While the presentation is somewhat underwhelming, the concepts are interesting: Jaguar is reportedly working on a "360 Virtual Urban Windscreen," which aims to increase driver visibility and awareness through technical trickery and screen overlays, as demonstrated in this video.

The red-flagging of humans in the windscreen seems entirely doable with modern-day sensors and a heads-up display. I think what would make it more compelling is if it could show living beings below the beltline, like toddlers and pets.

The idea of transparent B-pillars is similar to the "invisible Prius" concept we saw last year, though the Keio University researchers working on the Prius actually demonstrated workable technology, whereas Jaguar is merely showing us a rendered-over video. Assuming Jaguar actually has the technical acumen to get this to work, I'd actually prefer to see it applied to C-pillars, as the current auto design trend of making them fatter (at least in my experience) seems to create the most troublesome blind spots.

The "follow-me" business with the ghost car seemed somewhat silly to me, but then it might prove useful for delivery drivers—and the increasingly awful taxi drivers that New York City is currently hiring. Though I suppose we won't be getting Jag taxis anytime soon.

Apple is looking for candidates with a strong interest and aptitude in digital 3D modeling for the Industrial Design group's CAD sculpting team. Although this role is designated for a 3D modeling specialist, a background in industrial design is beneficial in facilitating a working relationship with a designer. Wouldn't it be great to put this experience on your resume?

An ideal candidate will have a strong passion and enthusiasm for a 3D modeling career. Proficiency in Alias or Rhino is preferred, as is the ability to go beyond the limitations of software tools and manually manipulate or refine surfaces. Experience in industrial design, computational geometry, model making, product design, or related field is desired; however, recent graduates with advanced surface modeling skills will also be considered. Any level modeler is encouraged to Apply Now.

As part of a new interview series on the Autodesk Foundation's new blog, ImpactDesignHub.org, Allan Chochinov, Editor at Large of Core77 and Chair of the MFA Products of Design program at SVA discusses impact design and the role of designers in social change with John Thackara a writer, educator, producer, speaker and connector in the worlds of design and transition.

Thackara's Doors of Perception conference was the first gathering to bring designers and the environmental movement together. John has worked to deepen this connection in projects with cities, organizations and companies in many countries. He writes frequently on design and stewardship, and his book, In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World, is one of the foundational texts around systems thinking and design.

On Impact Design Hub, John talks about eating dirt, getting fired and what the West can learn from India's hacking economy.

Magazines appeal to almost everyone; every home I enter has magazines laying around. Magazines racks can be a good way to keep current magazines visible (rather than buried under piles of papers or whatever) so they actually get read.

The Strata magazine rack from Headsprung is a nice example of a basic magazine rack which could sit on the floor or on a flat surface such as a desktop. It has two sections and can hold up to 12 magazines; the divider helps ensure magazines will stay upright even if the rack isn't full. If the Strata is being used on the desk, the front panel could also serve as a magnetic board. It has four anti-slip feet, too.

The Float magazine rack from J-Me, which also holds 12 magazines, makes it super easy to see what's being stored. The users can remove one magazine without disturbing the others, which isn't possible with many other racks.

The Sprung magazine rack from Liv'it (designed by Michael Sodeau) keeps the magazines in a stack. This reduces the visibility of the magazines, which is a significant concern—but it does allow the rack to hold a lot of them. It's also super easy to just toss one more magazine onto the pile.

Just the mention of the word "termite" can send many American homeowners, wood workers or furniture enthusiasts running for the hills. So it seems an unusual idea that we might actually consider welcoming these little home wreckers into our living rooms voluntarily.

Enter Chris Poehlmann—an exhibition builder veteran who fell for these misunderstood wood munchers whilst constructing a live habitat for them as part of a museum installation. Since then, Chris has been experimenting in his workshop, trying to find a way to bring the beauty that he saw in the swarm of insects devouring a log, into the home. Fast-forward the duration of one Kickstarter campaign and Chris has raised a over $18k (his original target was $5000) to produce two sizes of what he has dubbed "Termitat", an escape-proof exhibit for your very own colony.

I loved KnobFeel from the moment we first covered the site. To refresh your memory, it's a guy in the UK who provides succinct, non-verbal video reviews of knobs, like so:

Tells you all you need to know in just a few seconds.

And while knobs are fairly straightforward, the most recent KnobFeel review tackles something a good deal more complex: Saitek's X52 Control System, a pair of sprung joysticks bristling with multiple knobs, dials, lights and switches. Ex-videogame-tester and video editor Drew Scanlon provides the special guest review in the proper style, though with a rather KnobFeel-atypical ending:

The RKS Sessions are back and the first event of 2015 took place last week at the Cross Campus workspace in Santa Monica. Leading the discussion was CEO of FloWater, and serial entrepreneur, Rich Razgaitis. During the session Razgaitis detailed the company's mission of eliminating bottled water pollution for good with the innovative FloWater water-refill station.

In addition to discussing the company's plans for expansion in the future, he also spoke on past experiences and lessons that helped him during his growth as an entrepreneur and a leader in the business world.

Watch the full session here for all the details:

No, it ain't real, but we'd love to see it if it were. German website CURVED/labs worked up this concept design for an anniversary edition of the original Macintosh, echoing that machine's shape while flaunting the thinness possible with 2015 technology. Of course some of the design elements make no sense—if you can even find a physical disk to stick into that slot, does it just fall out of the back?—but it's still pretty cool to see.

Patrick Paul and Adam Leeb were frequenting the same co-working space in Michigan in early 2014 when they first began discussing the pros and cons of various distraction-free writing software. Paul, a software developer, was telling Leeb all about programs that don't allow the user to backspace, or that begin to delete what's been written if the user pauses for more than 30 seconds. From these discussions came the idea for the Hemingwrite.

"If someone's going to that extreme to help them write, I figured, okay, maybe there's something to this," says Leeb, a mechanical designer. "So we came up with this idea to make a writing-dedicated hardware device and take that distraction-free software one step further." Together, Paul and Leeb designed and built the Hemingwrite, essentially an update of the standalone word-processor machines of yesterday, with an e-paper screen and cloud storage for documents. As of this writing, the device has surpassed its Kickstarter goal of $250,000 by almost a hundred grand.

Despite diverse backgrounds that span everything from investment banking to political science, Paul and Leeb's respective focuses on software development and mechanical engineering were the driving force behind the creation of the Hemingwrite. With Paul handling the on-board software as well as Postbox, Hemingwrite's unique web application for saving and syncing documents across platforms, Leeb tackled the physical product side of things, from initial rough sketches to final 3D models and production.

Crossrail is the massively ambitious £15 Billion railway project in the south of England cutting new tunnels under London to connect towns in the east and west with the ever growing metropolis. For anyone with even the slightest interest in architecture and engineering, the progress of the project—begun in 2009 after years of negotiations—has been a jaw-dropping (and at times nail biting) spectacle to behold. With what must be the biggest PR success in UK infrastructure building ever, the British public have been kept well up to speed with events going on under Londoners' feet—all happening with remarkable punctuality—with plenty of pictures of cavernous completed tunnels and smiling workers in orange overalls. With the service set to start in 2017, we're also eagerly awaiting the upcoming design for the trains, both interior and exterior, by Barber Osgerby.

It wasn't really until I watched the BBC's four-part documentary showing the work going on behind (or perhaps, before) the glossy press pics, that I began to fully appreciate what a masterpiece of engineering and detailed planning this development represents. The first episode follows engineers undertaking one of the toughest challenges of the project codenamed 'threading the needle.' Unfathomably, the Crossrail tunnels intersect with the busy Tottenham Court Road station by worming through a mess of cables, pipes and sewers to pass only 85cm above the crowded and fully functioning Northern Line platforms and 35cm below the station's escalators. Needless to say, the engineers were successful in their mission—threading the needle without crushing unwitting commuters or pulling down the Centrepoint building.

John Edmark is one of those guys whose fields of interest would be impossible to fit on a single business card. While he's officially a design lecturer at Stanford, the inventor/designer/artist pursues everything from photography to motion graphics to geometry, and his courses cover "design fundamentals, product design, chair design, paper as a sculptural medium, color, and animation."

During his time as an artist-in-residence at Autodesk's Pier 9 program, Edmark combined several of his interests to create these 3D-printed Fibonacci Zoetrope Sculptures. By designing the Fibonacci sequence into the forms, then placing them on a turntable and synching his camera's shutter speed with the rotation rate, he's managed to create some stunning, slightly vertigo-inducing animations:

Choosing the material to build a boardwalk out of can be tricky. Never mind the amount of people traipsing over the thing; being located on the shore, it is subject to salt spray. And in a place with four seasons, the wood is subjected to brutally humid summers and freezing cold winters.

So what did people make boardwalks out of, in the days before pressure-treated lumber? In the late 1800s Atlantic City put up the first large-scale public boardwalk in the United States. For material they used Atlantic White Cedar, conveniently harvested from New Jersey's nearby forests. Technically not a cedar at all, but a cypress, the tree grew well in wet areas and was naturally rot-resistant.

Ironically, these excellent properties are what made the wood an unsustainable choice. In a 1934 book called "Trees You Want to Know," American botanist Donald Culross Peattie wrote that Atlantic White Cedar would "endure moisture indefinitely," and wood that weathered well was in demand; lots of folks began using it for fencing and roof shingles. As it became popular, we started overlogging it, and soon it became both expensive and scarce.

Atlantic City thus had to find a different wood to maintain, repair and update their boardwalk, and they switched over to Western Red Cedar. The stuff was also pricey because it had to be shipped in from the Pacific Northwest, but it was easier to get than Atlantic White Cedar; and being a rainforest wood, it dealt well with moisture.

The rise of pesticides changed the wood game after World War II. By the 1950s Atlantic City had switched materials once again, this time going with chemically-treated Southern Yellow Pine. Relatively affordable, this is the same stuff that wooden roller coasters, like Coney Island's famous Cyclone, were made of.

Southern Siberia's Lake Baikal has a lot of distinctions. By volume it's the largest freshwater lake in the world. It's also the deepest. And according to biologists who study zooplankton and how light penetration affects their activity, Lake Baikal is one of the clearest lakes in the world.

The clarity of the water may not sound exciting for those not engaged with zooplankton, but it does mean that when the lake freezes, the visual effect is stunning:

Southern Telecom Inc. (STI) is a leading manufacturer of quality consumer products. Their commitment is to offer the latest technology and the highest quality products which are affordable to everyone, everywhere. Since its founding in 1988, STI has consistently delivered to market a full line of products that incorporate unique styling, high quality, and new technology.

They are looking for an Industrial Designer to join their Brooklyn, NY team who is passionate about design, creative, detail-oriented with strong conceptual as well as technical skills. With great taste in design, the ability to multitask, and a tendency to thrive on learning and delivering excellent design, you could be the perfect hire! Apply Now.

Three cross-cultural projects that tread the tricky path between collaborating with and co-opting the work of African artisans

When North meets South and designers schooled in Western modes of thinking work with local craftspeople on the African continent, finding common ground can be difficult. Familiar terrain shifts, becoming rife with the possibility for misunderstanding.

How do you convey ideas when one person measures in inches and the other by the thickness of woven fiber? How do you encourage an artisan to try something new without seeming to instruct them? What is lost in translation? And who is learning from whom?

The process of exchange is unpredictable but designer and craftsman need to establish the terms together to fuse their creative visions. A huge determining factor is clarifying the end goal: who needs to broaden their vision? Is the object to be used in a local or a Western context?

Matali Crasset led a basket-making workshop with Bulawayo Home Industries in Zimbabwe. Photo courtesy of Eric Gauss/Dogs on the Run.

"Working within high social impact contexts requires amplified awareness, forcing us to fully understand our reason for being present and how we are approaching the jointly created project," says French product designer Matali Crasset.

In the spring of 2014, Crasset ran a workshop with the Bulawayo basket-making community of women in Zimbabwe to create a collection of woven vessels based on the iconic shape of the gourd. The result was an unprecedented group of objects produced collectively by the women, a radical departure from their usual domestic designs.

Zimbabwean weavers translated Crasset's experiments with the gourd shape into a multitude of new pieces. Photo courtesy of Eric Gauss/Dogs on the Run.

"It was a very humanly inspiring experience," Crasset reflects in her account of the workshop. As she shared with Design Indaba, the project's impact will be determined by how the weavers will incorporate the new collaborative design ideas in future productions.

When we last looked in on the Phoneblok modular smartphone, it was just a concept video. Fast-forward to 2015 and it's...a new concept video.

But the project is in fact moving forward, and with a lot more juice than before. "Phonebloks" has been re-dubbed "Project Ara" under the auspices of its new master, Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group, who have released a Module Developers Kit for those looking to design components that will plug into the phone's endoskeleton.

With a modular platform, you can pick the camera you want for your phone rather than picking your phone for the camera. You could have a sensor to test if water is clean. You could have a battery that lasts for days. A really awesome speaker. A gamer phone. Or it could even be your car key. The possibilities are limitless.

You can upgrade different parts of your phone when you need too. Replace a broken display. Save up for a high-end camera. Share a module with your family, or swap one with your friends. Now you don't have to throw your phone away every few years.

GATP expects to launch a pilot program this year. And for interested parties, tomorrow the Project Ara team will be livestreaming their Singapore-based developer's conference. You can sign up to watch it here.

Story by Jess Joho for Kill Screen

Tale of Tale's upcoming game Sunset has beguiled us since we first saw it—a vision altogether more assured, colorful and inviting than the vast majority of games we come across. Last week, when the first real look at the game arrived in the form of screenshots, we took the opportunity to discuss the game a little further with the creators.

Gaming's favorite (and only) Belgian power-couple, Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn, first began thinking of what would eventually become Sunset years ago. Inspired by films like Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express, they envisioned an exploration of romance through space, in a relationship between a cleaning lady and the apartment's inhabitant. But as time went on and the game evolved, their focus turned from pure romance to a more pressing issue.

"How do you get on with your day-to-day while living in a world or atmosphere filled with violence?" Auriea asks. "I think we're all experiencing that to some degree now, with the constant wars, terrorism, everyday another bombing, another shooting. Michaël and I at least feel this need to step back, to think about what it all means and how to deal with it. We thought if we needed an experience like that, maybe other people did too. And since games can be such a great tool for examining the world around us, maybe something like Sunset could be an opportunity to explore that atmosphere in a controlled environment."

Sunset follows the story of Angela Burnes, who emigrates from the revolutionary climate of 1970's America and into the revolution of a war-torn South American country. As the housekeeper of the highly cultured (perhaps even pretentious) native to the country, Gabriel Ortega, your relationship to both your employer and his country develops through how you choose to interact with his apartment.

"A lot of Tale of Tales games has ourselves in it," Auriea explains. "In this case, my experience of being an American expatriate is definitely part of Sunset. I want to give people that experience: of at first feeling completely alien to a city, and then eventually developing a sense of place there, a real stake in your new country."

This is the latest installment of our Core77 Questionnaire. Previously, we talked to Sebastian Wrong.

Name:Tanya Aguiñiga

Occupation: Designer and artist—although I think I'm different things to different people. Sometimes I'm a furniture designer, sometimes a textile designer or an accessories designer. Some people consider me a community activist or a teacher. Different disciplines claim me at different times.

Location: Los Angeles

Current projects: At the moment I'm working on a solo show for Volume Gallery in Chicago. It's all new work involving, like, weird notes on mothering and nurturing. So it's all about caring for beings and having a hand in the development of a person—and using craft as a really specific metaphor for doing so.

Mission: It's constantly evolving, but a lot of it is about making community and being a responsible human being—using craft and art as a way to diversify conversations in society, and to bring attention to social issues that are in need of attention.

Left: Aguiñiga being wrapped in raw wool for the 2012 project Felt Me (video here). Right: her Paper Clip chair

Above and top images: One of Aguiñiga's newest pieces, called Support, was inspired by the experience of being a first-time mother.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a designer? I started furniture design in 1997, at the beginning of my undergraduate career. At the same time I was also doing installation art and human rights projects through art. So from the very beginning I had this two-pronged approach.

Remember last year, when the Chinese engineering firm WinSun 3D printed a bunch of houses? It made the news because they printed them so quickly—ten structures in less than 24 hours.

The structures themselves weren't huge, just 200-square-meter, one-story bungalows. But now WinSun's set their goals higher, literally. They've 3D printed the structures you see here, which include a freaking five-story apartment building and a 1,100-square-meter (roughly 12,000-square-foot) villa.

To be clear, they didn't print the structures out in one shot. As with the earlier 10-house batch, they printed out individual panels which were then knocked together by conventional construction workers, and in this case they didn't even print on-site, but back at the factory.

A division of Western Power Sports and backed by 55 years of experience, Fly Racing has become one of the fastest growing brands in the power sports industry. They are dedicated to creating high-quality, high-performance apparel, protective equipment and hard parts. Creativity and innovation are their passion, which is just one reason why Fly Racing continues to experience such explosive growth. Want to join their team?

Fly Racing is currently seeking a talented, motivated Product Designer with ambition to design power sports apparel and equipment. The ideal candidate is knowledgeable and experienced with the design, development, and manufacturing processes. Having 4-6 years industry experience or Bachelor's degree with 3-5 years industry experience is desired. Apply Now.