Serious barbecuers use different wood species for smoking, to impart the desired flavors. A problem can arise if they forget what species they last loaded into their smoker. That's why barbecue supply company The Pit Bros sell magnets like these that you can slap onto the side of … | Continue reading
This handsome lamp has a crappy secret. In the 1930s the Chase Brass and Copper Company, which made plumbing materials, wanted to branch out into consumer products. Among the industrial designers they hired to help them achieve this was Ruth Gerth, a pioneering female ID'er. In 1 … | Continue reading
By now you've seen headlines like "Biden Removes Trump's Diet Coke Button from Oval Office." As the story goes, Trump had a red button mounted in a wooden box sitting on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Pressing it signaled a servant to bring in a Diet Coke, reportedly | Continue reading
Festool has just unveiled the 3rd generation of their Systainer Organizers, produced by sister company Tanos. If you read about our visit to both Festool and Tanos, you'll recall that the Tanos rep seemed incredulous when a reporter asked her if Systainers were recyclable. They a … | Continue reading
At some point, we've all thrown out a garbage bag that was not completely full, because it contained something foul that we didn't want to fester inside. In institutional settings like hospitals and restaurants, that practice can be extremely wasteful, burning through standardize … | Continue reading
The "Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City, 1950–2020" exhibition runs thru June | Continue reading
Soccer, a/k/a football is a popular children's pastime around the world, particularly in developing nations. A patch of ground, the ball, and improvised goal posts are the only infrastructure required. Should the ball deflate, however, an air pump is required; should the ball be … | Continue reading
Package delivery by drone will soon be common. Amazon, Walmart, UPS and others are all trialing the technology. With some design changes to our living spaces, package-delivery-by-drone could make package theft, a/k/a "porch piracy," a thing of the past. What's needed is for desig … | Continue reading
Package delivery by drone will soon be common. Amazon, Walmart, UPS and others are all trialing the technology. With some design changes to our living spaces, package-delivery-by-drone could make package theft, a/k/a "porch piracy," a thing of the past. What's needed is for desig … | Continue reading
The hand sewing needles and awls that we've used for centuries has the point at one end, and the eye on the other end. Designed to be manipulated by a human hand, this was the most efficient way to poke a hole in fabric and pull thread through that hole. | Continue reading
Jeff Bartels wields a hyperrealist brush to confront issues with truth | Continue reading
Our post on the CityQ e-bike (above) drew strong interest, and we've just learned it has an existing competitor with a very different design approach. Dutch company EV Mobility's LEF is a one-person, three-wheeled e-bike that's sort of like a cockpit on wheels. While this is an | Continue reading
A couple of years ago, Nissan came up with this concept for a mobile workshop based on their NV300. It was designed specifically with craftspeople in mind. Now, inspired by the pandemic, its effects on society and a healthy desire to retreat into pure fantasy, they've designed a … | Continue reading
This is precisely the amount of aesthetic intrusion I want | Continue reading
This would drive me absolutely nuts. In L.A. a YouTuber spotted one of Amazon's new Rivian electric delivery vans, and the whining drone it makes has to be heard to be believed: I mean it started out medium-annoying, but as the vehicle begins to move, the pitch increase sounds | Continue reading
Cadillac has yet to unveil their 2022 V-series Blackwing sedans, but they have announced a surprising feature they'll boast: Manual transmissions. Both the CT4-V and CT5-V will come "standard" with a 6-speed. "It's something we know V-Series buyers want and it's something we knew … | Continue reading
Masayuki Takabatake documents odd writing implements, drawing accessories and more | Continue reading
Boston-based design firm Sprout Studios has spun off a new division: Sprout Viz, which is something like Lucasfilm for for designers and manufacturers. Sprout Viz wields top-notch design talent with CGI chops, replacing time-consuming photo shoots with high-res renderings and vid … | Continue reading
Hideo Kanbara's Kadokeshi eraser is a fine example of MoMA-worthy Japanese overdesign | Continue reading
Masayuki Takabatake documents odd writing implements, drawing accessories and more | Continue reading
A company called Ecologic Brands has developed a unique two-part bottle that they reckon is more sustainable than standard plastic bottles. Their Eco Bottle consists of an inner liner of plastic, and that's the bit that actually holds the liquid. The form and outer shell are comp … | Continue reading
To maximize space, warehouses need shelves that soar far above human reach. Humans driving forklifts are needed to retrieve high packages. Forklifts require a certain amount of operating room, which limits how narrow you can make the aisles, which in turn limits the amount of she … | Continue reading
Buckminster Fuller unveiled his Dymaxion car at the 1933 World's Fair. Just three years later, Oscar Mayer's nephew Carl designed the Wienermobile. Coincidence? By Starysatyr - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 Okay, maybe I'm stretching. Bottom line, though, is you'll never get to drive a … | Continue reading
A round-up of ID positions posted this week at our job board. | Continue reading
Buckminster Fuller unveiled his Dymaxion car at the 1933 World's Fair. Just three years later, Oscar Mayer's nephew Carl designed the Wienermobile. Coincidence? By Starysatyr - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 Okay, maybe I'm stretching. Bottom line, though, is you'll never get to drive a … | Continue reading
To maximize space, warehouses need shelves that soar far above human reach. Humans driving forklifts are needed to retrieve high packages. Forklifts require a certain amount of operating room, which limits how narrow you can make the aisles, which in turn limits the amount of she … | Continue reading
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been working on Neom, a new city he plans to build from scratch in the northwestern corner of the kingdom. While a startup city is already an unusual idea, so too is the shape they're going with: MBS has announced that the | Continue reading
No one's yet nailed the design of an anti-package-theft porch locker and dominated that market. While they continue to grow in popularity, the designs are all over the map. However, it seems we'll soon see a second object on suburban porches, and this one will have a standardized … | Continue reading
Art handlers exist to safely transport works of fine art, ensuring no damage comes to them in transit. L.A.-based artist Walead Beshty, however, does not need art handlers. That's because Beshty creates the pieces of his "Transparencies" series by relying on shipping damage. Besh … | Continue reading
Pre-pandemic I was at an airport in New York, and a 20something sat down next to me with headphones on--but not on. Instead he had them around his neck and with the earcups turned up, blasting his music so that the entire terminal could "enjoy" it. I found this stunningly | Continue reading
Following the news of Mercedes' gigantic Hyperscreen, a dashboard-width touchscreen, Core77 readers sounded off with unanimous disdain: - "Am I the only one who thinks that replacing tactile controls with touch screens in cars is one of the worst design trends of all time?"- "We … | Continue reading
The Dakar Rally, currently being hosted in Saudi Arabia, is a grueling off-road race conducted over thousands of kilometers. The race's Mad Max vibe is conferred by both the punishing, sandy terrain, and the wide variety of vehicle types allowed: Cars, motorcycles, quads (single- … | Continue reading
Changing consumer behavior isn't easy, but design can play a part. | Continue reading
Branding themselves as "the world's leading lifestyle brand for gamers," Razer has branched out beyond hardware and is now doing furniture design concepts. Gaming-related, of course. Their Project Brooklyn gaming chair concept, unveiled at (virtual) CES 2021, aims to provide "nex … | Continue reading
Swedish ceramic artist Anu Moser designed this beautiful pendant lamp for Danish lighting manufacturer Louis Poulsen in 2002. "The shape of the glass shade draws inspiration from the drop that hot glass forms when taken from the furnace" during the hand-blowing process, according … | Continue reading
From my first shop teacher to my last, all have stressed the importance of wearing eye protection in the shop. Applying tools to materials inevitably creates flying shards with unpredictable trajectories. So how is it that woodpeckers, who have a tool at the end of their face tha … | Continue reading
I just read this hilarious anecdote from Rhoda Miel, veteran reporter and editor over at Plastics News. Miel has been covering the plastics sector for two decades, and shared her "favorite story from the Detroit Auto Show" (which has sadly been canceled this year), where she enco … | Continue reading
It's like a riddle: What kind of bicycle has more than two wheels, and pedals but no chain? The answer is the forthcoming CityQ e-bike, an electric four-wheeler aimed at those who'd like to avail themselves of the greener lifestyle of a cyclist, but perhaps don't feel comfortable … | Continue reading
Rick Treworgy began buying, and flipping, cars at the tender age of 14. That was back in the '60s. By 2006, Treworgy had amassed more cars than he could drive, and he purchased an abandoned Walmart in Florida to house them. He then transformed the space into the Muscle Car | Continue reading
The newest from Looking Glass Factory empowers creators to store, send, and even touch their fantastical works. | Continue reading
In the pilot episode of the cult sci-fi show Firefly, Mal is shown in the bathroom of the titular ship, using a stainless steel toilet and a stainless steel sink--both of which disappear into the wall: I always thought those were super-cool and wondered if they were in production … | Continue reading
Quietly released on Friday, and surely on its way to viral, is this stop-motion LEGO animation of The Mandalorian. Creator and animator ForrestFire Films, who has been uploading self-made shorts since 2007, opted to go with an original script rather than recreating a scene from | Continue reading
Designed in London, Klikk and Dynasty are both manufactured in Germany | Continue reading
Company says "we have the capability to put everyone in an EV" | Continue reading
"Honey, can you move the Cessna? I need to pull out" | Continue reading
If you looked closely at those shots of the Capitol Police standing off against the protestors, you likely noticed something unusual on their guns: And when a Redditor purchased a used pistol once belonging to the Israeli police, s/he found it came with yellow tape on it: Image: … | Continue reading