Is this what "sustainability" looks like?Clothing and accessories manufacturer Rothy's has announced a new line of goods created in partnership with evian. The brand says "Rothy's and evian collected approximately 72,000 evian bottles from New York's largest tennis tournament las … | Continue reading
Geotechnical engineers from the University of Texas have an interesting fleet of toys to play with. The university has five "large mobile shakers," which are gigantic trucks that can generate simulations of seismic activity using gigantic rams mounted to their underbellies.By sha … | Continue reading
Designed for fitness coaches and personal trainers, the Tricuro Go is a spine-measuring device that attaches to an Android or iOS smartphone.Two integrated wheels are rolled along the patient's spine as they adopt different positions. The companion app then provides a visual and … | Continue reading
A growing number of Americans are concerned about the climate crisis. In 2020, the Pew Research Center reported that two-thirds of the country supports federal action to protect the environment, but progress has been slow to come. While recent government measures are promising, i … | Continue reading
The Shaper Origin, the self-correcting router that we looked at in-depth here, will soon have a new accessory. Shaper has announced they'll be releasing the Shaper Plate, a universal template that clamps to your workpiece and allows you to quickly cut inlays, recesses for hardwar … | Continue reading
Researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology and the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies have successfully created artificial 3D-printed muscles.Using an SLA 3D printer and an unspecified soft resin, the researchers printed pumpkin-like bladders that can expand and contrac … | Continue reading
In the early 2000s, Chinese auto manufacturer Dongfeng got their start by licensing the design of the Hummer H-1. They began producing them with the model name Mengshi, "warrior" in Chinese.Image: JamesYoung8167 - CC BY-SA 4.0 Over the years the company continued to produce updat … | Continue reading
Copenhagen/Tokyo-based industrial designer Erina Caldeira designed these measuring cups to be easier to read: "A measurement cup that is easy to measure from any angle, with a measurement line on the entire border. The tip of the spout is thin, making it easy to pour and prevent … | Continue reading
Earlier we looked at the BeBot, a beach-cleaning robot manufactured by Searial Cleaners.Now they've produced a companion 'bot, this one waterborne, called the PixieDrone (not to be confused with Snapchat's Pixy Drone).The "floating waste collector" can be remote-controlled or run … | Continue reading
Phaidon's forthcoming 1000 Design Classics really should be called 1000 Industrial Design Classics, as nearly everything in it was mass-produced, but I'll be grateful the book exists rather than quibble over the title.The single tome draws from the three-volume Phaidon Design Cla … | Continue reading
Our American sense of entitlement has reached a new high, bringing our retail behavior to a new low. As comprehensive bag bans have gone into effect, customers who can't be bothered to bring their own—and who refuse to buy a 5-cent paper bag or a more expensive permanent bag at t … | Continue reading
What Adidas wants to make, they write, are sneakers "with variable properties across the midsole to improve shoe performance for different sports." But this is currently out-of-reach using standard production practices:"Midsoles cannot be injection or compression molded in one pi … | Continue reading
In the mid-1980s, Toshiba's industrial designers were apparently tasked with designing a Walkman that would be smaller than everyone else's—in just one dimension, that is. They then came up with the KT-AS10, a/k/a the Walky:Image: Cassette Players Walkman Blog The unusual design … | Continue reading
Sony's Wena 3 is a wristband for those who want smartwatch functionality with a regular old watch face. It attaches to an existing watch face (Sony doesn't mention how), and its three-line screen can communicate with your iOS or Android phone via Bluetooth. It can display notific … | Continue reading
Berlin-based consultancy jüngerkühn, founded by industrial designers Konrad Jünger and Verena Kühn, used generative design to create these SKO objects: A handtruck and an S-hook."SKO – standing for 'soft kill option' – is a method from bionics for improving the load behaviour of … | Continue reading
UK-based Rob Ives spotted this unusual DIY hinge. As he explains:"It's lambing time here in the frozen north (Cumbria UK). The farmers are keen that the gates to the fields remain closed. They have a few different mechanisms to close the gates automatically. These range for sprin … | Continue reading
