Stainless steel is now 100 years old, and has many industrial accomplishments under its belt due to its strength, beauty, and stainlessness. Yet it remains an elusive medium to many artisans because of perceived challenges (such as the cost and skill of TIG welding). This is a shame since it pairs so well with glass, wood, and textiles - and is truly beautiful on its own.

Curiosity Club Channel

"Dexter" by Andreas Farkas. An interlocking stool with a strong graphic silhouette, the "Dexter" recalls the string-like, metal furniture found in personal and publis spaces in Sweden. Can be used as a stool, bench (when connected) or shelf (when stacked).

Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, the Stockholm-based design school, showcased 13 student works at Spazio Rossana Orlandi under the exhibition theme Design for a Liquid Society. The show took inspiration from the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman's phrase "liquid modernity," an observation that individuals are more and more involved in planning their lives and careers through short-term projects and episodes.

This shifting terrain creates an interesting challenge for designed objects, putting into question their core functionalities, and demanding both nostalgia and future thinking from the same objects. The students of Konstfack explore the implications of a liquid society—as commentators, navigators and dreamers through a vivid collection of furniture that addresses the demands of today while considering the possibilities of tomorrow.

Design for a Liquid Society
presented by Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design
Spazio Rossana Orlandi
via Matteo Bandello 14/16
Through April 22nd

"Warp" by Oscar Sintring. A shelf and hanger system that pays homage to craft and the DIY movement by employing a simple wood and yarn system that packs easily, but requires the owner to weave all the supporting shelves and surfaces. "The process is similar to weaving the surface of a chair," explains the designer.

"San Francisco" by Asa Agerstam. Crafted from solid foam, the "San Francisco" takes the brief of a Liquid Society quite literally. Based on a popular gin cocktail with the same name, the "San Francisco" is a nostalgic piece for Agerstam as she recalls the special cocktails her parents would make for friends and family—the gradient color of the stool looks like a tropical cocktail.

Call it "Things That Look Like Other Things," with a twist: designer Katja Pettersson's "Features of a Material" series consists of objects that are what they look like—a stool, a table, a chair and a pendant lamp—but have more to them than meets the eye:

A designers fast hand made sketch of an object. A craft that involves parameters, imposed by the material, tools, scale and the physical body of the maker. The objects gets tweaks and have a specific expression in their hand made imperfection.

Some of the objects are left with no practical function and some are made in a durable aluminum material lending the fragile cell plastic expression.

Pettersson is currently a Senior Lecturer at Beckman's College of Design; she is also a founder of Stockholm design collective FRONT, who are currently exhibiting at a half a dozen locations in Milan.

Features of a Material
Spazio Rossana Orlandi - Basement
via Matteo Bandello 14/16
Through April 22nd

Sr. Industrial Designer
Trek Bicycle Corporation
Waterloo, Wisconsin

Trek Bicycle Corporation is seeking an experienced Industrial Designer who will work within their product development teams to provide design direction for dozens of bicycling products. This position is engaged in rider research, concept planning, design refinement, and production support. The ideal candidate will possess exceptional design, problem solving, communication, and visualization skills, and excel in a multi-functional team culture. Experience with both Solidworks and Adobe systems are highly desired.

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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

It's Go Time! This Tuesday April 24 is the final deadline for the Core77 Design Awards so put those finishing touches on your entries and submit your projects. Our all-star jurors are waiting to see your best projects from last year. All winning, runner-up and notable entries will be announced live by the jury, live-tweeted, blogged individually here, publicized and published in the Core77 Design Awards yearbook. And of course, the Professional and Student winner of each category will receive the trophy of trophies which celebrates teamwork.

So make these next few days count. Submit and pay for your entries by Tuesday April 24 at 9pm Eastern Time (6pm Pacific Time). Click here to register and enter, or if you've begun the process, get to the finish line.

VIllage Telco's Mesh Potato, which retails for $119 and provides both data and voice services via wifi to communities with limited internet and mobile phone access.

