Here's an unusual barbecue cooking implement that fittingly comes from Asia. This mesh frying pan, by Japan's Noridomi Iron Works, was designed to allow you to cook rice and noodles over an open flame. While you could do this with a skillet or wok, this mesh design permits the f … | Continue reading
Japanese manufacturer Sigma's new mirrorless BF camera is freaking unibody. It is machined out of a single block of aluminum, and the milling process reportedly takes seven hours. Why? Does this make the camera take better pictures? Is it easier to use? No. About the only tan … | Continue reading
Good product designs solve a user problem, occasionally a problem the user didn't realize they had. Other product designs emerge when companies try to apply some technology they've mastered to a new market, answering a question no one asked.I think this product falls in the latte … | Continue reading
Within the world of tool design, workholding doesn't get much love; it just isn't sexy. But without proper workholding, tasks are made more difficult.Minneapolis-based company Work IQ Tools gets that. They've developed this IQ Vise, which can rotate on a ball joint to achieve ang … | Continue reading
What do you envision when you hear "landscape architecture?" Undoubtedly you picture the finished product, some carefully-curated and -manicured arrangement of plantings surrounding a house. Few picture the laborers who do the backbreaking work of moving earth, stone and plants t … | Continue reading
The Core77 Design Awards Consumer Technology category features electronic devices, software, and gadgets that are designed for personal use by the general public and aim to improve daily life, enhance entertainment, facilitate communication, or streamline tasks. A consumer softwa … | Continue reading
If you walked into a residential or hospitality-industry bathroom, and saw one of these, would you know what it was? That's the Gordon, which British manufacturer Eskimo Design bills as "Europe's most innovative towel warmer" and "the best electric towel rail you will ever own." … | Continue reading
As someone who grew up watching Star Wars, it's weird to realize that C-3PO was essentially an AI. So was R2-D2. Two AI's that had dominion over their own bodies, and nothing further. That's not the future, however. Figure AI, one of the startups leading the humanoid robot develo … | Continue reading
Industrial designer Gustav Rosén and business partner David Lindell recently launched Kord, a Swedish design brand. Their stock-in-trade, at least to start, is power. "We saw an opportunity to take something as common as power strips," says Lindell, "and give them a distinct pres … | Continue reading
Design writer Dominic Bradbury has been working on Mid-Century Modern Designers, "an homage to the design pioneers who defined the Mid-Century aesthetic through their work in furniture, glassware, ceramics, and textiles," according to Phaidon, the publisher. "Featuring 300 of the … | Continue reading
One year ago we first saw EVE, the moderately creepy humanoid robot designed by Norwegian company 1X. Whereas EVE was designed for industrial and commercial environments, the company has since rolled out NEO Gamma, their wheels-free 'bot designed for performing menial tasks in a … | Continue reading
"Don't design, just to design," says Jake Miller. "Set out to solve a problem. Then, solve that problem in the most elegant way imaginable." Miller runs Fellow Products, a company he founded to "introduce more people to specialty coffee through approachable design." Surprisingly, … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:Sleek portable cutlery by Zoku, an industrial-designer-led brand.Crowdfunding smash: These Xlaserlab X1 desktop laser welding machines.Breakfast's Billion Dollar Arcade Series are Interactive classic videogame art pieces that reference the stock … | Continue reading
The mission of San Francisco-based startup Rubbish is to rid the world of litter. They created the Rubbish Beam, a primitive version of a smart litter picker-upper, which can pair with a smartphone over Bluetooth. The idea was to register and categorize photos of litter, collecti … | Continue reading
For some campers no cooking stove is necessary, as meals will be cooked over an open flame with fuel gathered on-site. However Snow Peak, the Japanese high-end outdoor gear brand, primarily targets car campers who will be bringing their own fuel. They've thus designed this Home & … | Continue reading
This "Lo-Fi Zipper Wallet," a/k/a the Brat Wallet is by Archie & Dennis, a Tel-Aviv-based bag brand. The titular founders are brothers who draw influences from items you'd find in an old Army-Navy store. The wallets are made from vegetable-tanned leather that has been artificiall … | Continue reading
Robert Obier has taken an unusual vocational path: Architecture degree from LSU, followed by a Masters of Industrial Design from ArtCenter. After all that, he opted to become a fine artist. Hopefully that's more to do with Obier's passions than being a damning indictment of the t … | Continue reading
If you're a politically-minded industrial designer, it can be tough to draw a straight line between the work you do and the political system. However, Germany's University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK Hamburg) along with their Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences, … | Continue reading
People's imaginations have been captured by gesture control since at least the 2000s, when Minority Report and later Iron Man showed characters using it. Today, 23 years after Minority Report's 2002 release, the technology has yet to become ubiquitous. Companies as large as Ninte … | Continue reading
The Core77 Design Awards Sports & Outdoors category features 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. Enter today.Tyler Gilbert has … | Continue reading
Each morning on the farm I clean out coops and change waterers, messy business that requires gloves. And, because corners of the coops are dark, a headlamp. The pain is turning it on and off; the button on my BioLite headlamp is tiny, and my gloves are often dirty, so I have to p … | Continue reading
f you're spec'ing out a product and need a non-standard washer size, where do you turn? Boker's is a Minneapolis-based outfit that specializes in precision metal stamping and washer production. They've been around for over a century, and they offer "more than 32,000 non-standard … | Continue reading
If you do an online search for ashtrays, you'll be shocked at how many offerings are on the market. If you're American, you'll likely find this strange; only 11% of us smoke cigarettes. In the rest of the world, however, smoking rates remain startlingly high. A company called Pro … | Continue reading
This amusing arm-mounted vacuum is by Unnecessary Design Studio, a/k/a Matty Benedetto. It allows you to keep your fingers clean while picking up residue-laden snacks. "The Snackuum™? The first handheld vacuum for picking up all your favorite snacks and delivering them directly t … | Continue reading
This sleek, modern take on portable cutlery is by New-Jersey-based housewares brand Zoku. Their Pocket Utensil Set comes in a pocketable carrying case made of polypropylene, with a silicone seal. The utensils themselves are stainless steel, and the entire set is dishwasher-safe. … | Continue reading
A Chinese company called XPhotonics has developed these Xlaserlab X1 machines. They're desktop laser welders that can also cut, clean, and remove rust. They come in two flavors. The base-level $1,7000 X1 can be used with stainless steel, carbon steel and aluminum sheets up to 2m … | Continue reading
The Core77 Design Awards Visual Communication category features 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, motion … | Continue reading
When Brompton wanted to develop an onboard toolkit for their folding bicycles, they turned to British industrial design firm Goodwin Hartshorn. "We took advantage of the bike's foldability to create a toolkit which fits inside the frame," the firm writes. "This protects it from t … | Continue reading
Breakfast is a Brooklyn-based kinetic art studio. They've created this Billion Dollar Arcade Series, a collection of interactive art pieces that recall the earliest videogames: Pong, Breakout and Space Invaders. A flip-disc display is used to provide the "pixels." Motion trackers … | Continue reading
This Tool Swing was invented by Rich Meyer, a Nebraska-based fabricator. It's a way to store fixed tools like vises, bench grinders, chop saws, planers, tubing notchers and benders beneath your worksurface; when you need to access the tool you simply swing it out and up.Turning t … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:FOLD is an origami-based recyclable cardboard alternative to EPS foam packaging. Apple research yields "expressive and functional" non-anthropomorphic robot, inspired by Pixar's logo lamp.Architecture student Lotte Scheder-Bieschin has inven … | Continue reading
iFixit, the company dedicated to teaching people how to repair their own products, has plenty of engineering expertise. What they don't have is industrial design chops. When they wanted to create their own soldering iron system, they turned to ID consultancy Spanner to create a p … | Continue reading
An unfortunate knock-on effect of Trump's tariffs on aluminum imports will hit the packaging sector. While Coca-Cola is currently available in aluminum cans, the company revealed in an earnings call that "if aluminum cans become more expensive, we can put more emphasis on PET bot … | Continue reading
Take a look at this object, which is obviously 3D-printed. Ask yourself: How did they do it?In this case, "they" is Dutch designer Stijn van Aardenne, whose Maze Lamp caught our eye last year. More recently, van Aardenne has been teasing a new "revolving print bed" he's developed … | Continue reading
This excellent Avants project is by Industrial Design student Juliette Masson. Done as her diploma project at ECAL, the project expores the use of more environmentally-friendly materials for technical clothing. "Synthetic fibers are now a common feature of sportswear, including i … | Continue reading
The Core77 Design Awards Sustainability category features 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 shippin … | Continue reading
These UU Tiles are by Unknown Untitled, a Paris-based industrial design firm. They're essentially tile-based lamps. "UU Tiles…began as a research initiative and evolved into a full tile collection thanks to a collaboration with a historic Normandy tile manufacturer. Challenging … | Continue reading
Todd Moyer Designs practices "experiential design," combining art and technology to create installations. Their "Illoominated II" piece, below, caught my eye. It was inspired by textile looms, and gives the illusion that the threads are lasers: An earlier iteration of this piece, … | Continue reading
British industrial designer Sebastian Bergne designed this Candloop way back in 1999. Made of stainless steel wire and aluminum for the candle holders, it's a simple way to turn a wine bottle into a candelabra. This is low-tech '90s design, when design was still fun. It's recentl … | Continue reading
A lot of architecture think-tank stuff loses me, but this one I can both follow and get behind. Amor Immeuble is a Paris-based quartet of architects interested in material research and experimentation. They recently encountered a series of beautifully-crafted marble pieces that w … | Continue reading
Plastic is made from fossil fuels. Steel isn't, but we must burn an awful lot of fossil fuels in order to produce it. Iron ore must be pulled out of the ground, typically using gas-powered machinery; we then have to burn coal to make coke, in order to extract that iron in a blast … | Continue reading
This Planck SSD (Solid State Drive), by mobile accessories startup Planck, rethinks the form of the USB flash drive. The change is a tiny one with a major impact: Moving the plug from the short end to the center of the long end. This was done so that you can plug it into the bott … | Continue reading
When removing old carpet, it's really a three-phase job. The first phase is pulling up the carpet, which is pretty easy. Around the perimeter of the room are tack strips. These have vertically protruding tacks that pierce the carpet. These tacks offer great lateral resistance but … | Continue reading
Steel rulers are a mainstay in many a workshop. From a design standpoint, you'd think there isn't much to them: Add a satin finish so they don't glare under shop lights, and make the numbers easy to read. With their "Pick Up" line of rulers, Japanese manufacturer Shinwa has met t … | Continue reading
I own a pressure washer, and as satisfying as all of those cleaning videos on social media, the thing is a pain to maintain. It needs both a hose hookup and gas, and if you're not running it regularly, you've got to empty the tank each time to avoid the carburetor getting gummed … | Continue reading
The Core77 Design Awards Transportation & Mobility category features 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 … | Continue reading
EMT (Electrical Metallic Tubing) conduit is affordable, reasonably sturdy and readily available. A company called Maker Pipe makes it easy for you to build stuff using EMT. Their eponymous product is a series of steel connectors for joining the pipes. In addition to 45-, 90- and … | Continue reading
As building science evolves to give us greater control over our built environment, modern structures are made ever more airtight. (When was the last time you saw a new office building with windows that could open?) While this solves one problem—the intrusion of outdoor air and th … | Continue reading