Using Plastic Off-Cuts as Templates for Paper Off-Cuts

Two companies try to use their garbage to create something useful | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Is It Possible to Design a Friendlier-Looking Ski Mask?

These days, many businesses may be pleased to see you walk in wearing a face mask. Ski masks, not so much; however unfairly, those retain an indelible association with home invasions. Is it possible to design friendlier-looking partial face coverings that are well-suited for biti … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

They Now Make USB-C Charging Cables with Built-In Wattage Meters

These USB-C charging cables, from a company you've never heard of, feature a built-in wattage meter that tells you how fast your devices are charging. 6.6 feet long, the cables are braided and supposedly durable. Sean Hollister over at The Verge rolled the dice and | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

An Easier Way to Navigate: Company Gives Every Location on Earth a Three-Word Code

Unless you drive a new Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, Land Rover or Lamborghini, you may not be aware that those automakers have embraced a new, easier and more precise way to navigate by voice. All five companies have incorporated or are incorporating what3words technology. To expl … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Hyundai's Strange Cold-Weather UI Bug: Digital Dashboard Rotates, Flips Display

The Santa Fe PHEV is apparently a bad match for Canada | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Examples of Automated Furniture and Fixtures Built with Motion Control Products

Progressive Automations showcases what their customers make with their hardware | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Industrial Designer Creates Handheld Block of Granite "Without a Predetermined Function"

Swiss industrial designer Tobias Brunner designed this object, which is "5kg milled from a single block of granite without a predetermined function." After some Instagram followers weighed in with potential uses, Brunner took them to heart: It was apparently for sale at the Vitra … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Engineer Invents Portable Rope Tow for Backcountry Skiing/Snowboarding

No more trekking back up the mountain after each run | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Lightweight Concrete Spiral Staircase Cast in 3D-Printed Molds

This novel spiral staircase was designed by researchers at ETH Zurich's Digital Building Technologies. Intended for a building at EMPA (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology), it's made of concrete, but at a fraction of the material required if it were d … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Mini Recharged Program Converts Classic Minis to Electric

Mini has announced a new service that many owners of older cars would probably be interested in. For an unspecified fee, owners of classic Minis in the UK can have them converted to electric under the Mini Recharged program. The company swaps out the original gas engine for an el … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

How to Install a Shaftless Elevator In Your House

Maybe not your average DIY project, but Zack makes it look do-able | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

The Level Bolt: A Retrofittable Smart Lock That Only Requires You to Change the Deadbolt

Billed as an "invisible smart lock," the Level Bolt is marketed towards folks who want a smart lock, but don't want to change out all of their existing hardware or change keys. With the Bolt, all you do is swap out the bolt and strike plate, keeping your original key | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Ian Stell's Two-Way Double Staircase

I've seen a lot of crazy and inconvenient space-saving solutions in residential buildings in New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo. So I'm amazed I've never seen anything like this two-way staircase until now: The model above was realized as a full-scale art installation called DIAGINT, cre … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

How to Make Threads Without a Tapping Bit

B-Star Crafts is the guy who demonstrated how magnets can be used in hidden cabinet and drawer locks. That post did pretty well, and maybe this will interest you too: He came up with this MacGyver-like method of creating threads without using a tap set. "The advantage is that | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Measuring What Lasts Longer: Pencil, Mechanical Pencil, Ballpoint Pen

A YouTuber draws a continuous line with each, then measures the results | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Lucas Mundt's Cabin-in-the-Woods Cubicle Makeover

These days employers know it's crucial to keep your supply chain employees happy. So when Lucas Mundt, a Logistics Analyst at personal water bottle manufacturer Simple Modern, asked his boss if he could decorate his cubicle (the company's employees have returned to the office), h … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

NASA Design Competition Seeks Ideas for Managing Garbage, Human Waste During Mars Journey

As nomadic tribes knew, horses are the perfect closed-loop transportation system. Their fuel is grass, and their waste product is fertilizer. Given an appropriate climate and a route that includes sources of water, you can travel indefinitely. The rider only needs to carry fuel f … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Industrial Facility Designs Discreet Analog/Digital/Internet Radio for Pure Audio

