We wouldn't be mad if you called us bookworms. At Core77, we proudly review books as part of our mission to be a great resource for practicing designers. So we were excited to see that our friends at Designers & Books put together a great program for the first Designers & Books Fair happening in New York at the end of this month.

The Book Fair will be a great starting point for amping up your fall reading list—35 US and European book publishers and booksellers will display and sell the newest titles for fall as well as offering important backlist titles. There will also be rare and out-of-print book dealers; demonstrations of book arts, including calligraphy, letterpress printing, bookbinding and book signings. Besides the exhibition, the Book Fair also includes 17 programs with designers in conversation.

Some of the conversations we're looking most forward to attending include Bikes and Books (with builders, retailers and book designers), Chinese Design Culture Now (with Core77 Design Awards 2012 Jury Captain Lorraine Justice), Karim Rashid in Conversation with Debbie Millman and How To Get Published in the World of Design Books (with Core77 Design Awards 2011 Jury Captain Steven Heller).

Designers & Books Fair
October 26-28, 2012
FIT New York

We have a special offer for Core77 readers! Tell us in the comments what book has had the greatest influence on you and your design practice and you can win a free set of passes to the program of your choice!

Uganda is home to five million people with disabilities, whether from birth defects, malnutrition, disease or injuries sustained during the violence-wracked internal conflicts. Whatever the cause, Ugandans without the use of their legs have, in the past, been unable to use bicycles. And as Uganda is one of the poorest countries on this Earth, the bicycle is a crucially important method of transportation there. Without it, some cannot earn a living.

Nelson "Kio" Mukiika has a machine shop of sorts in the Kasese district of western Uganda. I say "of sorts" because he does not have access to basic measuring tools. Nevertheless, Mukiika is able to disassemble old bikes and re-weld them together into creations of his own design: Three-wheeled hand-powered bicycles.

At the very top of this entry is a woman named Gatrida sitting in Mukiika's first completed trike. Since then he's produced 50 more, funded by the CanUgan Disability Support Project, which renders material assistance and vocational training to disabled Ugandans.

It was through CanUgan that Dean Mellway, Director of Carleton University's READ (Research, Education, Accessbility and Design) initiative, caught wind of a Mukiika's trikes; Mellway then brought it to the attention of a team of fourth-year Industrial Design students at Carleton, and they're now working together with Mukiika in an effort to improve the designs.

In 2010 TechShop, the DIY workshop/fabrication studio, announced they'd be opening an NYC outpost in 2011. That got pushed to summer 2012, with Brooklyn announced as the specific location; but summer's come and gone with no news.

3D fabrication company Shapeways, however, has good news for us Gothamites: Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg cut the ribbon (using 3D-printed scissors, it seems) for the groundbreaking of Shapeways' new "Factory of the Future" in Long Island City, Queens.

When construction on the 25,000-square-foot facility is complete, it will hum with 30 to 50 industrial-size 3D printers from EOS, Projet and ZCorp.

When its fully up and running, our Factory of the Future will become the largest consumer facing 3D Printing manufacturing facility in the world. It will have the capacity to 3D Print 3 to 5 million objects annually.

It will house state of the art 3D Printers just hitting the market. Our focus will be on Selective Laser Sintering (used for Strong & Flexible nylon) and UV Acrylic Resin Printing (for Frosted Ultra Detail)....

We will have over 50 engineers, craftsmen, 3D printing specialists, and industrial designers fine-tuning and tweaking a Willy Wonka esque system in which pixels go in and objects come out. We will not only work to keep the promises we have made, but to improve upon them.

....We are bringing the future of manufacturing to NYC, and there will be sparks.

Doors are scheduled to open in January!

They're calling it "The world's most versatile camera," and it's hard to disagree. At midnight yesterday/today GoPro began selling their new model, the Hero3.

"No expense was spared during its development," the company writes. Sadly they don't elaborate on what that development entailed, as I'm sure more than a few designers and engineers are curious. I don't know what kind of black magic they've got going on in their labs, but the thing is 30% smaller than the previous model and weighs just 2.6 freaking ounces. Then there are the tech stats:

Waterproof to 197' (60m), capable of capturing ultra-wide 1440p 48fps, 1080p 60 fps and 720p 120 fps video and 12MP photos at a rate of 30 photos per second.

If the numbers don't dazzle you, the footage probably will. The best part of a new GoPro release is that we get a new video of people doing crazy ish in some of the most beautiful places on Earth:

Alan Gibbs is an entrepreneur from New Zealand, and for years he's dreamed of mass-manufacturing an amphibious car. He knew it would work; he successfully built a one-off for himself, the Aquada you see below, nearly two decades ago. But after setting up a company to mass produce them, he ran into problems ranging from engine supply to U.S. automobile laws.

The American auto laws were the tough thing to get around, as they require airbags for passenger cars; while in the water, waves slapping harmlessly against the vehicle's hull would constantly trigger the sensors.

So Gibbs changed tack. By creating a smaller, ATV-like vehicle not subject to automotive laws, his dream vehicle was realized, albeit at a slightly smaller scale.

His new product is called the Quadski, and it's going on sale later this year. Here's Gibbs himself narrating a demo:

...and Mustard!

"Use a knife!"
"Smack the 57!"
"Hold it at a 45-degree angle!"
Ketchup eaters have long been giving and receiving such advice on the art of beckoning their beloved condiment from its bottle, but thanks to the Varanasi Group at MIT, ketchup lovers will no longer lose the battle. Though the technology behind LiquiGlide is still being tested, the results so far are extremely promising. The nontoxic coating works not only on glass, but also on plastic, metal and ceramic. Made entirely from food materials, LiquiGlide is completely safe to eat. "Even if you scraped the coating with a knife and ate it, it would be completely harmless and flavorless."

You may be asking yourself what the big deal is. It's just a little ketchup (or mayo, mustard, sriracha, jelly...), right? LiquiGlide actually solves a much larger problem than making it easier for you to dress your burger: food waste. "With condiment bottles there's still a bunch of food left in the bottle when you throw it out. By our calculations," the Varanasi Group explained, "about one million pounds of food gets thrown out each year worldwide. Also, those squeeze bottle need a big cap. By eliminating the need for such a big cap we'd save 25,000 tons of petroleum-based plastics each year." And you won't have a fridge door full of bottles with gummy, sticky caps. Watch the weirdly gross and entertaining side-by-side demo videos of regular condiment bottles vs. those coated with LiquiGlide.

Top: New York City myThread Installation by Jenny Sabin.
Bottom: Beijing Design Week Feather Pavilion by Arthur Huang

Coming off the success of their Flyknit collection, Nike has launched the Nike Flyknit Collective: an architectural initiative challenging a curated group of designers, artists and architects to create installations based on the core features of the collection—performance, lightness, formfitting and sustainability.

We had an opportunity to see 2 of the installations in person over the past few weeks and although the installations were quite different, it was interesting to follow the path of practitioners separated by geography and disciplines as they explored the way that yarn can be employed to create engaging structural experiences.

Jenny Sabin installing the myThread Pavilion

Philadelphia-based architectural designer Jenny Sabin's work explores the intersection of architecture, biology, craft, technology and generative design.

Bamboo chandelier

If you've never heard of Wenzhou before, consider yourself educated: Sothing, easily my personal favorite among the talents at the Interior Lifestyle China show last week, hails from the Southern Chinese city of three million residents. The design consultancy provides fully-integrated product design solutions for clients such as Intel, Lenovo and Philips, among others, as well as a collection of independently-produced design objects. Several of these items were on display at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, and each and every one stood out as a noteworthy product.

The "Branches" lamp would tip over if not for the presence of the rock—any sufficiently heavy object will suffice—a simple metaphor for finding stability in everyday life. Meanwhile, the gold-peaked "Mountain" plate beneath it represents a perpetual sunrise.

As with the plate, the teapot refers to the mountains around the Wenzhou region; less obvious is the fact that the cups are shaped like the region's bodies of water.

Sothing Design Director Xiangfei Ran eagerly shared his insights and, with just a little prodding, some ideation sketches from his notebook.

The "Chair" ring is based on a pun: in Chinese, to 'depend' (yikao) is closely homophonous with 'leaning on a chair.' The wearable miniature is something like an elegant upgrade from a friendship bracelet.

Sothing's clear acrylic incense holders are treated with a carefully-applied pigment that deepens as smoke slowly escapes the enclosure.

Last month we blogged about the new line of laptop desks La Boite Concept debuted at 100% Design during London Design Week.

The LD series, available in 100, 120 or 130 watts, is still the first and only high end docking station dedicated to the laptop, as opposed to the iPhone. The USB DAC Hi-Fi sound card is integrated inside the speaker to improve the sound quality of your laptop independently from its sound output, which is projected from six speakers—two medium woofers (13cm), two tweeters with domes (silk 25mm) and two full range rear drivers for the unit's patented Wide Stereo Sound, a system developed by La Boite Concept that improves the range of the surround sound so that a listener positioned at any point in the room gets the full surround sound effect. And whether you want to use the desk to work on or DJ from, the desktop is made from silicon in a range of colors to prevent the speakers' vibrations from shaking the laptop.

Things seem to have gotten a little hairy for the Paris-based design studio with their new limited edition collection designed in the image and likeness of electro-pop musician Sebastien Tellier, whose long locks have been draped on either side of a unit made complete with a silhouette of Tellier's signature sunglasses. According to Claire Marion, La Boite Concept's UK Manager, the idea came to La Boite's designer and co-founder, Guillaume Cagniard, while he was visiting a hair stylist friend who has thousands of hair extensions on hand. He "thought it could be funny to add hair to our LD series legs," Marion said. "From this crazy idea, Sebastien Tellier became the inspiration."

Cagniard took his idea to Tellier's people, who "had such a good laugh looking at the pictures of this hairy sound system project that they said yes immediately." Tellier used the LD to play music at a recent album release party at Galerie Perrotin by connecting it to a "magic piano" playing the album, My God Is Blue. No word yet on what a magic piano is, but perhaps La Boite Concept will come out with one soon. In the meantime you can purchase a hairy LD120 by placing a special order with Cagniard.

Industrial Designer - Junior to Midlevel
Del Monte
Walnut Creek, California

Del Monte Foods, one of the country's largest producers, distributors and marketers of branded food and pet products, is looking for an Industrial Designer who is highly creative, self-motivated, and possesses the ability to work on multiple projects. This person will have the ability to contribute from research through to prototype and concept validation. Exceptional communication, problem solving and interpersonal skills are an essential part of this role as is having the ability to work independently as well as part of a multidisciplinary team. The Industrial Designer will bring to life compelling concepts through sketches, virtual 3D models and physical prototypes. The candidate should be self-motivated, highly engaged, and self-directed with a high level of responsibility and professionalism.

In the early 2000s, tree-heavy Colorado suffered an outbreak of mountain pine beetles, decimating some 70% of the lodgepole pine population. In recent years the infestation spread south as far as Mexico, and north through Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to reach western Canada, where the current outbreak dwarfs the Colorado infestation. Colorado's loss of tree acreage is in the low millions; British Columbia is estimated to lose some 44 million acres of pine trees.

The mountain pine beetle typically lays its eggs under the bark of dead pine trees, and historically the bugs' population was kept in check by the winter cold. But as North America has recently had warmer-than-normal winters, the MP beetle's population has exploded. With not enough dead trees to go around, the beetles start laying their eggs into live trees.

When that happens, the live tree becomes infected with a blue fungus that arrests its internal flow of nutrients. Its pine needles turn red, its bark starts to turn grey, the internal wood takes on a bluish tinge, and the tree dies. Here you can see dead trees from literally miles away:

The sculpting of ice for most New Yorkers involves rainbow-colored shaved iced cones in the summers or yellow snow in the winter. Fortunately for the natives of Tannforsen, Sweden, they can enjoy winter the way nature intended. One such person is Susan Christianen who recently completed this interior design project for the Tannforsen Igloos. A graduate of Design Academy Eindhoven, Netherlands, Christianen has worked with several ice hotels. Several of these projects and others can be seen here on coroflot.

The Tannforsen Igloos are located on the slope of the Tannforsen waterfall which freezes every winter. Among these cold months construction begins on these igloos, usually finished around Christmas time. The constructors of the space realized that similarly to a solidified interior, this ice igloo would require decoration. In collaboration with Anna Ohlund, Susan Christianen produced these stunning, sculptural facades that bring multiple elements of nature into this visceral space. Inspired by the tree of life Anna utilizes the root work of the tree to harmonize two different spaces, or contain a given room.

Whether it's your growing collection of miniature designer chairs or original Star Wars memorabilia (no judgments either way) that shows no signs of stopping, J1studio's simple and sturdy T.Shelf is perfect for showing it off no matter what stage of collective completion it's in. Based on the "strongest geometric shape, the triangle," Jaewon Cho, or J1, has designed a materially basic yet beautiful shelving unit that can take on any size or shape with the addition of just a few zipties and plywood triangles.

The wooden triangles are CNC milled with small holes in the corners for the zipties. The modular units are practical, but depending on your arrangement they can easily take become sculptural, occupying a small section or snaking across your wall. Every order (customizations are available) are made and shipped flat from Los Angeles. The units come in white or natural, but we like the idea of a larger shelf with different colored sections along the lines of Clara von Zweigbergk's Themis Mobile Mono.

Click for full-sized image!

We've all been there. Strapped into your seat, readying yourself for a 12-hour marathon of determination to disembark on the other side of the world. And then it begins. The baby in the next aisle starts wailing. Before the evil side-eye starts boring holes of hate into the back of the seat of the offending parents, have you ever considered the trials a family with young children have to endure in order to get on the plane?

RKS recently released a service design concept, cAir, that hopes to ease the burden of air travel for families. The project is a derivative outcome from a workshop conducted by RKS at the 2010 IxDA Conference where interaction designers were challenged to conceptualize a service design venture that would inspire the air travel industry to change how services are delivered to traveling families. In a climate of increased fare costs, slashed amenities and general disastisfaction with the air travel experience, the team looked at the success of consumer-centric airlines like Southwest as a hint that investing in the user can be rewarding for both travelers and airlines.

cAir - redefining air travel for families from RKS Design on Vimeo.

Families, in particular, are an oft over-looked segment of the flying population. By redesigning their experience, perhaps the general quality of all travelers could be improved. After interviewing and shadowing passengers, RKS generated a service design blueprint based on six key touchpoints of the in-flight experience: entertainment, ambience, food, seats, lavatory and storage.

Checkin for adults and children with toy rental options and wayfinding services available.

The second Seattle Designers Accord Town Hall was held October 11th at Carbon Design Group's studio. The event was organized by Carbon, Modern Species and AIGA Seattle. The theme of the night was "Are We There Yet?" reflecting the seemingly endless journey of designers striving to produce sustainable results for willing clients. The evening kicked off with refreshments and networking, and then moved on to the main events. Linda Wagner, of Carbon, and Gage Mitchell, of both Modern Species and AIGA Seattle, shared the emcee duties. Four speakers delivered short presentations to address the topic from their perspective (industrial design, graphic design, architecture, or business), before continuing the conversation in breakout sessions.

Ashley Arhart
Creative Director of Consumer Experience at Hornall Anderson
Ashley gets props for bringing, well, props. Her message for the evening was that sustainable design is only successful if the consumer likes it. Case in point was the incredibly noisy Sun Chips bag. Compostable, yes, but hearing it in person drove home the problem—nobody wants to broadcast that they're snacking. Ashley went on to ruffle every print designer in attendance by declaring the book is dead... as an object of information, but alive as an object of desire. To bring this home, she used the example of Wantful, a company that allows you to create a beautiful personalized book filled with a curated selection of gifts from which a recipient can pick. By blending digital and print, Wantful delivers a richer, more meaningful experience. And meaningful experiences are vital because, the success of a product is determined by how it connects with people. (Ashley also wrote up a great detailed post about her breakout session which you can find here.)

Kirk Myers
Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at REI
Kirk's job is to design business systems that provide sustainable outcomes. One of REI's greatest successes in this endeavor came from partnering with other outdoor apparel manufacturers like Patagonia and Timberland to create the HIGG Index, which measurers the impact of their products. By working together, these companies were able to give their vendors an assessment tool and a very large incentive to use it. Kirk pointed out that the true focus of any company is whether or not a customer will buy a product. A sustainable product isn't sustainable at all if it doesn't sell. Method is a company that gets this in spades. They aren't successful because they create sustainable products. They're successful because they create better products with a combination of design, functionality, and affordability that makes them stand out. Sustainable products must be better all around.

In the previous entry in this series, we looked at the raw materials disaster that is the North American mountain pine beetle infestation. Millions of acres' worth of trees have been prematurely killed by an unstoppable bug species stretching from Canada to Mexico.

The good news is that the blue-tinged wood is still useable, if harvested in time. (If you don't get to it within several years, the dead trees will fall over and rot will set in.) It's also kind of cool from an aesthetic viewpoint because, well, some of the pieces can get pretty darn blue.

Best of all, Canadian researchers have determined that blue pine is still sound lumber. To prove it, the Canadian government had the roof of the Richmond Olympic Oval built from it.

In the U.S., it is individuals and businesses that have stepped up to address the blue pine question. Montana-based Sustainable Lumber Co. sells it in slabs, boards and timbers under its common name, Beetle Kill Pine. The variety of grains ranges from beautiful to "let's use this for the back."

Photography by Brit Leissler for Core77

Now in it's sixth year, Vienna Design Week continued to champion the merits of Austrian creativity with a focus on revealing the process behind producing furniture and objects. While this may have risked alienating the general public at times, it was a lot more interesting for fellow designers attending the festival. The city has a rich history of craft, and it was refreshing to see many of the traditional manufacturers—some that have been family run for generations—embrace young designers by providing opportunities to collaborate on new projects. Check out the highlights in our latest gallery and the links below.

» View Gallery

More coverage from Vienna Design Week
Theatre of Destruction
Passionswege, Mathias Hahn x Staud's Preserves
Mostlikely Of Donkeys and Basilisks
Passionswege: Matylda Krzykowski with Brush and Horn Manufactory
Misfits Revisited by breadedEscalope x THONET
Valentin Vodev Shares Secret Stories behind J & L. Lobmeyr

In the interest of showcasing young and emerging local designers, Messe Frankfurt has seen fit to include a 'Talents' section at the Interior Lifestyle shows in Tokyo and China. Of course, the organization's modest-sized Asian tradeshows are duly less ambitious than their flagship show in February, which boasts upwards of 60 talents compared to dozen young designers at last week's Shanghai exhibition.

More interesting still is the decision to include several non-Chinese designers: half of the talents hailed from Japan and Europe, all of whom had participated as Talents at prior shows in their home regions. (Given the Frankfurt-based company's penchant for providing international exposure at little to no cost to the designers, it's well worth applying to be a 'Talent' at Ambiente in February.) The lucky few were handpicked to complement the Chinese designers, as well as for their potential to succeed in the Chinese market. Far be it for me to speak on behalf of the nation's buyers, but my personal favorite (among the non-Chinese designers) was work from Kai Linke.

The Frankfurt-based designer presented just a couple small tabletop objects as well as a sample of a bespoke wall treatment that he has developed. As in the "Engrain" keyboard, Linke takes advantage of the fact that the grain of wood expresses differences in density, such that a controlled sandblasting process reveals the grain in three dimensions. After he creates a vector graphic to a client's specifications, Linke masks the area on a panel of spruce, which is sandblasted to reveal an image in relief. Although he exhibited just a handful of the panels—in the interest of easy transportation from Germany—the overall effect is quite striking. (The panels can be quite large, or they can be cut into a few standard sizes for easy transport and visual variation; this particular wall can be viewed in full here.)

I could see the "Pi" mirror, a round looking glass 'set' in a block of marble, as a fixture in a high-end restaurant or hotel here in Shanghai or, frankly, any major city.

Design Engineer
Pensa
New York, NY

Pensa is a boutique design consulting firm specializing in strategy, product design, invention and engineering development. We pride ourselves in our work and now we are looking for more folks to help us deliver even more awesomeness. We are looking for a Design Engineer to join our team in DUMBO Brooklyn, NYC full time.

Do you: like to tinker, break apart perfectly good products to see how they work, have no fear of voiding warranties while hacking into electronics? Are you an unabashed geek with keen eye for elegant solutions and a love of design? Then you may be a perfect fit for the job.

Design of the 20th Century is one of those books that ought to be on the shelves of every designer, design student, teacher, historian, enthusiast or newbie. Hefty and sweeping yet affordable and compact, this veritable Bible that covers design from the past hundred years is, at the very least, 750 pages of pure eye candy. At its best it's an approachable wealth of information that "highlights the pluralistic nature of design and the idea that, historically, design can be viewed as a debate between conflicting opinions about such issues as the role of technology and the industrial process, the primacy of utility, simplicity and affordability over luxury and exclusivity, and the role of function, aesthetics, ornament and symbolism in practical objects for use."

Written by Charlotte and Peter Fiell, who've penned several of Taschen's comprehensive design tomes (including 1000 Chairs, Industrial Design A-Z, Graphic Design for the 21st Century), define design "in its most global sense as the conception and planning of all man-made products." With that in mind the duo takes the reader through the entire 20th century from Aalto to Zsolnay, a journey that includes design movements like Art Deco, Arts & Craft and the International Style as well as profiles on the most significant designers in every field, from furniture and lighting to typography and graphic design. Design of the 20th Century is an accessible introduction to design for newcomers as well as an indispensable desk reference for design professionals. Even veterans in the field who think they've learned it all in school and seen it all over the course of their careers will enjoy rediscovering old favorites and perhaps even stumbling upon something new.

Design of the 20th Century is available from Taschen for $19.99.

Vico Magistretti's Atoll lamp

Marcel Breuer's cantilevered wicker and wood chair

Wolfgang Tumpel's Teamaker