The statistics, by now, are familiar to those of us following technology in the developing world. A recent article in The Economist looks at Africa's booming economy, identifying mobile phones as one of the major drivers behind the continent's growth: "Mobile phones have penetrated deep into the bush. More than 600m Africans have one; perhaps 10% of those have access to mobile-internet services. The phones make boons like savings accounts and information on crop prices ever more available."

But as a continent of over a billion people, that means some 400 million—twice the population of Brazil—still do not have access to mobile communications. And even fewer have access to the Internet. Those who do have access to a phone spend more than half of their disposable income just to stay connected. At the same time, building a tower to cover many parts of Africa can be a challenge, both because of the costs of the tower and the lack of access to available radio bandwidth.

In comes Village Telco, an organization working on technology to leap past these challenges and offer a low cost communications option for Africans in rural areas. "It caught me by surprise," founder Steve Song told Core77, as he referred to the "incredible pace and change of mobile technology."

An early prototype of the Mesh Potato. Image courtesy the Shuttleworth Foundation on a Creative Commons License.

Recognizing the growing need for voice and data services for all citizens across the continent, Song, based in Cape Town, set out to find a solution to the challenges of accessible connectivity. He had been following wireless hacker movement who had discovered that Linksys routers were built on open-source software and that a wave guide antenna could be built using a soup can—"a cantenna," he told me—that would distribute a broadband signal several kilometers away.

Based on this technology, Village Telco developed the "Mesh Potato," a wi-fi router adapted to connect with other devices like it and distribute wi-fi over large areas at low cost. It's the same basic principle that allows an Apple Airport Express to extend a wi-fi signal around your home. When deployed in a place like Bo-kaap, South Africa, a community on a hill, four of these devices serve as a backbone network, while dozens more placed on individual rooftops extend the network.

Sketches by Cameron Braithwaite

Whoa—we've seen footwear design competitions before, but none with a purse this large: Alabama-based Power Force Apparel is offering $25,000, mass production of your design, and a trip to NYC for whomever wins their "Design the 'You' Shoe" design competition. With all of the sneaker sketches populating Coroflot, we couldn't not post news of this one.

The brief is pretty broad, seeking designs for "an original athletic men's or women's shoe, innovative, and unique, unlike any other design that is out there right now." And your drawing skills better be up to snuff because you get to submit one, just one, piece of paper.

Second and third prizes aren't too shabby either, with purses of $15,000 and $10,000, plus the same trip to NYC, to attend the 2012 Fashion Footwear Association of New York convention.

The competition opened yesterday, and you've got just over two weeks—until Friday, May 4th—to get your submission in. Contest rules are here, and the entry form is here. (Apologies to our global readership, this one's U.S.-resident only.)

Before entering design school I worked as a prep chef. I learned to sharpen knives and observe some industrial-speed kitchen designs. One of my jobs was to transform neverending containers of vegetables into bite-sized pieces--quickly. (I can still hear head chef Rich yelling at me to pick up the pace.) The design system in place for this--designed both for speed and for right-handed people—was as follows:

I worked at a stainless steel table that had a rectangular cutout on the right side of the top surface. Into this cutout was dropped a rectangular plastic bin with a lip around its perimeter that prevented it from falling through; the top of the bin was roughly level with the worksurface. To the left of this, in the center of the table, was a two-inch-thick cutting board. Its thickness brought its top surface slightly higher than the bin, an important detail. To the left of the cutting board was the target container of vegetables.

Amsterdam's Transnatural is a multidisciplinary organization that offers, among other things, a selection of well-curated design objects "in which nature & technology come together in unison without damaging the planet." (They also host public programming and workshops, mostly in the space "between nature and technology with a combination of art, (speculative, future) design, and emerging technology.")

Their group exhibition at the Salone occupied the very first space following the all-but-immersive maze of the MOST's headliner (and 'instigator,' per the press language), an installation by Tom Dixon himself. A series of mirrors by Lex Pott & David Derksen ostensibly echoes ('mirrors,' perhaps) Dixon's aesthetic, though the "Transcience Mirror" is more properly construed as an illustration of degradation over time, where the designers have accelerated the oxidation process with sulfur. Following their initial material exploration, Pott & Derksen have quantized the patina into geometric shapes in the finished products (above).

The mirrors are adjacent to Jólan van der Wiel's "Gravity Stools," which are produced from a homogenous mixture of iron fillings and a plastic compound that cures in half an hour once he has extracted the material from the mold.

We'll have more on him from his exhibit at Ventura Lambrate shortly, but the original production video (after the jump) is well worth watching:

In the few weeks since Google announced their Project Glass, you've undoubtedly seen the spoof videos that popped up cynically assuming the product would be overtaken by ads. What you probably haven't seen is this rather unexpected (and entirely speculative) take on what Project Glass could bring. (Warning: If you have never played Battlefield, and/or are not a 16-to-40-year-old male, you may find this video a tad violent for your tastes.)

Ceramic Vase cast using woven straw, by Katja Pettersson of Front

A universal design and build material employed since the dawn of agricultural societies, straw has been used to construct everything from roofs to baskets, carpets to ceremonial objects. Today, the material is considered at best, nostalgic, and is currently one of the most challenged crafts in the Nordic region. Due to the low cost of labor and handwork in foreign countries, what was once a commonly performed skill by women in the Swedish city of Dalsland, is now rapidly disappearing.

Farmer's Gold investigates the possibilities of straw and craft in a contemporary market. Editions in Craft invited a group of European designers to participate in a workshop with local artisans in Dalsland. As a resource, straw has many advantages; it's environmentally friendly, locally-grown, cheaply sourced and widely available, it presents an interesting window of opportunity for those who choose to work with straw. Through an exchange of ideas and techniques, the designers and artisans explored the material and created new products that, "challenge the traditional distinctions between design and craft."

Stool by Katrin Grelling

Since 2008 Renée Padt and Ikko Yokoyama, the curators behind Stockholm-based Editions in Craft (EiC), have been pairing designers with specialized craftspeople to produce thoughtful and beautiful small-scale design projects. Last year we reported on EiC's Story Vases, a collaboration with Front and the South African women's organization Siyazama Project.

Animal Print Rug by Cordula Kehrer

Tom Dixon, the British designer known for not only designing the modern classics that make up his lighting and furniture collections but also manufacturing them, kicked off Milan with a bang. On Tuesday Tom Dixon threw open the doors to the National Museum of Science and Technology for his first solo satellite show in Milan, MOST. Interwoven with the museum's vintage transportation exhibitions and robotics labs were five buildings worth of design ranging from London's Designers Block to North American favorites Blu Dot and Molo.

We were particularly excited to see the new lighting Tom Dixon presented at this year's show. A departure from his highly finished signature metallic fixtures, I loved the primitive shapes and finish of the Lustre collection. Handmade ceramics give an iridescent glazed and twice-fired to create a shimmering effect that Dixon describes as, "reminiscent of hidden colours in nature, seen in peacock feathers or oil slicks on water." In this year's Milan shows we've witnessed a renewed interest in ceramics by designers across the board and it's refreshing to see the material in lighting as well.

A new typology for Tom Dixon, the Fin collection was also quite arresting for its unique combination of materials and shapes. Not one to shy away from exposing the "messiness" of design, the Fin lights expose the inner workings and electrical components of the light, making the circuit board, "the hero of the design." A heat sink forms the body and sturcture, a lens magnifies the exposed circuit board. Dixon calls this collection his, "ode to engineering and an introduction to new and rapidly changing lighting technologies."

La Chance made its debut at Tom Dixon's MOST, a five-building design extravaganza anchored in Milan's National Museum of Science and Technology. La Chance is a Paris-based furniture and lighting company founded by an architect and financier who met by chance (hence their name). Co-founders Jean-Baptiste Souletie and Louise Breguet hope the brand "epitomize[s] their vision of French design and gives a contemporary interpretation of the ornamental and decorative furniture traditions." Given that their first collection is comprised of work from 11 designers representing the United States (Jonah Takagi), Stockholm (Note Design Studio), Italy (Luca Nichetto), the Netherlands (François Dumas, Susanne de Graef), Poland (Bashko Trybek), Israel (Dan Yeffet & Lucie Koldova), and France (Noé Duchaufour Lawrence, Pierre Favresse, Charles Kalpakian, Vulcain), it's hard to imagine the smart and colorful brand as anything but global.

