We all know that military technology eventually trickles down to the consumer sector. GPS, microwaves, the internet, digital photography, and even duct tape all began with defense applications.One of these that's often overlooked is cargo pants. A British invention from 1938, the … | Continue reading
Wearable tech is now common, arguably thanks to the Apple Watch. That product struggled upon its 2015 launch, but the eventual additions of features people wanted—health and fitness monitoring, ecosystem integration—pushed it into the mainstream within a few years.Competitiors ha … | Continue reading
These days, even an economy car can reach 100 mph. Sports cars can double that. Despite having the power to do so, few drivers zoom around at such speeds, understanding that the potential consequences—a speeding ticket, license revocation or a deadly accident—can be bad.However, … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:The Light Phone III: Is excessive smartphone use a design problem, or a human nature problem? Seventh time's the charm? The Ring Mouse offers finger-borne gesture control.A brief history of cargo pants, and an extreme 18-pocket modern versio … | Continue reading
Customers in today's markets have high expectations in terms of functionality, performance and usability. Successful products and services must be innovative and connect with their audience to encourage adoption and embrace new ideas. That's where Psycho-Aesthetics (P/A) comes in … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:The Columbus, Italdesign's wild 1990s minivan concept.Form follows bizarre: Maybe the strangest EDC object we've seen. Product Designer Vicki Tan's "Ask This Book a Question" is a book on improving the decision-making process.A fantastic pie … | Continue reading
When you think of technology that connects your brain to a computer, you probably picture something like this: A startup called Neurable had the technology, but wanted better design for their first product, called Enten. They turned to industrial design consultancy Fresco for hel … | Continue reading
For manufactured objects, the cylinder is a powerful shape. They distribute pressure evenly, which is why airplane fuselages, soda cans, oxygen canisters and disposable batteries are cylindrical.The shape of a disposable battery has long dictated the shape of another object: Flas … | Continue reading
This Multi Auto Spray product is by Japanese industrial design consultancy Lont. The product consists of just the gun. Because all Japanese 500mL bottles (roughly equivalent to our 16-oz bottles in the 'States) have standardized cap threading, the Multi Auto Spray can use any 50 … | Continue reading
If you hear the term "Reefer Truck," you might think it has something to do with weed. But that's the colloquial term used in Japan for refrigerated ("reefer") cargo trucks.Vehicle manufacturer Nippon Trex Co. learned of a problem faced by their clients in the cold-chain cargo bu … | Continue reading
Desk accessories manufacturer Practiko got their start in 2020, after making an observation: Modern desks are often drawer-free slabs. Yet people still have a need for drawers. Practiko thus released this Otis line of add-on drawers:The demand was there, and five years later the … | Continue reading
For ID-curious readers who want to dip their toe in the pool, here's an online course on Concept Sketching for Industrial Design. It's taught by Adam Miklosi, a freelance industrial designer based in Budapest. (Miklosi's no veteran, but he's been in the ID game for a decade and c … | Continue reading
While newfangled EDC "tools" seem to emerge every day, there are still manufacturers improving upon the designs of long-established tools. The ratchet wrench has been around since at least 1863, but Germany's Wera reckons there's still room for improvement. "We just could not bel … | Continue reading
In some sense this object is the opposite of good industrial design, where you're trying to do more with less. This Zero Mk2, seemingly created by engineers for the sake of engineering, is a pen that folds into a credit card form factor. Whatever world this creates convenience i … | Continue reading
Britas and other popular water filtration systems are often made of plastic. For those who prefer metal, there are stainless steel offerings from Berkey and Boroux, shown below. Well-considered industrial design is about the transitions. The equatorial seam on both the Berkey and … | Continue reading
Here's a fascinating--and market-specific--solution for dealing with small spaces. Japanese manufacturer Lixil makes this Bathtope, a fabric bathtub that can be tucked away when not needed. The idea is that you can deploy it as desired within a shower, provided it's large enough … | Continue reading
This Solid Chair is by Heinz H. Landes, a German Postmodern artist active in the 1980s. It's made of ten pieces of rebar and a block of concrete: Chicago-based vintage design reseller Carefully Picked has a pair of the chairs for sale. Their video is below. Sitters may be surpris … | Continue reading
This project is by Ziyan Huang, an Industrial Design Masters candidate at Germany's Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences. Huang's Cursor Measurement Tool is a proposal for project sponsor Festool. The tool is intended to make it easier for tradespeople to transfer dim … | Continue reading
When Kodak wanted to produce an instant digital camera, they turned to industrial design firm Branch Creative. With their design for the Kodak Smile, Branch came up with a great way to differentiate between "on" and "off:" To activate the camera, you pull the two halves open, re … | Continue reading
Back in 1992, Chris Columbus was either the guy who directed "Home Alone" or the guy who "discovered" America. And that year, Giorgetto Giugiaro's Italdesign released a wild concept vehicle called The Columbus (in memory of the latter CC). The "ultra-high level status vehicle" wa … | Continue reading
With a background in behavioral science, over a decade ago Vicki Tan became a product designer. (The UX kind, not the industrial design kind.) Over the years she's plied her trade at Google, Lyft, Spotify and is now the design lead at Pinterest. She's also corralled her design th … | Continue reading
We used to see a lot of pure form exploration in ID student work. These days school projects are growing more research- and digital-based, with less of an emphasis on form. So when it comes to seeing strange, experimental new shapes, it is the EDC microeconomy that's leading the … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:Resketch notepads: Reclaimed paper from architectural blueprints and misprints. This Cubo lighting, by Articolo Studios, is made by pouring molten glass into hand-gouged wooden molds.Longbow Motors' British EVs blur the line between footwear … | Continue reading
When a startup called Smartypans wanted to create a smart cooking pan, they contracted industrial design and engineering consultancy Speck Design. The firm brought six of their skillsets to bear on the project, which aimed to combine technology with user-friendly design.Electrica … | Continue reading
If everything is going well in your life, you're not working at the same time you're sitting down to dinner. That's the thinking behind this oddly-named Savouring design, a furniture piece by Transformer Table, a Quebec-based modular furniture company. It's something like a Murph … | Continue reading
For those who suffer from sleep apnea, C-PAP masks are a lifesaver. Unfortunately, these bulky devices tend to make you look like a TIE fighter pilot.Australian medical products company ResMed produces an alternative. Their N30i is lightweight, minimal, and looks as if an industr … | Continue reading
Decades ago, people would go to an ear-splitting rock concert with no thought of wearing earplugs.As awareness of hearing damage grew, it became common to see folks at concerts and music festivals wearing disposable earplugs. Those are typically made out of foam. Now GOB, a welln … | Continue reading
Since its invention, the form factor of the airplane has been bird-based; both airplanes and birds remain aloft by having appreciable wingspans. And in broad strokes, the overall form of the airplane hasn't changed much in the past 100 years. Helicopters are modeled after no anim … | Continue reading
When Apple's Smart Folio for iPad came out, it seemed pretty nifty. The tri-fold cover attached magnetically and offered a couple of different viewing positions. However, tech accessories brand MOFT ("Mobile Office For Travelers") has designed this Dynamic Folio, which makes Appl … | Continue reading
Who has it harder: Architects designing tiny houses and micro apartments, or designers of camper vans? I'd say the latter, as they're occasionally dealing with spaces of less than 100 square feet.Like this Marylin Onroad model, for instance. It was built by Camper Schmiede, a Ger … | Continue reading
This WP200Pro 5G, by Chinese manufacturer Oukitel, is a ruggedized smartphone. The company says the shockproof casing, aluminum frame, impact-resistant glass and reinforced rubber can take a beating, and it's both water- and dust-resistant. It also has a rather bizarre design fea … | Continue reading
This ThinBike 2.0 is by Antonius Glufke, an Industrial Design student at Germany's Hochschule (University of Applied Sciences) Magdeburg-Stendal. Glufke has paid extra attention to the bike's offline life, i.e. how it's stored:"The Thin Bike is a bicycle specifically designed for … | Continue reading
You might think sourcing wood in New York City is a challenge. But furniture maker Richard Haining doesn't visit a hardwood supplier; instead he avails himself of "the abundance of wood being discarded throughout NYC, from woodshop offcuts to old growth lumber scrapped from the p … | Continue reading
Books are like people, in that they need to lean on each other for support. When you remove a book from a shelf, or from between two bookends, the neighboring books close the gap by leaning.While aesthetically displeasing, leaning books isn't a huge problem for most of us. But un … | Continue reading
A British startup called Longbow Motors, formed by ex-Tesla and -Lucid employees, aims to create lightweight EVs that harken back to traditional British sports cars. They've unveiled two of their designs, a no-windshield Speedster and a fixed-roof Roadster, that seem to blur the … | Continue reading
Here's an interesting way to solve a problem with form. Your typical projector comes with adjustable feet or an adjustable stand in order for you to select the appropriate angle of projection. But this PlayCube Projector, by Chinese manufacturer TCL, borrows from a certain popula … | Continue reading
You've surely jotted a sketch or notes on the back of a junk mail envelope. And there's a reason the "napkin sketch" is a trope among designers. Any flat sheet that will take ink is fertile ground for a designer when their dedicated sketchbook is in an inconvenient location.A com … | Continue reading
These eye-catching glass cubes are by Articolo Studios, an Australian design studio. They're created by pouring molten glass into wooden molds whose surfaces have been gouged by hand to create the texture. The glass blocks are then integrated into the company's new Cubo line of l … | Continue reading
Coffee used to come in cans or bags, now it comes in little plastic totes. But when package design specialists Zenpack learned of the challenges faced by upstart coffee brand BigFace, the firm knew something more special was required.BIGFACE Coffee Pushing beyond the boundaries o … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:Volkswagen previews their €20,000 electric car, designed with "likeable" looks.Fantastic UX design details in this Zilch bike pump.British company Power Roll has developed a solar-harvesting film that they say will be cheaper and easier to insta … | Continue reading
Let's say you arrive to work at 10am, and you're awaiting a 10:30am meeting. After a while you glance at the image below. Depending on what generation you are, you have a sense of how much time has passed since you arrived, and how much time is left until your appointment. Those … | Continue reading
Finnish furniture brand Vaarnii makes everything out of locally-available pine. The majority of their work that we've looked at here have been chunky and Brutalist. But for the company's foray into lighting, they've taken a page from the portfolio of Hans-Agne Jakobsson, a Swedis … | Continue reading
Mansory is a German company that tricks out exotic cars, largely for clients in Dubai. Their work consists of bolting extraneous, functionless extra parts onto vehicles in an effort to create visual interest. As an example, here's a Land Rover Defender from the firm:It's like the … | Continue reading
This rechargeable flashlight concept is by Turkish industrial designer Onurhan Demir. The simple idea is that when placed on its main lens/base, the side flips out and serves as a reading lamp. Demir's got a nice eye for form; it's a pity this is just a concept. Demir designed it … | Continue reading
South Korean industrial design firm Intenxiv did these cosmetic package designs for their own RMRP product label. Thus far the line consists of lipstick, perfume and a hand cream, with at least two packaging options per product. "Cosmetics go beyond mere functionality—they create … | Continue reading
Cybex, a German manufacturer of strollers and child car seats, has designed a foldable version of the latter. Their Solution G2 collapses for easier transport and storage, knocking roughly a third off of its volume. The 12.8-lb (5.8kg) seat looks less like a child's car seat and … | Continue reading
This Toos concept is by Industrial Design students Jeoung Rae Kim, Shua Bong and Seunghee Lee, of South Korea's Hyupsung University. Collectively they call themselves Comma. "As more people get older and have pets, pets have become like friends or family to older people. But most … | Continue reading
This image has been making the rounds. Assuming it isn't AI generated—is it just me, or does the perspective in the room beyond look funky?—any guesses as to why a door would be modified in this way?A Redditor claiming to know states: "This is for blackboards/whiteboards to be wh … | Continue reading