Video is circulating of a rather unusual car stunt pulled in Mexico last week. To promote the grueling SCORE-International Baja 1000 racing event, a stuntman known as Adrian "Wildman" Cenni did this:

It's being billed by Digg as "the first barrel roll ever completed in a four wheel vehicle," and while it's insanely impressive, those of us who grew up in the '70s watching James Bond flicks can't help but do a double-take: The "first?" Haven't we seen this before? In that 007 installment [correction: The Man With the Golden Gun, not Live and Let Die] from 1974? That was way before CG, so that shot had to be real, no?

We're proud to be a partner in Microsoft's newly launched Surface Classroom Design Challenge. Our very own Allan Chochinov will be serving on the judging panel.

Microsoft is calling all designers to help them "re-imagine the classroom" where every student will have a Surface (or other tablet) in their hands. What are the types of furniture or accessories classrooms will need to better support technology and devices in education? Submit your idea and you could win—what else—Surfaces!

Find more details and enter the contest here.

Go West, young man [whose job it is to install solar panels]

As we neared graduating time at art school in Brooklyn, we students began dividing into two camps: Stayers and Leavers, with the former ready to seek their fortunes in NYC, and the latter scattering across the globe in pursuit of work. My friend Helena, a Stayer and an Art Direction major, worried about the NYC real estate market: "What if I can't find an apartment," she fretted, "with southern light?"

That southern exposures yield the most sunlight during the day is well-known among every architect, interiors photographer and loft-seeking artist in the Northern Hemisphere. Slightly less well-known is that northern exposures supposedly reveal truer colors. But now it's another direction that's coming into play concerning the sun, and that direction is west.

You never realize how hard it is to hang something until you actually have to do it. Getting your photo/art/mirror/whatever straight is tough enough, but finding a hanging system that doesn't take away from what you're trying to display is often a challenge in itself. Enter Dartstrip, a new product that epitomizes how the best design should be invisible.

And like most unseen designs, the system is deceptively simple: Dartstrip is nothing more than an eight-foot strip of steel with a restickable adhesive backing. The product is laser-scored with snap points at one-inch increments for easy customization depending on how large or wide your display space is. The strips are a clean white and can be painted over to match walls and other surfaces; magnetic 'pins' hold posters or photos in place. Check out the video below to see what Dartstrip is all about before we go into the details with co-founder Kermit Westergaard:

But the major innovation of Dartstrip comes in the form of none other than the packaging.

Ever since we saw Resilient Technologies' Non-Pneumatic Tires being tested out on Humvees, we wondered if it would ever trickle down to the civilian sector. Well, it has. Off-road vehicle manufacturer Polaris has announced their new Sportsman WV850, a "military-grade" ATV kitted out with the NPTs.

"We have seen great success with NPTs in military and disaster relief scenarios," said Dovid Longren, Vice President of the Off-Road Division, "and are excited to bring this technology to the consumer market for extreme work applications." While it's unlikely your average contractor will need to drive 350 miles after his tires have sustained ".50 caliber ballistic damage," as Polaris has done in testing, it is nice to know that the NPTs have also been tested for 1,000 trouble-free miles of travel with a three-inch railroad spike jammed into the tread and structural webbing. With that kind of durability, you can get away without carrying a spare, meaning there's more room to haul stuff.

It's not clear if Polaris has licensed Resilient Technologies' original design or entered into some kind of partnership; RT's website hasn't been updated since 2011. But Polaris has re-branded the NPTs "Terrain Armor," and as you can see in the promo video, they look pretty bad-ass:

Portland-based video production company Cineastas completely nails it when it comes to giving us in-depth "documentaries" on makers of all trades in just a couple of minutes. Previously, we've shared their videos featuring Nike shoe designer, Mike Friton and Walnut Studiolo.

This time around, filmmaker Tristan Stoch sent us a video featuring Hillsboro, Oregon-based Murray Carter, the 17th Generation Yoshimoto Bladesmith. Originally from Halfax, Nova Scotia, Carter found himself in Japan at the age of 18 and wound up spending six years as an apprentice under a Japanese bladesmith. Now, after 26 years in the trade, Carter has hand-forged over 18,000 blades.

Not only is the video full of beautiful shots showing the process behind Carter's blades, but he also gives some great insight about finding happiness in our chosen trades. And blade enthusiast or not, we all can relate to that. Check it out:

Josh Woolliscroft, artist and corporate prankster, created a whimsical series of custom writing utensils from boring HB BIC pencils. After shaving down, cutting into and sharpening his purchases, he re-packaged them and contacted BIC France to share the specimens of "non-conformity."

In response, the company asked that he send the pencils in for investigation and paid for his postage. They've also thanked him profusely for bringing this to their attention. Check out screenshots of Woolliscroft's correspondence with BIC below.

At The North Face, designers push the boundaries of innovation with product design and development of premier apparel, equipment and footwear to enable and inspire athletes and enthusiasts to Never Stop Exploring.

With 8 to 10 years of experience, strong knowledge of formulating color palettes and the ability to manage and inspire other designers, you'll fit right in to this energetic environment where your main responsibility is designing for customers and end users.

If you have a passion for the outdoors and enjoy a fast-paced environment, this is the place for you! Apply Now.

Trash is a big problem for the environment. Unsurprisingly, the U.S. is the worst (or best, depending on how you look at it) in the world for producing garbage, throwing away two billion tons annually. And while recycled materials have come a long way in helping us to reduce our garbage, there is something else that can be done and this includes an interesting insight into product design.

Turns out that how consumers decide if something is trash or recyclable isn't based on whether the product is, in fact, recyclable. It has more to do with the appearance and size of the product. If it looks like trash, then it will be less likely to be recycled.

Products change during their use. Paper is torn, cans are crumpled. And how form or size changes impacts the likelihood of a product being recycled or just tossed in the garbage. This is the finding from a recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research [PDF].

By Mathieu Turpault, Director of Design, Bresslergroup

Last summer, we got to live vicariously through a group of Integrated Product Design students at the University of Pennsylvania who traveled to Ghana.

They were conducting ethnographic research at the Yonso Project, a Ghanaian rural organization that provides educational and economic resources to help people in the region break the cycle of poverty. In 2009, Yonso added a bamboo bicycle workshop to their roster of empowerment programs. The workshop builds skills by training locals to make beautiful bamboo bike frames that are sold internationally. It creates jobs, leverages local production from the bamboo plantation, and helps fund Yonso's educational initiatives.

Strategy and Research

While the folks at Yonso are incredibly knowledgeable about their core initiatives, they're not as experienced in product development. They approached UPenn for help in 2012 when they wanted to expand their bamboo product line. In turn, Sarah Rottenberg, Associate Director at the Integrated Product Design program, asked Bresslergroup to help mentor the students who were going.

Sarah and the team of IPD students, Yoshi Araki, Yilin Lu and Anna Couturier, visited our offices last spring for a couple of strategy and ideation sessions with our designers and engineers. We guided them through brainstorming and ideation exercises, talked about how we prepare for conducting ethnographic research and brand language development, and suggested strategies for narrowing and choosing product categories that could be pursued most successfully. We've gone through this process many times before, for many different types of products, so we've run into walls and we know how to avoid pitfalls.

Read more in our blog post about brainstorming about how we structure this phase of the design process.

The U.S. is presently one of the world's largest manufacturers, and consumers, of automobiles. What percentage of Detroit's profits, would you guess, comes from trucks as opposed to passenger cars? The Big Three aren't saying, but according to a Reuters analysis looking at the EBIT—that's Earnings Before Interest & Taxes—an astonishing 71%* comes from trucks and SUVs.

"There is no doubt that full-size trucks are still the single largest component" of pre-tax profits at General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler Group LLC, a unit of Italy's Fiat SpA, according to Sterne Agee auto analyst Michael Ward.

Even more surprising is that sales of full-size pickups grew 20% from last year.

Gas is still expensive (by American standards) and the economy is still pretty lousy, so what's going on? Why do hybrids continue to be money-losers while low-MPG truck sales are soaring? Why has Ford's F-150 been the best-selling automobile for three decades? The old stereotype of soccer moms with misconceptions of safety ensconcing themselves in SUVs doesn't explain the bump in full-size pick-up sales, nor the F-150's success.

Before XBox, before Playstation, before Sega, even before Atari, there was the Magnavox Odyssey, the world's first game console. It was the work of Ralph Baer, an inventor who developed it in 1966 for a defense industry company that developed electronics, and by 1971 Magnavox had licensed it. Some of you weren't even born then, but that was the first brick laid in the road towards your white-knuckled Call of Duty sessions.

Back then the concept of an electronic game console was so new that the company had to print "Works on any television set, black and white or color" on the box, because people figured it would only work if connected to a Magnavox television. And while Atari later came out and familiarized more consumers with console gaming, it was Baer's Odyssey and the 350,000 units it moved that were undeniably first.

Amazingly, Baer—now 90 years old and still sharp as a whip—is still inventing! In this short video from PBS Digital Studios' "Inventors" series, Baer tells the sobering story of why he continues to work.

Well, here's an unexpected scoop from our own Don Lehman, who just documented what is likely the most surreal scene we'll see this month: Jony Ive, Marc Newson and Bono piling into a custom Fiat Jolly—designed by the two industrial design megastars for their muscian friend's charity event—for a photo opp with Lot 43 of the upcoming (RED) Auction.

Don stopped by the exhibition, which is open to the public at Sothebys' New York City HQ at 71st and York, this afternoon, hoping to catch a glimpse of the one-of-a-kind desk and Leica camera, also designed by the dynamic duo, along with some 40+ other art and design objects, only to find the room closed off for a private gathering. It turns out that the triumvirate were inspecting the goods—Don reports that he also overheard Bono's fingers dancing on the custom Steinway—in anticipation of Jony and Marc's (RED) Auction this Saturday.

Here are a couple of videos of Jony, Marc and Bono having their way with the Fiat:

Would you believe that the photo above was made with a sheet of glass, milk, food coloring, a bit of water and dust particles? I didn't either, but I speak the truth. Joey Shanks, the guy behind the Shanks FX Youtube channel that regularly features mind-blowing stunts and creations (like a how-to on blowing ginormous bubbles), teamed up with PBS Digital Studios to create his own rendition of "The Cosmos" with some great light and crafty camera angles. Here's a wide shot of the creation space:

By slowly dripping milk and food coloring onto the glass (go light on the water, as Shanks advises in the video below), the slow-motion camera captures show the coloring floating across the glass and looks like—what we can only assume—a new solar system being born. The spotlight catches the dust particles on the glass and illuminates them as stars.

Photos by Max Falsetta Spina

"The Last Supper" is arguably more well-known for the speculation surrounding it than anything else. Nevertheless, it's an important piece of art history that sparks conversations time and time again. Ghigos Ideas—a sounding board for design-centered discussion and debate—has asked 13 designers to look at the painting in a new way, specifically at the parts that aren't painted.

In the original painting, you can see bits and pieces of chair parts (mostly legs), but the designs are hidden. The designers involved—including names like Alessandro Guerriero and CTRLZAK—were challenged to create a "B-side" to the painting, one that focuses completely on the chairs the subjects are sitting in.

Chairs and designers, from left to right: Apostle Judas Iscariot by Alberto Biagetti, James the Greater by Ghigos Ideas, Simon the Zealot by PG Bonsignore

With just less than a year to go until their next event, the Belgian Biennale Interieur—a celebration of design and creative culture known for its relatively small size but uncompromising curation—is calling for entries from budding design talents keen to exhibit their work in 2014.

A star panel will judge entries on object and interior design:

Interior brief - Deadline: January 30, 2014 - Create a cutting-edge bar concept for the Biennale INTERIEUR 2014

Object brief - Deadline: April 30, 2014 - Create an object that is relevant to our living environment and helps us improve daily life

More information and registration over on the awards homepage

Past awarded entry 'Acciaio series' furniture by Max Lipsey is now in production with Cappellini

Judging panel includes Lina Kanafani, Noe Duchaufour Lawrance, Lowie Vermeersch, Matylda Krzykowski, Philippe Grohe, Rolf Hay, Francesca Sarti and Robert Klanten

Award-winning packaging/branding consultancy is looking to add a senior packaging designer to its growing New York office. As a senior designer, you will work as a part of a team working on projects for key domestic and international clients.

You'll be surrounded by a team of talented, upbeat, committed designers who you will find inspiring and fun to work with. You will also be working on many challenging and exciting brand assignments. We have a diverse range of clients in many exciting categories.

If you want to join a leading creative force in this industry, Apply Now.

In earlier days I drove an ambulance, and had to qualify for it by performing a litany of predetermined driving feats. Doing backwards figure-8's around lampposts in a parking lot and backing it into a precise position in the garage using nothing more than the rearview mirrors (sides only, the center is obviously blocked) are things you can only get good at through constant practice. But the point is, you can practice and can improve, because the mirrors on an ambulance are fixed and the cab does not articulate from the rest of the ambulance. In other words, when you look in the mirror, you always see the exact same space relative to the body of the truck, whether you're driving in a straight line or turning.

This is not true in tractor trailers, which obviously articulate. Drivers of tractor trailers have it far tougher when they take corners, because the articulation of the truck temporarily creates horrendously huge blind spots. This is especially a problem in cities, where an 18-wheeler may have bicyclists riding in close proximity to them. With the intense amount of things occupying a driver's attention in an urban environment, if they have not had their eyes glued to their mirrors directly before making a turn, and then kept their eyes on that same mirror all throughout the turn (as unlikely as it is practically impossible), there can be trouble. Take a look at this video put together by Transport for London, illustrating the blind spot:

Photos by Priscilla de Castro

After three weekends, six matches and 12 designs—all created in less than 90 minutes—we're ready for our Hatch Live Design Competition Final. Hatch Live concludes this Saturday with a live match open to the public starting at 1pm at the WeWork Lounge in Soho.

The semi-finals were intense. Wil, Nick, Nelson and Ruben have already proven themselves getting this far, winning challenges in categories such as tables, seating and storage.

Semi-finalists Wil and Nick

The "Weird Faces Vending Machine" doesn't muck around with commentary on the nature of the work of art, commodification of "culture," or unpacking the universal human condition. This small installation is by Matthias Dorfelt, or Mokafolio. It charges your credit card $3, tells you that it "[LIKES] THE WAY YOU WAIT" among other digital burbles, and eventually produces a unique print of computer generated faces, which would appear to be hand drawn and which are in fact adorable. In short, it does a tidy job questioning the value of the work of art and the commodification of cultural artifacts. (The universal human condition may be hinted at vis a vis the array of odd faces? Jury's out.)