Photos courtesy of Ines Brunn

Air quality aside, Beijing has a long history of bicycle culture, and the vagaries of globalization have inevitably brought what is euphemistically known as 'urban bicycle culture' to China's capital. Bike messengers in New York and San Francisco have long known the advantages of riding a fixed gear bicycle in dense, ever-congested city centers, and given their cultural cachet, it should come as no surprise that these oft-maligned suicide machines have caught on amongst Chinese youth, literally leaving the iconic Flying Pigeon in the dust.

I never had a chance to ride in China myself, but I hope to do so in the near future, especially after seeing John Prolly's travelogue as he tours the mainland with the folks from Mission Workshop and Factory Five. Which is a very long way of introducing Ines Brunn of Beijing fixie outpostNatooke, who I had e-mailed her about renting a bike last time I was in town (I didn't end up doing so). It turns out that Brunn is a German-via-U.S.-expat who holds a Masters in Physics... and, if you'll excuse the pun, a mastery of physics, given her acrobatic ability as a trick cyclist.

It looks like she's running a 1:1 gearing ratio, which means that her ride is essentially a unicycle with two wheels (see also: the previously-seen bicymple), though that doesn't detract from her skills in the least. Here's a continuously-shot alternate routine; check out the upside-down-reverse mount at 1:38 or so:

Anyone who's seen James Cameron's Aliens cannot forget the images of 1.) Ripley in a cargo-loader exoskeleton, and 2.) Vasquez prowling the corridors with that body-mounted machine gun on the swing arm. That was back in 1986; now it's 2013, and not only have these designs actually come to pass, but they've been combined.

As we previously reported, Lockheed Martin licensed a company called Ekso Bionics' technology to develop the HULC, or Human Universal Load Carrier. It's got the power-assist legs and the body-supported gun mount:

While Ekso Bionics is targeting the consumer market, enabling paraplegics to walk again, Lockheed has initially gone military. However, they're reportedly creating a version of the HULC called the Mantis, for industrial applications. As Bloomberg News reports,

The machines may follow a classic arc from Pentagon research project to fixture on an assembly line, similar to the development of lasers, said Paul Saffo, managing director of foresight at investment advisory firm Discern in San Francisco. "The medical devices get the most attention, the military funds it and the first mass application is industrial," Saffo said in a telephone interview.

[Mantis is aimed at] any industry in which workers must hold heavy equipment that can cause fatigue and back injuries.... Mantis has a mechanical extension for a wearer's arm and absorbs the strain from hefting a grinder or sander, [Lockheed business development manager Keith] Maxwell said. Tests found productivity gains of more than 30 percent, he said, and wearers showed their Macarena footwork to demonstrate the suits' flexibility.

"It turns workers away from being a weightlifter and into a craftsman," Maxwell said.

I'm all for Construction Worker Exoskeletons—as long as the power tools are not integrated, but remain separate objects that you pick up. Because once they start replacing the user's hands with built-in angle grinders and magazine-fed nail guns, we're going to have a problem. Last year, I watched a construction worker fight a cabdriver in front of my building; the hack didn't stand a chance. The last thing I want to see is an angry frame carpenter tramping off the jobsite in one of these things, ready to settle someone's hash with his Forstner-bit fingers and chopsaw hands.

Anyone who's seen James Cameron's Aliens cannot forget the images of 1.) Ripley in a cargo-loader exoskeleton, and 2.) Vasquez prowling the corridors with that body-mounted machine gun on the swing arm. That was back in 1986; now it's 2013, and not only have these designs actually come to pass, but they've been combined.

As we previously reported, Lockheed Martin licensed a company called Ekso Bionics' technology to develop the HULC, or Human Universal Load Carrier. It's got the power-assist legs and the body-supported gun mount:

While Ekso Bionics is targeting the consumer market, enabling paraplegics to walk again, Lockheed has initially gone military. However, they're reportedly creating a version of the HULC called the Mantis, for industrial applications. As Bloomberg News reports,

The machines may follow a classic arc from Pentagon research project to fixture on an assembly line, similar to the development of lasers, said Paul Saffo, managing director of foresight at investment advisory firm Discern in San Francisco. "The medical devices get the most attention, the military funds it and the first mass application is industrial," Saffo said in a telephone interview.

[Mantis is aimed at] any industry in which workers must hold heavy equipment that can cause fatigue and back injuries.... Mantis has a mechanical extension for a wearer's arm and absorbs the strain from hefting a grinder or sander, [Lockheed business development manager Keith] Maxwell said. Tests found productivity gains of more than 30 percent, he said, and wearers showed their Macarena footwork to demonstrate the suits' flexibility.

"It turns workers away from being a weightlifter and into a craftsman," Maxwell said.

I'm all for Construction Worker Exoskeletons—as long as the power tools are not integrated, but remain separate objects that you pick up. Because once they start replacing the user's hands with built-in angle grinders and magazine-fed nail guns, we're going to have a problem. Last year, I watched a construction worker fight a cabdriver in front of my building; the hack didn't stand a chance. The last thing I want to see is an angry frame carpenter tramping off the jobsite in one of these things, ready to settle someone's hash with his Forstner-bit fingers and chopsaw hands.

Why are Australians so goddamn crazy? Listen to how calm these two Aussies sound while they accidentally drive towards last week's tornado, then calmly try to outrun it (initially in reverse!):

(I'd have warned you that the language is NSFW, but I'm not sure "fack" officially qualifies as a curse.)

Perhaps the reason Australians are such a hardy, unflappable lot is because the country's so rugged. I was reminded of this when I recently watched this brief clip of a Mercedes G-Wagen that has been modified and ruggedized for the Australian Defence Force:

By Lydia Kuo and Ryan Rowe

For the past 20 years, China has become an economic superpower by acting as the world's manufacturer. From boutique brands to major corporations, companies from around the globe have brought their products, concepts, ideas and innovations to be built and assembled in the factories of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and a host of other Chinese industrial cities. Meanwhile, neighboring Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have been fostering cultures of creative entrepreneurship with government initiatives and media promotion.

In China, the movement is finally just beginning. This unique environment, combined with a growing middle class and a new wave of flourishing creative-minded Chinese has given rise to a nation of makers—local Chinese entrepreneurs with a passion for creating and selling their own products. In this essay, we take a look at the idiosyncratic nature of life as a creative entrepreneur in modern China.

Filling Gaps

Between its economic boom and booming population of 1.4 billion, China has become a sophisticated market catered to by all of the world's top brands. This influx of goods and services quickly filled all the gaps in fashion, entertainment, toys, and everything else that the new middle class of Chinese could then suddenly afford over the course of a generation. International brands such as Louis Vuitton and Chanel (and even Apple) gained traction for being high-quality symbols of status, while goods made in China were less and less desired.

Now, as the younger generation—those raised in today's more open and creatively inspired postindustrial China—are coming into their own, they have buying power. Anecdotally, there seems to be a newfound pride and passion for quality, home-grown Chinese products, a sentiment some entrepreneurs are now tapping into. Token Hu, a former designer at frog, manufactures and sells his own brand of casual lifestyle shoes. Although many international brands have a strong presence in China selling shoes of this kind, Token saw a unique gap in the local market and set out to create his own brand, UNITED T. Made in China—or at least "making in China"—is becoming cool.

Getting Things Made

In certain disciplines, China's 5,000-year-long history of traditional art and craft culture can be an invaluable resource for excellent creative talent and handmade manufacturing. Taiwanese-born Guo Hong Zhi, a successful restauranteur was looking for a source of custom-designed ceramics in 2004 to use in his highend restaurants in Shanghai. He went in search of artists from Jingdezhen, the heart of Chinese ceramic arts for thousands of years, where the most talented aspiring ceramic artists come from all around China to study and learn from the masters. Using samples from Japan, he solicited work from the factories there for about one fifth of what it would cost in Japan. The results were discouraging, with only 5% of the products coming back without flaws.

Thus, Guo decided to set up a design facility in Songjiang, a suburb of Shanghai, where he could invite students from Jingdezhen to work under his personally trained process engineers. Within two years, his operation was not only producing beautiful dishware for his restaurants, but had drawn enough creative talent to sustain a line of very successful ceramics shops called Spin, selling to the public in Shanghai and Beijing. The studio gives local talent an opportunity to explore a more expressive, modern style while they hone their classical skills. This form of culturally sustainable manufacturing is a compelling example of how Chinese design entrepreneurs can create modern Chinese products while still tapping into traditional Chinese culture.

Photo of Spin ceramics via Design China

Anytime we look at a new design for airplane seats, they've focused on things like increasing your comfort, or decreasing your comfort, or not disturbing other passengers, or cramming more passengers into the fuselage. Now an aircraft interior design house called Molon Labe Designs is using seat design to tackle another problem: slow turnaround times. While we're not convinced this will solve the problem completely, it is an interesting take.

Despite airlines' attempts to board us in an order that reduces bottlenecks, we've all been stuck behind a passenger blocking the aisle while loading the overhead bin. This slows down the boarding process and, potentially, delays the departure time. Molon Labe's solution is a row of seats where the outermost one slides up and over the center seat, temporarily increasing the aisle space:

With the seats tucked in, the aisle now goes from 19" to 43" wide. The company reports that's enough room for a wheelchair to roll through, and it's presumably enough room for us to slide past other people.

The presentation images are a little underwhelming, and the company's claims seem a bit lofty—they're claiming the seat design can save airlines $75,000 a day in fuel, as "Airlines waste energy powering essential services while on the ground." But despite the primitive renderings, the system is apparently for real; they've announced they're debuting this Side Slip Seat at the upcoming Aircraft Interiors Expo next month in Germany.

If you're looking to take your hygge out of Copenhagen and into the mean streets of New York, look no further than the recent collaboration between Danish Furniture brand BoConcept and Mercedes-Benz operated smart. We first saw the smart Fortwo BoConcept signature style car a month ago, during its European debut as a brand ambassador vehicle at the 2013 Geneva Auto Show. The car is now joined by its domestic counterpart: the Smartville furniture and accessory collection.

We had the chance to sit down with Head of Marketing Communications & Brand Management smart Michael Schaller, BoConcept's Collections and Visuals Director, Claus Ditlev Jensen, and General Manager of smart USA, Tracey Matura, to get some insight into designing a major corporate collaboration.

Core77: Tell us about the origin of the collaboration, was smart itching to design a sofa? Had BoConcept been waiting for a chance to get into automotive design?

Claus Ditlev Jensen: Two and a half years ago, the agency for smart approached BoConcept because we have experience as the urban brand for interiors, and smart represents the urban brand for automotives. When we saw the initial presentation and heard about the ideas, we could only agree that it sounded like a fantastic idea.

We have the same mindset—[we both deal with serving] the customer in a functional way, to be cool, to have the right thing at the right time and also the vision about quality. When you buy our products you will be happy.

When we were together the first time, we were saying, "Okay, but what can we get from it?" That's what we were thinking at BoConcept and I'm sure they did the same at smart, thinking how smart are they at BoConcept? How can they match what we are thinking?

Michael Schaller: It was less that we had been searching for a corporate partner and more that we knew the same people and they said, "Hey, we know both of you and you have so much in common, you should meet"—that was how we had the initial meeting. It was very organic because we had so many similarities. We didn't have any difficulty making the brands fit to each other. It was more or less by accident that we were connected.

Are there plans for expansion of the line? Will we see more furniture pieces, maybe a storage line for our small urban spaces?

Jensen: Well we can't say anything about future collaborations. But [our design teams] have a great relationship and if you have a great relationship—you don't dump it.

In my younger years I drove an ambulance, and while I saw a broad range of nastiness, the most consistently horrific things were injuries sustained in automobile accidents. It was the era before airbags became ubiquitous, and there were still plenty of people who refused to wear a seatbelt. A subset of people subscribed to this ridiculous conventional "wisdom" of the time: "If I wear a seatbelt, I could be trapped in a burning or submerged car and die because the belt was locked shut." There are no statistics that support this as a likely occurrence, either then or now; but pass through any junkyard and you'll see your share of pre-airbag cars that bear the clear marks of a human head going into the windshield.

I bring this up because of the object pictured here. That's Gerber's GDC Hook Knife, a little two-inch device meant to be worn on a keychain, and the blade "can be used to quickly cut yourself out of a piece of clothing, seatbelt or other safety strap."

My first thought was that it's an unnecessary device, as that scenario is unlikely—but then I realized this $11 device could have saved a lot of lives. Not by allowing people to cut themselves free from seatbelts, but by assuring people that they could do so, and hopefully encouraging them to strap the goddamn things on in the first place. It's a strange kind of product design placebo.

While the Warstic Wood Bat company claimed that "There are very few secrets to making a great wood baseball bat," the Kentucky-based Hillerich & Bradsby Company probably begs to differ. H&BC, manufacturers of the famous Louisville Slugger bat, have reportedly developed a new wood finishing technique that affects the surface of the bat. As Kansas City Sports reports,

The new bats—made of ash or maple—are designed to be harder than previous models. Bobby Hillerich, director of Wood Bat Manufacturing for Louisville Slugger, said new selection processes for the wood, as well as drying and processing methods, have created a bat hard enough to reach a grade of 9h, the highest rating possible by the American Society for Testing and Materials.

Buyers search for the hardest wood available—known as veneer wood—which is vacuum dried to pull moisture out of the wood and push the material closer together, Bobby Hillerich said. Once that is done, the wood is cut into billets used to create the bats. The billets are shaped and compressed before being finished with a water-based coating, logo, and any coloring and player signature.

...Louisville Slugger has refined bat-making to a science, [Major League Baseball VP of Licensing Howard] Smith said. "In terms of the slope of the grain, which determines how hard the wood will be, Louisville has been able to harvest the best wood with the most perfect as you can get slope of grain," Smith said.

Aside from their priority harvesting practices, what are the details of this new finish, and is it applicable to furniture or product designs? Is it more in the drying or in the application of some new type of finish? Unsurprisingly the company won't go into much detail; all they'll say about the finishing is "Our filler fills all grains and cavities before three layers of topcoat seal are applied to give the MLB Prime the hardest finish of any wood bat on the market."

Sigh. At least there's a recently-released video showing the bats being made:

That old craftsperson's motto about making the back of the cabinet as nice as the front may not apply to set designers, but that doesn't make their job any less hard. Particularly when you've got to design a 360-degree studio set, as Florida-based Innovative Show Design recently had to do for NBA TV.

The basketball-based network's design requirements called for a set where they could shoot multiple shows in the same day, with each area remaining visually distinct, while still retaining the overall look of the NBA. In addition, a regulation-sized half-court would be integrated into the set, allowing analysts and/or actual players to "illustrate scale and perspective on air."

ISD whipped up renderings, beginning with the constraints of the basketball court and the studio's dimensions—the fixed numbers, in other words—then designed the rest of the wraparound set to fit. The color scheme was predetermined by the NBA, and the design team chose "motion" as the overarching theme. "We looked at the game itself, and considering the game is constantly moving, we wanted a set to have that energy. We looked at the arcs created by the ball as a player shoots," said ISD designer Mark Dowling.

Now in its 17th year, 2013 marks the first time that the International Bicycle Design Competition has partnered with iF Design Talents. The entries were judged in October, following the submission period, the winners were announced just a couple of weeks ago at the Taipei International Cycle Show. Given the sheer backlash to two of the more recently-seen bicycleconcepts here, we'll offer no more than a measured critique of the winners of the 2013 International Bicycle Design Competition. Far be it for me to take issue with the judges' selections of 22 prize winners from a field of 590 entries, who earned an invitation to a three-day workshop in Taiwan (the top ten won a cash prize as well)... though I couldn't help but notice some of the usual suspects, from hubless wheels to stylized e-bikes and, of course, lights galore.

Judges Michael Tseng (Merida Bikes) & Martin Kessler (Process Group)

In any case, here are the 12 'Third Place' winners, who earned the invitation to a three-day workshop in Taiwan, with a few discursive comments where applicable.

ALIGHT
Brian Franson - NC State University, Raleigh, United States

ALIGHT is a retractable lighting device that attaches to the rear seat of a bicycle, [incorporating] stretchable electronics and a retractor mechanism, which allows it to be coiled up or extended out. By extending the light to the rear wheel axle, it creates more surface area and a larger visual impact [which can be seen from all angles]. ALIGHT emits a bright green light, which will turn red when braking and flash yellow when turning left or right.

- Definitely a novel approach to bicycle lighting, but I wonder how other road-users will interpret the lines of light, which don't explicitly indicate a bicycle (or any vehicle, for that matter). Drivers and other cyclists alike might find it confusing.

Anti-Theft Pedal
Yao Ying-Liang & Hsu Ting-Yun - SHU-TE University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

Using the profile of the pedal, the two sides of the pedal are extended to form a fork-shape, it is then fixed at the support of the rear wheel, locking the pedal. Thus, the pedal cannot move forwards, offering an elegant anti-theft function.

- I find that pedals protrude rather awkwardly when locking up; this concept turns them into an ad hoc locking mechanism. I'd be curious to see if this could be extrapolated into some kind of integrated U-lock, but I imagine the additional bulk/weight would be a limiting factor.

DORA Helmet Concept
Balázs Filczer - MOME, Budapest, Hungary

DORA has been designed for cyclists who travel through the city very often, especially at night... its lights can be seen from every direction. The other problem is the non-equivalent signals between the cyclist and the drivers, mostly during direction changes. DORA helps you change direction easily and safely. The front light on the helmet gives you light directed toward the road; moreover you can leave your bike (and its light) behind, because the light is exactly where you look.

- I've seen some similar concepts, so it's not entirely original, but it benefits from strong presentation, and the handlebar-mounted Bluetooth remote is a nice touch. Still, I think it would make more sense to somehow integrate the buttons into the brake levers (though this means that each one would either have to have its own battery, or be wired to a single battery).

Gran Turismo
Justin Chan, Paul Czarnietzki, Mina Lee & Andrew Lesniak - University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Known for their ergonomics, recumbent tricycles allow people with injuries that prevent them from riding a normal bike to still enjoy riding. However, recumbent tricycle designs have remained unchanged and stagnant. The Gran-Turismo is an update to improve on the areas of aesthetics, safety, materials and technology. Inspired by the essence of a modern super car it aims to match their road bike counterparts in building materials and to stand out in style and performance. Using an existing recumbent tricycle, we overhauled the frame while keeping the same dimensions and geometry to maintain its ergonomics.

Every student of industrial design ought study Braun's line of timepieces. The sheer variety and innovation, on both the design and technical fronts, that the company was able to inject into something as simple as a time-telling device is staggering; Braun was obsessing over minute bevels and visual clarity years before smartphone manufacturers sought to differentiate one glass rectangle from another. The ability to so resoundingly distinguish a small circle on your wrist from other offerings on the marketplace is a testament to Braun's unrivaled championing of industrial design. Many of the objects they created have a quality of inevitableness to them, as if they had chipped away at all distractions and arrived at a universally perfect product, with nothing anyone could possibly add--or subtract--to improve them. Yet they continually updated their offerings for more than two decades, with a deep product line-up that would keep many a design curator busy.

On the subject of curation: The fact that every industrial design student does not study Braun's timepieces is probably because no one has compiled a comprehensive record of all of them. While we attempt to address that here, there are many models that we missed for want of images or information. The line is simply too large, the rare models too elusive. But we hope this will provide you with some sense of the deep mark that Braun made on what was formerly a staid product category.

Image courtesy of Das Programm, specialist sellers of Braun Design, 1955–1995

1971
phase 1
Dieter Rams, Dietrich Lubs

Braun's relatively primitive phase 1, very clearly a first effort, gave no hint as to the breadth of design variety to come. It featured numbers printed on little plaques attached to a mechanical rotating mechanism. That being the case, the body was large while the numbers were small; a trade-off the designers would not be willing to live with for long.

Image courtesy of Sammlung Design

1972
phase 2
Dietrich Lubs

By 1972 they had switched over to a flip-clock mechanism, whose tighter mechanicals enabled a smaller form and a larger display. In the phase 2 we see the design team gaining mastery over the technology in order to improve the user experience. But they were not done yet; this form factor was still driven by its mechanical innards, which they would soon discard altogether. Cutting-edge technology was in the works for what would be their radical release of 1975.

Image courtesy of Sammlung Design

1972
phase 3
Dietrich Lubs

At the same time they put the phase 2 on the market, Braun also dipped into the analog clock pool, releasing this compact phase 3 alarm clock. It bears virtually nothing in common with the phase 1 and phase 2, despite being released at nearly the same time; but it illustrates the design team's freedom to experiment, a characteristic Braun quality that would pay off time and again. The analog form factor would evolve into objects that collectors would treasure.

Image courtesy of Das Programm, specialist sellers of Braun Design, 1955–1995

1975
functional
Dietrich Lubs

By 1975 Braun's gorgeous functional was ready to go. As the mechanicals were now supplanted by eletronics, it no longer featured bulky innards that needed to be stuffed into a box; Dietrich Lubs took full advantage of this, creating a clock comprised of two slim, intersecting components. The rear, horizontal portion houses the circuit boards and supports the buttons (which were raised, so they could be located in the dark). The front portion held the gas discharge display, which was angled upwards for easy legibility.

Also note the self-restraint: The sleek, black display with its slick red numbers would have looked cluttered with the white Braun logo, so instead the logo was moved behind the screen, to the top of the unit.

Every student of industrial design ought study Braun's line of timepieces. The sheer variety and innovation, on both the design and technical fronts, that the company was able to inject into something as simple as a time-telling device is staggering; Braun was obsessing over minute bevels and visual clarity years before smartphone manufacturers sought to differentiate one glass rectangle from another. The ability to so resoundingly distinguish a small circle on your wrist from other offerings on the marketplace is a testament to Braun's unrivaled championing of industrial design. Many of the objects they created have a quality of inevitableness to them, as if they had chipped away at all distractions and arrived at a universally perfect product, with nothing anyone could possibly add--or subtract--to improve them. Yet they continually updated their offerings for more than two decades, with a deep product line-up that would keep many a design curator busy.

On the subject of curation: The fact that every industrial design student does not study Braun's timepieces is probably because no one has compiled a comprehensive record of all of them. While we attempt to address that here, there are many models that we missed for want of images or information. The line is simply too large, the rare models too elusive. But we hope this will provide you with some sense of the deep mark that Braun made on what was formerly a staid product category.

Image courtesy of Das Programm, specialist sellers of Braun Design, 1955–1995

1971
phase 1
Dieter Rams, Dietrich Lubs

Braun's first clock was the relatively primitive phase 1. Clearly a first effort, it gave no hint as to the breadth of design variety to come. It featured numbers printed on little plaques attached to a mechanical rotating mechanism. That being the case, the body was large while the numbers were small; a trade-off the designers would not be willing to live with for long.

Image courtesy of Sammlung Design

1972
phase 2
Dietrich Lubs

By 1972 they had switched over to a flip-clock mechanism, whose tighter mechanicals enabled a smaller form and a larger display. In the phase 2 we see the design team gaining mastery over the technology in order to improve the user experience. But they were not done yet; this form factor was still driven by its mechanical innards, which they would soon discard altogether. Cutting-edge technology was in the works for what would be their radical release of 1975.

Image courtesy of Sammlung Design

1972
phase 3
Dietrich Lubs

At the same time they put the phase 2 on the market, Braun also dipped into the analog clock pool, releasing this compact phase 3 alarm clock. It bears virtually nothing in common with the phase 1 and phase 2, despite being released at nearly the same time; but it illustrates the design team's freedom to experiment, a characteristic Braun quality that would pay off time and again. The analog form factor would evolve into objects that collectors would treasure.

Image courtesy of Das Programm, specialist sellers of Braun Design, 1955–1995

1975
functional
Dietrich Lubs

By 1975 Braun's gorgeous functional was ready to go. As the mechanicals were now supplanted by eletronics, it no longer featured bulky innards that needed to be stuffed into a box; Dietrich Lubs took full advantage of this, creating a clock comprised of two slim, intersecting components. The rear, horizontal portion houses the circuit boards and supports the buttons (which were raised, so they could be located in the dark). The front portion held the gas discharge display, which was angled upwards for easy legibility.

Also note the self-restraint: The sleek, black display with its slick red numbers would have looked cluttered with the white Braun logo, so instead the logo was moved behind the screen, to the top of the unit.

wants a Product Designer
in Brooklyn

One of the more poetic job postings we've seen recently is the call for a Product Designer at inch in Brooklyn. In addition to the more traditional skills, they seek someone who is "a student of great design" and who has "a fascination for pattern, and talent for color." Their ideal candidate is "an artist" and who can create work that "looks like the future of industrial design."

One other thing - "You need to like working hard." As if that needed to be stated!

Are you up for it? Apply Now

By Tennyson Pinheiro

It has been said over and over again that we now live in a service economy. For most developed countries, that means more than 70% of their GDP is driven by the service sector. For the not so developed ones, the number can range from 60–70%—still pretty high. In fact, the lowest sector-based GDP income countries are Saudi Arabia (31.1%) , Indonesia (38.8%), United Arab Emirates (39.8%), China (44.6%) and Iran (48.2%). Meanwhile, the rest of the globe is running more than half of its economic machine solely on service oil.

Before you act surprised about China being on the lower-end of this list, I should add that they expect a 4.5 points increase on their service sector GDP by the end of 2015. That, in numbers, is huge. This is not a coincidence—rather, it is a pattern that runs on top of every economy that is serious about putting itself on the development runaway. There's a clear product-to-services economic shift taking place and it is silently, or not so, affecting the way we live and work.

In some ways, we do know what that means. Metaphorically speaking, it means that we are becoming a software-based economy while industry steadily moves away from its manufacture smoky days and grabs a slice of the digital-era pie in nearly every sector. It also means that we, as consumers, are more willing to trade possession for access and that we expect to engage in relationships instead of short-term transactions when we buy.

What about design?

Economical shifts are not new to design. In fact, industrial design was born out of a shockwave caused by the mother of all economical shifts: the Industrial Revolution. The early Bauhaus movement was about creating a new breed of professionals called industrial designers. These were people who could both look back at the artisan mindset and look forward to the new industry, not aside or against it. In order to do that, this new breed had to integrate arts and business thinking, yes, business thinking, as production was the imperative business model those days. Ok, let's call it "production thinking."

Despite the recent explosion of fancy design suffixes, real design was never alienated from business. No, I'm not talking about art or the shallow exploration of design in advertising. Instead, real design, since its early days, has always been about bringing a human perspective to any system in order to find opportunities to create positive impact, and, at the same time, keep a steady and sharp eye on business profitability and/or execution viability.

Returning to the present, we are now living the next shockwave. I'm talking about an economy that has moved from the commercialization of hard-goods to a more dematerialized state where people exchange electrons and borrow thing from one another instead of owning it—an economic system where it is possible to thrive whether or not you sit at an industrial plant. A system where David-like startups are seriously threatening gigantic marble dinosaurs by rethinking the way they serve their customers.

Alright. It is what it is, and gosh, thanks for the most of it. But that being said, what are the new skills and knowledge we are going to need in order to keep designing for this new world?

Please join us in welcoming the latest addition to the Coroflot Design Employment Network - Arts Thread, the home for new creatives, bridging the gap between education and industry.

Arts Thread is our first over seas partner and brings a strong, growing presence across Europe to our partner board network. This rich resource has tripled in size over the past several years and now represents creatives in over 25 countries and has partnerships with approximately 90 schools and universities.

While Arts Thread provides content and tools that cater mainly to students and recent graduates, their coverage of industry events, editorial sections and practical guides appeals to creative professionals of all levels.

Now that they've joined the ever-expanding Coroflot Design Employment Network, Arts Thread provides a list of exciting job opportunities from across the globe to compliment their already useful line up of resources.

"We've visited various makerspaces," write Adam Brandejs and Drew Cox, "and we were surprised to find a lot of people that had bought 3D printers didn't really know what to do with them." Jeez Louise, I can tell you what to do with them! Assuming affordability, I'd use a 3D printer to create precisely-sized tool cutouts as custom drawer inserts, to organize my hand tools; I'd make a nozzle adapter to turn a Shop Vac into a micro-vac for cleaning inside dusty machines; I'd make cases to carry irregularly-shaped objects.

All of those things require CAD files of the objects they'll carry and fit into, and that's where Brandejs and Cox come in. They're the multitalented desigers/programmers behind Matterform, a Toronto-based startup trying to get an affordable 3D scanner on the market. By making it easier to get input data, they're thinking, a barrier to 3D printing will be lowered.

Matterform has spent a year working on the prototype for their Photo 3D Scanner, and it looks pretty sweet:

Next step? Getting the thing funded so it can go into production. The Photon is currently up on Indiegogo, and while the $349 Early Backers price is sold out, there's still plenty of slots left to claim a first-batch unit at $399.

At press time the Photon was up to $61,541 of an $81,000 target, and with 30 days left to pledge, it looks like this thing will happen.

Core77's Hand-Eye Supply Curiosity Club is excited to present Karl Anderson of C.H.U.N.K. 666, mutant bicycle enthusiasts!

Tonight's talk starts at 6 p.m. at the Hand-Eye Supply store in Portland, OR. Come early and check out our space or check in with us online for the live broadcast!

Karl Anderson:
C.H.U.N.K 666 "Aquachoppers of C.H.U.N.K. 666"
Hand-Eye Supply
23 NW 4th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
Tuesday, April 2, 6 p.m. PST

C.H.U.N.K. 666 is a mutant bicycle club and civic society which has been building, riding, destroying and rebuilding human-powered choppers, tallbikes and battle wagons for 20 years. We've previously held free yearly public gladiatorial contests and historical re-enactments, but more recently, we prefer to injure ourselves privately. One way we do this is with a regular amphibious camping trip to Ross Island, the hollowed-out toxic waste dump and quarry in the middle of Portland.

This talk will briefly discuss our history, our philosophy of building machines out of trash, and our interactions with the city around us before describing how we create, operate and destroy amphibious human-powered vehicles.

Karl Anderson is a hardware and software experimenter who is good at thinking up projects but bad at predicting whether or not they will be practical. He has recently been involved in a travelling postapocalyptic training installation and a free telephone company.

Nowadays we use cameras, of both the cell phone and surveillance variety, to record crimes. But back when photography was a newfangled technology, the earliest application was merely to document what particular criminals looked like. The mugshot is still alive and well today, but like many things that are nearly 100 years old, the modern-day mugshot is a hell of a lot less classy than its original variant. (Think of Nick Nolte.)

Twisted Sifter came across these astonishing 1920s mugshots collected by Australia's Historic Houses Trust. Compiled by the Sydney Justice & Police Museum, most of the photographs are criminals' headshots side-by-side with a head-to-toe, with the long exposure giving the figures a ghostly quality.

Others are group shots, with some of the subjects apparently not enjoying their first time in front of a camera.

You can't help but be struck by the fashion and etiquette of the time—to order even a criminal to doff his hat was apparently considered ungentlemanly, and although these people were murderers, thieves and rapists, most of them took the time to put on a vest and tie on a tie in the mornings.

Is it me, or do these guys below look like they're on a modern-day catalog shoot?

Yesterday, we saw the first dozen honorees for iF Design Talents' International Bicycle Design Competition. The top ten selections were handsomely awarded for making the cut; here are the five 'second place' winners, who received 20,000 TWD (~$670) each for their efforts.

We also have some comments from the judges this time around—the submissions were reviewed by Henry Chang (Gearlab Co. Ltd., Taipei, Taiwan), Edward Chiang (Giant Bicycle, Taichung, Taiwan), Martin Kessler (Process Group, Zurich, Switzerland), Ishigaki Tetsuya (Toyo frame, Tokyo, Japan), Georg Todtenbier (Cre8 Design, Taipei, Taiwan) and Michael Tseng (Merida Bikes, Taichung, Taiwan).

Frame 22 | Urban Bike with Bamboo Frame
Yu-Yuan Lai - Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan

Frame 22 is an urban bike with bamboo elastic structure, completed with a bamboo-craft master. The shock absorber and handle bar stems are made of flexible bamboo, which reduces the vibration and maintains the flexibility of the bicycle. In order to enhance the power of back triangles, the bamboo structure extends from seat stay to chain stay. Bicycles are always cruising around in cities and the road bike is the best choice among all the alternatives for riding on concrete roads. Sometimes roads are cratered, and it is risky for bikers to dodge the holes; therefore, Frame 22 was created as an urban bike with light shock absorber, which offers a more comfortable riding experience to bikers.

What the judges had to say: "This is a fantastic combination of wood and steel. One of the judges would actually like to ride it."

- I share the judge's curiosity about how this actually rides. Interestingly, the cantilevered seatpost / extra-long seatstay design is actually quite similar to Yojiro Oshima's recently-seen wooden bicycle.

The Essence | One Bike - Two Riding Styles
Ming-Kang Chang - Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan

This bike offers two different riding styles, fixed-gear [or] single-speed. To achieve this concept, the bike's top tube and seat stays are replaced by thinner steel bars. There is a special rear hub that can turn in two modes: single-speed freewheel or single cog. The seat is also designed to be removed or assembled quickly to adapt easily to the way in which the rider wants to use it.

What the judges had to say: "The only difference in this special design lies in the carbon fiber frame using steel bars. It's a good design that can actually work and reduce the total weight by 100-200 grams."

- I was a bit baffled by this one, as I thought the skinny tubes were supposed to be tension cables. Frankly, I don't understand how the fin-like 'saddle' works or if it has a shaft drivetrain... or, for that matter, how it converts between fixed and freewheel.

Children's Bike Seat
Martina Staub & Lisa Nissen - Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Aarau, Switzerland

The design of this children's bike seat focuses primarily on the aspects of safety and lightweight. The seat consists of two parts: the protective frame is made of fiberglass reinforced polypropylene. The cushion is a 3D mesh and is soft and protective at the same time. In the event of a sudden stop, the child is secured by the 5-point safety belt. The design of the frame provides optimum protection for the child's head. The system includes a sleeping position and the footrests can be easily adjusted to virtually any position. If the seat is not in use, it can be used as a carrier. The taillights can be attached to the frame as desired.

What the judges had to say: "The design is very simple. People in Japan or other Asian countries would like to use this product. Regarding the design of the frame, the judges reckoned it can actually be made."

- Seeing as I'm not a parent myself, I can't speak to the functionality of this design, but I agree that it strikes me as among the more realistic, production-ready entries.