"Rocky" shelving unit by Charles Kalpakian

For their debut collection, Jekyll and Hyde, La Chance worked with their designers to create a collection fit for a demanding, if not bi-polar client. Hyde uses bright primary colors and natural woods to convey a whimsical optimism. Jekyll, on the other hand, has a darker, more sober feel employing classical luxury materials like marble paired with metallic finishes.

Check out the video above where co-founders Jean-Baptiste Souletie and Louise Breguet introduce La Chance and share the stories behind some of the pieces in their first collection.

La Chance, Jekyll and Hyde
MOST
National Museum of Science and Technology
via Olona 6
Milan
Through April 22nd

The two fellas behind Sapore dei Mobili are Portuguese and Japanese—and they're based in Milan, to boot—but they've gone French for the first product of their design studio, subverting the old clich&eacute: "Let them eat cake." Rui Pereira and Ryosuke Fukusada have given new meaning to the notion of 'good taste' in furniture with their furniture cakes, a comment on "how consumers are unable to digest the huge amount of new products that companies are launching each year."

To that end, they've created a waffle-press-style mold for tiny cakes... shaped like furniture.

Hungry for more?

Technology & Innovation Industrial Design Summer Intern
PA Consulting Group
Cambridge, United Kingdom

PA Consulting Group is seeking a talented multimedia/graphic design student to join their design team this summer as part of our Technology & Innovation Practice. The ideal candidate has the confidence to challenge their thinking and add value to our current design offering by bringing new skills and fresh perspectives. Of particular interest are individuals who are attuned to both consumer behavior and client perspectives, and who understand brands and trends.

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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

Air travel is a wondrous miracle that's led to experiences I'll treasure forever. It's because of the Wright Brothers that I've been able to bask in a Hawaiian sunrise, travel by dog sled through a neverending Arctic sunset, quaff Scotch in the Highlands, down mojitos in Havana. The list of things all of us are able to see, experience and accomplish by getting on an airplane is incalculably valuable.

That being said, I still hate it.

Modern air travel's long list of minor annoyances adds up into one royal pain in the ass. What's most frustrating is that so many of the inconveniences are out of our control: Officious staffers, mechanical problems, overpriced sustenance, logistical inefficiencies that have you spending hours in the wrong location. To say nothing of the unpleasantness of today's overcrowded flights.

While traveling there's only a couple of things you can control: The luggage you select, and the things you put into that luggage. While those seemingly minor choices won't ensure your plane is on time, they can go a long way towards making you more comfortable.

We've got a Crumpler bag and luggage review coming up, and before getting to it and explaining the bags we opted to borrow, I need to explain how your reviewer typically travels. All of us have developed our own traveling methodologies, and my idiosyncratic needs will surely overlap with yours at points and diverge wildly at others.

How I Travel: Two Types of Bags, No Checked Luggage

Crumpler has an absolutely bewildering array of product that we'd need to narrow down to two or three bags. Which begs the question, how do you select what types of bags to travel with?

Whether traveling for business or pleasure, a short trip or long, if it involves a plane, a train and/or pavement I always travel with two specific types of bags: A laptop backpack and a rolling carry-on with two wheels rather than four. (I also carry a smaller third bag of my own design, a sort of day bag that folds up into one of the two other bags, but it will not be relevant to these reviews.)

According to a 2011 study that's downloadable here, the New York City construction industry generates 7 million tons of building materials waste each year. Of that amount, just a fraction is recycled.

Remember our entry on Reclaimed Cleveland, the operation that harvests that city's abandoned buildings for raw materials? NYC has a similar organization in Build it Green! NYC, which is attempting to make a dent in that 7-million-ton figure. BIGNYC, as it's abbreviated, relies on a network of volunteers to scour and sort the various things thrown away by NYC that still have plenty of life left in them. In addition to retrieving materials from buildings about to be demolished or renovated, they also take materials from surplus donors, regular Joes and even movie shoots, which explains how they've amassed a 75-ton collection of useable stuff.

