The exact number of gas stations in America is debated, but in 2020 Marketwatch calculated there were around 115,000.How many EV charging stations would you reckon there are? Incredibly, as of this year (2023) there are "over 130,000 public [EV] chargers across the country," acco … | Continue reading
Plastics manufacturers Covestro and Arcesso Dynamics have co-created a new material called Arfinio. It's a special type of polyurethane that can be reaction injection molded, and the companies say it "opens up new design possibilities for solid-surface furniture."To explain, reac … | Continue reading
Kikekeller is a Madrid-based furniture and interior design studio. They produce really beautiful, mostly one-off furniture pieces with a unique, vintage-tinged aesthetic that defies easy explanation; they define their work as being "of a timeless nature and a retro-futurist conce … | Continue reading
A lesser-known subset of injection molding is reaction injection molding. Here we'll explain what it is, show photos of reaction injection molded products, and provide some helpful info for designers.What's the difference between injection molding and reaction injection molding? … | Continue reading
On April Fool's Day, Technabob suggested Microsoft would bring back the dreaded Clippy as the face of their ChatGPT-driven Bing AI.Titans of CNC machined this crazy isogrid aluminum skateboard. Industrial Designer and outdoorsman Tony Richardson designed the Rux, a flexib … | Continue reading
Helsinki-based furniture designer Hemmo Honkonen designed these surprising and amusing musical pieces of storage furniture."Audible Cabinets are a series of cabinets that all make different sounds when opened. The cabinets are a study in mechanically produced sound, movement and … | Continue reading
While working as a supply chain manager in her native Sweden, stress and exhaustion forced Thorunn Widö to take a period of sick leave. After returning to work, she found she had difficulty focusing. "It quickly became clear that it was not the work that was most demanding, but a … | Continue reading
Industrial designer Phil Saunders has an enviable career; he cut his teeth at Nissan, then branched out and worked on everything from videogames to theme parks to concept designs for Hollywood (he designed multiple suits for Iron Man, among other Marvel properties). Image: Phil S … | Continue reading
Industrial designer Peter Bristol has a day job (you may have heard of the company where he's VP of Industrial Design—Meta.) But on the side he still pursues his own self-initiated design projects. Here he's cheekily mashed up two objets d'esign, Eero Aarnio's rotomolded Puppy fo … | Continue reading
Bruges-based architect Bert Masselus designed this Join Table, which transforms from a large standing-height table to a more picnic-bench-like arrangement."Reminiscent of a picnic table, the JoinTable fosters conversations in an informal way. Unlike a traditional picnic table, ho … | Continue reading
This Ottobock Shoulder exoskeleton was designed in collaboration between Vienna-based industrial design consultancies Produktive and AWS Designteam. Worn like a backpack, the object is lightweight, comfortable, size-adjustable, offers a full range of motion and is purely mechanic … | Continue reading
Makita makes this incredible powered cart that runs off of 18V power tool batteries. Called the DCU600 series, it can be selected with three different types of loading platforms. I desperately need all three of these on this farm, but the specifics of my situation aside, you can … | Continue reading
In the "Programmer Humor" subReddit, an informal and hilarious "Who can make the best volume slider?" contest took place. The original poster kicked it off with this design:They were answered by plenty of other programmers with a wicked grasp of UI/UX evil:The original thread is … | Continue reading
"The idea behind the Study folding table," writes Stockholm-based design studio Karlsson & Björk, "is to have an easy-to-fold table made entirely of wood and, by incorporating thin legs and tabletop into its construction, to maximise space for its user." The tables can be linke … | Continue reading
I absolutely hate this thing:That's the P.O.S. flyswatter available at the local Walmart. Flies are part of life on a farm, and I'm what you call a "power user," and I've gone through at least ten of those. The flimsy handle warps as you swing it, making accuracy impossible, and … | Continue reading
Buildings like this one have become a common sight in Ukraine these days. Amidst the invasion, shells and bullets randomly shatter windows. Near the bottom of the photo you can see a window that's been patched with plywood.Plywood keeps the elements out—as well as light. It's als … | Continue reading
This A Line Storage Bench series was designed by Herman Studio, the brand of Danish furniture designer Jonas Herman Pedersen. As a slight twist on what we in the 'States might call a blanket chest or hallway chest, the lid is bi-fold. "The way in which it opens with a leather str … | Continue reading
Plug and Play has partnered with SABIC, a global leader in the chemicals industry, to launch the CIRCUL-A-THON challenge to engage with creative and visionary designers in the quest to find solutions facing the future of circularity. The challenge will focus on industrial designs … | Continue reading
What is the object we touch the most? I reckon, sadly, that it's the smartphone. However, author and design/architecture expert Barbara Glasner has produced a book called "Most Touched" that showcases over 1,000 examples of door handles from around the world."Glasner presents a c … | Continue reading
A team of architectural researchers have figured out how to 3D-print concrete structures using a fraction of the material typically used.The team, led by architecture professor Mania Aghaei Meibodi and researchers Alireza Bayramvand and Yuxin Lin of the University of Michigan's T … | Continue reading
The Swedish towns of Ardala, Skara, Axvall and Varnhem are connected by a 20km bike path. It's fine to ride during the daytime. However, long stretches of it are unlit and pitch black at night.The Skara municipal government calculated a cost of 8 million SEK (USD $771,356) to ins … | Continue reading
Long before there were fidget spinners, there were "worry stones." These examples of the human need for tactility were smooth rocks with a natural indentation on one side; the idea was that you rubbed your thumb in the indentation as a way to soothe stress out of your brain.Image … | Continue reading
"We were always outdoors," says Tony Richardson of his childhood, "moving around from place to place, and I was always fascinated by the gear." With an interest in outdoor gear, Richardson eventually became an industrial designer, cutting his teeth at Arc'teryx for eight years be … | Continue reading
An isogrid is a structure made from a solid metal sheet that has had triangular portions machined out of one face, leaving a thin skin on one side, and a triangular lattice on the other side.Image: NASA Invented by McDonnell Douglas, the technique is too expensive and impractical … | Continue reading
Maybe you're at a party, debating whether "Succession," "Breaking Bad" or "The Sopranos" was the better show, and one person proudly chimes in that they don't know, because they don't watch TV.The ID version of that: Ask a group of industrial designers to debate their favorite de … | Continue reading
Captivated by how 3D software can simulate cloth in a very realistic manner, designer Dominik Raskin (Dora) explored ways to materialise these simulations. Starting from various geometric shapes and applying different inflation setting such as pressure, cloth properties, gravity, … | Continue reading
The project, called "Kee-PING Hope", involves designing and fabricating ping pong tables and rackets for orphanages in Lebanon, using leftover pieces of melamine wood collected from carpenters and wood waste disposals. Our main objective was to create colorful tables and rackets … | Continue reading
A rocking chair that looks more like a lounger and slowly rocks back and forth is the ideal place to relax. It is no coincidence that the sustainable Rocking Chair design by the Amsterdam design studio MVOS is located in a special relaxation room at the Rituals head office on the … | Continue reading
Architects Amelia Tapia and Juan Ruiz designed Iwi, a collapsible cabin that serves as a space-saving extra room on demand.Image: JAG Studio Image: JAG Studio Image: JAG Studio Image: JAG Studio Japanese stationery company Lihit Lab makes this handy, tiny portable bag or headphon … | Continue reading
This unusual ISO16 series of drinkware was done by Thorben Heuer, during his time as an Industrial Design student at Germany's HAWK (Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaft und Kunst, i.e. "University of Applied Sciences and Arts").The vessels are intended for hot beverages. Heuer … | Continue reading
This Bond Stool, by Portugese furniture designer Ricardo Sá, is an unusual piece of storage furniture: It's intended to be made of plywood, cork and leather. As it stands it's just a series of renderings/Blenderings; Sá has a full-time design gig at a luxury furniture company, bu … | Continue reading
No one likes looking at a thermostat, so if you're designing one, what do you do? Berlin-based industrial design consultancy Pong designed this ultra-minimal tado° thermostat to visually disappear when not in use."All tado° products are characteristically smooth and unobtrusive, … | Continue reading
These Syncline Folding Desks, created for flexible workspaces and schools, are by Australia-based Sylex Ergonomics.They're up on lockable casters, and a locking dial beneath the worksurface allows the tabletops to tilt. With the tabletops tilted, they can be nested for storage.I … | Continue reading
This amusing Pill Popper was designed by Klugonyx, a product design and development firm in Salt Lake City. Tasked by the client with developing a simple, inexpensive medication tracker, the designers devised resettable blisters that hijack the part of the brain that produces "th … | Continue reading
This unusual Pop-Cycle shrinks for storage and expands for use not by folding, but by sliding the rear portion of the bicycle forward along its rail-like crossbar.Designed and produced by South Korean bike manufacturer Bokyong, the goal was to create an easy-to-transport bike tha … | Continue reading
Industrial design consultancy Minoko designed this Kelvin Epos 300, a hi-tech film/photography light with a stark industrial aesthetic. Created for LED technology company Rift Labs, the aluminum-bodied light is manufactured in Norway (where both companies are based) and offers … | Continue reading
Industrial designers Mirko Ihrig and Casey Lewis are based in Berlin and Milan, respectively. But that hasn't stopped the two designers, who met while working at fuseproject, from starting up their own design firm called Lotto. One of their projects, Canti, is an experimental cha … | Continue reading
Cleaning a thermos, particularly a deep one, is a real pain. UK-based industrial designer Jake Naish has designed a rather brilliant solution. Called Forss, it not only enables you to access and clean every inch of the interior without using those (largely ineffectual) bottle bru … | Continue reading
"Design is the driving force behind everything we create," says industrial designer Liam de la Bedoyere. In his case, that applies to both work and play; while he's the full-time Lead Designer at a UK-based tableware company, on the side he regularly executes self-directed design … | Continue reading
This Vant Shelf, a modular flatpack shelving system, is by Gothenburg-based furniture designer Hampus Penttinen."Vant Shelf is based around the idea of opposite screw threads between which you have threaded connecting rod. By turning this rod, the opposing parts pull tighter, or … | Continue reading
This beautiful and fascinating stool with a tilt-able seat is sold (limited edition) by Paris-based Galerie Maria Wettergren: Simply called Maple Stool, it was designed by Denmark-based furniture designer Line Depping. (Note to Americans: "Line" is a Danish first name, roughly pr … | Continue reading
Ford has revealed a handsome, electric version of the Explorer with a much cleaner design than that of the Mustang Mach-E. Whereas both vehicles are thankfully absent of the sharp-crease frenzy that plagues the design of other brands, this electric Explorer eschews the Mach-E's e … | Continue reading
This design concept for an overnight train's sleeper car adopts an unconventional layout. By running the sleeping surfaces diagonally, the design increases the amount of berths that can be fit into each car."Individual coupe-capsules are arranged in two tiers at an angle, forming … | Continue reading
Tomorrow tech brand Nothing ships their Ear (2), an updated design of their wireless earbuds. They retail for $150.The standard tech upgrades (improved voice quality, real-time equalizer adjustments, improved noise canceling, etc.) don't interest me much, but I am smitten by the … | Continue reading
From factory floor to the Bauhaus.Many know of the legendary Bauhaus building Walter Gropius designed and the furnishings made by his students in collaboration for this purpose. But few know that when it came to choosing stools for the classrooms and workshops, Gropius deliberate … | Continue reading
This lightweight Clip Table was designed by Denmark-based consultancy Komplot Design. It's intended for assembly halls, auditoriums, conference rooms, classrooms, offices and dining halls, or anywhere where tables occasionally need to be compressed for storage and/or joined end-t … | Continue reading
This It's Real combination set looks like something from Braun's skunkworks, circa 1970. Designed by Hong-Kong-based NINM Lab, it's actually a pair of audio objects that connect the digital with the analog. This is a little confusing to explain, so bear with me. So the thing you … | Continue reading
For the mobile worker, this diminutive doodad by Japanese stationery company Lihit Lab is a portable bag or headphones hook. It folds flat and attaches to any horizontal surface using gravity.Japanese attention to detail: It has a little polymer sleeve between two of the bends, s … | Continue reading