Graphic Design Intern
PUMA
Boston, Massachusetts

PUMA is eeking a bright, dynamic and outgoing Graphic Design Intern to work with PUMA North America's Marketing Design Team. The selected candidate will be exposed to design processes, design publications and resources, and the inner workings of an in-house creative agency. This internship is for academic credit.

I have two foreign fetishes, and you may not share the first: I love listening to BBC interviews of foreign politicians with super-thick accents who nevertheless speak more articulate English than I can. The second, I hope you do share: A love of seeing creative and manufacturing spaces in other countries. I could stare at photos of Parisian ateliers, Swedish factory floors and Tokyo design studios all day.

This CoSPACE CoCREATE video by Stylo Vision, a/k/a filmmaker Thomas Lee, takes a fleeting look at such spaces in cramped Hong Kong.

To make the video Lee lensed the workspaces of handmade leather shoe workshop Shoe Artistry, product design firm KaCaMa Design Lab, product design firm Milk Design, farmer/artist/designer collective HK Farm, and fashion label Daydream Nation. I kept wondering "Why the hell isn't there any narrative?" but as it turns out, this short is just a trailer, comprised of piecemeal scraps from individual vids he shot of each outfit. Stay tuned for the ID-relevant ones.

Last weekend, New York saw the opening of its first ever Museum of Math (MoMATH)—the first one in the States—which, for all its kid-friendly attractions, probably doesn't delve into higher-order phenomena such as, say, Voronoi diagrams, in which a space is divided into cells that correspond to 'seed' points. Each regions are defined as being closer to a given seed point than any other, typically resulting in a pattern of abutting irregular polygons defined by a set of points within a given space, such that their vertices are equidistant from three (or more) points.

Confused? Alan Rorie has designed a software tool to make Voronoi diagrams... into furniture. The San Francisco-based artist/designer explains in his Kickstarter pitch, below:

It's an interesting concept for generative furniture, allowing for a degree of creativity within the algorithmic constraints, but unfortunately, the extant Java app (demo'd in the video after the jump) wasn't working so well for me... which is precisely why Rorie's looking to develop a new version in Javascript. The funds from the Kickstarter go to that end, as well as physical refinements for the voronoidal shelves themselves.

Of the five Hong Kong design outfits Thomas Lee shot for his CoSPACE CoCREATE video series, at least three are relevant for Core77 readers. The first is his look at KaCaMa Design Lab—that's ID'ers Kay Chan, Catherine Suen and Match Chen—on their mission to re-use post-consumer waste. To that end, they're upcycling ad banners (the real kind, not the kind you can tell Firefox to shut off) into lighting, and educating kids on why that's important:

[photo via Xyver]

Evaluating an industrial designer's skill level is a nebulous process. That's partially because our educations vary widely; while many of us had to protect an egg with cardboard at some point, there's no uniform test we all have to take and pass.

Machinists, on the other hand, have a little exercise that was purportedly once used to evaluate an apprentice's competence. It was something like a belt test in Karate, except you'd use a lathe and a mill rather than wearing a blindfold and fighting off flailing green belts.

"Twenty bucks says the blue belt is toast."

The apprentice would be shown the object pictured up top (appropriately called a Turner's Cube), was given no instructions, and asked to crank one out on their own. The apprentice either figured it out and advanced to the next level, or presumably returned home to live with his mother.

[photo via Sean Ragan]

These days you can easily produce one with a CNC mill, but that defeats the purpose; back in the day, you needed to have mastered a host of machine shop skills to produce the Cube. According to Instructables member Xyver, these skills included:

- Working within a +/- 0.005 tolerance (any more and it looks off)
- Dialing in a milling machine (to as tight a tolerance as you can get it, 0.001-0.002 is the goal)
- Using a face mill + planar bar on a mill to make the cube
- Facing cuts on a lathe
- Boring flat bottomed holes on a lathe
- Undercutting on a lathe
- Know how to dial in work pieces on a 4 jaw chuck

I'd like to think the apprentices were actually locked inside the machine shop and told they would not be allowed back out until the Cube was complete, but I can't find any evidence of this.

Off the Grid

Habitat: Undisclosed. But you would be uncomfortable there

Plumage: All-weather, lightweight, durable & shockingly expensive

Attributes: Secret Stash of Granola, Digital Compass, Dedicated GPS device. Spends a surprising amount of time managing his facial hair.

Description: Whether trekking through the jungles of the Amazon or camping in the great outdoors (or the backyard), our Off the Grid designer is deeply interested in biomimicry and takes inspiration from nature very seriously. Tools that pack light and can withstand extreme conditions are absolute essentials for this intrepid explorer.

For our eighth annual Ultimate Gift Guide, Core77's crack editors have identified a taxonomy of seven known 'Designer Phenotypes' who might be on your shopping list. From Designer Dandy to Studio Snob, Homebound Hobbit to Workshop Workhorse, we have something for the discerning gift giver and recipient alike.

In addition to our beloved online Gift Guide, we're also pleased to announce that we've partnered with Blu Dot in New York City and our sister store Hand-Eye Supply in Portland, OR, to open bicoastal Holiday Pop-Up Shops for your shopping convenience. Stop by before December 24th to check out the product in person and pick up a poster featuring all seven designer phenotypes, illustrated by Core-toonist Tony Ruth, a.k.a. lunchbreath (while supplies last).

Above we see a Turner's Cube carved out of Cocobolo, a Central American hardwood. It was done "cheating"-style, using a CNC mill:

But that doesn't mean the unnamed Micro Machine Shop craftsperson who produced it lacks lathing skills. With step-by-step photos, s/he shows you how they produced this:

That's a "Euro-style" pen made off of instructions from Woodcraft, and the simple, pocket-sized device belies the amount of time, materials and variety of machinery it takes to produce.

As of this afternoon, we're pleased to announce that we have the Marshall Hanwell Speaker here in NYC, just in time to rock around the Christmas tree (or the nondenominational decorative object of your choice). On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the renowned amplifier company is making its signature sound available to music lovers in addition to musicians themselves: the speaker features a standard 1/8” stereo input and cable, which can plug directly in to just about any consumer audio device on the market. The result of a collaboration between Marshall Headphones and Zound Industries, the Hanwell is the first home audio product to earn the Marshall script logo and continue the late Jim Marshall's legacy of loud.

Features include:
- Wooden cabinet with vinyl skin
- Brushed brass control panel
- 100W Class-D amplifier
- Dual 6-inch long-throw woofers and bass porting
- Two ferrofluid-cooled hi-fi tweeters to take care of the higher frequencies

Stop by Soho this weekend to hear it (and buy it) in person!

Core77 Pop-Up Shop
Blu Dot
140 Wooster Street (between Houston and Prince)
New York, NY 10012
Open from 11AM – 7PM on Mon. – Sat. & 12PM – 6PM on Sundays through December 31

Image via NYTimes

Our discussion boards are lighting up this week with a thread in the Design Employment category: Sharon Myoung wonders why there are so few women working as industrial designers, even as enrollment in I.D. programs is trends towards gender parity. Industry veteran, cheerleader and all-around guru (not to mention Core contributor, entrepreneur and, of course, forum moderator) Michael DiTullo concurs, "especially because many corporations and firms would love to hire female industrial designers, self included." In addition to inviting "women in design, both professional and students" to share their experiences, DiTullo also provides a few examples of admirable female designers, from Eileen Gray and Eva Zeisel to his former colleague Amina Horozic.

Role models notwithstanding, the discussion focuses on sociological phenomena regarding the contemporary workplace, as well as related topics such as the changing nature of industrial design practice and size and shape of companies in general. Not only are the firsthand accounts invaluable for their honesty, the designers' hypotheses as to why the field is so disproportionately male are also quite interesting, albeit not exactly scientific.

The discussion on "Women in Industrial Design" isn't exactly lighthearted holiday fare, but it's definitely well worth the read in the spare time afforded by the break. We'd like to extend DiTullo's invitation to any designers who might have something constructive to add to the conversation (as the OP advises, "please omit any negative comments!").

DiTullo wishes he could draw like Kimberly Wu

Industrial Designer
Dell, Inc.
Austin, Texas

Dell, Inc. is searching for a few unique seasoned industrial design professionals with the ability to develop and implement world-class distinctive solutions in a ferociously competitive industry. The ideal candidate has an in-depth understanding of design integration in the business environment and the ability to lead complex programs collaborating with internal and external global teams. These individuals must possess the ability to bring to life fresh, innovative and clever solutions and drive those solutions through development and into the marketplace. Additionally, these individuals must be able to articulate high level design and product strategy initiatives through visual and verbal communications.

Another guy who's produced a Turner's Cube is mariner's astrolabe (done in collaboration with Ben Westbrook), where the dial was done via CNC and the indicator was manually milled.

Horsey's the guy you go to if you want a bad-ass custom headbadge for your line of bicycles, like NFG Cycles did:

If everything goes right, Hong Kong's new territories will be getting one helluva bicycle lane. HKSARG (the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government) has proposed building 105-kilometer-long cycleway, not for racing, but for recreation and the health of its citizens. The track will wind around the perimeter of the territory, sticking mostly to the coastline, and will feature entry-and-exit hubs along with resting stations.

It will also feature bicycle racks, and that's where you might come in. Just this morning Hong Kong's Civil Engineering and Development Department, the body tasked with making the track a reality, has launched the "Creative Smart Parking - Cycle Rack Design Competition."

An aesthetic and user friendly design for cycle parking facilities is crucial to enhance their utilisation, as well as improve the cityscape. The purpose of the Creative Smart Parking - Cycle Parking Rack Design Competition ("the Competition") is to invite the public to contribute innovative conceptual design of cycle parking racks and layout of the cycle parking areas, for the cycle track network in the New Territories.

You needn't live in the territory nor be a citizen to enter, and Grand Prize nets you $50,000. (Assuming they mean HK dollars, that's still US $6,450, nothing to sneeze at.) You can learn more here.

Now and then something appears in the local pages of Italian newspaper that deserves English translation. This is from the Turin section of today's La Stampa:

A new eco mall will double the size of Turin's Eataly
From green cars to sustainable food to bio-clothes

By Emanuela Minucci

Oscar Farinetti [the founder of Eataly] doesn't stop. And stays true to his ideas. Notwithstanding the success he is having with the Eataly brand worldwide, he has chosen Turin, his first love, to try out a new concept that cannot be more aligned with these times of economic and environmental concerns.

He is planning a new complex, the first "Green Retail Park" in the world, right next to the Carpano building in the Lingotto area, where he started off in 2007 with his first mix of thematic restaurants and the sales of products that until then people could only find at the Salone del Gusto [the yearly Slow Food fair].

And the visions of the two "Eataly"'s are closely aligned.

The new complex will host retail activities and services that in their production/creation, distribution and sales are driven by a vision of eco-sustainability and social responsibility.

Designed by Negozio Blu Architetti Associati, the 20,000 sq mt spaces are all dedicated to green shopping: from food to clothing to cars. Everything in this bio-cathedral will be "good, clean and fair" [The Slow Food motto].

A green environment...
The building will be constructed with sustainable technologies and materials. [...] The south facing facade will use natural screening and shading, as well as plant walls, and the roof will be covered with grass and plants—one of the many actions to reduce the building's environmental impact. The plants will reduce of cooling needs and the associated heat island effect, help filter the particulate pollution in our urban air, and dampen urban street noise. "We will use a range of sustainable technologies, materials and architectural interventions, including solar panels," explains the architect Cristiana Catino.

... with green products and services
The space will host stores that sell sustainable clothing and shoes, service entities specialized in renewable energy, and companies focused on bio-construction. Also on sale will be products for the garden and the biological vegetable garden, food and biological cosmetics, and sustainable furniture and household products. There will be a quality restaurant, and a specialized wellbeing center. One can even buy a green scooter or car. The heart of the space will host an eco assistance zone, where people can go to for advice on how to save energy in their homes, how to install solar panels, or how they can have a meaningful environmental impact in their day-to-day activities.

I am not sure whether it is the first green retail park in the world, probably not, and I hope that "Green Retail Park" is just a working title, but knowing Farinetti and what he has achieved with Eataly, we can expect it to have a big impact, and not just in Turin.

This is where we're at as a society.

A company called Bullet Blocker manufactures child-size backpacks that feature bulletproof inserts made from a Kevlar-like material. ABC News reports that their sales increased 1,000% following the awful, horrific events last week at Newtown, Connecticut.

Another company called Amendment II, in Utah, makes similar products. They report sales have increased 500% since last Friday.

The backpacks are meant to be used like shields that children crouch behind. Some news sites are circulating photos of children using the backpacks to do this. (I realize these are meant to be instructional, protective measures, but I found the images too disturbing to post here.)

The men running each company, Elmar Uy and Derek Williams, respectively, both have children of their own.

Uy and Williams, who are both fathers, recognize that bulletproof backpacks and the inserts their companies sell aren't a solution to surviving a school shooting.

"There is only so much you can do," Williams said. "The bottom line is, having some armor is better than none. I don't want my kids to be unprotected in schools, which are becoming increasingly violent."

Amendment II plans to donate a portion of their sales to the families of Sandy Hook victims, Williams said.

"On Friday my business partners and I were in tears along with everyone else. We're all fathers," he said. "We can't do much except do what we can and what we're good at, which is making good body armor."

THE FINAL CHANCE! ...to thank you for hanging-in this month with our hucksterism: mercifully it is drawing to a close and we can all get on with some season-appropriate party action! But before you hit the nog/ grog/ gluhwein, why don't you drop by Core77's Hand-Eye Supply store and pick out a few last minute items?

We are keeping our shipping desk open till 5pm Pacific time, get an order in by then - choose the cheap shipping option and we'll upgrade it to priority, ensuring arrival in the continental US on Monday.

Avoid Santa-Cat's Fate and Order Now.

Anyone have a line on a cool Christmas tree? It's been years since Tokyo's Aqua City Odaiba shopping mall erected their awesome Godzilla Christmas Tree, and we've yet to see somebody top it. Ten years on we've gotta think someone out there has been similarly creative.

Or maybe technology has moved past the tree, and it's impressively-orchestrated LED lighting displays that will be the yuletide wave of the future. A family in Perth, Australia gained notoriety (and a million-plus YouTube hits) for their musically-orchestrated house display, below, featuring some obscure foreign pop tune:

In the grand tradition of year end lists, the editors at Core77 are putting together some reflections and themes from the past year in design but to whet your appetites, here are our top 25 stories from 2012!

Surprisingly, our top two posts for 2012 were humble but popular:

» The Self Stirring Pot

» Wrap Your Head around these Gears

And the rest of the best in no particular order:

Photo Galleries

» Core77 Design Awards Gallery

» Stockholm Design Week Gallery

» Designs of the Year Gallery

» Gallery - AmDC Threat

Case Studies

» Google Maps: Designing the Modern Atlas

» CAD vs. Sketching, Why Ask?

» The Design of Design Patents

Transportation

» Audi's Crazy Fast Trick Bike

» Drift Away on Tricked-Out Motor-Trikes

» Airpod, the Car that Runs on Air

» A Different Kind of Concept Bike

» Car Studio Photography Set-Ups

» Corvette Killer...or Career Killer?

» Flotspotting: Jose Hurtado's Tandem with a Twist

And The Rest!

» Walter Tschinkel's Aluminum Casts of Ant Colonies

» 3D Painting: Riusuke Fukahori, Almost Like a Human Makerbot

» Apple Design Icon as Another

» Japanese Flying Sphere Can Record Video but Will it Help Train Jedis?

» Ikea's Cardboard Pallets Intrigue

» How a Woman with No Arms Dresses Herself

» Apple Continues Pushing Boundaries of Glass for Architectural Applications

» See the World Differently Through Eyebombing

» Base Jumping from an Infinity Pool

Made with MakerBot's Dual-Extrusion Replicator

Insofar as digital fabrication hardware has evolved at a steady pace, we were excited to see several new developments in additive and subtractive fabrication, though it was the former that was increasingly making headlines in the world at large in 2012. While the fabled tipping point for 3D printing remains elusive yet, this year also saw a bit of backlash to the growing hype, as well as a couple potentially far-reaching IP controversies, inevitable speed bumps for emerging technologies. Digifab evangelists continue to herald a shift from the economics of supply-and-demand to that of supply-on-demand, but our latest pulse-reading indicates that the market for 3D printers remains more niche than mass.

Janina Alleyne's "Exoskeleton" collection

If we're hedging our bets on the long-term car-in-every-garage-scale adoption of 3D printing, we were excited to report on innovations big and small, from assembling livable spaces down to accelerating nanoscale lithography. In fact, the past year saw new applications across a broad spectrum of fabricated objects, from pediatric prosthetics and skeletal sculptures, and it's only a matter of time before it will be possible to 3D print interactive objects, whether they're optically-enabled or materially so. (Plastics proved to be quite versatile indeed, as designers developed ways to 3D print 'furry' tiles and a 'sweater' iPhone case.

Must-see video via Disney Research

Meanwhile, as we reiterated in an opinion piece on the Future of 3D printing,* the advent of the public makerspace/fablab marks the first step towards bringing 3D printing to the messes, echoing a notion that's been in the ether for a couple years now. (Commentators speculate that Amazon or IKEA might do well to move into 3D printer space, but no one expected Staples to make the first move in late 2012.) NYC's 3D printing proselytes MakerBot hopes to carry the momentum from the recent opening of their storefront in Lower Manhattan into 2013. Similarly, local digifab on-demand concern Shapeways got Bloomberg himself to cut the ribbon at their forthcoming Factory of the Future in Queens.

Senior Outerwear Designer
Columbia Sportswear
Portland, Oregon

Columbia Sportswear is seeking a Senior Outerwear Designer to work closely with the Product Creation Team to design products for assigned product category(s) on a worldwide basis. The designer initiates new innovative product concepts to meet the needs of our customers and recommends and manages design modifications on carryover products resulting in sales and growth for the company.

"Slope smooth-surfaced window ledges and projections at
45 degrees to minimize bird perching and roosting."
I like my anti-bird idea better: Cat-shaped gargoyles.

During my earlier days in a divey Brooklyn apartment, with every Nynex Yellow Pages I threw at a cockroach, I never thought to blame the building's architect. I still wouldn't think to, but the U.S. Center for Environmental Health believes that design can play a large role in pest prevention, and to prove it they've put together an 89-page document showing exactly how.

The document, called Pest Prevention by Design, is a comprehensive look at how architects can design or retrofit structures to minimize whatever the local pests are: Rodents, roaches, bedbugs, pigeons, termites, you name it. In the study's eyes, pests are more than a mere inconvenience; bedbugs can make entire buildings uninhabitable, termites can affect structural integrity, and as they point out, "An occasional trail of ants in the home may be a mere nuisance, but even a single ant in a surgical ward can have grave consequences."

The points illustrated range from understanding the local environment...

...Constructing a building in an urban center, where subways provide a vast network of tunnels in which rodents travel, requires a different design approach than a building in a rural area.

...to designing specific building features...

[Designing] built-in access to critical areas greatly assists pest management professionals in the early detection of wood-boring pests, potentially saving building owners thousands of dollars in wood replacement.

...to materials choices.

Avoid use of ceramic outside corner tiles. Ceramic tiles located in heavily used areas are highly prone to breakage. Broken tiles provide access to voids that can harbor pest insects. Durable outside corners, such as metal or plastic, are preferred alternatives.

While the document won't be formally released until mid-next-month, San Francisco's Department of the Environment has made a preliminary copy available here.