles. They also produce their own limited-edition rides, and this is their largest: The Brabus Big Boy 1200, a luxury motorhome. At nearly 40' long, 8.2' wide, and 13.1' tal … | Continue reading
The message from Autodesk and the many companies that presented and exhibited at Autodesk University (AU) last month in San Diego was clear: for the product design and manufacturing (D&M), architecture, engineering, construction and operations (AECO), and media and entertainment … | Continue reading
The Formlabs User Summit, the company's annual 3D printing user conference, starts tomorrow at 9am ET. The company's SLS and SLA printers will be on-show, along with industry folks discussing the impact of 3D printing across a variety of industries. The event will feature a keyno … | Continue reading
I have no idea who the target market for these is. Chinese tool manufacturer Arrowmax sells these Black Golden Honeycomb tools: Drivers, Allen wrenches and reamers. They're sold individually or in sets. On the company's website, there are literally no product descriptions for an … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:Why do humanoid robots move like humans? For efficiency's sake, oughtn't they have their own movement style? In Amsterdam, a hotel room with an airplane inside of it.KraussMaffei's ColorForm production method: Injection molding and painting … | Continue reading
Dorel Juvenile is the world's leading juvenile products company. When they wanted to develop a new infant car seat, they turned to Pennsylvania-based ID firm DesignThink.DesignThink as the Innovation Incubator for the Ultra Lightweight Maxi Cosi Coral XP A Cold January Day in 201 … | Continue reading
Kia Design Center America unveiled a funky concept EV van at this week's SEMA show. This PV5 WKNDR is intended to be "an ideal escape pod for extended weekends in nature." Among its unusual features are a steering wheel that pivots out of the way (sort of), a pivoting passenger s … | Continue reading
Dutch company Airback has invented a backpack that can shrink its contents. Their eponymous backpack ($185) features a zippered airtight compartment with a port; once you've stuffed this compartment full, you attach either a household vacuum cleaner, or the company's small electr … | Continue reading
Here's a strange pairing of objects, from Chinese manufacturer Olight. Their Baton 4 Premium Edition is a tiny LED flashlight—less than 2.5" long--that comes with its own charging case. Despite its tiny size, the Baton 4 has a 1,300-lumen output, and the company claims it can thr … | Continue reading
A French mobility company called Mobilize has designed a new type of vehicle from scratch. Two, actually: The Duo, an enclosed two-seater electric quadricycle, and its sibling the Bento, which ditches the back seat for a large storage box.Both vehicles were meant to be strong urb … | Continue reading
When it comes to a true flying car—I don't mean just a VTOL vehicle, I mean something that can both drive and fly—we've seen a lot of wild forms over the years.The AeroMobil 4.0 The Xpeng AeroHT The Alef Model A The LuftCar The GAC GoveNotably, one that actually flew was the Klei … | Continue reading
To me, the gaming market is a lot like the EDC market: It's fascinating to see what developmental lengths people will go to, to push the UX of some object with highly specific functions. A case in point is this Elitech Protean Space Quick Control Swap Gaming System.The idea behin … | Continue reading
Inventor Kazuya Shibata, who creates "marginally useful things," presents this Smartphone Face Shield. It's designed for those who use their phone in bed. A lessor inventor might simply have created an arm to hold the phone in place, but Shibata knows that greater phone engagemen … | Continue reading
The images below look like an ArtCenter grad's portfolio, but apparently the development of these machines is being pursued.An Austrian startup called CycloTech is working on a novel propulsion style for electric flying vehicles. Rather than using conventional rotors or propellor … | Continue reading
With America split in half,The Onion finds a way to poke fun at the election by reimagining how it's presented to viewers. Here the company's comedy scribes have envisioned how technology could provide us with election coverage that's easier to grasp: | Continue reading
Startup Small Wonder seeks to shake up the packaging and delivery methods of haircare products, making them more sustainable. To realize their goals, they turned to Scott Wilson's Chicago-based ID firm Minimal. Tiny Footprint, Lasting ImpactSmall Wonder is a company on a mission … | Continue reading
European company Buildner organizes design competitions, typically for architects. This one, however, veers more into ID territory. And despite the contest's name, you needn't be an architect to enter. "Introducing the Architect's Chair Competition, an exciting opportunity for ar … | Continue reading
While sheetrock is the incumbent wall and ceiling material, there's a lot of reasons not to like it. It's heavy, difficult to transport and fragile in transit. Cutting it is messy. Installing it is a multistep process consisting of screwing, spackling the screw heads, taping and … | Continue reading
Most furniture restoration shops contain a fireproof cabinet and a lidded metal pail. That's where they store all the nasty chemicals required for stripping finishes off of furniture pieces, and the oily rags such work generates. But perhaps in time, those items will all be repla … | Continue reading
About a decade ago, someone at the Corendon Hotel group got the goofy idea to put an airplane inside of a hotel room. Some unpromising renderings were commissioned: Then they actually chopped up a decommissioned 737, and craned it up to the seventh floor of the Corendon Amsterdam … | Continue reading
Manufacturing machinery company KraussMaffei has designed a new twist on multi-component injection molding. Their ColorForm system cuts out a time-consuming step in the production of injection molded parts that are painted, like automotive bumpers and fascia. Instead of molding … | Continue reading
British design collective Ma3t designed this amusing Pinch Hold Mug. It very purposefully lacks a handle, as it's targeted at rock climbers. "With a Pinch Hold Mug, even when your relaxing with a cuppa, you'll be getting a little bit stronger." "These first editions are not grade … | Continue reading
It's a matter of time before humanoid robots enter the workforce. In this recently-released video, Boston Dynamics shows their Atlas 'bot autonomously moving parts from one storage unit to another. "There are no prescribed or teleoperated movements; all motions are generated auto … | Continue reading
"Our heritage takes us back to a time when men cared about their appearance and understood that there was no substitute for quality," writes Ball and Buck, who describe themselves as "an outfitter tailored for the sporting gentleman." They've teamed up with Negrini, an Italian ma … | Continue reading
This startling-looking EV minivan concept is by Toyota. It's named Kayoibako, in reference to a type of configurable inter-facility shipping container used in Japan. In that spirit, the idea behind the concept is that it's a box "with an 'ultra-expandable' design that allows tail … | Continue reading
Industrial designer and RISD professor Justin Sirotin founded Route Werks, a company that designs bicycle accessories. Their Handlebar Bag, which we covered here, is a popular offering. After getting feedback from customers, the Rhode-Island-based company learned that a larger ve … | Continue reading
As we saw here, medical exoskeletons can be used to rehabilitate those with leg injuries. But the conventional approach has been to design something that caregivers must "install" the user within. Now researchers at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology) have fl … | Continue reading
This week Apple unveiled their new Mac mini, which they've somehow shrunk down to just 5" square. The company says the tiny size was enabled both by the design of a power-efficient chip, and via "innovative thermal architecture, which guides air to different levels of the system, … | Continue reading
The Krapp Strap, below, is an innovative design that makes it easier to poop outdoors. You just have to dig a hole in the right spot to bury your business afterwards. However, Industrial Design student Kunrui Peng points out that burying human feces is no longer harmless to the e … | Continue reading
Someone pushing a wheelbarrow dreads the same things as someone pushing a stroller: Inclines and declines. Battery-operated power assists have existed for wheelbarrows for some time, and because babies are decidedly more precious than bags of concrete, now Polish manufacturer Eas … | Continue reading
A China-based Etsy shop offers this unusual take on the MagSafe charging stand: They offer a variety of designs, which mostly appear to be in Black Walnut:Eventually you spot that the grain direction on adjacent faces makes no sense… …or you wonder how these shapes could possibl … | Continue reading
In North Vancouver, Canada, a black bear regularly wanders through the neighborhood at night. Residents are tolerant, but one point of frustration for Curt Scheewe is that the bear frequently breaks through his fence while searching for food. And this has been going on for years. … | Continue reading
Typically, selling limited editions of products allow manufacturers to charge more by introducing artificial scarcity. In a nice twist, Timex is releasing a limited edition watch and selling it for just $1. Their Waterbury watch, meant to commemorate their 170th anniversary, will … | Continue reading