The market has demonstrated that there's demand for vinyl LPs. In this age of preconfigured playlists, is there also nostalgia for live radio broadcasts? London-based design studio Industrial Facility (a/k/a Sam Hecht and Kim Colin) thinks so. "Radio behaves inherently differentl … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Vinyl LPs Now Outselling CDs

Sony shuts its first and last disc factory in the U.S. What happened? | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Designey Dremel Knock-Off Killing It on Kickstarter

First we saw the rise of designey drawing tools on Kickstarter, then designey arts-n-crafts tools like that AtuMan hot glue gun. Now that second category has a newcomer: The $90 Arrowmax SGS Pro, a "smart mini electric engraving & polishing pen." Aside from its size, to me it | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

A Look Inside China's Olympic Village Robot Restaurant

Beijing is observing incredibly strict measures to contain COVID in their Olympic Village. Journalists who arrived in advance of the athletes got the first look at the Village's cafeteria, which features robot chefs and servers, plastic partitions at each table, and a rather odd- … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Great Industrial Design Student Work: Project Timo Urban Scooter

By Sandy Zhang, Jodie Xie, Alaa Alshareff and Megan Wiles | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

The Model-M, Portl's Desktop Holographic Monitor

This month Portl, a startup that has raised millions in funding to commercialize hologram technology, released this 90-second spot for their desktop Model-M. Take a look at their proposed use cases: Did you see a single application that made a strong case for why this couldn't ju … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Useful School is a Pay-What-You-Wish Online Design Program for People of Color

Founded by Wieden + Kennedy alum Ritesh Gupta, the program addresses questions people of color have about breaking into (and thriving in) the industry | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

What are the Colored Bars Worn on the Chests of Military Uniforms?

Even if you don't have family members in the military, you've surely seen these in a movie or TV show: Image: Catherine Lowrey Sometimes jokingly referred to as "chest candy" by soldiers, those are service ribbons, also called ribbon bars, and they're essentially a UX concession … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Wearables for Cows That Negate the Need for Fencing

The eShepherd system also allows you to monitor the cows remotely | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

"Stackabl" System Lets You Design Furniture Made from Locally-Sourced Factory Off-Cuts

These chairs are made with felted wool, aluminum and wood. Eye-catching as they are, at first blush this seems incredibly wasteful: However, the kicker is that the materials used were all cut-offs, i.e. waste to begin with. A Toronto-based design firm called Stacklab "identified … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Local Motors Shuts Down

The pioneer of co-creation design lasted for nearly 15 years | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Tattoos for Cars: Japanese Finishing Expert Develops Metal Paint Engraving Technique

Automotive finishing expert Takahiko Izawa runs Rohan Izawa Art Design, a car customizer with peerless techniques. Izawa spent over ten years perfecting "IZ METAL," a type of metal paint that he can spray onto a car and actually engrave into. Other finishers can do similar things … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Items Invented to Make Eating in a Car Easy

Eating fast food while sitting in your car is kind of sad, but I still do it. When you're in the middle of nowhere and starving, it's often the only option, with ubiquitous burger joints having COVID-closed dining areas and offering drive-thru only. Unsurprisingly, there's a cate … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

The Nasal Ranger: A Tool for Measuring Odors with Precision

I can't think of any other tool that attaches to your nose | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

An Assortment of Designey Cigarette Lighters

With cigarettes in decline the U.S. (just 14% of the population here smokes), Zippo has expanded their product offerings beyond cigarette lighters. In Japan, however, smoking has declined more slowly, with 18.2% of the population still puffing away. Thus Japanese manufacturer Tsu … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Joseph Joseph's Compact Folding Ironing Board with Onboard Storage

For those of you that still need to iron stuff: Do you do a bunch of ironing at once, or one or two pieces as needed? "We researched the ironing category," writes Youmeus, a UK-based consultancy founded by industrial designer Chris Christou, "and discovered several key insights t … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

I'm a Student. Should I Submit My Work to Design Awards?

Here are a few reasons why you might want to consider it. | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Early 20th-Century Safety-Ignorant Ways to Transport a Dog by Car

Back when cars were newfangled, we were completely ignorant of their hazards. We drove around with freaking plate-glass windows until safety glass was invented around 1937. Seat belts weren't even offered as an option until 1949, and no one wanted them. They weren't even required … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Police Snipers' Nests at the Super Bowl

In the dark 1976 movie Two-Minute Warning, an evil sniper sets up a nest in the L.A. Coliseum during a Superbowl-like event. He fires randomly into the crowd, and people are killed both by his bullets and in the panicked stampede he causes. I don't know how long after | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Skybeam: A Handheld Anti-Drone Jammer

We've grown accustomed to seeing police or soldiers armed with assault rifles at transportation hubs and public events. In the near future, we may see additional security members carrying these: That's the Skybeam, a handheld anti-drone jammer that targets remote-piloted drones. … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Nuro Upgrades Their Autonomous Delivery Vehicle with External Airbags for Pedestrians

When we last looked at Nuro, the developers of an autonomous electric delivery vehicle, they were on their second-generation R2. To refresh your memory, it was essentially a diminutive car designed to carry goods, not people, and Dominos successfully used them to deliver pizzas i … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Design Firm Develops High-Load, Adjustable Backpack Frame for Australian Defence Force

ONE299 "Correctly fits 1-percentile to 99-percentile female and male users" | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Great Industrial Design Student Work: Shay Nifusi's Monobloc Brushes

Shay Nifusi's Monobloc Brushes "are a result of material and cultural study made as my graduation project at the Industrial Design Department in Shenkar," he writes. "Focusing on such an arbitrary object for a graduation project came from realizing that there is a lot to learn fr … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Designey Cast Iron Wood Stoves

Alba is a Portugese manufacturer of cast iron wood stoves. Although they offer traditional models, like this Metafire Stove… They also have two rather radical departures from the form, by designer Francisco Providência: R2D2 Stove Remade Stove Sadly, Alba is one of those old-scho … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Brilliant Design: Tavar, Magnetically-Joined Modular Storage Furniture from Germany

Imagine an Expedit where you can add or subtract compartments at will | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Tactile Toy: A Touchable Tamagotchi

This strange Japanese amusement device walks the line between innovative and creepy. The Punirines Touchable Digital Pet is, like the original Tamagotchi… …a digital pet trapped inside an electronic case. But there's a finger-sized hole in the Punirines' case, so you can insert a … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

A Cleverly Designed Tool (That We Shouldn't Need in the First Place)

This has me pretty conflicted. I love a cleverly designed tool, and this one clearly fits the bill, but I am questioning what we are doing as a society that creates the need for this tool. The HydroFlask Flex Strap Customizer was designed to allow you to easily | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

Engineer Figures Out How to Unload a 400-Pound Pallet From Her Vehicle Without a Forklift

Mechanical engineer Amy Qian purchased a cabinet-style SawStop table saw, which was loaded into her Honda Element on a pallet by a forklift at the store. When she got home, she then had to figure out how to get the 400-pound unit safely out of the vehicle—by herself. Qian's | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

A Sofa That Turns Into a Bed, Designed to Fit in a Honda Element

Carson Terry, a metal fabricator who goes by the handle Hossly, doesn't mind switching to wood for an interesting project. Mechanical engineer Amy Qian of AmyisMakingStuff designed a simple sofa unit that quickly extends into a bed and is designed to fit inside a Honda Element, a … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

A Voice-Amplifying, Air Purifying Face Mask for Gamers

Razer has designed an air-purifying face mask aimed at, you guessed it, gamers. The thinking behind the Razer Zephyr Pro is that in-person gaming events will continue, and that team gamers in particular have a need to be heard by their teammates. "Breathe freely and be heard clea … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago

The Neon Boneyard: An Outdoor Collection of Las Vegas' Decomissioned Signs

Las Vegas once looked like this: Over the years, as newer competitors moved in, many of the old-school casinos were decommissioned, their signs torn down. Thankfully, not all of the signs went into landfill. A variety of individuals | Continue reading


@core77.com | 2 years ago