Things I've been surprised by in the past couple years:The AtuMan EG1 cordless hot glue gun:The Bosch IXO cordless driver:Character's toolboxes: Black & Decker's Reviva line of cordless tools: Now a company you've never heard of (but who nevertheless have some 84 patents) called … | Continue reading
Though named the Breaker, this bicycle chain breaker by Full Windsor has plenty of additional functions. "It features a tool bit extender that can be used as a handle, giving you the functionality of a workshop chain breaker in a conveniently compact multi tool," writes manufactu … | Continue reading
This isn't quite my cup of tea, but does satisfy curiosity. This Plywood Easy Chair, by UK-based furniture brand Odddot, really wears its veneers on its sleeve:It looks to me like a nightmare to manufacture, but I can't claim that's true; the company has not a single word of copy … | Continue reading
Sick of your boring, hinged toilet lid? For those who demand more designiness from their commode, Florence-based design firm Nilo Gioacchini Design has created the Slide, a sliding-lid toilet for Vietnam-based manufacturer Viglacera Ceramics.The lid is apparently removable for cl … | Continue reading
As his contribution to the debate over whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not, Maryland-based fabricator Leatherhead Laser Work created this advent calendar: Yes, that is Hans Gruber falling to his death at Nakatomi Plaza. As you count down the days, you slide the magnetic … | Continue reading
Few have a day job quite like Sabrina Thompson. The 37-year-old aero-engineer has spent the last 12 years at NASA focused on designing orbit trajectories for space missions. When she isn't working as a literal rocket scientist, Thompson dedicates her time to creating new fashion … | Continue reading
So Paris has unveiled their official mascot for the 2024 Olympics, and it's this:That's actually a piece of headwear, specifically a Phrygian Cap:It's not French in origin; the Persians, Scythians, Greeks and Romans all wore some version of it, though it was the Greek-related Phr … | Continue reading
Just as Hasbro and Formlabs can now put your face on an action figure, a guy named Trent from JDM Customz can create a Hot-Wheels-esque replica of your exact car. Unlike an actual Hot Wheels version of your ride, Trent nails the details: Your actual paint color, rims, aftermarket … | Continue reading
Industrial design students Park Hyeongwoo and Jung Jaepil, of South Korea's Kookmin University, designed this amusing Flip Desk. Citing "work and study" as too time-consuming to allow room for maintaining an orderly home, they present this as the solution for when an unexpected v … | Continue reading
Package designers: As a reminder that you can't go wrong targeting the beauty market, a company called Cadence is successfully selling pleasant-looking and rather pricey capsules designed to have beauty products decanted into them.The plastic hexagonal capsules contain unseen mag … | Continue reading
Paris-based inventor Richard Heng has created the Nomad Desk, a portable, folding, height-adjustable worksurface intended for both indoor and outdoor use. The entire thing, which weighs just over 15 pounds, breaks down to a rectangle roughly the size of a 16" MacBook Pro. Once un … | Continue reading
Backup camera images typically feature red and green lines overlaid on the screen to give you a sense of the car's boundaries: Green is a polite distance to leave between you and the car you're parallel parking in front of, red is the closest you can get without trading paint. Bu … | Continue reading
This custom-built bookshelf features something I'd never seen before: Built-in sliding vertical dividers (requested by the client). The mechanism devised by the builder is simple and elegant:"I routed out two T-track slots on the top and made pieces that fit," writes the Albany-b … | Continue reading
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the lap portion of a seatbelt "should be adjusted so that it is snug and lies low across your hips after fastening." Image by cfarnsworth from Pixabay That's how crash test dummies are strapped in, and it's what the … | Continue reading
"BIG's architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes," writes Bjarke Ingels Group. "BIG believes that by hitting the fertile overlap between pragmatic and utopia, architects can find the freedom to change the surface of our … | Continue reading
For those who've been following the Twitter debacle: Subversive accessories company dbrand is now selling blue "verified" checkmarks in sticker form for, you guessed it, $8."What do fake news sites, bot accounts, and Linus G. Sebastian have in common?" dbrand writes. "That's righ … | Continue reading
