A Styrofoam Substitute Made from Popcorn

It can be used for packaging or insulation, and it's made from cereal by-products | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Apple Gives In to Pressure, Starts Selling Spare Parts and Repair Tools

Apple has been famously resistant to pressure, taking a we-know-best attitude towards the maintenance and repair of their products. But this month, after years of being lobbied by right-to-repair consumer groups, Apple has finally agreed to sell spare parts and the specialty tool … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Photos from the 2021 L.A. Auto Show

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@core77.com | 3 years ago

Spotted at the L.A. Auto Show: Edison Future's Solar-Powered Delivery Van

At this week's L.A. Auto Show, a startup called EdisonFuture showed up with their EF-1V, an electric solar delivery van: Incredibly the company offered virtually no information, except the following: 0-60 in under 6.5 seconds; towing capacity 7,500-lbs.-plus; cargo capacity 260-4 … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Spotted at the L.A. Auto Show: Nissan's Electric Ariya

The Leaf, Nissan's diminutive and uninspiring electric hatchback, debuted over a decade ago. Now the brand is hyping a new electric model that looks to make more of a splash: The Ariya, a clean-looking crossover SUV that's meant to represent the company's renewed foray into elect … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Special Vehicle Operations: Range Rover's Incredible Pop-Up Desk, Champagne 'Fridge, Luxury Rear Seats

Their Signature Suite Rear Environment wants to go beyond First-Class seating | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Spotted at the L.A. Auto Show: Kia's EV9 Concept

At this week's L.A. Auto Show, the Kia EV9 concept debut was so mobbed by journalists and camera crews, I had to wait and keep coming back to get even partially clean shots of it. The designers had to be satisfied with the crowd draw. Bold | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Spotted at the L.A. Auto Show: The Fisker Ocean

This week at the L.A. Auto Show, Fisker pulled the sheets off of a "production-intent" design of their Ocean concept: The all-electric Ocean has an interior made from recycled fishing nets, old T-shirts, reclaimed rubber and other recycled materials (though actual percentages of … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Spotted at the L.A. Auto Show: Toyota's Designed-in-China Rhombus

Toyota's electric Rhombus concept, which was designed "to suit the values and lifestyles of drivers born after 1990," made an appearance at this week's L.A. Auto Show. Notably, the Rhombus was designed not in Newport Beach nor Tokyo, but at TMEC, Toyota's R&D branch in China. | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Loose Parts' OAK Collection is a Playful Solution to Modular Commercial Furniture

The collection is a "Swiss-Army knife approach" of modular pieces for storeowners to customize according to evolving needs | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Reader Submitted: Climate Change Instruction Scarves

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@core77.com | 3 years ago

Reader Submitted: Mnuca Floating Lamp

A lamp that lights up when floating, and turns off when resting. | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

DoCoMo's Silent, Safe Balloon-Based Camera Drones

Quiet for filming while capturing sound, self-illuminating and can change color | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Flux Furniture's Arc: A Pop-Up Bar/Counter System

Made of polypropylene, the fold-flat system is light and strong | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

DoCoMo's Silent, Safet Balloon-Based Camera Drones

Quiet for filming while capturing sound, self-illuminating and can change color | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Honda's Autonomous Work Vehicle: A Headless Japanese Mini-Truck

The all-electric AWVs go to work on a construction site in New Mexico | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Using Human Hair as Ink? "The Colour of Hair" Project

We humans naturally produce fertilizer from our bodies, but we're well past living in the agricultural societies that would make that a useful trick. Two other worthless things our bodies regularly yield are nail clippings and hair. Very long hair can be used to make wigs, but th … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Good Design/Bad Design for a Specialty Object: Crumb Sweepers

At 14 I landed a job as a busboy at a white-tablecloth restaurant. Each shift I was given a black apron and something I'd never seen before: A shiny piece of aluminum that looked like this, except with the restaurant's name printed on the back. It had a pen | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Industrial Organization: Auer Packaging's Trolley System for Tipping Storage Boxes

Aluminum extrusions, rolling casters, a pair of handles and transparent tippable storage boxes in whatever sizes you need. This is an object few people see outside of a manufacturing or assembly facility, but I'd really like to have one of these in my shop or house: That's Auer P … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Rotomolded Bedroom Furniture Designed "to Withstand Intentionally Abusive Behaviors"

Here's a furniture design target market you probably never think about: Group homes, psychiatric institutions and adult or juvenile detention centers. But these places need furniture too, and this subcategory has wildly different design briefs than those tackled by Ikea and Ethan … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Metal Wall Games Makes Classic Boardgames, But Wall-Mounted

An interesting concept: Metal Wall Games sells versions of classic boardgames that are played vertically on your wall, rather than horizontally and on a table. Wall Scrabble Wall Othello/Reversi Wall Connect Four So how do | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Great Design: Butane Refill Canister Caps with Built-In Adapters

Some brands of butane refill canisters have five conspicuous circles on top of the cap: Those are break-off adapter tips, so that you can refill different brands of lighters. Image source These have been around for decades, and sadly the original designer is unknown. But I think … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

The Interiors of Sleeper Cabs, Straight from the Major Manufacturers

Previously, we looked at luxury sleeper cabs for long-haul truckers. Those were all aftermarket modifications and custom jobs, like this one: But what do sleeper cabs look like, straight from the manufacturer? To find out, we looked at the top truck brands by sales in the U.S.—Fr … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

These Racecars Have Built-In Air-Powered Jacks for Fast Tire Changes

Every millisecond counts in a pit stop, which is why some racecar manufacturers have installed air jacks on their cars. When an air hose is attached to a port on the vehicle, four metal cylinders—typically at the corners of the car, or in a diamond configuration—shoot out of the … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

A No-Fuel, Centrifuge-Based Rocket Launching System That's Like an Amusement Park Ride Gone Wrong

SpinLaunch's kinetic launcher costs a fraction of conventional rocket boosters | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Equal Space Dividers: One Tool That Serves (at Least) Four Different Trades

Equal space dividers are useful for a variety of trades. Furniture and cabinet makers can use them to mark consistent intervals on workpieces without needing to do any math. Seamstresses use them as well. If you know where the top and bottom buttons on a garment need to be, | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Demonstrating the Simple Technique of Using Magnets for Hidden Cabinet/Drawer Locks

You might not use this to build a gun safe, but here B-Star Crafts demonstrates the simple technique of using magnets to provide low-level cabinet and drawer security: While the techniques are basic, the video seems to have scratched many an itch; at press time it had 13 million | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

François Bauchet's Minimal Monad Bookshelf

This Monad bookshelf, by French industrial designer François Bauchet, relies on simple, fastener-free inter-material joinery for its structure. "Less features," writes Bauchet, "characterized by avoiding the superfluous, and with a high-quality finish." The two epoxy-painted stee … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

This Foldable Bike Is A Game Changer For City Dwellers

Alex Animashaun created James Bond's Jaguar hybrid. Now he's elevating your commute. | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Unusual Design for a Freehand Paper Cutter Shaped Like a Computer Mouse

Here's a strange invention intended to let you cut freehand curves in paper, easier than you could with an X-Acto: This Handy Paper Cutter. "The Handy Paper Cutter cuts out designs as if you were photoshopping with your mouse," reads the product description. "A sharp, rust-proof | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

How Luggage is Loaded Into the Bottom of an Airplane

We've all seen our luggage go up that conveyor belt or scissor lift that reaches the underside of an airplane. But few of us have ever seen the guy inside who has to Tetris everything into place. Here's what that looks like: (Source: 3askaryyy) Reading through the Reddit comments … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Watch a C-130 Recover a Drone in Mid-Air

Gremlins are the mischievous, fictional creatures that Royal Air Force members jokingly accused of sabotaging aircraft in WWII. (In reality, their aircraft troubles simply stemmed from mechanical failures.) So perhaps it's no surprise that DARPA's Gremlins program, an initiative … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

A Rare 1961 Chevy Pickup With a Side Loading Ramp

Mecum Auctions is selling off an antique truck lot this week, which you don't see that often. I clicked through the 79 trucks in the lot, and while many of them look unusual, this one in particular jumped out at me: | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Brilliant Method for Building DIY Backyard Ice Rinks Gets an Upgrade

In 2017 we learned about Dylan Gastel's clever design for a DIY backyard skating rink. Gastel's thoughtful system converted what used to be a challenging construction task into something that could literally be assembled by eight-year-olds, without using any tools and without hav … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Undoing a Zip-Tie Without Cutting It is Like Skinning a Cat

Plenty of ways to do it, with or without specialty tools | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Attending Austin Design Week? Come to "The Dissolving Line Between Business and Design" Panel

Register now to attend on Tuesday, November 9th at the UT Foundry, featuring Core77's own Senior Producer Allison Fonder | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

How to Cut Glass With a Waterjet

Astonishingly, this demo cuts a sheet of glass into a spiral bowl | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Shouldn't Smart Devices Feature Overt Physical Indications That They're Not Listening to Us?

With a background in industrial design, multidisciplinary designer Joris Wegner points out that we have no physical indication of whether our devices are listening to us or not. At rest, are our smart devices really "just patiently waiting for their wake word or are our private c … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Experimental Objects by Design Firm CW&T

A bike built around a Pelican case, head-mounted fluorescent light fixtures and more | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

5 Outstanding Projects from SVA's MFA in Products of Design Program

SVA's multi-disciplinary projects demonstrate the type of work you could create as an MFA student | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Japanese Overdesign: A Mechanical Pencil That Turns Into a Compass

Have you ever wished your mechanical pencil could also be used as a compass? Well, me neither. But apparently there's enough demand in Japan that stationery manufacturer RayMay Fujii designed this PenPass: These run more than $15 on Amazon, | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Bambetel's Wooden Lamps and More

While there's tons of people selling craftsy wooden objects on Etsy, the Bambetel shop stands out. Besides offering the stock desk organizer, they've got two handsome wall clocks… …as well as this nicely-designed desk clock. Most interestingly, | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Rollor: Cardboard Packaging That You Unroll

Can ship clothing wrinkle-free, but will it protect a bottle? | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Three Different Design Approaches to Dual-Roll Tape Dispensers

If you're in some profession where you routinely need to apply one of two types of tape, Uline's Multi-Roll Dispenser has you covered, plus one. But as you can see, the design is terrible: Obviously the tapes oughtn't be so close together. A better design is this Double Tape | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Incredibly Modern-Looking 2,000-Year-Old Shoe

What is believed to be the oldest leather shoe in the world is the Areni-1, some 5,500 years old, recovered by an archaeologist at an Armenian cave. It's technically impressive for being made over five millennia ago, and it looks like what you'd expect: Image: Pinhasi R, Gasparia … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Incredibly Modern-Looking 2,000-Year-Old Shoe

What is believed to be the oldest leather shoe in the world is the Areni-1, some 5,500 years old, recovered by an archaeologist at an Armenian cave. It's technically impressive for being made over five millennia ago, and it looks like what you'd expect: Image: Pinhasi R, Gasparia … | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Three Different Design Approaches to Dual-Roll Tape Dispensers

If you're in some profession where you routinely need to apply one of two types of tape, Uline's Multi-Roll Dispenser has you covered, plus one. But as you can see, the design is terrible: Obviously the tapes oughtn't be so close together. A better design is this Double Tape | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago

Rollor: Cardboard Packaging That You Unroll

Can ship clothing wrinkle-free, but will it protect a bottle? | Continue reading


@core77.com | 3 years ago