A company called Shenzhen Kuhua Intelligent Technology Co. has developed a pair of electric-powered rollerskates. Built on aluminum frames, the Airtrick E-Skates each weigh 3.3 pounds and can be strapped on over your existing shoes. A wireless remote control, which you'll obvious … | Continue reading
Anthony and Racine are a chemist and a UX designer, respectively. Together they've invented the Cooler Keg, a cooler that can deliver beer on-tap.Inside are custom and reusable ice packs shaped to fit around the two included 228oz kegs. These are connected to the same standard CO … | Continue reading
At first glance, this urban trash can looks like little more than a metal cylinder. Swiss designer and engineer Daniel Hunziker, however, reveals the attention to design detail that went into it."The requirements for the new waste bin for the city of Zurich were diverse and compl … | Continue reading
From Japanese manufacturer Aimedia comes this Haircape, which they reckon obviates the need to sweep following a haircut:"You can adjust the neck around with one touch tape, so it can be used by children and adults.""It is hard to splatter the hair by antistatic processing, and t … | Continue reading
I can guarantee that the designer of the Lazy Susan never intended it to be used this way: I'm just wrapping my head around how that first bit is even possible—but I'm more curious: Who had the idea to even try that in the first place? | Continue reading
We looked at manufacturer Brändle's fire engine, redesigned by industrial design firms Milan Rohrer and Shibuleru, here. The images (below) looked pretty cool, but the presentation of what the designers actually had to contend with was limited.To help you understand how a fire en … | Continue reading
Biking while beering would be bad in the real world, but anything goes at Burning Man. Frequent attendee The Colorist solved his cycling-and-spilling problem with this impressive self-built beer stabilizer: I guess this hasn't been invented before, at least not for beer, because … | Continue reading
Apparently the Amish have a tradition of giving kids a time-out…by seating them in a little dedicated chair with a built-in timekeeping device:And at least one manufacturer, Cottage CraftWorks, makes a version without the clock. They did carry over the circular motif of the clock … | Continue reading
In the fast-paced modern age, internet users are constantly telling their own stories. But since it's so easy to post anything online, many don't think much about what they share. Much of the internet satisfies a desire for instant gratification, but how will our digital footprin … | Continue reading
A company called Nord Supplies is selling wood-less pencils made entirely out of graphite. They claim these last longer than traditional pencils, and also tout the ability to use the entirety of the conical surface, not just the tip, to make marks. Additionally, the shavings them … | Continue reading
The AEON is an "everlasting pencil" created by Stilform, a Hamburg-based design studio founded by industrial designer Christoph Bohrer and entrepreneur Martin Wagner. The bodies are offered in your choice of aluminum, magnesium, brass or titanium, and feature two veneer strips of … | Continue reading
Japanese manufacturer King Jim makes some crazy multifunctional pens.The TP10 contains a screen-cleaning cloth that you can pull out of the barrel like a window blind. Rotating the end of the pen retracts the cloth.The TP20 looks like an ordinary stylus, but rotating the tip caus … | Continue reading
London-based UX designer Mehrshad Abbaslou created this Kaarto, an aluminum ergonomic pen "to help people avoid injuries such as Repetitive strain injury (RSI).""Kaarto's real magic is in helping you gradually switch to a more light and affordable style of writing. Kaarto is desi … | Continue reading
Swiss street furniture manufacturer Velopa is interested in the "smart" city. "We have given concrete thought to what intelligent solutions for 'smart' urban or mobility development could look like," they write. "For us as a manufacturer, it is important to convert these impulses … | Continue reading
We live in an age of narcissism, and a problem many of us face, is our face; namely that there's not enough objects to stick one's face onto. But gift retailer Firebox is here to help, with a line of products you can plaster your mug all over, like this heat change mug.If you wan … | Continue reading
Saturday Slip 'N Slide is a family-friendly weekly community event in Jenison, Michigan, hosted by youth ministry Never the Same. Four massive, 100-foot-long plastic sheets are set up on a hill and the taps are turned on.It does look like fun, particularly with the heat some of u … | Continue reading
The YouTube channel Japanese Calligrapher Takumi is, unsurprisingly, about a Japanese guy named Takumi showing you how to do calligraphy. But in a departure, this video of his reveals him creating a dog-based font:My favorites: B, C, F and V.(And yes, typologists, I realize it's … | Continue reading
"Why throw away paper packaging when it can be useful?" asks industrial designer Wyatt Coe, who came up with this concept:"The Scotch Flip dispenser packaging becomes the product itself. Effectively reducing cost and environmental impact, while reinforcing the creative roots of t … | Continue reading
This unusual-looking tool is a fireman's hose clamp, also called a Wildland hose clamp, named for its first manufacturer (like "Crescent" wrench).It's used to pinch off the flow of a pressurized hose so that you can change nozzles, or replace the nozzle with a coupling so you can … | Continue reading
Here's a simple concept for a water bottle with pill storage in the cap, by South Korean industrial design consultancy WM.Assi: As medicated as we Americans are, I'm surprised I haven't seen anything like this, at least not in the wild, over here. | Continue reading
During my days as a structural package designer, when designing a new bottle, the last step for our department was to produce the CAD drawing of a new design. Then it went over to Engineering, who would tweak our CAD to produce the tooling drawing. Then we were ready to "cut stee … | Continue reading
Summer is a big, prosperous time for seaside cities, but all that sudden activity and tourism can be a drain on resources. The pace and demands of summer put pressure on a city's energy grid, which can cause rolling blackouts and worsen air quality. Coastal Italians are intimatel … | Continue reading
Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy now makes an Optimus Prime that transforms into a working Canon EOS R5 mirrorless camera. He is opposed by the Decepticon known as Reflector (rendered "Refraktor" in Japanese pronunciation).Hilariously, they both come with their own smaller (non-func … | Continue reading
As Chinese news organization CGTN reports, creative farmers in Jiangsu Province have been using hydrogen-filled balloons to spray pesticides since at least 2018. The practice involves suspending a hose all the way across a paddy, with workers in vehicles on either side providing … | Continue reading
Something I never had to deal with in the city: Mowing the lawn. Here on the farm I'm responsible for keeping multiple acres of grass cut. It's time-consuming, the machinery is eye-wateringly expensive and it's hard on the body; after just an hour on the zero-turn, my fingers are … | Continue reading
Broei is a Belgian youth organization that offers workshop space and six-month residencies in the Castle of Gerald the Devil, a 13th-century Gothic castle in Ghent.ConstructLab, an architecture-based creative collective that describes themselves as a "collaborative construction p … | Continue reading
Elos is a project by Souhaïb Ghanmi, in his final year as an industrial design student at Switzerland's ECAL. Ghanmi started by identifying a ready source of materials:"In the meat industry in Switzerland, there are more than 230,000 tonnes of waste each year from slaughterhouses … | Continue reading
You might remember this meme from 2015:Well, we now have the answer:Jokes aside, that's actually a medical recovery aid, not a pet owner attempting to humiliate their pooch. The Lick Sleeve, designed by veterinary surgeon Dr. David Allman, "shields your dog's injured hind leg fro … | Continue reading
If you're interested in good/bad UI/UX, this is well worth the watch. As YouTube presenter Tom Scott explains, all U.S. mail is read by optical scanners. The ones that the scanners can't read, for poor handwriting, ink blurred by water, etc. are digitally sent to the U.S. Postal … | Continue reading
Cologne-based industrial designer Moritz Putzier designed this Mikono light, a portable indoor/outdoor lamp that separates into two pieces.The base serves as a charging station. Two contacts encircle the inside of the conical cradle and correspond with two pins on the removable l … | Continue reading
"In the US alone, 84 million tons of sawdust is generated each year," says CEO and Co-founder of Forust Andrew Jeffery. In 2009, the EPA reported that wood waste makes up over 10 percent of all waste generated in North America. As some organizations are discovering, a large perce … | Continue reading
This Upright children's chair, made from bent beech plywood by manufacturer Toyohashi Mokko, was designed to allow small children to sit at table height.The backrest is shaped to enforce good posture. The notched, tool-free adjustment mechanism for both the seat bottom and footre … | Continue reading