Designed as an introductory kit for weed-smoking paraphernalia and product, the Mango was created by All Design Lab, a studio founded by industrial designers Andrew Lim and Anthony Saul Lopez. With the legalization of marijuana spreading, "curious new users might need a friendly … | Continue reading
This highly unusual Kabine 101 piece of furniture was designed by Kabine, a South Korean storage furniture manufacturer. With this as the inspiration……the designers created this steel drawer box with an aluminum die-cast grille:The idea is that you fill it with a leather insert…… … | Continue reading
For those without the space for a dedicated workbench, or for those who need a portable jobsite set-up, a worksurface straddling a pair of sawhorses is a good go-to. The Kreg Track Horse, designed by Philly-based industrial design consultancy DesignThink, does a good job of fulfi … | Continue reading
It's difficult to imagine a time when text messaging was seen as a tween-driven fad, with even the companies promoting it taken aback at its success. And apparently, according to this archival BBC news footage from 2001, cell phone manufacturers worried they needed another techno … | Continue reading
The S6000 Bench, by Montreal-based design firm Barbeau Desrosiers, was created by repurposing industrial scrap in a clever way.The bench is "made of extruded aluminum [and] explores the recovery potential of industrial profiles by inventing new uses for them to create unique obje … | Continue reading
Last year we wrote up Concord Aerospace, a company that makes these fantastic replicas of the switch panels from NASA's Apollo spacecraft.I just looked in on their website, and am surprised to see that they've since expanded into joke-sier stuff.Trigger warning ahead, it's about … | Continue reading
These basic-looking wooden storage units from Muji seem minimalist and not much more, but they pull a well-considered trick.Each drawer in this 6x1 unit is half of a square high. So the unit can be turned on its side, and still accommodates the drawers.This 3x1 unit with square d … | Continue reading
I don't know why this is so funny, but researchers from Australia's University of Sydney have learned that octopuses can and do "throw" things, often at each other, and apparently for reasons that human beings would recognize:"In one instance, the researchers watched a female oct … | Continue reading
"When I started designing pleasure jewelry, I honestly did not know if anyone would ever wear it," designer Ti Chang admits. Years later, she is still in awe of the excitement fans have for the Vesper vibrator necklace she first designed for her company CRAVE in 2014. And she def … | Continue reading
After being caught in a building fire, and successfully fighting his way out using a fire extinguisher, Czech architect Premysl Kokes experienced a perspective shift. "When I now design buildings, I pay even more attention to firefighting technologies," he writes. During his harr … | Continue reading
I prefer Western "push" saws to Japanese pull saws, but the popularity of the latter is indisputable; though scarcely seen in stores a couple decades ago, today you can walk into a big box and buy one made by Irwin or DeWalt.Upstart tool company ToughBuilt, the company that makes … | Continue reading
Both Samsung and Lenovo have unveiled prototypes for screens that grow. Visually it looks like they're stretching, but in fact they're actually unrolling while the rear part of their housing slides outwards. LG, however, has come up with a screen that actually stretches, in the m … | Continue reading
This eye-catching stool is by Rome-based design firm Naessi Studio. Called Sbagliato, the wrought iron stool features a Canaletto Walnut seat.One of the legs terminates before reaching the seat. For the designers, this is poetic, functional and very Italian: "An imperfect cut of … | Continue reading
During her time working in the design studio of Jin Kuramoto, Taiwanese designer Chialing Chang designed and prototyped this unusual Maki easy chair: "Through folding, bending, rolling the foam material, a simple yet symbolic shape is naturally formed, which becomes the seating … | Continue reading
DesignByThem, founded by industrial designers Sarah Gibson and Nicholas Karlovasitis, is an Australian ID consultancy that relies on local design talent. I haven't seen enough Australian design work to deduce if the continent possesses a distinct aesthetic, but I did find DBT's m … | Continue reading
At an NFL or NCAA game in a cold-weather region, you may spot these spiffy player benches:Those fiberglass benches are actually heated, providing warmth for players in three different places."A heated bench from Dragons Seats not only provides an ergonomically comfortable seat fo … | Continue reading
BMW's M brand has teamed up with Epic Games to provide a crazy-sounding experience: Pull on a pair of VR/MR goggles, strap into a real BMW M2 on a track, and start driving—while the goggles show you a gamified version of the road."People need to be able to experience the new feel … | Continue reading
I'm already envious of Teenage Engineering because, at least from where I'm stitting, it looks like they can design what they want to design and charge what they want to charge. Now I've learned that the company has designed their own freaking beer. And not just any beer; they've … | Continue reading
Michael Hilgers, whose brand of "pragmatic design" we looked at here, is at it again. The Berlin-based architect has designed this wonderful KOMMODUL modular furniture set for Scandinavian manufacturer Iversen Interior: "[It's] the first modular chest of drawers made of solid woo … | Continue reading
ByDesign, producers of the globally recognized collection of design television series, are back with two new series launching on November 12. The show will provide audiences with deep insight into what it takes to imagine, create, and bring to life new and innovative designs in f … | Continue reading
It used to be that gas-powered motorcycles were one thing, and electric scooters were an entirely different thing. But now that the technology of the latter is producing performance figures rivaling the former, it seems the two categories may converge.Mobility company Horwin, whi … | Continue reading
Turns out that Flea, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, has incredible architectural taste. Until recently the bassist had been living at his Southern California compound, which contains three structures: A modernist edifice by the award-winning L.A. architect Michael Maltzan; a resto … | Continue reading
There are often times when I'm playing with my hula-hoop in front of our swimming pool, and I lament at how lame our standard radiator looks through the window. I didn't realize, until seeing these photos, that I don't have to suffer in this way.An Italian company called Tubes Ra … | Continue reading
These beautiful objects are by Japanese industrial designer Mikiya Kobayashi, and I really want to touch them. First off, his Wakka magnetic key holder:Shockingly, the ring isn't a welded bar bent into a circle; it's been machined out of a billet in a single piece.His Marubo key … | Continue reading
In the city of Wiesbaden in western Germany, a disused power station sits on the bank of the Rhine.It might make for great housing, or could even be transformed into a cultural site—London's Tate Modern was repurposed from a power station—but local zoning laws prohibit those appl … | Continue reading
Einride, the Swedish tech company that's developed an autonomous cargo vehicle, has also created an attendant Remote Interface that "can be taken apart and flatpacked in no time." It's essentially a pop-up workstation that can be located wherever your driver is, independent of th … | Continue reading
Celine Wong was an Industrial Design student at San Jose State, she designed this wall clock for the nearsighted, conceived of as a Muji product:And because the nearsighted often wear glasses, the clock can stow those too: As for how you tell time with it: | Continue reading
In 1983, Audio-Technica started selling the Mister Disc, a portable, battery-operated record player. The groundbreaking form did not need to encapsulate the entirety of an LP. (It could also play 45s.)In some markets it was called the Sound Burger.As the popularity of vinyl began … | Continue reading
I'm really digging this small, simple Wav desk tray that uses gravity to hold just a few items in place. I reckon these were cut on a CNC mill, using an angled jig to hold the workpiece. Created by Texas-based architect Bao Loi, who runs DesignCraftWorkshop, they come in Walnut…… … | Continue reading
This PDS30 conference speaker, by Porsche Design, features a nice UI twist.Literally a twist: In its closed position, the seam between the top and bottom halves is a thin line that circumnavigates the device in an orderly chicane. Twist it, and the top raises slightly as it rotat … | Continue reading
Swiss industrial designer Benjamin Thut is a fan of scissors mechanisms. He designed this Scissor Table, which can be unfolded nearly effortlessly: And this Scissor Shelf unit:The attraction to the mechanism runs in the family. Benjamin's father, Kurt Thut, was also an industria … | Continue reading
Chinese automaker Xpeng has successfully completed the maiden voyage of their flying car, the AeroHT. The design is brutish, but they've gotten it to work: They've essentially taken the form factor of a sedan, albeit a futuristic and swoopy one, and slapped gigantic arms with rot … | Continue reading