EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate) is the rubbery wonder material that sneaker designers worldwide rely upon for midsoles and outsoles: It's lightweight, soft, shock-absorbing, moldable, crack- and UV-resistant, and can be dyed any color you wish. The problem with EVA is that there's n … | Continue reading
There's no right way to do the New Normal—but these quality-of-life tips certainly help | Continue reading
One of my favorite companies to watch is Festool, because they design uncompromising (and expensive) tools for craftspeople seeking perfection. And they are often pioneers in their space. I expect their latest tool design, the Edge Sanding Guide, will be copied by every power too … | Continue reading
Yaokun Wu's Flash Pak is a Lexus Design Award finalist | Continue reading
Backers can even pledge for an opportunity to build their own vibrator at home | Continue reading
This year has been trying for many of us, but there's a chance in this time of reflection to improve our communication skills. Listen wants to help with that. | Continue reading
It was just yesterday that I wrote about Studio Neat, designers of the off-sized Panobook, getting knocked off; Orangered copied their design with their BetterBook. Just now I was e-mailed by a rep for Grovemade, a Portland-based home office goods company. They, too have come out … | Continue reading
A collaboration with Emeco turns coal waste into a cement replacement | Continue reading
Sketchbooks come in standard sizes: 4"x6", 5"x7", 7"x10", 8.5"x11", 9"x12", and 11"x14" for perfect-bound, and 14"x17", 18"x24", and 24"x36" for spiral-bound. All of those sizes are vestiges of when paper was made by hand; the standard 8.5" x 11", for instance, is related to the … | Continue reading
After posting about the BetterBook last week, I received this e-mail from Dan Provost, co-founder of Studio Neat: Hi Rain, hope all is well.Several of our customers have been pointing us to the BetterBook campaign and writeup on Core77.Just FYI, this is a blatant rip-off of our n … | Continue reading
Nagashi-somen, or "flowing noodles," is a bizarre food tradition for a country as obsessed with hygiene as Japan. A sort of primitive forerunner to kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi, nagashi-somen is a summertime cold noodle dish that is served in an unusual way: Boiled in a pot, then … | Continue reading
People in submarines eventually need to sit down, and in 1944 aluminum company ALCOA collaborated with the U.S. Navy on the purpose-built 1006 Chair, also known as the Navy Chair or Submarine Chair. The design brief had at least one interesting bulletpoint: The chair had to be "t … | Continue reading
A college professor and a trio of dedicated students have developed an anti-COVID coating that lasts for up to six weeks. We could beat COVID-19 if we looked at this as an all-hands-on-deck situation. But with politics, misinformation and a lack of leadership destroying hopes of … | Continue reading
Could you figure out how to make a two-part silicone mold yourself? Probably. But you'd be far better served to watch veteran industrial designer Eric Strebel show you how to do it. With decades of experience, Strebel's figured out the tips and tricks for doing it smoothly and pr … | Continue reading
To a person with a hammer everything looks like a nail, and to product designers, every solution seems to require designing a new product. With COVID having placed the act of sanitizing one's hands front and center, UK-based design/innovation firm Echo reckons that "the future of … | Continue reading
The class of 2020 graduated at a crappy time. Luckier designers are offering their help | Continue reading
This year's Cocktail Robotics Grand Challenge wound up being canceled due to COVID, but Donald Bell of Maker Project Lab didn't know that eight months ago, when he started building his entry for the competition. Inspired by "Blade Runner," Bell tried to imagine what a cocktail-ma … | Continue reading
By now you've likely tried a variety of face masks and found that some fit better than others. For those of you with 3D printers, there's a quick hack that allows you to get any mask to fit with an absolutely perfect, custom seal. The Bellus3D Mask Fitter frame is | Continue reading
Sketchbooks come in standard sizes: 4"x6", 5"x7", 7"x10", 8.5"x11", 9"x12", and 11"x14" for perfect-bound, and 14"x17", 18"x24", and 24"x36" for spiral-bound. All of those sizes are vestiges of when paper was made by hand; the standard 8.5" x 11", for instance, is related to the … | Continue reading
Here's a great example of identifying a need, and designing a solution to meet it. Without doing any actual design work. The target consumer here is people who wear makeup. During my time working in a photography studio, I learned that professional makeup stations must cast light … | Continue reading
I guess it's no surprise that Apple is ahead of automakers on the design curve. In 2013 Apple rolled out the "flat" design aesthetic, deeming it the right choice for a mobile OS at the time. Six years later they've grown bored with it, and recent news revealed that their | Continue reading
Simple DIY steps yield a neater appearance and give the cables stretch memory | Continue reading
Buttons are everywhere and generally reliable, so we don't think about them much. When I push the START button on my car, RETURN on my keyboard or "4" in the elevator, I know what I'm getting. But as buttons have come to deliver more complicated services to us, it was | Continue reading
Designed by DENSO International, the car is currently in development and great for short distance commuters and couriers | Continue reading
Artist Lalese Stamps does the 3D version of "sketch a day" | Continue reading
Here's a surprise crowdfunding success, in a time when few people still write things down on paper: PrintPods, a handheld printing device that you apply to paper (or objects) like a glue stick. A rolling sensor on the bottom detects how fast you're moving, and the unit figures ou … | Continue reading
Now open for submissions, the Pure Talents Contest is a design competition seeking new faces and conceptual designs. Sponsored by Germany's Interior Business Event imm cologne trade fair, the competition is open to design students and those that graduated within the past three ye … | Continue reading
Yesterday Virgin Galactic revealed the interior design for SpaceShipTwo, their commercial spacecraft that will ferry thrill-seekers into space for $250,000 a pop. Unfortunately you had to sit through a 30-minute presentation to see the shots, which we're guessing most of you don' … | Continue reading
Apple's Braille Screen Input mode has a well-designed, ergonomic interface | Continue reading
Gear developer Solgaard recently launched an ambitious campaign on Kickstarter. Rather than designing a singular product that would solve a simple user need--in this case, wireless charging--the company looked at other needs that same user might have, then designed a system to me … | Continue reading
Art collective Plastique Fantastique is based in Berlin, where keeping one's face covered in public have been mandatory since April. PF wasn't about to go with regular face masks, so instead they came up with the iSphere, "a funny and serious object that stimulates how to approac … | Continue reading
Surgical masks are surprisingly similar to N95s—minus the airtight seal. So this ex-Apple engineer developed a sealing brace to help soften the shortage. | Continue reading
The post that we did on the DIY hands-free sanitizer dispenser did a lot of traffic, and one educator wrote in asking if we had instructions for how to build it. "I teach at a K-5," wrote reader Kirk Mosley. "Do you have instructions so I could make a few | Continue reading
by Gaurav MK Wali for National Institute of Fashion Technology, Kangra | Continue reading
The Strong National Museum of Play is host to the National Toy Hall of Fame, which has four criteria a toy needs to meet before being considered for entry. These are the criteria, according to their website: - Icon-status: the toy is widely recognized, respected, and remembered.- … | Continue reading
The competition aims to stop the spread of COVID while getting young people engaged | Continue reading
Billing himself as an upcycler and sculptor, artist Gabriel DiShaw has a wide range of tastes across different genres. Two of his muses that you're unlikely to see mixed elsewhere--luxury brand Louis Vuitton, and the "Star Wars" franchise--have become stablemates in DiShaw's stud … | Continue reading
You touch the stylus to an object, then "drop" that object's color onto an iPad | Continue reading
A latex balloon might seem like the simplest of objects, but this Discovery video makes it seem just slightly less complicated than building a missile. The sheer amount of manufacturing tricks needed--how do you get the balloons off of the form and whisk them away? How do you rol … | Continue reading
For people who love their jobs, the work is easy – finding those people, is hard. We’re actively searching for toy designers who are eager to work in an inclusive environment that praises initiative, curiosity, and critical thinking. At Schylling, opportunities outweigh boundarie … | Continue reading
VP Oliver Seil discusses the future of work and what his team is paying attention to as a result | Continue reading
Currently on auction at Bring A Trailer, this extremely modified 1973 VW Bug is the perfect vehicle for riding around town while pretending you're vacationing on a lake somewhere. Before jumping into the bidding pool you need to note that this vehicle is NOT actually seaworthy/wa … | Continue reading
Unsurprisingly, NYC's Grand Central Station tops the list at 339,116 posts | Continue reading
The bridge's promenade was reimagined by professionals and young adults alike in response to the COVID-19 pandemic—check out all the finalists before casting a | Continue reading
Upload your work for a chance to be showcased during London Design Week in September | Continue reading