"[We have] everything from panel doors to high end refrigerators and shutters to movie props," they write. "Our mission is to keep these materials out of the landfill, while offering deep discounts on their resale." Through a distribution center in Queens and another in Brooklyn, BIGNYC sells reclaimed lumber, hardware, furniture, appliances, kitchen cabinets, flooring, masonry, paint, and more.

Some examples: Pictured up top are a bunch of salvaged doors that local architecture firm Lot-Ek turned into a reading platform for architecture & design bookstore Val Alen Books. Directly above this paragraph are the original post office windows from Grand Central Terminal. Below is a shot of reclaimed Douglas Fir floor joists that they're selling for as low as $2 per foot. And this is just a fraction of what they've got going.

Any NYC-based designers looking for reclaimed materials or products on the cheap, you could literally spend hours browsing their website and going through their broad range of salvage. And as BIGNYC points out, most of the stuff they have--remember, 75 tons--isn't even on their website. But their Astoria and Gowanus locations are open seven days a week.

At the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show, postproduction technology company Blackmagic Design made a surprising move into the camera space, releasing the sub-$3,000 Cinema Camera seen here.

We're most impressed with the Teutonic, Rams-like industrial design. The body is constructed from a block of machined aluminum, capped front and back with rubber for grip. Standard cable jacks are located on the left side, while the right consists of a door that opens to reveal the SSD slot. Blackmagic wisely stayed out of the proprietary lens game and designed the Cinema Camera to take Canon or Zeiss glass.

I'd be testing a selection of Crumpler bags out on a multi-day trip to the west coast. As per my travel methodology I honed in on the two-wheeled carry-ons in Crumpler's vast product line-up, and two models came to the forefront: The Dry Red No. 3 carry-on and the Spring Peeper with Wheels. (Crumpler's nomenclature is quirky, to say the least.)

The Dry Red No. 3 was the closest thing I could find to a standard box-shaped rolling carry-on with a retractable handle, though its tapered shape suggested it was sacrificing a bit of carrying space for style. I wasn't sure it would efficiently max out my carry-on allowance for the longer trips I mentioned in the "How I Travel" post. (Thankfully I was proven wrong.)

The Spring Peeper with Wheels, in contrast, is a duffel bag, albeit a wheeled one with a retractable handle; while it is still within the constraints of a carry-on size, its 40-liter capacity (versus the No. 3's 27-liter storage space) promised to swallow anything I'd need to bring.

As a reviewer I had the luxury of borrowing whatever bags I wanted, rather than agonizing over which to select. I chose them both for a side-by-side comparison, though I would only be bringing one on the actual trip.

I'll start with the Dry Red No. 3 and some of its design features. First off, the top handle is integrated into the design of the bag itself, not a discrete piece:

Where do famous designers go when they retire? In Neal Small's case, a tiny town in Maine. "I wanted to get away from the tumult of Manhattan," the native New Yorker explains.

ID grads and design cognoscenti among you will recognize Small's name, and work, the former from our History of Industrial Design classes and the latter from the MoMA and Smithsonian. The so-called "Prince of Plastic" opened his own design firm in Chelsea in the 1960s and was an early proponent of the plastic family; notably, rather than merely using it as a replacement for wood and metal, Small was known for exploiting the specific properties of plexi, Lucite and acrylic and incorporating that into the design. This is perhaps best illustrated by his Cocktail Table from 1968, below, made from a single square sheet with just four cuts and some heat bending to make the legs.

Back in 2009 Material Connexion held a Small retrospective showcasing his lighting and furniture; since then we've heard nary a peep on the man. But a small-town paper in Hancock County, Maine, has stumbled across the retired design celebrity living in their midst and run a piece and video on him.

While the video below is not exactly a professional documentary in terms of quality and content, Small begins to discuss design and his career at about the halfway mark: