It's easy to create something that's appealing structure-wise, but nailing down a complementary texture is a lot tougher. Elaborate surface treatments can be overpowering, making it tough to recognize a design's clean lines; skip the texture and the composition risks coming off a bit passé. Julien Carretero's series of Stencil Aluminum Furniture seems to have found a refreshing harmony between the two instincts. The fabric-like rivets give a bit of depth to the overall structure—as well as the series' story, if you take the time to take a closer look.

Carretero has managed to create a casting course that's a bit more straightforward and economical than the techniques we're used to reading about. By creating a mold that's lined with heat-resistant strips of fabric, Belgian-based Carretero is able to mimic the textile's composition in a much-simplified aluminum casting process. Check out this behind-the-scenes video:

One of the biggest home improvement companies on the planet, which also happens to be a FORTUNE 100 company, is looking for a junior level Industrial designer to join their Mooresville, NC team. This is an outstanding opportunity to bring impactful products to life by providing design expertise throughout the design and development process for Kobalt and other exclusive Lowe's brands.

They are looking for someone who is highly skilled in visualization, has a keen eye for form and aesthetics, and a strategic perspective on improving customer's lives through individual products and programs. A bachelor's degree in Industrial Design, 2 years of experience and functional knowledge of hand tools/power tools (preferred) will bring you that much closer to landing this job. Apply Now!

Clockwise from top: Tianducheng via Wikimedia Commons; Baugespanne; Bauprofils via Swicon&The Guardian

What's the opposite of a scale model? A Bauprofil fits the profile: Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright recently took a closer look at what he called 'ghost buildings,' a Swiss concept, also known as baugespanne, in which a life-size, low-cost 'wireframe' limns a proposed building project in situ. "Constructed from metal rods or wooden poles, fixed in place by wire guy ropes, the Swiss baugespanne or bauprofile are usually erected for a month, outlining the full height of the proposed development, with protruding markers to indicate the angle of the roof and direction of the walls," Wainwright writes. "For taller buildings, tethered balloons can be used, and helicopters have even been employed to hover at a specified height for the tallest towers."

Via io9's round-up

Of course, I initially thought he was referring to the Chinese ghost town phenomenon, the utterly desolate planned communities that seem to crop up, mirage-like, in the hinterlands of the Mainland. Indeed, Wainwright had covered the closely related saga of Zaha Hadid's Galaxy SOHO in Beijing—namely, that it's but a parametric shell of a building—before I (full disclosure) met him during Beijing Design Week last October. Given the generally overambitious and bloated real estate development business in China, it's egregious but perhaps not unexpected... and, in short, flies in the face of the highly prudent Swiss approach.

Images from (clockwise from top left) LUNAR, IDEO, Google X and frog

Yesterday, we ran the last of our nine Getting Hired interviews, in which we solicited job-seeking advice from key hiring personnel at LUNAR, IDEO, Philips, BMW Group Designworks USA, Smart Design, frog, Google X, Ziba and Teague (whew!). To wrap up the series, we asked our intrepid interviewer, Bryn Smith, to distill those conversations into a shortlist of essential strategies for landing your next design job. Did we miss something? By all means, share your own I.D.-employment wisdom in the comments.

1. Be proactive
Have you always dreamed of working at IDEO? Or perhaps Philips or frog seems like the perfect fit? Don't wait for an invitation. Many of the firms I spoke to welcome unsolicited applications, so it makes sense to apply even if you don't see a job opening. "As a consultancy, it's important to keep a pipeline of candidates," explains frog's Kerstin Feix. Perhaps even more important than submitting an application, however, is doing whatever you can to connect with someone inside the firm, via your alma mater or good old-fashioned networking at conferences and other industry events. When something does open up, firms often start with people they already know, so having that foot in the door is a huge advantage. "It's getting to know people and starting a conversation," notes Paul Backett of Ziba. "So when the right place, right time comes along, the discussion can be our focus."

2. Tell a compelling story
"A lot of designers have beautiful portfolios, but it's really important for us to have an understanding of how they got there," says Smart Design's Sarah Szeflinski. Think about your portfolio as an exercise in storytelling, and be sure to highlight all the ups and downs along the way to the final product. "We love to hear about the challenges that people come across—failures even," says Ziba's Paul Backett. "We want to hear what they've learned," adds Sean Hughes of Philips. Pacing is also important when laying out your book (or PDF or website)—don't get too template-happy; instead, use different projects to showcase different skills. And then edit. "If you have weak work in your in your book it can bring down the whole portfolio," says Lisa Olivia at Designworks USA.

3. Master the basics
Sometimes the most obvious step is the easiest to overlook. Before an interview, do background research on the firm so you have a solid understanding of the kind of work they do (as well as the kind they don't). Practice walking through your portfolio with a friend, or on your own out loud. Then practice it again. Lisa Olivia recommends asking how much time you'll have before the interview even begins. That way you can adjust your pace, and you won't end up in a situation where there isn't time to present your favorite piece. Once the interview begins, "stay in control of the dialogue," advises LUNAR's Jeff Salazar. Asking questions and being engaged in the interview as a conversation demonstrates your interest in the position, as well as your respect for the interviewer's time. And don't forget to make eye contact! As Teague's Alysha Naples points out, those basic social skills are extremely important—the firm wants to know that it can feel confident putting you in front of a client, and that you can handle curveball questions with dignity and charm.

Any athlete who has had trouble with joint and muscle pain knows the value of getting support where it's needed most. For those athletes' whose Achilles' heel is their knee (so to speak), the sports-gear brand Opedix has recently developed a line of tights that promise to provide a new level of assistance to that frequently mucked-up joint.

Called KNEE-Tec, the tights aren't the first to use Opedix's patented knee-support technology, but they take it a step further with a new tension system developed by Dr. Michael Decker and his colleague, Mike Torry. Decker's design uses a combination of fabric tensions to push and pull on the knee joints to create a "kinetic chain" of pressure, a setup that the company has dubbed Torque Reforming Systems.

The secret to the Torque Reforming Systems lies in its non-stretch banding and careful placement of different microfiber fabrics across 19 panels that pull and tug against each other to create tension and deliver support, without compromising the banding's integrity. "We wanted a balance of elasticities to do the work for the product, keeping the non-stretch banding as tense as possible without stretching," Decker says. The non-stretch bands are placed strategically between the various patches to offer corrective control and keep the legs in what is known as a "neutral state."

Baby steps, as the saying goes. This week saw one of the wackier 3D-printing news items in recent memory: Expecting parents now have the option to celebrate gestation with a life-size model of their progeny in utero. 3D Babies uses ultrasound data to generate a fetus figurine, a kind of memento partum: "Your 3D Baby will be a treasured family remembrance of your pregnancy and new baby."

If we're a decade out from the first generation of Facebook babies—a generation that has had its entire life documented, from delivery to present-day, in digital media—just give it a few more years for kids to be embarrassed by that weird ABS curio next to the baby pictures on the mantle... or stranger yet, a sculpture of a certain enfant célèbre (pardon my French), North West herself. If the availability of Kanye & Kim's kid is where it gets into possible hoax territory, let's just say it was kind of a stillborn idea from the start, elevating helicopter parenthood into something rather creepier.

Even though I live in America, I never saw as many monster trucks anywhere in the 'States as I did in Reyjkavik. For drivers who need to navigate the Icelandic hinterlands, owning a pickup truck converted to drive man-height tires is more practical concern than pissing contest. Sure, they looked silly and inconvenient in the city, but it was a trade-off everyone was apparently fine with.

So I wonder if the Track N Go would gain any traction in Iceland. This has to be the coolest off-road conversion I've ever seen, because it's completely reversible and only takes fifteen minutes. Check out how it drives:

Before we get to how they put them on, the following video, narrated in French, gives you a good look at an individual Track N Go (and gives you a sense of how heavy it is):

More on Diane Meyer below

Embroidery might not be groundbreaking or new, but the craft is clearly having a moment. We're not talking about the circular pieces you might see your mom working on right before she goes to bed—this embroidery shows up on photographs, metal objects and even human hands.

We've come a long way from grainy photos with splashes of colored embroidery; see more on Design Observer

Embellished photos date back to the turn of the century, originating as a simple method of adding a personal touch to mementos. We've come a long way in terms of art and photography, but this trend is still making appearances in modern art and design—sometimes on photographs, and other times on our own skin.

More recently, artist Diane Meyer has developed a more contemporary take on embroidered photography, effectively 'pixelating' regions of photographs into geometric 'averages' of the colors there. The result is a kind of handcrafted 'artifact,' both in the sense of a meaningful object and the degradation of a compressed digital image file.

From walls and elevator interiors to site furnishings and lighting, Forms+Surfaces creates the architectural products and elements that grace public spaces all over the world. Theirs is a culture of innovation and unity in which progress is fueled by a love for problem solving and driven by collaboration. There are no ivory towers at this company and their offices are located in their factories, which makes it so easy to be hands on.

Their Carpinteria, CA office seeks a driven junior designer to assist with the design and development of their Architectural Surfaces division. This role extends beyond design into the manufacturing, marketing and research of new products. You'll be working in surface categories including, but not limited to: Architectural Glass, Wood, Metal and Composites. If you have a serious passion for design and aren't afraid of challenges and unexpected materials/processes, Apply Now.

Core77 is very pleased to be a media partner for an event that happens literally once every hundred years: 2014 marks the centennial of the AIGA. Since its founding in 1914, the New York-based professional association has expanded to 67 chapters nationwide, boasting some 25,000 members across various design disciplines.

In keeping with their mission to recognize and advocate for design, the AIGA will be celebrating this momentous occasion with several events this spring, as well as the just-launched 100 Years of Design website. Although it is ostensibly a look back at the past hundred years of design, the online gallery also serves as an extensive standalone survey of design history since 1914. Indeed, the AIGA worked closely with Second Story, a part of SapientNitro, to develop "a dynamic online platform documenting significant design works from the last century that have impacted our collective visual experience."

Viewers are encouraged to add their own favorite examples of design history to the initial selection of works, which are drawn primarily from the AIGA Design Archives and woven together with commentary from leading designers. Driven by participation from designers, students and design enthusiasts, the site invites conversation about design's rich legacy and expanding impact.

We had a chance to speak to AIGA Executive Director Richard Grefé about the centennial festivities and the story behind the impressive "100 Years of Design" website.

Core77: First of all, congratulations on 100 years! How does it feel to be spearheading the festivities for this momentous occasion?

Richard Grefé: The centennial is a tremendous affirmation of creative professionals—the value of their coming together as a community is to inspire each other, to seek ever-expanding opportunities for the design mind to thrill others with stunning and evocative work, and to enhance the human experience. A century marks a hundred years of growth, change, creativity and achievement, and the beginning of an era with even greater possibility. The festivities celebrate the breadth, depth and diversity of the fellowship of designers who come together as AIGA in order to advance the profession. Pretty exciting!

Deborah Adler - ClearRx (2005)

Regarding CelebrateDesign.org, how did you arrive at the five categories? And did you have trouble classifying any of the artifacts, quotes or clips? I imagine there was quite a bit of overlap...

Organizing the story of design over the past century was no easy task. We wanted to move beyond a linear chronology. Ultimately, we decided the purpose of the site should be to begin the conversation, not end it, so we selected five broad categories that most would agree should be among any list of intents for great design. We then invited viewers to consider other impacts by including an open-ended prompt: "Celebrating 100 years of design that..."

Because any work of design can of course have multiple impacts depending on context and the viewer, it was at first daunting to assign works within the structure. Impact is subjective and a work being featured in a certain narrative for this project does not circumscribe its larger meaning. However, key works started falling into place as particularly representative of one impact or another, and then supporting pieces began to make sense in that context.

We pulled quotes from primary sources and books—such as Graphic Design in America, Looking Closer, Design Culture, Nine Pioneers in American Graphic Design, and Design Discourse—that spoke directly to the impacts chosen. For example, Samina Quareshi on the need for design to connect a community; the designers behind the First Things First 2000 manifesto on designers' imperative to assist in addressing environmental, social, and cultural crises; Paul Rand's defense of humor to delight through visual communication; Robert Fabricant on designers exerting influence through every decision they make. The final pieces were the voices of design legends, which help hold groups of work together. Each "impact" such as Delight or Inform contains three themes, and these voices complemented what we called the "narrative glue" that described each theme (for example, here and here in the Connect section).

Images courtesy of Sparse

By Colin Owen, Sparse

Two and a half years ago, three biker/designer/friends sat around a table and discussed designing "something around bikes." We took a good hard look and decided the industry had largely optimized performance around racing, so we chose to optimize and design for the daily working use of a bike. Two years ago, we incorporated that effort. One year ago, we launched a Kickstarter campaign. This month, we are delivering on Kickstarter promises. In the interim, we have been slaving away on the myriad other things that make our effort a real company and not just (the world's most infuriating) hobby.

To found a hardware company is to spend your days: need-finding, developing form, developing design, locating and vetting manufacturers, negotiating deals with manufacturers, locating and negotiating financing, setting up a fulfillment network, setting up a sales network, certifying the product, verifying taxation rates, fretting over foreign laws written in foreign tongues, networking, fundraising, project management, (endlessly) monitoring manufacturing, and marketing (whatever that means).

