Well, he's no Amron, but Dave Hakkens' also happened to generate a bit of design-for-hygiene buzz with his "Breaksoap" concept from last April. The Design Academy Eindhoven student is back with another household product—one that doesn't snap off or even leave you feeling oh-so-fresh-and-so-clean afterward.

Nevertheless, the "Plugbook" is designed to keep your pad tidy in other ways: it's essentially a retractable extension cord (bear with me here) in which the spool is concealed in a rather conspicuous plastic housing... so conspicuous, in fact, that Hakkens was inspired to highlight the chunky form factor.

Thus, the "Plugbook" is more or less impossible to misplace:

My goal was to create a little extension cord to use for small in-house jobs. Like charging your laptop, drilling a hole, connecting a lamp etc. I wanted it to be just there, in the middle of your living room without being obstructive and with a good working cable. If you need it, you now where it is and you can just take it, without a hassle.

The plugbook is made in the shape of a book which hides itself between your other books. When you need it, just take it out and pull the cord. Simple as that! Inside the book is 10 ft (3m) of cable. We also added an extra power socket and 2 USB ports to easily charge your iPad, iPhone, Smartphone, Camera and many other devices. And when you don't need it anymore you press the button and the cord automatically rewinds itself (like in a vacuum cleaner). And just put it back on the bookshelf ready to go for next time.

There must be a joke about taking up the shelf space that you saved with your Kindle/iPad/Nook somewhere in there...

Senior Packaging Designer
LEGO
Billund, Denmark

The DEGO group is seeking a Senior Packaging Designer who will be responsible for innovative packaging for products that are not a part of the LEGO standard boxes. This role will collaborate with the project teams, conceptualizing packaging that meets their needs and requirements.

The designer will work with the whole design process ranging from ideation and sketching of new packaging concepts, to completion which includes making prototypes and handing the concepts to Packaging Engineering for the maturing phase.

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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

Utah State University has just released video footage of their award-winning entry for the Air Force Research Laboratory Design Challenge, which took place earlier this year. A group of engineering students calling themselves the Ascending Aggies won first prize with their wearable wall-scaling device.

The prerequisites for the device were a) it has to assist soldiers in scaling tall walls, without a grappling hook and b) it has to produce a noise that will drive my dog crazy, even in video playback. The Aggies thus created the Personal Vacuum Assisted Climber, which has to be seen to be believed:

The Ascending Aggies, who beat out 33 other schools, have scored $100,000 in development money. In the future we will presumably see smaller, lighter, and quieter PVACs from the team. I also think these guys should drop James Dyson a line, as he's got vacuums down to a science. It's a relief to know I'm not going to lose suction while vacuuming up dog fur; how much more of a relief will that be to someone hanging seventy feet off the ground?

via business insider

From Minneapolis-based designer Adam Brackney comes the Machook (pronounced "mac hook," not "ma chook"), a small, thoughtfully-designed piece of baltic birch ply with a single purpose: To cling to the side of your Mac and hold your headphones.

Held in place with a 3M adhesive strip, the 'hook is the perfect place to dock your headphones when they're not in their customary position on your head, drowning out your coworkers' incessant nattering.

In addition to the regular model, Brackney produced a limited edition run laminated with pages from actual comic books.

The $15 items have proved popular—both the comics version and the regulars are currently sold out, though Brackney anticipates having a new batch ready by the end of the month.

Our question: Do you reckon Brackney CNC'd the things out of this circular shape?

Here's your chalkboard

What was the best class you ever took at design school? No matter how cool it was, I've got one that'll give it a run for its money: ME397 - Design Restoration, a recent addition to the Design Theory & Methodology series of courses at Stanford University. Taught by mechanical engineering professor Martin Steinert and PhD candidate Greg Kress this past Spring, the course's mission was simple: take a 1962 Cadillac Deville that's been sitting idle for decades and restore it.

While it might sound like Kress (the car's owner) is simply getting free student grease monkey labor, the course—which was comprised of students from design, engineering, fine arts, and even computer science—has a design education agenda:

The class will revolve around restoring this 1962 Cadillac DeVille sedan. Manufactured at the height of the American auto industry, in an era before computers and global outsourcing, the Cadillac sedan represented the pinnacle of American luxury and engineering, and was envied the world over.

We will consider questions such as:

- What defines a "classic" car? What makes a product classic?
- What makes a "luxury" product? How has the notion of luxury changed over time?
- What does the design of the car say about American identity? How has this identity changed over time, and how is it expressed now?
- Who was the user then, and why did it appeal to them? What about it appeals to us now?
- How does the car appear from the mechanic's perspective?
- How does the engineering of the machine influence the design of the car, and vise[sic]-versa?

"What really attracted me to this class was exploring the car not only as a mechanical object but as a piece of design," design major Alex Gamburg told The Stanford Report.

Here's a quick vid on the class:

Despite teetering at the brink just a few years ago, General Motors is healthy today, routinely passing the "World's largest automaker" title back and forth with Toyota. General Motors Design employs nearly 2,000 people worldwide, with ten design centers spread over seven countries. And this month marks GM Design's 85th birthday. And by their reckoning, that makes them the oldest:

GM was the first automobile manufacturer to single out automotive design. On June 23, 1927, the Executive Committee of General Motors approved the creation of a new department to "study the question of art and colour combinations in General Motors products" and hired Harley Earl, a custom coach builder from Hollywood and the creator of the 1927 LaSalle, as its leader.

Earl's entry into the auto industry doomed rival Henry Ford's "the customer can have it any colour he wants as long as it is black" motto. Among Earl's numerous accomplishments are the development of concept cars; the yearly model changeover; the vehicle tailfins of the 1950s; the travelling Motorama auto shows and the development of the iconic Corvette. Earl also is credited with hiring the industry's first female automotive designers.

To celebrate the occasion AutoBlog has put together a slideshow of some memorable designs in GM history. Sports Car Illustrated took it a step further, whacking up a video depicting each of GM's six design chiefs, starting with Earl, and the designs that came about under their watches:

Says Ed Welburn, GM's current design VP, "What was true 85 years ago is still true today: a designer's role is to create a beautifully executed exterior with great proportions to draw you in, and an interior environment that invites you into a relationship that develops and grows."

Nike is pleased to unveil the Olympic uniforms for the US Track & Field team, featuring a number of technological innovations based on new developments in sports science research and testing. While we've already had a look at Flyknit technology, Nike announced that the lightweight footwear will be paired with new track apparel, developed as part of the Nike Swift research program.

They've continually refined and streamlined the bodysuits, including proprietary features such as the 'golf ball dimples,' which date back to '08:

Just as a golf ball's dimples are designed to help it go farther and faster, NIKE uses a similar idea to help reduce the aerodynamic drag of the athlete. Using revolutionary Nike AeroSwift technology, patterns and surface architectures informed directly by wind tunnel data are strategically placed on key areas of the athlete's form. The result offers the greatest aerodynamic drag reduction of any NIKE uniform to date.

They also look pretty sharp, as Olympians Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Michael Johnson noted at the press event last night. The trio—who have 20 Olympic medals between them, many of them gold—all agreed that good apparel can instill a bit of extra confidence, not least when emblazoned with the colors and symbols of a nation.

EXCLUSIVE: Nike Global Creative Director Martin Lotti walked us through the design process and considerations for the new Pro TurboSpeed uniforms:

For your finger, that is: the "Nut Dice Ring" comes (unthreaded) in standard sizes 6 through 10.

This ring is a perfect piece of jewelry for people who say that they don't wear jewelry. It really does help with decisions (odds I stay home, evens I go out). As proper dice should, each pair of opposing sides adds up to seven.

The sterling silver rings are 88 bones apiece, so you don't need to be loaded to get your hands on one (or rather, to get one on your hand), but jewelry seems like small stakes: I could see the iconic 1-6 pips stamped on all sorts of hex nuts. Then again, I'm not sure I'd put money on the idea... what are the odds that someone's already come up with it?

Hat tip to GearHungry

The Japanese Ministry of Defense has created the world's first spherical flying machine. The drone can hover like a helicopter and take off and land vertically while maintaining an ability to propel itself forward with wings flying at speeds up to 40 mph. There are three gyro-sensors embedded into the drone to maintain altitude and autopilot even if it's flight path is disrupted. And probably most frightening, it can hit the ground and roll in any direction, then immediately pop back up into mid-air.

The cost of parts for the machine is approximately US$1400, and the lead engineer Fumiyuki Sato explained that the parts were purchased off the shelf. The researchers developed the drone to record video in remote or dangerous locations...or perhaps to train young Jedis. Check the jump for more footage of the spherical drone!

CasaBubble's GrandLodge is made of three spheres, which create multiple rooms that can be used for different purposes.

All photos by Carren Jao

Circles and spheres were a major theme at this year's Dwell on Design Outdoors. The designers might not have been trading notes, but perhaps they have all realized the eye-catching potential of geometric shape.

CasaBubble

Located at the farthest back area of the 220,000-square-foot show floor, CasaBubble literally looks like an enlarged bubble that magically holds a bed, seating and even a bathroom inside it.

Fully transparent, the bubble was designed for full appreciation of nature while still sheltered from the elements.

CasaBubble is an inflatable PVC bubble structure powered by silent blowers, which use less than 100 watts of electricity per hour to run, just enough electricity to power a light bulb, company owner Frederic Richard tells Core77.

Designed and manufactured in France, the structures are made in varying sizes to accommodate different uses. Made of recyclable material, a single bubble is enough to house a living room or bedroom. Other styles incorporating up to three spheres can accommodate a whole suite. Its transparency is key to appreciating nature's views without sacrificing comfort, says Richard. However, when used in warm locales, the company recommends placing the bubble underneath some shade to alleviate heat gain.

A small seating area with table was made for up to six people.

G-Pod

Winner of Dwell on Design's Best Outdoor Product award, the G-Pod looks rather like a woodsy shuttlepod that landed onto one's backyard, but that dash of sci-fi optimism is part of its appeal.

Made with Norwegian spruce and laminate, the spherical hideaway rotates so the entrance can be adjusted to protect from the weather or capture some sunshine. The waterproof interior is designed with built-in seating that can accommodate up to six people with a small table in the middle. When all the dining and chatting is done, G-pod transforms into a small bed by lowering the table to the level of the seats and adding pillows and cushions. The G-pod is designed in the UK and distributed from California.

Children showed the most affinity to the rotating pod.

C.1900 kitchen farm lamp, used to light, at the start of the century, the long kitchen table. This opaline shade goes up and down, thanks to its counterweight in porcelain.

The best and worst things humanity has to offer can be viewed on the internet. I'd like to think that for every schoolbus bullying video, there's a website filled with objects like those of Jean-Marc Furio's, and it's our job to find the good stuff.

Furio is the French antiques dealer behind The New Collector, an antiques shop based in Bangalow, Australia, a couple hours south of Brisbane. Their specialty is Industrial Art objects from the first half of the 20th Century. Furio has a keen appreciation for the Bauhaus and "we like to think that Gropius would have loved to walk in our shop," as he writes.

Freshly back from a trip to France, The New Collector's website is loaded up with gorgeous objects you could spend all day browsing. Here are some of the recent acquisitions:

Four seat Hazelnut school desk, no metallic nails to hold the base, the nails are in timber. c.1880-1890. The school desk became smaller only two seats after the war, then in metal in the 60s.

Perfuma "made by De Gion." The elegance of the machine age era. Designed to spread a fragrance into a room. Boiling water in the tank near the base released the perfume stored in the top part. C.1925 Italy.

Hat stand press. Circa 1900 France.

Text by GearHungry

If money is no object, read on... otherwise, this might just hurt a little inside. The Cardok Parking lift system is presumably what Batman would be using to stash his ride, if he actually existed (we're not ruling that out just yet). Hold down a button on the remote to have four hydraulic actuators quickly and silently raise up a slab of driveway, revealing a hidden parking spot fit for virtually any set of wheels—SUVs and Jeeps included. Total recommended lift capacity is six tons, split between the two (top and hidden) platforms.

Cardok's flush, concealed look (minus a narrow, metal border around the platform) is made possible thanks to a 40–50mm deep tray on the top platform, to be finished in the same way as the surrounding driveway. We particularly enjoy the Cardok Mono, which gives up the top spot to some greenery for better concealment and even more dropped jaws once your guests realize a Lambo rests beneath your garden. Each installed unit is contained within a watertight metal tank and has an automated backup generator and sump pump—just in case.

And if one hidden spot doesn't cut it (!), the 'Multi' version doubles either the width or length, offering 2 independently functioning Cardoks in one for a price not much higher than that of a Mono.

Don't miss the video:

With group exhibitions from Creative Design City Nagoya, Vienna Design Week, Premsela - the Netherlands Institute for Design and Fashion, Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design, the City of Poznan and more, DMY drew an international crowd this year. One the strongest and smallest presentations came from Mexico, a country from which we're starting to see a slow but steady stream of new designs from with refreshing interpretations of the national heritage and artisan traditions.

DicenJalisco, a Mexican promotional council based out of Jalisco, asked Juan Ignacio Michel, the Director of IMD Industrial Design, to curate the group show for DMY. He selected five designers: Arcelia Alamguer, Ignacio Ruiz, Laura Noriega, Studio Victoria and Ismael Rodriguez of NeoCraft, a collective of local designers whose focus is marrying time-honored Mexican craftsmanship with new design trends.

Atlante, a series of desk accessories designed by _mono and Luis Jimenez is a good example NeoCraft's credo. It may look a bit like a tourist shop knick knack in this photo, but in person the five and a half pounds of basaltic stone gives it a heft and lends a new legitimacy to paper clip holders and pencil cups. Arcelia Almaguer added some color to the exhibition with the bright balls of yarn spilling over her collection of crocheted baskets. Made with extra thick yarn, these malleable, imperfect forms have a unique, tactile quality.

NeoCraft may just be getting their start, but Studio Victoria has been around for nearly seventy years. Based out of Guadalajara, they still make their beautiful floor tiles by hand, using traditional encaustic. Unlike most of the designers a DMY, Studio Victoria fulfills large commercial and contract work, and can even do custom jobs with your own designs.

Industrial Designer
Lifestyledesign
Santa Barbara, California

Lifestyledesign (LSD) is seeking an Industrial Designer who is super talented, highly fashionable, keenly aware, detail driven and focused on perfection. He or she should have the ability to visualize coolness with ease and translate ideas into beautifully crafted and emotionally engaging designs in 2D and 3D. The ideal candidate is an industrial designer who prefers design to the industrial, one who cares about the quality of the presentation and is always pushing for new and exciting ways to communicate and take things to the next level.

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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

Today it is IKEA, not Singer, that is the world's largest furniture manufacturer. Its Swedwood Group production arm moves some 100 million units of furniture a year. That's a lot of wood, and the question is, where does it all come from?

As we saw in the Singer post, if you were around 100 years ago and asked a floor manager at their South Bend or Cairo factory where their wood came from, they could simply point out of the window. Ikea's modern-day needs are considerably more complex.

There aren't enough forests in the world to sustainably make 100 million units a year out of solid wood or even plywood, so it's no surprise that the bulk of IKEA's stuff contains particle board. To be able to create products out of sawmill shavings, sawdust and otherwise unuseable wood chips is an intelligent solution... or at least it would be if we could eliminate the carcinogenic formaldehyde needed to glue it all together. Even so, IKEA's massive sourcing needs require those wood scraps be gathered from myriad sources, so you may be astonished to learn a single dresser can contain 26 different species of wood from 18 different countries.

And that's for a "neat" sourced piece of furniture. But as a recent investigative article by Grist explains, tracking where a particular batch of wood chips actually came from is becomingly increasingly difficult to do:

Modern life "outdoors" is a surprisingly dominant focus at Dwell on Design, from the entire "Dwell Outdoor" section to "Design Materials" focused on outdoor to a not-insignificant amount of adaptable in/out and outdoor furniture and accessories. So it's no surprise that designer Joey Roth chose to debut his newest creation there: a terracotta self-watering planter, which he showed as part of the Remodelista Market. Roth has explored making the perfect pot of tea with his Sorapot; he created beautiful ceramic vessels for sound with his porcelain speakers; and now he ventures into the outdoors with the planter.

The new design provides an elegant solution to the timeless problem of providing plants with the appropriate amount of water. Each of the two compartments is made entirely from terracotta, such that the pot is essentially a straight-walled bowl with an enclosed tubular chamber in its center. Plants and dirt go in the outer ring, water goes in the center; over time, as the plant's soil and roots need it, water naturally seeps from one chamber to the next, through the terracotta. It's a clever use of the amazing properties inherent in both the terracotta and plants' root systems.

Of course, these properties have been celebrated for years with the ancient tradition of Ollas, which inspired Roth's planter. The Olla has been used in the Southwest for years to easily and effectively irrigate plants. An Olla is buried next to a plant, and filled with water it naturally irrigates the plant over time. Roth was inspired by this, as well as moving to a home with a garden in California for the first time.

Roth said that he has done some tests in earthenware, which he likes for its dark-brown tone. But, he's not yet convinced that it has the same effectiveness in watering as the terracotta, and continues to test it. He said he is also refining the design to elevate the water chamber up from the planter's base more, so that water won't seep out from the bottom, but hopes to have the first round of production available by August.

Sneaker blogs are abuzz with word of Reebok's new ZigMaze kicks, which feature an unusual upper featuring a maze-like etching. Reebok is either trying to go stealth with these or someone in their PR department is about to get fired, because although they're reportedly popping up at Reebok Concept Stores, there was zero mention of the shoes on their website at press time.

The Sole Movement blog got the scoop on the ZigMaze (if you can't tell by their name plastered on the photos), but even they don't know what performance advantage, if any, the mazelike texture is supposed to confer. Sneaker News theorizes that the texture provides structure while still being breathable and lightweight, which sounds possible; but there's no attribution, so the bottom line is until Reebok PR gets into gear, your guess is as good as ours.

Discussion forum poster Product Tank is always working on a clever new way to re-imagine an everyday product. His latest is the Clamp Lamp. Inspired by a simple children's toy, the entire lamp mechanism goes slack by depressing a lever. Position the lamp and release the small thumb lever and a cam tightens the mechanism down again across three individual pivot points. Pretty smart.

This is just a first prototype. He is accepting feedback over in the forums HERE.

I love industrial design's raison d'etre, mass production. This notion that you can design a useful product and a factory will multiply your efforts by several million units.

I also like the opposite notion of one-offs championed by a company like Bespoke Innovations, where an industrial designer can use digital manufacturing techniques to create a truly personalized, one-of-a-kind item.

What I hate is the in-between Limited Edition thing, where a company arbitrarily produces a small run and uses different colors or materials to contrive scarcity, in order to artificially increase the value of a product. I recognize that "Limited Edition" is an important economic tool, and that it causes collectors a joy that I do not understand but must pretend I do in order to be polite; I just don't like the idea.

That being said, I still found myself guiltily mesmerized by this footage of Leica craftspeople putting together the "Edition Hermès" version of their M9-P camera. At the end of the day, I'm still a sucker for watching beautiful, precision objects (right down to the packaging, in this case) being assembled by hand:

All photos by Carren Jao unless otherwise noted.

Fun and whimsy tie these three furniture-makers together.

Customers have a choice of oak, maple, cherry or walnut for every piece they order.

WFour Design

Launched just this June, Oregon-based company WFour Design create furnishings inspired by Danish modern aesthetic with a more organic twist. His line of sleek furniture all showcase graceful legs and a touch of bright color. When asked why he added the pops of color, owner Christopher J. Walsh IV replied, the usual wood construction "is boring to me."

The door pulls for this piece came from Anthropologie. The cabinet's legs were then painted to match the color.

Walsh adds an element of customizability in all of his small furnishing designs. While each one begins with a recognizable square frame for drawers, side tables and sideboards, Walsh designed a unique leg system that can later be removed, repainted and re-attached with minimal trouble. He also allows customers to choose knobs and pulls that go along with preferred color.

The Los Angeles Blanket Chest.

Drift Studio

Angelenos got a treat with the launch of the Los Angeles Blanket Chest from Drift Studio. Familiar roadways became colorful lines that traverse the length of the Baltic Birch plywood chest. Too discreet for one's taste? The studio has also developed large artwork that can be incorporated into a traditional barn door system, giving that staid farmhouse a little oomph.

Detail shot of Los Angeles Blanket Chest.