Lately we've seen a rash of inflatable product and furniture designs, like the following:ID Students Design Portable Inflatable Chair An Inflatable, Floating Laptop/Camera Bag That Uses Air For ProtectionA Portable, Inflatable Light Fixture for Camping A Portable, Inflatable Adir … | Continue reading
Typical wine bottle racks take up a certain amount of depth, like these from German furniture brand Vitamin Design.However, company designer G. Grabliauskas also wanted to consider oenophiles with tighter space requirements, and thus offers this Avarium model that doesn't protrud … | Continue reading
Cutting tool manufacturer Olfa's CK-2 features a blade shaped like a kiridashi, or Japanese wood carving knife. The blade is held in place by a thumbscrew. The butt end of the handle features a hole, which one might assume is to attach a lanyard. But London-based industrial desig … | Continue reading
Footwear design is a complicated practice, requiring an exceptionally wide range of knowledge and expertise. From manufacturing processes to material science to human body dynamics, global fashion and cultural trends to retail merchandizing, a lot goes into that pair of sneakers … | Continue reading
A sports network has borrowed a digital fabrication trick from the toy design world.Nowadays you can order popular action figures with your own 3D-printed head on it, courtesy of a collaboration between Hasbro and Formlabs. The Fox Sports network, who will be broadcasting the upc … | Continue reading
This week four volunteers moved into Mars Dune Alpha, NASA's 3D-printed habitat designed by BIG. Created for NASA's CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) program, the 1,700-square-foot structure is what NASA envisions being able to print on the Red Planet.Mars D … | Continue reading
Industrial design was born in the 20th century, and the approach has been "Design a product that solves a problem."The 21st century approach: "Design a system that solves a problem."A startup called Mill is taking the 21st century approach to solve the problem of food waste. Thei … | Continue reading
We're big fans of the 4D Design Program at Cranbrook, and we wrote about it in our "Getting Accepted" series a while back. Program Director Carla Diana is also a long-time colleague, having presented at our 2014 conference among other collaborations. They have some spots remainin … | Continue reading
Here's an outside-of-the-box take on the picnic table: The DoNuts consists of a fiberglass-reinforced polyester table attached to an inflatable donut. This yields a lightweight indoor/outdoor table that seats six, can easily be moved around and, once deflated, handily stored; the … | Continue reading
The Taccia Lamp, designed by Achille Castiglioni and older brother Pier Giacomo in the late 1950s, is a design classic that has stood the test of time; it's still in production today, six decades later, by original manufacturer Flos. What's interesting about the design is that in … | Continue reading
After experimenting with pressing patterns into aluminum sheets……then manipulating the sheets to create structure…Eindhoven-based designer Tim Teven created his unique-looking Pressure Furniture series of stools and benches:"The deformation of metal by exerting pressure leads to … | Continue reading
Interior/exterior decoration, 2020s-style: Govee Curtain Lights are essentially a curtain of hanging LED-embedded strips. Measuring 1.5m (5') wide and 2m (6.6') tall, this provides a grid of 520 evenly-spaced LEDs that you can program via an app, allowing you to turn walls or win … | Continue reading
This eye-catching Basso, which at first glance appears to be a side table, is by industrial designer Manuel Amaral Netto.Made of sheet steel, it features cork inlays for both the top and the interior of the bucket-like bottom. Looking at the underside reveals casters. Basso was i … | Continue reading
The subtle and unusual gesture in this Lizzy chair, by veteran industrial designer David Dolcini, speaks of an expertise in both design and fabrication. All four legs stretch above the seat bottom to meet the back, resolving their differing angles of approach to harmonize at the … | Continue reading
Plusminus is a lighting system by industrial designer Stefan Diez's Diez Office. Eschewing conventional cords, the Munich-based ID consultancy designed Plusminus around "a conductive ribbon and a series of individual luminaires that can be placed anywhere on the textile belt," th … | Continue reading
Bistroo, by Flemish furniture designer Dirk Wynants, is a modern update to Parisian-café-style furniture.The weatherproof units consists of a powder-coated aluminum tabletop and seats mounted to a powder-coated steel structure.In addition to sidewalk cafes, they're also suitable … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:The Mercedes-Benz Vision One-Eleven concept is a striking design for the successor to the C 111. This gimmicky-looking, hyper-adjustable ergonomic chair is killing it on Kickstarter. This cleverly-designed tool by Nissin Boeki is for resizin … | Continue reading
The sad math of searching for the exceptional in a sea of mediocrity means you see too much of what you don't want, and not enough of what you do want. The website of the Industrial Design program at Switzerland's Contemporary Design Practices Institute, a/k/a HGK Basel, allots o … | Continue reading
There are at least two online treasure troves of classic Braun design archives. One is Das Programm, a research arm of London-based design firm Systems Studio. It was on Das Programm's Instagram that I learned of this Dieter-Rams-designed object I'd never seen—a Braun-branded ice … | Continue reading
Currently there's a market for both the iPad and the Kindle e-reader. Same form factors, but one does a lot of things, the other only presents books and costs less.A "reading technology" startup called Sol is betting the same dual market exists for tech-laden goggles. While some … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Commercial Equipment category honors operational equipment and systems designed for public, commercial, industrial, medical and scientific use. Examples include: machinery, medical instruments and devices, construction tools, transaction kiosks, weat … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Sustainability category honors any designed product, service or system tackling issues around sustainability in a thoughtful, research-backed manner through strategies ranging from materials, production methods, efficient systems, packaging and shipp … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Tools category honors consumer products or services designed for individual use with the intention of improving efficiency and productivity. Examples include: hardware tools, productivity applications, educational tools, etc. This year's Core77 Desig … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Health & Wellness category honors consumer products or services designed to aid users in matters of health or in achieving an enhanced sense of well-being.This year's Core77 Design Awards Health & Wellness team was co-led by Morgan Hutchinson, MD, As … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Emerging Technologies category honors systems, services, research, hardware, or software products created with the aid of recently created or developed software and hardware technologies. Examples can include projects that incorporate the use of arti … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Furniture & Lighting category honors furniture and lighting products or systems for private, public, commercial or industrial use. Examples include: home or public furniture and seating, office systems, lighting, workstations, etc. This year's Core77 … | Continue reading
The Cyclo Knitter is a cycle-powered scarf-making machine. George Barratt-Jones designed and built it for a train station in Eindhoven, where the designer is based.Here it is in action:"It was winter and I was waiting for my train at the station. I thought: 'How can I make this m … | Continue reading
Aehra, an Italian EV startup billing themselves as "ultra premium," plans to produce this SUV design:"With an exceptional three-meter wheelbase, the AEHRA SUV provides class-leading occupant space and sets new standards for comfort, technology, materials, and usability," the comp … | Continue reading
Engel, an Austrian company that manufactures injection molding equipment, is touting a new "tape sandwich" molding process that should be of interest to designers who work with plastic. The process creates parts with "greater stiffness, despite a more compact part design and less … | Continue reading
My favorite kind of story is I couldn't buy the thing I wanted, so I designed and made it myself, and now I run a successful company selling them. Today's example is Chicago-based Renaissance man Pierre Miller, a former chemist, writer and music instructor who became obsessed wit … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Built Environment category honors spatial design as it relates to physical interiors, exhibitions or installations, either permanent or temporary, for private, public, commercial or industrial purposes. Examples include: public installations, restaur … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards season marks the very first year we are awarding an Editor's Choice Prize, an honor given to one project that Core77 editors select as an outstanding example of design in 2023.For our inaugural edition of the Editor's Choice Prize, we have chosen Liq … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Apps & Platforms category honors web or mobile screen-based software programs designed for user-friendliness including mobile apps, websites, and computer programs. This year's Core77 Design Awards Apps & Platforms team was led by Margaret Lee, Leade … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Home & Living category honors consumer products or services designed for use in a domestic setting. Examples include home accessories, appliances, home electronics, smart home products, security systems, etc.This year's Core77 Design Awards Home & Li … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Interaction category honors interactive content and user interface design for websites, mobile devices and experiential installations. Examples include: software, mobile apps, interactive projections, products with embedded user interface, animations … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Speculative Design category honors projects, whether physically or digitally produced, designed for the purpose of cultural commentary, intervention, or exploration, or created as speculative design for a client or educational institution. Examples i … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Award Packaging category honors all graphic design, branding and structural designs related to the packaging of products. Examples include: primary or secondary packaging for Fast Moving Consumer Goods or premium brands, promotional packaging and gifting pr … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Award Transportation category honors vehicles, systems or modes of transportation used to get people or objects from one place to another, for private, public, commercial or industrial purposes. Examples include: planes, trains, automobiles, buses, bikes, b … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Robotics category honors hardware or software products at any scale that incorporate mechanized robots to perform physical tasks or solve problems.This year's Core77 Design Awards Robotics team was led by Stuart Harvey Lee, Founder of Prime Studio. J … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Toys & Play category honors consumer products designed for children or adults for the purpose of activating play and creative exploration. Examples include: children's toys, board games, art supplies, DIY kits, educational toys, electronic toys, musi … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Gaming category honors consumer hardware or software products designed for the interactive entertainment / video game industry. Examples include: video games, video game accessories (game systems, game controllers), gaming furniture, gaming-focused c … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Lifestyle Accessories category honors consumer products intended for personal use in daily life. Examples include handheld products, luggage, desktop toys, jewelry, handbags, apparel, water bottles, etc. This year's Core77 Design Awards Lifestyle Acc … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Visual Communication category honors All visual and graphic design, branding and identity projects for print, digital or physical environments. Examples include: logos and identity systems, environmental graphics, signage, typefaces, infographics, mo … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Design for Social Impact category honors projects designed to directly benefit social, humanitarian, community or environments. Examples of social impact work include: community or environmental impact initiatives, products for underrepresented commu … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards Branding & Identity category honors visual design systems meant to reflect the brand's overall values and convey a desired image of a product, company, organization, etc. Examples include: logos, custom typefaces, company rebrands, and ad campaigns. … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Award Sports & Outdoors category honors consumer products or services created to encourage play, movement, or learning. Examples include toys, games, athletic equipment, athletic wear and accessories, outdoor gear and equipment, etc.This year's Core77 Desig … | Continue reading
The 2023 Core77 Design Awards A/V & Photography Equipment category honors consumer hardware or software products designed to enhance the experience or production of audio or video. This year's Core77 Design Awards A/V & Photography Equipment team was led by Sabina Weiss, Designer … | Continue reading
This is a wildly unusual design for an outdoor chair, consisting of a beanbag and a legless wooden frame.Unfortunately, the Japanese text is part of the image, so I cannot machine-translate it. (If any of you can read it, we'd be much obliged if you'd share!) I could learn virtua … | Continue reading