Compare all of that to the list of skills that we, as product designers, attain in school and in consulting: need-finding, form, various types of digital, physical and visual representation, mechanical integration, production processes, the pitch.

There are approximately three things that overlap between the two lists. We, Sparse, have accomplished or at least attempted the rest via: getting it flatly wrong the first time; imperfect iterative efforts; HUGE singular efforts; hiring the person who knows the answer; chatting with a friend who is further along the development curve; pulling favors; borrowing money; traveling to far-away places; befriending reporters; and mainlining black tar... er, coffee.

There are others who write more cogently on startup culture in general, and productivity in specific than I can achieve (which is why I've included wonderful references at the bottom of the article). What follows is a handful of insights into the narrow turf of hardware development as a bootstrapped startup.

The Earlybird deadline for the 2014 Core77 Design Awards is approaching fast—on Thursday, to be exact—and we know you want in on the money-saving action. If you need a refresher, you save 20% off of the registration fee by applying by January 30 at 5pm EST—that's $40 for a student entry (instead of $50) and $120 for professionals (usually $150).

As the first deadline for this year's Awards program draws closer by the day, we caught up with a 2013 honoree who took advantage of the Earlybird entry period about what their project has been up to since winning. You may remember Plinko Poetry Machine by Inessah Selditz and Deqing Sun, the Tweet-compiling, game show-esque installation that won a Student Notable in the Interaction category.

Read on to see how one of the designers garnered the momentum from her project's success to land her dream job.

Scroll to the bottom to see what this thing becomes

Everyone from furniture builders to door manufacturers to IKEA understands the value of a torsion box. A torsion box is a completely flat, very sturdy and relatively lightweight surface, and anyone designing anything structural and rectilinear should understand its principles.

The concept is simple, even if construction can be tedious: Two flat, horizontal surfaces are sandwiched over a grid of crossmembers, and once the sandwich is glued shut, a rigidity much greater than that possessed by the individual parts is achieved.

Image via Bay Area Woodworker's Assocation

For furniture builders who require completely flat assembly surfaces, a torsion box is often one of the first things they'll build to kit out their shop; hence there are tons of craftspeople who've posted online tutorials on how to build one. Marc Spagnuolo, a.k.a. "The Wood Whisperer," put together a pretty comprehensive 20-minute-plus video on how he built his. Spanguolo shows you how to get past the dilemma of building your first torsion box, which is: how do you construct a perfectly flat surface, before you've got a perfectly flat surface to assemble it on?

Back before the '60s were swinging and mod, Paul and Rose Svarc started a workwear company. Their family-run clothing business has withstood the test of time and is thriving today, still based in Montreal and going strong. If the name Svarc feels familiar you're probably a denim dork and well-read in the indigo arts, because Brandon Svarc is the designer behind Naked and Famous. Coincidence? Obviously not.

After his grandfather Paul passed away, Brandon decided to honor his grandparents' work and revive their early semi-eponymous line, PaulRose Products. The new Paulrose designs are based on the company's workwear and incorporate the high quality fabrics of the Naked and Famous line. Naked and Famous is known for its range of raw, high quality denim and idiosyncratic style. They've produced both scratch-and-sniff pants and a jean using 22oz. denim, which must feel like second grade and body armor respectively. In comparison, the Paulrose product line is proudly limited. There are exactly two (2) cuts to choose from, a heritage style based on the 1947 Levis 501 (to be, uh, totally specific), and a narrower modern slim cut.

Both are made from 17oz. Japanese selvedge denim, woven at small studio mill in Okayama, Japan which specializes in artisanal denim fabrics. It is made using slub yarns, woven at the lowest possible tension, creating a hand woven look and texture. This gives the burlier-than-usual denim an enjoyable feel... and keeps it from wearing like riot gear. In short, it's slubby, unusually tough, high quality material. And unsanforized? But of course.

(For those on the mellower end of the selvedge-obsessive scale, "slubby" means that the super thick yarns used in the fabric give the pants a slightly textured feel, and "unsanforized" means raw as hippy goat milk: unwashed, deeply colored, and likely to tint your white persian cat if you're not careful.) The fabric will shrink 1 size when washed. If you're going to be a sane pants-wearer and wash them you'll want to size up from your normal/pre-shrunk size.

They don't do a dozen options, they don't do cheap labor. What Paulrose does offer is high quality, extra-thick (17oz.!), long-wearing jeans you can take to work or play. If that doesn't sound like the right idea, we feel sorry for your legs.

Our model is Marc, a Northwest native and friend of the shop. His CV includes: wilderness guide, trailblazer, wilderness firefighter, and salesman of fine meat products.

Produced in collaboration with the Designers Accord in 2011, our Sustainability in 7 video series has aged quite well, if we say so ourselves. Perhaps the best example is Janine Benyus's short primer on biomimicry, in which the biologist, innovation consultant and author explains how the natural world can inspire and inform design.

Whether or not he's seen the video, Jeabyun Yeon definitely gets it: His Triton Oxygen Respirator concept was clearly inspired by fish. Just think of all the things we could accomplish if we somehow could sprout gills and swim great lengths without worrying about breathing?

We obtain many things from ocean. It becomes a great vacation spot and provides us with many resources. However, many difficulties are involved in using them, among which the most fundamental difficulty is breathing. To use skin scuba equipment, we must learn very complicated procedures. In addition, there are people that cannot enjoy them from being afraid to breathe under water. I've come up with a future product that can solve these difficulties.

An on-board makeup table, push-button transmissions, a simple knob attached to the steering wheel: These were the outside-of-the-box features that auto designers dreamed up to thrill consumers in the 1950s and '60s.

Let's take a closer look at that retractable hardtop on the Fairlane, which Ford reportedly spent a staggering $400 million developing, here sold by Lucille Ball and a disbelieving Ricky Ricardo:

For 60 years, Pearl Izumi has been developing advanced apparel and footwear for athletes who depend on uncompromising gear. This is your chance to join this impressive team and learn the ropes from some of the best in the business - and get paid while you're doing it. This paid internship will work directly with the Run and Cycling footwear design and development team on current and future Pearl Izumi footwear projects from early style concept through production.

The primary workload includes supporting the footwear product team on current and future projects, assisting in the visual communication of product updates/changes, and working on advanced design concepts. The successful candidate will be exposed to all facets of the footwear business and will not be afraid to roll up their sleeves to get the job done. Apply Now.

Halfway through its second year, Minneapolis College of Art & Design (MCAD)'s Master of Arts in Sustainable Design program continues to represent the leading edge of advanced design studies. This year, four companies—Cascade Designs, Hamilton Beach, Anthro and Rayne Longboards—all had their products analyzed and brainstormed for sustainable redesign.

MCAD's entirely online program gives students from around the world two years of training in analysis and creativity for sustainable design, from packaging and graphics to products. This past semester, I once again taught collaborative product design, which brings groups of students together across different industries and time zones to redesign consumer products. They start by video-chatting their product tear-down, to perform life-cycle assessment and determine top priorities for sustainability. Groups redesign their products using the Whole Systems and Life-Cycle design method created for the Autodesk Sustainability Workshop. This structures and unifies their ideation over the weeks, which spans energy effectiveness, design for lifetime, materials choices, biomimicry, and persuasive design.

The students did a fantastic job, deftly showing the companies which aspects of their products were the biggest concerns and which needn't be bothered with, based on both LCA and green certification systems, showing companies a larger context around their products and generating a plethora of great ideas, from subtle tweaks to radical re-envisionings. Below are some samples of their work (click to enlarge in new window/tab).

As a graphic designer and writer (and sometime contributor to Core77), San Francisco-based Christina Beard is in a unique position to investigate the conventions and tropes of design practice and discourse. For her first book, Critiqued: Inside the Minds of 23 Leaders in Design, she subjected her work—a poster advocating hygiene—to the discerning eye of nearly two dozen leaders in the field.

Every designer at some point faces positive and negative criticism.

Most designers have experienced a crushing critique that makes you question your choice to even be a designer. Conversely, many have had a positive critique that left them feeling elated and excited to keep going!

Design is subjective.

I set out to investigate this further, and designed an experiment that took me all over the world to meet with leaders in design. I designed a poster, took it to a designer for a critique and based on that feedback I redesigned the poster, and took the new poster to the next designer—a process similar to the children's game Telephone.

Each designer shared with me what was working, what wasn't working and how they would approach their own redesign. The feedback ranged from "you should just start over" to "this is great, I think you're done!"

L: The poster with Alice Twemlow's feedback; R: The following iteration, which incorporated those comments

In November, we announced the launch of Microsoft's Surface Classroom Design Challenge asking all of you to come up with a way to incorporate the Surface into the classroom learning experience. The entry period has officially closed, but you can still check out the designs that made it through to the final round. This week, a winner will be announced from the ten finalists, so make sure and check back to see which one is chosen.

From interactive co-working tables to Surface-charging backpacks, the accessories are impressive—here are a few of the amazing projects for your consideration: