Headquartered in the ironic flannel capital of the world and sourced from the beautiful shrinking forests of the Northwest, Campfire Cologne offers big smell in a little box. For the urban-dwelling tree-lover, this distinctive scent might just unlock memories of faraway mountains with a certain Promethean je ne sais quoi. The two-part formula is not for the weak of heart: add one part Campfire Cologne and one part flame, and let mother nature imbue the wearer with all-natural ruggedness. Now available in a dual-branded Poler edition.

Do you love prying, cutting, drinking and capital letters? If you'd like to partake in these simple hoodlum pleasures with a shiny new "forever object"—made from a material that looks like steel's sexy older sibling and feels like a million bucks, no less—look no further. These simple tools are SOLID, from the Portland-based design team INDUSTRY. They are the first in a line of products meant to evoke a "Solid State of Mind." In addition to whatever else a "solid state of mind" conjures up, the tools push the style/function balancing act hard.

SOLID was designed (and is sold) as a set; one Edge tool, and one Opener. Tougher than a multitool, slicker than an oil spill. Beautifully machined and easy to keychain up, you can use these tools for a surprisingly wide range of prying, scribing, scraping, scoring, drinking needs.

First it was a power-generating rocking chair, followed by heady indoor cloud concept. Now, Zürich-based Micasa Lab has introduced No More Woof—a device that translate's animals thoughts in words.

No, this isn't some kind of weird sci-fi film. See for yourself:

Victor Enrich, a Barcelona based photographer, has pushed even his reputation of reconfigurations and twisted figures to the extreme. For his most recent project, he took an image of the NH Deutscher Kaiser hotel (hence the name Project NHDK) in Munich and translated the building's architecture 88 different ways. Most are impossible twists and turns, but some pass as surprisingly realistic.

Lifelike or not, it's fun to think about what the familiar structures in our lives would look like if we had the chance to get our hands on the architecture. Check out this video showing all of Enrich's variations:

Their name is Grip and their client list is a mile long including L.L.Bean, Whole Foods Market, Death's Door Spirits, Girl & The Goat, UnCommon, Bluefly, Kellogg School of Management, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and Virtue Cider, just to name a few. They are a concept and design agency that creates with outcomes in mind and has over 14 years of experience delivering on business goals across a wide range of industries.

Why should this interest you? Grip wants to hire a super-talented designer who has an inspiring visual point of view and a sense of humor. The full-time position will allow you to work on a broad range of projects: identity, branding, packaging, web design, the ability to manage your own schedule and work creatively and collaboratively. The list of benefits that accompany this opportunity are wonderful so click through to the next page and Apply Now.

In a world where almost everything can be controlled with the click of a button (or a clap of your hands), even the kerosene lantern is getting an upgrade with Vela, a portable, Bluetooth-enabled lamp that can be controlled using your smartphone.

Following a family camping trip, Joe VanFaasen, a designer at the Holland, Michigan-based firm Twisthink, found himself unsatisfied with the lantern options currently on the market. "What I found were the classic Coleman kerosene lanterns, which I admire, but they present a fire and gas hazard, especially with two little boys and a little girl running around," VanFaasen says. Although LED versions proved more convenient and safer, VanFaasen felt that they lacked the appropriate aesthetic and often gave off a cold, bluish light. "They all felt like either overly commoditized knock-offs or hyper-tactical backcountry-type lights," he says.

Recognizing a need and looking to fill a gap in the market, VanFaasen set about designing the perfect portable light for any scenario not only camping but everyday household use as well. And he wondered how he could incorporate "smart" technology to set it apart from other portable LEDs currently available.

Musician j.viewz decided to take the logic from a Snapple "Real Fact" and put it to work as the featured instrument in a song. The project, one video in a series called "Re-enFACTments" by Snapple, takes advantage of one of the brand's bottle cap facts (Real Fact #453, to be exact): "Raindrops can fall as fast as 20 miles per hour."

He teamed up with Andy Cavatorta—the musical robotist that's responsible for some of Bjork's instruments—and percussionist Manu Delago to put the speed of raindrops to good use. In short, they made a midi controller that's operated by the speed of raindrops.

Andy Cavatora (left) and j.viewz (right)

Early plans for the raindrop instrument

Check out what they came up with:

It's been a while since I've seen any good urazawa, that being a Japanese word that loosely translates to a secret trick or shortcut to doing something, and commonly means something like "household tips" or life hacks. Urazawa are kind of a counterpoint to product design in that they're about solving problems, but through the user's behavior rather than refining the form of something. As we saw in Lisa Katayama's book on the subject, they can be something as simple as using newspapers to clean windows (to leave them streak-free) or as involved as boiling spinach to get coffee stains out of a carpet.

Does your desk lack a certain... gravitas? Around here we recommend filling every ambiguous void with knives. In this case, knives designed to compliment your daily writing needs and terrorize your post-its with all the charm of mysterious megafauna. Kujira knives are what you kneed.

Homebrewing is a breeding ground for tiny recipe tweaks and entirely new tastes. But there are only so many variations you can put your favorite brews through before the process gets a little stale. Right in time for the holidays, we discovered Wood Thumb—an online retailer for all things wooden and awesome. Among their curated offerings of wooden products (like this tie), we stumbled upon a game to toss into your beer brewing regime. Most of us can agree that beer is great, but what's even greater is when someone finds a mathematical and design-savvy way to mess with homebrewing like Wood Thumb has.

Roll & Brew is a dice game for homebrewers. The game comes with a brigade of dice that dictate the ingredients for your next go-round, and the recipes have been professionally created and approved so you don't worry about ending up with strange brew. Wood Thumb's in-house brewer and founder, David Steinrueck—who studied under some of the world's most renowned brewmasters in Munich, Germany—took on creating the algorithm that insures you'll get a standout brew each time.

It is with great sadness that we share the news that one of the great contemporary minds of design, Bill Drenttel, has passed away. Bill contributed to design discourse, thought leadership, and progressive action in myriad ways, and was a beacon to so many of us in the design community.

Perhaps best known as the publisher and co-founder of Design Observer (along with his wife Jessica Helfand and Michael Bierut), he spearheaded and championed many other organizations and initiatives. The Winterhouse Institute created outstanding works of design and advocacy, and was early in celebrating and creating meaningful work and dialog around design for social change; his teaching at the Yale School of Management fortified the growing link between design and business; and his design directorship at Teach for All evidenced his commitment to education reform around the world.

As a former trustee of the Cooper-Hewitt, president emeritus of the AIGA, and chair of Aspen Design Conferences, Bill gave time and wisdom consistently and generously, creating ripples of impact across multiple contexts.

Bill was a tireless, fearless proponent of the power of design. Through his journey from advertising to publishing to advocating to teaching, his belief in design as a positive, social force was infectious. He was uncompromising and diligent. He brought people together who had shared interests, and carved out spaces for conversations if none existed. He paid attention in a way that was remarkable--when you worked with Bill it was always show time--and he inspired people around him to do their very best. That may sound like a cliché, but it was one of his design superpowers. His bar was high. And he played for keeps.

Bill was also a friend, and a great friend to Core77. I will cherish every moment I've shared with him, and will think of his wife and two children as acknowledgments and warm thoughts surround them at this difficult time.

Bill was one of the great intellects of design, practitioners of design, and advocates of design. The design world was a better place with Bill Drenttel in it. And he will be missed. But his teachings and his enthusiasms will live on in everyone he's touched, and he will be remembered deeply, fondly, and often.

Confession: When I meet people who find IKEA furniture difficult to assemble, I write them off as idiots. I told this to my girlfriend (also an industrial designer) and she concurred; I don't know if it's because we ID'ers are trained to read drawings and put things together, but we both find the instructions exceedingly simple, the assembly straightforward and unchallenging.

Still, it seems a lot of people actually have trouble driving screws and nails. And for these folks, designer and Eindhoven grad Benjamin Vermeulen has a clever solution in his flatpack, no-tools-required Magnetic Assisted Geometry furniture line:

Be a part of designing what's next. Cinco Design is looking for a mid-level industrial designer to contribute to the collective brainpower of their product experience team.

Your deep experience, lightning fast visualization, and high execution could make you an integral addition to their team. As the ideal candidate for this position, you understand the value of meaningful innovation, prioritize product, experience, and posses a unique design aesthetic.

With 3-5 years of experience and the ability to bring fresh ideas to life through rapid digital sketches, Solidworks builds and Keyshot renders, you'll be an outstanding addition to their team. Apply Now.

Koppillil Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space and Research Organization, holding a model of the Mars orbiter. Altaf Qadri/AP

By Martyn Perks

As contrary as it sounds, in 2014 designers should be more ambitious and less worried about being socially responsible. That way, we will all get to benefit more from their efforts.

Take the reaction to how India launched its probe to Mars earlier in November. No sooner had the called Mangalyaan taken off than critics slammed the project for being a huge waste of money, given that much of the Indian population live in abject poverty.

But to criticise the Indian space program is wrong for two reasons. First, it will help bring about many technological benefits that will help improve the lives of millions including the poor. Thanks to India's ongoing investment in space and weather satellite technology, many thousands of lives were recently saved from a coastal cyclone in October due to early warnings.

The second reason is that, as Samanth Subramanian, the India correspondent for The National, writes in The New Yorker, the project will give many people in India an all-important "spurt of optimism and confidence that can urge people, even for a brief moment, to lift their eyes upward and aim a little higher."

Such cause for optimism is sorely lacking here in the West, perhaps made worse as China, like India, is beginning to excel in space. China's Jade Rabbit rover is the first to land on the moon in over 40 years.

There will be much to learn from India and China's space programmes. The scientific and technological breakthroughs will help bring about many innovations, just as the Kennedy space programme did in the 1960s and 1970s.

All of this should be cause for designers to celebrate. But not so, according to what is now majority opinion in the design community, which holds that design needs to exhibit more humility and less environmental hubris.

The two friends of mine who were raised by germ-freak, super-clean parents are the two who get sick the most often. My theory is that their immune systems were hobbled by them not being allowed to play in filthy sandboxes as kids. And while I'm not one of those anti-vaccination nuts, I'm fine with encountering a certain amount of dirt; hell, I'd better be, as I live in New York City.

Where do you draw the line with personal cleanliness? A company called PhoneSoap claims that your phone is filthy, filthy, filthy, and suggests you buy their $50 ultraviolet phone cleaner/charger to regularly disinfect it. Their website claims, in alarmist tones, that your phone is dirtier than your toilet seat; I've got news for you, I bet most things in most peoples' houses are dirtier than their toilet seats, because we clean toilets with harsh chemicals on a regular basis.

The hyperbole is laid on pretty thick, with the company citing Fox News to point out that "A cell phone has 18 times more bacteria than a public restroom" and claiming that "The way we use our phones makes us... sick" and then dropping this gem:

Not only are the extra bacteria on our phones bombarding our immune systems, they can also cause some serious facial effects. Some types of acne come directly from talking on the phone! Pressing your cheek and chin against your phone can exacerbate acne by allowing bacteria to get into those pores, causing chaos.

I'm not buying it. Are you?

You might want to use the holiday break as a great opportunity to polish up your portfolio and apply to the MFA in Products of Design program at SVA in New York City. You could be part of the class of 2016, studying with such design luminaries as Paola Antonelli, Helen Walters, Sigi Moeslinger and Masamichi Udagawa, Jason Severs, Emilie Baltz, Ayse Birsel, Steven Dean, Carla Diana, and dozens more. Classes take place in spacious and sun-drenched Chelsea studio, as well as in the New York City-based offices of IDEO, TED, Material ConneXion, SYPartners, and Aruliden. Here's a bit more about the program:

"The MFA in Products of Design is an immersive, two-year graduate program that creates exceptional practitioners for leadership in the shifting terrain of design. We educate heads, hearts and hands to reinvent systems and catalyze positive change.

Students gain fluency in the three fields crucial to the future of design: Making, from the handmade to digital fabrication; Structures: business, research, systems, strategy, user experience and interaction; and Narratives: video storytelling, history and point of view. Through work that engages emerging science and materials, social cooperation and public life, students develop the skills to address contemporary problems in contemporary ways.

Graduates emerge with confidence, methods, experience and strong professional networks. They gain the skills necessary to excel in senior positions at top design firms and progressive organizations, create ingenious enterprises of their own, and become lifelong advocates for the power of design."

Department website: LINK
Blog and projects: LINK
Apply page: LINK

While it might not be in time for this year's festivities, but it's definitely a contender as next year's centerpiece. A candelabra this ornate can hold its own on a table year-round, so don't even bother waiting until the next holiday season. Luka Pirnat, a Slovenia-based industrial designer, has taken the classic Zippo silhouette and incorporated it into a bold metal menorah.

It comes off a bit steam-punkish (and would look right at home at similarly themed coffee joint Truth Coffee), but the gold and silver accents throughout give off quite a bit of "eye candy" appeal that would mix into any home without much effort. But it's the idea of it that's more intriguing that it's decor potential.

Your cell phone is able to vibrate because there's a little motor inside that rotates a small, off-balance weight. We've all seen our phones skitter across a desk when a call comes in, some further than others, depending on what model you have. But the phone's locomotion is not directed or intended, it's just a side effect of this little device spinning inside.

What if that motion was directed, and even precisely predetermined? Independent of cell phones, researchers at Switzerland's Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control designed and built the Cubli, a 15-cm cube that can move around by means of little flywheels, motors and sensors inside of it. While a cube is not the shape you think of when you think about designing a miniature vehicle, check out what this thing can do:

I'm going to forego my usualrobophobictirade about the borderline creepiness of a cube that can move like that, and instead propose that these guys make my cell phone silently stand straight up on my desk whenever a call or text comes in.

ALEX's mission is to provide children with quality creative products that foster personal expression and build self-esteem. Their extensive product line covers over 1,000 items in expanded categories of toys including imaginative and dramatic play, fashion and jewelry, whimsical children's furniture, and more.

ALEX Toys is seeking creative, energetic and talented graphic /packaging designers to join their Northvale, NJ team who can create effective packaging in their Sports/Outdoor, Science and Game categories. If you have experience with dielines and blister packaging, you're that much closer to landing this outstanding job. Apply Now.

This month has been a flurry of packing cardboard boxes with gifts, as all of you prepare to send our excellent Gift Guide selections to loved ones around the world. Even if you had no experience with a tape gun in November, you're probably a pro with it by now; but how do the real pros seal boxes? Surely they don't futz around with tape guns like the rest of us?

Folks in packaging facilities are more likely to use machines like the Better Pack 555eS, an electric water-activated tape dispenser. (To be clear, the tape is what's water-activated, not the dispenser.) The operator punches in the length of the seam to be sealed, and the machine then spits out a slightly longer strip of "water-activated"—i.e. gummed—tape that forms an actual chemical bond with the cardboard.

The benefits versus plastic tape are multi-pronged: The reinforced gummed tape is hardier and you can print on it, as we've all seen with Amazon packages; not having to use a tape gun supposedly cuts down on repetitive stress injuries; and the tape itself is recyclable. Here's Better Packages, Inc.'s pitch video: