Picking our Gold faves for the 2013 IDSA International Design Excellence Awards is never easy. This year we dug the ERO Concrete Recycling Robot, LittleBits' modular electronic building blocks, Evotech and IDEO's low-cost endoscope, and the SpareOne emergency cell phone. And now that we've picked out some socially important, ecologically-responsible, educational, life-saving and life-supporting designs, we've got to let ourselves pick one that is just cool for the sake of being cool. Thus we present the da caster, designed by Mitsunobu Hozumi of hozmi design and Ryo Shimizu of SIMIZ Technik, which won Gold in the Living Room & Bedroom category.

It's not going to save any lives. It's not going to change yours. And your less observant guests won't even notice it unless you make them crawl around on the floor. But darn if it ain't cool-looking. The da caster, manufactured by Japan's Hammer Caster Co. in a couple of different sizes, is simply a hubless wheel. No axle, and not even any bearings.

The concept behind da caster is to smoothly harmonize with the design of furniture or fittings while maintaining a distinct presence as a caster. Rather than a ball-bearing configuration with an axle and bearing, the basic structure of a conventional caster, the da caster is characterized by a sliding configuration that does not use an axle or bearing. The da caster structure comprises an aluminum shell, a roller and an internal ring made of a special resin. This composition results in a ring-shaped wheel with a central hole a hubless caster that possesses sufficient strength and solidity yet seems to float.

Far be it for us to conjecture what you did this past weekend, but if it's anywhere along the lines of rappelling down mountain faces, biking across the country or putting out forest fires, the newly released Jet sunglasses from Recon instruments might be for you. Airing on the side of extreme, Recon's answer to the Google Glass is a souped-up high-performance wearable computer masquerading as sunglasses. The Recon Jet heads-up display (HUD) is a flexible computing platform catering to endurance athletes. As a hybrid of microcomputer and polarized eyewear, the Jet is packed with more sensors and gadgets that you could ever really need... but hey, we know you're weary of skydiving in your Google Glass, so Recon is here to offer an alternative.

With a dual-core processer and serious firepower on the functionality front, we are interested to see how Jet stands up to its sleeker and more mass-market competitors. With a number of obvious similarities both Google glass and the Recon Jet, one major issue seems to be with safety in terms of populating your field of vision with displays and marketing the glasses as usable in extreme sports—generally a time to try and have as few visual distractions as possible. Both products opted for a right side HUD, however Recon dropped the display to the bottom of your field of vision stating:

First and foremost, we wanted to ensure the user's safety by making the display completely unobtrusive. When looking straight ahead, you will not even know it's there. To take in information, you simply glance down, like looking at a dashboard on a car.

Research has shown that looking down is an easier eye movement than looking up. Jet is also designed for outdoor use, where looking up could result in looking directly at the sun, something we want to avoid.

This is a true story. Descriptions of companies, clients, schools, projects, and designers may be altered and anonymized to protect the innocent.

Editor: This is a continuation of "Good Ol' Boy's" story of chasing his dream I.D. job. If you missed part 1 or part 2 of this story, check them out first!

Going into my second year of ID grad school, life was good. Sure I lived in a dorm, but room and board was paid for by the student loans. I was supporting myself through ID internships and then a summer ID job at [Manufacturer of Soon-to-be-Obsolete Products] that paid pretty good, because their products weren't obsolete yet.

My Alias skills had gone from almost zero to literally knowing more than the teacher. My portfolio had expanded well from both the internships and the classes; the school pulled in good corporate partners and we got to work on cool projects, like "What should Appliance X look and behave like in 15 years?" And during that summer job, I got to work on designing an entire line of [redacted], which I knew would impress [Hot Design Consultancy], where I really wanted to work.

Most importantly, I had taught myself to hustle. And sometimes when you hustle, you have to be a little ruthless. That's why I can still sleep at night knowing that I've done what I'm about to tell you.

Core77's Hand-Eye Supply has teamed up once again with the forest dwelling craftsmen of Red Clouds Collective—this time for a special edition of their magnetic beer koozies. The R.C. × H.E.S. koozie has an inner layer of red neoprene to keep the canned beverage of your choice frosty cold, and it contrasts delightfully with the heritage herringbone exterior. Strong magnets stitched in to the fabric allow you to adhere your beverage to surfaces such as camp chairs, fridges or the tailgate of your truck. Adorned with a handsome leather badge featuring joint logos of Red Clouds Collective and Hand-Eye Supply. Available from Hand-Eye Supply for $25.

In James Cameron's Avatar, the lush moon known as Pandora is covered in a "neural network" of roots, enabling the plants to communicate with each other—the interplant, if you will. But if Pandora's ecology is anything like Earth's, Cameron has got it wrong. Plants on Earth don't communicate via root-to-root connections: They communicate through the soil, if a University of Aberdeen study is to be believed.

The study, led by researcher Dr. David Johnson, found that plants could communicate with nearby plants using soil fungus as the messenger.

The experiment which suggests this was following up the discovery, made in 2010 by a Chinese team, that when a tomato plant gets infected with leaf blight, nearby plants start activating genes that help ward the infection off--even if all airflow between the plants in question has been eliminated. The researchers who conducted this study knew that soil fungi whose hyphae are symbiotic with tomatoes (providing them with minerals in exchange for food) also form a network connecting one plant to another. They speculated, though they could not prove, that molecules signalling danger were passing through this fungal network.

While plants don't have much to "LOL" and "WTF" each other about, Dr. Johnson looked at the Chinese study's "danger" warnings and set up a similar experiment to see if they'd warn each other of other kinds of trouble. Broad-bean plants are often feasted on by aphids, and to defend themselves, the plants then release a chemical that attracts wasps, who come around and deliver smackdowns on the aphids.

Johnson set up ways to isolate potential methods for the plants to "contact" each other (i.e., through some unknown airborne means) and discovered that, yep, when one plant got attacked by aphids, it sent out signals to nearby plants using the local soil fungus. With the message received, the plant's neighbors would also start releasing the wasp-attracting chemicals.

This is pretty mind-blowing, and doubters who need to read more specifics on the study can click here. But what me and every city dweller has got to be thinking is: Can AT&T tap into this network, so we can finally get a cell signal out in the countryside?

"I think the mushrooms are capping our download speeds."

Via The Economist

Sous-vide, or "under vacuum," is a cooking method whereby food is sealed in an airtight bag. The bag is then submersed in water and slow-cooked, and this vacuum system ensures the food is cooked evenly, both inside and out. As you can imagine, it requires a fair degree of precision to get it right, which in turn requires buying a pricey appliance with the requisite built-in precision.

Design to the rescue. London-based Grace Lee, who ditched a career in finance to become a chef, and Xi-Yen Tan, a manufacturing engineer by training, wondered if they could achieve sous-vide cooking with cheap, commonplace appliances. So they built a device that could precisely sense and control the temperature of a common rice cooker or slow cooker. "We hacked a prototype together and tried our first sous-vide chicken breast," writes Lee, "and [were] mindblown at how juicy and moist it could be!"

Knowing they had a hit on their hands, Lee and Tan put together a team of industrial designers and electronic engineers, and lined up manufacturing partners, to refine the design and go into production via Kickstarter. Their resultant device, the Codlo, is something like a Nest thermostat for cooking:

Guest article by Stephany Zoo

E-commerce site Fab.com is making waves in China after Shenzhen-based web giant Tencent recently decided to invest $150 million at a $1 billion valuation. Fab stands apart from other Western e-tail giants like Amazon and eBay, promising the online consumer a sensible selection of tasteful—yet edgy—products for everyday use. It's a major success in the US, with impressive numbers behind their growth since they (re)launched just two years ago. Given the recent attractiveness of online retail in China, Fab hopes to expand into the Chinese market with Tencent's support.

However, Tencent's investment is not necessarily a stamp of success either—as previously shown by Groupon's failed entry into the Chinese market. How will Fab fare among the existing lean, mean, e-commerce machines of China, led by the most cutthroat of home-grown entrepreneurs?

Taobao reigns supreme

While Fab has seen success in the US, they have pivoted far from its previous incarnation as a gay social network, and even further from the niche ecommerce startup they were originally. By now, they've staked a claim to be a curated version of Amazon—much more mass market, with pricepoints accessible to anyone. However, this already exists in China: based on the company's price range and item selection, the majority of similar products are already available as comparable quality copycat items on Taobao, with entire stores dedicated to emulating Fab. No one can compete with Taobao prices. Fab sells everyday design at what is considered "affordable" prices for US consumers but bear what Chinese consumers would consider to be a substantial premium markup. Fab's brands will run into the counterfeiting problem already all too familiar for luxury brands but will suffer at an even greater expense. Unlike luxury brands, they don't benefit from the distinguished status or quality assurance that comes with the big couture names that brand-conscious Chinese consumer are looking for.

Does Fab care about Chinese emerging brands, or just sales in China?

About half a year ago, Fab.com launched a similar marketing campaign in India, partnering with the country's largest media firm, Times Internet. With huge populations and developing e-commerce markets as common denominators, both India and China make obvious targets for the company's strategic expansion. However, this calls to question Fab's interest in Chinese design in particular. Can Fab.com really, truly serve the Chinese designer? Is the company dedicated to creating and honoring the voice of Chinese innovators or promoting Chinese creativity? Or is Fab just a corporate machine focused solely on amassing the world's most lucrative consumer base?

wants an Industrial Designer
in Seattle, Washinton

From the StemGem, the Pepperball and the SleekSlice, to the Pastry Pen and Fresh Force Scoop Turner, Chef'n Corporation is driven by the mission to make better tools so people can make better food. Now you can apply your industrial design, CAD skills and innovative, can-do attitude towards realizing that mission.

But wait, there's more!

Chef'n was voted one of the 100 best places to work by Seattle Business Magazine this year, for the 6th time in a row! They can't wait to hear what makes you the hands-down, no-doubt-about-it, ideal candidate for addition to the Chef'n team, so Apply Now .

While the likes of adidas and Reebok continue to shoot from the hip (or in the dark, as it were) with their latest footwear innovations—the Springblade and ATV 19+ respectively—sportswear pioneers Nike recently unveiled a series of new products "designed to enhance runners' natural abilities." Guided by the company's "Nature Amplified" design ethos, the two new running shoes and two new apparel items are designed expressly as an extension of the human body in order to maximize the potential of the athlete.

The new Nike Free Flyknit represents the fusion of the distinctive woven upper—widely hailed as a breakthrough ">when it debuted last year—to a Free+ 5.0 midsole to form a killer combo for running performance. And while it might be regarded as an incremental step, rest assured they've since iterated on the first generation of Flyknit, incorporating new research and field-testing data.

A new, more compressive NIke Flyknit construction in the shoe upper secures the runner's foot to the shoe platform. The unique zoned performance mapping pattern of the Nike Flyknit upper is derived from insights on how pressure is exerted on the top of the foot. Nike Sport Research Lab scientists employed pressure-mapping technology to locate stress areas, and designers used the data to inform the new upper. Zones on the top of the foot have engineered stretch built to enable natural flex, while a tighter weave at the perimeter stabilizes the forefoot and heel. Additionally, elasticized construction fits securely around the ankle for a comfortable, secure fit.

Lignum Vitae, Latin for "Tree of Life," is the national tree of the Bahamas. It's also the world's densest wood, and has such unusual properties that the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, has its aft main shaft strut bearings made out of the stuff. In addition to being strong, hard, heavy, dense, water- and salt-water-resistant, Lignum Vitae contains natural oils that make the bearings self-lubricating.

The USS Nautilus isn't an anomaly; Lignum Vitae has been used as propellor shaft bearings in conventional ships, and hydroelectric plants dating back to the 1920s have used bearings for their turbines made out of the stuff.

Virginia-based Lignum Vitae Bearings calls their product "the world's only renewable (and greenest) bearing on the market." Company President Bob Shortridge has acquired land in the Bahamas, one of the tree's native origin islands, and plants at least one Lignum Vitae tree for every block of the stuff that passes through his facility. "Although Lignum Vitae has been harvested for over 500 years before I was born," Shortridge writes, "I feel an obligation to replace it... I wish for this incredibly useful wood to be available for generations to come."

Here's Shortridge himself explaining Lignum Vitae's properties and applications:

One of the most common and beloved packing materials now comes in a metal form.

Bubble wrap—first invented as three-dimensional wallpaper, believe it or not—started protecting valuables in 1960 and is branded by the Sealed Air company. It's typically made from polyethylene, where a bubble-shaped side is bonded to a flat side.

The new metallic form can offer protection in very, very tight spaces, only a few millimeters thick. So packaging can be made very, very small and much stronger than the plastic variety. Computer and cell phone cases could be made much more thin and sleek. Computer parts could be protected with very little space used. Even helmets would not need to be as bulky. The protection offered is more heat and chemical resistant and more flexible than any other bubble wrap.

Making the metallic wrap is surprisingly simple. Afsaneh Rabiei, professor of engineering North Carolina State University, and her team started with a thin sheet of aluminum and used a studded roller to form small indents in the sheet. Instead of capturing air in these indentations, she filled them with a foaming agent like calcium carbonate or titanium hydrate. When such agents are heated they form bubbles within the metal, as you can see here:

For her Master's thesis in the Design Products program at the Royal College of Art, Jule Waibel cleverly employed the multiple meanings of her native language, German: Entfaltung may be translated as "unfold," "expand" or "develop," all of which describe the collection of three items that comprise the project. "Collapsible structures reflect how our world is constantly changing," she writes. "My response is to use folding as part of my design process."

A particular folding technique can transform simple sheet materials into three-dimensional objects, with the additional capability that they can expand and contract. [The] dress [that] changes its shape according to the movement of the body, an expandable bag and an umbrella are all made of Tyvek®, a lightweight water- and tear-proof synthetic paper.

And although the results express the simple metaphor with geometric elegance, Waibel cited a surprising—albeit equally fantastical—source of inspiration: Mary Poppins and her magical bag. Captivated by the way "everything seems to fit inside—a mirror, a hatstand, a plant..." she set out to design a bag that shows "the minimum and maximum possibilities." The umbrella embodies "the beauty and aesthetics of folding," while the dress illustrates transformation, motion and flexibility "in a playful way."

South Korean designer Sungi Kim recently sent over an intriguing concept for a bottle design with a built-in tablet dispenser. "Make sure you have clean, safe water and when desired, press the cap to release the hidden vitamin tablet and voila, simply magic."

It's an interesting take on water additives, and while my initial thought was that the pressurized container would preclude a push-top system (as in sealed jelly jars), but I suppose the solution would be to partially open the bottle and release the tablet, then reseal it and agitate as needed. However, our own hipstomp—a sometime packaging designer—has another concern:

...what they've drawn up wouldn't work—if stacked in pallets for shipping, the weight of the bottles above would dispense the pills in the bottles below—I believe it's possible, with some kind of blisterpack integrated in a recessed way inside the cap. Though it might be prohibitively expensive. Then again, Japan has a reputation for creating expensive bottles, and I imagine South Korea probably keeps pace.

The folks at IDEO New York have come up with a short video about "embracing ambiguity," a parable about three designers navigating the foggy seas. Not only is it a charmingly crafty affirmation on resourcefulness and perseverance, it features a small dog in a sailor cap. Watch:

The video is precisely the kind of diversion that the Economist might cite in their brief profile of the esteemed design consultancy. A recent Schumpeter column ambiguously embraced IDEO's approach to both "designing things that you can touch" and, increasingly, "re-engineering services."

There are three main elements to IDEO's "design thinking." The first is "lots of different eyes." It employs people from wildly different backgrounds—surgeons and anthropologists as well as engineers and designers—and lumps them into multidisciplinary teams. The second is to look at problems from the consumer's point of view: for example, conducting detailed interviews with patients about their daily pill-taking routines and how they feel about them. IDEO likes to focus on the outliers rather than the typical customers—people who have demanding medical regimes or who constantly forget to take their tablets—on the assumption that this produces more useful results.

The third element is making everything tangible. The company produces mock-ups of its products and processes, to see how people react to them "in the wild." The London office, in newly trendy Clerkenwell, contains an old-fashioned woodworking room and a newfangled 3D printer. There is much talk of "thinking with your hands" and "rapid prototyping."

The article does raise the topic of 'design imperialism,' but concludes with measured optimism about the future of service design—read it here.

wants a Designer II
in Westwood, Massachusetts

Forty Seven Brand has been serving sports fans with high quality head gear and apparel ever since they made their first sale outside Fenway park in 1947. As their newest team member, you'll be working according to the same mission and commitment to their customers that motivated them 66 years ago.

With a focus in Apparel design, you'll provide innovative designs to seasonal collections while working within a cross functional team focused on growing a brand. Why not add the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA and over 500 colleges across the country to your resume?

Apply Now

This Wood Species series of entries comes to us from guest writer Rob Wilkey, an Atlanta-based woodworker and industrial designer whose expertise is in small home goods, furniture, and large installations.

* * *

In this continuation of the Material Matters: Wood series, we'll start talking about the specific properties of different wood species, and the terminology used to discuss those properties. Those of you who were paying attention during the previous MM:W entries will recognize some of the terms, but a little review never hurts.

Over 100,000 different species of trees have been identified worldwide. Many are endangered, many are inaccessible, and many more aren't suitable for use as lumber. In fact, only a very small portion of these species is harvested and dried for use, but that 'small portion' still comprises over 500 species.

Woods we see in everyday American life—pine, oak, and maple—make up a small and comparatively uninteresting group of species. Around the globe, however, woods vary widely in appearance and physical properties. Colors can range from pale yellows and grays to vibrant hues of purple, red, and green, and from rich browns to pure, solid black.

Density can vary from unbelievably light—balsa is less than 1/6th the density of water—to heavier than concrete. For example, the South American species Lignum Vitae is so water-resistant and dense that it is commonly used in bearings for large naval craft and hydroelectric dams.

Now we arrive at the most important video in our series on DIY webbing projects!

In Part 1, we covered materials and hardware.
In Part 2, we covered tools.
In Part 3, we showed you how to set those tools up for webbing.

Here in part 4, we finally show you how to start putting it all together. Don't worry if parts of the video seem too fast or overwhelming; as always, I've laid out the relevant review points in text form that you can digest at your leisure. So dive into the video and start figuring out what you can make.

Hit the jump for the review points.

Backpacking through Europe in my 20s, my sense of direction served me well—until I hit the cities with the truly medieval street plans. So in Florence, after renting a motorcycle, I devised a clever way to find the garage again: Next to the garage was an impressive, obviously important brick building, with a large arrow and some Italian words pointing to it. I observed these same signs along the street pointing back towards this building, so I knew that if I got close enough, the signs would lead me back to the building and the garage.

Attempting to return at the end of the day, I located the signs, began following them—and was soon hopelessly lost. It was only after going in a complete circle that I realized what was written on the sign—Senso Unico—was Italian for "One Way."

To follow arrows is human-behavior-meets-graphic-design 101. So it may not surprise you to learn that these gigantic concrete arrows dotting America, from east to west, are for wayfinding.

In business, they say your client list speaks for itself. With a client list that includes the Japanese Imperial Palace and the Vatican, Oriental Carpet Mills is doing something right.

Since 1935, this carpet mill has manufactured and supplied premium quality carpets (in addition to their notable clients mentioned above), to government offices, public facilities, major corporations, hotels, restaurants and places of worship in Japan and around the world. While the client list grows impressive the further you go down, the company has stayed true to its roots, still producing out of its original location in the small town of Yamanobe, Yamagata Prefecture, in the Northeastern region of Japan.

Oddly enough, the story of Oriental Carpet Mills begins with severely damaged crops during an especially cold winter in the 1930s. Since the severe cold nearly ruined the farmers' crops, many local women and girls were being forced out of their homes to work in less-than-desirable conditions—some even forced in to prostitution—because their families didn't have money to feed themselves. The founder, Junnosuke Watanabe, decided to rectify his town's situation by employing (almost exclusively) women to work in his new carpet mill. In order to further his carpet mill's quality and skill level, Watanabe invited seven carpet-making experts from China to trade their skills and knowledge with the workers in his factory. Through continual iteration and improvement, Oriental Carpet Mills has refined (and continues to diligently iterate on) their process in order to achieve the quality that attracted their high profile clients. To this day, the staff at the carpet mill remains heavily female.

The process behind Oriental Carpet Mill's high quality product contains the following 4 steps, carried out by highly skilled craftspeople:

1.) Spinning and blending meticulously selected wool from all over the world.

2.) Carefully dying (and testing the dye) to create subtle color differences

3.) Weaving process that is continually iterated with new techniques to create detailed designs and subtle color transitions

4.) Mercerizing, or a chemical wash that produces a sheen and smooth touch